Bandita Booty!!

by Anna Sugden

Thanks everyone for joining in the gloomy fun with our fabulous guest, Julie Cohen!

Time to announce the lucky winner of her wonderful prize - a signed copy of Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom. Drum roll, please.

And the winner is ...

Kristen!! (with her tale of the corpse-washing sink!)

Please send your snail mail details to Julie at julie@julie-cohen.com

Why Gloom is Good

By Anna Sugden

I'm delighted to welcome back another Lair favourite and one of my 'must buy, must read' authors, my very dear friend Julie Cohen.

So, without further ado, here's Julie!

Hey there Banditas, thanks for having me back in the Lair to talk about my newest book, Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom.

The idea for this book came to me, I seem to remember, when I was out in my garden on a warm spring day, pruning the passion flower. I was thinking about the heroine of the book I’d just finished, Girl From Mars, and how she was a comic-book-loving geek tomboy. It would be nice to have something different for the next book, I thought. Somebody girly and chick-litty who loves shoes and stuff. But there are lots of girly, chick-litty heroines out there. How can I make mine a little bit different?

Then of course it came to me: stick her in a crumbling gothic mansion, full of gargoyles and spiders, with mysterious freakish neighbours who prowl the night!

Excellent!

So I worked up a bit of a pitch for it and developed the character, and then called up my editor to have a chat about the next book, and I mentioned this idea of mine. Sort of a Bridget Jones meets Northanger Abbey. “Sounds great!” said my editor. “Got a title?”

“Um...how about Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom?”

I was joking. Nina’s last name was actually Chatham. I thought my editor would laugh.

“I love it!” she cried.

And thus Nina Jones was born.

The book was really fun to write, especially the gothic parts. I love horror movies and I love dark humour. I researched Gothic Revival architecture and had a wonderful time visiting Highgate, the part of London where the second half of the novel is set, with its famous Victorian cemetery and its vampire legends.

In the first part of the book, Nina is a typical chick-lit heroine, who loves shoes and shopping and, unfortunately, her married boss. And then, through a series of events, she loses everything—her job, her money and most of her designer shoes—and ends up living in her bat-loving dead uncle Arval’s flat amongst the gargoyles and the odd bits of machinery and the kitchen sink big enough to wash a corpse.

Here’s a short excerpt from her first few days in the Temple of Gloom, when she’s reeling from her own personal disasters, and discovers she’s sharing the flat with another inhabitant:

“What’s the attraction of a bath?” I ask the spider. My voice echoes off the black and white tiles on the floor and walls. “I mean I can understand a nice dark corner full of flies. But why a bath? What’s the good of it to you?”

The spider sits there, being hairy.

“I’d like to take a bath, actually,” I tell it. “Three days without bathing is verging on the ridiculous, not to mention disgusting. Especially with all the crawling around in cupboards I’ve been doing. I could grow vegetables in my hair.”

I swear the spider is thinking about all the cobwebs I’ve destroyed in the past few days. And planning revenge. It must be quite a complicated revenge, with lots of cunning plans to think through in detail, because the damn thing hasn’t moved more than three inches in forty-eight hours. Or maybe it goes zinging around the entire flat while I’m sleeping, but I don’t want to think about that.

I’ve been using the loo as quickly as I can, angling my body ready to bolt out the door if the spider moves. I’ve been brushing my teeth in the kitchen sink. But enough is enough. It’s not like I’m planning on going out or entertaining visitors or anything, but I can’t stand myself this dirty, and I am not going to climb into the corpse-washing sink for a sponge bath.

“I really don’t want to squish you. Or touch you. Or think about you lurking in the bathroom while I’m naked and vulnerable. How about I open the window for you, and you go outside?”

This seems reasonable to me, but who understands spider logic? I go to the long, narrow, multi-paned window and open it, a process which requires unscrewing this bit and pushing out this other bit. It only opens a couple of inches, and it’s begun to rain outside. The fresh air is cool and smells slightly greasy.

“There, doesn’t that look appealing?” I say to the spider. It is, I know, quite possibly the only creature in existence who has less desire to go outside than I do.

