Vivi Andrews - Ramblings from the Road

Best Author Interview Evah

2012-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Dude. You guys, Maurice Sendak is so fabulously cantankerous. My favorite part? Right at the very very end where he talks about ebooks.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2

www.colbertnation.com

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I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

2012-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

I'm a number nerd. And when people take a mathematical concept (see also: statistics, finance theory) and think that they can change the definition however the hell they want to support whatever non-math-based argument they are making, it kinda makes my head 'splode.

Case in point: There's a phrase that's been bugging me lately as people are talking about epublishing and self-publishing - the long tail. There are a couple of different definitions for this phrase in business and statistics, and then there is one commonly misused definition that makes me want to scream until the faces of people around me melt off Raiders of the Lost Arc-style. You can't just adopt a phrase that already has a specific (and very good!) meaning and assign it whatever the hell meaning you want. I forbid it!

What Long Tail Means:
A long tail distribution is demonstrated by a graph (graphs are exciting, amirite?) where a high percentage of the frequency of sales (80% is one often used number) are attributed to a small percentage of the items in a population, tailing off rapidly to a large population of items with very small frequency. For example: A small number of books will be mega-best-sellers and most books will fall into the "long tail" and sell a small quantity.

In a business sense, the term long tail is often used when referring to online retailers because they have set up a sales model where they benefit from selling a very small quantity of a very large variety of items - i.e. profitizing the long tail where a traditional retailer cannot afford to keep items which are less likely to sell at large numbers on the shelf - Costco profits in bulk, not specificity, Amazon the opposite.

What Long Tail Does Not Mean:
The long tail has NOTHING to do with how books sell OVER TIME. It does NOT describe the phenomenon where your book that steadily sells a thousand copies a month for thirty years will eventually sell more books than Bestseller X even though it was never a best seller.

Now, I'm not saying that cumulative and backlist sales do not, over time, add up and equal big money - but the thing is, there's already a term for that. It's called "having legs". So why not say "I'd rather have a book with legs than a best-seller" instead of saying "the power of the long tail!" Because, you guys, the power of the long tail is for Amazon and companies who haves set up their sales model to benefit from selling five copies of a million different books, NOT the author who sells five copies a week for thirty-five years. That's legs.

And see, long tail does apply to the self-pub/epub argument (if you're using the real definition). Because minority tastes are being made available (rather than only things which will be expected to sell eleven bazillion copies) there is an opportunity for more diversity in the options available to readers - and writers who write "outside the box" have a place to sell their five copies a week. So if you're using the phrase that way GO YOU! You are a rockstar!

But please try to keep it straight from legs. Enthusiasm is awesome and all, but lack of precision about mathy stuff makes me hear air raid sirens in my brain. Just sayin'. Number nerd out.

Guest Author: Sara Ramsey & Heiress Without a Cause

2012-01-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

Today I'm all aflutter to host the fabulous Ms. Sara Ramsey as we discuss her inaugural release, the fun and fabulous regency romance Heiress Without a Cause.

After winning the Golden Heart in 2009 and being named a finalist again in 2011 (with the first two books she wrote, but lets all pretend we aren't green with envy over that), Sara is launching her delightful Muses of Mayfair series with those Golden Heart recognized novels, featuring artistic, rebellious highborn ladies and the rakish lords who love them.

Sara grew up in a small town in Iowa, and confesses to an obsession with fashion, shoes (of course), and all things British. She graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a degree in Symbolic Systems (also known as cognitive science) and a minor in history. After graduation, she worked at Google for seven years in a variety of sales, management, and communications roles. She left Google in 2010 to pursue her writing career full time.

And now she can add "published author" to her impressive CV.

Heiress Without a Cause

One title to change his life…

A disgraced son with a dark reputation, William “Ferguson” Avenel is content to live in exile – until his father dies in the scandal of the Season. With rumors of insanity swirling around them, his sisters desperately need a chaperone. Ferguson thinks he’s found the most proper woman in England – and he won’t ruin her, even if he desperately wants the passionate woman trapped beneath a spinster’s cap.

One chance to break the rules…

Lady Madeleine Vaillant can’t face her blighted future without making one glorious memory for herself. In disguise, on a London stage, she finds all the adoration she never felt from the ton. But when she’s nearly recognized, she will do anything to hide her identity – even setting up her actress persona as Ferguson’s mistress. She’ll take the pleasure he offers, but Madeleine won’t lose her heart in the bargain.

One season to fall in love…

Every stolen kiss could lead to discovery, and Ferguson’s old enemies are determined to ruin them both. But as their dangerous passion ignites their hearts and threatens their futures, how can an heiress who dreams of freedom deny the duke who demands her love?

I was lucky enough to read Heiress Without a Cause before its release, and the blend of heartfelt romance, realistically drawn characters, and risky Regency situations sucked me right in. Here's a little peek inside:

Her heart beat faster and she lowered her voice. “Perhaps we should practice how we might appear together in the demimonde.”

She was useless as a flirt, but he was smart enough to grasp her meaning. “You want to practice being my mistress?”

“I find my acting improves with experience,” she said, hoping she sounded like a coquette but fearing that she sounded like a fool.

He laughed. She flushed bright red as the heady bubble of attraction burst. She was indeed a fool… she didn’t know how to play these games… he was helping her out of charity, not desire. She turned away from him, wishing she could hide in a carriage as easily as she did in ballrooms.

He reached across the carriage to stroke her cheek. “Mad – it’s not you I’m laughing at. Imagine my predicament, though. I have the most beautiful, talented woman in London as my mistress, and I cannot touch her without ruining her.”

She looked back at him. Several emotions flickered across his eyes in the dim light of the coach, but mockery was not one of them. “And I have the most notorious rake in London in my carriage to save my reputation. Aren’t we quite the pair?”

He watched her for a long moment. She saw the battle play out on his face. Abruptly, the darker side won, and he shifted his hand to her wrist and pulled her toward him.

She landed in his lap, too astonished to do more than squeal with surprise. Wish her face mere inches from his, she could see the banked, smoldering look in his eyes – just as he tilted her mouth and kissed her.

Can you see why I couldn't put it down? I sat down with Sara this week (in the metaphorical, via email sense) to get the inside scoop on her debut release.

Vivi: My favorite historical romances are always so integrated with the period that they simply could not be told the same way in any other era. Your book is so deliciously Regency. What drew you to the era? Did you always know you wanted to write Regency?

Sara: I adore, adore, ADORE the Regency. Some of it is standard: I like the clothes and the parties, of course. But I’m intrigued by Regency romances because I like the challenge of conforming to all the Regency expectations while still finding fresh ways for my characters to break the rules.

I also think the time period is interesting because it parallels the modern world in a lot of ways – the extreme gaps between blatant excess and crushing poverty, the odd hypocrisies between sexual freedom and prudishness, and how obsessed people were with gossip rags. It makes the Regency a lot more accessible to modern readers than some historical time periods. Still, I like the fantasy factor of historical romance, and no matter what I write in the future, I doubt I’ll ever abandon historical influences.

Along those lines, I’ll share something embarrassing - my first attempt at a romance was very Viking and very dirty. My best friend and I wrote the first chapter during a high school sleepover, and by the end of the chapter, the heroine (disguised as a boy) was discovered by the hero when he tried to whip her for insubordination. Obviously we were operating under the influence of the 1980s romances, and it will never see the light of day!

Vivi: I love a good in-it-together, falling-for-one-another amid potential social ruin story. Did you set out to write that kind of story or did it just develop organically? (Sort of my version of a plotter vs. pantser Q.)

Sara: My process for HEIRESS was so messy that I’m not sure I can claim that I planned anything! In the first version, there really wasn’t any scandal; instead, Madeleine’s long-lost fiancé from France turned up demanding to marry her in what was ultimately a convoluted attempt by Ferguson’s father to keep them apart. I scrapped that entire storyline, killed Ferguson’s dad, and started over when it became clear that my pantsing was totally off-the-wall insane.

I loved the characters, though, and those ill-fated 40,000 words were almost like an alternate-reality character development exercise for them. I lost a lot of words, but they were still the same people. And as I got to know them better, I knew that they would skate on the very edge of social ruin to get what they wanted – so I played that up in the new version, and ended up loving it.

I also learned that I may be more of a pantser, but I have to do some plotting initially or else I work myself into serious trouble. I’m a lot less reluctant to kill my darlings after that experience, though – cutting a scene now is nothing compared to cutting half a book.

Vivi: Your characters are so brilliantly developed. There is a fabulous duality in many of them, especially the heroine, Madeleine - who embodies both the daring actress and demure spinster - do you see her rebellion more as a balance of her two sides or as the emergence of her true self? Do you have any tips on character development for authors aspiring to your level of awesomeness?

Sara: Thanks – I’m blushing! This question makes me happy because I hoped Madeleine’s duality would come across. As I wrote her, I thought a lot about how people often have many goals that sometimes come into conflict with each other, and how hard it can be to make a choice between two lives that can both be satisfying. Yes, Madeleine wants to be an actress – but it’s not the only thing she ever wants for her life, just the thing she most wants right now. Her lesson throughout the book is how to balance her current desires so that her true self can emerge – but she won’t know what that true self is until she understands what she really wants.

If you’ll allow me to geek out for a minute, I think some characters feel one-dimensional because their goal is something quite basic / outside of themselves: find the artifact, save the child, get revenge. But if someone’s goal is basic/elemental, I often don’t find their character arc quite as satisfying – I may love the plot, but going from “I need to defuse this bomb or people die” to “yay I defused the bomb!” is pretty straightforward for the character. I’m more interested in characters who have to choose between two competing, higher-level desires – in Madeleine’s case, the need for acclaim/recognition vs. love and companionship. Humans are usually confused about what they want (or maybe that’s just me!), and exploring that confusion can really speak to the reader. Just don’t ramble like I did in this paragraph, or you may lose them :)

Vivi: Your hero is a former rake, but instead of being glorified for it as can be a Regency theme, his past becomes a genuine obstacle for him - were you intentionally taking a less fanciful look at what reputation meant in that historical era than we sometimes see in Regency Land?

Sara: I try really hard to avoid logical inconsistencies – to the point that my roommate probably doesn’t want to watch TV with me anymore because I’ll sometimes nitpick the entire episode (like last week’s Once Upon a Time, when I pointed out during the climax that one probably can’t roll down the back window in a sheriff’s car from the inside – not sure she’s forgiven me yet).

Anyway, I love reading about rakes, but I have trouble believing that they could all be reformed easily. Reputations are really hard to shake, even now – it must have been worse back when honor and duty were such a huge part of the social fabric. Ferguson became a duke and had never done anything bad enough to be ostracized for it, but that didn’t mean everyone would suddenly love him. I didn’t set out to make a statement with him, but he certainly doesn’t find redemption easily.

Vivi: As I mentioned above, I'm in love with your characters - even those who play more minor roles. I'm excited that there are two more Muses of Mayfair books to look forward to (Amelia & Prudence! I can't wait!), but I'm also dying to know if there will be romances for Ellie & the twins. Pretty please?

Sara: There are at least three more: Amelia’s book, Scotsmen Prefer Blondes is coming in March, and Ellie’s book, The Marquess Who Loved Me, is coming sometime around June – she wasn’t even a Muse when I started the series, but she steals every scene she’s in and won’t allow Prudence to go before her. I’ll write Prudence’s book, which is still untitled, for a fall release. Beyond that, the twins may get their books if readers are interested; otherwise, I have plans for a new Regency series to kick off next year.

Vivi: How did you come about your decision to self-publish your 2009 Golden Heart Winner & 2011 Golden Heart Finalist manuscripts?

Sara: It was a tough decision, but I’m thrilled that I made it. When my 2009 book didn’t sell, I put it aside and focused on writing the second book (which went horribly at first, as I mentioned above). That became my 2011 book, which my agent shopped to editors this summer. My agent and my beta readers loved it, but editors were lukewarm about it, and it became clear that no one was going to make a great offer for it.

But self-publishing options are so much better than they were in 2009, and I know more about the industry than I did then. I also worked in the tech industry for seven years before pursuing publication, so I felt confident that I could figure out the technical aspects – and since my jobs were all around marketing and communications, I’m actually excited about creating a business from my self-publishing and figuring out how to get my books into the hands of readers.

Beyond that, though, I’m just tremendously excited to have my books out and to share them with other romance lovers. My agent and I both believe in these books and were heartbroken when they didn’t sell traditionally – but while traditional publishers excel at distributing blockbusters, they simply can’t afford to take the same risks on newer authors. It’s a business decision, and I respect that. And traditional publishing is still the right path for some people, just as self-publishing is the right path for others. For me, given my expertise and interests, self-publishing is the way to go. And hopefully it will pay off – but if it doesn’t, at least I will know that my books had a shot with an audience and didn’t just languish under my bed with the poor ‘80s-style Viking romance I scrapped fifteen years ago :)

Note: Over at the RUBY BLOG TODAY Sara is giving away a Nook copy of HEIRESS to a random commenter – it was chosen as a Nook First exclusive, and will only be available on Barnes and Noble for the next month. If the winner doesn’t have a Nook, she will give them an ebook or print copy of their choice on February 23.

BUY FROM B&N :: LINK TO CHAPTER ONE

Acceptable Theft

2012-01-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

So, you may have noticed a bit of hubbub recently about the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. I'm not going to talk about the bills, because the proposed legislation and potential enforcement risks have been dissected ad nauseum elsewhere. But I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and I'd like to talk about the way our society seems to have come to view artistic products in the digital age - because in all the furor over the acts no one ever seemed to acknowledge that digital theft is wrong. That stealing a song or an ebook online is the same as shoving a book or CD under your shirt and sneaking out of Barnes & Noble or Best Buy.

You know why? Because it isn't exactly the same. The difference is in the consequences. You will get arrested for shoplifting, but downloading is viewed not only as an unpunishable offense, but almost as a right, a fucking privilege of the digital age. But see, freedom of information is not the same thing as taking someone's artistic endeavors without paying for it (their livelihood, but I'm trying to stay away from that argument because I know I'm too personally affected by this issue to be even remotely objective if we start talking about the fact that as a copyright holder I am one of the victims of this perceived-as-victimless crime).

Yes, the bills were likely unconstitutional and had a bevy of problems, but the rhetoric linking protecting copyrights to a dictator cracking down on the next Arab Spring was a bit much for me - not because the bills weren't a clumsy, "buy a bigger hammer" approach to the problem, but because not once did anyone acknowledge that piracy is wrong and there are people who are hurt by online theft. Fix the bills, propose new ones, don't just protest the very idea of cracking down on online theft!

If you'd rather hear this from Guns N Roses, check out Duff McKagan's Quit Whining About SOPA & PIPA. Where's the Public Outrage Over Online Piracy?

John Stewart - whom I am usually a fan of - brushed aside any impact piracy has on artists, authors, and musicians and tacitly encouraged his viewers to pirate copyrighted material from the Big Bad Corporations who make all the movies. Yeah, because theft is totally okay as long as you steal from someone who can afford it. Awesome.

You know there's a reason the phrase "starving artist" is a cliche. It's because most of us aren't bazillionaires who won't notice a few hundred thousand illegal copies of our books and songs being downloaded. I don't get a giant advance. I get paid on royalties (a percentage of each individual sale) - and just think, if I actually got paid for all those pirates who steal and read (and some of whom illegally sell) my books, I might be able to splurge and afford health insurance this year. (And I have epically failed at keeping this from getting personal. Oh well.)

But it's not about the legality. It's not about the bills. It's about the pervasive societal view that it's okay to steal, as long as it's this one particular kind of theft. It's so damn easy, but that doesn't make it right.

The thing is, there are legal, ethical, non-stealing ways of getting books for free. Become a reviewer. Go to author blogs (like this one where I have TONS of chances to win them, as do many authors). Join Goodreads and be on the lookout for their giveaways. Go to your local library - many of which are starting to lend ebooks. Use the borrowing feature on your device and trade with your friends. But piracy is THEFT.

How about a deal? I won't pick your pocket on the street if you don't download my books for free. Sound fair?

Bottom line: if you don't protect creative endeavors and intellectual property, eventually you won't have any art to enjoy anymore. Sorry, but that's just how it goes. If you take away a creative professional's ability to make a living doing what they love, they can't create the stuff you love anymore.

If you disagree with me, I'd love to hear your argument. Or if you have any insights into why we as a culture can't respect digital property I'd be curious to hear that as well. Or, better still, if you have any ideas on how we can shift perception to show that intellectual property is worth protecting, that would be amazing.

Your thoughts?

Get Your Curse On

2012-01-17T02:08:00.001-08:00

It's that day, ladies and gentlemen! The moment has arrived! That day you've been dreaming of... Bachelor Recap Day! Glee's Winter Season Kick-off! The second episode of the second season of Switched At Birth! (And don't you dare mock my love of cheesy ABC Family schlock.) The day when I map out a quadruple feature to try to watch all the Golden Globe Winners I'd never heard of! Okay, yes, it's all of those, but also... drumroll please...

Ghosts of Boyfriends Past release day!

Curses. Ghosts. Studly reporters. (Envision McSteamy from Grey's Anatomy. Well, hello there...)

Add in a little bit o' Valentine's falling in love and you've got Ghosts of Boyfriends Past.

I've gotta say, y'all, I'm super excited about this one. It's not a Karmic Consultants book, but while it stands on its very own, it has a lot of the quirk and lighthearted goofiness that readers may expect from the KC series. So if you're looking for some love and laughter with a touch of magic and a lot of heart to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day, you may wanna take a peek...

Letting him in could mean losing him forever.

Elizabeth “Biz” Marks has the magic touch when it comes to matters of the heart—except her own. In a slightly tipsy fit of loneliness, she once tried to harness a little love mojo to work in her favor. Instead the spell mutated into a nightmarish curse that kills off her boyfriends on her favorite holiday: Valentine’s Day.

With three permanently ex-boyfriends on her conscience and another hearts-and-flowers holiday approaching, the last thing she needs is a too-gorgeous-to-be-true reporter snooping around.

Biz just has extraordinarily bad luck, or she’s a bona-fide Black Widow who bumps off her boyfriends for a chunk of the inheritance money. Either way, Mark Ellison is sure there’s a story here. Especially when his attempts to charm her send her into a panic.

The harder Biz tries to keep Mark and his beguiling dimples as far away as possible, the harder he digs to get at the truth. Now she’s beginning to wonder if his is the love that will finally break the curse...or if she’ll be burying her heart along with him.

Product Warnings: This book contains curses, meddling ghosts, nosy neighbors and enough peppermint Schnapps to drown the inhibitions of even the most cautious witch.

Check it out from Amazon :: Samhain :: B&N.

In my usual release day tradition, I'll be visiting the Samhain Cafe to chat and share excerpts (around 3:00pm EST). Swing on by and say howdy!

All Manner of Exciting Things

2012-01-15T01:40:00.000-08:00

For anyone wondering if I fell off the edge of the world in the last couple days, fear not. I'm just helping look after my sister's kids for a few days while she and her husband take a little vacation and DAMN, I do not know how you folks who have miniature people living with you full time manage to find a second to yourselves. And yet, in spite of my distraction, I'm a font of exciting news this morning. (Well, exciting to me. Humor me.)

