Kathrynn Dennis in the Lair

interviewed by Donna MacMeans

Please join me in welcoming my friend and fellow historical romance author, Kathrynn Dennis, to the lair. Her second book, SHADOW RIDER (Kensington, Oct 7, 2008) has just hit the shelves. Here's what the reviewers say about SHADOW RIDER:

"The color, vibrancy, and excitement of the Middle Ages allows Dennis to create a memorable tale of two people whose destiny is tied to a mystical colt. Dennis tells her story with passion, drama, and a love of animals that will enthrall readers." -- 4 Stars! Romantic Times Reviews, SHADOW RIDER

"...a great read for lovers of horses, romance and history" -- Top Pick! July 2008 ParaNormalRomance.org

Welcome, Kathrynn! How exciting to see your book on the shelves this week. What do you do as an author the first week your newest release goes on sale?

First, let me say thank you, Donna, and to all the Romance Bandits, for inviting me to guest blog. Great group here!

As to what do I do as an author during release week? I eat way too much chocolate and spend way too much time checking and rechecking my email. And oh yeah, I surf the net. A lot. ;-)

That’s what it’s like I think, for most authors until they have a few under their belts (books I mean, not drinks).

Sometimes a few drinks don't hurt, especially if served by sexy young Cabana boys (grin). We do like to run out to the book stores and actually see if the book is on the shelves. I wonder if the experience ever truly feels real without that visual confirmation?

I loved Dark Rider (Congratulations, BTW, on the final in the published Maggie contest). It had fabulous medieval atmosphere. Can't wait to read Shadow Rider as well. Where did you get the idea for this unusual medieval romance? The plot involves a “lost and vengeful knight, a horse midwife, castle intrigue, and a colt that barks . . .” to paraphrase a reviewer. A barking horse? Seriously, how did you come up with that?

I eat too much chocolate and drink too much—just kidding. ;-)

I’m a horse veterinarian and you know what they say …“write what you know.” So, I drew on experience and thought “what if” a foal born in the 13th century was affected by a real-life neurological condition that resulted behavioral abnormalities, made him do strange things like gaze at the stars, sit like dog and bark? Wow. Drop that scenario right into the hey-day (pun intended) of superstition in history—the middle ages. My heroine, of course, is a 13th century horse midwife who delivers the foal and then gets accused of all sorts of misdoings and witchery. She needs a hero. Enter Guy of Warwick, who thinks the “magic” horse is meant for him. He saves them both, but things go down hill from there. Turns out, everybody wants that magic horse. The bad guy in this book is pretty bad (will not tell how for fear of spoilers). I had fun writing him.

I remember from the last time you visited that you like to say you write “horsetoricals,” all about heroes, heroines, and horses. Is there any story connection between this book and your first, DARK RIDER?

Not really, but they are both set in the middle ages, have mystic elements and the development horses as characters who are pivotal to the plot. I’ve done a bit of research lately on animals and pets in romance novels and find they run the gambit from decoration, to strong secondary characters who move the story along. In my books, I wrote them to do just that.

Also, the kind of animal a character owns tells you a lot about their personality. Writers use this to layer their character’s development. The heroes and heroines in SHADOW RIDER and DARK RIDER are just as pet-owner profiles suggest they would be: male horse-owners are dominant and high in autonomy, aggressive, and less expressive in general. Female horse-owners tend to avoid aggression and are easy going, but limited in cooperativeness and warm human relationships.

Sounds like a true romance heroes and heroines to me! If you’d like to dig a little deeper into pet-owner profiling, check out Word Wenches today: http://wordwenches.typepad.com/word_wenches/. I have a post there which goes into pet owner-profiling a little deeper.

This, by the way, was one of Kathrynn's horses, Jawknee Reb, the love of her teenage life. So Kathrynn, what’s next?

I have another book brewing, The Horse Lord, a story about a horse wizard in ancient England who seeks a soul mate, a true horsewitch. She, of course wants nothing to do with him. But they are destined (cursed?) to be together and the journey they must travel as they fall in love tests their magic beyond belief.

A horse wizard and a horsewitch? Who knew? Sounds like great fun! To read more about Kathrynn and her horsetoricals, be sure to visit her website http://www.kdennis.com/.

Thank you, Romance Bandits, for having me.

I’d love to hear about the most memorable thing your pet did—a strangely human act of love? Was he/she weirdly smart? One commentor, randomly drawn, will win a free copy of SHADOW RIDER!

Spring Iz Sprung...

by Anna Campbell

Well, at least it has in Australia! It's been lovely and warm and I've had a couple of swims in the pool. Bliss!

