Your Own Autographed Copy!

By Kirsten (Inara) Scott

I know, I've already spent a whole blog talking about my cover and now I've got to blab all about something new -- my first experience signing books!

It happened last week at BEA. For those who haven’t heard of it, BEA is short for BookExpo America -- an enormous, fabulous conference dedicated to all things book-related. Though the conference always includes big headline acts (Barbara Streisand! Jon Stewart!) and conference sessions, the best part is I’ve found is simply walking the floor, where thousands of square feet are dedicated to publisher exhibits with books from their summer and fall catalogs, book trinkets, ARCs (advance reader copies) and lots and lots of authors signing books.

And yes, this year one of those authors was ME! For thirty minutes (which FLEW by -- I think I was probably in a time-space warp) I sat behind a table and wrote my name in books for people who said they were excited to read Delcroix Academy.


Excited. To read my book.

I grinned like a fool the whole time.

After I was done signing, I got to turn around and meet the guy in the booth next to me. You may have heard of him (if you have a 4th grade boy, you've definitely heard of him!): Rick Riordin. Then I did my own fan girl thing. I fawned, I squeed, and I generally made a fool of myself. This is what we do when we meet an author we really like. We make fools of ourselves.

So tell me -- when's the last time you waited in line to meet an author? What did you do when you met them? Ever embarrassed yourself in front of your hero? (I almost did -- turned out I've been pronouncing Rick's last name wrong all this time -- thank goodness my editor caught that one before I met him!).

And you writers -- tell us about your first book signing. Did you grin like a fool? Float on air for hours afterwards? Are you still a little amazed that there are people out there who will wait in line to meet YOU?

Pitch Perfect

by Christine Wells

Many of us in Romanceland are eagerly anticipating the national conference of Romance Writers of America® in Washington D.C. next week. A large number of our Bandita Buddies are aspiring writers, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about pitching your manuscript.

There are all kinds of pitches, from the short elevator pitch (useful for cocktail parties or casual encounters with publishing professionals) to the longer, blurb-style pitch you might use in a scheduled meeting. Which you use depends on the circumstances, but two things must be present: conflict and what I call ‘sexy’ words—specific details from your story that have that ‘wow’ factor. These are the kinds of words that imply high stakes, immediacy, humor, quirkiness, mystery, intrigue or yes, sometimes, plain old sex. We’re all interested in those things, right? Specifics will set your book apart from the herd.

Taking a well-known concept and giving it a twist can be an effective way of pitching a story. The high concept pitch Anna Campbell used for her debut novel CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, which sold to Avon at auction, was Pretty Woman by candlelight. Everyone has seen the movie Pretty Woman or at least knows the premise. The twist is setting the story in the Regency period (the candlelight reference), when a courtesan was wholly in her keeper’s power.

When Kirsten Scott sold her young adult novel, DELCROIX ACADEMY: THE CHOICE in a ‘good’ deal to Hyperion, her agent called it X-Men for girls. That succinct, three word pitch speaks volumes, doesn’t it? It gives you the tone, the subgenre, the type of conflict and the fresh twist.

My pitch for WICKED LITTLE GAME was Indecent Proposal with a Regency twist.

Of course, the movie world is where the high concept pitch was born. The movie ALIEN was pitched as Jaws in space. If you want to find more examples of high concept pitches for movies, you can search IMDB by keyword.

But the movie with a twist won’t work for every story, and can be risky unless you refer to a blockbuster or a classic. Even then, if the editor or agent hated the movie or didn’t see it or just doesn’t get the significance of the twist, you’ve lost her. So, let’s move on to the slightly longer logline.

Anna Sugden, whose fabulous Panic-Free Pitching workshop handout is on her website, has a perfect logline for LOVE BY BEQUEST: A Texas cowboy inherits an English sheep farm. Now, the conflict is obvious, isn’t it? A classic fish out of water story. For the logline, you don’t even need to know who the heroine of this romance is. That comes later in the blurb-style paragraph in your query. Don’t try to tell the whole story in this short, one line pitch.

For her recent release, THE EDUCATION OF MRS. BRIMLEY, Donna MacMeans used this logline: A Victorian strip-tease. Yep, that’s it. Intrigued? Go buy the book!