1. Winners! A couple days ago I promised prizes - and prizes ye shall have! The winners of their choice of The Sexorcist (print), The Ghost Exterminator (print), or Ghosts of Boyfriends Past (ebook ARC) are:

-Rebe
-Lynn
-Tiana

Congratulations! Please email me at vivi@viviandrews.com to claim your prize!

2. The Tagline Verdict! It's official, boys and girls, YOU the readers have spoken and the tagline getting the most votes - which was also one of my favorites so I'm pretty jazzed - IS:

Spark and Snark in the Dark.

Which is also kind of awesome because one of my best friends has a slight obsession with Spark in the Dark Life-Savers and I have many fond memories involving them.

Now, for the moment I'm kinda swamped (seriously, how do parents function?), but I'll whip up a new header in the next week or so and get that shiny new tagger up and on display. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who helped at all stages of the brainstorming and picking process. And to Gwynlyn, who supplied the winning tagline, I'll be in touch about arranging your reward for tagging services rendered.

Next up on the Gushing Agenda...

3. Librarian Love! Ghosts of Boyfriends Past was written up in the Library Journal (and I love me some libraries so I'm pretty giddy here) and my goodness, was it ever positive!

"Verdict: Paranormal fans and romance lovers will love this playful story; its light sexual content yet heavy emotional substance provides a delightful, satisfying read.—Jennifer Harris, Mercyhurst Coll. Lib., Erie, PA"

Let's all send some mad love to Jennifer Harris for being sublimely awesome. Woot!

And lastly...

4. Sins on Shelves! A friend here in snowy Alaska sent me a snap she took at my local bookstore. Now, I don't expect much from a print release because, well, I've seen my numbers and I know that ninety-five percent of my readers have their Kindles & Nooks surgically welded to their hands (as well you should), so imagine my surprise when what should my local bookstore have but four copies of Serengeti Sins sitting on the shelves! It's almost like they expect people to buy them! How 'bout that? I'm all aflutter.

I'll have to go down there and see the clutter of books for my very own self - right after I de-kid-ify. (Don't really want the kiddos associating the bare midriff cover with their favorite auntie until they're a lot older. We already have the weirdest conversations starting with why. Trying not to open that particular can of worms.)

Tag Me Contest! Vote Now for Your Favorites!

2012-01-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's that time, boys and girls! Time to help me pick a tagline! Here are the options we've found so far, and you (yes, YOU!) can win books and prizes by voting for your favorite in the comments section, as well as suggesting new taglines if GENIUS strikes you! Sound good? So get voting!

The options:

1. Making paranormal warm and fuzzy since 2009

2. Spark & Snark in the Dark.

3. Expect the unexpected.

4. I write the naughty so that you don't have to.

5. From the Dark Side with Love.

6. Variety is the spice of life, Vivi Andrews is making sure your variety has plenty of spice.

7. Love comes in many forms. Sweet, spicy, or with a bite, enjoy the ride.

8. Love without limits... from sizzling shifters to quirky comedies.
Something about paranormal romance in all flavors? Paranormal Romance from A to Zombie? (Dude, I need to write a zombie book...) Or something like warm, witty, and outside the ordinary? Or, um, yeah, I got nuthin'. Ideas?

Three commenters will win their choice of signed print copies of The Ghost Exterminator or The Sexorcist or an ebook ARC of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past (hitting digital shelves next Tuesday!).

And yesterday's winner of Serengeti Sins is StacieD! Congrats, Stacie! Please email me at vivi@viviandrews.com with your snail mail address so I can mail you your prize right away!

Winter Wonderland - Writer's Edition

2012-01-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

Winter in Alaska means we have an abundance of two things - cold and dark. (And this year we also have an abundance of snow. Woot!) But the great thing about Alaskan winters is that it's the perfect time to hunker down, batten down the hatches, curl up under a pile of blankets with a giant mug of hot cocoa and write until spring. Which is why the Winter Writing Festival is so perfectly timed for me.

That's right, boys and girls of the writerly persuasion, it's time for the Ruby blog's version of NaNo: The Winter Writing Festival - a seven week writing frenzy where you set your goals and we ~~whip~~ encourage you to meet them with sprints and check-ins and prizes, oh my! (Yeah, the initials are WWF and that's because we're putting the SMACKDOWN on winter laziness, beeyotches!)

Wanna play? Head on over to the WWF site HERE and register to participate (totally free). Then check back tomorrow when the chat room opens for sprints and the Ruby blog is open for Goals, Goals, Goals! (I'm mildly obsessed with goals. As evidenced by my copious quantities of To Do lists and the fact that I've been fantasizing lately about buying a new day planner. Organization is my crack.)

And speaking of crack... you know what else gets me giddier than kids on Christmas? SNOW! We have so freaking much this year. It's brilliant (and makes my shoveling muscles ache just thinking about it). A few weeks back I posted about a multi-day power outage we had, accompanied by a mega-snowstorm - including some pictures. Well... we've had a smidge more snow. Observe:

BEFORE:	AFTER:

So in celebration of all things Winter and Snow, I'm giving away another signed print copy of SERENGETI SINS (which includes Serengeti Storm, which includes a freak blizzard!). Just comment here for a chance to win.

Winners of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past ARC

2012-01-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who commented this weekend. And, now, without further ado (though we all know how I love my ado), the winners are... Arlene Hittle & ParaJunkee!

Congrats! Just drop me an email at vivi@viviandrews.com to let me know which format you prefer and claim your prize!

More prizes to come as the Ghosts of Boyfriends Past release day approaches. Stay tuned!

Ghostly Good News & Giveaway!

2012-01-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

Guess what, boys and girls? Long & Short Reviews gave Ghosts of Boyfriends Past Four Stars!

"The cast of characters were a delight."Check out the full review.

This novella (of the hefty novella variety that sometimes masquerades as a thin novel) is not yet available in stores (coming January 17th!), but I'm so excited that today through Sunday, I'm giving away TWO advanced copies of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past to lucky commenters.

"Once you read this cute story, you'll never think of Valentine's Day the same again. And if you've ever stated that you were cursed, that may be nothing compared to Biz Marks. Want a little ghostly humor in your romance? Readers will find all that and more in Vivi Andrews' book Ghosts of Boyfriends Past."

Sound like a prize worth winning? Just comment this weekend - tell me about your own Valentine's rituals - and you're entered to win!

The Ruby Prophecy

2012-01-05T00:17:00.000-08:00

Today I'm taking a break from the Tagline Quest to make predictions for the New Year over at the Ruby Blog today. Swing on by and test out your prognosticating skills! (I may or may not have predicted some hot romance novelist-movie star hook-ups at Nationals this year in Los Angeles.)

Oh, and did I forget to name a winner for Tuesday's release day giveaway? Why yes! I did indeed. So apologies for the delay and CONGRATULATIONS to elaing8! Please email me at vivi@viviandrews.com and let me know which book you'd like in which format.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for a shot to win an as-yet-unreleased copy of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past!

Tag Me Contest Continues!... And a Release Day...

2012-01-03T14:08:00.001-08:00

First off, a big thanks to the ladies who helped me get the ball rolling on the brainstorming/giveaway that is the Tag Me contest!

And to demonstrate my thanks... THE WINNERS! Congratulations to Kelly & Kali! You've both won print copies of Serengeti Sins! Just email me at vivi@viviandrews.com with your snail mail address and I'll get your booky goodness in the post to you straightaway.

Our work here is not yet done, darlings. Some options we've hit on thus far:

Love without limits... from sizzling shifters to quirky comedies. (AKA, the old one - massively lame)

I write the naughty so that you don't have to. (So cute! Though writing naughty isn't exactly a chore... wink, wink)

Making paranormal warm and fuzzy since 2009 (Cute huh? Some are warm and fuzzy feeling and some are... you know, lions, so hot and furry, right? Hee hee. I do love a double meaning. Or perhaps, making paranormal romance fun and furry since 2009?)

When it comes to love, expect the unexpected.

Love hurts... but laughter is the best medicine.

What do you think? Does one of those win your vote? Keep your brains storming and if you think of more tagline options, you can post them any time in the next two weeks for more goodies and prizes. (Though every day I'll have other stuff going on too, and you can always comment on that stuff too for more prizey goodness.)

You know what else is going on today? Serengeti Sins is arriving in bookstores. It's HEEEEEERE! That's right. You can get your touchable, smellable, petable, lickable (not advised as it makes the books kinda sticky) copy now!

Once love catches fire, no mere force of nature can hold it back.

Serengeti Storm

Bred to be the Alpha’s consort, Shana seethes when he chooses another mate. Standing between her and her destined place is Caleb, the royal enforcer. Her former lover.

Assigned to keep the she-cat in line, Caleb must use his body to save her from herself. Now if only he can save his battered heart from the volcanic desire that never went dormant.

Serengeti Lightning

Logic—and her biological clock—means Mara must cross Michael off her list of potential mates. His rare genetic malady disqualifies her delicious sex buddy as daddy material.

Slink away while she steps into the arms of another man? No way. The tricky part will be convincing his over-analytical lover to listen to her heart.

Serengeti Sunrise

Zoe has a bad case of wanderlust…and the hots for commitment-shy Tyler, who sets her on fire one second, then walks away the next.

When Zoe demands a no-strings affair, temptation wins and Tyler finds himself thinking mine. But Zoe’s plan to hit the road doesn’t include white picket fences…

Check it out from Amazon :: B&N :: Samhain.

Admittedly, I've been a little slow out of the gate with my fanfare on this release, but since all these stories came out in ebook previously this one feels more like an add-on than a newbie, you know? And I feel like all my reader peeps are internet-y folks who have their Kindles & Nooks surgically welded to their hands and how do you even hold one of those archaic paper book things if you have to put down your ereader to do it, amirite? And yet, they are so fun to pet and coddle, so now, if you are of the paper book inclination, TODAY, RIGHT THIS INSTANT, you can get yourself a lovely, coddle-able copy. Don't delay!

TODAY: One commenter will receive their choice of any of my books - ebook or petable print.

New Year, New Books, New Tagline

2012-01-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, introducing the shiny new print release (out tomorrow!) of Serengeti Sins, a Serengeti Shifter anthology featuring Serengeti Storm, Serengeti Lightning, and Serengeti Sunrise. Three novellas of shape-shiftery hotness in one delicious package! (Check it out from Amazon :: B&N :: Samhain.)

AND to celebrate the release and the upcoming (January 17th!) release of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past, today is the launch of the Vivi Andrews TAG ME Contest!

You see, reader-friends, I need a new tagline. What, you may be asking, is a tagline? Observe...

Shelli Stevens: I'm the author your mother warned you about.

Jessa Slade: Love conquers all... which explains the scars.

Me: Lameness. Lots of lameness. (Okay, technically my tagline is: Love without limits... from sizzling shifters to quirky comedies. I know, it's awful, right?)

So help me, reader-friend! Write me a logline of sublime awesomeness! And I will give you something. Something cool. Like a book. Or an ebook. Or an upcoming book dedicated to you. Or a character named after you in an upcoming book. Or a chance to read one of my upcoming books when it is in the Oh-crap-who-wrote-this-shit phase (cuz that just sounds heavenly, doesn't it?).

Yes, the Winning Tagger gets their choice of awesome, but just for coming up with a tagline, or voting on a tagline someone else suggests, or telling me that I'm crrrrrazy and you love my old tagline (srsly?), or even just popping by to say "Hi, Vivi!" - you will be entered to win one of TONS of books I'm giving away in the next two weeks. Prizes include: FOUR shiny new print copies of Serengeti Sins, TWO print copies each of The Sexorcist & The Ghost Exterminator, and THREE ebook copies of the Not-Yet-Released ghosty goodness of Ghosts of Boyfriends Past. (And I may arbitrarily decide to give away more stuff too... cuz sometimes it's just so darn hard to stop.) Sound like fun?

So get tagging!

Things to keep in mind:
1) It should be short. No more than a sentence or two.
2) It should give folks an idea of what my books are like... which may be a challenge because
3) I like variety - while I write primarily paranormal romance and I like to play around with trying to be funny, not all of my books are humorous or paranormal. The idea is to give folks a sense of who I am as an author - which would be so much easier if I knew who I was as an author, right? Having a little existential identity crisis here.
4) It should be unique - while I may want to be Jessa Slade when I grow up, alas I cannot steal her tagline. *sigh*

Enough to get your creative tagging juices flowing? Go forth and tag, my minions! (Note: this is not an endorsement of graffiti. If you're gonna spray paint stuff, don't ~~get caught~~ blame me.)

TODAY: Two commenters will win signed copies of Serengeti Sins.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

To all my readers, regardless of which holidays you celebrate, may your days be merry and bright!

The very best of holiday wishes,
~Vivi

Happy Solstice!

2011-12-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Solstice, everyone! Tonight is officially the longest night of the year - a fact which is probably only noteworthy in Alaska where we start talking about how many seconds of daylight we're gaining every day as soon as solstice passes. It's eleven-thirty a.m. as I write this and I can just now see the edge of the sun breaking out over the mountains across the valley. How am I celebrating? With a slice of solstice pizza from the Moose's Tooth and a vow to wrap packages until the sun sets or I finish them all. (Which is kind of a wussy vow since the sun won't stay up long, but that's how I roll.)

Enjoy the holiday! And remember, it's only T-minus 365 days until the end of the world, Mayan-style! Make this year count, boys and girls.

The Sundance Channel Wants YOU

2011-12-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

You guys, social media marketing is weird. The way businesses promote themselves online is... odd.

Case in point: I tweeted a snarky comment about the prestige involved in my alma mater being picked for the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. (Lube up with Wildcat football!) Imagine my surprise when Meineke Car Care tweeted me back, urging me to attend the game.

Why does a car care company have a twitter account? And why are they encouraging alumni to attend a bowl game? How is that tweet - which was doubtless done by an employee paid to find references to Meineke and reply to them - going to further their business interests and enhance their reputation as a good place to take your car to get it fixed? I would rather know that Meineke wasn't wasting their money on twitter campaigns, but lowering their prices by the amount of that Twitter employee's salary... or teaching him how to fix a carburetor.

(And yes, you may be saying, but Vivi, aren't you doing the same thing with your blog and twitter-ness and whatnot? Promoting your books, aka your business, instead of perfecting your craft? Wasting your time? Well, sorta. But really, this blog doesn't exist to promote me. It exists so I have a place to put announcements and talk about any random musings that trip across my brain. It's more recreation than marketing. If this is self-promo, I totally suck at it. Just sayin'.)

A couple weeks back, I wrote a blog which (very indirectly) mentioned Jennifer Grey. A few days later, I got an email from a publicist for the Sundance Channel. They had a new television show coming out, designed to humanize celebs by sharing their embarrassing childhood moments. Jennifer Grey was going to be in it, and didn't I want to let my readers at the blog know about it? (The Mortified Sessions: Mondays at 8pm EST on the Sundance Channel! Come watch Jennifer Grey and Will Forte relive their childhoods!)

Now, I've received emails like this in the past. I usually just shrug them off since 1) I'm not a fan of being told to publicize stuff. If I'm gonna publicize stuff on the blog, it's gonna be whatever random crap I happen to be noticing that week and not what some publicist with a Google Alert thinks I should publicize. And 2) I generally think they've made a mistake by sending it to me. I am not, in fact, this influential person they seem to think I am, so I'm doing them a favor by ignoring their request for me to try to influence you guys to do something.

But this time they were offering bribes! A "swag kit of exciting Sundance Merchandise" was available to folks who emailed them and told them "Yes! I'm going to pimp your show for you!" Sure, there have been other chances to whore my website and blog out for advertising dollars and "swag", but how could I possibly resist Sundance Channel merchandise? Especially since I'm such a devoted watcher (I'm not even sure I have the Sundance Channel) and there were only a LIMITED NUMBER of swag bags available!

Alas, no swag shall be forthcoming for my pimpage, because I did not reply. (And I might be about to get in trouble for "disclosing" the contents of said email... though they did send it to me and I feel like if you find some gabby chick online and send her an email asking her to talk about crap and then get mad at her for talking about the fact that you asked her to talk about crap... yeah, I'm thinking that's not sound legal footing, but what do I know about confidentiality?)

It's just so peculiar to me, the way people are trying to buy word of mouth - and it's WORKING. I've fallen victim to their evil plot. By bitching about their attempts to expose themselves through me, I have ingrained in your minds the subconscious desire to go get your brakes checked while watching celebrities attempt to be real! Now you guys are all thinking about Meineke and the Sundance Channel, aren't you? You can't help it! It's like pink elephants (which reminds me of a story about testicular cancer, but let's leave that for another day, shall we?). Ooooh, wait, did I just free associate The Mortified Sessions with testicular cancer? Oh noes! Marketing backfire!

It's a strange world we live in, folks. Getting stranger by the day.

Tis the Season to Give Some Books!

2011-12-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

Looking for a great read for a loved one this holiday season? Don't know which book to get that hard-to-shop-for someone on your list? Fear not! A horde of authors are coming to your rescue! (Cuz that's what authors do, yo.) All this month, Tilly Greene has been hosting an event at which authors recommend their favorite books for holiday giving. Swing on by and get some great recommendations to give away or keep for yourself. My pick is up today and is a book I have, in fact, given away for Christmas in the past. It's the strangest Christmas pageant ever. The holidays with a dose of the ridiculous.

How's your holiday season going so far? Got your shopping knocked out?

I've been busy doing "Designated Shopper" duty for some of my non-local family members (to save them the crazy shipping costs up here, we run around and pick up the presents they want to give and wrap them), attending three Christmas concerts (one classical concert choir, one delightfully irreverent barbershop chorus, and one pre-school barely-audible-mumble-the-words-but-they're-so-darn-cute), picking out, lighting, and decorating three Christmas trees in two cities, wrapping like crazy, and catching up on the latest season of Dexter - because really, what says Christmas more than blood spatter?

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Wayfaring Eden

2011-12-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Friend of the blog Brenda Hyde is interviewing me over at her online home today - The Wayfaring Writer. We're chatting about Eden, my love of Sam Worthington and zombies (cuz really, who doesn't love a mindless fleshbag intent on eating your brains?), and the future of the end of the world. Swing on by and say howdy to the delightful Ms. Hyde!

And while you're there, you can see her thoughts on Reawakening Eden - which were totally flattering enough to make me blush. And I loved this encapsulation: "The story is about survival, both physical and emotional, but it's also about trust and a willingness to think beyond one day at a time."

YES. Don't you just love that feeling when someone totally gets it? Bliss. Thank you, Brenda!

Semantics on Parade

2011-12-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

I'm over at the Ruby Blog today, shoving my foot as far down my throat as it will fit on the topic of critiquing, judging & beta reading. Learn why I find the criticism "bad writing" somewhat less than helpful & come argue with me!

Snow Day!

2011-12-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

I think there are days you probably have to be a little nuts to love living in a place like Alaska. Luckily, sanity has never been a handicap for me. Man, do I love it here.

I've completed my latest round of travels and I'm back in the frozen north (woohoo!) for Christmas with the folks. This weekend Winter welcomed me home right. It started on Sunday morning, right as we were returning home from picking up the Christmas trees (yes, two!). Just snow at first and a few power flickers (which we've been getting all week, including a couple 4 hr outages), so we went about life as usual. We headed over to my sister's place (through near white-out conditions) to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday with presents and sledding.