But before I extol the beauties of the change of season in South East Queensland, let me get to the important part of today's blog. I got the advance reader copies of TEMPT THE DEVIL a little while ago and I'd love one to go to a good home - and as you know, a good home means a BANDITA BUDDY! So someone who leaves a comment here today is in the draw for a sneak peek at my January 09 release.

The birds have been enormously noisy and, sure sign of warmer weather, the bearded dragons have started to come out. Here's a couple of pictures I took of one in the bushes outside my office. They're amazing-looking beasts, aren't they? Like miniature dinosaurs. I love them. They're this wonderfully benign presence around the place.

The grevilleas have started flowering like crazy. Which means the parrots make so much noise trying to get at the nectar, sometimes it's hard to hear myself think.

As a lot of you know, I only recently finished a book which is always a very strange moment in my life. I should be dancing and shouting and carrying on. But it's actually a little like mourning.

It takes me a year to write a book and time before that when the characters and the story are taking shape in my mind. So it's hard to say goodbye to those people with whom I've lived on such intimate terms for so long. New people are moving in as I wave bye-bye and they'll end up being as dear and as compelling as the characters who lived in my head for the last twelve months. But right now, I don't feel like it.

So it's lovely to have all this natural beauty around me while I go through my withdrawal! And I've really enjoyed the quiet contemplative times swimming in the pool, feeling the sun on my back and listening to the birds squabble. Well, sort of quiet!

This is a photo I took last year of the flowering gum tree in my garden. Isn't it gorgeous? The color is even more vibrant in real life - it really burns your retinas. Those naughty parrots love the flowers and the blossoms never last very long, sadly. So I'm very proud of this shot which I managed to catch before the blooms were torn-up history all over the grass underneath the tree.

And speaking of the lorikeets, here's a picture of the noisy, troublesome little beggars. Aren't they amazing-looking too? More colors that burn your retinas! We have a couple of varieties of parrot that hang around the house but these guys are the naughty teenagers of the neighborhood! There's a park up the road where thousands of them congregate and I swear it's louder than a 747 taking off! I love them - they're full of personality and they don't take nonsense from anyone.

Anyway, enough of the nature watch! You've got a book to win! The prize will be randomly drawn from today's comments.

What are the signs of the changing seasons where you live? I'm sure my Northern Hemisphere friends are green with envy at the thought of swimming in the sun right now! Do you have any native birds or animals around your house that seem like the soul of the place? I'd love to hear about the locals at your place!

Oh, and if you'd like another chance to win an ARC of TEMPT THE DEVIL, don't forget I'm also giving one away in my website contest this month. All you need to do is read the excerpt and answer a simple question. GOOD LUCK!

And the winner is...

Catslady's comment on Websites and Blogs and Social Networks, Oh My! was drawn as the winner! Catslady- congratulations. If you'll drop me an email at Tawny@Tawnyweber.com with your shipping information, I'll mail you a copy of Risque Business. Be sure to put Bandits in the header.

Everyone, thanks so much for all the great insight and info. I'm all a'twitter about learning this new stuff (are you groaning? I am LOL)

Hey (Aunty horns in), can I announce my winners too???
Congrats to Crystalgb, you've won a copy of my debut release The Wild Sight!

And Maria Lokken, you've won some Bailey's Irish Creme filled chocolates!

Please email me at cindymm18 AT gmail DOT com.

Big THANX to all who attended my Launch Party!

Forward Momentum

by Nancy

Do you ever feel like you're a car stuck in sand? Like you've been spinning your wheels and revving your engine and getting nowhere forever? If so, you've lost your forward momentum. Such a loss can have many causes--writer's block, life events, market changes, issues with critique partners (or editors or agents or anyone else in our lives)--or even mistaken perception. Sometimes we have more traction than we know. Today, let's look at what forward momentum is and some ways to regain it.

I first noticed the phrase in the book The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is currently available in a combined edition, Young Miles (don't be thrown by cover changes if you follow the link). This was the first of many award-winning novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan. While running a slick con job in outer space, inveterate talker Miles kept silent for once because "Elena had forward momentum." In effect, Elena was rolling, so Miles refrained hitting a brake. "Forward momentum" is Miles's mantra and the slogan of his mercentary company. I sometimes cheer Miled on and sometimes want to smack him, but I always want his forward momentum. Whether in writing or in other endeavors (so far, I haven't had the chance to lead a company of space mercenaries), I like to feel as if I'm rolling.