Donna’s next novel for Berkley, THE TROUBLE WITH MOONLIGHT, was about a Victorian heroine who turns invisible in moonlight. Just her, not her clothes. Donna says: ‘Did I mention she's a bit of a thief? If you want her to get something for you, she'll do it for a price but it's always during a full moon and, of course, she must be...’ You fill in the blank! A nekked invisible heroine thieving in Victorian England? Now that’s something I want to read. This pitch juxtaposes paranormal and historical romance in a fresh and intriguing way.

For her manuscript REFUGE, Suzanne Welsh’s more detailed pitch uses specific language to convey high-stakes action and conflict. After witnessing a senator's assassination, a spinster-librarian flees into the west as a mail-order bride to escape the clutches of the murderer.

Look at how many specific, ‘sexy’ words Suzanne uses to really enhance the punch of her pitch: senator (high profile implies high stakes) assassination (again, high stakes) spinster librarian (rightly or wrongly, we assume someone intelligent, sheltered and quiet, someone who must struggle to face the challenges ahead of her) the west (again, fish out of water scenario here) mail-order bride (hints at romance and an interesting conflict for someone labeled ‘spinster’) escape a murderer (high stakes, suspense).

I pitched my Berkley historical romance, THE DANGEROUS DUKE like this: A duke accidentally steals a lady’s erotic diary. Can you see this is going to be a sexy story about stolen secrets? Are you already wondering what will happen when my hero reads that diary and whether he’ll be caught out? I hope so!

Notice that none of these pitches goes into detail about the story. They focus on piquing the reader’s interest, that’s all. Usually, in a query letter or formal pitch session you need more detail than that, but it’s a great tactic to have the logline front and centre, before you move on to the longer blurb. A real sock-it-to-’em sentence that makes an agent or editor give the rest of your query their full attention. The ‘what if’ question can work well for this purpose, too.

For more examples of pitches that work, read through the deals on Karen Fox's wonderful website.

Now, not every book lends itself to a logline. My advice—write a book that does. That’s not as flippant as it might appear. Think about it—if a book lends itself to a dynamic, interesting hook, isn’t it more likely to be a dynamic, interesting book? Plus, writing a logline for your story before you begin gives you a sharpened focus, a touchstone to keep your story on track.

However, if you are submitting and you just can’t get that snappy one-liner, don’t despair. For my first novel, SCANDAL’S DAUGHTER, I wrote a standard one paragraph pitch and it had a 100% success rate. Which is not to say that every editor or agent offered representation or a contract, but everyone I queried asked for more.

That’s all a pitch can do for you. In the end, the proof is in the pages.

If you're a reader, do you find the 'high concept' attracts you to a story if you haven't read an author before? Can you think of any intriguing ways just one line about a story or a movie has captured your attention? I'd love to know your thoughts.

If you're a writer, pitch us your logline (and yes, published and unpublished writers are welcome to do this). Or share your own tips for writing great pitches. We have it on good authority that some editors and agents read our blog, so if you're an unpubbed, give it your best shot!

For those attending National, if you would like to win a one hour session with me at National to work on your pitch or even just chat about writing in general, please state it in your comment. I'll post the winner before I leave for D.C. on Monday and we can arrange a mutually convenient time.

Home Sweet Home

By Kirsten Scott

So, does it look familiar? The houseboat, I mean. I think this particular houseboat probably caused a rush on houseboats unlike any the industry had seen. It's the one used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, inhabited by Tom Hanks' character, and among other things, it played a prominent role in me falling in love with him. After all, who wouldn't love a man who loved a house like that? The lights on the water, the view of the boats and downtown Seattle...and of course it was gorgeous inside. Furnished like a dream. Furnished like no man would ever furnish a house.

During the holiday season we do a lot of visiting and go to a lot of parties, and I am always struck by how different peoples' houses are, and how each house tells a story about the person who lives there -- sometimes a very different story than the one I would expect. Someone I expect to have drab, by the book decorations has a house filled with art and color; someone I expect to be neat turns out to be a packrat; someone I expect to be simple has a taste for the ostentatious.

I love it. It's a window into the soul.

We authors are always on the lookout for windows into the soul, so we use houses a lot to develop our characters. What better way to show a person's true character than to describe their house? The man with a wounded soul lives on a cliff away from town; the woman who never broke free from her mother still lives in her mother's house, surrounded by her mother's belongings. We can show someone's unexpected depth by giving them a hidden art collection, or a beautiful garden.