My brother-in-law (a lower-48 transplant) laughed at our hapless Alaskan weathermen, who'd predicted up to an inch and we already had two or three, with more falling fast. With night already closing in (it was 3:30pm, after all) we headed home through the snow. Back at Casa Andrews, my dad and I settled down for some football as the wind kicked up outside, but the power began flickering again and then gave up for good. We pulled out some candles and played cards by their light as we listened to the chinook howl through. The spruce trees in the yard bent over at sixty degree angles, but luckily no more of them came down in our yard (we already had one mega-wind-storm this year take out almost a dozen trees in the neighborhood).

The wind died down enough to stop being a danger to the electric company crews around ten and, confident the power would be back on soon, I grabbed some extra blankets and burrowed under them to read a historical romance by candlelight - because what could be more fitting than reading about folks who read by candlelight?

But in the morning we still had no power. What we did have was eighteen-plus new inches of heavy, wet (gorgeous, white, perfect for snowmen!) snow.

Behold! The barbecue grill - tipped over by the wind and ever so lightly snowed upon:

We started a fire in the fire place and lit the burners on the gas stove to keep the house from cooling down too fast. The contents of the refrigerator migrated outside in coolers to stay chilled (though, alas we were too late to save the ice cream).

We melted and boiled snow on the stove to make coffee and cocoa (Ice Coffee & Snow-coa!) and then took turns wrestling the snowblower through the heavy masses of snow piled in the driveway.

By midday the driveway was clear and the house was getting COLD. Our road still hadn't been grated (and still hasn't as I'm writing this) but we'd seen our neighbors push through in a Suburban so we all piled into the truck and went back to my sister's (where they had power and everyone was home for a snow day).

One of my nephews showed me his pirate fleet (composed of drawings of ships, many of which have laser-shooting mermaids as hood-ornaments). Another showed me Mesopotamia (the actual Mesopotamia on his world map). And I watched Cinderella with my niece - who is going to be Rapunzel when she grows up and therefore has stopped cutting her hair. (She's convinced that someday it will glow when she sings.)

After the bliss of hot showers and the marvel of fully charged cell phones & laptops, we eventually headed back to the Ice House where temperatures were now in the fifties. We pulled out even more blankets, preparing for a very cold night, when what to our wondering eyes should appear, but ELECTRICITY!

The roads are still clogged with snow, but we're nice and warm with our delicious luxuries of heat and running water. The wind has calmed, the sun is up (as much as the sun comes up in the winter), and it's a true winter wonderland out there.

Nothing beats an Alaskan winter.

Smutketeers Holiday Festival of Awesome!

2011-12-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

It's time to bring out the naughty and nice, boys and girls! The lovely (and delightfully naughty) ladies over at the Smutketeers are hosting a holiday Twelve Days of Christmas blog party and giving away books and prizes every day!

My day on the blog with the "Three Wise Vivis" - which made me giggle like you would not believe - was actually yesterday. I regret I was not on-the-ball enough to schedule this blog in advance and then yesterday was a comedy of errors internet-wise with jetlag and router misfires and power outages, oh my! So I missed giving you a heads up in advance, BUT I'm online now and here to say, Merry Christmas to All and to all a Smutty Night! Hie yourself over to the Smutketeers for some flirty Christmas fun!

Advanced Buzz on Some Ghostly Valentine's Giggles

2011-12-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

She liked it!

The first review for Ghosts of Boyfriends Past is in from Night Owl Reviews and it's 4.25 Stars! (GoBP! Coming January 17th from Samhain & up for Kindle pre-order now!)

"Ghosts of Boyfriends Past was one heck of a roller coaster read. I actually felt totally guilty laughing throughout the story given that three of Biz's boyfriends had died but I couldn't help myself."

Ah, the guilt-giggle. Check your sense of shame at the door, ladies and gents. This one will make you smile in spite of yourself. Read the full review here.

"A great seasonal read wrapped up with kooky paranormal elements, Vivi Andrews never disappoints readers and Ghosts of Boyfriends Past is definitely top notch!"

Dude. Can I just say? Having someone tell me I never disappoint readers has to be the biggest, most ginormous, oversized, humongous, mega-Costco-bulk-purchase, King-Kong compliment I've ever received. (And because I'm a neurotic mess, it also freaked me out because I was all what if the next one disappoints her? I will have lost my "never disappoints" status! Oh noes! Yeah, I'm well-adjusted like that.)

Happy holidays for your friendly neighborhood neurotic and Thank You, Night Owl!

We Have SUPER Art!

2011-12-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

Guess what I just got permission to share, boys and girls? We have Superhero cover art! The fabulous Xanaxa is the artistic genius behind this baby and she's given us DynaGirl in all her vampy (not in the vampire sense, but in the va-va-voom sense) glory. Oh my...

Without further ado, I give you... Superlovin'!

Ta-Da!

What do you think? A touch of you can save my day any time, big boy perhaps?

Coming this May along with shiny new superhero hotness from Jodi Redford and Kimberly Dean!

The Whomper

2011-12-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

I have a new metaphor for writing success. And, as with all my extended metaphors, I am totally in love with it. It's sailing! Grab hold of a mizzenmast and brace yourself, y'all. There's some awesomeness slicing across the waves toward you.

See, as a sailor, you can't control the wind, but you can control how you react to the natural conditions. The right sail, the right tack at the right moment, the right hull shape and rudder length... you face what nature gives you with the skill you develop and the equipment you choose.

You are just as much a sailor in a one man craft on a lake or a Hobie-Cat in a bay as you are on an IACC yacht trying to kick the defender's ass in the America's Cup. There's no shame in being a weekend sailor just as there is no shame in being a hobbyist writer - we aren't all going to be John Grisham and Stephen King - but I think it's important to realize what type of craft you're sailing.

The hobbyist in that lake dinghy is going to get his ass rolled to hell and back on the open ocean. If you want to sail with the big boys, you need to have a big boy boat - or in this case, a big boy book. Not all books have the broad, mainstream market appeal. A niche novel is a lake boat and can sail beautifully there, the NYT best-seller is an IACC yacht. But even a NYT best-seller doesn't get there without the right crew (editorial/art/publicity) and being launched in the right waters (distribution).

And even with that beautiful yacht, the right crew and the right seas, you need the wind. Those glorious gusts are unpredictable and will determine how fast and far your yacht can fly across the waves. Public opinion, word of mouth, reader reactions, a magical chemistry of timing and luck - all those little things that take a good story and make it into a popular one. That's the wind, and when it isn't there for you, no amount of perfect craftsmanship or well-trained crews can fill your sails.

In her post-Dirty Dancing days, Jennifer Grey appeared in a movie all about sailboat racing called Wind. Her character is in love with the science and the mystique of the sport, addicted to it, helpless to fight the way it gets into your blood. There's no cure for that passion, even when it's knocked you around some. At one point, she sews a giant sail and then at a pivotal moment in a race, talks her team into deploying the "Whomper", a massive big-daddy of a spinnaker that, as advertised by Ms. Grey, catches the wind, goes whomp and their boat rockets forward to win the race.

I feel like Harry Potter was a Whomper. Twilight. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The Help. Those big-daddy books, deployed just right, catching the wind and flying.

For the last few years, I'd say I've been writing Hobie-Cat books. Learning the feel of the sails and how to read the wind, having a great time as a bright-eyed young sailor, but now I'm starting to want something bigger, faster. I want to get into the big race. That means a bigger boat, more high tech sails. A book with a broader audience, one that pushes me to apply everything I've learned so far.

I love my Hobie-Cat books and have no intention of giving them up, but I want to try an IACC race or two. So I'd better get sewing. And then pray for wind in my sails.

(Random note: I come by my sailing metaphors naturally, with a genetic tendency for throwing money into those holes in the water we call boats. There's nothing like the wind and the sea.)

How 'bout you? Do you see yourself as more a Hobie Cat or a IACC yacht? Or do you have no flippin' idea what I'm jabbering on about in the first place?

A Little More End of the World

2011-11-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

Still in the mood for a little more post-apocalyptic action? Just want to get your paranormal fix on? The Dynamic Duo of Moira Rogers has a brand-spankin'-new-out-tomorrow-don't-miss-it after-the-demon-apocalypse, high-tech, sexy, The Island meets Constantine (not sure that's a good "meets"; must think about the "meets" some more) badass paranormal release: Demon Bait. It's sex demons and lockdowns and cyber-awesomeness, oh my! (And check out the insanely gorgeous sexified yin-yang cover.)

His mark could bind her forever—or finally set her free.

Children of the Undying, Book 1

Fifty years after a demon apocalypse devastated the world, summoners still bear the bulk of the blame. Marci lives in secret, hiding the gifts that could cost her a secure spot in one of humanity’s underground cities, and access to their virtual world. After all, her chances of avoiding the genetic-testing lotto are better than her chances of surviving topside.

The bastard son of a terrifying incubus, lust heats Gabe’s blood and sex fuels his magic. Innate charm and charisma help him navigate the cultural gap between the outcast town he calls home and the human settlements he infiltrates for trade. His latest mission nets him an unexpected asset—a summoner strong enough to soothe his darkest needs.

Trust a half demon, especially one who uses a lockdown to trap them together? Not in this lifetime. Yet Marci can’t resist Gabe’s offer to see her safely to a selective outcast settlement where she can live without fear. The journey alone is as dangerous as the way Gabe makes her heart race, but it could be her one hope of a real life.

If only she could be sure Gabe’s telling her the whole truth…

Product Warnings: Contains a virtual world where humans flee to escape the demon-infested earth, a dangerously seductive half demon with sex magic to burn and a network-hacking summoner brave enough to make herself vulnerable to him.

Grab it from Samhain :: Kindle :: Nook

I must say, boys and girls, the world Miss Moira has created is so deeply awesome. I just want to crawl inside it. Demon Bait is the kind of story where I can't wait for the next one to take me even deeper into the sexy demony-techy-depths of it. It sets the imagination a' whirling. Luckily for us Hammer Down is coming soon.

Thankful Winners!

2011-11-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! I love seeing all the awesome thankful tidings at this time of year. Anyone else still stuffed from Thursday? Did you go shopping on Black Friday?

Should I just skip the preliminaries and get to the WINNERS? All right, y'all, here we go. Drumroll please...

The Winner of an ebook copy of my new release, post-apocalyptic romance Reawakening Eden is... Brenda Hyde!!

The Winner of an advanced digital copy of my Valentine's paranormal romance romp Ghosts of Boyfriends Past is... Susan!!

The Winner of an ebook copy of my Christmas angels & demons novella No Angel is... Jen B.!!

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!!!

Please email me at vivi@viviandrews.com to claim your prize. (If you've won something you already have a copy of, let me know and we'll work something out.) Prizes must be claimed by noon Pacific time on Tuesday (extended because I'm a couple hours late announcing the winners... mea culpa, I was busily wrapping Xmas presents!). If we have unclaimed prizes on Tuesday, I'll draw another winner at that time.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Be Thankful; Win a Book

2011-11-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

You know what I'm thankful for? You. You guys rock. So today, to kick off the holiday season my favorite way, I'm giving stuff away. Comment on this post any time between now and Sunday at noon (pacific time) and you're entered to win. Just tell me something you're thankful for and check back on Sunday when I'll pick three winners - one of whom will get my latest release Reawakening Eden, one will get an ARC of my upcoming release Ghosts of Boyfriends Past, and the third will get a copy of my Christmas novella No Angel (tis the season!).

Thanks for my writing dreams a reality. It wouldn't be possible without you.

The Small Print: Void where prohibited. Must email me to claim your prize via email by Monday at midnight or it will be given to someone else. You can comment as many times as you like, but will only be entered one time per day (maximum 4 entries per person). Winners will be chosen randomly. Good luck and THANK YOU!

A Damn Good Interview, A Zombie Interview & the Passing of a Personal Icon

2011-11-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today the release week frenzy continues with an interview and giveaway with the fabulous Book Pushers. We're chatting about pretty much every book I've ever written under the sun, so swing on by and feel free to chime in with any burning questions.

I am ALSO at the flippin' amazing Moira Roger's Apocalyptathon 2011 today, giving away a copy of Reawakening Eden (because apparently I just can't seem to stop doing that) and talking about how I would react to a Zombie Apocalypse (note: I would totally kick ass).

***

And, in totally unrelated news on a much more somber note...

One of my writing icons passed away yesterday: Anne McCaffrey, 85, best known for her marvelous dragonrider books. Her passing feels particularly significant to me because her book Dragonflight was a turning point for me. It was the first book that swallowed me whole. It changed the way I felt about reading during one long can't-put-it-down-and-go-to-sleep night when I was twelve years old. Perhaps if it hadn't been that book, it would have been another, but all I know is that it was the first. The catalyst. Anne McCaffrey woke me up to reading as a passion rather than a pastime. And without that feeling about books, about the worlds they contained and the lives lived between the pages, I doubt I ever would have become a writer. So this passing is particularly poignant for me. She opened my door. Anne McCaffrey will be missed.

The End of the World is HERE!

2011-11-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Release Day, ladies and gents! It's the end of the world as we know it (sing it with me now) and I'm feeling mighty fine.

Reawakening Eden is OUT NOW!!! (<-- I'm using up my lifetime allotment of exclamation points. Yeah. I'm just that excited.)

When life is a struggle, love is the ultimate luxury.

Librarian Eden Fairfax knows exactly where to find books about survival. None of them mentioned how to manage in the aftermath of a worldwide epidemic—with two young orphans in tow.

On a journey south to warmer climes, she finds sanctuary for all three of them among a community of survivors in Seattle. Until she realizes the children are the centerpiece of their bizarre new religion. There’s no choice but to run as far and as fast as her stolen car will go.

Former Army Ranger Connor Reed had planned to live out the end of the world in peace. Yet he can’t stand by and do nothing while a lone woman defends two children from an armed thug. Even if doing something means taking the trio in.

Eden’s not sure if the armed hermit is her salvation or an even more dangerous threat. A blizzard forces her to trust him with their lives, and in Connor’s arms she remembers what it’s like to live.

Just beyond the edge of the storm, though, the cult leader awaits his chance to get his hands on the children—and make Eden his next sexual sacrifice.

Warning: This book contains a strong, silent action-hero, a tough, tenacious heroine, a pair of steal-your-heart kids, and a pony-sized dog named Precious.

Read an Excerpt. Buy from Samhain :: Kindle :: Nook

Today, in the usual release festivities, I'll be dropping by the Samhain Cafe (though it'll be late afternoon EST since I'm currently in sunny Honolulu for the holidays with my family and the time zones don't play nice out here in the middle of the Pacific). Join me there for some excerpts of Reawakening Eden and all the End o' the World chat you can handle.

Also today, you can find me at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog where I'm chatting about the inherent optimism involved in falling in love when the world as you know it is gone (and giving away a copy of Reawakening Eden to one lucky commenter).

Get Under the Covers: Reawakening Eden Release Week

2011-11-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

Today, join me at the Under the Covers Book Blog for their After-Dark Paranormal Event, including an interview with yours truly and a chance to win a copy of Reawakening Eden.

Release Week!

2011-11-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Release Week! Reawakening Eden hits the digital shelves on Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, boys and girls! It's almost time... for the END OF THE WORLD!!! (best if imagined in a deep, movie-announcer voice)

In a matter of days, the world will be ending... or rather already over, the apocalypse behind us, time to rebuild a new world out of the (metaphorical) ashes. What better ways to spend our last minutes pre-apocalypse than by checking out People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive edition. They even created, for our edification, a 100 Sexy Men in 1 Minute video.

Did you watch it? Hotness ADD. On speed. Gotta love it.

So... does People do a sexiest chicks edition? It never gets as much press as the Sexiest Man one if they do. Or are they afraid of objectifying women the same way they gleefully objectify the sexy dudes?

Do you have a favorite? Anyone you can't believe didn't make the Top 100?

Separation Anxiety

2011-11-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Fair warning: This has NOTHING to do with writing. At all. Not even a little bit.

You guys, I sold my car. And I'm feeling slightly traumatized.

Yes, it was the most logical thing to do. (The alternative being putting it in storage for anywhere between four and seven months while I'm in Hawaii, Alaska, and Europe, and then having to replace the battery and god-knows-what-other problems that cropped up from long months of sitting around. Cars need to be driven like dogs need to be walked.)

Yes, I knew in advance that I was going to sell it this weekend. I fly out for Hawaii on Monday, so this was really the last possible minute.

Yes, everything went perfectly and the first buyer to test drive it handed me an envelope of cash and drove off with my Baby. (Yes, I named my car Baby. She's so cute and tiny! Don't judge me.)

It wasn't until the hand-off was complete that I realized I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye.

I know, I know, it's an inanimate object. But it was my inanimate object for eight and a half years! She was the first car I ever bought new, slapped down my own money for and made every payment. That car has 101,000 miles on it and I put on every single one. She took me to every state (except Hawaii and Vermont), and half the provinces of Canada. She fit my random crap beautifully on multiple cross-country moves - a subcompact with a massive trunk compartment... heaven. She was reliable and had the smoothest, sweetest transmission of any of the cars I test drove lo, these many years ago. And now she's gone. Poof. Ain't my car no more.

I know the new owner will be happy with the car and treat her well (and, yes, she's inanimate, so she won't really be conscious of a difference... won't even know I'm not there anymore) and yes, I've been planning on trading her in for a shiny new model for the last few months... once I'm done with my current airborne gallivanting. (And I've felt guilty every time I've uttered the words "new car" while driving her, as if I am betraying her trust by even mentioning a new automobile.)

Okay, inanimate objects only have as much personality as we give them - but life is more fun when we assign human personalities to our possessions, so is it any surprise we get attached?

This was probably the one object I owned to which I had grown the most attached and now she ain't mine anymore. It'll take a bit of time to sever those ties.

Farewell, Baby. I hope you have a good (mechanical) life.

And could you guys please tell me I'm not the only one who gets attached to Things like this? What have you had the hardest time selling?

Reader Throwdown, or The Venn Diagram of Rockstars

2011-11-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Minions,
I love it when you send me emails and leave notes on my blog. It makes me feel all warm and squishy inside. Today I would like to chatter about a trend I have noticed in said notes and emails which I find fabulously entertaining. Are you ready? We're gonna call it, the Venn Diagram of YOU, my rockstar readers.

You see, boys and girls, you may not realize this, but you have factions. Observe:

On one side are the Karmic lovers. When is the next Karmic book coming out? you ask me. Will you write Karma's book? or, at times, why the hell is it taking you so damn long to write Karma's book?!

On the other side are the Shifter lovers. When will you write more shifters? you pester. What could possibly be more important than some hot lion lovin'?

And in the middle, the cross-section that makes the Venn all Venn-y, we have the Book Lovers. You beautiful people don't care what I put out next, as long as I get off my ass and put something out often. Voracious readers who need to be fed. What are you working on? When's it coming out? Why is it taking so long? Why do I have to wait sooo long? One more week? Might as well be forever!