Once I noticed the phrase "forward momentum," I started noticing similar expressions. My sports idol, Billie Jean King provides TV commentary for a lot of the big tennis tournaments. She played a serve-and-volley game, attacking from the net at every opportunity, so it doesn't surprise me that she approves of players who are "always moving forward" and don't just stand at the baseline and slug away from there.

So forward momentum seems to be not just making progress but making progress with some energy. Moving under propulsion rather than inching laboriously ahead. Climbing out of bog requires slogging forward. Like the old poster says, "Sometimes the only way out is straight through."

Slogging is hard, though, and draining. Once we've been slogging for a while, we may not immediately notice the ground getting firmer--may not even realize we're out, that the bog is now receding toward the distant horizon. Since this is a writing blog, let's discuss these issues in the context of writing.

I find books helpful. One of favorites is Eric Maisel's Write Mind: 299 Things Writers Should Never Say to Themselves and Things They Should Say Instead. Head-on, this book confronts many (299 *g*) negative, discouraging thoughts that can creep into our brains when we've struggled for a while. I also like his Deep Writing. These books are out of print, but used copies are available. Sometimes, talking to a friend is helpful. I once hit an life-generated oil slick and found myself skidding from one idea to another. My buddy Kathleen said, "You do know you can't sell on a first chapter, right? So finish something. Anything. Just pick one and finish it." Getting to "The End" felt like a slog at times, but saving and printing that last page gave me the sensation of standing on firm soil again at last.

Sometimes doing something new will provide that burst of propulsion we recognize as momentum. My friend Barbara recently wrote her first short story. She found it satisfying and energizing, enabling her to go back to her historical refreshed. After focusing on historicals, I wrote a contemporary with a lot of action-adventure elements and a completely different tone, and I had a blast doing it. As a result, the pages, blitzed off the printer. I had to take life-generated breaks, which meant I had more revision to do than I would've if I'd gone straight through, but I didn't lose that sense of momentum. I used to write fan fiction--stories for people who knew the world and the characters, which allowed me to just have fun with the plot.

These changes in routine can pay off in other ways. Some people sell the books they step outside their usual boxes to write. Sometimes those books place in contests, providing outside validation that this path has something worth pursuing. Sometimes writing and finishing the books we've always wanted, but never dared try, to write can be liberating and motivating and propulsive.

What does forward momentum mean to you? If you've ever lost it, how did you regain it?

Publicist Danielle Jackson Is In Da Lair!

posted by Aunty Cindy aka Loucinda McGary

One of the nicest perks of being a Sourcbooks Casablanca author is working with my very own publicist! Okay, so she's really assigned to ALL the Casablanca authors, but I ADORE working with her, and all of us in the Casa line know how very fortunate we are to have her in our corner.

I'm talking about the lovely and vivacious Danielle Jackson, of course! She works tirelessly to get the word out about all the Casablanca romances, whether it is sending out Advance Review Copies of our books, or writing killer Press Releases for us.

Aunty twisted Danielle's ar... er, um, CONVINCED Danielle to pay a visit to the Lair and answer all our questions (and I know we have MANY) about promotion and publicity! So with the help of my fellow Banditas, I started out by grill... er, um, asking Danielle a few questions...

AC: Please give us a bit of your background and what led you to become a book publicist. Any advice for others seeking a similar career?

DJ: I’ve always been a reader—my parents would joke with me because even if we went somewhere 10 minutes away, I had a book in the car and they’d ask me how to get home and I wouldn’t know how to direct them! That love for books carried all through high school and into college, where I was an English major, history minor with a French concentration. A lot of reading, a lot of writing and a lot of discussing books, history social commentary etc. Around my junior year I began to look into publishing, had a couple of internships with an online publication, a magazine and at a publishing house—Sourcebooks! The rest is history.

AC: What is the “best” part of your job?

DJ: I work with some of the hardest working authors I know in the business! They keep me laughing and also keep things VERY positive all the time. And I have to mention the publicity department at Sourcebooks—there are 8 publicist working very hard an all the books we put out each season, and they are the BEST co-workers I could ask for.

AC: The worst?

DJ: I HATE getting bad reviews in for “my” authors’ books. Even though I know they will eventually find them, I do my best to hide them, haha! (Aunty's note: Danielle is very good at hiding them!) However, even when a negative review comes in, it makes me work harder to find the perfect niche audience for that particular book. There is always someone out there that will read AND like your books, and it is my job to find that person!

Bandita A: In your opinion, what role does publisher promotion play in propelling a book onto the bestseller lists?

DJ: In my experience with Sourcebooks (before I worked on romance, I did some radio PR and worked with all kinds of books from children’s to how –to’s), publisher PR is very important. We make sure books are sent to the appropriate pre-publication reviewers and long-lead time reviewers, and of course, continue on to all available places for review. I think that a publisher should have high goals for all its books and they should put support behind them!

