Please head on over...

I noticed I have a few new followers here, while that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, I'm sad you're missing out on all the fun, which is now happening over at www.rachaeljohns.wordpress.com

Please head on over and introduce yourself :)

x
Rach!

I've moved!

Hi everyone!

My blog has a new home over at Wordpress - come on over and check it out... and make sure you amend all your bookmarks and rss readers, okay?

Theory on Thursday with Fiona McCallum

Today, I'm very excited to have BEST-SELLING rural author Fiona McCallum on Theory on Thursday (especially because Fiona's books are also published by Harlequin Australia, so we're stable-mates). And she's answering the question EVERYONE wants to know of authors - WHERE DO WE GET OUR IDEAS?! 



Over to you Fiona...

I thought today I’d address one of the most common questions an author is asked: “Where do your ideas come from?” The short answer is “Everywhere and anywhere”. But that wouldn’t make much of a Blog entry, now would it?

I tend to write about what I know. So far my books have been set around a framework of two main themes:

Theme 1: rural setting

I was raised on a cereal and wool farm near the small town of Cleve on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. I loved farm life so much that when I was in my final years of school my dream was to work the farm with Dad. But as I had a brother, it wasn’t even worth mentioning.

I stayed in the area and did what I thought was the next best thing; marry a farmer. I had grand notions of working as a true partnership. But the man I married turned out to be very threatened by a strong woman with ideas and get-up-and-go. I was to shut up and drive my tractor and stop and get meals when appropriate. We split after three and a half years.

They say “You can take the girl out of the country but not the country out of the girl”. It’s certainly true for me. I write about rural and farm life because that’s what I know and that’s what I have a passion for. Also, by writing about it, in some way I’m probably still processing my thwarted ambition at a psychological level. Beats paying for years and years of therapy! 

Theme 2: journey of self-discovery storyline

It’s a bit of a long story, but after leaving the farm I ended up in Melbourne with an ambitious fellow who was in executive sales and marketing. Inner-city life in Melbourne and then Sydney and being embroiled in the corporate world was a huge eye-opener for this down-to-earth country girl with humble values and relatively simple needs.

I was stunned at the huge amounts of money floating around, the excesses being displayed, the worshipping of material possessions, generally, and the adoration of companies by staff despite watching friends being retrenched. It seemed to me that people were offering more loyalty to the company than their own family by working ridiculous hours and doing lots of travelling away from home.

I felt like an outsider looking in. And the whole time I was thinking, “Can’t you see what you’re doing?” Fascinating stuff! I watched my new partner climb the corporate ladder. The higher his salary went, the less I saw him and the more arrogant he became.

Gradually it became clear that all that mattered to this person was money and looking wealthy to his peers - not just keeping up with the Joneses, but passing them. When I complained that he wasn’t spending enough time at home, I was told to “Take the credit card for a spin”. After seven years together, clearly this person didn’t know me at all.

It was whilst standing in the cemetery at the funeral of a very dear friend, having travelled alone halfway across the country, that I realised I may as well be single. What was the point of having a life-partner if I didn’t have his emotional support? We had all this money to buy heaps of stuff, but all the stuff in the world can’t give you a shoulder to cry on or a hug when you need it.

I had worked towards being a novelist for a few years and written a couple of well-rejected manuscripts. It was then I decided that I would rather be financially poor and chasing my dream than selling my soul, which is what I realised I was doing staying with this man in this environment. So I left and came to Adelaide and started all over again. There’s a whole other long story in here, but you’ll have to wait for my biography in about thirty years for that one!

Apologies, but I’m no good at telling a short story! The point is, I’ve been on the journey of self-discovery that I tend to send my characters on. Sure, I use different settings and characters with different jobs and different dreams, but the emotion behind it is the same. It’s learning to have the courage to have a dream and then chase it, no matter how hard it might get. Because ultimately being rich isn’t actually about financial gains; I believe it’s about how comfortable you are at a soul level. If in your heart of hearts you believe you’re living a truly fulfilling life. If not, do something about it. I think modern society with all its ads and marketing has too many shackled to lives they don’t like in order to conform. Oops, sorry, now I’m on my soapbox! I’m meant to be telling you where I get my ideas from.

