Saving money, new authors & getting through my TBR pile

Romance Writers of America 2007 National Conference is next month in Dallas. Most romance writers will be at the literacy autographing fundraiser. The problem: you can only bring FIVE books with you to have signed. All others books must be bought there. Hence, my self imposed separation from buying new books in May - July because I know that I will be spending a lot of cash at the RWA literacy fundraiser.


I have broken my vow of purchasing new books once. I went to a local book signing for Candy Havens and her latest, Charmed & Deadly. It is book three in a series revolving around a witch named Bronwyn. Now I am on a mission to locate the first two books in the series. Of course it is a slippery slope and I've already printed a Border's coupon to use this weekend. 20% off. I ask you, who can resist 20% off?!


That said, I am making headway through my TBR pile. I picked up a copy of Alyssa Day's Atlantis Rising at the romance readers' tea last month and finally got around to reading it this week. A really, really good paranormal romance and the beginning of a series so I will of course be looking for the next installment, Atlantis Awakening, when it comes out in November. There was a novella, Wild Hearts in Atlantis, out last month in an anthology called Wild Thing, so I'm adding that to my list of to be purchased at the RWA literacy fundraiser... if I can wait that long. Sigh.

I'm not a HUGE fan of paranormal romances (not that you would know it with all the witches, vampires and Atlanteans that I've been reading about lately) so I am surprised by how much I've enjoyed them lately. I may be less likely to buy a paranormal that I know nothing about than say a romantic suspense (my addiction) that I know nothing about, but if a book is recommended then I am likely to try it.

What I have been reading (or rereading):
Exposure by Susan Andersen (one of my favorites to reread)
The Oldest Kind of Magic by Ann Macela (this is another good paranormal)
Chasing Stanley by Deirdre Martin
The Rancher's Second Chance by Nicole Foster
Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day (did I mention this was really good?)

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes -- a possibility for an intriguing novelty

Jennifer Cruisie, Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart... who wouldn't look forward to a new book by any of these authors?? Well in July St. Martin's Paperbacks will have an intriguing treat for us avid readers.

Apparantly, at some cocktail party at some conference the three tossed around an idea that sounds like a hollywood pitch session that combines the sisters of Charmed meets Bewitched with a boom chica bow mow soundtrack in the background...uh, that doesn't sound good. The discussion actually started with erotic paranormal being the next big thing, then came the sisters with out of control powers, eccetera. It could have just been a joke to pass time at the party(wonder if mojitos were involved) but then a game of "chicken" ensued between the authors and TA-DA our reading novelty, The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes was born.

Now this is not just an anthology with each having a separate story but one story written together by all three of them. I can't wait!! Will you be able to tell who writes each chapter or thread of the plot by their writing voice? Or will it be a new trick for publishers to trot out to increase sales by grouping unlikely authors together. What do you think? Anyone read it yet?

Guest blogger - Marta Acosta

Paranormal fiction continues to be very popular right now, which is good for me since I’m now writing the third in my Milagro De Los Santos series. The last thing I need is for vampires to lose favor with the public, thereby forcing me to do something unpleasant, like getting a real job. (The New York Observer just ran a story in which writers confessed the hardship of being successful. Honestly, it made me want to smack these whining nitwits upside the head with an unabridged volume of Shakespeare’s tragedies.)

As fictional characters, vampires have it all over other paranormal creatures. Mummies are always unraveling, and you can’t understand a thing they say through all that fabric. Cannibal zombies smell bad, have rotting flesh, and want to eat your brains. Don’t even try to write a clever conversation with a zombie; it can’t be done. Demons are too metaphysically ambiguous, and ghosts are useless as love interests since they lack corporeal being. Werewolves have a following, but writers constantly struggle with the perplexing problem of clothing. Half of werewolf books are devoted to the shapeshifters’ ripping off their clothing during transformations, and then finding themselves stark nekkid behind the 7-11 dumpster.

There are miscellaneous faeries, warlocks, elves, and mermen in paranormal fiction, but they just don’t have the allure of the vampire. The modern vampire is eloquent, attractive, well-dressed, and successful. You can take them to just about any social event so long as you keep them from sunlight, crosses, stakes through the heart, and garlic-laden Mediterranean cuisine.

They’re powerful and have a seductive undercurrent of danger, but they’re not so crass that they’ll drain you of blood in the middle of amusing banter. Nope, a writer may let the conversation flow when vampires are in a scene. And if a writer is given to ornate dialog, there’s no better spouter of such chat than 400-year-old vamp. Many popular vampires spend an inordinate amount of time being melancholy and thinking about sex, which readers find intriguing. In real life, someone melancholy who thinks a lot about sex is probably trolling chat rooms for underage girls and claiming he likes strolls on the beach and cuddling. But I digress.

A cultural anthropologist could probably tell you why our society is now drawn to paranormal stories. I sat in on an anthropology class once (I left when I found out there would be no field trips to dig up bones and artifacts), so I feel qualified to propose my own theories.

Theory One. In the post-9/11 world, we want to know that heroes and heroines will protect us from unexpected and powerful dangers. This doesn’t quite work when you consider that Anne Rice rocked the book world long before 9/11.

Theory Two: Reading scary stories makes our adrenaline kick in, good for a cheap thrill. This is true for the really scary stories, but most paranormal fiction doesn’t come close to the spine-tingliness of most horror books.

Theory Three: People want to fantasize about having their blood sucked. Well, I think more people fantasize about winning the lottery, yet there’s not a “Lottery Winner” genre of fiction.

Theory Four: In our banal, sanitized “Paper or plastic?” lives, we yearn for characters with more primitive appetites for sustenance, sex, and power.

Theory Four: Paranormal fiction presents characters with dilemmas that are not easily resolved by standard means. They can’t run to the police about an elf, file a lawsuit to stop harassment by a vampire, or talk to a therapist about a were attack. They’ve got to be self-reliant, imaginative, and brave, and readers enjoy those qualities in a lead character.

Okay, Theories Three and Four work for me.

When I wrote Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, I intended my book to be a romantic comedy wherein an impoverished, yet appealing heroine, Milagro, has to deal with people who think she is beneath them. The characters needed to successful, attractive, and sophisticated; modern vampires fit my needs perfectly as the rich snobby family that treats Milagro as if she’s an unaccomplished, tacky skank. She proves herself, but learns that their sophistication is a veneer for darker instincts; there’s a delicious frisson of sex, danger, and power.

Well, when you’re at the top, you get to look down, and vampires are definitely at the top of the paranormal food chain.

Marta Acosta is the author of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, a Fresh Pick of the Day, a BookSense Pick, and Catalina Magazine’s Humor Book of 2006. Her second novel, Midnight Brunch, was released in April 2007. Her website is www.martaacosta.com.