Favorite Days of Summer - RWA

My favorite days of summer include the Romance Writers of America Conference. I'm just back from there as of Sunday July 19. This year it was at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel in Washington DC, or about 20 miles from my house.

Here's a nice article about the conference, with quotes from fellow Noodler, Colleen Gleason.

Favorite Parts of the Conference:

1. Seeing old friends
I love walking through the hotel and greeting people I only see at conference. I've been attending since 1999 and I've managed to meet so many people and so there are lots of friends to greet. I loved seeing our Noodlers at the conference. Anne Mallory had her darling baby with her and Jennie Lucas always looked so strikingly pretty. We were unable to all get together like in past years, though.

2. Making new friends
Every year it seems I meet someone new. It might be a new writer or it might be a new published author. This year I got to know Miranda Neville better. We'd met years ago at a New Jersey RW conference, but this time we had time to chat. She even helped me with a plotting problem! I also met All About Romance Sandy Coleman's sister at a dinner and found we had lots in common.

3. Spending time with dear friends
I never have enough time with my local writing friends and the conference gives us the chance to just hang out together, especially after the hectic conference day is over. We hung out in Mary Blayney's room one night, which was just the respite I needed after the Harlequin Party.

4. Spending time with colleagues
It was a treat to spend time with the other Mills & Boon authors and the Harlequin Historical authors, and to exchange information with them.

5. Seeing the industry professionals
The Mills & Boon editors seemed very visible at this conference. In fact, all of Harlequin had a big presence, from providing the tote bags with a vintage Harlequin cover on them, to giving workshops and attending parties. I had the pleasure of having a drink with Karin Stoecker, Mills & Boon editorial director.

Mostly, it is a unique and wonderful experience to be around so many people who love what I love--Writing Romance!

If you attended RWA, what did you love about it? If not, where have you gathered with friends this summer?

Check out Diane's new contest!

Labels: Anne Mallory, Colleen Gleason, Jennie Lucas, Miranda Neville, RWA, Sandy Coleman

posted by Diane Gaston @ 12:30 AM 6 comments

This Week on the Wet Noodle Posse

Labels: Colleen Gleason, Debra Holland, Gina Ardito, Kendra Leigh Castle

posted by Mo H @ 3:00 PM 0 comments

Q&A Friday

Labels: Colleen Gleason, favorite movies featuring Irish characters, Gardella Vampire Chronicles, MJ Fredrick, Supernatural

posted by Mo H @ 6:43 AM 12 comments

A Day in the Life of a Cystic Fibrosis kid.

Many of you are aware of the Unleash Your Story fund-raiser for Cystic Fibrosis that the WNP has been supporting during the month of September.

I'm the mother of a CF child, and I promised I’d write up a little about what it’s like to have a child with Cystic Fibrosis. If you'd like to support our efforts to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research, click here for my donation page.

We're trying to raise $3000 for CF research, and we're so close--at $2200 today! Please help by clicking here to donate.

Labels: Colleen Gleason, Cystic Fibrosis, Unleash Your Story

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 12:04 PM 11 comments

This week on the Wet Noodle Posse

Labels: Colleen Gleason, Linda Hall, Romance B(u)y the Book, Theresa Ragan, Unleash Your Story

posted by Mo H @ 8:36 PM 0 comments

This week on The Wet Noodle Posse

Labels: Colleen Gleason, inspiration to write, Jennie Lucas, MJ Fredrick, Terry McLaughlin, Tori Scott

posted by Mo H @ 10:13 AM 2 comments

How to have an effective blog.

I have done several workshops on online promotion, specifically blogging (one at RWA's PRO Retreat last year that seemed to be very well-received), and I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of the highlights and tips that I've learned over my two+ years of blogging and reading blogs.

The way to establish a well-trafficked blog is the same, regardless of whether you're published or not. There are two main things to keep in mind:

1. Know your audience and write for them.
2. Be a good blog-friend.

If you do those two things, you'll begin to build a blog that people keep coming back to--and that's the key.