Bandita B: Self-promotion is hard work and for that reason, many authors don't do much of it. How important is it for new and "midlist" authors to promote themselves?

DJ: I cannot agree more that self-promotion is hard work! Sometime I feel like I sent out emails to the authors asking them to write so many guest blogs, or so many interviews and I wonder, do they have time to write their new books? I hope so!!

It is BEYOND important for new and midlist authors to promote themselves—be it contacting local media on their own, blogging, or handing out postcards or book marks in the grocery store. You never know who might be standing next to you or who you might bump into! But most importantly, a collaborative effort between you and your publisher, as I do with my authors, spreads the knowledge of your book.

Bandita C: Short of getting a marketing degree, how can we get smarter about our own publicity? What things should an author do to promote him/herself? Which choices will likely get the best results for the time and money we have available?

DJ: One idea is to look at some of your favorite authors—where are they being reviewed or interviewed? I know, I know, how could you get the same level of PR of Nora Roberts or Jodi Picoult, right? But look around—their books are probably being reviewed on a lot of the same site or blogs as yours!

I think author blogs, especially of the romance vernacular, are amazing, because it is such a warm community to belong to, and you can all help one another out. Also, if you see a small personal blog that looks fun, email them and ask them if they’d like a review copy. Chances are, they will fall all over themselves to hear from you! Most bloggers can’t believe that a publicist would contact them; think of what might happen if YOU, a real live author, did!

As for promo materials, I personally like postcards better than bookmarks because there’s more room for information, but bookmarks and business cards do seem to go over well. Postcards are fun for mailing and to leave places.

Once you do start to get in reviews, interviews, etc., creating a personalized press kit is a great idea (and something new I’ve discovered authors doing). I usually create a media profile or buzz sheet for each of my authors as the season progresses and share that with them. This way everyone has relevant information and together we can continue the “noise” about your book!

Bandita D: How should we begin to "think" about publicity and generating it, even before we're published? Is there anything the unpubbed can do to set ourselves up in a good position to be able to help our publicist/house once we sell?

DJ: Getting your name out there is the number one initiative for all authors—think of your name as your “brand”—YOU are the one constant from book to book, and people get used to you and your style.

Unpubbed authors can do quite a lot—joining RWA is the BEST way to network, and all of you romance authors are so NICE! (Note from AC: She hasn't seen the Pits of Despair deep in the Lair!) Also, reading and reviewing books is also great, especially if you make friends with the authors your review; you might even be able to get a blurb or two out of one of them. By having connections within the romance community, you are staking out your place for your own book’s release.

Also—you know that random guy you sort of dated when you were 19 that you saw once 4 years ago at the grocery store and found out he works for a local newspaper? Yeah—you should call him and see if you can’t get a local author feature. Random connections like that can turn out to be a huge surprise and can really help out. I’ve had a lot of luck by starting off an email by saying, “your friend/colleague, Author McAuthorson (AC notes: any resemblance to Loucinda McGary is purely coincidental!), let me know that you might be interested in a review copy of her new book!”


Bandita E: What about when it comes to working with an outside publicist? How do the two roles differ? And ideally, what can an outside publicist do for the author that the in-house publicist doesn't have the time, budget or energy for?

I personally have not worked with an outside publicist, but I do know that a few of my colleagues have done this. Their advice is to OVER communicate everything. That’s a rule that I have with my authors anyway—I’d rather you tell me something 5 times all within the same day than not at all!

An outside publicist generally has the time to focus all of their time, budget and energy solely on that one particular author. I work with all of our romance authors, our Austen-sequel authors, and I also do PR for some historical fiction that Sourcebooks is reissuing (Georgette Heyer, Joan Aiken, Margaret Campbell Barnes; just to name a few). The main difference is that there would be one publicist for one author.

However, I think with a lot of organization, a desk full of post-it notes, a dry erase board with schedules on it and a WHOLE LOT OF COFFEE, an in-house publicist with an unbelievable group of proactive, energetic authors can do just about anything, and can achieve the same results as an outside publicist. (AC notes: any resemblance here may not be coincidental!)

AC: If you weren’t a publicist, what would your dream job be?

DJ: This is going to sound totally nerdy, but I would LOVE to be a student again. I enjoy learning. So you know back in the old days when people would aspire to be “scholars” (even though they were usually men and the children of very wealthy people and didn’t have any responsibility in life) –yeah, that’s what my dream job would be.

AC: Hmmm, being the offspring of very wealthy people would be a dream job for me too! Er, um... Thank you, Danielle! But the questions are just beginning!