For the record, darlings, I love all you factions equally. How could I not when I completely understand series favoritism as a reader myself? (Okay... I love you almost equally, I will confess a slight additional affection for the ones who encourage me to write whatever the hell I please as long as it comes out fast - you will notice that they got purple in the diagram. I love purple. But the favoritism ends there. You're on your own in the Battle Round, Purples.)

Now, you may be wondering why you should care about the fact that you have self-divided into factions. (Though I hope some of you are already picking out your Thunderdome costumes for some No Holds Barred Reader Deathmatching to determine which faction shall rule as my lieutenants when I become the Evil Overlord of the Post-Apocalyptic Hellscape.)

Yep, I've decided it's time to turn you against one another. (If there isn't at least a little bloodshed as a result, I will be highly disappointed.)

Dear Shifter-Lovers: The reason I do not have time to write another shifter book is because the Karmic Lovers are being so demanding. Insisting that I actually finish the series I started with them. (Sheesh, right?) Bring out the claws!

Dear Karmic Lovers: The reason you do not already have Karma's book in your hot little hands is that the Shifter Lovers came out in greater numbers and kicked and screamed until I wrote their novellas first. Unleash the demons!

Blame one another!

Dear Book Lovers: Feel free to get into this fight wherever you please. I hope you will be the lovely little chaos-makers in the middle, making sure things stay nice and riled up. Feel free to go all havoc-y and full-on Urban Fantasy Heroine with a Grudge or just chant "Fight fight fight fight!" if it makes you happy.

Y'all ready? Let's get ready to rrrrrumbllllllllle!

There can be only one... of me. Which is why I can't make everybody happy. Doing my best, boys and girl. Doing my best. Now back to my writing hole.

The Early Word on the End of the World

2011-11-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's T-minus one week to the release day of Reawakening Eden and we have our first review, y'all! The first vote on this post-apocalyptic lovin' is in, courtesy of Night Owl Reviews. "Reawakening Eden is well paced, sexy and thoroughly enjoyable." It's a Reviewer Top Pick, earning 4.5 Stars! Can I get a woohoo?

Thank you, Night Owl!

You can check out the full review here, though I should warn that I think it is just a smidge spoiler-ish. Though, really, aren't all reviews? That's what being a review is all about, right? Because how can you really talk about a book without talking about the book, amirite?

If you can't wait a week for the post-apocalypticy goodness, Samhain has a trio of other post-apoc romance novellas currently on the virtual shelves in the End of Days stories.

And, if you're more in the mood for some cowboy lovin', the fabulous Ms. Vivian Arend has a sexy new release out today - Rocky Mountain Heat, Book One of the Six Pack Ranch series. Dude, how much do I love a woman who names her ranches after washboard abs? Oh, the fabulousness!

Tapping Out

2011-11-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

I'm calling the fight, boys and girls. It's official. NaNo has won. I cede victory. I admit defeat - and yet don't feel even the least bit defeated. See, here's the thing. NaNo doesn't work for me. I have a system that has proven successful through um... kind of a lot of books, and that's what I need to keep doing. NaNo is a fabulous tool for lots of folks, but it doesn't do me any good. These first two weeks have been less productive than my normal weeks because the NaNo mindset just screws me up.

So even though I'm giving up, this is good news! I'm reinvigorated by being back in my normal work mode. "I yield" is my battle cry!

Nothing works for everyone, so do what works for you. And try not to get suckered in when your fellow writers are gushing about how amazing this one thing is and you'll love it if only you try it - trying new things is good and all, but don't let it derail you. Every writer's process is different. Mine apparently does NOT include NaNoWriMo.

How's your November going? Are you NaNo-ing? Getting geared up for the holidays? Enraged by the presence of Christmas commercials? See, I am kind of loving the Christmas commercials this year because I'm traveling and there is NO SNOW here. Without the Christmas commercials, how would I even know it was winter?

Happy Veterans Day!

2011-11-11T09:45:00.001-08:00

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone!

Today the Rubies are talking about military heroes and have a lovely tribute to the Vets in our lives. Both my awesome grandfathers were veterans of World War II (though I only had a pic in one in uniform to share at the Ruby site - and all the commenters seem to think I'm the spitting image of him, which I've never heard before). Two fabulous fly-boys, fighting over different oceans, in different air craft (one bomber, one fighter), but both serving honorably.

Thanks to all those who serve.

Self-therapy Books

2011-11-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

Write what you know. Common writing advice. The problem with that is that each one of us only knows so much. Oh, you can do research, you can stretch yourself and broaden your horizons, and as people we are always growing and learning new things, but there is only so much we can know with any level of expertise.

I think this applies to authentic emotional conflict also.

A while back, a reader criticized Serengeti Sunrise for being a reprise of Serengeti Lightning. I was surprised by this, but in the reader's eyes Zoe's restless, independent soul and Mara's need to leave the pride so she could nest and build a family felt the same - because they both wanted out of Texas (though for very different reasons). I hadn't seen that similarity, but it doesn't surprise me that someone reading my books might notice a trend of itchy feet. My gypsy blood refuses to settle and that likely comes through in my writing whenever I'm feeling particularly restless. Feeling trapped or penned in are things I can write with absolute authenticity.

I try to keep things fresh, but there are themes that are bound to recur in my books because they are issues that are real to me. I hope only people who know me well can tell which issues are mine and which are borrowed, but I think it is natural (if scary at times) to put our own concerns onto the page. There is an honesty in it.

When I read books by friends, I can see the pieces of themselves that sneak into the books. A friend who grew up in foster care, writing about the system. A weight-conscious friend writing about a heavier heroine. Whether it's a kind of self-therapy, a way of working through our issues, or something else entirely, it just is. Good, bad, or other.

It's a terrifying display really. You make your character's fears open to the world and in turn expose your own. Perhaps it is normal for readers to feel that they know you by reading your books, because there is so much of us in them. But it is also a mistake to think you know me for that very reason, because I am more than my books... and my books are more than me. We are a Venn Diagram. If you see me and my books together, the overlap will be obvious, but seeing only one, you can only speculate on the other.

Which of my books are self-therapy? I'll never tell.

Have you ever written a book - either intentionally or by having it just sneak in there - to work through an issue or fear in your own life? Read a book that helped you do the same and made you feel a kinship with the author because you felt they "got" it?

How Long is a Book?

2011-11-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

A few days ago a friend asked me what I would call a book - obviously a three hundred page tome is, but what about a 55 page story? A decade ago I would have just said that a book is a physical book and that it may have one or more stories inside it, but epub has muddied the waters. Since novellas are sold alone now, and even short stories, and they look no different on your Kindle than that full length tome, how do you define a "book"?

I was stumped by the question. I call all of my releases "books" mostly for the simplicity of it, but I tend to evade when possible and use "story" to refer to the lot of them or "work" or "release" or whatever other verbal dodge I can come up with. I don't think of A Cop & A Feel as a book (considering it's less than 20,000 words long), but when I'm talking about the Karmic Consultants books, it gets lumped in. Imprecise, but sometimes the best answer to the question of How many Karmic books are there? isn't two novels, one novella and two short stories. It's five so far. Or maybe the answer they want is two? For just the novels?

Perhaps the problem is a lack of shared definition anymore. When someone asks me how many books I've written, I don't know how to answer. If I say, "a bunch" they feel like I'm blowing them off. If I say, "Do you mean just novels or novels, novellas, and short stories combined?" then I also feel the need to clarify, "Do you mean books I've written, or the ones I've had published already or the ones that are under contract?" Yeah, I suck at small talk. I always want to be precise.

What is a book to you? I feel like we've gotten beyond the "ebooks aren't really books" argument (woot!), but now what length constitutes a book? And does whether an author has written a full length book sway your decision? For example, if someone had only written two fifteen thousand word short stories (so about sixty pages or so) would you say they had written two books? But if they had written one novel and one short story of that same length would it change the number?

How long is a book?

Anonymous - The Shakespeare Attachment

2011-11-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

The movie Anonymous seems to have hit a lot of people's buttons. I love the idea of it, the possibility (which I have heard argued before) that the man Shakespeare was a front for the real man with the pen - but when I mentioned I was going to see the movie, I had several people express outrage and insist that I not believe any of that garbage. To which I have two responses: 1) I don't believe everything I watch. I promise. 2) What would be the harm if I did?

Why does the man who wrote those plays need to be the man from Stratford-upon-Avon with a grammar school education who left his wife his second best bed? Shakespeare, as he is known to us now, is the pen name, the body of work. Why this attachment to the man? Why this need to connect what he did to a birthday and a rather vague and unimpressive personal history? If Monet were really a frontman for the real painter, would those water lilies be any less beautiful? Would he be any less Monet?

Do I want people giving someone else credit for my work? No, but I'm alive. Which, unless Shakespeare is a vampire living in Forks, is not something the Bard can say. Once I and all the people who knew me have passed away, my memory becomes whatever of my work lingers and the idea that people construct of me based on my words. It is my legacy not my self. So why does that legacy need to be bound to a particular body? It is speculation. Ideas. We will never know for sure if Shakespeare the man was also Shakespeare the playwright, but we still have all of his plays to enjoy and even if the man and the muse did match up in one body, we know very little about that body, so why the fuss? Why the attachment?

Is it because of his epic reputation? People who've never even heard of the histories and the political impact they had on sixteenth century England like to spout off "It ain't Shakespeare" as a slur. It's like there's perfect and then there's Shakespeare. This whole other level of flawlessness. He can do no wrong. God forbid you even suggest that some of his plays are less than brilliant.

But what is Shakespeare? Ribald comedies with rampant sex and innuendo and a happy ending with everyone paired off - so telling me my romance novel ain't Shakespeare, um... okay. And brutal slasher-style gore-fests (cough, Titus Andronicus, cough) - so telling Stephen King he isn't Shakespeare... really? Twisted, revisionist histories designed as propaganda - so telling Oliver Stone he isn't Shakespeare... um.... yeah. The sonnets - would they have been song lyrics today? The tragedies... the comedies... the histories... the sonnets... Is his versatility the reason he is Shakespeare (with a GIANT capital "S")? Or is it really the quality level that sets him apart? How many people actually enjoy reading or seeing Shakespeare anymore? How many people understand it?

I love Shakespeare, but I actually love his work, not his legend. I think his legend is kind of ridiculous. And I almost think the mythos of it detracts from real enjoyment. Because you have to almost start from the assumption that everything is perfect and an unsatisfying ending or unbelievable character reversal were there to make a point - because He would not have made a mistake. Or tried a risk that didn't pay off.

One thing every writer knows is that not everyone is going to love your work. No one is universal. Except Shakespeare? But even then, it isn't his work that gets a pass, it's his reputation. A reputation which somehow exists separate of both the man and his work.

If he were alive today, what would be be? An Aaron Sorkin? A Seth MacFarlane? Would he be a writer at all? We don't know. But we are basing so much passion on the idea that he was a poorly educated actor from Stratford-upon-Avon. Why? Because the Shakespeare mania fuels a tourist industry in a small English town? Because we need him to be a "man of the people" rather than an educated well-born man in order to satisfy our American self-made-man mania?

Why couldn't Shakespeare be a lord?

Are you protective of Shakespeare's persona? Can you tell me why?

**Side note: The movie premise was interesting, but I think they went a bit far with it. No, my friends, I did not believe the Earl of Oxford was really Shakespeare, but I don't think the movie was really trying to convince me. Their goal was to entertain (not unlike Shakespeare's goal) and that they did quite well. Very interesting film.**

NaNo Writing Tips

2011-11-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

Are you NaNo-ing? Looking for some pointers on how to get through your book? Michele Stegman is hosting a series of tips from published authors on how to push through. Today, you can get a fresh, juicy tip from yours truly, but don't miss the bevy of other helpful info.

ALSO today, if you swing by the TRR YES! Party and answer a couple questions, you can win an advanced copy of Reawakening Eden. Good luck, boys and girls!

Ghost Sex!

2011-11-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

This is just, um, too me to ignore, you guys. For anyone who loved The Larrinator, apparently he wasn't the only horny ghost on the block.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Oh, Colbert...

RT Squee!

2011-11-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

Guess what, you guys? The Sexorcist has been nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award! Best Indie-Press Paranormal/Futuristic/Fantasy! Can I get a woohoo?

I found out a couple days ago, but was sworn to secrecy until the fifteenth. However, in this digital age, apparently secrets are impossible to keep and the list was leaked and now we've been given the all-clear to shout it from the rooftops, so shout it I will! Squeee!

This remains one of my favorite books I've written and I'm so thrilled to hear it resonated with the reviewers enough that they remembered it these many months later and honored me by including it in their list. Some great books on there, boys and girls, some really great books. What a thrill to be considered!

CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST OF LUCK TO ALL THE NOMINEES!

Moira Rogers Is Post Apocalyptically Awesome

2011-11-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not the only one with some End of the World Awesome coming out this month. The dual geniuses that comprise Moira Rogers will release Demon Bait, Book One of Children of the Undying, at the end of the month (omigod, the badassness, you guys!) and all this month at her blog she is hosting the Apocalyptathon 2011! Thirty Days of World Ending Romance! Not to be missed. Hie yourself on over and prepare for the end of days with some steamy-hot lovin'.

TRR's Year End Splash!

2011-11-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, The Romance Reviews is hosting their Year End Splash party with Games and Quizzes and Prizes Galore. Test your memory by matching covers. Win beaucoup books and gift cards.

The contest runs all month so play at will, but be sure to visit on November 6th & November 23rd when you'll have a shot at picking up advanced copies of Reawakening Eden. Win it before you can buy it!

NaNo. Yeah. I'm Doin' It.

2011-10-31T00:59:00.000-07:00

November is almost upon us and that means the writerly inclined the world over are talking about one thing - National Novel Writing Month AKA NaNoWriMo or just NaNo.

Now, I've never actually participated in the one month write-fest, the goal of which is to complete 50,000 words in 30 days, but this year it is on, y'all. I'm in. Locked and loaded and all that stuff. This month is also a release month for me (Reawakening Eden! post apocalyptically awesome!) so I'll probably be talking about that more than anything here on Das Blog, but I'll grab a NaNo widget and put it over in the sidebar there so you can harass me if I appear to be falling behind.

Are you NaNo-ing? Is it your first time two? Your twentieth? How do you feel about a one month compulsive write-fest?

Sexorcism Going CHEAP, Y'all

2011-10-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have never before, in all my live-long-days, seen The Sexorcist print version (regularly priced at $15 a pop) at such a screaming good deal.

Amazon. $3.71.

I kid you not, you guys. 75% off.

Now, I am a sucker for a deal. Resistance is futile in Casa Andrews when it comes to the value buys. (I already bought a stack for giving away and I'm having a really hard time not going back for seconds... so tempted.) If you are anything like me, now is the time, minions! Our moment has arrived! Like Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd at the end of Trading Places, buy buy buy. Though sadly, unlike Dan and Eddie, this purchase is unlikely to result in such mad profit that we then snap up a Caribbean island of our very own, where even our butlers have butlers. Wouldn't it be great if books were like orange juice futures? Forget pork bellies. Stock brokers are wandering Wall Street, puffed up and bragging about the killing they made in Kresley Cole futures.

I seem to have drifted slightly off topic. To recap the Public Service Announcement: Sexorcist. $3.71. Amazon. Consider yourself informed.

Have you guys seen other similar deals? Other print books going for mad crazy rates? Cuz I'm feeling spendy spendy spendy...

**UPDATE: Oh noes, you guys! The sad! The sale went away. It's back up to normal prices. Which kinda makes me want to cry a little. I will keep you posted if it miraculously drops back to the happy zone.**

Heads Up, Tweeple

2011-10-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

If you are on The Twitter and you want a shot at winning an advanced copy of Reawakening Eden - the post-apocalyptic romancey goodness coming in four short weeks - be sure you follow @sknighteditor and look for the hashtag #NovARC for details on how to win!

When life is a struggle, love is the ultimate luxury.

Librarian Eden Fairfax knows exactly where to find books about survival. None of them mentioned how to manage in the aftermath of a worldwide epidemic—with two young orphans in tow.

On a journey south to warmer climes, she finds sanctuary for all three of them among a community of survivors in Seattle. Until she realizes the children are the centerpiece of their bizarre new religion. There’s no choice but to run as far and as fast as her stolen car will go.

Former Army Ranger Connor Reed had planned to live out the end of the world in peace. Yet he can’t stand by and do nothing while a lone woman defends two children from an armed thug. Even if doing something means taking the trio in.

Eden’s not sure if the armed hermit is her salvation or an even more dangerous threat. A blizzard forces her to trust him with their lives, and in Connor’s arms she remembers what it’s like to live.

Just beyond the edge of the storm, though, the cult leader awaits his chance to get his hands on the children—and make Eden his next sexual sacrifice.

Warning: This book contains a strong, silent action-hero, a tough, tenacious heroine, a pair of steal-your-heart kids, and a pony-sized dog named Precious.

Pre-Order from Samhain :: Amazon :: B&N

I've been rather quiet on the blog lately, mostly because I am deep in edits at the moment and they are sucking up all my energy/will to live, but I promise to come back to you soon, beloved reader minions... unless Death By Edits proves to be truly fatal. Wish me luck.

Would You Have Read The High Bouncing Lover?

2011-10-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Turns out, that is almost what The Great Gatsby was called. Mental Floss has an article about ten classic books and their almost-titles.

Seemed topical since this week has been all about titles for me. Did I mention we have an anthology title for the Samhain Superhero antho that I'm in along with Jodi Redford and Kimberly Dean? It's Midnight Justice, baby. What do you think? Better than bouncing lovers?

Survey Says...

2011-10-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

You like books, right? You like winning them, right? So hie yourself on over to the Ruby blog. Just take a brief survey about your book buying tendencies and you can win some books! Woot! Your personal information (email) is ONLY for the purpose of contacting you in case you are selected as a winner and will not be used for any nefarious or obnoxious purposes. Or really any purposes other than to give you books should you be drawn as a winner.

And if you're interested in the survey results, be sure to come back on Monday the 24th to see exactly how freakishly abnormal your book-buying tendencies may be compared to the rest of the world (or at least that portion of the rest of the world who took the survey).

Got Titles?

2011-10-18T09:55:00.001-07:00

Need a title for a manuscript? At the Ruby blog we're brainstorming for the masses today and DUDE I'm having an abnormally good time throwing out (semi) helpful suggestions! Want to help name a yet-to-be-published book? Come play!

How to Take Feedback

2011-10-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

So you've written your novel (woot!), you've found a critique partner or vaguely impartial loved-one to read it, and they've given you an opinion (or several). Now comes the tricky part. Learning to take it. Maybe some people are born with this ability, but I think for most writers just starting out, it takes some practice to perfect. The trick, I think, is learning not to argue with your audience.

If someone says your heroine seems unmotivated, it's tempting to explain to them why their reaction is unreasonable. How you put in that one sentence in chapter three and if they'd only read it right they would see her motivation crystal clear. It's instinctive to defend our work, but every reader is going to react to it differently and you have to respect their reaction. Instead of trying to get them to read it right, or explaining why their reaction wasn't the one you wanted, consider how you can make your heroine's motivation more clear, how you can make it so your reader has NO CHOICE but to react the way you want them to. Box them in with your precision prose.