As for me, I live in a boxy 1950s ranch that we renovated so it's open and light. In the living room we've got furniture covered with sheets (dog hair, don't you know), two old red arm chairs I inherited when my grandfather passed away, a fairly new sofa-couch from IKEA, and a couple of fabulous Oriental rugs I ordered from Ebay about eight years ago that are fraying around the edges. I want my house to be tidy, comfortable, and above all, a place where kids and dogs can play and have fun.

(Here's one of Grandpa's chairs. Isn't it cool?)

So I'm wondering...what does your house reveal about you? Are you a city dweller in a tiny apartment? A suburban mama? Do you collect original art, or maybe photographs? Is your house straight out of an IKEA catalog, or more of the shabby chic variety? 

And perhaps most importantly -- would you have married Tom Hanks just to live in that houseboat?! :-)

Your Fantasy Christmas

by Kirsten Scott

I was reading a great Harlequin Desire the other day (The CEO's Christmas Proposition, by Merline Lovelace) and it was filled with fabulous descriptions of Christmas in Salzburg. You could see the homemade wooden toys, taste the buttery breads, and hear the children's choirs singing in the background of a wintery wonderland. (Here's a picture of Salzburg in the winter -- incredible, isn't it?)

Of course, if you're going to be stranded somewhere at Christmas time, it helps to be stranded with a gorgeous millionaire. But that's beside the point.

The point is, I am now adding "Spend Christmas in Salzburg" to my Bucket List. 


Not long after, I was at a holiday party and a friend of mine was complaining about her dysfunctional family and how Christmas brings nothing but angst and fighting. Some year, she vowed, she would be on a beach for Christmas, far away from everyone but her sweetie.

Hmm...Christmas in Oahu? I hadn't really considered it, but once she said it, the idea started to grow on me. Sure, I'd miss the kids and all, but putting that aside, wouldn't it be great to take that dreary, cold, wet time and spend it covered with suntan lotion, sipping a fruity beverage with my husband at my side?

Which leads me to the subject of today's blog: Your Fantasy Christmas.

Where would you go, if you could go anywhere in the world? I suspect most of us want to be exactly where we are, surrounded by family and friends, close to our church and all the people we love. But work with me here -- we're romance readers. No one does fantasy better than us. If you have to, you can imagine you've been stranded by cancelled flights or some other Act of God, and simply CAN'T get home (thereby absolving all Christmas-related guilt).


So what would it be, and who would you bring? A warm beach with your sweetie? A trip to Sweden's Ice Hotel with your best friend? How about New York City, with all the hustle and bustle, the ice skating in Central Park, and the giant Christmas tree?

Remember, we're still counting down the 12 Bandita Days of Christmas! One lucky commenter wins a prize! So let yourself go. Close your eyes and start fantasizing!

Party in San Fran!

By Kirsten "I'm tired already!" Scott

Day Two of the Conference and I'm already pooped! Too many parties, too little time, right my little chook? Er...chook? Chook? WHERE IS THAT DAMN ROOSTER NOW?! What? Jeanne has him? And Cassondra? At the same time?

Well, you'll have to see if you can find him, ladies. I think he's somewhere in San Francisco. Let me know if you spot him, okay?

While I'm off trying to find our beloved cock (a-doodle-do), here are some pictures of our Banditas and buddies from RWA nationals.

Here's Banditas Donna and Beth signing at the Readers for Life Literacy Event, and Joan welcoming all the readers to come visit our signing Banditas!

Can you recognize these Bandita Buddies?

And as promised, some random incriminating shots of Banditas at play:

Cassondra the balloon fairy:

Susan, slow down! Leave some for the rest of us!

So, are you enjoying your week! Any stories to report thus far? Any chook sightings?

Fantasies

By Kirsten Scott

My dear readers, I invite you to light some candles, pour a hot bubble bath, grab a spoon and a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and cuddle up with your favorite semi-automatic weapon. (Okay, that last bit was for p226.) Ready? Comfy? Now, I want you to tell me your fantasies.

No, not THOSE fantasies. Goodness, this is a family blog, you know! I mean, those fantasies are important, and they are a crucial part of our genre. But I'm looking for something a little...er...cleaner.

I want to know your favorite romance novel fantasy.

