VOTE

If you’re in the United States and you can, please vote. As I said in the afterward to Party Lines, Michael and Lydia–probably my personal favorite couple from any of my books–would want you to. If you’re not certain where your precinct is or what’s on your ballot, Google will help you (search “where is my polling place” or “who is on my ballot”). Yay, democracy, y’all!

ETA: oh, and if you need a distraction, A Midnight Clear will only be free for another week. Joe Reynolds would be happy to keep you company while you sit up late waiting for election results.

Things to Know Before Your First Book Signing

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As I mentioned, I recently participated in my first reader event/book signing/talking to real live people book event.

I survived. Since making conversation with total strangers, let alone selling things to them, ranks somewhere after dental work on a list of things I enjoy, this wasn’t a given. But after the first hour or two, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. Here, however, are some things I wish I had known to do.

  • Bring something to cover your spot with, such as a tablecloth or fabric. The tables at this event were draped, but one white table after another is monotonous. I’m going to hit the fabric store to look for a few yards of a retro print (maybe something space aged?). I won’t even bother hemming it (not that I can sew!); just folding the fabric and having it under my books would have helped brand me and differentiate my space.
  • Get your stuff off the table. I did print a flier with the Fly Me to the Moon series covers, one-sentence blurbs, and prices and put it in a cheap frame, but beyond that, my plan was to have piles of books sitting there with some little cards sprinkled around. One of my kind CRW chapter mates had some extra book stands she was nice enough to lend me, thus saving me from this fate. I will absolutely find some stands before my next event. I will also reconsider the flier design and focus on something with several large graphics and no text.
  • Flip some of your books over. Because people might want to read the blurbs, use the book stands or multiple piles so that the backs are displayed too.
  • Consider how people will pay you. I knew that some of the CRW members had Square Readers and were willing to share, but I didn’t consider the possibility that potential buyers might hand me cash (how would I make change?) or want to write a check (does that require me to give them my legal name so I can cash it?). If you’re planning to do a lot of reader events or signings, investigate getting a Square. And in any event, have some small bills on hand if people want to pay with cash.
  • Get some swag. You will not sell a book to everyone who stops to speak with you, so bookmarks, download cards, postcards, and business cards are good things to have. Other swag is too of course: it helps make your table extra appealing and can help you sell books. (Several of my chapter mates had things like, “if you buy two books, you get X,” which was a great idea.) But paper goods are cheaper for you and easier for people to stow in their purses and bags.
  • Have a pen. In the event that someone does buy one of your books, she’ll probably ask you to sign it. So make sure you have a nice pen.

I’d love to hear more about book signings and reader events you’ve attended–either as a reader or a writer. What else should I do before my next event to make it more successful?

Odds and Ends

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  • Happy Halloween! I hope your day is spooky in the best way and filled with chocolate.
  • I’ll be at the Virginia Beach Ultimate Show for Women this Saturday (details here!) with this stuff. The Chesapeake Romance Writers have a corner booth, so presumably we’ll be in…one of the corners. I’ll be giving away a basket with a copy of Star Dust,  a cocktail glass, and some cherries, plus I’ll have Fly Me to the Moon paperbacks for sale, mini bookmarks to give away, and maybe even some free download cards for Round Midnight.
  • Speaking of Round Midnight, it’ll be out on November 16. If you still haven’t gotten your e-copy of A Midnight Clear for free, download it now, because it’ll disappear when Round Midnight releases.
  • NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! I don’t have one single project to tackle, but I’ll be trying to bank 50K words on several different things. This NaNoWriMo is also the fifth anniversary of when I started writing fiction. If you’re curious, you can read the first chapter of my first NaNoWriMo book here.

The Books that Write Well…and Those that Don’t

book cover reading "Private Politics, Emma Barry." It shows a door opening into an office. A couple in profile is having a heated argument in front of a window.

Last month was Private Politics‘ second book birthday, and next week is Star Dust‘s first. They’re a tale of contrasts. It took Genevieve and I approximately nine months to write the first draft of Star Dust. In contrast, while I started Private Politics during the summer of 2013, I wrote most of it in 6 weeks in September and October of that year. I don’t think I’ve ever written a book so well, so painlessly.

But does that mean Private Politics is better than a book with which I struggled?

There were moments when I didn’t think I’d survive Party Lines, for example. Of the four manuscripts I’m working on–by myself and with Genevieve–one of them is going splendidly. The other three…aren’t.

Continue reading “The Books that Write Well…and Those that Don’t” →

Last Call: A Midnight Kiss!

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The first installment of A Midnight Kiss will be hitting inboxes on Wednesday. It’s very swoony and romantic, and if you want to read it for free, make sure you’re signed up for the Fly Me to the Moon mailing list.

Interviews!

Genevieve and I interviewed each other for Binge on Books. A tiny sample:

[E]: I definitely believe writers have core stories or mythologies, and mine is about characters whose plans have failed. My heroines especially tend to be disappointed or reevaluating their professional lives when things get confused by meeting someone. My heroes tend to be gooey inside, even when they present a harder face to the world, and are very, very gone for my heroines. Maybe at some point I’ll feel like I have my life figured out and my core story will shift, but I’m intrigued by imperfect people who are perfect for each other and how that intersects with their professional lives, so I don’t think I can get away from it. …

[G]: I guess the one thing I do that is related to my scientific career is how I develop my books: At some level, I’m just constructing operant chambers for my characters.

