This past week, I’ve talked with a lot of writers about writing to market. Not just because of last week’s blog post, but because I had done a group author signing at Powell’s on Sunday, and the topic came up again. At dinner after the signing, one of the writers asked, “What market are indie writers writing to?”
Continue ReadingOver the weekend, I headed to traditional publishers’ websites and look at their paranormal romance covers only to discover…that the damn books are branded like urban fantasy or like an E.L. James knockoff or like a cookbook or travelogue. All of this points out a huge problem in the paranormal romance genre. There’s nothing that screams modern paranormal romance. Believe me when I tell you that readers look for such things.
Continue ReadingAfter I finished the Retrieval Artist novels, I scrambled to write a new Kristine Grayson holiday romance. I had written two before, and I really wanted to get the third to you before the season began. Dressed in Holiday Style is loosely related to the other two, but go ahead, read it first. Then read the other […]
Continue ReadingHalloween’s over, and so is Daylight Savings Time. I’m already seeing ads for Black Friday specials, and those sales won’t happen for another 27 days. People love to experience the season, and they love to read about the season. Holiday books always come out early enough for folks to read while the cookies bake and […]
Continue ReadingI got an amazing amount of fantastic reading done in September—and I didn’t feel like I had read enough. Yet I look at this list, and realize I somehow squeezed a lot of reading in. Wow. My tastes were pretty eclectic in September. Romance, mystery, nonfiction—it’s all here. These are my top picks from a […]
Continue ReadingI generally post my recommended reading list a month or three after I’ve done the reading. Which means that all of the holiday stories that I read get recommended in January or February. Last year, I decided to do a compilation of past holiday recommends so that you can get them for the appropriate season, […]
Continue ReadingSurprisingly to me, since October was a busy month, I got a lot of reading done. Most of the novels weren’t memorable, but the shorter works—from articles to short stories—were. Here’s what I can recommend from my reading this past month. October, 2012 Baxter, John, The Most Beautiful Walk in The World: A Pedestrian in […]
Continue ReadingI finished writing a particularly troublesome novel in September. That novel only let me read very dark fiction, nonfiction, or YA novels. (Yes, what I write often dictates what I read.) So I was limited on the first half of the month. As for the second half, I started a lot of books I thought […]
Continue ReadingThis week, if you have an e-reader, you can buy a copy of the first book in my Charming series, Utterly Charming, for 99 cents. If you have a Kindle, go directly to Amazon.com. If you have a different kind of e-reader, go directly to Sourcebooks’ website, and you’ll find a discounted version of the book in any format […]
Continue ReadingIf you read mainstream publishing news, like I do, occasionally your head will explode. Or you’ll run around in a panic, turning into one of those long-haired barefoot New Yorker cartoon characters, carrying a sign saying that the world is about to end. For many in traditional publishing, the world is ending. Their clout is […]
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