Busy busy busy

Yes, once again, I’ve been a bad bad blogger. But I’ve been soooo busy lately. My EDJ is changing, so I’ve had a lot on my mind with all of the new things I’ve had to learn, and I’ve been working on pulling ahead in editing. Plus, I’ve been arranging a special promo contest I’ll be holding here on my blog with a bunch of my authors in November. So keep an eye out for that one, because it’s got a great big awesome prize that we’re giving away. Trust me, you won’t want to miss out on it. =)

Writing Erotic/Red Hot Romance

1. Just because you put a bunch of sex in a manuscript does not make it Red Hot. Not even close. There are so many things that go into this, I’m not even going to go there at this moment.

2. Having your heroine getting herself off in the first chapter, with in hours of meeting the hero for the first time….usually a big turn off for the editor. I’ve only seen this done successfully once or twice…and never in a  book that I have contracted, and usually in novellas. And even then, she’s normally previously known the hero and has always had a thing for him…or something like that.

3. Wanting erotic and red hot material does not mean we want a story all about sex. As a matter of fact, it never means we want a story all about sex. Some publishers may go for that, but Samhain doesn’t. Yes, we’re all about the story, but a bunch of sex does not a story make. We still need the passion, the chemistry, the great plot and characters… We need the whole shebang.

4. No, it’s not porn. ‘Nuff said.

5. For the love of God and all that is holy…do not ever put “MMMMmrrrrppphhhhhhhh,” she moaned…or anything even remotely like that in your book. I read a book like this from another epub that had that all over it. Maybe a couple of Hmmm and Mmms…A COUPLE…but seeing ones like my first example makes me want to utter many expletives and unless the rest of your sotry wowed me a million percent, you won’t be a getting an offer of a contract.

6. I think I am going back to the porn thing. Everytime I hear someone use that word and my mss/authors in the same sentence, I get flamed. Some of the best manuscripts I’ve contracted have had little sex in them, and aren’t even close to being Red Hot.

7. Erotic romance and Red Hot romance aren’t the same things. Erotic doesn’t have an HEA between the main characters. Think more like sexual exploration. Most people label their work as erotic and it’s really not.

New Resolution

So, from now on, I’m going to be my normal, blunt self on here. =) Yep, that’s right. I’ve kept a pretty tight lid on my mouth, and no I’m not talking about swearing, and I think I’m going to let all of my abrasive opinions fly free. LMAO

So don’t be surprised if you see a lot of stuff in the same tone as my last post about screaming. =)

College football!

So, as everyone should know, I’m a HUGE Notre Dame fan. And today Notre Dame is playing where I work….Purdue. I got my hands on some tickets, and we know a bunch of people who are tailgating, so as long as the rain holds off, we’ll be heading out of here around 4. =) I will be sitting in the Purdue fan section in all my Notre Dame glory. Notre Dame T-shirt, ND sweatshirt if it’s cold, Irish Princess tiara, capris to make sure people see my shamrock tattoo, Mardi Gras beads with huge shamrocks and a shot glass….Yeah, I’m prepared. =) Myles isn’t. He doesn’t even get into football at all, not even close to the way I get into ND football.

And to make it even better, our new “big” boss at work is retired from ND and was asking me who I was going to root for today. I told him Notre Dame of course. He mentioned that he still holds season tickets to the Notre Dame games. I told him if he ever had games where he wasn’t going to use them to let me know. He immediately said that he has two tickets to the Notre Dame vs Boston College home game that he wasn’t going to use. Holy shit! That is a huge game to have tickets for! And, he sold them to me for face value, which is a HUGE deal. Tickets for that game can get up to about $500 a piece. No joke. I called my dad, since he’s the only person I would take with me, and he’s buying them for me for my birthday (it’s on October 22 and the game is on October 24) and we’re going to go together. =) Anyone who knows anything about Notre Dame knows that tickets to a game are EXTREMELY difficult to get. You just sort of have to fall into them. They’re on their 209th consecutive sold-out game. Purdue is on their, um, never sold out game. =P

Which brings me to a rant of mine, so bear with me. People at Purdue just don’t get it. Really, they don’t. They think they are the epitome of college football. They aren’t. Not even close. No where in the same universe as Notre Dame. And I’m not just saying that because I grew up two miles away from Notre Dame. I grew up tailgating at Notre Dame, living in a college football town. It’s because they really don’t compare.

