I’m back…after spending the past several months in a kind of twilight zone. A no-internet-connection zone. I might as well have been in Siberia!
It’s hard to believe how accustomed I had become my cyber connection to the world out there—even though there were times my mail went astray. I could still email, surf the web to research, shop and chill out. Then it all crashed out. For a while I felt totally lost, cut off from society. But I soon discovered how much time I gained each day—minutes I was exceedingly grateful for as I faced deadlines rushing down on me at express-train speed.
Between the writing, I sat on the phone. I learned to talk to friends again—as opposed to emailing them. I even called my ISP. Those calls were long and fruitless. There was no easy answer to why I was plagued by connection problems. No one could tell me “The answer is 42″. In frustration I changed internet providers (which meant changing my email address AND my mobile number…horrors!) and worse, my connection still didn’t work. I tried checking my email at an internet café. The systems were so S_L_O_W I almost murdered the monitor.
Trying to delete twenty messages at a time on the webmail system took FOREVER. Not an option—especially when my deadlines loomed closer.
I went back to calling my ISP. A technician came and went. Another arrived…and left. Several storms in my area meant that the telecommunications company had more pressing problems than my connection to worry about. By the time they FINALLY got me back online four months had passed, my garden had been partly dug up and all the cabling replaced…it was the day before I was due to fly out on a trip that would end at San Francisco for the 2008 RWA conference.
I returned from conference this week and started to download my missing email messages. Thousands of them…over ten thousand. I almost fainted. My friend, critique partner and now fellow Desire author (WOOOHOOOOO!) Sandra Hyatt, suggested a solution she’d recently heard about. “Declare an internet bankruptcy.” “A what?” I asked.”Delete everything and start over,” she explained.
Wow. At first the notion of hitting the delete key was totally scary. I’m a hoarder by nature. I save snippets of interesting information on the off chance that I might one day need them. Yeah right! I keep favourite books for decades. Now I consider all those unread messages. Can I bring myself to delete them? Without a doubt a large percentage will be spam. Many messages will now be out-dated. Then there are the group messages most of which aren’t even directed specifically to me. Yet in between all those emails there will be some that are infinitely precious…and if I hit delete they will vanish forever. I think about the hours…weeks…months…it will take to trawl those messages to find the gold and balance it against my New Year’s resolution to simplify my life. I’m still undecided.
So I’m throwing the question out to any takers. If you were me what would you do?
Tessa xx
PS – Patty L wins a $50 book voucher randomly drawn from commentators to my past posts. Patty contact me at tessa @tessaradley .com to claim your prize.
Recent comments from: · Nathalie · Estella · kim h · Colleen · Patty L.
As a writer, I love getting asked questions about writing, or about publishing, or about my books. Hell, ask me about anything; I’d be happy to answer. I love the sound of my own voice, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll make something up (I write fiction for a living, so I’m paid to lie as truthfully as possible). **grin**
But sometimes, I get asked questions that I just didn’t see coming. Here are three of them.
1. “Is it true you write porn?”
What really blew me away was this question came from my blue-haired great aunt. She’d heard from my mother that there’s teh sexxx in my books, so of course, that means these are books you bring into the bathroom and have a good time with. (Er, not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Deciding that if I said “I write fantasy,” she wouldn’t get that I meant of the magic variety and not the magic vibrator variety, I told her, “I write romance.” Her response? “Oh. **I** read **romance.**” Heh. Wonder what she’d say if I sent her a copy of my upcoming erotic novella?
2. “Where do you get your ideas?”
Seriously, this is the sort of question that you hear about getting asked, and all the good answers are of the “Wal-Mart” sort. I didn’t think anyone actually asked this question in real life. It was more like Urban Legend for Writers. But no — another aunt of mine asked me this. I think I said something particularly brilliant like “Er, a little of this, a little of that, and it just sort of happens.” Next time, I’m sticking with the Wal-Mart answer.
3. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Yup, the most popular question I get when I go to bookstores to do signings. Ah, the glamorous life of an author…
HOTTER THAN HELL is on shelves now! Go, buy! For a chance to win a signed copy of HTH, comment below and tell me what question has caught you off guard. Winner to be picked a la random number generator on MONDAY, AUGUST 11. Have at it!
Recent comments from: · Denise A. Agnew · Stacie Mc · Lori T · Caffey · Amy S.
New release time! Like any other author, I want to promote my work. After much thinking (okay about five minutes maybe), I decided a plain and simple howdy and a chance for readers to win a book would be a good blog for today.
INTIMATE ALLIANCE is the paperback version of my novellas MALE CALL and UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. Both stories are the first two in my HOT ZONE series at Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com You can preorder it at Amazon, Borders.com and Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com). It should be available on the Samhain Publishing site www.samhainpublishing.com site soon as well.
What, you might ask, is INTIMATE ALLIANCE about? Here are some teaser blurbs to give you a clue.
In Male Call—Her sexy letters are his only lifeline in his dangerous world, and both of them must contend with the growing passion tumbling them straight into the Hot Zone. Eve Carmichael fears for soldier Sean O’Callahan’s life. How she longs for more of his flirtatious, hot letters. When Sean is wounded, her fears are realized. But fate serves up a wonderful gift that neither of them expected.
In Unconditional Surrender—She’s archaeology, he’s Special Ops, and both of them teeter on the edge of stepping into the Hot Zone. Keith doesn’t want her to travel to a hot zone he feels isn’t safe and the place where his sister was killed years ago. As they grapple with exploding passion between them, their battle of wills may just lead them to the truth living in both their hearts.
And what shameless promotion would be complete without some review/author quotes?
“…the chemistry is explosive.” Romance Junkies
“…genius…” Love Romances
“…I cannot say enough good things about this story…” Fallen Angels
“Denise A. Agnew’s stories are a guarantee of riveting characters who grab your heart and soul, and don’t let go until the final page.”
~Linnea Sinclair,
RITA-Award winning author
“Denise Agnew delivers exciting, sexy, well-crafted stories that keep you positively glued to the pages.”
~Cheyenne McCray, USA Today bestselling author of Wicked Magic
In celebration of this release, I’m offering a paperback of MEANT TO BE, one of my tamer, though definitely sensual romances. So be sure to comment today and you could win. Here’s my question for the day (DRUM ROLL)…What is the first thing about a romance novel that grabs your attention? Blurb? Cover? Excerpt? Anything else?
I’ll check back with you all from time to time and pick a winner at the end of the day. Happy reading!
Recent comments from: · Fedora · kh · Colleen · Laurie G · Denise A. Agnew
We’re in the planning stages of a complete site overhaul of AccessRomance and want your advice! Are there any features that you’d like us to add to the site? Anything we already have but you’d like to see more of? Please share any advice you might have to help us make AccessRomance more fun, informational, and user friendly!
Leave a comment by 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on August 15th, 2008 for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the online bookstore of your choice. Winner will be notified by email and given a deadline of 5 days to respond before a new winner will be drawn. Name of winner will be announced in this blog post as soon as possible. Only one entry per household will be eligible to win. We don’t approve of leaving several comments under different/fake names. Please play fair!
Recent comments from: · Quilt lady · Marla A. · Ali · Theresa N · Lisa Evans
Us authors talk a lot about promotion and what works and what doesn’t. In fact, we are sometimes a little obsessed. I’ve had the “How much it too much?” conversation with writer friends of mine every now and then, and it can get pretty heated. LOL It’s become an ongoing debate so I thought I’d ask you readers here what you think.
The question of the debate is…how much exposure for us, as authors, is too much? When does ‘putting yourself out there’ become harmful to a career by over sharing, blogging too much, or making ourselves too available to readers?