Filling in the gaps around the themes

So, with the basic platform of my stories sorted (the rural and journey of self-discovery themes), the gaps then need to be filled in. This I do with ideas that come from all sorts of places. Gems of ideas seem to pop up in the strangest places, at the strangest times; whilst reading books, standing in the shower, sitting on the loo, when out walking, staring at the TV - really whenever my mind is relaxed enough. They often start as the tiniest seed and then just grow, gathering more detail as they go.

For instance, the idea of using horseracing for Paycheque came from watching the Caulfield Cup in 2005. The runner-up, Mummify, had won the year before. He was a great horse that had made the connections millions. Anyway, he pulled up lame after the race and was put down that night. It really upset me because, while I’m not involved with horseracing and I wasn’t there, I felt that they had just treated him like a money-making machine and not a wonderful creature that deserved every chance. So I decided to write Paycheque as a bit of a tribute, and give Mummify, and every other horse that hadn’t had it, their second chance.

I’m a huge animal lover, so there will usually be a creature of some sort feature in my stories. I had horses for most of my life until leaving the land; so again, with Paycheque, I was able to draw on the knowledge I had even though it was in a slightly different realm. 

The origins for Nowhere Else were a little different. I lost two friends in a plane crash in South Australia in May 2000. I was living in Melbourne at the time and hadn’t seen them for a few years when they died. I knew that one day I wanted to somehow incorporate a bit of a tribute to them in one of my books. Somehow, somewhere I realised that having a character who was a journalist tell the story and have a personal connection would do the trick. And of course she had to go on her own journey of self-discovery, and it had to include the bush.

These are just two examples. I could go on forever, but I’d better stop here and let Rachael have her blog back!

So, you see, I tend to write about what I’ve lived, what I’ve experienced, and what I’ve observed. Ideas just pop into my head - and often at the most ridiculous, inopportune times. Many are banished as not worth pursuing at that point. But those that hang around long enough get used. I don’t write a journal so the ideas just float around up there or disappear to come back better formed at a later date.

Thanks so much Rachael for having me on your Thursday Theory segment. I hope I haven’t bored everyone with my long, convoluted explanation of where I get my ideas from. But, as I’m sure you can all appreciate, it’s not a question with a simple, quick answer.

Cheers,

Fiona

Fiona's latest novel WATTLE CREEK is available in-stores now and online at www.harlequinbooks.com You can find Fiona online at her website and also on Facebook.

Blurb for Wattle Creek:

Damien McAllister is a man on the brink. Spending long, hard days on a farm he has no affection for, and nights ignoring the criticisms of his mother, Damien can no longer remember what he's living for. But in a small town like Wattle Creek, there are few people to turn to - and Damien learned long ago to keep his problems to himself.

Until Jacqueline Havelock, a young psychologist escaping her own issues, arrives fresh from the city and makes Damien question everything he has known about himself…also igniting a spark in his lonely heart.

Soon Damien is daring to ask for more than an ordinary life, and can glimpse the possibility of happiness. Will this accidental farmer dare to fulfil the long-forgotten legacy of his father and find peace in the arms of the doctor?

Or will the ghosts of their pasts threaten the fragile new lives they've just begun to build?

HUGE congrats!!

My very good friend Fiona Lowe (Medical romance author for Harlequin Mills and Boon and RITA-AWARD winning author for Carina Press) has just been nominated for a RITA AWARD, which you probably got from my description of her.

I had the VERY HUGE honour of reading this book BEFORE it was published and I just fell in love with it. I was not at all surprised when the clever Charlotte Herscher (who also happens to be my Carina Press editor - see, did I not tell you she was clever?) snapped Fiona's BOOMERANG BRIDE up. Since it was published by Carina Press last August, this book has gone Direct-to-consumer in the US and now this... the first CARINA book to be nominated for the prestigious RITA Awards.