Think of your beta readers as people who are helping you find the places where your reader might escape your carefully laid path, and then patch the fences to keep them neatly corralled. And thank your betas. Profusely. Because it is much MUCH better to find out about problems in your book when you still have a chance to fix them rather than after the paying customers get their hands on it.

Fix It Friday: Real Steel

2011-10-14T22:28:00.001-07:00

There is a real art to the underdog story. You start with a character you can root for, someone you like and/or relate to and can really get behind. Then you put that character up against impossible odds, and just when it seems like all hope is lost, your character's heart, tenacity, faith and sheer willpower drag them through to an incredible victory. And everybody cheers!

Karate Kid. Seabiscuit. Rocky. Rudy. Major League. We've seen it time and again and we just keep coming back for more, because that addictive underdog story sweeps us up and carries us on a tide of feel-good tinglies right out of the theatre.

Real Steel was not that movie.

Reel Steal wanted to be that movie. It wasn't trying to be Death Race or Running Man or any other kind of dystopian-social-commentary-anything. There were moments when it almost wanted to be Free Willy (if Willy was a giant robot rather than a giant whale), but in this edition of Fix-It Fridays, we're going to teach Real Steel how to be a feel-good underdog story. Ready? Let's get to it.

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Spoilers! We got 'em and we're not afraid to scatter them wantonly throughout the post. Consider yourself warned.**

Let's start by looking at ingredient number one of the underdog story: the hero you can root for. Within the first fifteen minutes of Real Steel, we know that Our Hero is running from several people to whom he owes large sums of money and we get to see how he came to be in debt when he himself instigates a reckless bet for twenty-thousand dollars which he loses when he is distracted by a random cute girl in the crowd, allowing his robot (and only source of income) to be destroyed. We also learn that he is a prick with children when he tells a trio of adorable little girls that they can only have a picture with his robot if they give him five bucks. AND THEN, as if that wasn't enough to make him the apple of everyone's eye, we learn that he abandoned his child a decade ago and does not know that child's age - consistently referring to him as nine rather than eleven (even after he and said son have started to bond). What do you say? Isn't that the kind of guy you want to see rise up against the odds and win the day? Of course he is. Especially after he offers to SELL his legal custody of his son (whom he sort of inherited after the mother died) to his ex's sister for a hundred grand and only agrees to spend time with the kid to seal the deal.

At this point in the film, I don't want to see him succeed. I don't even really want to see him learn his lesson about what it is to be a father and grow as a human being. I just want to see a robot malfunction and pummel the hell out of him. Please.

That's not an underdog. That's an asshole. Don't worry, Hollywood, it's an easy mistake to make. They look so darn similar.

Let's move on to tenet number two of the successful underdog film: impossible odds. We are shown a brief montage about midway through the film demonstrating the unbeatable awesomeness that is the super-robot Zeus. I think I might be supposed to dislike the team behind Zeus, though it is hard to tell why, unless it is based on the fact that they are beautiful, rich and intelligent enough to build an undefeatable robot. Yes, the odds of defeating Zeus are impossible, but they aren't really in front of our hero & his kid. Our heroic father-son robot team essentially call them out on national television, so... well, let's look at it like this: would you still root for David if he ran around trash-talking Goliath until Goliath finally agreed to fight him?

And the third element - victory through heart, passion, willpower, etc. Oi. When we see Rocky get knocked down and he struggles to his feet, in spite of the pain we know he must be in, we are awed by his strength of character. The makers of Real Steel were at a disadvantage. They don't have Rocky. They have a robot which cannot feel pain (regardless of the fact that they made a couple half-assed attempts to humanize it a la A.I.) and when he is knocked down and struggles back up in the face of system-failure, it isn't willpower that does it (his or his operator's), it's just mechanics. I'm not moved by my toaster's ability to keep popping up the toast, day after day, no matter the abuse heaped on it.

So how do we fix it? Oh my. Brace yourselves, darlings. This is a big 'un. It might take a while.

First, a quick fix with a flaw in the premise - the idea that a bloodless bloodsport could replace real boxing because it was "more violent" which implies that violence without actual threat of injury or danger is more riveting than the same including the potential for human injury... dude, seriously? Instead, we say that real boxing was outlawed because all of the MMA stuff had gotten out of control with folks dying in the ring and Robo-Boxing took its place as a safer alternative.

Honestly, if I were going to really fix this baby, I'd probably ax the entire opening and re-angle the entire film to be more from the kid's perspective. His is the most interesting story to me. But to keep as much of the story-structure in place as possible, we're going to let Hugh Jackman continue being The Star... and a huge douche (though we are going to down-grade his asshole quotient by a factor of ten).

We open on a scene twelve years before the action of the plot. It's Our Hero's big fight, his big chance as a boxer. The high point of his career. We see his trainer (Evangeline Lilly's dad), we see Evangeline and her puppy love for his manly self, and we see the woman who will become Max's mom. The commentators at the match are talking about the new Robo-Boxing fad and whether it will ever take off. Our hero will get cold-cocked by the Texas jerk in a Mayweather-esq move of questionable sportsmanship. He goes down and sustains some injury such that his career is over. He will leave the girlfriend (Max's mom-to-be) and his trainer and everyone and head off to try his luck in the Robo-ring, because he sees himself as a fighter and only that. He can't stop now. He will not know that Max was conceived and therefore is not a dead-beat dad on purpose. But we learn all of that throughout the course of the film. We cut away at the knockout.

What next we see is Our Hero, down on his luck, trying to string something together, strapped for cash and in debt (but not gambling stupidly) and getting unlucky (not losing due to his own stupidity and overly cocky attitude). The kid he didn't know about lands on his doorstep unexpectedly and he's stuck with him for a few months but he DOES NOT sell the child and he tries to sort of play at dad half-heartedly. I know this makes it into a dozen other cliche cheesy family-friendly movies (many starring the Rock and an adorable girl who likes to bedazzle footballs), but having your hero actually SELL his freaking CHILD... it's hard to come back from that when it comes to likeability.

When they find the robot, Atom, our hero will humor the kid at first (rather than telling him over and over again that his dream is stupid and pointless) and then eventually start to believe in the 'bot and through that begin to bond with the child. To make sure we still have conflict, he could, at some point, sell the kid's bot out from under him for the money and then have to make it right. Or perhaps child protective services becomes involved at some point and he has to prove that he's a fit father... but what we need is for him to be struggling against circumstances, not causing his own bad situation with bad choices (and the bad karma of his extreme jerkishness).

Also, the bad-guy 'bot, Zeus, and his owners could offer up some kind of prize to anyone who can defeat the undefeated robot. That gives the kid a motivation to challenge the Big Bad to a fight and provides a concrete reward if they win. It's always good for the audience to know what we're rooting for. (As it stands, I'm not even a hundred percent sure how this story ended. Who has custody of the kid?)

And after we've done all that, after we've developed concrete stakes for the prize-fight and have a root-able hero, we just hope that it's enough to counteract the fact that robots don't have feelings and can't overcome their emotional challenges. (Or perhaps we go to greater lengths to demonstrate that the robot has human-esq cognition. That could be cool. To have it "glitch" at convenient moments to help the kid or demonstrate emotion of some kind.)

That's the fix (or as much of one as I have energy for tonight). Then maybe, just maybe, then we'll have the makings of an underdog story.

Golden Heart Tips

2011-10-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

Today I'm over at the Ruby blog, talking with my fellow Rubies about writing tips for folks who are focused on entering the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart awards. If you are of the writing inclination, swing on by and check out the Rubies' series of Golden Heart tips.

My brilliant tip? Luck. It's all luck. That's my theory.

Ghost Art!

2011-10-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

Ghosts of Boyfriends Past, my ghosts and Valentine's curses novella (or perhaps we should call it a novella-plus since it's a bit on the long side) which'll be hitting the shelves this coming January now has a pretty face to show the world! Look, everyone, ART!

Angela Waters gave me this slice of pretty to show off. Isn't it deliciously curse-ish? I'm all aflutter.

What do you think? (And does anyone else want to steal that model's hair? Or is that just me?)

Love is SUPER!

2011-10-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

The "i"s are dotted. The "t"s crossed. You know what that means, boys and girls. I can talk about it! Woot!

It's official. My superhero romance, Superlovin', will be included in the Spring Samhain anthology of Superhero Sexiness! It's love in capes, y'all! You know spandex has never been sexier. (I flippin' love this book, y'all. Sooooo excited.)

What happens when a superheroine finds herself falling for the very supervillain she was sent to thwart? Tune in this Spring to find out. Just in time for the next Avengers fix! (Yes, I want to be Black Widow when I grow up.)

I would kermit flail with glee right now except for the fact that I'm likely to send myself into a coughing fit, so please dance around your living rooms on my behalf until I'm healthy enough to manage it myself.

The Success Sequence

2011-09-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

I analyze everything. And because I'm narcissistic, I especially analyze myself and my reactions to stuff. This week I got some good news (which I will share as soon as the ink is dry...) and I realized I've developed a pattern of reactions to good news and success and whatnot. It's rather boring to be so emotionally predictable, but there it is. And now I share with you, because I can... and because I'm interested if other people have a similar sequence they go through when they get good news.

Reaction the First: Elation. Yep, not surprisingly I am euphoric when something happy-making happens, but what may surprise you is how long this lasts... or doesn't last. For me, it's usually only about twenty minutes to an hour or so. After that, I stop smiling for no reason, randomly bouncing in my chair with glee, and calling folks to share my gushy enthusiasm.

Reaction the Second: Guilt. I know I work hard for the good things that come my way. It's not that I don't think I deserve them. It's not that I don't want them. But I feel bad for getting them - like by being successful I am purposefully screwing over all the other people who want what I have who don't have it yet. I don't feel like this all the time (thank god, because how would you function?), but for about an hour immediately after my elation phase, I feel like a horrible terrible no-good bad dreadful person for getting exactly what I worked for.

What gets me out of this mode?

Reaction the Third: Planning. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, right? So when the best happens, you have to shuffle your plans to accommodate. When is my good thing coming, how will it impact my plans, what do I need to do to prepare, what comes next? I make lists on every available writing surface. I call my parents to tell them about my "New Plan!" I dig into my goals spreadsheet and plug in new data. And then...

Action: Moving On. It's a few hours after I got my news and I'm past it. Focused on implementing my new plan, moving on toward the new shiny goal. I've never been good at wallowing in success, which I think is probably a good thing. If you spend too much time focused on what you did, it can clutter up the path to what you are going to do.

So what about you? How do you react to good news?

Love at First Sight is Lame

2011-09-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm over at the Ruby blog yammering about why I think love at first sight is boring in romance novels. Swing on by and argue with me! Tell me why insta-infatuation rocks.

Epic, Dude.

2011-09-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Guess what, boys and girls? The Winter Wishes anthology, featuring my lil Christmas novella No Angel, along with most excellent works by the divine Moira Rogers (Freeze Line) and transcendent Vivian Arend (Tangled Tinsel) has been named as a finalist in the 2012 EPIC Awards. Can I get a woohoo?

Also among the finalists is my good friend, the fabulous Kelli Scott for her novella Stormy Wedding!

Congratulations to all the finalists and good luck!

Make It Golden Contest for Writers

2011-09-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

If you are an aspiring writer planning on entering the Golden Heart this year, hie yourself over to the Ruby Blog RIGHT THIS INSTANT. The Make It Golden Contest is now live. No entry fee for the Make It Golden Contest and the prize is a paid Golden Heart entry fee. Only the first 100 entries will be considered, so polish up your first line and scamper over to enter. Don't delay!

The Vegas Tally

2011-09-22T16:24:00.001-07:00

While in Vegas this week, in a one hour period I saw:

2 Elvises
3 Brides in poofy gowns
4 Ambulances (rushing to the aid of alcohol poisoning victims...)

...and a partridge in a pear treeeeee.

Also, wandering back from admiring the fountains at the Bellagio (love!), a guy handing out nightclub flyers offered unlimited alcohol for women until 5 am "if you can stay standing that long". Yeah... cuz that sounds... awesome. And not at all sketchy. BYOR: Bring Your Own Rohypnol!

Stay classy, Vegas.

Ruby Birthday Bash

2011-09-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

The Rubies are having our second annual Birthday Bash and you know what that means - PRIZES! GAMES! Yeah, we're nerdy and we love it. There are toddler pictures (including one of yours truly) and random trivia and SCADS of prizes to be won (gift cards, books, you name it). So trot on over to the Ruby Blog and snag yourself up some awesome.

Joyfully Reviewed

2011-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ooh, lookie, you guys! A new review for Serengeti Sunrise! Joyfully Reviewed is full of joy and awesomeness as they chat about Tyler and Zoe HERE.

"Vivi Andrew’s Serengeti Sunrise is a sexy smashing shifter love story!"

Doesn't it just make you all warm and fuzzy to hear that? And the word "smashing" is one of my personal favorites, so I'm doubly giddy. I'm gonna wander around today calling everything I see "Smashing!" A practice I highly recommend.

Random Musings from the Road

2011-09-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in travel mode at the moment, gallivanting without much in the way of direction across these United States. As I'm drifting, certain snippets always strike me as ridiculous funny. Today, I share with you my random (and at times somewhat inappropriate and/or mildly offensive) Musings from the Road!

I love staying in casino hotels. I don't gamble (and I seriously do not understand the appeal of slot machines) but I flat out love the fact that random strangers wish you luck in the elevator. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. I might just start wishing random passersby good luck regardless of where I am, but I'm thinking outside of a casino atmosphere it might seem creepy or mildly threatening. Good luck in context: Yay! Good luck out of context: What do you know? Why do I need luck? What's that supposed to mean? So maybe I won't take it up as my greeting of choice.
In lovely West Texas, I saw the following billboard: "'We need to talk.' -God"
Now, I don't know about you, but my first response was. "WTF? God's breaking up with me?" Because, dude, I have never before seen such classic break-up words used as a come-to-Jesus. He was probably cheating on me with that slutty Vishnu with all her extra arms...
Religious billboards in general crack me up. Especially the ones that are like those Burma Shave ones from Ye Olden Tymes where they ask you a perfectly interesting thought provoking question ("Where will you spend eternity?") only to follow it up a few miles down the road with HELL IS REAL or some other deeply cheery PSA. I seriously wonder how many people take up religion from a Burma-Shave ambush billboard. Kinda like I wonder how effective people who stand on street corners banging Bibles and screaming verse at passing cars actually think they are.
And in unreligious news... In Arizona, this little gem was on a ginormous billboard: "Indian City. Blankets: $5" Blankets for five bucks, you guys! Small pox included! (Okay, I know, it's a cringey joke. Too soon?)
And last, but certainly not least, I found Radiator Springs! (From Cars, for those of you without Pixar-addicted children in your life.) In Holbrook, Arizona, I tripped across the actual Cozy Cone (though they called it the Wigwam Motel), but seriously! There's Mater too! Look! (I was waaaay too excited by this discovery. Feel free to mock me for my giddyness.)

And that's all for now folks. Now you all know what it's like to go on a road trip with me - only without the vaguely tuneful belting along with the radio.

Selective Memory Loss

2011-09-12T11:09:00.001-07:00

I was chatting with my dad last night about the World's Greatest Sport (we're both baseball junkies). We were watching the 49ers win (a few thousand miles apart but still able to enjoy the game together - don't you just love technology?) and complaining that football has officially taken over the airwaves and overshadowed the pennant races as it does every September. The conversation wandered through coaching and mental toughness when my dad brought up one of my favorite jokes on Major League Relief Pitching.

"What's a reliever's best friend? A short memory."

You can't fixate on yesterday's shelling. Or yesterday's success. You have to enter each game as a blank slate.

Today, on one of my writer loops, there is a conversation about bad reviews. I mean nasty, awful, dreadful, worst-book-ever-written style reviews. The kind that actually make us laugh they are so over-the-top vitriolic. A bunch of authors were posting clips of their worst reviews (and they were jaw-droppingly horrible). Now, I'm not immune. I've gotten some whoppers. But I realized I couldn't jump into the Worst Review Ever competition. Why?

Selective memory loss.

I remember that I got shelled, but in a vague, yep-that-happened kind of way. The words themselves blurred.

Even though I could easily have looked up those one-star gems to refresh my memory, I decided not to. The good it might do (of giving me something to laugh about on the loop) couldn't compare to the harm it might do (of undermining my confidence when I'm trying to plow through The Book That Will Not Die).

Writers are like relief pitchers. We need that blank slate. That short memory. And a certain amount of tunnel-vision.

The Wolfie World Tour!

2011-09-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

The always fabulous Vivian Arend is hosting me at her blog today and we're talking about A Cop & A Feel. Ever wonder what Matt would take on vacation or where the happy couple would go for a special anniversary? Swing by for the scoop and stay for the awesomeness that is the ever-awesome Vivian Arend! (And comment for a chance to score an e-copy of any of the Karmic stories!)

And don't miss Black Gold, her latest yummy werewolf romance, coming next week from Samhain!

Specifically Set

2011-09-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

I happen to be on another of my road-trips at the moment. My little car is fast approaching 100,000 miles as I tool through the Southwest. As I'm driving through the vast, largely empty expanses of West Texas for the first time since I wrote the Serengeti Shifters series that takes place there, I find myself: 1) relieved that I'd remembered it accurately enough that I am not cringing at every mile over the mistakes I made (though I'm sure I made plenty) and 2) ruminating on setting specificity.

Do you like books that take place in very specific locations or do you prefer the generic Anytown, USA settings?

The benefit of the first is that you get a strong sense of place, but there be landmines in specificity.

I have a hard time reading books that take place in Alaska or Hawaii because I know enough about the uniqueness of those places that any little wobble will throw me out of the story. I had to put down a book by a Beyond Awesome Author because she used a combination of phrases to describe an Alaskan location that made no sense to me because of the slang we use to describe our regions. (Southeast & Interior are two very different regions and to combine them... dude, I have no idea where you are talking about - but if you had said the southeast of the interior, it would have made total sense. It's a tiny little word that no one would care about except someone from my big ole state.)

But how many people would notice or care about those wobbles? To everyone else the specificity of place will provide atmosphere and enrich the setting. So should you only write about settings you know like the back of your hand?

Kristan Higgins writes about the Northeast - largely Maine and Massachusetts. Jennifer Crusie's books tend to take place in Ohio. Keri Arthur's books live in Melbourne. Do we, as authors, need to regionalize ourselves?

What do you prefer to read?

Endings that End

2011-09-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

I like resolution. There, I said it. Although, to be perfectly honest, my feelings for resolution are a bit more passionate than mere liking. I yearn for resolution. I long for it. I pine. Obsession, thy name is resolution.

This is why I prefer movies to TV. TV is all about stringing the viewer along, giving us just enough resolution to keep us from turning away in disgusted frustration while agonizing us with cliffhanger after cliffhanger.

So I wait until the shows are canceled and get every season to watch back-to-back on DVD, but sometimes even that is unsatisfying because the talented television writers who excel at spinning out a series and stringing you along for three or four years tend to suck at tying up loose ends.

Give me a romance novel any day, where I know I will get my satisfying resolution as payment for my time and emotional investment. Or a good fantasy epic series... which has an ending. For years, no matter how many recommendations I received, I avoided The Wheel of Time & Game of Thrones books because they were incomplete series and I knew it would make me climbing-the-walls-with-my-fingernails insane if they cliffhangered me.

