Janet Evanovich ... the FEARLESS FOURTEEN Signing

Janet Evanovich and Sandi
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

DFW Tea does group activities ... such as dinner together and a signing excursion. Last night we did dinner at Macaroni Grill followed by the Fearless Fourteen signing in Plano at the Barnes and Noble.

Early Friday I commissioned my husband to pick up enough tickets for eight books during his morning run as the Janet Evanovich signing was a ticketed event and gas is expensive -- don't you love the comment (NOT!!!). He wasn't sure what to expect when he told me the bookstore people informed him to be there by 8pm to get in line! Standing in line for a book is not something he's fond of doing and will only perform under duress. I'd say stress as well, but that is what I'll suffer if I make him "do his part." I reassured him it was for the book club and he was welcome to come along, it would be fun. He declined politely.

Having a timed ticket meant we could enjoy a leisurely dinner at the Mac Grill next to the B&N as long as we started at 6pm. Which worked out perfectly. Enjoying dinner with dessert then off to find the correct line at the B&N. And we could park in the middle and get in a little exercise as well!

Greeted by two of our favorite CRMs, Ellen and Cody, we found the right line for our salmon colored tickets and waited...and moved up fairly quickly. Janet was doing a quick chat with each group but no personalizations meant the line moved along. Alex wielded her way up and down the line handing out balloons and stickers. No car fresheners, those go on sale July 1st from the web site and apparently she'll be glad to be rid of them as they are smelling up the neighborhood.

We managed to get our books signed, pictures taken and out the door by 9pm. Pretty good! So it was farewell until next week's signings, including MaryJanice Davidson and our next book club meeting.

FYI, we put up the pictures of our adventures on the Flickr site. Feel free to check them out and comment!

The Reader and the Book Club...

Book clubs are HOT HOT HOT now and I know why! If you find a good one, it's more than just a time to discuss books and find reading "soul mates." It can be a time just for "me" when I can rattle on about a loved book, rant about the waste of paper for another, or marvel over the world created by a talented author's imagination and skill. Being part of a "club" gives me companions to go to a book signing or just the reassurance a series will continue. The power of group thought outweighs all those other publishing business strategies.

My favorite part about being a member of a book club is when we can all get together--over a great cocktail--and talk about what our favorite books of the past month have been. We do our book club a little bit differently than your usual Oprah book club. Instead of everyone being assigned a mandatory book, we each read what we like and "swap" books over tea or dinner. Doing it this way allows everyone to learn about a hot new author, or even rediscover an old friend. Either way, everyone always leaves our meetings with arms over flowing with new adventures. A few of us have even been known to sit in a cushy chair outside of the restaurant and read a recently traded book after a particularly serendipitous meeting! Everyone reads something different, and everyone always leaves satisfied!

I always invite anyone I meet at a signing, PTA meeting, or at doggie daycare to join us for a book club meeting. Of course, many of them respond with a polite "I don't read very often." And my response is always the same: "you don't have to read now, but after a few meeting with us, you will start!" Being a part of a book club makes even the most apprehensive reader embrace something new, or find out that she had never been reading what she liked to begin with! It's so amazing when someone sees reading for pleasure as pleasurable!

As the summer sun pushes us into the shade, remember that good friends and good books make a fantastic couple!

My Book Club.

Tony Eldridge | The Great Equalizer

I stumbled upon Fresh Fiction from the recommendation of a friend who loves the site. As I began surfing, I thought to myself, “Wow, we have come so far as authors and readers.” It hasn’t been too long since the only places you could find good books were in the bookstores and in the libraries. That meant that a lot of great books could never be found or read by readers. Why? Simply because of the limited resources needed to make the books available. Can you imagine walking into a bookstore and having to walk through a small sky scraper in order to browse every book available? Neither time nor money exist for something like that. Besides, there is something cozy about visiting a library or bookstore with a cup of coffee or tea in hand to browse through your favorite genre for a couple of hours. Can you imagine having to schedule your two-week vacation to do just that if every book ever written was available to you in a bookstore?

But the internet has broken through the barriers to make that happen. It has become “The Great Equalizer”. As readers, we have access to books that would never have been made available to us in the past. As writers, we now have a platform to reach more people than ever before. Not that every book we write will be seen by every reader, but at least the potential is there. And with sites like Fresh Fiction and others, we have the opportunity to see books, read reviews, and watch trailers to see what piques our literary interest.