Got any spider horror stories? Got a corpse-washing sink or a favourite gargoyle? Just want to talk gloom? I’ll choose a commenter to win a signed copy of Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom.

Julie’s website: http://www.julie-cohen.com

To buy Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom with free worldwide shipping:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780755341412/Nina-Jones-and-the-Temple-of-Gloom

Don't forget you can buy Julie's other awesome books [Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak, One Night Stand, The Honey Trap and Girl From Mars] at The Book Depository too - all with free worldwide shipping!

Bandita Booty!!

by Anna Sugden
Thanks to everyone for making Julie Cohen's visit such a blast!

She has chosen a winner for her prize, a signed copy of her latest book Girl From Mars ...

The Mistress of Manga ... Lynz Pickles!!

Congrats, Lynz. This should give you some light relief in amongst all that language studying! Please send Julie your snail mail details - her email is julie@julie-cohen.com

Welcome Back, Julie Cohen!

by Anna Sugden

I'm thrilled to welcome back my very dear friend and Lair favourite, Julie Cohen! Julie is here to celebrate the release of her fabulous new book, Girl From Mars.

As you know, these days, great single title contemporary romances are thin on the ground. Julie's books are always a treat and I can promise you Girl From Mars is the perfect read for the waning days of summer. I know there are a number of you who love comics and sci fi series and movies - this is the book for you, as you'll see below. And even for those who aren't into comics, Fil is a heroine you can't help but love.

So, without further ado, let me hand over to Julie who will tell you a little more about Girl From Mars.

Thanks for having me again, Banditas!

My latest book, Girl from Mars, is about a female comic book artist who takes a vow (in Klingon) not to get a boyfriend.

As soon as I got the idea of writing about a female comic book artist, I knew I had to do it. I’m a comics fan, always have been. Especially Batman and The Sandman, and the more “serious” comics like Maus and Persepolis, but I’ll read any comics I can get my hands on.

More recently, it’s occurred to me that comics and romance have quite a bit in common. Aside from the fact that comics is a medium, and romance is a genre, the two are similar in that they have very loyal and voracious readers. Also, despite romance and comics both being regularly plundered by the mainstream for stories, they’re often looked down on by the “establishment” as being somehow inferior to more “literary” works.

There’s one very big major difference. With some notable exceptions, romance is usually chosen by females, and comics are usually chosen by males. When I was researching Girl from Mars, I asked the editor of long-running British comic magazine 2000AD how many female artists he had on his books. “Er, none,” he said, looking vaguely surprised. “It’s not on purpose. I just haven’t had any women interested.”

So the job of comic book artist fit my heroine Fil exactly, because she’s a female who’s not quite sure how to be a woman. She’s a tomboy whose best friends are male. And when I made up the comic she drew, (also called “Girl from Mars”), I took a bit of Dan Dare, a bit of Superman, a bit of Wonder Woman, mixed them all together with two X chromosomes and made her a kick-ass alien girl with green skin and a tragic past.

One of the most fun parts of writing a book about a comic book artist was writing the comics themselves. I had to write a six-part story arc for the comic Fil is drawing, and I had to write some parts of the script in comic-script format. It was awesome.

PANEL SIX: Jackson presses the buttons to open the service hatchway to the radioactive core fuel supply of the space station.
JACKSON: THIS IS PROBABLY NOT THE BEST MOMENT TO TELL YOU I’VE FALLEN COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH YOU.
GIRL FROM MARS: TELL ME THAT LATER, WHEN I HAVEN’T GOT MY HANDS FULL OF EVIL GENIUS.

