Lisa Pietsch, Author

Charlie is a face-to-face friend of mine and although I’ve been neglecting her lately, she agreed to stop by for a day.  She looks all mild-mannered in this photo but I’ve got some pictures from Halloween and the Christmas Party that might show you otherwise.  (And you don’t see any of her tattoos in this photo either.)  She’s a wild child and she’s writing a fascinating book (that scares the bejeezes out of me) and will no doubt be a bestseller whenever she gets around to finishing it.

Lots of people dream about writing a novel but few put their ass in a seat and actually do it.  I’m so proud of Charlie for following her dream and actually doing it!

My name is Charlie Quillen.  First off, I too am a writer, however new I may be to the art, and I have a work in progress tentatively named Shutter Click. It is about a forensic photographer who, upon receiving a disturbing serial killer case that reminds her too much of her buried past, slowly loses her mind.  I would put an excerpt in here, but it may give you all nightmares.  It gave me one after I wrote one of the chapters about a murder scene.

Instead, I will talk about my writing in general, since that’s what you’re all here for!

I started out writing as a young kid, writing stories about my family and dogs and flowers.  As I grew older and developed my angst, my teenage mind formed dark poetry as its expression.  However, my “real” writing didn’t begin until I discovered NaNoWriMo two years ago.

My first NaNo was a bust, I only came up with one page of writing.  Yes, ONE page.  I didn’t understand what it meant to write THOUSANDS of words.  Especially thousands of words in one day!  So all I had was an idea and a page of writing.  That led me into the NaNo that just passed.  I talked to my writer friend here, Lisa, and she encouraged me after hearing my plot to write, write, write!  Thank goodness for her support!  I started writing that first day and only got 400 words.  I was desperately proud of those words, no matter how few.  It was a place to start.  And it was more than I’d written before.  The next day I reached 1,000 words.  I exploded with delight!

Unbelievable was the thought – ME writing 1,000 words.  I missed a few days here and there, and my goal of 50,000 words seemed to elude me even further.  Eventually I got back on the horse and reached 5,000 words.  Then I saw 10,000.  The only problem was NaNoWriMo was over.  Now I had nothing to push me.  But I kept writing!  It was amazing!  When I finally reached 15,000 words I had no words to describe how happy I was at  my progress!

I have since topped out at 16,650 words.  I stopped writing one day and didn’t start again.  Two months passed with no words.  Life was bleak!  I was swimming in a sea of plot holes and poor character development.  It’s pushing three months and I’ve only poked around at my writing.  Until I learned about MarNaNoWriMo!!  Yep, another month of writing!  So I started a new story to get my juices flowing.  I thought that maybe a short, fun story might liven things up.  I began writing on March 1^st at about 8 pm.  I only got 143 words.  But again, it was a start.  The next day I wrote 1,300 words!!  I also had unknowingly started a prequel to my current work in progress.  Now I have two WIP’s and a great story going.  Sorry if I got off track a bit, I just get very excited about writing!!

I have found out how much work it takes to write, keep a blog, keep up with tweeting and tweets, and how important it is to network!  I write a lot in my blog about keeping your head up and reaching your goals.  If you’d like to read my craziness, head on over to Charlie-quillen.blogspot.com and check me out!  Also, I’m super new to this realm of writing, so if you have advice I’m up for taking it!  I keep up with tons of writing blogs to see what information I can glean.  And again, thanks to the super wonderful awesome Lisa for the privilege of writing a piece on her blog!

Check out Charlie:

@CharlieQuillen – twitter

Charlie-quillen.blogspot.com – blog

* If NaNoWriMo style writing events get you motivated, check these out!

Cher Gorman is the President of the Heart of Denver Romance Writers, our local chapter of the Romance Writers of America.  She’s a fantastic lady and someone I am happy to know face-to-face.  An interesting tidbit about Cher – every time I see her she looks just as good as she does in her pictures!  (I’d really like to know her secret.)

I’ll cut my rambling here and let Cher’s writing speak for itself:

Last year was not a very productive year for me in terms of writing.  I wrote only one book.  My novel was submitted, but I still felt like a pen dragging slug.  I can comfortably write three books a year.  Four books would be a personal best for me.  Five would be Olympic Writing Gold.  I would perch atop my desk and feel proud as the golden keyboard was placed in my hands.  Of course the writer’s national anthem would be playing in the background.  The writer’s national anthem for me is “Hunk A Burnin’ Love” by Elvis but substituted, “Hunk A Burnin’ Writin’ Love.”