Take my book, for example. I have written an action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, that Clive Cussler calls a “first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure.” A major Hollywood producer has acquired the film rights to it. I also have some other big things brimming under the surface that should be announced soon about the book. How did this happen? Not because a million copies sat on bookstore shelves around the country. It happened because of “The Great Equalizer”. Readers surfed the net and found the book. They read it, blogged about it, and reviewed it. They told others about it and soon, the book appeared on countless number of sites and in search engines results.

Sure, The Samson Effect sat on bookstore shelves, but the lion’s share of sales came because of readers who found in on the internet. For that, I am thankful. Thankful for the readers, for sites like Fresh Fiction, and for living in a time when any author can compete for the privilege of having readers all over the world consider their work.

I still enjoy curling up on an oversized sofa in a bookstore with my Sumatran coffee and browsing through books in my local bookstore. But as I look back at the last 12 books I have read, they have all been purchased through the internet. And six of them have the author’s autograph on them. How cool is that? They were signed from authors around the world and I didn’t have to stand in line for even one of them. And you know what? I have found some new favorite authors that I probably never would have found if “The Great Equalizer” hadn’t existed.

So thanks for browsing, thanks for your reviews and your word-of-mouth recommendations, and for the time you have taken to read this blog entry. And if you have a few moments, I would appreciate it if you could make a quick stop to my home page, http://www.samsoneffect.com/ and check out my little corner of the internet. Who knows, you may just find another favorite author in the process.

Tony Eldridge

Cindi Myers | Research and The Writer

I started my career writing historical romances for Berkley and Kensington, under the name Cynthia Sterling. I’m a history buff and I loved researching the backgrounds for my books — figuring out what kind of clothes everyone wore, what they ate and what they did for entertainment. Those kinds of details are why I love reading historical novels as well.

Then I switched to writing contemporary romance. I thought this would require much less research, so I was shocked to find out I was wrong. Yes, I seldom have to look up specific historical detail, but if I send my hero and heroine to a restaurant for a meal, I end up browsing menus of real restaurants for ideas. Many of my books are set in real cities. For example, my current release, A Soldier Comes Home, from Harlequin Superromance, is set in Colorado Springs. Many times while writing that book, I pulled out a map to find the name of a street or location of a landmark so that I could describe it accurately.

While you can get away with fudging minor details in a historical novel, it’s much tougher to fake it in a contemporary book. Too many people will spot your mistake. You have to get name brands right, regional differences correct, and describe automobiles and clothes accurately.

A Soldier Comes Home is about Captain Ray Hughes, who receives a Dear John letter while he's serving in Iraq. He comes home to an empty house and a three-year old son he scarcely knows and has to pick up the pieces of his life again. He meets Chrissie Evans, the young widow next door whose husband was killed very early in the war. They're attracted to each other, but each has to get past their own private pain in order to love again.

Researching this book started when I was first forming the idea. The Rocky Mountain News ran a series or articles about our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I clipped those articles and saved them and that became the beginning of my research. One of the articles was about soldiers who received Dear John letters. I thought their stories were heartbreaking and I really wanted to make things better for them. I couldn’t do that in real life, but I could give one soldier — Captain Hughes — a happy ending in the pages of my book. Other articles in the series were added to the file as more research into the lives of soldiers and their families here at home.

The Internet has really revolutionized research. I spent time on blogs written by soldiers and their families. I also emailed former and current military personnel. I visited the Fort Carson website, which had links to all kinds of great resources for soldiers and their families. I pulled up pictures of Colorado Springs to inspire me as I wrote.

I thinking getting these details right adds so much to a story.

My question for you is — do you notice mistakes more in historical or contemporary novels?

Cindi Myers

Vicki Lane | No Manolos, No Makeup, and the Romantic Interest is Bald

"She flowed into his arms and they stood silently for a moment: two middle-aged people, much encumbered by heavy winter outerwear and vintage emotional baggage, but, for the moment, in perfect harmony."

So, I get the invitation to blog on Fresh Fiction and I accept joyfully, especially since the kind folks here have named my recent release In a Dark Season “Pick of the Day” (5/25/08). I start checking out some past blogs and then I see the covers of featured books. Hmmm. Flowing hair, heaving bosoms, and more six-packs than a convenience store. Oh dear! This isn’t what I write – do they really want me?