I am just so thrilled for Fiona, Charlotte and Carina and I hope if you haven't yet read this book, you do so soon. It's such a gorgeous story!!! I WISH you the best with the final round Fiona. xo

BLURB:

Matilda Geoffrey risked it all for love. She left Australia to be with Barry—the man who had swept her off her virtual feet. Now, wearing a wedding dress, she's alone on Main Street in small-town Wisconsin, and things aren't working out exactly as planned...

In town for his annual family visit, Marc Olsen had never seen a bride quite like Matilda—staring into a storefront window, holding a tottering wedding cake, and looking desperately in need of a groom. He may not have any warm feelings for his hometown,but meeting Matilda just as she discovers she's been scammed by her online "fiancé" stirs something in him.

Matilda is not the kind of woman Marc imagined himself with, and Marc is anything but the romantic hero that Matilda has always dreamed of. But as unlikely circumstances throw them together, can they let go of their misconceptions and risk their hearts for love?

To buy links:

Amazon - Carina Press 

Bits and Bobs!

It's my turn over at the Sassy Sisters today! I'm talking about how my muse surprises with me and I run with it. Fascinating stuff - or at least I think so :) Please pop over here and say Hi!!

I'm sure you've all seen my new cover as I've been flashing around the beautiful JILTED (Mira Australia, June) cover on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads, but just in case you've some how missed out, I thought I'd share it again here. This time the whole book jacket - blurb and all. I'm guessing my next AMAZING moment will be getting my author copies and I can't wait!

Since that blurb is a little small to read, I'll post it again below:

She left him at the altar, but her heart was always his...

After more than ten years away, Australian soap star Ellie Hughes returns to the small country town of Hope Junction, determined to remain anonymous while caring for her injured godmother, Matilda.

But word spreads fast in the tight-knit community. It isn’t long before the people of Hope’s are gossiping about the real reason for Ellie’s visit and why she broke the heart of golden boy Flynn Quartermaine all those years ago.

Soon Ellie and Flynn are thrown back together again, forced to deal with the unresolved emotions between them. For Ellie is not the only one with secrets. Flynn has his own demons to battle, and Matilda is hiding something from her much-loved goddaughter.

When all is uncovered, can the ill-fated lovers overcome the wounds of their past? Or is Flynn destined to be jilted again?

And in other news... my new website will launch a week today on April 1st!! I'm looking forward to showing off this gorgeous site made by the awesome and truly fabulous Paula Roe. Just a service announcement that this blog will also be moving next weekend and my current website will be down all of Saturday while Paula does the technical swap :) 

Theory on Thursday with Jenny Schwartz

The brilliant thing about Jenny Schwartz is not only is she a Carina Press author but she's also a West Aussie - I can't think of anyone better to lose my steampunk virginity to (am going to read her book VERY soon)! But first, I'm thrilled to have her as a guest this Theory on Thursday talking STYLE!!

Welcome Jenny...

7 Secrets of Style

Hi, Rachael! Thanks for inviting me to Theory on Thursday. Here’s hoping that what I’ve painfully learned about writing makes sense to others.

Style is how you tell a story. 

1) There’s no way around it. You have to start with some boring commonsense. Learn the rules of grammar and punctuation so you can break them. A self-editing course like Angela James’s “Before You Hit Send” is a good investment. 

2) Understand the medium you’re writing in. Whether you’re writing a tweet, poem, short story or novel will affect your style. 

3) Respect your readers’ genre expectations. Writing a story for a literary journal is very different to writing for a tabloid newspaper. Things to think about include the level of description, word play, swearing (or not), vocabulary and use of dialect.

4) Write outside the space you consider yours. If you write historical romance, try your hand at modern poetry. And don’t forget to value your non-fiction writing, like blog posts. 

5) Writing outside your comfort zones reveals your writing style to you and lets you develop different aspects of it. Write often. I hate the cliché, practice makes perfect, and I hate it because it’s true. 

6) Read widely. In terms of inspiration, reading widely helps with ideas. 

7) In terms of style, it expands vocabulary and style possibilities. Remember to read writing guides. Listen to feedback from people you trust: crit partners, editors, whoever. 

