Caridad Ferrer | Fear of Booksignings?

You want me to do what?

Or, a nervous author faces her first solo booksignings.

Let me preface this by saying, I am an inherently shy person. Those of you who know me personally… Shut. Up. And quit laughing. It's true. I am painfully shy and always have been. It just manifests itself in weird ways. See, if I'm introduced to someone first, I'm okay. I can talk about any subject under the sun. If I'm part of a small group, you'd be hard pressed to shut me up, really. Tell me I have to walk into a room full of strangers and introduce myself, you'll find me over in the corner in a fetal position clutching my blanky. This is, essentially, what a booksigning feels like to me. Add that to the horror stories I've heard about authors sitting at a table and the only people who talk to them are the folks looking for the bathroom and mix in a healthy dose of overactive writer imagination and you can figure that sleep's been pretty hard to come by lately.

Now, I'm not a complete booksigning neophyte—I've done the RWA literacy signings and various other group signings and I love those. I do enjoy speaking to people and when you've got other authors on either side of you, it takes on a distinct "comrades under fire" sort of feel if people are constantly passing you by on their way to see Nora or Sherrilyn or anyone else who tends to command the long lines. There's almost a sense of relief, even, because, hey, how can you be expected to compete with that, right?

But a solo gig? It's all on you, man—no excuses, no Nora to fall back on. And in come the nightmares about sitting by myself, for two hours, directing people to the bathroom and telling them which coffee drink is the best one. These aren't just signings, either—I'm supposed to read. And talk. I have no idea what section I should read from. How do people even choose these things? It's all so… stressful.

There is a bright spot, however. As part of a large Cuban-American family, I have, at my disposal, what I lovingly refer to as the Cuban Grapevine. My mother is marshalling her forces and sending out, God help me, invitations. My sister works at a hospital and is handing out, God help me, invitations. So at least the Miami signings may have more than me and the baristas. According to my mother, I may even have a city councilman attending. NOT going to ask how she swung that. It's probably better that I don't know.

At the same time, though, I'd better make sure I'm all stocked up on my heavy duty concealer.


IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT September, 2007

ADIÓS TO MY OLD LIFE July, 2006
2007 RITA WINNER Best Contemporary Single Title Romance

Caridad Ferrer
www.caridadferrer.com

Heather Waters | A New Voice in Medieval Romance

I’m thrilled to be guest blogger here at Fresh Fiction today, and the excitement only expanded when I saw the impressive list of authors posting before me here (Gemma Holliday, Jill Marie Landis, Sabrina Jeffries…WOW!). Talk about a treat! With so many fantastic romance authors working these days, it’s mind-boggling to think my books are now going to be placed near them in bookstores.

Someone pinch me… wait, don’t. I bruise easily.

I was able to see my very first published novel, THE DEVIL’S POSSESSION, in the bookstore last Saturday during another first – my first booksigning. So far, the ride has been amazing, and the readers have been astoundingly gracious with their feedback.

So yes, I’m a brand spanking new author. I write medieval romance. But my love for the paranormal and magical things refuses to allow me the purely romantic story lines of ladies like Julie Garwood (my hero) and Johanna Lindsey’s medievals. Amidst all the romantic growth and amazing story-telling in their books that drew me to medievals so long ago, I acquired the seeds I needed to grow my own story ideas. But, from the staple plots of alpha man meets woman who tames him, my own stories always seem to get a bit wonky. Think, Alpha man meets woman who tames him, but woman is usually a witch or man has some insane power. So, what do I write? Medieval paranormal is how I would define THE DEVIL’S POSSESSION. Medieval fantasy is how I would define my December release DESTINY’S WARRIOR. I love the mystical, the magical, the dark, the sexy. Therefore, that’s what I write.

If you get a chance to read a copy of THE DEVIL’S POSSESSION, please drop me an email at HDW@Heatherwaters.net! I would truly love to hear your thoughts. As for what I’m working on now… well, something magical and historical, no doubt!

You can check out my website for excerpts of both my books at www.heatherwaters.net/!

Heather Waters

Madeline Hunter | The Making of a Video

I had an impulsive idea a couple of months ago. Wouldn't it be cool to make one of those video trailers for my next historical romance, Lessons of Desire (due September 25)? What the heck, I thought. I'll take a shot and see what happens.

The way I saw it then, I'd contact that company that makes them, sign up, and voila', it would be done.

Um, no. It turned out I had to do a bit of work myself before we got to voila'.

COS Productions wanted to make a video that I liked and approved, so they needed my input.

This was how I found myself in early August looking at hundreds of faces. My video was going to use live action, which meant an actor and an actress had to be hired. I needed to help make the choices.

My producer opened a folder for the project at an online West Coast casting site, and posted the job description with general appearance requirements. Actors and actresses deposited their headshots and resumes in the folder. I could then go online and look at their files from my home in Pennsylvania.