I have temporarily stopped reading Stephanie Plum. Not because Janet Evanovich stopped being awesome, but because the episodic resolution at the end of each book just seemed to get less and less satisfying. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series doesn't even have a passing flirtation with resolution anymore. I realize these ladies are rockstar goddesses, but why do they have to do this to me? And why do I let them? Why am I so masochistic that I keep reading them anyway, knowing there will be no resolution?

I recently got sucked into the Karen Marie Moning Fever series. And book three went flying across the room when she cliffhangered me. There might have been shrieking and a temper tantrum worthy of a two year old, but I confess to nothing. I would have gone right out and bought books four and five - except for one fact. A friend who knew I was reading them said, "Did you know she just got a contract to write three more?" to which my response was "Noooooooo." Not because they aren't awesome or I wish her anything but the epic success she deserves, but because I want my ending and I will never get it until she is forced to stop the series!

Moning. Briggs. Hamilton. Evanovich. Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why do writers with such an exquisite ability to get us to invest in their characters and suck us into their worlds have to torture us with unsatisfying endings? And why can't I quit them?

Bev Pettersen is Full of Awesome

2011-08-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

Guess what, boys and girls? I just got an email from yesterday's visitor, equestrian writing guru Bev Pettersen, and she'd like to give away FREE copies of Color My Horse to everyone who commented yesterday on the blog! How awesome is that?

To redeem your copy of Color My Horse by the excellent (and generous!) Ms. Pettersen, please email me at vivi@viviandrews.com and I will make sure you receive the redemption code for a FREE download! (The code does expire on Sunday, so don't delay!)

All together now: THANK YOU, BEV!!!

Is she not full of win?

A Horse of a Different Color Romance

2011-08-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

I come from a horse-crazy family. My mom rode, two of my aunts are renown for their dressage riding and training chops, and even I rode as a young 'un (though I never came close to the level of awesome of my badass aunts). And all of us read romance. But where are the romances for horse-crazy chickies? Where are the romance authors who know their fetlocks from their withers?

Bev Pettersen is just such an author. (I like to call her the Dick Francis of Romance.) A fellow Ruby, she's been writing racetrack romance with a little murder mystery thrown in for years, but the Big New York publishers didn't believe there was an audience for the subgenre, so she decided to skip the middle man and self-publish through Westerhall to find her horse-crazy romance readers. Her first two novels, Jockeys & Jewels and Color My Horse. released earlier this year. Here's a peek:

Jockeys & Jewels
Racehorse trainer, Kurt MacKinnon, resents being yanked into undercover police work. But when his ex-partner is murdered, Kurt is determined to find the killer and moves his third-string Thoroughbreds to the backwater track where his partner was last seen alive.

Julie West, a struggling and dedicated jockey, pins her dreams of an elusive win on the new trainer in town, never suspecting she’s a person of interest—and not because of her riding skills.

Kurt didn’t expect his contrary colt to flourish under Julie’s feminine touch nor for his own rusty heart to soften. However, his deceit sucks them both into the cross hairs of a killer, and suddenly much more than their love is in danger.

Buy for only $.99 from Amazon :: Buy from Barnes & Noble

Color My Horse A disillusioned heiress swaps her credit cards for a pitchfork and shovel in a desperate attempt to escape her grandfather’s iron-fisted control. However, at the track she must earn the respect of an uncompromising horse trainer who has little tolerance for greenhorns, especially one he’s been forced to hire.

Mark Russell never expected his rookie groom to have the spunk or savvy to last at his demanding race barn. Or that his reluctant respect would turn to desire. But as the forbidden attraction between them sizzles, manipulation and murder threaten not only his horses but also their lives. And suddenly a Breeders’ Cup win is the very least of his worries.

Buy from Amazon

Meet Bev:

When Bev broke her leg galloping at the track, a friend brought a Dick Francis novel to the hospital and she was hooked. Horses had always been a integral part of her life, from Pony Club as a child and later within the dynamic world of horse racing so the combination of books and horses was irresistible.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Bev moved to Alberta and spent five years racing and training Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. Her love of racing has taken her to Texas, Kentucky, California, Ontario, New York, and Dubai.

She earned her Bachelor of Business Degree from Mount Saint Vincent University and is an Equine Canada certified coach. Bev lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and two teenagers and when she’s not writing, likes to be riding.

Are you horse crazy? Do you love a romance (or other) novel with some equine elements thrown in? Tell me about your favorites!

The Stamos Cuddle

2011-08-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

You guys. John Stamos wants to cuddle with you.

I'm Not Really Listening to You

2011-08-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, I think this is just a genetic quirk passed on from my father, but it might be a writer thing so I'm gonna blog about it, because it kinda cracks me up... when it isn't slightly screwing up my life.

I ignore people. Not all the time. I've been told I'm an excellent listener and I like to think of myself as being highly aware of undercurrents and whatnot. Except... (there's always a "but" isn't there?) When I'm concentrating (writing, most often, but any kind of pure focus will elicit the same response), I completely ignore whoever is talking to me. This wouldn't be as much of a problem (I always apologize when I come up from the depths of my brain where I've fallen during the concentration period) except for the fact that I talk while I do this. I respond, logically and at times eloquently, to the person asking me questions. And I have no memory of these responses or the conversation at all. I remember that you are physically in the room and there are words happening, but that's it.

My dad is exactly the same way. You don't ask him to make plans with you when he is reading his newspaper. It will just end badly.

The trouble is there's no obvious cue that it's happening. I sound totally normal. It's amazing people don't think I'm a blithering idiot when I make them replay the high points of a conversation I just had.

Luckily my family and friends tend to find this funny and I almost always remember that I've talked to someone later, even if I don't remember what was said (or sometimes even who I was talking to). It's not something I do consciously, so I'm not sure how one would even go about breaking yourself of this habit. I just try to compensate the best I can.

Certainly keeps things interesting.

Anyone else out there in internet land do this?

Chuck the Wise

2011-08-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

For the record, I kinda love Chuck of Terrible Minds. So now, I send you forth to be educated by the awesomeness that is his view on Social Media for Writers. (Probably not safe for work and intended for adults and all that type disclaimery stuff.) Just don't forget to "Engage with the 3-D fleshy meatbags" occasionally.

...and also, for the super-secret-author-handshake-inside-scoop on how to write a book. Kindly refer to This Post by Chuck. (Hint: You just write it.)

...or really all of his posts. I really love that brain of his.

Don't Mess with Texas

2011-08-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's time for another eye-rolling edition of "Really? You're that upset about a book?"

The Texas Department of Transportation is suing author Christie Craig and her publisher. Know why? Because the title of her latest release is "Don't Mess With Texas" and they trademarked that phrase as part of their anti-littering campaign. Still wondering why they're suing? Well, folks, it appears that Christie Craig's latest has been deemed "porn" in the lawsuit and the title of her book will cause "irreparable harm" to their attempts to keep Texas clean.

What a great thing for the government of Texas to do, right? Fabulous use of tax payer dollars.

I saw a workshop of Christie's once. Funny lady. Good writer. She writes light-hearted, flirty contemporaries in the vein of Jennifer Crusie if you haven't read her before. Click here to check out Don't Mess With Texas.

**UPDATE: This afternoon a judge threw out the case. Go Sam Sparks! Not only do you have a great name, you also have common sense. Well done, your honor.**

Get Your End-Of-The-World Now!

2011-08-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

Good morning, reader-minions! Guess what! Reawakening Eden, my tale of love after the end of the world, is now available for pre-order from Amazon! (And there was much rejoicing in Casa Andrews.) Behold:

When life is a struggle, love is the ultimate luxury.

Librarian Eden Fairfax knows exactly where to find books about survival. None of them mentioned how to manage in the aftermath of a worldwide epidemic—with two young orphans in tow.

On a journey south to warmer climes, she finds sanctuary for all three of them among a community of survivors in Seattle. Until she realizes the children are the centerpiece of their bizarre new religion. There’s no choice but to run as far and as fast as her stolen car will go.

Former Army Ranger Connor Reed had planned to live out the end of the world in peace. Yet he can’t stand by and do nothing while a lone woman defends two children from an armed thug. Even if doing something means taking the trio in.

Eden’s not sure if the armed hermit is her salvation or an even more dangerous threat. A blizzard forces her to trust him with their lives, and in Connor’s arms she remembers what it’s like to live.

Just beyond the edge of the storm, though, the cult leader awaits his chance to get his hands on the children—and make Eden his next sexual sacrifice.

Warning: This book contains a strong, silent action-hero, a tough, tenacious heroine, a pair of steal-your-heart kids, and a pony-sized dog named Precious.

What say you? Sound like your kind of apocalypse?

Fix It Fridays: The Green Lantern

2011-08-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

You know, based on the one-star review from my local paper and the horrendous word of mouth, I thought The Green Lantern was going to be among the worst films ever made, but you know, it really wasn't that bad. (A ringing endorsement, I know.) The general plotline was good (if a bit heavy-handed - dude, if one more person said the word "fear" I was gonna give them something to be afraid of) and the cast was pretty badass (and just pretty, too. Ryan Reynolds is so six-packy!).

But they made a mistake. One which I think is kinda elementary. Writing 101. Here's the rule (and this is not a rule I found anywhere, just something I'm making up as I go along, so take with a grain of salt): No matter how cool and interesting your world is, your viewer needs a reason to care about it. A connection with a character connects you with the world and gives you a reason to watch.

You know all those disaster movies where the world is crumbling to pieces? Have you ever noticed how they all begin with one random dude (usually not even a primary character, just some guy) being impacted by the first sign that there is disaster to come? It's not a voice-over telling us that there is an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, it is that human moment of Average Joe realizing "Oh shit, an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth!"

Now, good movies can begin with a brief voice-over, a line or two, but if you're still once upon a time-ing after five minutes, your audience is starting to rustle their jujubee wrappers. The Green Lantern's opening seemed to go on forever - and what really killed it for me was the fact that ALL of that information had to be revealed to the hero later in the film anyway, so it's not like we wouldn't have had a chance to learn all of this (really not that urgent) world-building then.

So immortal dudes harness will, build planet, form green lanterns, imprison fear-eater dude, fear eater-dude breaks free, attacks latern guy's ship, lantern guy gets away but is badly injured and is headed toward earth. At most what we need of that is that latern guy was attacked and is injured & headed toward earth. The rest can wait.

The problem with starting with massive chunks of worldbuilding is that it sucks away time that could have been used establishing the relationships between the hero & the girl & the villain. They all knew each other in their childhoods. The bonds they formed then are important. The day Hal's father is killed seems rather crucial, but all we get is one tiny flashback of the crash with no shots of the girl or the villain? What the movie needed to do was open there. Open on the HUMAN side of the story, not the alien side.

Three kids who will later grow into the pivotal trio, playing on an airfield during a test flight. You see how each of their fathers shaped who they became. You see that the hero & the girl have a connection (perhaps she is the one to first try to comfort him when he sees his father blow up). You see the villain is brilliant but always feels like an outsider. Then when you jump forward and they are all adults, you don't have to work so hard to demonstrate a depth of relationship between those three.

What's weird is that the rest of the movie almost plays as if that scene was really in the opening. I often had this feeling like I was supposed to know the relationships, the history. If I had, I might have cared more about the characters. Instead we meet our hero for the first time when he is crawling out of bed with a blonde we never see again and on his way to have a fight with the heroine before flying a daring test flight. It was like the Rocketeer, only... not.

Moral of the story: Harry Potter doesn't start with a voice over explaining that Hogwarts exists and magic is cool. It starts with Harry. Our character is our access point to the world. So instead of starting with the green lantern mythos and working inward, start with Hal and work out. That's the fix.

End of the World Art!

2011-08-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me! Guess what I got for being a good girl this year? Post-apocalyptic art, boys and girls! It's the end of the world as we know it and, my, doesn't it look fine. Reawakening Eden will be hitting the shelves this November and while there are no zombies, there are studly mountain men, feisty librarians and a post-apocalyptic world. Woot!

What do you think, y'all? Is that not some badass cover art?

The Appeal of the Zombie Apocalypse

2011-08-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Our friends at the New York Times have shared their estimable opinions on the Zombie Lit trend. And, as frequently happens with folks who try to analyze a trend from the outside (usually from above whilst looking down their noses) I'm inclined to think they got it wrong. In my oh-so-humble opinion. (Don't laugh. I'm a font of humility.)

See, our friends at the New York Times focused on the scary scary monster aspect of the zombie trend, but I think the real appeal of zombie lit - and really any post-apocalyptic literature - is in the survivalist aspect. And I think there's an element of shoot-em-up video game glee involved too.

In the zombie apocalypse, morality is survival and you don't have to feel guilty about taking a shot gun or a machete or a baseball bat to that zombie's head because it's already dead. You aren't just fighting for yourself, but for the survival of all mankind. There's a nobility in your zombie killing spree, heroism in your rampant violence.

Not to mention the fact that the zombie apocalypse is the great equalizer. Shaun of the Dead? Zombieland? Our heroes are the ultimate average Joes. The guys who would never be your standard action heroes, but they are survivors and they get the hot chick and live happily ever after (as much as that is possible in the post-apocalyptic world).

Vampires live forever. Werewolves embrace their animalism. But zombies, those are just for killin', baby. At least that's my theory. Your thoughts?

Gremlins... Zombies.. Same Diff

2011-08-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

So I know I promised Zombies today, because I've been rather obsessed with the zombie apocalypse lately, but instead the universe decided to give me gremlins - in the form of a check engine light and a day with mechanics. Moral of the story - in the interest of my car continuing to run, the Zombie Apocalypse will resume tomorrow. As you were.

Easy Imaginability

2011-08-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

There's this concept I've been kind of in love with for a while now: Accessibility, as it relates to how easy it is to imagine yourself engrossed in a certain book. I babbled, rather profusely, over at the Ruby blog today about accessibility, high concept, trends, and how a writer can lure you into envisioning yourself in your favorite chair curled up with their book. Come check out my fabulous pseudo-intellectual ramblings, y'all! http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/accessibility/

And tomorrow... Zombies!

Last Chance!

2011-08-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

If you're an aspiring romance author type and you're planning to enter the Golden Heart this year and you want some feedback on your opening, the Golden Pen contest closes tomorrow (the 15th!) for entries.

Go forth and conquer Romancelandia, minions! (I really needed to call someone "minion!" today. Just sayin'.)

Also, if you are a published author type and feeling the inclination to judge, such volunteering is always welcome and much appreciated. Click here to register to judge.

An Unbiased Opinion?

2011-08-10T08:32:00.001-07:00

There's a very interesting blog & conversation going on at the Ruby Blog today by Honorary Ruby Gabriella Lessa about critiques, jealousy among writers, and gender differences between male and female writers. I'm quite intrigued. Head on over if you'd like a gander: http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/critiques/

Snazzy New Website Stuff

2011-08-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

Lookee, boys and girls! I put something shiny and new up on Das Website! It's a reading recommendations page! I'm all psyched. (As evidenced by the proliferation of exclamation points.)
This fabulous new feature includes suggestions for books that are similar to my own in subject matter or style to keep you busy until my next book comes out (so no more complaining about me writing slowly, minions!), and I've listed some of my all-time-favorite, slam-dunk-every-time authors.

Also new on the website: Serengeti Sins, the print anthology featuring Storm, Lightning & Sunrise, is now available for pre-order from Amazon & B&N! (Squeeeee!) And on the B&N page under "people who bought this also bought..." are a bunch of Nora Roberts books. Which, I will admit, caused me a startled double-blink. The books don't really seem to go together, but I suppose Nora is on EVERYONE's people who bought this also bought list, right? Like it's mandated by the Romance Gods or something? She is, after all, La Nora.

So, what do you think? Good list of books on the recs page? Have you already read them all? Or did your TBR just get bigger?

Fix It Fridays: Captain America & the Love Interest of Doom

2011-08-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

It's time for another exciting edition of Fix-It Fridays! Today we take a look at the 'Roid-a-licious Captain America! You too can juice it up for justice, baby!

Ready? Let's do this. Slap on your blue ski-mask of patriotism and let's get rockin'.

**Standard Disclaimer: There will be SPOILERS. Oh yes, there will be spoilers. Massive, six-packy, on-neon-blue-steroids SPOILERS. Consider yourself warned.**

For the record, I am not a Marvel purist. I love me some X-Men and some Avengers, but I'm not enraged when the movies are their own entity, bearing only a vague resemblance to the classic comic plotlines. Therefore, today we are examining the film on its own merits, independent of the Marvel-verse. Mmmkay?

Now, I'm a sucker for supers, so for the most part, I really enjoyed the movie, but as we walked out of the theater, I found myself saying, "Pretty cool. It's a shame the romance arc was totally f*cked." (I was chatting with friends. I promise. I do not just randomly announce my opinions to my fellow movie-goers in a sort of critical Tourette's.) One of my cohorts might have argued with me, and there might have been a no-holds-barred I-know-my-romance-arcs smackdown, but I confess to nothing.

You may be asking, What was wrong with the romance arc, Vivi? Oh, dear reader-friend, what wasn't wrong with it?

There was no happily ever after. Which, admittedly, in a super-flick is not that unusual, but there was no potential for a happily ever after or even a happy for now! At the end of the film, Captain America is cryogenically frozen in the impenetrable shell of his own awesomeness so he can be transported into the future seventy years and thawed out to participate in The Avengers movie next summer.

Seventy years. His love interest is either at least ninety-five years old or dead. Either way, he is much less likely to get with the bow-chicka-wow-wow. (I had a "My eyes!" moment when I accidentally visualized their reunion.)

What's wrong with that? She was presented as The One, reader-friends. The romance arc told us that these two were gonna live happily ever after, dammit. But instead, our heroine either spent her life A) pining for the death of Captain America (downer) or B) got over it and married someone else and popped out a bunch of babies (thus invalidating the romance).

My friend (who foolishly thought to argue romance with me) stated that Captain America doesn't need a love interest because he's married to America. At which point I restrained myself from yelling, "Then why was he cheating on America with Hayley Atwell?" I merely pointed out that the filmmakers established dear Peggy as the Love Interest and then essentially killed her off. Which means Captain America is going to be pining for her for the entirety of the Avengers movie. And as anyone who has seen the Bourne Trilogy knows, there is nothing more pathetic than a pining action hero.

Now perhaps the filmmakers are planning to reveal that Peggy somehow got sucked into the future too, still all young and pretty (let's all roll our eyes together and groan at the totally over-the-top suspension of disbelief required to pull off that ploy) OR they are going to bring in a Peggy lookalike (maybe even a granddaughter) to captivate the Captain (which I find more than a little creepy, not gonna lie). Otherwise, we get Captain Angst in the Avengers and... gotta say, not looking forward to that. Thank God for Robert Downey Jr's snark and My Editor's Hollywood Boyfriend's muscles to keep us from being drowned in Captain Angst's tears.

The annoying thing, to me, is that this was such an easy fix! (Vivi takes a moment to swear and stomp in a circle. Oh, the frustration!)

