Fangs, Fur, and Fey Anniversary: Win a Kindle!

The folks at Fangs, Fur, and Fey are celebrating their three year anniversary! Enter here for a chance to win an Amazon Kindle or gift certificate to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million, or Powell's.

The contest ends November 13, so enter now!

Adventures in NaNoWriMo

I'm busily gearing up for National Novel Writing Month, which begins in November. I attended my city's kickoff party on Sunday, which was a blast -- met some great folks, and enjoyed hearing about the novels planned for 2009's contest. The challenge behind NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in a month -- it's exhausting, but was really a breakthrough experience for me.

Last year, I did NaNoWriMo for the first time, and was thrilled to finish. Writing as Alayna Williams, my NaNoWriMo novel, DARK ORACLE, will be published by Pocket-Juno Books in June, 2010. I'm proud to be added to NaNoWriMo's list of published authors.

Here's the publisher's summary for DARK ORACLE:

Can an oracle change the future she sees?

Tara Sheridan swore off criminal profiling years ago. By combining Tarot card divination with her own intuition, she narrowly escaped the grasp of a serial killer who left her scarred for life. She put down her cards and withdrew from work and society. Now, Sophia, a member of an ancient secret society connected to the mythic Delphic Oracle, asks Tara to find a missing scientist who has unlocked the destructive secrets of dark energy. Tara resists— she fears reawakening her long-buried talents and blames Sophia’s Daughters of Delphi for the death of her mother. But, grudgingly, she agrees to search for the missing scientist, Lowell Magnusson.

Tara travels to Las Alamos National Laboratory, the location of Magnusson’s disappearance. She meets the serious, impatient, and highly attractive Agent Harry Li— and re-encounters her old partner, Richard Corvus. Corvus is now chief of the Special Projects Division, a position Tera might have held, had she not dropped out of investigative work. Corvus considers Tara mentally imbalanced and not to be trusted— but it may be Corvus who is untrustworthy.

Tara’s investigation and Tarot cards tell her Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, may hold the key to her father’s plans, and that they both are in grave danger. Meanwhile, Corvus and the Daughters of Delphi have their own plans...and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

More information about DARK ORACLE can be found at: www.alaynawilliams.com. It's also available for pre-order at Amazon.

This year, I'll be working on the sequel for NaNoWriMo. I have my office all cleaned out, my files set up, and I'm rarin' to go. We'll see if I can keep the momentum going -- I'll post updates throughout the month.

Alien Vampire Bunny Contest

Greyhaus Literary Agency is running an Alien Vampire Bunny contest.

Submit a 1st chapter of no more that 30 pages of a story including Alien Vampire Bunnies for a chance to win a critique of the first hundred pages of your romance or women's fiction manuscript.

Personally, I'm flashing back to the much-beloved Bunnicula books of my childhood...anybody remember those?

Interview with Tracy Sharp

Today's blog post is an interview with Tracy Sharp, author of BURNING SOULS in the recently-released HEARTS AFIRE OCTOBER, available at http://www.liquidsilverbooks.com/

More info on Tracy can be found on her blog.

Tracy, you've written REPO CHICK BLUES, FINDING CHLOE, and BURNING SOULS in HEARTS AFIRE OCTOBER. Tell us more about your heroines and your inspiration for them.

That’s really a good question. I don’t plan them out. They just kind of step on the page. For Repo Chick Blues, I really wanted to write about a woman doing repo work. At the time I wrote Repo, it seemed that all the repo people were men. Leah just started talking to me. She is a reformed car thief and so that job was perfect for her. Also, she is a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and being a repo chick gives her lots of adrenalin highs. She turns into more of a private eye in Finding Chloe, which also throws her square into the eye of the storm.

As for Mia, again, she just kind of stepped onto the page and started telling me her story. Mia is a much darker character than Leah is. I really didn’t know much of her background until I put my fingers to the keys. This is always the way it is for me when I’m writing.

How did your duet with Darragha Foster in the HEARTS AFIRE duet come together? Did you collaborate on your duet before you wrote it, or did the stories come together after?