Now it is YOUR turn! Do you have a question about publicity or promotion for Danielle? If not, care to tell us what your dream job would be?

A Scottish Warrior's Lady

by Nancy
Today we welcome award-winning Dorchester author Gerri Russell back to the lair. Gerri will share the highlights of her recent trip to Scotland, the setting for her three wonderful historicals. The latest, Warrior's Lady, is in stores now, and she'll also tell us a little about that book.

It is not often in life when you have the opportunity to forget the cares of world around you and instead follow your bliss. I had a chance to do just that this summer when I headed to Scotland for three weeks.

Scotland is not the land of my ancestors, not really. I do have a trace of Scottish ancestry in my blood thanks to an ancestor from way back when. But despite my lack of a direct connection, Scotland is the home of my heart, and the place where I have set many of my books.

My journey started in Glasgow before heading straight into the Highlands. It was my intent to see as much of the country in three weeks as I could. I decided to follow the outer perimeter of the mainland, and to hit the major isles. I felt like a kid in a candy store! Driving up to my first castle was an experience I will never forget. As my feet hit the gravel of the parking area, I walked as fast as I could up to the castle, camera in hand, and my heart pounding. Looking back now, I smile at my haste. What was I expecting, that the castle would disappear after having been rooted to that location for the past 700 years?
My whole experience in Scotland was like that: anxious for each new experience, savoring each event as it happened, relishing every nuance of the culture and the scenery, soaking up everything I could. I didn’t sleep much as I kept up my relentless pace of exploration. Someone asked me when I returned home what my favorite memory was. There were so many inspirational moments that it was hard to narrow it down to only one, but this memory stands out among all the others: when I stood in the center of the craggy peaks of Glencoe, surrounded by the scent of heather, listening to the wind as it brushed past my cheeks and teased my hair into wild disarray. It was then that I thought of all the people who had walked in that same spot where I stood over the centuries—early man, the Celts, the Vikings, English invaders, Highlanders throughout the ages--and I felt a part of something bigger than myself.


It is that very same feeling of connectedness that I try to bring to the stories I write about Scotland. Without ever having been to Scotland before, I had somehow captured the essence of what it was like to live in this beautiful land, and had somehow picked up on how much these people cherish their history. A part of history I have been writing about for a while now are Scottish stones of importance. Warrior’s Lady, the third book in the Stones of Destiny series, explores the mysteries behind a small healing stone known as the Lee Penny.

The Lee Penny, or the Charm Stone as I renamed the amulet in the pages of Warrior’s Lady, was obtained by the Locard family in the Crusades in 1330. After the death of Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland in 1329, his friend Lord James of Douglas, along with a contingent of knights, set out to take the dead king’s heart to the Holy Land, making a pilgrimage that the king was not able to undertake in his lifetime. While making their way through Spain, Douglas and his band of knights battled the Saracens. Douglas died on the battlefield, but the king’s heart in its silver casket was rescued by Sir Simon Locard of Lee, who brought it back to Scotland for burial.

After the event, the family changed their name to Lockhart to reflect the service they had done their king.
It was during the same battle that Sir Simon Locard imprisoned a wealthy emir. The emir’s aged mother came to pay his ransom, and in the course of counting out the money, a pebble inserted into a coin fell out of the lady’s purse. She was in such a hurry to retrieve it that the Scottish knight realized it must be valuable and insisted that the amulet be added to the ransom. The lady reluctantly agreed and explained what virtues the Stone possessed.

The Stone was a medical talisman believed to drive away fever and stop bleeding. The amulet was used frequently in the same manner described in Warrior’s Lady, according to tradition. In 1629 the Lee Penny helped cure sick oxen, but as a result a young woman was burned at the stake for witchcraft for using the Stone. There are records of an accusation of witchcraft against Sir Thomas Lockhart during the Reformation, but the Church Synod at Glasgow merely reproved Sir Thomas and advised him to cease using the Stone.

It was these events and the mysteries surrounding the Stone that piqued my imagination and sparked the creation of the characters in Warrior’s Lady, Camden Lockhart and Rhiannon Ruthven, two people in need of some special healing magic from a mystical healing stone. I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing a bit about my recent journey to Scotland and about my latest release. If you want to take a journey with me through Scotland from your own cozy chair, head to my website at www.gerrirussell.net.

Have you ever taken a journey that touched you in ways you didn’t expect, or found some relic of history that made you want to find out more about the culture in which it originated?

Gerri is giving a copy of Warrior's Lady to one of today's commenters, chosen at random.

A Train, by any other name...