Mind you, I have nothing against tempestuous heroines and hunky heroes – I’ve drooled my way through a Judith Krantz title or two before this. But when I began to write in 2000 – at the age of fifty seven – I’d already spent about ten years, looking around for role models -- older women who were aging in the way I hoped to. It seemed as if the media was crawling with gorgeous twenty-somethings and the occasional cute, feisty old lady and in real life there was a great middle ground of women trying desperately to give the illusion of being younger than they really were. But I was looking for women who were unapologetic about aging -- un-lifted, un-dyed, and un-Botoxed. I was looking for women who didn’t feel defined by their age – women to whom age was irrelevant. So I invented her.

My Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries have as protagonist a woman ‘of a certain age’ -- not beautiful or even beautifully dressed -- but a woman in her fifties whose long braid of dark hair is shot with silver threads, a woman whose knees aren’t what they once were, and who wouldn’t know a Jimmy Choo if it stomped on her instep. (Wouldn’t feel it either, as she’s usually wearing hiking boots.)

Elizabeth doesn’t dwell on her age or her hot flashes or her weight or her graying hair – she just gets on with solving the mystery – traveling up and down the dark hollows and coves of her mountain county (Signs in the Blood), weaving her way through the quirky art scene of nearby Asheville (Art’s Blood), exploring the world of the Cherokee (Old Wounds), or deciding what to do about the man who wants to marry her (In a Dark Season). And yes, he’s balding.

Really, Elizabeth’s age is peripheral to the story – this is NOT “Geezer Lit.” But she is aging gracefully -- and my greatest pleasure is hearing from the many women who feel like she’s a friend they look forward to visiting every year.
My very favorite email was from a woman who wrote: “Elizabeth makes me want to stop dyeing my hair and be who I really am.”

Amen, sister!

Vicki Lane

Website -- http://vickilanemysteries.com/
(Almost) Daily Blog - http://vickilanemysteries.blogspot.com/
Monthly Amazon Blog
Random House Podcast

Christina Meldrum | When a Plot and Its Characters Collide

How does a writer create a story with a compelling plot AND compelling characters? This was a question I asked myself throughout my writing of Madapple (Knopf), my debut novel. Released last month, Madapple is a crossover novel intended for older teens and adults. Part literary mystery, part psychological thriller, I knew the success of Madapple would depend at least in part on my ability to devise a page-turning plot acted out by well-developed characters. I expected this would be difficult, because often novels provide either an intricate plot or complex, richly developed characters. Rarely does a novel provide both. But why?

But why? As I was writing, I quickly realized why. An intricate plot makes demands on its characters, requiring them to act according to its mandates, which may well be inconsistent with what turns out to be any given character’s inclinations. I’m referring to characters as if they are alive, I know—as if they have inclinations separate from an author’s intent. Well, I think they do sometimes: the characters of Madapple certainly did.

As an author, I may have given birth to my characters but, like children, my characters seemed to have minds of their own. My plot may have demanded that my protagonist Aslaug behave in a certain way, only to have me realize Aslaug was behaving in an entirely different way. My plot may have required Madapple’s other main characters, Sanne, Rune, Sara and Rebekka, to say a certain something or do a certain something, only to have me discover the characters say or do something else altogether. Hence, there were times I had to rein my characters in—to force them to behave more consistently with my plot. Did this make my characters less rich, less real? Maybe. But there were also times when I altered my plot to appease my characters. Did this make the plot less intricate, less compelling? Maybe.

This is the challenge: sometimes a plot and its characters collide. The challenge for any writer, it seems to me, is not that different from the challenge of any parent: to give progeny the freedom to grow beyond expectations, while still setting some necessary limitations. I don’t know whether or not I accomplished this in Madapple. I hope I did. So far the reviews of Madapple have been encouraging. Madapple received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews and was spotlighted by Kirkus in its special edition: “Fresh Fiction: 35 Promising Debuts.” Vanity Fair described Madapple as “mesmerizing” and featured it in its June 2008 issue as one of its “Hot Type” selections. The Chicago Tribune called Madapple “exquisite” and listed it among its “Hot Summer Reads.” The San Francisco Chronicle said Madapple is "an ambitious, often haunting debut, a unique meditation on language, rationality and faith” and the Marin Independent Journal described Madapple as “a gripping mystery.” Now, I can only hope Madapple will reach those for whom it would be meaningful.

Christina Meldrum

www.christinameldrum.com/.