When people think of college football, all over the country, Purdue isn’t one who people name. They name Michigan, USC, Notre Dame, Rutgers… Not Purdue. Not even close. Um, can you please tell me where the College Football Hall of Fame is? Oh, that’s right, it’s in South Bend, Indiana… Where NOTRE DAME IS. Can someone please tell me some of the cities SOUTH BEND beat in getting the CFHoF? Let’s see… New York, New Orleans, Chicago… Yeah, we beat them.

The first time I went tailgating at a Purdue game, I was like, um, is this it? Seriously. It’s NOTHING compared to tailgating at Notre Dame. NOTHING.

Okay, I’m stepping off my soap box now. =)

I’m so sad

Patrick Swayze died yesterday. He was one of my all-time favorite actors/famous person. There was something I absolutely adored about him, and truth be told, I soooo wanted him (or his twin) to come take me away. He’s a great definition of a man. A supreme definition of a man. And in Roadhouse when he is shirtless working out by the lake…oh man, be still my heart. I know Roadhouse is cheesy, but it’s always been one of my favorites. And the way he moves his hips in Dirty Dancing made my eyes melt. Yeah, hawt!

When I was watching Anderson Cooper last night, they gave a startling statistic…only 4% of people who get pancreatic cancer beat it and live. That’s such an amazingly low number. They said by the time it’s found, and it can only be found through a CAT scan, it’s already metasticized into the liver and such. And they also said that the symptoms are practically non-existent, which is so scary. The main one to watch for, though, is sudden, unexplained weight loss. Now I know that sounds great to many of us out there, lol, but medically, it’s not, which is pretty obvious.

It’s weird, but I’ve reached a point in my life where stars passing away is actually starting to affect me. Never really bothered me up until this year, and then it’s like “Wow. I grew up with them.” No, we don’t “know” them, but it’s amazing how much a part of our lives these people become. I was completely floored when MJ died, and so sad for Farrah and now Patrick. One of the first movies I really watched when I was a teen was Dirty Dancing, the first music video I ever watched was “Thriller”, and Farrah always reminded me of my mom (same hair back in the day).

And so it happens

The hubby got sick this past Saturday…and I was fine up until this morning. I feel like I got ran over by a Mack truck. But I’m here at the EDJ to get stuff done since I’m covering for someone on vacation. I’m going to get as much as humanly possible done in the next hour and a half and then I’m going home and taking another three day weekend. Only this one won’t be near as nice as last weekend. =P This one will consist of me laying in bed or on the couch, reading and watching TV and whining at Myles to get stuff for me. After all, the whole reason I have this is because of him….and the fact that he doesn’t wash his stupid hands.

And no, I don’t have the swine flu, even though there are a bunch of cases of it here. It’s just a really nasty head cold…congestion, popping ears, sore throat, all that mess.

Uh oh

Yeah, I missed my Friday Links post. I’ll make up for it with even more next Friday. It’s been a really crazy week for me, and even crazier since this morning. I got some really crappy news from my mom that just has me shocked and saddened and angry. As I’m sure everyone knows, my brother is in the Army. He went on base for a month, leaving his girlfriend and her two-year-old daughter to fend for themselves. It’s not like it can be helped. My brother has a, um, colorful past let’s just say, and so does N. My brother has been worked past his past, for the most part…he’s still crazy irresponsible with money and just in general won’t grow up…but he’s moved past the rest. We thought N had, too. My family completely welcomed her and she became part of us, along with her daughter, C, who we all grew REALLY attached. Even having them over for Christmas when Doug was in Iraq, having her second birthday, everything. They were family.

Okay, so you get the background of it now.