So, first, you need to decide who your audience is going to be. Some writers blog with an audience of other writers (published or not) in mind. They blog on topics of interest to people who are trying to get published or to find an agent, and about their own writing and publishing experiences. (Diana Peterfreund comes to mind, and so does this very blog.)

Your audience might be a broader one, or a narrower one. For example, the blog VampireRomanceBooks blogs about...you guessed it...vampire romance books. Everything on that blog is related to that genre of books. The Risky Regencies blog about everything Regency. They write about things that readers of Regency romance novels will find interesting.

But what if you're a single author trying to promote yourself and your own work--whether it be published or not?

You still have to know who your audience is, and who you want to attract.

Who would be interested in reading your books? Start with that thought and build on it. When I post on my regular blog, For All the World to See, I keep in mind that my audience is 1) fans and readers of my Gardella Vampire Chronicles but also...and here's the key...women aged 20-50.

I was writing for that audience a year before my first book came out.

Because the point of having a blog is to introduce more people to your work and your site, you have to find a way to bring them there!

If I just waited for readers to find my blog...well, they'd already be readers and know about my books. I have to have some other relevant content that will interest people who haven't heard of my books...and then when they come to the blog, hopefully they find out about them.

So, along with knowing your audience, you have to make sure that you write for them. What do women aged 20-50 find interesting? Well, that's a broad audience, so there are lots of things they find interesting. One easy topic to write about is movies or hot Hollywood stars. Most women in that age group have an opinion on those things. :-)

Another topic is simply: being a woman. I wrote a post recently about wearing thongs--called "I'm a girl and I still don't get it." And it was about the whole thong-wearing thing: they're uncomfortable, but people wear them. Why? Well, I got lots of feedback on that and I still get hits and comments on that post. As well as the post about "The Ten Things I Learned by Slamming My Finger in the Minivan Door."

You might write for an audience of people who love cats. Our own Esri Rose does that. Or only about Science Fiction movies. It depends on how narrow or broad of an audience you want to have.

So, decide on your audience, and then write about something that 1) your market will find interesting, and 2) that can generate a discussion. Always end your blog post with a question, which invites comments.

Another important thing: if you're not going to blog every day, don't bother blogging at all.

Really. It becomes a waste of time. The point of a blog is to get regular readers into the habit of coming by regularly. Every day. If you don't give them something new every day, they're not going to keep coming back.

So by every day I mean, basically, five days a week--Monday through Friday. The highest traffic day is Tuesday, the lowest is Saturday and Sunday. I blog at least 4-6 posts per week, sometimes more.

The other important thing is to be a good blog-friend. Having a blog is not simply building it and they will come.

They won't. Sorry. There are too many other blogs fighting for their attention (whoever "they" are--oh, yeah...your readers).

So you have to spend some time getting to know other bloggers. Making comments on their blogs. (And I don't mean just once or twice.) And if someone does visit your blog and comments on it, you'd best get your little mouse over to their blog and return the favor.

That's how you build an audience. You visit other blogs. Make a comment. When you comment, your name links to your blog, so not only does the blog-owner come to check you out, but also other commenters (or lurkers) will do so too.

Blogging is a time-consuming process...if you want to have a successful site. If you want to generate discussions and regular readers, these are things that you need to keep in mind and put the effort into.

If you find that you can't come up with things to write about, or don't have time to visit other blogs, then blogging might not be for you.

However, that doesn't mean you couldn't have a blog and simply use it for general updates on your books and writing. You can. It just won't become a forum for discussions or for regular readers.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments section about what you do for topics or how to attract visitors, and other blogs that you like to visit...and any other questions you might have about blogging.

Colleen Gleason
visit my blog at For All the World to See.

Labels: Colleen Gleason

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 11:01 AM 19 comments

This Week on the Wet Noodle Posse

June is devoted to the business side of writing. Please join us for some great advice.