8) Be confident. It shows. Confidence is not stasis. Dare to experiment, to learn and grow.

Anyone want to argue with me about my style secrets? Anyone want to agree? Most important of all, what did I forget to mention?

***

Jenny's latest release: 

BLURB - Wanted: One Scoundrel

All suffragette Esme Smith wants is a man. A scoundrel to be precise. Someone who can be persuaded to represent her political views at men-only clubs. As the daughter of the richest man in Australia, Esme can afford to make it worth the right man's while.

Fresh off the boat, American inventor Jed Reeve is intrigued by Esme's proposal, but even more interested in the beauty herself. Amused that she takes him for a man who lives by his wits, he accepts the job—made easier by the fact that he already shares her ideals. Soon, he finds himself caught up in political intrigue, kidnapping and blackmail, and trying to convince his employer he's more than just a scoundrel...

To buy links:

Carina Press

Amazon 

Scared Yet...

I cannot remember the last book I read that had me staying up until the early hours of the morning when I KNEW I had a busy day ahead and kids that'd be up at the crack of dawn.

The last book before Jaye Ford's SCARED YET, that is. I started this book Saturday morning and finished it in the early hours of the morning today!! Let me just explain, that I'm not the fastest of readers at the moment, because most of my free time is spent writing, so I maybe read one book a week.

 I read Jaye's debut BEYOND FEAR last year and loved it, so have been looking forward to this book for a while. I was NOT disappointed.

This is the story of a Livia, a capable business woman and mum who's going through some pretty rough stuff  in her personal life - marriage break-down, father dying. If that's not horrid enough, she'd beaten up by a thug and then the stalking starts. Threatening, scary notes and worse, bad things happening to people whom she loves. Jaye cleverly sets the scene so that after a couple of days of this happening, Liv has NO IDEA who to turn to.

There's a hook at the end of each chap that keeps you turning the pages as you wonder if the stalker is Liv's best friend, her best friend's husband, her new friend and supposed protector, someone in her office building or her ex. EVERYONE seems capable and suspicious on more than one occasion.

Liv is a gutsy heroine, who's hard not to barrack for. You want her to win and get her happily ever after - yes, there's that thread of romance that I like in ALL my books! However, despite knowing she's gotta survive in the end, it's touch-and-go till the very end, with one surprise after another.

I truly enjoyed this Thriller by another fabulous Aussie writer and I can't wait to see what Jaye Ford writes next.

I'm curious - what book have you read lately that was un-put-down-able?!!?

Hollywood Highight

Before I share my exciting news for the week (which most of you have probably already seen on Twitter or Facebook), I want to congratulate KEZ who won the Helen Warner book contest that I ran on my blog this week. Kez, please email your snail mail details to Rachaeljohns077 at gmail dot com and I'll pop your fabulous prize in the post.

Now... my GOOD (no fabulous) news is that I've sold another book to Carina Press. HOLLYWOOD HEARTBREAK (which will probably get a brand new title soon) will be an early 2013 release and I'm ecstatic about it.

I LOVE this book (probably cos it's now finished, sold and only with edits to go) and I'm so excited that actual people (hopefully YOU) are going to be able to read it. This book also happened to be my entry into the 2010 Mills & Boon New Voices contest, in which my good friend Leah Ashton WON!!! I got some great feedback on this chap (which was then titled ONE ROGUE, ONE DAMSEL) and a special endorsement by Heidi Rice on her blog when she mentioned it as one of her favourite entries. THAT made not winning a lot sweeter, as does the fact I'm now sold this book to Carina Press who have been very good to me and very professional to work with so far.

HOLLYWOOD HEARTBREAKis about Holly McCartney, an Australian cultural anthropologist who steps out of her comfort zone to head to Hollywood when her sister is nominated for a post-humus Academy Award. There was no love lost between the sisters and when Holly is terrorized by the paparazzi and her sister’s best friend (an ex paparazzo) rescues her there’s no love lost there either. But there is attraction...