By Jeanne Adams

Some of you have children. Other's don't, but whether you do or don't or you have neices, nephews or grandchildren, most of you either have heard of Thomas the Tank Engine, or you wish you hadn't EVER heard of Thomas and all his myriad of pals.

Or, if you raised girls - or were one (yes, I mean YOU) - you probably can regretfully say that you know the name of all the Polly Pockets dolls or the Bratz or Malibu Barbie and Friends.

Then, if you've got little ones like I do, you are bombarded by Disney's overwhelmingly cute characters like Dora the Explorer, Diego, her cousin; The Wiggles; or Bob the Builder. If you've got older kids, you probably had to live with Barney, Beanie Babies, Clifford The Big Red Dog and Berenstein Bears.

Disney has a new group of four singing, dancing, educational guys called The Imagination Movers. Okay, I know this has been done, but for the kids, it just never gets old. They're pretty good singers too, by the way.

Then there's the ubiquitous Sesame Street. I feel old when I realize that I remember watching Sesame Street myself.

Of course my favorite was Captain Kangaroo. Anyone remember him? My least favorite was Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Fred Rogers freaked me out. He's my mental pattern card for a serial killer, don't ask me why. He was by all accounts a fabulous person, really kind and dedicated to children's education. Still, he gives ME the willies!

One of my newer favorites is Zaboomafoo.

The Kratt Brothers have all these cool animals on the show...shades of Marlin Perkins and Wild Kingdom. My kids could care less, but I like to watch it! Ha! (Probably because poor got-a-Timex-Marlin and hold-the-croc-for-me-Jim are dead and gone and Discovery is a weeeee bit TOO graphic for tender hearted me!)

Anyway, I often wonder who sits around and writes the scripts.

Really. Have you LISTENED to this stuff??

I mean, how many ways can you rescue the butterflies, mend a friendship, settle a dispute, find something....you get the picture.

The other thing I REALLY wonder about is what the guys are smoking when they make up the songs for the kids shows. Seriously, would YOU ever sit down and write a song like "Whoop, whoop, chugga-chugga, Big Red Car!" which, like Louie-Louie, repeats the same thing over and over about ten or twelve times. And we adults KNOW that the guy who wrote Louie-Louie was smoking something, fer sher, dude.

Or there's the ever popular, "I'm a cow, yeah, yeah, I'm a cow. I have horns, yeah, yeah. I say moo, yeah, yeah..." and "Tie me kangaroo down, sport, tie me kangaroo down..."

Smoking. Something. You betcha.

Silly songs aside, I realized that we all do the same thing whether we write kids shows, romance novels, literary fiction, or even fantasy. We write tales of what people do. In the main, its pretty simple. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy, boy likes girl, complications interfere, are overcome and voila/presto/ta-dah, Happily Ever After.

(Or, if you're more the literary type, boy meets boy, meets life, meets tragedy, parents disapprove, everyone dies and the Earth is desolate....oh, sorry, that's my cynical view of literary fiction these days. Ooops. :> There are some I like. Really... )

Rewind. Back to the bizarre point I was making. Ahem. In kids lit and kids TV, it's friends go on an adventure, solve a problem, and come back home for snacks. "This Mystery is History!" Tigger claims at the end of every episode of My Friends Tigger and Pooh. My youngest son can't get enough of it. He knows how it will end, but he doesn't care, his attention is riveted to Tigger, Darby (Christopher Robin's younger cousin), Rabbit, Owl and Pooh. He's the same with Thomas, and Diego.

As a grown up, realizing that I do the same thing, I had to laugh. Then, as he immersed himself in Tigger and Pooh, I picked up Donna MacMeans Trouble With Moonlight and was just as engrossed as my son. Perhaps more so, since I made lunch with the book in one hand and the spatula in the other.

My son actually stopped long enough to eat. I did not.

My favorite kid stuff, of which my own kids never tire, is Scooby Doo. Now Scooby is about 186 in dog years long about now. It doesn't matter to my two boys. They know every Scooby Doo movie pretty much by heart. The "golly-jeepers" humor cracks them up. Shaggy eating everything in sight cracks them up. The fact that the monsters are always guys in (bad) makeup, never phases them, and usually cracks them up. The improbabilities never phases them. You get the picture. Scooby just cracks them up.

I love it too, improbabilities, bad clothes and all. No guns. No tanks. No warplanes. No world domination a la Pokeman or Yuh-gi-oh. No slaying or intense weeping, wailing or gnashing of teeth.

And Shaggy and Scooby crack me up too. ZOINKS!!

So, does Scooby still make you laugh?

What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?