You can read the entire thing here.

And this dropped a while ago, but I don’t think I ever posted it on my blog: we chatted with Cobie Daniels for her podcast, which you can listen to here. We talk for about an hour about what we’re watching on TV and how we research and write.

I’ve been writing so many words (SO MANY WORDS) and just being overwhelmed by the rhythm of autumn. But I hope everyone is well!

Cover Reveal: A Midnight Kiss and Star Crossed

I’m so happy to share the covers for the next TWO Fly Me to the Moon books with you. We’ve been sitting on these for forever, and it’s been very hard not to wallpaper the internet with them.

The blurbs and some FAQs are after the break.

Continue reading “Cover Reveal: A Midnight Kiss and Star Crossed” →

Odds and Ends

  • I wrote a piece for the Perspectives blog at Open Ink Press about time, selfishness, and creativity.  A tiny taste: “In my more honest moments, I have come to suspect I like writing because it is selfish, because it is useless. So much of my day is about what I can do, what I can make. My writing isn’t—which is to say so far it hasn’t been—useful. This is extra. This is different. The beauty in this comes from what it is not.” You can read the whole thing here.
  • This is one of those things that doesn’t make a huge difference to readers, but I’m now represented by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency. She’s lovely and excited about my writing, and I’m thrilled to be working with her. If you’re one of the few, the proud, the people who like my contemporaries, I’m working on new series. (Yay!) I won’t have any concrete news for a while, but the wheels are turning and all that.
  • I’m so excited about the trailer for Hidden Figures, and I know I’m doing branding right since approximately a dozen people either emailed or Tweeted to me about it. Genevieve and I are currently writing Star Crossed (Bev and Geri’s book); we’ll have news soon on our mailing list about it and…other things.
  • If you’re have a manuscript sitting around and need something to do with it, my local RWA chapter’s contest just opened. I can verify that the final round judges are impressive. Go forth and enter!

A Fine Romance Friday: Hysteria

I truly don’t understand why Hollywood has turned away from the romance–and why they never adapt romance novels to the big screen. Even when today’s filmmakers manage to produce a decent movie with a love story in it, such specimens all too often fly under the radar, waiting to be discovered on cable and streaming video services. Today’s selection is just such a film: Tanya Wexler’s 2012 historical romance Hysteria, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones, and Rupert Everett.

Our plot is thus: in the late Victorian period, the young doctor Mortimer Granville (Dancy) had been challenging outdated and inhumane practices in London hospitals, and he now finds himself unemployed. He takes a job with the older Dr. Dalrymple (Pryce) who treats hysteria in upper class women via, um, manual stimulation. The two develop a thriving practice, Granville becomes engaged to his partner’s young, biddable daughter (Jones). But he also repeatedly clashes with Dalrymple’s other daughter (Gyllenhaal), a suffragette who spends her days doing charity work in the East End of London and saying provocative things to every members of the upper crust she comes in contact with. Everything is good until Granville develops carpal tunnel syndrome, but his listless inventor friend (Everett) then invents a mechanical device to achieve the same effect. (Essentially an early vibrator.) It’s feminist fantasy history with bon mots tossed in.

Much like Beyond the Lights (which I recommended here!), Hysteria is a romance novel come to the screen. It’s witty and sweet, and the final romantic resolution is believable. While I sometimes found it to be a bit snigger-y (is that a word?) and while the film is far more prudish than it wants or needs to be given the subject matter, it’s a very enjoyable way to spend an evening.

The Everlasting Yea

As of this weekend, I have finished a book. On my own. As in it’s done and I don’t hate it.

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This was one of those things I had started to suspect would never happen again until it did.

Bear with me while I speak purposefully obtusely: for two years in my professional life (both with writing and my day job), I’ve heard no a lot. A lot a lot. To the point where it had begun to feel like all the doors weren’t merely closed, but locked.

I have no evidence the doors will open now, but finishing a book feels like scoring a point back from what Thomas Carlyle calls the everlasting nay (everyone’s read Sartor Resartus, right?); it feels like I’ve finally moved back toward the everlasting yea:

Oh, thank thy Destiny for these; thankfully bear what yet remain: thou hadst need of them; the Self in thee needed to be annihilated. By benignant fever-paroxysms is Life rooting out the deep-seated chronic Disease, and triumphs over Death. On the roaring billows of Time, thou art not engulfed, but borne aloft into the azure of Eternity. …This is the EVERLASTING YEA, wherein all contradiction is solved: wherein whoso walks and works, it is well with him.

Romance is a genre that’s about the everlasting yea. And writing words, even when it feels small, is always optimistic, always hopeful. The world can use some positivity right now. We all need more yes.

PS I wrote the last 20K words of the book while listening to Julien Baker’s amazing album Sprained Ankle on repeat, specifically the track “Something.” If you like progressive folk/indie rock, give it a spin. The songs are sad, but lovely and insightful. I highly recommend it.

PPS Genevieve and I are going to send another newsletter on Wednesday that includes one of my all-time favorite deleted scenes. (Seriously, cutting it out of Earth Bound made me gnash my teeth.) If you aren’t on our mailing list, get on it!

PPPS Carina Press is running a 30% sale on all the books at their site, which includes The Easy Part series (my DC-set political romances). The deal is good through July 31; use the code RWA3016 when you check out. My Carina books rarely if ever go on sale, so if you’ve been waiting, get ’em now for less.