I have never associated my characters with known faces. So for the part of Lord Elliot Rothwell I was not looking for a guy who looked like Famous Actor Whomever. I was just looking for a guy who looked really good and who could pass for an early 19th century son of a marquess. Since my really good may not be everyone's really good, I had to eliminate certain faces that others on the team strongly disagreed on, and vice versa. It was a consultative process, as in:

Me: How about him? Second face in the third row. I think he is hot.

Team: (Silence)

Me: He has a certain something. . .you don't like him, do you?

Team: (pause) You are the client. It is important that you are happy. (spoken in a tone of patient professionalism).

Me: Never mind.

By day three of this, I was feeling sort of funny because the process had a retail market aspect to it. If the face was wrong, all the credits in the world would not matter, so the first cut was strictly on looks. It felt like buying clothes. Go to the rack, flip through the jackets-- quick look, quick rejection, pause for a maybe to check it out more closely, set a few aside to try on.

My problem was that darn few were being set aside for the part of Elliot. It wasn't that the actors were not good-looking. Quite a few were. Many of them, however, were thoroughly 21st century American in appearance. Lots of adorable cute college frat boy types. Quite a few apple-cheeked happy Midwestern types. Almost no piercing-eyed, hard-edged alpha types.

Then there was the matter of height. The actresses for the most part were tall, so for that reason alone we needed a tall actor. On the face of it, no problem.

According to the resumes, every male actor in southern California is at least 5' 11". And most are over six feet. If there aren't many tall men in your neighborhood, now you know where they all went.

Except the resumes also told another story. In addition to height they included more detailed measurements for wardrobe purposes. When a guy who claims to be 6' 1" wears a 38R and has a 30 inseam---he is lying about something (No! Men lie about their heights? Say it ain't so).

Then one evening I went online, opened the folder, and there he was. Slam-dunk. Great eyes. No micro cut. Genuinely tall. Looked late twenties and not nineteen or forty. I sent a two word email to the producer: "Hubba hubba." She hubbaed back. Jon Woodward went into the try on pile, right on the top. I really liked that jacket.

Time for auditions. What if he didn't show? What if he couldn't act? What if he shaved his head after the head shot? There were other try ons, but as you know, when you have decided you want THAT jacket, it is very disheartening when it doesn't fit.

I received the audition downloads. Not only could he act, he was the best actor. Hey, I wasn't prejudiced! He really was.

These auditions were enlightening. See, headshots are static. They are idealized and perfected with lighting, PhotoShop---it is amazing what can be done with a headshot. For an example of these miracles, go see mine.

Auditions are video. Live action. The real thing. Merciless. One actor was so unlike his headshot in so many ways that I actually did not recognize him. I emailed the producer asking where that guy's audition was, only to learn I had already watched it several times.

On the whole, however, it was not the actors who provoked serious reevaluation after the auditions, but the actresses. When it came to the part of Phaedra Blair, the three highest ranked try ons disappointed, but another actress dazzled. Samantha Colburn made herself a slam-dunk once the camera rolled. Not only was she even more lovely than her pictures, but her acting outshone the rest.

I was very fortunate that the talent for the Lessons of Desire video were good actors, because as the process continued I realized something crucial.

In a trailer for a paranormal or a suspense book, weak acting can be worked around by emphasizing something else like special effects or shots of the heroine running from the psychopath. In an historical romance, it is pretty much all about the characters one-on-one. The actors have to carry the whole thing.

I haven't decided yet whether I will do another book video, but I am happy with this one. Oh, I can wish I'd had twenty thousand dollars to throw into costumes and sets, but it worked because of Jon and Samantha, and because of the professional skills of Victoria Fraasa, the director and producer. They treated my Lessons of Desire three minute book video as seriously as a two hour, high budget film, and gave it their all.

As I write this, post production is wrapping up. The video will go "live" in a few days. It is already up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGkoER3lo8 if you want to take a look.

Madeline Hunter

www:madelinehunter.com

Annette Blair | Living the Impossible Dream

To Live the Impossible Dream

or

How I’m adapting to becoming a Full Time Writer

It’s been a little over a year since I left my 21 year job as a Prep School Development Director to become a full time writer. You wouldn’t think adapting would be necessary when reaching your dream, but dreams don’t always match reality. No more twice-monthly paychecks. They come twice yearly, now. Then there’s medical insurance. I have to pay it myself. Yikes! I didn’t expect to miss the school as much as I do, nor the creative energy spinning around me there, but the Witchy Chicks have topped off the well of creative energy beautifully.

Really, who wouldn’t want to leave their job for lots of great sex, psychic witches, scary ghosts, hunks who seduce, and kidnapping heroines with fuzzy purple handcuffs? I mean, the best part of a great story is living it, whether you’re writing or reading it.

I don’t set my alarm clock anymore. Gee, somebody’s got to make the sacrifice. I often go from my bed to my computer, because I plot in my dreams, and I don’t stop writing, until I run out of creativity. Sometimes, my pesky muse can keep me going for sixteen to eighteen hours. I’m thinking this muse is female and likes my heroes way to much to let go. The problem is, I might not shower until I’m finished. Yeah. It can get ugly in here. I wear these soft old, but clean, though, let’s call them ratty, L.L. Bean full length t-shirt nightgowns, which hubby calls either my “writing uniforms” or my “anti-Bob devices.” He also tells our neighbors that the porch roof beneath our bedroom window is where I take off and land on my broom.