Well, I guess on Thursday N decided to have a party, with C present, and they were popping pills…Coladapin (there are about a zillion spellings of it). Anyways, it’s a pretty hefty drug = anti-anxiety, muscle relaxer, minor tranquilizer…yeah. Apparently, they weren’t being careful and C got ahold of one and took it. C is now in the hospital. Needless to say, my parents had to go get my bro’s car keys and the apartment keys from her. He’s done with her. And I don’t blame him one bit. But now he has to come back to a little girl’s Tinkerbell and Disney Princess room that he’ll no longer need, all of her toys and clothes…God, I am so sad in general, but even more sad for Doug. He was extremely attached to C, and the whole thing has me about in tears because of C and how much I’m going to miss her being a part of our family.

Sometimes I just don’t get people and the stupid shit they do. They don’t stop to think about how everything you do not only affects you but so many people in your life.  So sad.

Okay, sorry. That was really personal and depressing, but well, I felt the need. =P

Friday Links

Yup, I’m starting this, too. Every Friday I’m going to post links I find interesting….and no, not all of them will be writing/publishing/editing related. =) That would be boring.

Do You Run Your Writing As A Business is one that all writers and aspiring writers should look at. Writing/being published isn’t, or shouldn’t be, just a hobby. It’s serious and you need to be as career minded about it as you would any other job. Here is Part 2.

Ooh, ohh. Free Harlequin reads here!!!

Victoria Mixon was a guest over at Nathan Bransford’s blog. She had a great post: Everything You Need to Know About Writing a Novel in 1000 Words. Great stuff. =)

Another one over at Nathan Branford’s blog, from guest Jordan McCollum: The Top 7 Things Every Aspiring Author’s Website Must Have.

How awesome is this? I mean, seriously. Every place should have one.

I hate…

Being sick.

This morning I got up and went to work and about twenty minutes after I got there, BAM! So needless to say, I went home and promptly went to bed. Then I got up for a little while and went back to bed again. I’m thinking it’s some sort of twenty-four hour bug. I feel really good right now, but I’m definitely going to go to bed early tonight to make sure I sleep off whatever it is to make sure I feel okay tomorrow. I’ve been drinking tons of water, especially since water is really good for cleaning out toxins and such in your body, so I’m hoping it works. *crossing my fingers* I have enough to do at work without  missing days, especially since the beginning of the month is always my busiest time. Sigh. Oh well. At least I’ll be so busy I won’t look at the clock tomorrow. Right? God, I’m hoping so.

I’m irritated

Okay, I’m not one who normally gets “political” on my blog. But I’m watching the show 30 Days and I’m so irritated by the woman on here that I can’t keep my mouth shut. The show 30 Days, if you haven’t heard of it, takes a person who is on one side of a spectrum and places them in a household of a family on the complete other side of the spectrum for thirty days. The one I am watching is about gay adoption, so I’m sure you can figure out the two sides of the spectrum. So if you don’t agree with gay adoption or gay rights, don’t continue reading. =P

Five minutes into this and I’m sooooo annoyed and irritated with this woman. She is living with two gay men who have adopted four children. All were in foster care and had pretty much “aged out”, one child being a special needs child.

She is talking about how she feels very uncomfortable about how the kids are in bed sleeping and their are two men sleeping in the same bed down the hall, and that it’s soooo wrong. Grrrr. One of the dad’s also told this kids on their first day of school that it is their choice as to whether or not they want to tell people they have two dads. The woman was all disgusted because people shouldn’t have to tell kids things like that and kids shouldn’t have to make a decision like that and they wouldn’t have to if they grew up in a proper, right, Christian family. Um, how about this one…..they wouldn’t have to think about stuff like that if there weren’t people like you in the world!

It just really gets to me, how someone can tell another person how wrong it is for them to be in love, for them to make a life with someone. And the kicker is that she never even changed her opinion on her stance, not once. Most people who do the 30 Days thing end up being able to see something from the other side of the coin. They may not change their belief system, but they are a little more open minded about the other side. This woman, not a chance. Never once did she say anything positive.

It really saddens me to know there are such hateful people out there. She kept bringing up God this and God that. I may not be a very religious person, but I still have “beliefs”, and I just can’t believe that God could hate people for finding someone to share their life with, for finding their soul mate, their partner. I just have a hard time believing that such a “loving” God could be so hateful.