The way I see it, we romance writers are trying to do one thing, and do it well--create a fantasy world into which our readers are longing to dive. We have a few basic elements that stay pretty static. We've got goregous men, strong, independent heroines, and true love.

The rest is really up to you.

We know some of our readers' fantasies. There's the heroine who gets kidnapped by pirates fantasy, the ever-popular Cinderella fantasy, and the ugly duckling who turns into a swan fantasy. My favorite fantasies involve kick-ass heroines who are themselves pirates, bounty hunters, and spies. We write variations on these themes, but the fantasy is the same.

This isn't just true in romance. All genres have their fantasies. I write young adult novels as well as adult romance, and I think it's remarkable how many young adult books center around the same fantasy: the orphaned child who turns out to be the chosen one. Think about it. How many books have you read and loved with this basic theme?

I don't have much stomach for horror and mystery, but I'm sure there's a common fantasy there as well. How about the hard-on-his-luck detective who solves the crime that has eluded all others? I've been seeing a new fantasy lately emerge on tv shows where the nerdy guy becomes an action hero. That's a great one.

We all need fantasies. We need somewhere for our imagination to go when our mundane worlds of desk jobs, cubicles, baby food, diapers, and traffic get to us. We need to go back to our childhoods, when we really believed we might turn out to be the adopted child who was destined to save the world, or the princess in disguise, or the kid who solved the crime.

So tell me...what's your favorite fantasy? Is there a romance novel you can't pass up? The bluestocking who captures the rake's heart? The best friends who realize they've been in love all their lives? The kidnapped woman given to a madman who turns out not to be mad at all but a damn good lover? :-) Tell me your fantasies, gentle readers, and maybe they'll end up in my next book!

Boys 'n Ballet

By Kirsten Scott

Romance readers are rather, er, old fashioned about their men. They like them big, strong, and alpha. No whimps or nerds need apply. Though we'd like to think the genre isn't limited by stereotypical male/female roles, this is one place where you don't see a lot of variety. Tall, dark, and handsome still describes most of our heros.

I've been thinking about this because my son just started taking ballet, and he's really enjoying it. He's young, still in elementary school, and not exactly the most graceful thing on the planet. He got interested in taking lessons because last year my daughter's ballet school put on productions of the Nutcracker and Peter Pan. The Nutcracker, if you haven't seen it for a while, involves an army of toys battling an army of scary mice. Peter Pan involves sword play, pirates, and flying.

Suddenly, ballet looked pretty darn cool.

But here's where I put my gender stereotyping on the line: it's making us a little uncomfortable. (Okay, it's mostly making my husband uncomfortable. I happen to think male dancers are HOT.) How many men do you know who dance? Read a romance lately with a male dancer as the hero? It's all well and good for us to say we're open minded and liberal when it comes to women assuming male roles, but when it comes right down to it, do you think a male dancer (a ballerino?) can be masculine?

What do you think? Could you send your little man to the dance studio and put him in a pair of tights and ballet slippers? Could you read a romance with a hero who was a dancer? Why is it so easy to open our minds to stereotyping when it comes to women, but so hard when it comes to men?

Lucky

by Susan Seyfarth

I never used to think of myself as lucky. In fact, when I was younger, I considered myself actively unlucky. After all, I was the short, glasses-wearing, flat-as-North-Dakota girl in a family full of curvy, long-legged women with 20/20 vision. Throw in a full-body case of freckles & you have a junior high experience not to be envied.

But I got older. I lived a little. I discovered that what you don't have can't sag & then I got some really, really cute glasses. I realized that there's something to be said for never being taller than your date. And guess what? Girls who read their way through the ugly years are interesting to talk to, which is a bonus when you're finally dating boys old enough to care what a girl has to say.
On the whole, I've felt luckier & luckier with every passing year. Happier. More comfortable in my skin. I've gotten good at just letting the old freak flag fly, you know? Embracing my inner geek. And my outer geek. And the geek that pops out sometimes when I am taken by surprise. All of them.

But own up to writing romance novels? To strangers? That was hard.

See, ever since I quit my job to raise my baby, now 4, people have been asking me how I stay sane at home all day. (It comes up even more often now that we've been joined by my youngest, almost 1.) The answer, of course, is that I write. Romance novels. Unpublished romance novels. Yes, I do have a degree in English. And an MBA. I guess it's just harder to write good smut than you'd think.