Another great bit was learning about how comics work. One of Fil’s major problems is a new writer for the comic, Daniel McKay, who’s a famous Hollywood screenwriter and director, but has never written for comics before:

“Listen, Dan, I think you’d be insulted too if I decided to step into your studio and direct a film without bothering to learn anything about how to do it. Your script isn’t even a comics script, for God’s sake.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The panel descriptions, for a start. They’re too detailed, except when they’re not detailed enough. And they don’t match up with the dialogue.”
“I don’t understand.”
I sighed, picked up my bag from the floor where I’d dropped it, and rummaged around for the script I’d stuffed in there yesterday. “Look,” I said, spreading the battered pages out on the drawing board.
Dan got out of his chair to stand beside me. He had a lemony smell, which I realised I’d included in my dream, although I hadn’t consciously noticed it.
Ignore it.
Since he seemed to be willing to pay attention, I decided to start with the easy stuff, so maybe we could get that sorted out once and for all. “When you write a film script I’m guessing you have two people standing in front of a camera and they can say whatever they want to whenever and move around the room and stuff. But comics are static, so there are some major differences. For example, here in the panel description you have Girl from Mars and Jackson standing at a table looking at some plans, with Girl on the left. But then in the dialogue, you have Jackson speaking first.”
“And?”
“A single panel of comics reads from left to right. People will start with the top left-hand speech balloon. So generally it’s easier if you have the left-hand character speaking first.”
“You mean, every time?”
“There are ways of getting round it, but it’s easiest if you stick to that rule for the majority of panels. In this panel, you just need to switch the characters’ places.”

I loved learning little tricks like this, that you don’t really think about unless you’re writing for comics (or, in my case, writing about writing for comics). Of course, one of the things about Dan that annoys Fil the most is that he’s going to add romance to her comic. And maybe her life, too.

How about you? Are you a comics fan? What’s your favourite? Do you think there are any similarities with romance? How about romance comics—have you read any, and did you like them?

One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Girl From Mars.

Girl from Mars, and Julie's other books (Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak; One Night Stand; The Honey Trap) available with free worldwide shipping from The Book Depository:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780755341399/Girl-from-Mars

You can find out more about Julie and her other books at her website:
http://www.julie-cohen.com/

Dreaming with Julie Cohen

By Anna Sugden

(well, Julie did all the hard work and wrote it - I just posted it and added the pics *grin*)

I'm thrilled to welcome my very dear friend, award-winning author Julie Cohen, back to the Bandita's Lair.

Whether you're published, almost-published, just starting or just dreaming, I know you'll find inspiration in Julie's post ... as well as hunks and humour!

Yo Banditas! Anna asked me to do a post for you about dreams.

See, when I first met the said beautiful and talented Ms. Sugden, I had a whole list of dreams in my pocket. I wanted to have a book published by Harlequin. I wanted to write mainstream single-title romance, too. I wanted to give up the day job as a teacher and become a full-time writer. I wanted to have a baby. I wanted to have a wild passionate affair with Owen Wilson.

It’s five years later. I’ve published six books with Harlequin Mills & Boon, and the one that’s released in the US this February, Harlequin Presents HIS FOR THE TAKING, has been shortlisted for the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association Romance Prize . I’ve published two mainstream single-title romances with Headline’s Little Black Dress imprint. I’ve had a baby, a gorgeous and noisy little boy. And between the little boy and the furious writing, I’ve been able to give up the day job to become a full-time mother and writer.

The only dream I haven’t achieved is the affair with Owen Wilson.

I don’t think I achieved these dreams through any magic. My secret was pretty much that I worked my ass off and I had a lot of sex. (With my husband, not Owen, though I’m not complaining.) I had some real highlights on the way--finalling in the Golden Heart, getting that first Call, my first publisher party, my supportive and wonderful writing friends, my first book signing. The moment, two days before Christmas 2006, when I first held my son.

I’ve also had some real setbacks. Rejection after rejection, of course, even after signing with my agent. Sarky contest feedback. Crap reviews. Days at work so stressful that I couldn’t write. Writing so stressful I couldn’t do my work properly. Interviews where I said appallingly stupid things. Those nights at the computer where I banged my head on the desk, convinced that I suck, I suck, I suck. And I lost three pregnancies to miscarriage, too.

I don’t know about you, but I always thought that when I’d ticked off that list of dreams, I’d be a different person. That somehow I’d be transformed into a Successful Author and magically all my self-doubts would fly out the window and I wouldn’t have to clean any toilets any more.

