Hard work, timing, fearlessness, and a touch of blind luck is the formula.

Good morning!

Last night we had a pot luck dinner at church before the midweek Lenten service. Pot luck dinners are the cornerstone of most church bodies, combining fellowship and chatting with lukewarm casseroles and endless pans of brownies. Last night was no different. Most of the people I talked to were still glowing over the spaghetti dinner our teen group put on last Saturday. But there was one gentleman who stopped me as I was popping a brownie on my Styrofoam plate.

"I hear you sold a book!" says he. (He's married to one of my best church friends, but he doesn't pay too much attention to her when she talks, so it's no surprise he's just now getting the news about "Dream in Color.")

"I did," says I.

"Now you'll have to tell me how you did it so I can sell mine," says he.

He moved off to get a cup of bad church coffee. (That's redundant, really. Church coffee is in a class of bad all by itself.) I went to sit down with a lady I know vaguely from choir practice.

On my way to the table, though, I pondered what the gentleman wanted from me. It took me by surprise, though thinking about it, I suppose it shouldn't. How did I sell a book?

At this point, more than a few of my friends will be nodding and asking that question out loud.

How does anyone sell a book these days? It seems like there are endless titles of self help books on how to get published. I think the fastest way to get published is to write a book about how to get published!

With so many authors out there writing the stories in their hearts, and with agents and editors buried under piles of queries (all written in the style recommended by the latest "how to get published" book.), synopsises and partials, it's a wonder anyone gets published. Sure, if your name happens to be Stephen King, Nora Roberts, John Grisham, or Danielle Steele, it's slam dunk easy. But what about the rest of us?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell you how "Dream in Color" to be, and what I'm doing now with "Lies in Chance."

1) Hard work.

Your mother was right about this. Nothing happens if you don't work at it. In "Dream" and in "Lies" both of my heroines have an amazing talent for writing or playing music. Mostly this is a wish on my part, since I'm one of those musicians who works very, very hard just to be average. But natural talent like that doesn't happen often. Most of us have to work really hard to get what we want. And when it comes to writing, I've worked very hard.

I haven't maybe worked very steadily. There are whole years where I didn't touch my writing. But when I sit down to work, it's to WORK. Writing the story is the easy part, my friends. Polishing it, editing it, marketing it, that's work! And it's work a writer MUST DO!

2) Timing

Writing is a subjective sport, sort of like figure skating. Sometimes you submit to an agent or an editor who, quite frankly, is really not interested in your epic tale of love during the H1N1 epidemic. Sometimes you pitch to an agent who has already sat through thirty pitches about a heroine who has a talent for cooking, and you just happen be the last in a far too long line. But sometimes, sometimes my friends you pitch and idea to an agent or an editor who WANTS your epic novel about love in the time of the H1N1 epidemic, or who was really looking for a culinary heroine.

3) Fearlessness

You got a rejection? Whoop de do! I'm a member of the Mad City Romance Writers. We applaud anyone who gets a rejection. We love rejections! Rejections mean you're working, and remember, rule number one...HARD WORK!

Don't let a rejection scare you. Don't let sixty rejections scare you! I cannot tell you how many times "Lies" has been rejected. So what? Every rejection made it a stronger story. And now, it's entered into the Amazon contest and this time I think I'll do better than the quarterfinals.

Did "Dream" get rejected? You betcha! I think about a dozen times. Once at the very conference where I actually wound up selling it! Did that stop me? No! Rejections, critiques, comments, all serve to make the story better. Suck it up Buttercup! Writing isn't for the faint of heart! You want love and sweetness and puppies? Write a children's book about love and sweetness and puppies...and then don't submit it to anyone because the kid's books world is almost as harsh as the romance world.

4) Blind luck.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I sold "Dream" based on a conversation I had with Rhonda Penders at a chocolate fountain at the WisRWA conference back in 2008. If I hadn't met her, if she hadn't been really looking for authors at that conference, if we hadn't had such a detailed conversation while dipping cookies into cascading chocolate, "Dream" would be just that...a dream.

Or maybe it wasn't blind luck. Maybe it was a melding of rules 1-3. I worked hard. My timing was good, and I was fearless enough to talk to Rhonda.

Still, a little luck doesn't hurt!

In the end, there is really no magic to getting published. Approach it as you would a job, or a career. Work hard, be persistent, and get educated about how to get published. Join a writers' group. Talk to other writers. Enter a contest. And, of course, submit, submit, submit!