In order to make 2010 more productive, I examined why I penned only one novel in 2009.  This is what I discovered.  The overarching reason was basically fear.  Fear of failure and *gasp* fear of success.  First I looked at fear of failure. I was afraid of writing a book or books that weren’t good, weren’t fresh, weren’t marketable.  So what if I continued to hone my craft, so what if I searched for fresh twists on old ideas until my little brain shriveled, so what if I studied the marketplace on almost a daily basis to make sure there was a market for my story ideas?  What if all of my hard work didn’t pay off?  What if my books were rejected anyway?  What if my work wasn’t good enough?  What then?

It’s true when you reach the bottom the only place you have to go is up but still.  I was afraid of hitting the bottom, lying there in a pile of bloody, torn manuscript pages with no rescue in sight.  Second, I looked at fear of success.  I was afraid of writing a really fabulous book, acquiring a top tier agent, selling to a major publishing house and being assigned a wonderful editor who believed in me and my work.  So what’s the problem?  How can success possibly be a barrier to writing?

For me, success meant the possibility of failure.  What if I didn’t live up to my new agent and new publisher’s expectations?  What if I didn’t deliver another great book?  I hate letting anyone down.  Then I thought, wait a minute, the only person I’m letting down is me.  The only person holding me back is me.

So, I fired my muse.  She lived in the closet off my office.  This girl was a major cigarette smoking, tequila drinking slut.  She locked herself in the closet, watched DVD’s, listened to hip hop and rap and invited her numerous boyfriends over to visit.  When I needed her she wasn’t there.  She gave me all sorts of excuses.  She was too tired, she didn’t feel like it, she needed a few days to get in the zone, she was having a closet party…you get the picture.  When I fired her she was shocked and spitting mad.  She trashed the closet on her way out and cursed my name to the heavens.  Whew!  Good riddance.

Next, I changed my belief system.  I decided not to believe in writers block anymore.  I decided not to compare my work with any other writer.  I decided not to let a rejection stop me from doing what I love.  But most important, I decided not to be afraid anymore.

Then I hired a new muse, who is a guy named Danté.  He lives in a fabulous tree house with a great view.  Not to mention the breeze soughing through the tree branches, the birds singing, rain pattering on the roof or the sound of wind during a snow storm.  He wears jeans, a Henley shirt and is always bare foot.  He greets me sitting on a very large pillow.  He has dark hair and soulful blue eyes.  And he listens to me.  He never puts down my ideas.  He offers suggestions, plot and character solutions for me to consider and always, always tells me what a great writer I am.  Plus he has a terrific assistant.  She is totally professional.  She wears a snappy suit with heels, always carries a note pad in one hand and a flame thrower in the other.  The flame thrower is used when a sniggly doubt or fear or confidence-crushing slime ball tries to sneak into my office.  She points and shoots with deadly accuracy and vaporizes them in an instant.

Now my office is my own personal writing nirvana.  No matter what happens, nothing negative is allowed to slither its way inside.  This also applies to any friend, neighbor, family member or even stranger.  NO ONE brings negative vibes into my writing nirvana without deadly consequences.  Don’t allow doubts and fears to crowd your writing space and corrupt your prose.  Fire your muse and establish a new belief system.  For this is truly the only thing we can control.  We must protect our work and our creative process because no one else will.  The rest is up to the publishing gods.

Has anyone ever fired their muse?  If so, what were the results?  Positive, negative or something in between?

The re-release of my first e-book, Wolf Island, a romantic suspense set on a mysterious island off the coast of Maine is set for July 30^th 2010 by Wild Rose Press.  This book will be available in e-book format and also print-on-demand from the Wild Rose Press web site, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Currently, I am working on a new contemporary project called Something Old, Something New, Something Dead about a wedding planner and a mortician.  It is a single title with a bit of humor and a lot of sizzle.