But it’s not like that. I’m constantly juggling writing and everything else--even more than when I was working full time, because a child is a hell of a lot more difficult than a job. People say that they don’t understand how I can keep motivated when I’m working from home, and for me, actually, the reverse is true: as my work is right there in my house, on the dining room table in fact, I feel that I have to be at it every spare minute I have. It’s more difficult for me to give myself time off.

No matter what my editor and agent and crit partners say, no matter how good the reviews are, no matter how many books I sell, there are still nights when I suck, I suck, I suck. And I want every book to get better, but God does it hurt to make it better, because you have to challenge your comfort zones, give that little bit more, dig that little bit deeper, all on a deadline.

And dude, do I ever have to clean the freakin’ toilet.

Anyway, I have a whole new set of dreams now. I want to make enough money from my writing so that we can move somewhere I can have an office of my own, away from sticky little fingers. I want to write bigger, more complex books. I want my little boy to grow up happy. And I wouldn’t mind having a wild passionate affair with David Tennant.

What (and who) are your dreams? Have you had any come true, and how did you feel about it? I’ll choose a poster from the comments to win a copy of my UK single-title release, ONE NIGHT STAND, about an erotica writer who gets pregnant by mistake.

Don't forget, you can find out about all Julie's books at her website http://www.julie-cohen.com/ and, as always, you can order them through Amazon by clicking on the cover pictures on this blog.

And the winner is ...

Keira!

Congratulations - You have won a copy of Julie Cohen's book MACALLISTER'S BABY!

If you contact Julie at julie@julie-cohen.com she can get your prize to you.

Thanks again to Julie for spending the day with us. I'm thrilled to announce that Julie will return to the Bandita's lair in January.

Delicious and Delightful ... Julie Cohen is our Featured Attraction

We're thrilled to have the super-talented Julie Cohen with us in the Bandit Lair today.

Romance changed Julie Cohen’s life. She grew up in Maine, came to England to study fairies, fell in love, and has stayed ever since.

An English teacher, she started writing romance at night between marking essays. Her fourth manuscript was a 2004 short contemporary Golden Heart finalist and was published in 2006 as FEATURED ATTRACTION by Harlequin Mills & Boon. Since then she has written six novels for Mills & Boon and two novels for Headline’s Little Black Dress romance imprint. She has just quit her teaching job and is currently working on her third Little Black Dress, THE HONEY TRAP.

She lives not far from London with her husband, a guitar tech for rock bands, and their baby son, who will probably have an English accent.

Welcome Julie. Since selling your first book, you've been prolific! Tell us about your current books.

MACALLISTER’S BABY (Harlequin Presents Special Releases, August 2007) was originally published in the UK and Australia as DELICIOUS. It’s the story of teacher Elisabeth Read, who is dedicated to her books, to her students, and to staying single...until celebrity chef Angus MacAllister comes to her school one day carrying a squawking chicken. Though she’s distrustful of his fame and his charm, the two of them have to work together to help two disadvantaged teenagers enter a cookery competition. Not so easy when the attraction between them is more tempting than chocolate.

It was originally published in the UK’s Modern Extra line, so it’s a bit different than your typical Presents--it’s very emotional and sexy like a Presents, with a cosmopolitan London setting, but it’s funny and a little offbeat, too.

[Anna - the chicken scene is one of the funniest things I've read!]

SPIRIT WILLING, FLESH WEAK, my September 2006 Little Black Dress release, is still on the shelves here, and available in the USA online through Amazon. The heroine, Rosie Fox, is a fake psychic, who mistakenly makes a true prediction about a tragic train crash. The resulting media frenzy brings with it Harry Blake, a reporter who’s known for debunking the supernatural. He seems intent on exposing her--in more ways than one.

[Anna - Get hold of this book - it is awesome! I read it in one sitting - I couldn't put it down!]

Many people may not have heard of Little Black Dress. Can you tell us a little about it?

Little Black Dress is a new romance line published by Headline Books here in England. The books are fun, sexy romantic reads, aimed at women aged 18-35, and marketed as an indulgent treat. They’re gorgeous little books, pretty and handbag-sized, and are more chick-lit or single-title in feel than category romance. LITTLE BLACK DRESS http://www.littleblackdressbooks.com/

How different do you find it working for two publishers?

