Month: February 2009

More Link Sausage…

This week I went over a few things with the wonderful copywriter, Jen, at ravenous romance, and the second book in the American Star series is soon to be launched . It’s called, AMERICAN STAR II, and there are some interesting surprises that have been carried over from the first book I’m hoping readers will enjoy. There was a nice post here about AMERICAN STAR on the MTV blog.

Yesterday I received an image of the cover for a new anthology I’m in. The book is called, “How the West was Done.” And it will be launched by ravenousromance.com sometime this coming month. I’ll post more about it in a week or so. And I’ve already posted an image of the cover on the sidebar.

I read a great post about the new Kindle 2 reader this week. Jonathan Lyons decided to come back from his blogging haitus to post this. It gets into the huge discussion about the new audio feature on the Kindle 2 and how it affects audio books in general.

Over at the BookEnds blog, Jessica posted something interesting all erotica romance writers should read. It discusses writing about sex and learning how to keep the readers happy.

And there was a great post here, at Nathan Bransford’s blog, about how to treat sympathetic and unsympathetic characters. If you’ve never read Nathan’s blog, it’s worth taking a visit. He seems to have attracted a stable of blog fans, and that’s not easy to do. I’ve actually found a few excellent new writers just by reading the comment thread of his blog over the past few years. A few times, when I was putting together anthologies, I contacted them about submitting work. These new writers produced excellent stories for some interesting books I edited.
I stopped by to see what Lori Perkins was posting here, and what Marsha was posting here. Marsha posted a great poem that’s worth reading more than once.
And, last but not least, these next three are always favorites. This one is written by a professional writer who is having problems with her fourteen year old cat…stop by and wish her well if you get a chance. This young blogger has great music. And then there’s Ryan…the week wouldn’t be the same without checking out his blog!!

Blogging and Music and Having Fun…

A large part of blogging is having fun while doing it. I’ve met some really wonderful people in the world of blogging and I’ve kept in touch with most of them. And when a personal blogger is nice enough to publish the cover of one of my books, I’m going to do everything I can to help promote and network his or her blog, too.

The blogger I’m talking about today is here, and I found him through my friend, Ryan, here. He’s a huge fan of ravenousromance.com And he was nice enough to post the cover of AMERICAN STAR on his blog.

So if anyone gets a chance to go over to his blog and comment, that would be nice. I promise you one thing, the music is really excellent. I actually liked one of his songs so much I went to music notes and downloaded it this morning.

Blurbs Are Nice…

When you’re writing two to three thousand words a day, six or seven days a week, it’s hard to focus on anything but the writing. But there’s also a certain amount of work that has to be done in the PR department. And being a writer nowadays isn’t just about the writing: it’s about the selling and promotion, too.

So I try to handle things as they come up, and this week it was all about a blurb. I always hate asking for one. I know it’s important, but I hate making anyone else take time from their busy schedule to write anything for free. But this week I was in contact with the talented multidimensional Owen Keehnen and I remembered to ask if he could write a blurb. Nothing long and detailed…”don’t take to much time”…just something quick.

I started working with Owen Keehnen five years ago. I was just testing the waters with internet publishing, and I stumbled across his name. Until then, I’d always worked in traditional print publishing and wasn’t sure what to expect.

Owen contacted me right away; he liked what I’d sent. And I was both shocked and flattered. I knew his excellent reputation and respected his work. And ever since then, I’ve been submitting material to him. I’ve marked my calendar to write two short stories for Owen with summer deadlines, and he’s asked if he could publish a short story of mine that was in an anthology released about three years ago.

And, he was kind enough to send me this blurb :”Ryan Field has a knack for keeping me up all night. He never disappoints.” …to help promote AMERICAN STAR.

A Real Fan of Ranvenous Romance…

My friend Ryan who blogs here is a huge fan of ravenous romance. He posted another wonderful piece about American Star this morning, along with photos and comments.

Ryan has been blogging for a while now. And I’ve been following his blog for many reasons. The most important is that I knew when I first read his blog he knew what he was doing. Blogging can be used a promotional tool, an outlet to rant, and a nice place to record the ups and downs of daily living. But the best blogs are always real, and he does this so naturally I became an instant fan.

So if you get a chance to stop by and read some of his posts, I think you’ll be surprised at what you find.

AMERICAN IDOL is now in full swing…

There are free excerpts for all the books at ravenousromance.com, and I thought I’d do a post with one of those excerpts for AMERICAN STAR. And now that American Idol is in full swing and the voting has started, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

The day Terrence decided he was going to audition for a new TV reality show, he was reading the newspaper in the tanning salon where he worked as manager. It was a warm, humid Friday morning in late August, and it was exactly one year to the day since he’d buried his mother. The newspaper advertisement for the audition said all that was required was to show up at a hotel in New York City and sing.

And that was one of the two things in life Terrence knew how to do well. The other thing involved dropping his pants.

Then the front door opened wide and an attractive young man stepped into the waiting area – Terrence’s boss. He was wearing loose white hockey shorts and his large penis bounced up and down as he crossed toward the counter. He never wore underwear. His name was Kevin and he’d been Terrence’s boyfriend since high school. It was clear he wasn’t having a very good day so far. His short blond hair was messy on top, therewere dark circles under his eyes, and his skin looked pale. When he saw the open newspaper on the counter, he slammed a blue bank deposit bag on top of it and said,“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

Terrence slowly folded the newspaper and sighed. But he didn’t reply. Kevin’s silence suggested Terrence had been slacking off that morning because he’d been reading.