Next in my project line is the first book of a paranormal series—and no it isn’t vamps, weres, witches or demons—followed by another contemporary.  To round out the year I want to begin work on my first historical novel.

www.chergorman.com

www.twitter.com/harpopelli

www.myspace.com/chergorman

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?v=info&id=1616413652

Some of you who have read my first novel already know about Task Force 125.  It is a fictional part of the CIA’s Special Activities Division (SAD).  Members of the SAD may or may not do the things that my characters do.  I couldn’t tell you if I knew.  I first came up with the idea when I read an obscure mention about Task Force 121 in a news article.  The idea of a small force constructed of special forces operators and CIA agents made my imagination go wild.

What if we had secret teams that used the terrorists’ tactics and money against them?

That was the day Vince Hennessee was born.  Shortly after that, Brian, Jason, Chris, Will and Sarah came to be.

Following is an excerpt from The Path to Freedom as Task Force 125 is explained to Sarah and her team:

A man at the far end of the room stood. “Okay, let’s get started.”

She found the nearest empty chair and sat.

“Welcome to Task Force 125. Take a look around the room. These people are going to be your family until you either die or retire.”

Family, huh? Holy moly! I’ve got one seriously buff family! Look at these guys…you’d think I’d died and gone to heaven! Pecs and biceps and delts, oh my!

“I’m Colonel Young. I’m the handler for Task Force 125, which is the special unit you now belong to. This task force is a special counter-terrorism unit. We receive information from the U.S. intelligence community and act upon that information. Generally we add to that information and share our findings with them. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.”

“Yeah, sometimes we have to give them the information,” someone mumbled.

Young continued, ignoring the side comment. “You’re in ‘Black World’ now. You’re spooks and you don’t exist. You are part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Staff. The Special Activities Division is divided into Air, Maritime and Ground branches, but you folks are going to have to be a little more versatile. We need a team in the Mediterranean AOR that can work both land and sea. You may also need to work with operators from coalition nations. Between the six of you, we believe you’ve got the skills necessary to do all of that.”

Look for A Taste of Liberty, the second story in the Task Force 125 series, coming March 14th from Sapphire Blue Publishing.

In the long overdue second installment of the Task Force 125 series, A Taste of Liberty,  Sarah Stevens finally has a life.  Instead of the same old life with no man around who is worth the energy, now she has three!  One she loves but cannot have,  one she can have but cannot love, and another who wants her and doesn’t care if she loves him.  What’s a girl to do?

Look for A Taste of Liberty coming soon from Sapphire Blue Publishing on March 14, 2010!

Until then, here’s an excerpt:

Sarah turned to look at Vince.  He was the most attractive man she’d ever laid eyes on.  Every inch of her screamed to touch him.  It would be so easy to just drop that towel from his waist, but there was too much on the line and she couldn’t mess it up by complicating things with sex and emotions.  She cleared her throat.  “You’d better get downstairs and get some sleep.”

“I’m gonna go get dressed.”

Sarah looked Vince over and took a deep breath through her teeth.  She couldn’t help but smile at him.  “Yeah, I think you should.”  She caught a glimpse of a smile as he looked down and walked away.

A few minutes later Vince emerged from the bedroom fully dressed and headed for the door.  He spoke over his shoulder.  “Thanks for breakfast.  Mission brief tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred.  Usual place.”

Sarah walked toward the door after him.  “I’ll be there.”

“I’ll see you later tonight.”  He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.

Look for A Taste of Liberty at Sapphire Blue Publishing on March 14th, 2010.

Once a month, on a randomly chosen date, all email subscribers to this blog will be entered in a drawing to win a free ebook of their choice from Sapphire Blue Publishing.

Just click on the “subscribe” link to the right to be entered now!

My guest today is a very special sister of mine, a sister-in-arms.  I first met Jess through RomVets, a great organization of women who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces and write romance.  (Our fearless leader is the infamous Merline Lovelace.)  I got to know Jess through her blogs and interviews and find her someone well worth knowing.  When she launched RomanceRollCall.com I simply had to be a part of it.

I would still respect and admire Jess without all that.  You see, Jess is a soldier.  A soldier who rose through the enlisted ranks and became an officer.  In my experience, those are the best kind of officers.  Without further ado, I give you Captain (Select) Jessica Scott, U.S. Army.

First, let me say congrats to Lisa on her latest release and thanks for having me on today!

I had a goal. When I finished my first book in 2007, I (don’t cringe) immediately began querying and actually had multiple requests for it. Then, everyone passed. So I revised it feverishly and resubmitted. Again, everyone passed and 2007 turned into 2008. I kept writing, knocking out 4 books in 08 before I deployed to Iraq.