The work itself isn’t that different--for example, both my editors are young, beautiful, intelligent blondes who listen to my stupid ideas for my next book, laugh charmingly and then say, “Now, seriously Julie...”

Honestly, the main difference is in the shelf life of the books. Category romances are on the shelves for one month only--but then you keep getting copies of your book translated into every foreign language in the world, which is nice. The Little Black Dresses are on the shelves for longer, which is also nice. Both editors work the same way with me: I give them a vague idea for a book, go away and write it, and then they read it and make me revise it, usually taking out all my cringeworthy jokes.

I love writing for both publishers. Category is so satisfying to write--it’s tightly structured, emotional, and it’s a wonderful challenge taking those old popular hooks and making them new. Little Black Dress is longer and I can really let my imagination run loose and develop character and plot.

How does what you write differ between the two?

Both of them are sexy, emotional romantic comedy, but people have told me they were surprised when they read SPIRIT WILLING after having read my category books, because it had a quite different feel.

Above all, category romance has to be focused on the romance. They’re tightly structured and all about the emotion. I was a lead author for the Modern Extra line, so I was lucky enough to get in at the beginning of something that had very few rules...but in the end there are certain rules for category romance, which the reader expects you to follow.

When I started writing for LBD I consciously chose to break some of those rules. My editor didn’t tell me to--I chose to, so I would know I was writing a different type of book. Writing in first person, for example. Writing about a heroine who’s a professional liar. Killing off a trainful of people in chapter two. Using flashbacks about the heroine’s childhood. Focusing more on the heroine’s development than the romantic story. Not having the hero and heroine meet until chapter five. Swearing.

It’s all stuff you could have in a category novel if you did it right--you can have just about anything in a category novel if you do it right--but it’s unlikely, and rightly so, because the category reader wants a fast-paced romantic story with a sympathetic heroine who doesn’t have a pottymouth, and not a lot of gratuitous death.

You were a GH finalist in 2004. How, if at all, did that help you make the final leap to publication?

It definitely helped me get agents’ attention, both in the UK and in the US. I don’t know if it made a big difference for my first sale, which happened a week before the 2004 RWA conference...the editor already had the requested, revised full when I found out I’d finalled, and I hope she decided to buy it on its own merits, not because of the contest. Maybe she read it more quickly, though. I never asked!

What was the key thing you learned which helped you make that final leap?

Emotion. I think in the manuscripts I wrote before I sold, I was a little scared to fully enter into the lives of my characters, to raise the stakes for everything they did, to really explore the emotion between them. It was when I started imagining myself in the feelings of my characters, and crafting events to heighten those feelings whenever possible, that I think I raised my game enough to get published.

You've now had a number of books published. How do you think your writing/books have changed?

I think I’ve relaxed into my voice more over the past few books (my eighth book in two years, ONE NIGHT STAND, is published in hardback in October 2007 with LBD). I’ve also started deepening my worlds a bit--exploring subplots and setting a little more, not being afraid to take a little time to let a theme or story unfurl. My structure is still tight, but it’s not quite so obsessively tight. I’d like to develop that roominess a whole lot more, though I don’t think I’ll be able to do a J.K. Rowling and make every book an inch or three thicker.

What has been your most fun moment as a published author?

There’s a big list of those, but I think the ultimate fun moment was going to my first Harlequin party a week after I sold my first book, with an invitation handed personally to me by editor Brenda Chin. Perfect happiness.

I also particularly enjoyed saying “cunnilingus” on BBC television when they filmed one of my workshops on writing sex scenes.

Another thing Julie is known for is her use of chocolate in her workshops! And I'm known for my love of Cadbury's Dairy Milk ... the real thing ... from England. And the Cadbury's Hero Assortment is heavenly! Although Aero Bubbles are a new favourite. (Mmmm)

So, Julie and I would like to know ... what is your favourite, to-die-for, chocolate treat?

And if chocolate can't tempt you - LOL - then Julie is giving away a copy of her US release Macallister's Baby!

JULIE’S WEBSITE
http://www.julie-cohen.com/