“Must be interesting,” Kevin finally said. He looked down at the newspaper with steel blue eyes and placed his hands on his hips. Then he spread his muscular legs and started rocking on the balls of his feet.

“It’s nothing important,” Terrence said, rolling his eyes. He didn’t want to tell Kevin about the the audition. His boss would have given a million reasons why he thought he shouldn’t do the show, from his lack of talent to the fact that reality television was a passing phase and wouldn’t last. Even though Kevin secretly loved reality television, he couldn’t wait for an open opportunity to knock Terrence down. Terrence knew full well that Kevin had sent in audition tapes and entry forms to shows like “Big Brother” and “The Bachelor.” But he’d always been rejected.

“Don’t give me your shit this morning, bitch,” Kevin said, slamming the palm of his wide hand on the counter. There were deep, dark circles under his eyes and his breath smelled of stale beer.

Terrence jumped. He pressed his palm to his throat and said, “I’m not giving you attitude, Kevin. I’m just not in a great mood this morning.” But it was beginning to occur to him that whenever Kevin walked into a room, his heart started to race and his mouth felt dry.

“Oh, that time of the month again,” Kevin said, then raised his arms as though being held at gunpoint. “I’m getting sick and tired of this bullshit. Take a pill, bitch.” He slammed both great hands on the counter. Kevin loved to refer to Terrance as the feminine type; a moody “girl” with imagined monthly periods. Terrence wasn’t the least bit feminine. He had short dark hair, was average in height and had a slim, well-defined body. His legs were smooth and strong and his ass rounded like a beach ball. If anyone saw him walking down the street, they wouldn’t even know he was gay. But Kevin took pleasure in having him come across as prissy; as though his being effeminate would make Kevin more of a man somehow…

Follow up on Lasting Love Submissions…

After the post about all the great submissions for the Lasting Love anthology, I had to follow up with this short post. As I said, all the submissions were good, and I have a feeling that the one I didn’t actually get a chance to read was good, too.

I’ll explain. Last Friday afternoon I received a last minute e-mail from a writer who wanted to submit for the anthology, but didn’t see the call for submission until that week. The deadline was Saturday, and the writer wanted to know if they could submit early the following week. They couldn’t submit on Saturday because of religious reasons, and apologized a thousand times. So I replied and said they could submit on Monday or Tuesday. I wasn’t sure if I’d be working on Sunday (I did anyway) so there would still be time early in the week to read the short story. I don’t know how other editors feel, but when someone contacts me at the last minute with a well written e-mail and a good voice, I’m curious and I want to know more about them.

As it turned out, this writer didn’t get a chance to submit anything because of the time factor. And I understood that; I’ve been there myself. The writer e-mailed me after reading the Lasting Love post I wrote, and explained this in another well written, professional e-mail.

So if this writer is reading this post, I’m hoping they continue to follow the ravenous romance calls for submissions, because now I’m really curious.

Lasting Love Anthology…

The Lasting Love anthology is coming along well. So well, I’ll be able to submit it earlier than I’d originally planned. And I have to admit that everyone who submitted did an excellent job. The writers worked hard and they produced some sexy, romantic short stories that I’ll never forget. I’ll post about some of the stories later, but in this post I wanted to thank everyone who submitted. Each and every submission was fantastic!!

I only wish I’d been able to include more submissions, because so many people took the time and effort to produce such great work. But the problem with any anthology or collection is that there’s a word count, and some things have to be rejected. That’s the part I hate; having to tell a writer I couldn’t include something because too many people submitted stories and I had to decide which fit best with the title.

So when I write back, and I will write each and every writer who submitted to Lasting Love, and say that the rejection was based on a subjective, unbiased opinion, I hope they understand. Rejections like these are not personal; if an editor could include all the stories submitted, he or she would; but that’s not possible or practical. As a writer, I’ve had many of these rejections myself in the past so I know the feeling.

But I wanted to thank everyone who did submit. There’s a lot of talent out there and I hope these wonderful writers from all over the world continue to submit more work to ravenous romance in the future.

New Book Cover…

Here’s a sneak peak at the new book cover for AMERICAN STAR. It’s going to be released here on February 15th and I thought I’d post it ahead of time.
The storyline is loosely based on the long running TV show, American Idol. But in this book there’s a vicious contestant who will do anything to win, a talented young singer who is being stalked by a deranged fan, and a surprise season finale that no one could have predicted.
Here’s the back cover copy:
Terrence Lorenzo, depressed about his nowhere job and his lackluster relationship with his old high school boyfriend, Kevin, conceives the idea of auditioning for a reality show in New York, where the winner is guaranteed a chance to become the hottest new pop star in America. He’s not sure he’ll win, but he decides to take a chance on the audition anyway.

Jude Foster, another singer in the competition, is attracted to Terrence, but he’s also devoted to his overbearing mother and determined to win the competition at all cost. And when they are both selected to go to Hollywood, an emotional rollercoaster ensues that leaves Terrence extremely satisfied in bed, but just as disillusioned in the romance department as he was before the show. In order to fill the void, he takes on a long list of anonymous lovers for the first time in his life.
As the contestants rehearse and the show gains in ratings, a disgruntled fan starts sending Terrence death threats. The sex between Terrence and Jude takes a surprise turn in the wrong direction, and Terrence learns that he had to travel all the way to Hollywood only to discover that what he really wanted all along was in his own backyard.