Deployment kept me busy but still, I wrote. While I was deployed, I wrote or rewrote (throwing out entire drafts and starting over) 7 books, all the while working on revising the book I’d managed to land an agent on. My agent and I parted ways due to differences in time management techniques and I thought for sure I could land another agent.

That was in November. It is now March and guess what? Still no agent. My writing career has not died. I’m part of the PBS Regarding War discussion on women and war. I’ve sold an article to the Romance Writer’s Report. But the fever that burned in me for my fiction seems to have faded. I’m still writing, still working on fiction, but as life overtakes me, I’ve slowed down. I haven’t seen a day over 200 words since before I left Iraq. I don’t know if I’ll see numbers like that again anytime soon.

I’m much more realistic about my prospects as a writer now. I’ve slowed down tremendously and I’m still learning that getting that first draft out is the easy part. Making it readable and saleable are a process in and of themselves.

Attempting to sell a novel is difficult, time consuming and by far the most frustrating thing I have ever attempted, and that includes deploying to Iraq. Rejections hurt. Waiting sucks. This is a damn tough business and one I would say that you should only step into if you have really thick skin.

Writing is the easy part.

I still have my goal to publish my novels. I still work toward it every day. But at the end of it all, even though the fire does not burn through my veins like it did, it still simmers within me, a slow burn rather than a consuming blaze. I can’t not write. So I write. But trying to sell is going to take a lot more than my own hard edged determination.

It’s going to take work.

If you’re interested in my journey through Iraq last year or my continuing quest toward publication, you can stop by my blog http://www.jessicascott.net/blog.

Thanks again, Lisa for inviting me here today!

Jessica Scott on Facebook

Jessica Scott on Myspace

Jessica Scott on Twitter

My guest blogger today is Brit Blaise (who also writes under a few other names).  She’s one of the original Butterscotch Martini Girls and those gals never use their real names in order to avoid warrants after too many martinis.  Seriously now, Brit’s real name may or may not be Judi.  I’ve known her (virtually) since 2008 and still don’t know for certain who she is but I know I like her.  (She’s very much like Batman in that respect.)  Whoever she is, she’s fantastic and I’m very lucky to know her.

www.britblaise.com

Thanks for the invitation to blog, Lisa. And good luck with your latest release. You’ve worked hard. That’s what I want to talk about. Writing a book seems to be the American goal. So many people want to do it, and lots try. If there are statistics on how many succeed, I don’t know them.

I’m not a full-time writer. In fact, since I was published in ’05, I’ve been a very sporadic writer, despite having signed thirty-nine contracts to date. When I write, I write very, very fast, and when I don’t write, it’s for months.

Sometimes writing is easy, and those are the good times. I had a wonderful month last November. I wrote over 56K words and made multiple submissions of several different stories. Right now, I’m fighting a cold and I have galley edits. And I have a full-time job this time of the year which can easily be more than 60 hours a week. If only there were more good times. Writing is hard work.

www.myspace.com/britblaise

I’m not complaining, I’m stating a fact. No matter how difficult writing can be, I can’t stop.  I’m also waiting to hear about one of my submissions, a breath-holding, fingers-crossed kind of wait. It’s nerve-wracking…but in a good way. Even if I get a rejection, I’ll still be a winner for trying.

I’m just glad to be writing again after a ten month hiatus this time.  Sometime next month, I have a new story coming from Sapphire Blue Publishing…an erotic romantic comedy with a little twist of paranormal, just a little. And I have a paperback coming under my third writing name the same month from Amber Allure. Both of these stories resulted from my wonderfully productive November. I wrote the entire year in ’08 and had twelve releases that year. I feel as if a wonderfully prolific period is about to happen to me again. I have more ideas that I know what to do with…and I need to get them out.

If only life wouldn’t get in my way…

If you’re a writer…are you able to keep a steady flow, or are you a roller-coaster-writer like I am?

And if you’re a reader, does it frustrate you to wait for your favorite author to release a new book?

Once a month, on a randomly chosen date, all email subscribers to this blog will be entered in a drawing to win a free ebook of their choice from Sapphire Blue Publishing.

Just click on the “subscribe” link to the right to be entered now!