My editor, the brilliant Charlotte Herscher said about this book -  I love the Hollywood setting, all the glitz and the glam and how Holly is a fish out of water in L.A. In contrast, the romance is down to earth, warm and sexy, and hits just the right note. 


I'm really looking forward to revisiting this story in the edits, getting exact release dates, reading the blurb and of course seeing what the Carina Press team comes up with for a cover.

Thanks for letting me share my good news... anyone else got some they'd like to share.  

Theory on Thursday with Abbi Cantrell

This week I'm very excited to have fellow Sassy Sister and PHS columnist  Abbi Cantrell. She offers a fascinating insight into how to make sure your characters' motivations are SPOT on... Welcome Abbi! 

The Pyramid of Motivation

First, thanks to Rach for having me here on her Theory on Thursday!

If you’ve written a story or even looked into doing so, one of the major parts of a story you’re trying to grasp is GMC. No, not the car company, but the Goals, Motivations and Conflicts of a story.

The goals are what the hero or heroine want to achieve in the story. But, we must ask, WHY do they want to achieve this goal? What is their MOTIVATION for pursuing it?

Motivation can be hard and you need to dig into your character’s background and soul to find the answer. One of the tools I use is a theory I learned in nursing school.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow 1

Abraham Maslow theorized that what a person needs follows different levels – or hierarchies – and we pursue each level in order.

Level One Basic Needs --- Food, water, shelter

Level Two Safety – Knowing there’s no danger in life

Level Three – Love and Acceptance

I think most romances will deal with level three because only with true love can you move to the other two levels.

But how do you determine a character’s motivation? Take the heroine who wants to win the top spot in a competition. Why is winning so important to her?

Because she wants the prestige. Because she wants the acceptance of her family. A writer could immediately move to the third level of Maslow’s hierarchy.

But what if that wasn’t the real reason? Maybe there was something more pressing n her mind. Level One, Basic Needs. What if she needs the prize money? What if she loses then she loses everything she has: her home, her business. And if she loses those, she could potentially lose the next two levels.

If you’re stuck with motivation for your characters, I’d recommend a good look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It will provide you with a wealth of insight into your character.

Abbi :)

You can find Abbi on Twitter and on her webpage. She also blogs regularly for the Pink Heart Society and The Seven Sassy Sisters. 

An Interview and a Giveaway

I've been getting around this week.

• There's an interview at fab online magazine Beauty and Lace where you can learn what being a woman means to me!
  
• And there's also a bit of a spiel at Romance Book Haven about my journey to the publication of One Perfect Night.

Now for the Giveaway! One again I was approached by the awesome Simon and Schuster Australia to feature one of their newest releases - I O U by Helen Warner.

This book sounds like a whole load of fun, about two sisters and their mother all with deep secrets that they are determined to keep.

BLURB:

Amy has enjoyed a charmed life, shopping and lunching while the nanny looks after her children. Until her world is thrown into disarray when husband Ben's business collapses overnight, taking their house and savings with it. Suddenly Amy finds herself the breadwinner. Can she rise to the challenge? Will her marriage survive such an upheaval? Or is it a case of 'Till Debt Do Us Part'?

Kate has always had to struggle by, juggling her job with two children and a husband, though she wouldn't have it any other way. But her safe little world is rocked when she meets enigmatic Jack in a chance encounter. Feeling increasingly estranged from husband Miles, Kate wonders if Jack can offer her a fresh start. But there's something about Jack that Kate doesn't know...

Jennifer is only just beginning to recover from the death of her own husband. When Jennifer makes contact with old flame Hugh she unlocks a dangerous Pandora's box. She is desperate to find the answer to a question that has tormented her for decades. But will she be able to cope with the truth?

It sounds like a fun read and I can't wait to read the copy Simon & Schuster gave me. But the best part is, I have a beautiful hard cover copy for one lucky commenter!

When reading the blurb, I realised that many books I pick up lately are about women and their marital issues - whether I like the book or not, all depends on the way the author deals with this common theme. I'm looking forward to seeing how Helen Warner handles it!

And I'm curious, do you enjoy reading this kind of story about women and their dissatisfied lives??