Labels: Colleen Gleason, Esri Rose, MJ Fredrick, the business side of writing, Tricia Mills, Trish Milburn

posted by Mo H @ 5:39 PM 0 comments

Writing Multi-Heroes While Keeping them Heroic

The third book in my Gardella Vampire Chronicles, The Bleeding Dusk, has just been released. And I love the fact that readers are really taking sides about which of the two/three men in Victoria Gardella's life that they want her to end up with.

I take it as a compliment that there are people firmly on Team Max, and just as firmly stationed with pom-poms on the Team Sebastian side too. That must mean that both guys are hero material--'cause we all know that romance readers read for the heroes. Right?

So I thought it would be fun to write a little about how I've gone about creating two--really, three--distinct hero characters for my Regency-era vampire hunter, Victoria.

In a way, writing a parnormal series made it a little easier to create three different men. It allowed me to give each of them a different background.

One of them was a member of the peerage, and would have been a fine, very fine, hero in any other Regency-era novel. He was handsome, polite, had a history with our heroine, but was, in no way, a "lesser" man, or a boyfriend--or, worse, a villain--as often happens in romances when the heroine has more than one guy to choose from. Rockley is definitely hero material, and he acts like a hero.

Then there's Max, who's also a vampire hunter and who thinks Victoria, who's just learned of her own calling as a slayer, is nothing but a frivolous young girl who has no idea what she's getting into. And, really, he's not too far off--at least at the beginning. So he acts accordingly toward her: disdainful, arrogant, and critical. A friend of mine says that Victoria brings out the third-grade boy in Max. LOL.

And then there's Sebastian. He's a mystery all his own, and we don't know who he is, or where his loyalties lie. But we do know that he would love to get his hands down Victoria's gown, or worse. ;-) And he also has a self-deprecating attitude--borne out by his own secrets.

So as I began to place these men through out the book(s), I had to think about several things for each one:

• What he wants (or doesn't want) from Victoria
• How he would speak toward her
• How he would act toward her
• What is his secret (if any)

And as I wrote each scene, I made sure that Max always spoke shortly and grimly and sharply. I made certain that Sebastian turned everything into a double entendre, or an attempt (subtle or overt) at seduction. And I had Rockley speak politely as a man would, neither short and sharp, nor flirtatious and bold.

Even now, I test myself--and my characters. When I write a scene with one of the men, I stop and sit back and think how a different one would react or speak. What would Max say? How would Sebastian turn this into a flirtatious conversation? What is driving him?

A fun thing I do for myself is sometimes end a chapter with one of the men speaking--without the reader knowing which one. Or I even have their first appearance in a scene be them arriving unexpectedly and speaking to Victoria...but not telling the reader who they are for several paragraphs.

It's a little game I play with myself and my readers--and my critique partners are the ones who get to play it first. They tell me if they can tell who it is by what he says and how he says it. And if they can tell, just by his speech, then I know I'm doing my job and staying true to character.

Here's an example from When Twilight Burns, coming in August:

Victoria came awake sharply.

She didn’t move, kept her breathing easy and regular, and slitted her eyes a crack. Someone or something was in the bedchamber with her.

The room was all shapes and shades of dark gray, any detail that might be discernable in the pre-dawn light distorted by her narrow view. She’d have to turn her head….

“Good God. You might as well open your eyes, Victoria. A gnat could do a better job feigning sleep than you.”

And here's another example:

“Where’s Verbena?” Victoria demanded. She didn’t attempt to turn toward him.

“Sleeping quite soundly, I believe,” he said. “A comely girl, but repose is definitely not her most attractive state. Her snores are like to rattle the windows from their frames, and would be fairly off-putting to a gentleman who might wish to…er…lie…with her…though I’d venture to say that the poor beleaguered Oliver would seize the opportunity if offered.

So, I won't tell you who's who...but feel free to guess or comment in the...er...comments. Or ask questions. Or share your own feelings about multi-heroes.

Labels: character development, Colleen Gleason, the Gardella Vampire Chronicles

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 12:05 PM 15 comments

New Noodler Books Hitting The Shelves!