Did you get into role playing as if you were one of those characters?

Are there any of your kids' cartoons or characters that you abhor?

(I really dispise Barney, I must say and was eternally grateful my sons didn't like him)

What about the music? Does it amuse you or drive you nuts?

What Sunday morning comics do you read first?

Welcome to the Mistress of Pleasure!!

Hi everyone! Kirsten here, and it is my great pleasure to present to you Delilah Marvelle. Delilah’s first book, Mistress of Pleasure, was released in September and is selling like hot…well, it’s just hot, folks!! Truly, if you are looking for a book you can lose yourself in, a book to sit there with a guilty smile on your face as you consume it in one sitting, this is the book for you. But I will warn you, read this one with a fan at your side, and be prepared to learn a few things—a few naughty things—along the way.

I am thrilled to welcome Delilah onto the blog because, besides being an incredibly talented writer, she’s also a dear friend and chapter mate of mine, and one of the folks who welcomed me into the bosom of RWA and helped show me the ropes. Delilah is an absolutely delightful person, and with a face that’s so sweet, you can’t possibly imagine her writing all those naughty words. She’s also got a great call story, and a great story of how she came to write this book. But I’ll let her answer all your questions in due time. For now, Delilah has left you with a letter of introduction…

My Dearest Readers,

As Mistress of Pleasure is my first book, I have to say many people will not know what to expect from me. Here is a short list of what you will find between the pages of Mistress of Pleasure:

-Naughty words.
-Incredibly sexy Lords, including one VERY sexy Lord.
-Humor that would make your mother AND father blush.
-A retired courtesan with a mind to reeducate the male population about sex and love by opening a school.
-Lessons given by the granddaughter of said retired courtesan who has very little experience but is theoretically VERY experienced.
-A happily ever after for everyone involved.

Now for those of you that felt that list wasn't enough, I decided to take 3 of my characters hostage and ask them two very simple questions:

What do you think about the book Mistress of Pleasure, which features you and the School of Gallantry?

Madame de Maitenon: "My school needs more advertisement. So this is very, very good."

Maybelle de Maitenon: "Oh, dear God. Really? That's...wonderful. Only please. Don't tell Edmund."

Edmund Worthington, the Duke of Rutherford: "There's a bloody what? Pardon me. I need to contact my solicitor at once."

What valuable lessons did the School of Gallantry teach you?

Madame: "That I need a much bigger school."

Maybelle: "Men are creatures of habit that simply need to be properly re-educated."

Edmund: "That a good education is hard to come by."

And so there you have it. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask my characters? Go right ahead!!

False Face Must Hide

by Jo Robertson

Lady Macbeth speaks this line from Shakespeare’s play of betrayal and murder. Macbeth has killed King Duncan and his wife admonishes him to put on the face of innocence as he dines among the other Thanes of Scotland. She says he cannot reveal the blackness of his heart.

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

I’ve been thinking about false faces and false hearts lately. About the sense of betrayal a person can feel when she’s been lied to or deceived by someone – a friend, a child, a partner. But those are the big lies, right?

The toxic ones that do permanent damage.

What about the so-called little white lies? We all tell those, right?

My mom used to point to an unusually large woman and ask, “Jo, am I as fat as that lady?”

She was a character, my mother. She wasn’t begging for a compliment; she really wanted to know if others saw her as heavy as the woman in front of us at the commissary pushing a double-wide cart down the aisle and wearing a god-awful muu-muu.

“Uh, no, Mom, you carry your weight really well.”

This was true. My mother was one of those women who could weigh an extra 30 or 40 pounds and look “handsome” rather than overweight.

“Besides that, Mom, we don’t use the “F” word in our house.”

Her eyes would widen and then she’d laugh. I’m not sure my mother actually knew what the real “F” word was.

The thing is, I would've lied flat out to my mom if it made her feel better. Why not? She was my mother and although she had her flaws, I loved her dearly.

When my first child was born, he lay in the nursery bassinettes next to . . . okay, I have to say it . . . the ugliest baby I've ever seen. I realize some people think all babies are cute, but uh, no, they're not.

Now, granted, mine looked like he'd been in a tussel with the forceps. But this baby? He looked like a big bruiser of a street fighter. Ironically, his mother, watching him through the glass, was extraordinarily striking.

"Isn't he beautiful?" she cooed.

Of course, I lied.

Some truths just cannot be said aloud.

There are other kinds of lies, of course, some toxic, some merely annoying. Political lies. Hmmm, most of us are pretty cynical about the promises of politicians before they get elected, but are those really lies? Or just promises they can't make good on?

Now here’s the thing.