To go in the running, please leave a comment by Friday midnight (Australian WST). I'll announce the winner on Saturday, please don't forget to come back and see if it's you!

Help me write a tagline! Pretty please?

The past week or so I've been working with brilliant and bubbly Desire author Paula Roe (who is also a fabulous website designer) to create my new website. I hope to launch this fabulous new look on April 1st, exactly one year after I got The Call Email from Carina Press.

Everything is going splendidly - I love the look, the colours, the feel - but I can't for the life of me come up with a catchy TAGLINE for my writing.

I've looked at other author's taglines and so far my favourite has to be fellow Carina Press author Shelli Steven's brilliant - I'm The Author Your Mother Warned You About!! It's classic, isn't it?

I think part of my problem is that although I write contemporary romance and I believe my voice is the same across all my novels, I currently write two different kinds of romance for two publishers. My Carina Press novel is urban and sexy. My Mira Australia novel is rural and not quite as sexy :) I want to convey both these styles in my tagline.

Here's what I've come up with so far, some with the help of two awesome friends. I'd love your thoughts on which ones are catchy, make you want to read my books and best convey the two styles. Or, if you have a brilliant tagline you'd like to throw into the pot, please do.

Romance – Rural To Urban & Everything In Between

Read Hard, Write Hard, Love Hard!

Rural or Urban, There’s Always Romance

Romance Makes The Read Worthwhile

Romance – Red Dust to Big Smoke

Sex in the City, Love on the Land

Small towns, big cities, larger than life romance!

Contemporary Romance from the City to the Sticks

Rural Romance Meets Urban Passion

Romantic Women’s Fiction

Small-town Sizzle, Big-city Passion

PLEASE cast your vote!

Alice and Bella - 2 more AWW reviews!

As I've mentioned before I'm doing the Australian Women Writer's reading challenge and aiming to read as many books by Australian females as I can. This isn't a hardship because most of the books on my TBR at the moment fit this category. There are just so many wonderful authors coming out of Romance Writers of Australia, that it's hard to keep up.

In the last week and a bit, I've read Putting Alice Back Togther by Carol Marinelli and Bella's Run by Margareta Osborn. Two very different books but  I found both very easy to read and they kept me turning the pages well into the night. A testament to this fact is that I've read them both is just over a week, when I've barely been fitting in ANY reading lately.

Putting Alice Back Together has a premise I haven't read in a women's fiction book before - the heroine had a secret baby in her teens and has been hiding this for a decade. She relates to those stories on the TV about teenage girls who pop a baby out on the toilet and didn't even know they were pregnant! Now, although Carol is a Mills & Boon writer and although I'm a fan of these novels, this isn't your traditional category secret baby hook. Alice is an emotionally disturbed but lovable heroine - she's addicted to valium and alcohol and yet is trying to pretend that everything is fine and dandy in her world. One can see how her circumstances have led her to the place she is today and how she has a lot to deal with to move on and have a normal life.

All of the characters (Alice's friends, family and love interests) are fully fledged people, who are realistic and yet entertaining. This is not a romance but for those of us who love the genre, there's enough of a romance thread to interest. And although whether Alice gets her man in the end is left up in the air, for those of us who want to believe she does, we can :) The only thing that didn't really work for me was the flashing back and forth between the present and the past in the beginning but maybe that's just cos I'm easily confused. And by half way through the book, I was used to this technique and didn't really mind it.

As far as women's fiction goes, this is unique and hard to put in a certain box so I won't even try. Just read it!

Hot on the heels of Alice, I read Bella's Run, which I can easily classify - it's a rip-roaring tale of rural romance, although I've seen the author call it a saga :) The romance is the main plot, which is too me a positive. And I loved the hero Will from day dot.