February is the month for romance, so it's only fitting we have some Noodler releases.Four Little Blessings by Merrillee Whren

4.5 stars/Top Pick from Romantic Times!
"The sophistication and intelligence of [Gleason's] story-telling is evident on each page of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles."-- Romantic Times

The undead of Rome are racing to unravel an ancient mystery – and only one woman can stop them...

As Rome prepares for its Carnivale, the new leader of the city's vampire hunters – Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy – must prove herself as never before. For, to gain access to the secrets of a legendary alchemist, Rome's vampires have allied themselves with creatures as evil and bloodthirsty as they are.

Reluctantly, Victoria must turn to the enigmatic Sebastian Vioget for help, just as Maximilian Pesaro arrives to assist his fellow slayers – no matter what the sacrifice. Desire puts her at the mercy of Sebastian, while loyalty binds her to Max, but can she trust either man? Especially when a seductive vampire begins luring her into the shadows...

Labels: books, Colleen Gleason, Gardella Vampire Chronicles, Jill Monroe, Merrillee Whren, Noodler Book Releases

posted by Jill Monroe @ 6:44 AM 5 comments

Colleen~In Which Playing Hookey Pays Off

I'd been writing for forever. (I don't even want to admit how many years. 'Nuff said.)

Eight completed manuscripts.

I'd been agented by a well-known, reputable NY agent for two years. She'd shopped around three manuscripts of mine, all of which had been rejected.

I remember going to a critique group meeting in mid-September 2005, and just unloading on my critique partners about how if this latest (ninth) manuscript (which my agent was just getting ready to send out) didn't sell, I didn't know what I was going to do. I was out of ideas. I had nothing I wanted to write about. I was going to think about quitting.

That was something I'd never, ever considered: quitting. See, I wrote for myself as much as I wrote for potential publication. But I'd had it. I really had nothing else to write about. I was burned out.

So, the very last week in September 2005, I had to go to Columbus, Ohio, for a sort of training session. I was doing some contract work for a company based in Columbus, and they'd wanted me to go and get a little more oriented to their products, and so I was taking a class for a whole week.

I arrived Sunday night, and wouldn't be leaving to drive home (four hours) until Friday.

It was a very structured program: you were in class all morning, broke for a quick on-site lunch, and then back to class until 5:30 or 6. Cell phones (purposely, I'm sure) didn't work in the conference area. So we were pretty much tied up all day.

Monday night, I hung out at the bar with some of the others in my class, and we were doing the things you do when you're at a week-long session away from home: eating, drinking, shooting the breeze, etc. The bar tab was wide open, so we all indulged.

I got up the next morning and went to class, slightly sleepy and exhausted from not having slept well in my hotel bed, but present, nevertheless. I never miss those classes.

Tuesday, we were again hanging out in the bar here at the
hotel/conference center, and the bar tab was open, so we were drinking
beer and then someone started ordering shots...

...and I know better than to mix drinks, but I did. So by the time I
got back to my room, I was feeling it quite a bit.

Now, I'm Miss Goody Two Shoes, and I never miss classes like this, or
training sessions. No matter how late I am out or how much of a good
time I have, I always make sure I can get up and go in the morning.

Well, Tuesday night, as I fell into bed, I said, "Screw it. I'm sleeping
in tomorrow." It wasn't like they could fire me or discipline me or
anything if I don't get up and go on time since I was really just there voluntarily, and as a contract employee.

BUT, nevertheless, I woke up at 7:15, which gave me plenty of time to shower and dress and be down by 8, when class started.

But by the time I got out of the shower, I decided I didn't want to go. I was going back to bed. So I did. And I'm really glad I did....

I woke up at 9:45, got up and decided to get dressed and go down...not to hurry or anything, but I would go.

So I get dressed, and I'm just getting ready to go out the door when my cell phone rings.

I look at the number. It's a 212 number. New Effing York.

I don't know anyone in NYC. Except....OMG.

My heart stops. I answer the phone...and it's my agent.

She's chatty--"Hi Colleen, how are you, yada yada."

"I'm fine. How are you?"