I’ve hit that age where my memory is not as infallible as I once used to claim it was—hey, I swear, I never forget anything. Ever. Now however? I’ve resorted to jotting down notes to myself. Originally it was on pads of paper my local real estate folks very kindly dropped in the mail box every now and then. But they sort of piled up and got jumbled beneath all the clutter on my desk. I needed something that couldn’t get lost on my desk top.

I needed things to be In. My. Face.

So I visited my local office supply store and discovered they carried more than just the standard yellow post-it.  Oh, yes, I’ve got the standard yellow ones, but I also have blue ones, and green and orange and pink and bright, bright, canary yellow. Some have lines on them, some don’t. I even have a post-it note dispenser in the shape of a purse – those have a cool little swirly symbol on them. I haven’t dared use them, they’re so special. (My hubby bought that for me for Valentine’s Day—it goes with the tape dispenser shaped like a high heel.)

I currently have 5 various colors attached to my monitor with notes like “Write THIS Scene.” (meaning don’t worry about the last one or the one to come.)  Another contains hero names I like, with two crossed out – Griffin and Matt. I used them in my upcoming release Texas Tangle (look for it this summer over at Carina Press.) “Chad has a boat” has been up there for about a year now. That’s in reference to the hero in the sequel to Personal Protection. Another talks about character relations in the paranormal romance I’m writing. Then there’s the reminders–“Pay the dentist” and “HQN/Carina mtg @ 12:45” …ooops I guess I can take that one down now.

Whee – I’m down to four!

Hmm, I really need to do something about that dental payment, don’t I?

On the hutch behind my monitor there are another 9 sticky notes—nope, make that 10. Some are more notes on Texas Tangle, a few are notes about video specifications for my last (and next) video trailer. And a couple are passwords to who knows what site.

That’s not including the ‘to-do’ list and calendar in my day-timer. But one note I haven’t needed to leave myself is today’s date. My first full length book is officially released in print today. Personal Protection was released as an ebook last May, but now I can hold it in my hands. And yes, I’ve stroked the cover more than once, I’m not ashamed to admit.

Personal Protection follows Sam Watson, who I first introduced in my erotic romance novella, Private Property, the first in the Hauberk Protection series:

Warning: This book contains a woman fulfilling her sexual fantasies—including two men who are happy to tie her up, and be tied up, while using graphic language and floggers.

Jodi Tyler has loved and lost too many times to believe in happily ever after. That’s what makes her no-strings affair with her boss so perfect—his power in bed matches his respect for her independence. Still, when he surprises her with a ménage for her birthday, her secret thrill wars with a nagging thought: Why would he so casually share her with another man?

Even though Mark Rodriguez holds Jodi at arm’s length from his heart, her self-confidence is a turn-on he can’t resist. Inviting old college buddy and future business partner Sam into their bed for one night was supposed to set free her wildest fantasy. Instead he finds the tables turned, forced to watch while Sam brings her to the height of ecstasy.

Now, Mark’s not so sure he wants to share his treasure…

Sam gets his own story in Personal Protection when as head of the Hauberk Protection Agency he’s annoyed to discover it’s necessary to hire his own bodyguards.

Sam Watson excels at keeping other people safe. Now a stalker is targeting him, but so what? A few doctored photos and a couple threatening phone calls are no big deal. He can watch his own back. Then again, the view from behind the sexy spitfire assigned to protect him isn’t so bad…

Rosalinda Ramos has managed to keep her attraction to Hauberk Security’s owner tightly under wraps. It’s just as well he doesn’t know. One slip—in the bedroom or on the job—will cost her heart and her career, so she’s got only one thing on her mind. Protect Sam, whether he wants it or not.

The stakes—and the heat—rise exponentially when she discovers Sam belongs to an exclusive sex club—one she must investigate for potential suspects. Suddenly she finds herself immersed in a world that pushes her boundaries.

Sam delights in leading Rosie deep into his sexual shadows—until they go one game too far. Making him wonder if he can allow the woman he loves to take a bullet for him.

If you want to read more about either story, you can read excerpts on my website, or at LeahBraemelExcerpts.blogspot.com.  You can follow me on Twitter or join my fanpage on Facebook.

I’m giving away a PDF copy of Private Property to a commenter today, but you have to tell me what would be written on a sticky-note on your desk.