The story begins with Bella and her best friend Patty on their ''trip of a life time'' working and travelling the Aussie outback. Margareta paints their friendship beautifully and therefore it is gut-wrenching when tragedy tears them apart. All the characters are lively and their dialogue helps classify them as very rural or country - some may feel this is stereotyped but I was enjoying the story so much I didn't really mind. As well as the characters, Margareta has a way with words that brings the rural mountain setting alive. There's not a whole load of farming jargon, which I look upon as a positive. Margareta has just enough farming detail to make the book's ruralness authentic but doesn't bang the reader over the head with extraneous farming scenes. Bella's Run made me realise its'the FEEL of a book that makes it rural, not necessarily the content. And I think that FEEL is something all Aussies - whether city or country dwellers - will enjoy in this book :)

If I had one critical thing to say about this book it is that I would have liked to see more of what happened in the years the hero and heroine were apart, but then again, Bella's Run sits at almost 400 pages, so perhaps that's asking too much!

As you can see, I've been very happy with the books I've been reading lately. I'm currently reading a Rachel Gibson book, but I'll be back to my Aussie books soon - looking forward to Jaye Ford's SCARED YET and Amy Andrews INNOCENT 'TIL PROVEN OTHERWISE :)

Theory on Thursday with Nas Dean

Today I have a Theory on Thursday that's a little bit different. I'm welcoming Nas Dean to the hot seat - I've asked her some questions about her book promotion business. I know a fair few authors who are choosing to use a book promotion service now to arrange blog tours for them. I haven't done so myself yet but am curious as to exactly what it entails, etc, so I thought others might be too. Feel free to leave questions for Nas in the comments section too.

Me: What is your official job title?

Nas: I don’t know! But recently I had some cards made with “Promoting New Release Books and Authors” under my name! Our local papers pick up my reviews for their Sunday Magazine so I needed cards. Can I share a secret? I’m in talks with our local TV to feature my authors and their books. Maybe interview via skype but this is all in the very stages at the moment.

Me: How long have you been operating a book promotion business?

Nas: I’m fairly new at book promotions.  I have a background of Financial Management and Marketing after which I did some further studies in Information Systems while living in Auckland NZ. Computer Programming and Data Processing doesn’t really prepare you with proper English! But my passion has always been reading, so when we semi-retired to Fiji, I started reading to fill my time as there was no job available to someone with my qualifications in my age group. Then I got into online writer’s groups and into Harlequin community.

Actually Wendy S Marcus first suggested to me that I would be good at Marketing and Promoting books, using my marketing skills with a slightly different objective.  Here I’m targeting readers. And not just online. I do it in my local bookshops and libraries as well, by distributing authors bookmarks and cards. This is actually a novelty here as there are readers but no authors. So our readers don’t even know what an author signing is.

Me: What services do you offer to authors? How do you promote a book? What mediums do you use?

·        Nas: I create Author Pages with Buy Links for books and social media links for the author. A dedicated author page linked to my site, Romance Book Paradise, which has very high romance reader traffic.

·        I arrange Blog Tours to coincide with new release books for the authors. In recent times we had many successful tours, starting with Wendy S. Marcus, Kate Walker, Christina Hollis, Helen Lacey and still ongoing are Lynne Marshall, Louisa George and Emmie Dark.

·        Then I create Author and Book Pages on Fresh Fiction, Goodreads, Shelfari and Library Thing etc. I also make Romance Wiki page for my authors with separate pages for their books with excerpts and linked to their websites.

·        With subsequent books I offer Banner Space and Books Space linked to author’s book pages/Amazon on my very high reader traffic sites.

·         

Me: Why do you think author’s benefit from hiring an outside party to do their promotion?

Nas: You must know how hard an author works. And when they are engrossed in writing they are often absent minded. So how can they do their marketing? And if they do their own promotion, who will write their subsequent books? Mostly they are under deadline to complete books. And setting up a tour is a time consuming job. All the scheduling needed and liaising with various blogs for an author to appear there.   Authors are busy people, they are not in contact with reader blogs as I am. Think of the tour as a Book Signing not around the country but around the Globe- wherever your books are sold without leaving your home or the associated expenses. Authors’ names are ‘Out There!’ by going on a virtual tour. So it’s easier on subsequent books as well.

Me: Do you promote e-books and self-published writers?