Let’s face it, sure blogging and group chats can be fun, but it’s really all about promotion. We figure if we show you us, the person behind the book, you’ll like us enough to run out and buy our book on it’s release day. But really, are we hurting ourselves? Do you, as readers, start to think of us too much as friends, and then fall into the mentality of “Friends don’t make friends buy their books”.
Then there are the giveaways. We do so many, on blogs, on guest blogs, in chats, monthly or seasonal contests. The idea is two-fold. Draw the reader to your site/chat with a giveaway, and hopefully they’ll surf the site and read the excerpts and run right out and buy one (or all) of your books. Give them a free book and they’ll love it so much they’ll run right out and buy your others. But do they work?
I know myself I’ve given out many books, and sometimes I even recognize the address of the winner and know I’ve sent them a book before. Should I take this to mean they won a book, read it, and didn’t like it enough to go buy my others? Or is it just a “Hey, it’s another free book so I’ll try to win it” thing? Or maybe they just want a signed copy, maybe they’ll give the other copy to a friend, or library and spread the word?
You’ll occasionally see big name authors like Nora Roberts or Sandra Brown put together things for charity auctions and such, but they don’t seem to do giveaways weekly, monthly or with any amount of regularly. Yet each new release of theirs sells more and more.
So the question is, are those of us who are trying to build a name, a readership, and a career, hurting ourselves by being so available, or giving away too much? Have you ever received a free book, and then continued to buy that authors books because you enjoyed the first one? Have you ever bought a book because you read an authors blog and thought they were cool, or interesting, or funny? What about at a chat?
Or do you prefer your favorite authors remain mysterious and almost iconic, only available at the occasional book signing?
Or does it matter either way? Is a good book a good book no matter how you found it, or how much you know about the author?
Recent comments from: · azteclady · kim h · Sasha White · Karin · Estella
I had a lot of fun this past month working on the Contest Page for my series The Black Stockings Society. However I had no idea that coming up with an image of the prize(s) would be such an ordeal.
First I created a table-top display of the prizes, and discovered that the flat table image did not work, so I had to use another background. My next shot included my two prizes, propped up against a cushion covered with a pair of satin boxer shorts. Unfortunately, when I showed the image to a friend of mine, she pointed out the fact that people may think that they will win the boxer shorts along with the other two items! Even though I did not list it as part of the prize.
So, back to the drawing board. I had to take several other shots. In one I took the stockings out of the package and laid them out but they didn’t look right. Then another friend suggested I wear the stockings, and then she suggested that she model them, but I decided to say no to both ideas. In the end I decided to keep the stockings in the package and open the lipstick holder to display the interior.
If you are interested in seeing the final shot, or want a chance to win a pair of one-size-fits-all thigh-high fishnet stockings and a multi-lipstick holder case, check out this link.
Recent comments from:
This week I finished and submitted my futuristic, Relentless, to my editor at Berkley. I’m happy to be done. Sort of loopy because I have end of book brain. Nervous because I hope she’ll like it. Accomplished because when I started the book it was nothing and now it’s 95,000 words.
A book is like a mini-lifetime for me. Each one takes me places I never expected to go. There are highs when I connect very deeply with my story or the characters and the words simply flow without effort. There are lows when I am stuck or blocked, when I’m frustrated because I need to get from A to B but I can’t see my way through. Times when I feel like singing a happy tune and those days when I am sure I am the suckiest writer on the planet. But like life, I keep on and keep on and when I read the end product, after I’ve edited, gotten crit, revised and gotten feedback from beta - I can celebrate each mini-lifetime for all the experiences it’s brought me.
Each time I look at my editing notebook - all 400+ pages with sticky notes and redlines and scribbles in the margins, I have this sense of intense gratitude that my life includes this experience. That I get to write books!
And then I tuck it away and begin the next book. In this case, Outshined, my next book for Berkley. A whole new mini lifetime to embark on.
Recent comments from: · Karin · Jan Scarbrough · Angie-la · Estella · Lori T