THE FIX: Peggy is already married. Ta-da! She is the unattainable. Her husband is either A) away at war or B) Howard Stark (somebody has to spawn Tony). She and the Captain still have chemistry, but there is this guilt/tension/resistance and they both know that their Love shall never be (and there can be some question on her side whether she really loves him or is just being kind to a boy who has a crush on her). When she believes him to be dying at the end, she can confess some kind of affection - but the viewer and she and the Captain all know that they could never have truly been together so even though he Longs and Yearns and all that Good Stuff, he is still Available to his True Love Interest in the Avengers or some later film.

But as is, we get to envision the depressing future of Peggy and watch Captain Angst pine, because Peggy is a distraction from his marriage to America. Woe. Woe is us.

Luckily, the Avengers has so many characters, odds are there won't be much screen time devoted to Captain America's girlfriend's hundredth birthday.

More of the Same

2011-08-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Every year, my college cohorts and I meet up for a week(end) and reconnect. We fly and drive from literally the world over to some central location and one of our yearly traditions is called "One, Five, Ten" - during which we give our professional & personal goals for the next one, five, and ten years.

This year I realized that my professional goals almost all included the words "keep on" or "continue" - even those that involved change. Such as my one year goal of "Reassess to determine how to best continue making a living at this crazy writing biz."

I'm not sure if this is a really awesome development (I'm a real writer, y'all! I did it!) or a sign that I need to step it up and figure out how to challenge myself with NEW goals.

My question to you is - what do you do to keep yourself motivated after you've achieved the initial goal that was your primary motivating factor? How do you keep your goals new and fresh?

Do you ever wonder if "continue" is perhaps the hardest part of any dream? Because we slowly lose the hunger that got us there in the first place and start to take it for granted? Like marriage. Staying married is so much harder than tying the knot, right? So this is my marriage counseling session - how do I stay in love with my career, the same way I was when our romance was new?

What's your secret?

If you liked...

2011-07-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

The quick bite-sized morsel of romancey goodness that was A Cop & A Feel, then you just might love the latest release from my (bias-alert) good friend Kelly Fitzpatrick, Dodging Cupid.

After a string of disastrous Valentine’s Days, broken hearts and failed relationships, Jenna’s decided to spend this Valentine’s Day in the least romantic spot possible—the coin-op laundry.

No flowers. No candy. No annoying couples or romance of any kind. The only glitch in her plan is the leather-clad biker in heart-print boxer shorts who walks in as her washer starts. This just might turn out to be the best Valentine’s Day Jenna’s ever had.

Light, fun, and goes down in one gulp. Get it HERE.

Thoughts on Originality

2011-07-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

I seem to be having rather a lot of conversations about plagiarism and original thought lately. Sometimes the universe just seems to want you to consider a certain topic.

Then, in the wake of all these conversations, I picked up Eloisa James's When Beauty Tamed the Beast. I knew I was going to love it (as I do all her books) and I'd actually recommended it for an impromptu Twitter book club @JamieWesley and I did. Little did I suspect what the most thought-bender-provoking element of the book would be for me.

**SPOILERS AHOY!!! BEWARE THE SPOILERS!!!**

For the record, it's an excellent book and my reading experience was one of pure delight, but the thing that really sticks with me about it was the fact that the hero was Gregory House. Not just similar, but as if the man himself had been dropped into it. A brilliant, misanthropic diagnostician with a permanently damaged leg (suspected to be due to muscle death no less) which causes constant pain and requires the aid of a cane. He has the familiar side-kicks - Sebastian certainly has echoes of Wilson, though his specialty is surgery rather than cancer. He has a keen awareness to a susceptibility to a substance abuse problem. He roughly berates his students and underlings and makes jokes at the expense of his patients as he saves their lives. He is House.

It was done not just intentionally, but blatantly - so the reader can't avoid the comparison if she is familiar with the television show. I'd be curious to know why. What motivated Eloisa James (an undeniable goddess of romance writing) to take this step that almost seems to veer in a mildly fan-fiction direction? When does an homage become something else?

I enjoyed the book thoroughly. The banter between the House-esq Piers and his beauty was brilliant, but while the dialogue was all unique and brilliantly EJ, the sentiment behind those lines was so frequently an echo of the Fox series. It was... I'm honestly not sure what I want to say it was. I love what she has constructed, and the book itself is so unique it is hard to think of it as derivative, but the character is borrowed.

There is a nod to it in the author's note, to all her sources and references, but this seemed more than source material to me. I'm honestly not sure what I think about it. My inclination is positive - but is that only because I enjoyed the book so much? And had I known this was going to be the case before I read the book, would I have approached it with a more jaundiced eye? If this had not been a historical romance, but a contemporary doctor, would I have reacted more negatively? Would the similarity of era made it seem like a cop out rather than a fascinating choice?

Ideas are not copyright protected and I am of the opinion that truly original ideas pretty much don't exist. Current writing is based on a foundation of centuries of literature and I'd say it is unlikely there is a thought that has not been thought by someone somewhere in the millennial history of art.

I love all the adaptations of Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Pride & Prejudice. I love the refreshing of a classic with a new twist.

I also love satire. I'm currently writing something with shades of satire and it's like a game, to draw the reader into my references. I write with many references and allusions, but the idea is to sort of point the reader to our shared cultural knowledge, rather than to draw directly from it. This character, while brilliant, felt slightly... lifted.

The House question has me... puzzled.

Have you read the book? Your thoughts?

What the Reader Brings

2011-07-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

**There are some spoilers for The Sexoricst (minor) and A Cop & A Feel (slightly less minor) below. Consider yourself warned.**

Yesterday, between my first exposure to Bones episodes (I'm not yet addicted but I am intrigued) and conversations in which my friends tried to convince me I should write a Superhero story about "The Amazing Math-o, fighting Inequality everywhere and battling his arch-nemesis, The Empty Set" (not a bad idea, really), I spared a few moments for ruminating on what a reader brings to a book.

You see, not so long ago someone asked me why I ended The Sexorcist with Brittany catching the bouquet. Did I have some hangup where it had to be all marriage-marriage-marriage to be a Happily-Ever-After? I replied that the book actually ends before the bouquet lands. Brittany just believes she will catch it, and apparently this reader did too. So was it my hang-up or the reader's? It's implied, but unstated. And catching a bouquet isn't exactly a contract in blood that marriage will follow. I caught my first one when I was about eleven years old, standing right next to my sister at my aunt's wedding. My sister, who has been married for over a decade while I remain happily single, is bouquetless to this day. So bouquets? Not infallible. I thought of the toss as ending the book with promise and possibility, it was the reader's mind that made it a contract.

Jasper Fforde talks about the dimension a reader brings to a book in his Eyre Affaire series (brilliant and highly recommended!!). He says something along the lines of (wildly paraphrasing here) the bulk of the book lives in a reader's imagination. The reader does most of the work. The author gives you the word "room" and a few descriptors. Your imagination fills in the walls and makes it real. Cool, huh? But the flip side of that is that as readers we bring the biases of our own lives to the book too.

I got Giggled this week. Mrs. Giggles, infamous purveyor of romance review snark, reviewed A Cop & A Feel. In the past, she's been a fan of the Karmic Consultants, but this one didn't float her boat, earning a 59 (out of 100, my worst score yet!) and the tagline "It's rather disturbing how a story this short manages to drive home so many times the mule-headed ineptness of the supposedly capable and intuitive cop hero." Oh dear, I don't think she cared for it, do you? But what intrigued me about the review, which my friendly Google Alert was kind enough to send me, was what it revealed about the reviewer's personal reading preferences and biases.

Take this line here: "The romance barely figures because there is no courtship here, just a mate ex machina plot device that expects me to accept that these two are just meant to be. They just are!" If you've read more than one of Mrs. Giggles's reviews, you learn quickly that she is rather violently opposed to any romance where a fated-to-be couple figures into the plot in any way.

But what's funny to me is that this is a story about a girl who can see the future. This isn't about whether they are meant to be, it's about whether they will be. Ronna meets Matt, sees a vision of a future with Matt, decides she wants that future and spends the rest of the book chasing after him to make sure she gets it. There is no mating. No Hand of Fate shoving two incompatible people together and forcing them to sex it up until they love one another. Just a hint from a future-glimpse that this guy could make the heroine really, really happy and the heroine trying to hang onto that future.

And here's the kicker, we don't know that Matt and Ronna are definitely forever gonna end up together. That, like so much of any book, is left to the reader's imagination. It ends when Ronna and Matt agree to go on their first date. There is no courtship because this story is an event, a moment in time. A Meet Cute with a Murder Plot.

But Mrs. Giggles saw nothing romantic in that twist of fate. She had a very negative reaction to Serengeti Heat for a similar reason. Oddly, I've never thought of my characters as being devoid of choice when it comes to their love-lives, but Mrs. Giggles sees that in my books (or at least in S.Heat and A Cop & A Feel). And you can't really say that she's wrong. Because the reader is so much a part of the experience, when she reads those books the "mate ex machina" is in there - whether it's there when you read it or not. Do you see what I mean?

I recently read When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James (and I'm still collecting my thoughts about it). I wondered if the knowledge I brought to the book, being familiar with the TV show House, drastically changed my reading experience. It's impossible to ever know, but the book I read isn't really exactly the same book someone who's never seen House read, is it?

I'm intrigued by this whole concept.

The reader's bias is a powerful thing, boys and girls. A very powerful thing.

Creating OFF the Interwebz

2011-07-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

I saw this link to a John Mayer Q&A which was excellent (which apparently has been making the online rounds all week so y'all probably already saw it, but I wanted to share). I found myself distinctly surprised by the similarity between the way he talks about writing a song and the way I think of writing a book. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that songs don't just magically arrive in their best state, that there is editing and revision and a dogged perseverance in that artistic process as much as there is in mine. Fascinating. And it helps me to better understand those who don't see the challenges behind the kind of writing I do. Understanding: never a bad thing.

Also enjoyed the mindsets to avoid section. In particular: "Nobody’s music is the enemy of your music…" Yes. THIS.

Just thought I'd share...

A Prediliction for Psychic-ness

2011-07-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

So I wake up this morning and what to my wondering inbox should appear, but a notice of a 4 Star Review from Romantic Times for A Cop & A Feel. Check it out, y'all. They said, and I quote, "...readers will find this story has just the right mix of action and romance to keep them entertained. " Why, thank you, RT!

And in other, Cop & A Feel related news... or perhaps not news but just a random tidbit I feel the need to share...

Last week when I was on the Samhain Cafe site, talking about A Cop & A Feel, the conversation turned to the inspiration behind the story. It was rather fun to think about, and I've decided to reprise it here. So here goes.

This story of a palm-reading psychic and adventure at a carnival had been percolating in my head for a long time before I finally sat down to put it to paper. It all started right after I signed my very first contract (lo, these three years ago) for The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo & the Poltergeist Accountant. My aunt & I went to an amusement park to celebrate and we stumbled upon a roving palm-reader (working out of the back of a van inside the amusement park, so... a little sketchy...). Since I was clearly en route to fame and fortune with my shiny new contract, we decided we needed the palm reader to predict my wild success for me... but she never said word one about my future as a rockstar goddess. Instead she took one look at my palm and told me I could predict things would happen before they did. Afterward, as my aunt and I were walking off to our next rollercoaster line, I wondered aloud if she got better tips if she told her clients that they were psychic... because we all want to have a little psychic tendency, don't we?

And that line... a gruff skeptic voice saying "Do you get better tips if you tell people they're psychic?" was the start of a plot bunny that refused to leave my head until it eventually evolved into Ronna and Matt's night of adventure, A Cop & A Feel.

So my question for you... are you a little bit psychic? How would you react if a palm-reader told you that you were?

Happy Writer

2011-07-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Apparently I am in the right career.

I'm road-tripping at the moment, which means I'm spending a large portion of my writing hours in exciting locations like... McDonalds. Periodically people feel the need to speak to me as I'm sitting there guzzling bottomless Diet Coke refills and tapping away at my stories. More often than not they want to marvel at the compact size of my mini laptop and quiz me about how it works, but the other day a woman came up to me and declared that I must be getting good messages because every time she looked at me I had the biggest grin on my face.

I hadn't realized I was smiling. I wasn't getting messages. I was just working on my new story and being entertained by myself. Which seems rather self-absorbed, really, to sit there giggling at my own attempts at wit, but it's nice to know I enjoy my work - even when I'm not conscious of it.

May we all be so lucky as to work at something that makes us smile without realizing it.

Fix It Fridays: Pirates of the Caribbean 4

2011-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

It’s time for the second edition of Fix It Fridays! Today on the chopping blog: Pirates of the Caribbean 4!

Ready? Okay. Let’s commence. (Yar!)

**Disclaimer: I liked this movie, but in my subjective opinion, it could have been even more entertaining… and here’s how. Oh, and there are beaucoup spoilers. You’ve been warned. Or, in pirate lingo, ye've been waarrrrned.**

The beginning of the movie was riddled with Tell Don’t Show exposition – for shame, pirates! Once it got going, it really picked up steam, but the beginning was ponderous at best.

We open with a random dude being drawn up in a fishing net and taken to Spain. Spain plays a tiny role, the random dude plays no role, and all it does is establish that we’re talking about the fountain of youth. Blech.

In MY VERSION: We open with the Black Pearl sailing through the night, another ship firing on her – it’s Queen Anne’s Revenge! Blackbeard! (Though we don’t SEE the pirate himself at this point so he still gets his Big Entrance later.) We SEE the preacher do something stupid and heroic (to establish his character more effectively than just seeing him strapped to the mast.) We SEE Geoffrey Rush hoisted up by his foot as the Black Pearl comes to life and snares its own crew. We SEE the ship begin to sink, see Barbossa realize what is about to happen and pull his sword from his scabbard. He draws back the sword, lightning flashes, illuminating the blade as he swings toward his own leg, and… SMASH CUT TO THE TITLES!

Thus, when we see Rush enter later with his peg leg, we have an ooooh moment. Savvy?

We fade in to London. The fake court scene and chase through London is... silly. I don't really think we need it. I would actually like it better if Jack was being chased because of a crime committed by the Other Jack Sparrow - the lovely Penelope. He tracks her down, in the unusual position of trying to clear his name, and they fight...

But.

How does Jack know her? He recognizes her from a sword move, but it is later revealed that he knew her as a sheltered virgin convent girl? Whaaa? Perhaps instead of fading in to London, we fade in to Spain, Fifteen years ago... and see the scene ourselves... but honestly, my main problem with Penelope is that her character is all over the place. Is she a virtuous maid or a sword-fighter? Blackbeard's mercenary daughter or his conscience? Her character is not in conflict, because her character is conflict. And we are never rooting for her.

That is the central problem of the film. When we get to the climactic scene at the fountain, we aren't rooting for any particular event. And this is not a problem with the climax, but rather with all the ground-work laid to get us there. When you watched the first pirates movie, you were rooting in that swordfight between Barbossa and Jack. Can you say the same of Pirates 4? The outcome was blurry because we had just been fed a string of silliness at the beginning when the filmmakers should have been making us care about the outcome.

I am, however, deeply in love with the Evil Mermaids and therefore will forgive much. But still, my fix? Show. Don't tell. You're a visual art, film. Act like it.

RWA 2011 Photos!

2011-07-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

As promised, and only a few days later than I said I would put them up (let's all pretend to be surprised that I'm slightly behind schedule, okey doke?) we have the RWA Nationals photo album!

I arrive early in NYC to see some of The Broadway. It was quite awesome.

I get gussied up to go to the ballet at the Lincoln Center, wearing my brand new favorite shoes... (I love you, Strappy Heels! I love you so hard!)

Then, while sight-seeing downtown, I find a good location to dock my yacht, should I ever feel the need/have the stupid money to buy a yacht. (If you squint you can see the Statue of Liberty...)

And finally, it's conference time, baby! The conference kicks off with the Literacy Signing - for which eager readers lined up over five hours early!

Five hundred authors in one room... luckily the air conditioning worked so it was only the temperature of the second circle of hell...

Even amid all the conference hustle and bustle, I still manage to take time out to grab one more show (Jersey Boys) with some Ruby cohorts.

On Thursday, at the Carina Cocktail Party, I reconnect with some of my all-time favs: Leah Braemel, K.A. Mitchell and Vivian Arend.

And Leah Braemel scolds Viv Arend & I for tempting the universe to implode by being in the same place at the same time. Had Vivi Anna been there, Mayan Prophecies might have started coming true on the spot...

We zip over to the Harlequin Black & White Ball at the Waldorf Astoria (where we are issued dancing socks, though I resisted wearing them for at least two hours because I am IN LOVE with my new strappy black shoes)

I party it up with fellow Rubies Rita Henuber & Anne Marie Becker...

The always elegant Jeannie Lin...

The delectable Liz Talley...

And there is much dancing...

And as the clock strikes midnight, we put our shoes back on (reverse Cinderella!) and are whisked home in a white limousine.

The following day, Samhain has it's inaugural Publisher Signing at Nationals and I get to give away books! This was hands down the most fun I had at Conference, because Samhain readers are beyond awesome. I was high for hours afterward. Which may have been entirely due to the fact that I got to gaze across the aisle at Viv Arend. ;)

That night, it was the Rita & Golden Heart Ceremony. The lovely and talented Sara Ramsey snuck me into the VIP section as her plus one...

And we enjoyed Meg Cabot's playful MCing as the ceremony zipped along.

Sadly, no one at our table took home necklaces or trophies, but I did nab a blurry picture of a nearby Rita...

Afterward I said my goodbyes to fellow Rubies Vanessa Barneveld and Sara Ramsey (and everyone else I ran into in the bar)

...and went up to my room to pack up for my morning flight to the Family Fourth Festivities. Thus Endeth RWA 2011.

Cop a Feel, Baby!

2011-07-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's here! It's here! My bite-sized morsel of Karmic-y goodness! My cops & robbers, palm-reader-style! A Cop & A Feel is officially on the ereader shelves, y'all! Happy release day, reader-minions!

He’s going to be the love of her life…if they survive the night.

Karmic Consultants, Book 5

With a single touch, Ronna Mitchell can catch stolen glimpses of the future and separate truth from lies. But life as a human polygraph machine can be lonely. Craving human contact, she moonlights as a palm reader whenever a carnival comes to town.

Officer Matt Holloway is intent on trailing a hit man when he ducks into a palm reader’s booth to avoid being spotted by his quarry. The beguiling Jamaican fortune teller is definitely intriguing, but she’ll have to wait. He’s close on the assassin’s tail.

When Ronna takes his hand, a startling vision of the future flashes in her mind’s eye. Matt isn’t a typical client, he’s The One. Before she has the chance to introduce herself as the mother of his unborn children, he’s gone, leaving her with a terrifying vision of her soul mate covered in blood. And dead certain she’s the only one who can save her happily ever after.

Warning: This book contains carnies, cops, chases, chance encounters and love at first touch.

Sound like your brand of trouble? Click here to buy from Samhain (on sale for only $1.75!) or direct from Kindle or Nook.

Today I'm doing my usual release day routine, flitting around the interwebz. I'll be at the Samhain Cafe this morning to share excerpts and chat about life, the universe and everything. Stop on by and say hello!