For the Hearts Afire duet, Darragha and I wrote our stories on our own and sent them in. The editors put us together for the duet. We’ve really worked separately during the entire process. I think that because we both have paranormal stories we were a good fit for the October release.

Where do you find your ideas? What's your writing process like?

Ideas usually come for me from something that really frosts me. A news story will catch my attention, completely tick me off, and that’s it. The seed for the story is there and then kind of grows tentacles as I’m writing. I have to feel passionate about the topic of the book; otherwise the story won’t sustain my interest for three-hundred and some-odd pages.

For Burning Souls, the idea had been percolating for a while. I’m completely horrified and disgusted, and totally heartbroken every time I see a news story about a woman who murders her children. I can’t fathom it. I know all the reasons why they do it, but I just can’t wrap my heart around it. It’s just inconceivable to me.

As for my writing process, it’s kind of a mish-mash. I start with the idea, the seed in my head that won’t leave me alone. A character steps in and starts talking. I’ll have a basic situation in my head. A “what if”. I’m part panster and part plotter. I like using a kind of mind map technique. Many writers like using index cards. I’m just too unorganized for that! But I do use a word document and text boxes to kind of plot out a skeleton of the story as ideas, plot lines and characters come to me. I then just keep adding and deleting and moving them around as I need to.

I also try to follow a three act structure. Some structure helps to prevent me from venturing so far into the woods that I can’t find my way back. That’s really it. Nothing special.

Tell us about a typical day for you. How do you squeeze writing in to your busy life?

Honestly, for the last several years, I’ve been mostly a weekend writer. I work full-time all week and I’m so shot at night that it’s hard to concentrate on writing. I write best when I’m not nodding off at the keys J

Also, I have to write when my 19 month old naps. He pretty much dictates when my writing time is. I use the rest of my time to work through the story in my head. Like lunch time, times when I’m doing kind of repetitive work at my job that allows my mind to wander, and at night before I drop off to sleep.

E-books have been increasing in popularity. What do you think about the future impact of e-publishing on the market?

E-books are huge and getting increasing in popularity all the time. People like the fact that they can download a book and read it off their palm pilot or kindle any time. Every major publisher sells e-books now, and some, such as Harlequin, even sell shorter e-stories on their sites. Future impact? Good news for trees J. But really, this is technology. Times are a changin’. We need to be ready to change with them.

What's coming up for your next project?

The current project? I’m actually kind of superstitious about talking much about the stories I’m working on. I’ll just say that it’s a creepy paranormal story. Good versus evil kind of stuff, with a definite theme of redemption.

After that I may do another Leah Ryan book. I miss her, and she’s talking up a storm in my head.

Thanks so much for having me! I can’t wait to read your upcoming release Embers.

Thanks very much for the interview, Tracy. Can't wait to read more of your work!

Romance Junkies - Halloween Haunted House

Check out Romance Junkies' virtual haunted house! While exploring the interactive haunted house, you can uncover contest instructions to win free books.

ALA Free Webinar on Romance Fiction in the Library

Thanks to Faith over at Scribacious for sharing this...ALA's Booklist will be having a free webinar in November. Details are below:

Booklist Webinar
Sweet Talk: Romance Fiction in the Library
November 12, 3-4 PM Central Time

Romance is hot . . . in the library, that is. Join Donna Seaman, Booklist's romance fiction editor, and a panel of librarians, authors, and publishers to discuss the state of the genre—in public libraries and in the marketplace.

Panelists include:

John Charles, Reference Librarian, Scottsdale (AZ) Public Library, and Booklist reviewer
Shelley Mosley, Adjunct Librarian at Glendale (AZ) Community College, and Booklist reviewer
Madeline Hunter, best-selling author of 17 historical romances
Kayleigh George, Library Marketing Coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers
Cheryl Herman, Library Marketing Director, Books on Tape and Listening Library (Random House)

The reservation link is: http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=general_info&id=63

Serpent Mound

Yesterday, I went to visit Ohio's Serpent Mound with my writing buddy, Faith. Serpent Mound is the largest effigy mound in the U.S., and is one of the settings for my upcoming novel, EMBERS. More info on Serpent Mound is here: http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/sw16/index.shtml