Do you lie to your friend who asks you if the dress she’s contemplating makes her look frumpy?

Do you teach your children it’s never okay to tell an untruth? Do you really believe that? Or make them cross their fingers behind their backs to negate the lie?

When is it “okay” to lie and when is it crossing a line to betrayal?

Have you ever been lied to in a way that hurt you deeply?

Would you rather be told a harmless lie than an unpleasant truth?

Crisis of Confidence

By Kirsten Scott

Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about a credit crunch, or a financial meltdown, or bailout packages. Really. I promise! But I am going to talk about a crisis of confidence. A moment when you said – you know what? I’m not really sure I can do that.

I used to teach rock climbing and lead people through high ropes challenge courses. Inevitably, at some point during the course, I heard people say, “I can’t do that.” Usually, they said it right before they got over a particularly tough challenge. They said it when their energy, confidence, and strength were at their lowest. But then they reached down inside and did it. Every time.

It was amazing.

We lived for that sort of thing. It was our bread and butter, the stuff of legends, the reason we hung out in the trees for hours. We were all there waiting for that moment of truth, the turning point from, “I can’t,” to “Holy cow, I just did!”

Of course, a ropes course isn’t real life. It takes something most people find scary (heights), makes them physically safe, and then sets people up to accomplish amazing things. It’s the perfect controlled experiment in accomplishment. Life isn’t quite so perfect. Sometimes in life you aren’t wearing a harness, and when you step off a balance beam, you really fall off. Sometimes you try something really hard and don’t succeed.

But that’s good too, right? Because you can learn from that. You can become stronger, braver, and even tougher than if you’d never failed.

I used to tell people when they were climbing, “if you don’t fall, you aren’t trying hard enough. You haven’t picked the right route.”

So tell me – have you ever tried anything and failed? Ever had to dust yourself off and learn from your mistakes? Can failure be even sweeter than success? Or have you ever had a crisis of confidence that you resolved with a huge accomplishment? Ever succeeded against the odds? Please, restore our confidence and tell us all about it!

Delilah Marvelle wasn’t able to be with us today, but we’re trying to reschedule her guest spot. Until then, I’ll give a signed copy of her book to one lucky commenter!!

A Fairy Tale Comes True

posted by Aunty Cindy

Once upon a time, a very very long time ago, there lived a little dark-haired girl of Irish heritage who loved stories. When she didn’t have her nose buried in a book, which was actually most of the time, she made up stories for her own and her best friends’ amusement and/or amazement.

This little girl secretly thought that the most wonderful thing in the world would be to write a book and have it on the shelf of the library or bookstore where anyone could read and enjoy it. But she knew that this could never happen to her, because authors were very special people who were not at all like the ordinary people all around her. So she kept writing her stories, mostly in secret, and dreaming.

XX years (insert your favorite number between 20 and 90) passed, and the little girl grew up and had a family and a career. She still loved to read, and she could never quite give up her secret dream of writing. Also, somewhere along the line, the girl (now a woman and not so little) figured out that not all authors were up there on that very special pedestal. Some were real (if not quite ordinary) people just like her!

Finally, unable to stand her Dreaded Day Job any longer, the not-so-little woman quit! Even though most of her co-workers thought she was crazy, she left her career to do what she had always loved most – WRITE STORIES! It paid far less than the Dreaded Day Job, but was much more fun and healthy.

Like all good fairy tales, this one has a happy ending! Turns out that the not-so-little woman was pretty good at writing stories. She even finaled in a VERY BIG contest and made some of the most wonderful friends of her life. Eventually, after X years (insert your fave number between 3 and 4), a real live editor called the not-so-little writer and said, “I want to publish your Irish book.”

The writer screamed, “Yes! YES! OMG YES! (much like her heroine did on page 157)” and then she proceeded to tell friends, family and everyone she knew (and plenty she did not know) that she would soon be A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! It was just a matter of waiting a few hundred days for her book to be on the shelves.

So our not-so-little author and all her friends (and even some people she didn’t know) waited and waited for the day when the Irish book, now titled The Wild Sight: an Irish tale of deadly deeds and forbidden love to appear on the bookstore shelves.

THAT DAY IS TODAY!!!!!!

The author (that would be ME) and all her friends (that would be all of YOU)

PARTIED EVER AFTER!

Dreams and even fairy tales can come true!

Please help your olde Aunty celebrate the release of her debut novel The Wild Sight. And share with us about one of your dreams that came true.

One lucky commenter will win an autographed copy of The Wild Sight, and another will receive a box of chocolates filled with Bailey’s Irish Crème!

PARTY HARDY EVERYONE!!!