You might even want to invest in one of those "How to get published" books. (I love the "Writer's Market" for fiction, and Debra Dixon's "Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. Also, Stephen King's "On Writing" is my writing BIBLE!)

Keep working!

If it isn't broken...mess with it anyway and see what happens!

Good afternoon!

This is actually take two of my attempt to blog today. The wind is howling outside, but it's sticky and humid...and a cold front is promised. So it's pretty much a typical bizarre weather day here in the Cheesehead state. The cold front will be just in time for Girl child to unveil her...sleeveless Halloween costume. Yep, she forgot the first rule of trick or treating in Wisconsin: Have a costume you can wear a coat under.

So I was at my favorite retail website www.cafepress.com earlier this week when I found a T-shirt that read, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."

Truer words were never said...and boy did I need to hear those words this week!

I'm stalled, friends, stalled big time. Stalled so bad that I can't even think about Na No this month mostly because we all know I'm not going to write 50,000 words in a month, let's be honest, but also because I'm STALLLLLLLLLLLLLLEDDDDDDDDDDD!

My work in progress, a dark, dark, dark DARK contemporary romance (did I mention it was DARK?) is moving along nicely...until this past week. All this time to write and no actual words coming out. It's not a matter of creativity. It's not a matter of knowing where the story is going, it's a matter of I just don't like the chapter I'm stuck on. It's not fun, it's not funny, it's not sexy....but it must be there. I can't just jump over it. Things will not make sense.

It's not that there's anything wrong with it. I just don't like it. It's sort of dull. It seemed really fun when I wrote it a few weeks ago, but now that I've inserted it into the flow of the story, it just seems....flat.

So...."no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."

If the chapter doesn't evoke anything from me, there's no point in keeping it.

Today's fiction world is so competitive, so glutted with authors and books and voices and titles that you simply cannot have two pages of so-so writing. Herman Melville would have been shot for about fifty of his chapters in "Moby Dick..." (You know, the chapters that had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOTLINE? Anyone who thinks that mess of disorganized rambling by the most boring human mind on the planet is a Great American Novel has not read the book. I promise you that!) Everything must flow and flow quickly from page to page to page. Every page must have a hook...you writers know what I mean.

Having gone through this past year of editing with Aly over at Wild Rose Press, I've learned a lot about writing and editing.

So, whilst there's nothing really wrong with that chapter, it's going into the deleted file...and maybe I'll just skip everything and get right to the dead body...or the sex.

After all, I'm not writing a book about whaling...THANK HEAVENS!

Have a great Halloween weekend all!

Methinks she needs glasses...

Good morning!

So, as anyone out there, both of you, has read, "Dream in Color" is now on the Wild Rose Press website as a "Coming Soon," novel. (4-23-10...if I haven't mentioned it!)

I sent out an email to every friend and relative I've ever had in life announcing this yesterday. Got back many congrats from many folks, but one really stuck out in my mind. A friend of mine, a lovely woman who is my age (in those delightful 40's, ya know) responded that she loved my cover art, and that she was convinced she recognized the two young women on the cover.


Ummmmmmm.....two young women?

For the record, I adore my cover art. It's gorgeous. A very, very talented artist named Nicola Martinez did the cover for me. You can see more of her work on the Wild Rose Press site. AFter the horror stories I've heard about first time authors having their book sales destroyed by bad cover art, I was nervous, but I could not be happier with my cover.

Yes, the couple looks a little familiar. The girl child, who is twelve, is convinced that the male in the picture is Joe Jonas, (the one I call "the pretty one." I also call him the Erleane Mandrell of the Jonas Brothers, and if you remember the Mandrell sisters, you know exactly what I mean.) The girl looks a tiny bit like any number of the Disney starlets, probably Demi Levado (I know I have the spellling wrong. I'm thinking I should not have to know how to spell that name. That would mean I spend too much time watching the Disney channel, and that's creepy.)

I sort of laugh because the book is actually listed in the "LATER IN LIFE" category for The Wild Rose Press. Yep, mid thirties, later in life. Don't I feel ANCIENT? LOL! Obviously, the two on the cover aren't quite "later in life." Still, it's a gorgeous cover, and I love it.

But back to my friend who thinks it's two girls. I think I'll leave it to you, my readers. You be the judge. You can check out my cover here on the blog, or go to the Wild Rose website and take a closer look:

www.thewildrosepress.com

Check it out under "Coming Soon" and "Contemporary/Later in Life"

Let me know if you think it's two girls or a girl and guy. Hey, maybe I should market the COVER to a whole different crowd!

Have a groovy one!