Creating my own schedule feels decadent. I like decadent. I can now accept speaking engagements all over the country, which I love. And on the days, I don’t feel like writing, which doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, I can meet my sister for lunch or shopping or antiquing. We even went to a gem show, which is her specialty, not mine, but oooh, nice. One thing I can’t shake, though, when I’m out gallivanting in the middle of a weekday: I feel as if I’m playing hooky. What an awesome high.

What did I create during my first year? Well, SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, the first in my Triplet Witch Trilogy, another National Bestseller and my latest little bundle of joy—yes they’re my babies, except that labor lasts four months. SEX was the #1 bestselling “contemporary romance-humorous” on Barnes & Noble for a few days—fun. And it hit the B&N bestseller lists at #36 for overall mass market sales; #34 for overall fiction mass market sales; and TA DA! #7 for romance mass market sales. On Nielsen Bookscan, it hit #20 for romance mass market, and at Borders: #13 for romance mass market.

I also gave birth to GONE WITH THE WITCH, second in my Triplet Witch trilogy, Storm, the Goth rebel’s story. And I signed a contract to write a series of comedic mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. Details will begin to appear on my website and MySpace soon.

And since I’m living my dream, I’d like to know what your dream is. What would you like to do for a living—your ultimate day job—if all systems were finally go?

Please accept my huge THANK YOU—picture me riding around the country on my broom shouting this—to all of you who bought SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH and help me hit the overall bestseller lists for the first time in my writing career. Yay you!

Visit my website: http://www.annetteblair.com/ and friend me at MySpace: www.myspace.com/annetteblair. Hugs and happy Reading!

Annette Blair

Stephanie Bond | Writing Roots

Not very many people know (and the handful of people who did once know, have no reason to remember) that my first writing credit was in the December 1979 issue of ‘Teen' magazine. The cover featured a pretty brunette model with blue eyes, her hair pulled up into a loose bun that looks Gibson-girlish, wearing a red shiny shirt with tiny black polka dots buttoned all the way to the top button. My, how fashions and hairstyles have changed! The theme for the magazine that month was “DAZZLE! Looks that sparkle!” The cover articles are “Party Pretties With Zip,” “Packages That Reflect You (easy gifts to make),” “Your Body (facts and fallacies),” Knockout Nail Care (complete hand book),” “Why You’re Shy (how to change),” and “Embarrassing Moments (celebrity blush up).” The entertainment section featured Dirk Benedict (Lieutenant Starbuck in Battlestar Gallactica), The Bee Gees, Charlene Tilton, and Michael Jackson (looking very different than today)! The regular columns in the magazine were Horoscope, Dear Doctor, Dear Jack, Dear Jill, Meet the Supersports, Flea Market, and Reader Write-On.

In the Reader Write-On column, readers could submit original poems. I did, and my poem was chosen for the above issue. And now, I am baring my 13-year-old soul to the readers of the FreshFiction blog:

A Stormy Thought
Hearing the storm,
Watching the rain,
Thinking of you,
Feeling the pain.

I was so young,
Unable to think,
Thirsty for love,
You let me drink.

Trusting in you,
I gave you myself,
Just when I found love,
You found someone else.

My dreams clouded over,
To resemble the skies,
The rain kept on falling,
And flowed out of my eyes.

My pride had been hurt,
My heart was now scarred,
“But next time,” I vowed,
“I won’t fall so hard.”

Pretty heavy stuff for someone who wouldn’t have her first boyfriend for another year or so! Do you think I was influenced by the romance novels I was devouring at the rate of one a day? Or maybe one of the country music songs that played on the radio that my mom kept on the top of the refrigerator (it was on 24/7). But I was so thrilled by that publishing credit—it was my first taste of seeing my name in print, my first experience thinking, “Wow, other people are reading words that I put together!” Through many moves and life changes, I’ve kept the issue of ‘Teen with my poem in it all this time. It’s yellowed and falling apart, I store it in a protective cover. And whenever I feel defeated about my career or a current project, pulling out that magazine never fails to give me a lift. Also, I’m wondering if any of the other four budding writers featured that month have gone on to have a career in publishing. Does anyone know these women (ages as of 1979):

Marcia Lusk, 16, St. Johns, MI
Ann Schlott, 16, Baltimore, MD
Judy McCrary, (no age given), San Deigo, CA


BODY MOVERS available now in paperback, large print, and e-book formats!

BODY MOVERS: 2 Bodies for the Price of 1 available now in oversize paerback and e-book formats!

HEAT WAVE anthology available now in paperback and e-book formats!

SHE DID A BAD, BAD THING available now in paperback and audio!

Check out the Open Book blog on http://www.stephaniebond.com/.


Stephanie Bond