Monday Miscellany

2011-07-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

First things first... we have a winner! Congratulations to Susan! Please email me (vivi@viviandrews.com) to collect your copy of A Cop & A Feel!

And in other news...

In the "Oh Lordy, not again" category, we have folks saying romance novels are bad for you. This time the cause is an article from a family planning group with what appears to be primarily anecdotal evidence stating that “Sometimes the kindest and wisest thing we can do for our clients is to encourage them to put down the books – and pick up reality.” They do give a nod to the studies done which argue the opposite, but the end result seems to be a concern that romance novels are not providing responsible sex education with regards to condom usage and sexual enjoyment. On some level I can agree with that, but see, I consider my job to entertain, not to provide a sex ed course. (And I would probably be much more receptive to their argument if they didn't have fuzzy math statements like: "some fans read up to 30 titles a month, one book every 2 days" followed by "exposure to ...romantic novels may be as much as a day every week")

Of course, reactions to the article abound, but one which I find rather entertaining is this one, entitled Are Romance Novels Hazardous to Your Sexual Health, which concludes with the question: "And if so, how can we change this genre to promote healthy sexual practices for both women and men?" To which I respond: Go buy the books that promote those healthy sexual practices. This is a business, people. You can't change it by vilifying it. Pitchforks don't change minds.

And in totally unrelated news, I'm over at the Ruby blog today talking about various publishing houses, of all things. Samhain is, of course, excellent beyond reason and I love them with all my fervent little heart, but there are other places out there and it's good for writerly sorts to know about them. So if you are a writerly sort and you want to head on over to take a look, here's the link: http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/tbd-6/

Cop a Feel GIVEAWAY

2011-07-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, guess what? I have a release in less than a week! I know! I'm surprised too! (Okay, surprised is the wrong word. Unprepared. That's a good word. But surprised sounds better, don't you think?)

Brace yourselves, y'all! The Karmic Consultants return with a little bite sized short story, A Cop & A Feel. And if you aren't familiar with the series, this is the perfect place to start. None of those pesky cross-over characters to confuse things. A quick, fun read to suck you into the Karmic World. We're all about the sucking. (Wait, no, that sounded wrong...)

The Romance Studio even gave this little darling a 5 Heart Review! Calling it a "great novella" that will make folks wish they could see into the future. (Awww, thank you, Romance Studio!!!)

Today (just because I can!) I'm giving away an advanced-reader-copy of A Cop & A Feel! How, you may be asking, can you win this bit of fabulousness? It's so simple! Since this is a fortune telling book, just comment on this post before Monday with a prediction of the future. It can be serious or frivolous. Look into your crystal balls, boys and girls!

Fix It Fridays: Limitless

2011-07-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hear ye, hear ye! Today we begin what may (or may not depending on my whim) become a recurring feature on the blog. It’s Fix It Fridays! Hi, my name is Vivi and I’m a movie addict. But if loving movies is wrong, I don’t want to be right, baby.

I’ve always loved movies, even before I possessed the critical faculties to distinguish a good one from a bad one. When I was a youngun, I used to say I loved every movie, because I didn’t draw a line between the movie & the movie-going experience. And while I still love all movie experiences, I am now much more critical of the films themselves. (Tangent: I think that editorial part of the brain develops during puberty while the creative part develops much earlier. Your thoughts?) I’m also the kind of girl who doesn’t like to notice a problem without coming up with a solution, so when I’m watching a movie and it isn’t quite working for me, I rewrite it in my head. I identify the pieces where it went off the tracks and rework them in my head so they are perfect, shiny and new. Sometimes, I become so attached to my version that I forget how the movie actually went.

Anyway, I’ve decided to post a few of my “fixes” here on the blog, just because I find them interesting and I can, because I am the god of my blog-iverse. Today, we're taking a look at Limitless. A recent not-so-blockbusterish release starring Bradley Cooper & Robert De Niro.

You ready? Let's get to it. (Oh, and there will be HELLA SPOILERS so consider yourself warned.)

Basic Premise: Our hero is a smart guy who never lived up to his potential. He is a writer chock full of writer's block, living in a lousy apartment (which probably costs a mint cuz he's a New Yorker), divorced and currently being broken up with by his hot, successful blond girlfriend. He bumps into an old (drug-dealer) acquaintance and is given a designer pill (first one's on the house, that's how they hook you, baby). Said pill is like Adderall on Crack (which would be actual crack, right? but in this case is just Magic Potential Juice called NZT-### and our boy has been told by the totally credible drug dealer that it's FDA approved and all that good stuff...). NZT makes you sharper, more focused, and basically smartens you up and motivates you at the same time. Our boy cleans his apartment, writes his book (genius!) in a matter of days, and then decides he needs to think bigger. And that's when the real fun begins. His drug-dealer buddy has taken a bullet to the head and there are other people who are veeeery interested in Our Hero's (stolen from the dead dealer) drug stash. Let the thriller portion of the plot commence! Of course the drug has side effects and well, I'll stop it there because I have to leave some surprises.

That's the basic. Here are my issues:

1) I didn't like the hero. Even my natural instinct to like Bradley Cooper (and his dimples) couldn't overcome the douchiness with which the hero is first introduced. His problems are very clearly his own fault and while the dickhead hero might have a ring of verisimilitude, it doesn't make me want to root for him to overcome and prevail and all that good stuff.

THE FIX: We want to like him. We do. So maybe let's not have the very first thing he does under the influence of the drug be to manipulate his married landlady into having sex with him in exchange for help on her law school paper. And also, instead of a mid-morning drinking binge and literally no words written (I have no sympathy for that), let's show him struggling. Down on his luck, but not self-sabotaging. Writing, having his editor reject his chapters as uninspired, or better still, have his editor tell him that the book is good, but the market is shifting and they just don't have a place for it in their list right now - so it looks like he is trying, doing everything he is capable of without the drug, but it just isn't enough. Then the message of the story becomes about rewarding EFFORT, rather than the rather unsatisfying rewarding of the Douchebag that actually occurs in the film.

2) The publishing industry don't work like that. How exactly did this apparently UNPUBLISHED science fiction author get a contract with an advance without having written a SINGLE WORD? Did he somehow sell on a pitch? WTF? And why is he hand-delivering printed out pages to his editor's desk. Did his internet get disconnected? Does he not live within tripping-over distance of one of the gajillion Starbucks with free internet in the five boroughs area? And since he hasn't bathed in a while and looks a little like the Unabomber, how did he even get in the building with the suspicious manuscript shaped package?

THE FIX: Easy easy easy fix. Just have him be a writer in a sophomore slump. Have his first book already released to tepid reviews. Someone can ask him about his published book and say something like "Why haven't I heard of it?" (Writers hate this question. At least I do.) His option book is due, it's already looking like it won't be published, the numbers just aren't there. His career is over before it began... Depression is circling, self-doubt triggers the writer's block, then the pill enters the equation. He writes a BRILLIANT second book. Epic. The publishing house reverses course. They will relaunch him. Promo campaigns and book tours are suddenly on the table. His new book is JUST THAT GOOD. (But he emails it. Dear God, please let him flipping email it. And the actress playing his editor misses out on those luscious twenty-two seconds of screen time.)

3) The stock market don't work like that. Our hero makes two million dollars from a hundred thousand in a week on the stock market. That isn't possible. I realize he's supposed to be freakishly brilliant and that makes it possible, but the math just doesn't work (and we all know how rabid I get over faulty math). The margins of return are too low per sale, the way stocks (especially speculative ones) are effected by large orders, taxes... I'm not an expert on this, so I consulted with my dad (who is) on this particular point because it seemed hinky and he was even more bothered than I had been by this flaw.

THE FIX: Poker. It's that simple. Gambling does have the rate of returns we're talking about. There is even a montage showing our boy cleaning up at poker - which is logical considering his ability to calculate statistics, read body language, and psychologically profile his opponents. But then, immediately after the high living poker montage, he is broke (wha? what happened to the money he stole then gambled into a larger amount?). He goes to a loan shark. Ugh - stupid plot device because you need the threat of the loan shark later... but really you don't. Have the Thug role be played by someone related to the Drug Dealer, not someone our Idiot Hero owes money because he somehow spent (how is that smart, brainiac?) all the money he stole/won. The truth is, our hero could make forty million on poker alone. So why the big significance placed on making a forty million dollar bonus brokering a merger? I suppose if our hero wants to be president, it would look bad if he made his millions gambling... but not if he invested those millions in philanthropy. Anyway, can you be elected president if you are a person of interest in multiple homicide investigations? Wouldn't that be the PR campaign from hell.

Okay, moral of the story - the movie was good. Fascinating. But the hero needed to be less of an ass, he needed to have a book (failed) under his belt before he got the contract he couldn't complete, and the money trail needed a jolt of logic. Still, intriguing premise. Very interesting idea.

Sadly, it's impossible to actually predict events the way he was credited with doing because people are often irrational, illogical, or just plain dumb. And while you can predict that we will react irrationally to a certain stimuli, it is impossible to predict the stimuli, the trigger that will set off the ripples in our jacked-in society - which is why we're always chasing yesterday's successes.

RWA 2011 Recap: Writer, Know Thyself

2011-07-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have returned from the Romance Writers of America National Conference and I am full of gushy admiration for my awesomesauce publisher, Samhain, after they took such good care of me at both signings, the speakers who were all fabulous and inspiring, and a giddy delight that may or may not be related to a case of mistaken identity. You ready for the stories? Cuz I'm about ta hit ya with 'em. (Pictures'll be coming tomorrow... as soon as I can figure out how to get them off my new phone.)

The theme of this conference could have been Writer, Know Thyself. Or at least that's what I took away from it. Maybe it was the message I needed to hear amid all the others. Jennifer Crusie, in a fabulous workshop entitled "Everything I Know About Publishing I Learned from Wonderwoman" (yes, I am wearing my secret decoder ring as I type this), told us that we have to know who we are, because if we don't there are people lining up in this business to tell us. If we don't have a vision, we can't get mad at someone else for filling in the blanks, so know your vision! Sherrilyn Kenyon, in her moving keynote speech, proclaimed she would rather be a first rate version of herself than a second rate version of anyone else. And Susan Elizabeth Phillips, in her craft chat, advised all the hopefuls in the room to put her advice through the "stomach test". If it made your stomach twist, then it wasn't right for you.

I loved that truth, that all writers are different, that we all need to cultivate our own awesomeness rather than getting caught up in the latest trends and waves. I've never tried to be anyone but myself, but every now and then its nice to be reminded that we don't have to be someone else's version of fabulous to succeed.

And speaking of someone else's version of fabulous... I had more than a few fangirl moments at conference when I saw authors I worship to a startling degree.

I am still, apparently, completely incapable of being cool and suave (or even semi-human) when I meet authors whose work I adore. I spaz out gracelessly and make everyone uncomfortable with my fangirl frothing. I did, however, have three fabulous goddesses still deign to talk to me whilst I was mid-spaz.

On the Wednesday luncheon, who should happen to sit at my table? Joanna Bourne. Yes, that Joanna Bourne. When she introduced herself I nearly swallowed my tongue and gasped, “Omigodiloveyourbooks.” At which point she was the picture of poise, smiling and thanking me. AND THEN after lunch was over she made a point of coming over and saying she’d appreciated my kind words about her books and chatting so graciously with me and fellow fangirl Sara Ramsey. We talked about being small towners in the big city, moose and coyotes, and her genius grandchildren (good genes). That conversation alone would have made my conference…

But wait, there’s more! On Saturday when I was sitting in La Guardia, waiting for my plane, who should sit next to me and say I look familiar, but Celeste (Holy Crap No Way!) Bradley. Seriously, how often do you get to chat with TWO of your autobuy authors in one week? We talked about pets and the similarities between Albuquerque and Alaska (more than you might think!) and generally passed the time until our flight. (And I didn’t hyperventilate once! Though I did mention with freakish regularity how amazing her books are.)

You think that’s all? Oh no. Ooooh no. On Friday afternoon, at the Samhain signing, I’m happily scrawling my June Hancock all over books. (And if you got one of those books, please forgive the inverted letters in my dedications. I’m not full on dyslexic, but I have trouble keeping letters in the right order when I’m writing things by hand. And I’m pretty sure I spelled laughter with an “f” a couple times. So that was a speshul moment.) So I’m at the signing, right? And this familiar-looking redhead comes up to my table and I glance at her nametag and literally hide behind my hands because I can feel my face turning bright red. Jacquelyn Frank. I LOVE Jacquelyn Frank. Her books rock my little socks right off my feet. So I tell her I love her work (and COMPLETELY lose my cool… cuz I’m normally so cool and composed, right? Heh. Right. I said, “I’m high energy” to my roommate about halfway through the conference – while talking about working relationships and chemistry with editors & agents – and the fabulous Sara Ramsey laughed at me while pretending to be stunned by my revelation. So yes… I have a slight tendency to bounce. Even in four inch heels… Dude the Harlequin party was so fun! And I also tend to flit off onto tangents whenever I see something shiny… and people probably think I’m ignoring them because I have a hard time maintaining eye contact when things are shiny or moving nearby… but it’s not ADD, cuz I’ve never been tested and if you aren’t tested then you don’t have it, right?).

So JACQUELYN (OHMYFLYINGMONKEYS) FRANK is standing in front of my table and she says she knows who I am.

At this point, I must ruthlessly suppress my desire to tell her that she is mixing me up with someone else and she is Wrong, I am not this cool person she thinks I am. I am still, I confess, CONVINCED that she thought I was Vivi Anna. She couldn’t have mixed me up with Vivian Arend because my darling Viv was sitting right across from me at the signing. But seriously, I think she thought I was the other Vivi (whose books are also awesome). And it is a totally understandable mistake (and one that would make the world feel like it makes sense to me. Jacquelyn Frank is too awesome to know who I am. It’s a world gone mad, I tell you!).

But the thing is, I was kind of recognized a lot (or a lot for me at least) at conference this time. One reader got her picture taken with me (my first!), one dedicated reader had printed out a poster-sized print of the Serengeti Sunrise cover art for me to sign (how cool is that?!), and others stopped me with kind words about my blogging here or at the Ruby site and clearly knew who I was. But still, even when I can’t immediately argue that they are mixing me up with that Other Better Vivi (i.e. Vivian Arend or Vivi Anna), I STILL feel like there is this other, much cooler Vivi Andrews out there that these people admire. It couldn’t be ME.

It’s not a self esteem thing – I have a VERY healthy self image. It’s more like the disjointed feeling I get when I meet people who read my books. Like the readers are really just a figment of my imagination until they are standing in front of me and I don’t know how to react when my imaginary readers are suddenly real. (Yes, my beloved blog buddies, you are all inside my head and if we meet in person, I will be weird and awkward at first because your existence will be shocking to me. Just embrace the crazy.)

But even believing in my heart that Jacquelyn Frank didn’t REALLY know who I was, I still called my mom after the signing to tell her about it. She was duly impressed… then asked, “Who’s Jacquelyn Frank?” At which point there may have been some horrified yelps of “You call yourself a romance reader?” which I would now like to publicly apologize for. Sorry, Mom! (Go buy Jacob right now. Go go go. Commence addiction.)

And if you haven’t read Joanna Bourne, I recommend starting with Spymaster’s Lady. And Celeste Bradley’s Liar’s Club books are always a FABULOUS place to begin your Bradley addiction. (The first is called The Pretender.)

Speaking of books I love, I’m thinking of adding a recommendations & “if you liked…” section to the website. What do you think? Good plan? Like If you liked the Karmic Consultants, you’ll love Stephanie Rowe’s Date Me Baby One More Time, Molly Harper’s How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf, and Mary Hughes’ Bite My Fire. Sound good?

Happy Fourth!

2011-07-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July! I'm back from conference with stories, stories, stories (and a scattering of pics) but today is dedicated to family cookouts and fireworks, so it's gonna be tomorrow before I can break open the tales of RWA 2011. In the mean time, happy fourth! Go explode something for celebratory purposes!

Little Town Blues Melting Away

2011-06-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today I went walkabout in Manhattan. It's been a couple years since I visited and a decade since I lived here and New York can always be counted on to change. It is a city in constant evolution. Gotta say, it's impossible to be bored here. I definitely understand the appeal.

I wandered from Times Square (where the RWA conference will be held) down to my old office in Chelsea - which no longer houses the film company I once worked for. I discovered the High Way (new since I lived here) walkway - a lovely landscaped elevated pathway that runs along tenth from 30th almost all the way to the village. I wandered through Greenwich and down to see Ground Zero (very different from when I lived here only months after the attacks). The high rise at Liberty Plaza is creeping toward completion, but the mall at the World Financial Center is already in action, so I stopped in at the food court to cop their wifi and write this (after taking a moment to wander through Battery Park and pick out a good spot to dock my yacht if I ever have Stupid Money to spend).

I've caught two Broadway shows so far - Catch Me If You Can, which was surprisingly romantic and a delightful theater experience ("a spectacular spectacular" according to New York magazine), and the ballet of Cinderella, which definitely primed me for romancey-goodness this week. (And the step-sisters were BRILLIANT. I love when they are played with such comedic flair.)

But playtime (at least of the non-writing variety) is almost over. Tomorrow the conference begins! If you are in the New York area, the Literacy for Life signing is open to the public, 5:30-7:30pm at the Marriott Marquis. Over 500 of your favorite romance authors will be signing their books and visiting with readers. Don't miss it!

And if you don't hear from me for a couple days, I promise to have beaucoup tales from the trenches as soon as I recover my sanity post-conference! Have a great week, y'all!

Romance Trading Cards!

2011-06-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings, reader minions!

I'm getting set to venture forth to the RWA National Conference in New York City (departure in T-minus eight hours!). The last few days have been packed with my usual last minute shopping frenzy as I cram a year of purchases into seventy two hours. I also got my very first ever pedicure. Do you like those? I wasn't really expecting to love it but the experience was soooo relaxing. I might become a spa convert yet... though my pretty manicure is making me nervous of chipping a nail as I type - excellent reason not to have a pretty manicure, but it's fun to have hands that look like they belong to someone older than a five year old for a change. (My hands are freakishly small. Seriously. I could be a sideshow act.)

Many awesome things will be happening at conference (Broadway! Broadway!) and I will be signing books and chatting with readers at both Samhain signing (next Friday 3pm) and the RWA Literacy event. The massive Literacy signing is Tuesday afternoon at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and open to the public if you live in the area (technically also open to the public if you don't live in the area, but kinda expensive once you factor in plane fare...). All your favorite romance authors in ONE ROOM. (Don't worry, it's a BIG room.) Come for the books, come for the authors, come for the trading cards!

That's right, boys and girls. For those of you who haven't already heard, the newest trend (which I kinda love) is collectible romance trading cards. Visit the website to see the bevy of awesome and collect them all.

I have three available at the Literacy Signing - where the Rubies will also be having a scavenger hunt & giving away a gift card to someone who collects a certain set of cards.

Here are mine.

What do you think? (And if you think Zoe's looks a little different than the one I previewed here, you're right. I changed it up because it was bugging me.)

And if you won't be at conference (oh, the sadness!) you can still collect them. Just email me (vivi AT viviandrews DOT com) with your snail mail address and the number of my cards you would like and I will send them off to you. Sound good?