And since that's not a conversation I care to have with everybody at my husband's office Christmas party, I started just patting the asker on the arm, smiling vacantly & saying, "Oh, honey, I'm not sane."

But then my husband, who's been treating my writing as a career since well before I ever did, called me out. He said to me, “You’re a WRITER, Susan. You’re good at it, and I’m proud of you. If you don’t start telling people about it, I’m going to.” Gulp. Time to embrace my inner geek again. All of her, this time.

Shortly after this conversation, we went on vacation with my husband's best friend from grad school and his friend’s family. Now bear in mind, this friend’s wife is a VERY accomplished woman. We both have lovely husbands & charming children, but she went & piled on a high-powered career, some scary smarts, & the ability to type really, really fast on a blackberry. Terrifying.

And of course she asked the dreaded question: What do you do to stay sane at home all day with an infant? One look at DH told me I was about to be outed, so I sucked in a deep breath, kissed my credibility with this woman goodbye and confessed. "I write romance novels."

We endured the requisite moment of awkward silence and then she said the unthinkable: “I’ve been writing a pirate novel for YEARS!”

And thus a fast friendship -- and happy critique partnership -- was born.

Now can anybody guess who this woman was? None other than our very own Kirsten Scott. The latest bandita to do us proud & SELL! We went to our first RWA National Conference together in Reno, & were first time GH finalists together in Atlanta. She’s been with me every step of the way on this bizarre, winding career path, and I've been lucky to have her. And I owe it all to my husband, his exquisite taste in friends, & his uncompromising determination to be proud of any old thing I do.

Am I the luckiest girl in the world or what?

So how about you? Has the universe ever rewarded you for being exactly who you are? How have the stars blessed you lately? Where's the luck in your life?

It Only Takes Once...

By Kirsten Scott

As of Thursday, October 17th, there are now officially two days that completely, and unexpectedly, changed my life.

The first came on January 1, 2000. My husband and I were staying at a condo in Northern Washington with our dear friends the Seyfarths (yes, that's Bandita Susan and husband), celebrating the new millenium. I was in the middle of my third year of law school, and had lately been bitten by that hormonal bug many of you women may recognize. This particular bug called out to me at odd moments of the day, "Procreate! Go Forth and Multiply!"

Now, having a baby wasn't really in the plan for my husband and I. First, I was going to graduate from law school. Then, I was going to study like mad and take the Bar exam. Then we were flying to New Zealand for a vacation before I started work at The Firm. Sometime after I had paid off some portion of my enormous student loan, we would think about babies.

But I've never been particularly patient (understatement of the year) person and there was one time..ONE TIME I TELL YOU...that I threw caution to the wind.

And it only took once.

We found out on New Years Day. Awestruck at what a difference one day can make, we changed all our plans. I put off starting work at The Firm, put the student loans on the 30 year plan, and New Zealand became a distant dream. We had a beautiful baby boy about two weeks after I took the Bar. Just like that, life changed.

So it happened again, on October 17th, 2007. I was at work, reading email during an endlessly boring meeting. Fabulous news! my agent wrote. Call right away!

I slipped out of the meeting and made the call, heart pounding. My agent had sent out my young adult manuscript a few weeks before, and I'd steeled myself for a long, long wait. What could "fantastic news" possibly mean?

It was more than I had ever imagined. An offer for a two-book deal for my young adult urban fantasy from Hyperion Books for Children, my dream publisher.

Being at work, I couldn't whoop and holler like I wanted, had to stifle the tears and pretend to be normal--normal, other than feeling like the room was spinning and I couldn't breathe quite right. I nearly passed out right in the hall, and barely managed to gasp, "I'll take it!"

I called my husband and he did the hollering for me, along with a little crying. Then I called Bandita Susan, who hollered some more and generally satisfied the rest of my need to make noise and dance around hysterically. I owe so much to Susan, and it was unbelievably satisfying to share my joy with her, and know she understood what it meant better than anyone.

What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four hours later, my husband and I were talking options--quit the day job? Work until I (please please) get another contract? Pay off the student loans? Can you believe we're even talking about this? Did it really happen?

What a wild ride. I've made virtually no decisions since then, just wandered around, awestruck once again at the difference a day makes.

So what about you? Any unexpected blessings change your life? Did it only take once for you, too? Did you guess I was hiding a call story in this post right from the start? :-)