Why is she calling me? She never calls me. But she doesn't sound like anything's up. Maybe she has a question for me.

Then she says, "Are you sitting down?"

I sit. Like a rock. "I am now."

"Claire Zion, NAL. Two books. XX dollars."

I'm freaking out. SHE SOLD MY BOOK!!!!

My Buffy in Regency England (now titled The Rest Falls Away) in a two-book deal.

AND I HAD TO GO BACK TO CLASS AND SIT THERE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY UNTIL 5 PM!!!!!!!!!!!

And here's the thing. If I'd been a Good Girl and gone to class...I'd've missed her call. And then I would have tried to call her back on my lunch break, and would have missed her again. And then she would have tried to call me back and I'd have been in class until 6...and, well, you can only imagine how it would have gone down.

So I was really glad I'd played hookey that morning. For the first time ever.


The biggest bummer was that I didn't have anyone to celebrate with! The people in the class all wanted to know why I was late coming down (they thought I was hung-over. HAH!), and I explained...but unless you're a writer, trying to get published...or have gotten The Call...you just don't really understand.

So I had to wait for two more days until I got home and could celebrate with my friends and family in person. However, while I was in Columbus, I was still able to make the announcement on the Wet Noodle Posse loop, and all of my Noodler sisters celebrated so loudly with me, I was sure the screams could be heard from all over the world!

That was a two-book deal for the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, and less than a year later, I got another two-book deal for books three and four. I recently closed the deal for the fifth and final book in the series about Victoria Gardella Grantworth, a vampire hunter in Regency England...and then who knows what will be next!

The first book in the series, The Rest Falls Away, was released almost a year ago--January 2007. The second book, Rises the Night, came out in June, and the third one, The Bleeding Dusk, will be released in February.

Labels: Colleen Gleason, the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, The Rest Falls Away

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 1:04 AM 3 comments

Second Time Around

by Colleen Gleason

Today is the release day of my second book.

When my first book was released (January 2), I was very excited, as you can imagine, anticipating that first day of walking into my Borders and seeing the book on the shelf.

It turned out to be a little anti-climactic, however, because I started getting emails from people the day after Christmas, telling me they'd bought my book already! (Not that I minded--of course I was ecstatic!) It was just a little surprising to me that the book was already out there.

This time, I sort of expected Rises the Night (the second volume in my Gardella Vampire Chronicles) to find its way into bookstores before its Official Release Date of June 5. In fact, I was surprised when, more than ten days before the book's release, I saw that a blogger had bought it in Hong Kong! (Granted, they're ahead of us by how many time zones...but not that far ahead.)

Anyway, so I've found it interesting this time around that while I have this excited feeling for today, I've also been less focused on the day because I know the sales have already begun in some places.

I've gone into several bookstores, and most of them still had the books in the back. They brought them out and I signed them, then back in the back they went until today--which is actually what I as an author prefer.

Those first-week sales are really important to authors, and by waiting for the book's "lay-down" date to put it on the shelf, the bookstore does us a big favor...because it's all in the velocity of sales that first week. And if there are sales before the official release date, it can affect the book's numbers.

In my case, as only a second-book author, it probably won't affect the numbers that much, so I'm just delighted to hear that people in Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Texas have already bought the book.

Believe me...that's the thing I'm most thankful for on this day.

Labels: Colleen Gleason, Gardella Vampire Chronicles, Rises the Night

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 7:32 AM 3 comments

A contest!

Stop by my other blog...I'm giving away fifteen copies of The Rest Falls Away between now and April 15!

Labels: Colleen Gleason, contest, Gardella Vampire Chronicles

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 7:27 AM 0 comments

A Chance to Win!

Diane Gaston is guest-blogging (and gushing about Gerard Butler's appearance in 300) over on Colleen Gleason's blog today...

She's also giving away a copy of her latest book, Innocence and Impropriety.

Stop on by and comment for a chance to win!

Labels: Colleen Gleason, contest, Diane Gaston

posted by Colleen Gleason @ 7:49 AM 0 comments