Nas: Yes, recently I promoted Tracy Sumner, who was re-releasing her Historicals as eBooks (self-publishing) and Nina Jade Singer who has an eBook out.

Me: Do you believe that authors who connect with readers via Facebook, Twitter and other social media are more likely to get reviews for their books?

Nas: The most rewarding part of writing, second only to holding your books in print should be connecting with readers. An author should connect with her readers via social media. This interaction is which make a reader pick up a certain authors’ book in the bookshop. And readers would say if they liked a book. So an online verbal review on social media counts as much as a written review. Anything once written online is saved there forever. It won’t fade. Just Google a sentence and it will come up again.

Me: What is your Top Do and Top Don’t for authors who are being promoted?

Nas: Answer and comment back at every commenter who reads your posts. If authors don’t comment, it feels like these commenter’s are being snubbed. Have your Blogger/Wordpress profile with your proper name and a photo which readers can focus on. You can’t comment back with a cute tag such as ‘sweet babe’. No. You have to have your author name out there.

 And get the posts ready as soon as the schedule goes up. Some blogs ask for posts early up to two weeks in advance as they have newsletters or early promotion to do.

Me: How long before a book comes out do you start planning an author’s book tour? How long in advance do you need for someone to sign with you?

Nas: Eight to six weeks in advance. Some sites are booked up to three months in advance so we need to be prepared.

Me: Is self promotion frowned upon?

Nas: First, most readers recognize that authors need to market their books and promote themselves. No one begrudges a writer who talks about her book. In fact if you check an authors website and find nothing on their books or buy links, it is right to question that author’s professionalism. Not only readers tolerate marketing, we expect it! But there’s a fine line between self promotion and self absorption.  Authors are in other authors and writers community not readers, so talking about their books comes across as ‘Me and My Book!’ Consider this, when we, as readers say this is a new release book so all readers out there listen. We are generating interest for your book as readers. 

Have you heard someone say, ‘If your book is good enough, you don’t need to market it?’ Well, this isn't the case unless your name starts with “J” and ends with “ling”!

And don’t expect me to work wonders and shoot your book on the chart buster lists. We must do our best and work hard. The biggest and most obvious key to selling books is garnering exposure for the book and the author personally. The goal of marketing is to expose your book to as many people as possible in an exciting, cost effective and entertaining way. Guest blogging can achieve that goal. Blogs are archived, so your posts become and often are viral, spreading from site to site. That is LEVERAGE! You are leveraging your internet presence and duplicating yourself with every blog stop. Your Blog Tour is working for you even while you sleep. Try doing that at a bookstore or library signing!

Thanks Rachael for giving me this opportunity to do a bit of self promoting! I’ll be around to answer questions.

Thanks Nas - please bombard Nas with any further questions while she's here.

And I'd also love to hear from any authors who have used a service like Nas' - how did it work for you?

Theory on Thursday with Maisey Yates

Today I have fellow Sassy Sister (yes, they took pity on me and asked me to join a while back) and mega-prolific Mills & Boon Presents author Maisey Yates talking the BIG C!!! CONFLICT! Something I think we NEVER stop learning about. Take it away Maisey...

Thank you for having me, Rach! I really appreciate you asking me to blog. :)

Sustainable conflict is essential to any story. If there’s no conflict, there’s very little interest. I’m not talking conflict in terms of your characters screaming and yelling at each other either. I’m talking about something deeper.

Most books have two main types of conflict. There’s external conflict, and there’s internal conflict.

External conflict stems from external forces. Example: your heroine wants to buy her father’s company, but he’s selling it to someone else. Internal conflict comes from within a character. You heroine feels like she’s not good enough, because her father has never seen her value.

One of the best ways I’ve heard it put was that external conflict forces your characters together (your heroine proposes to your hero in order to get herself into a position to buy her father’s company) and the internal conflict keeps them apart. (your hero’s fear of being hurt prevents him from admitting her loves the heroine)

I’m a big believer in internal conflict in romance novels. Without it, what you end up with, very often, is conflict that could have easily been cleared up if the two of them had sat down in a room together and just engaged in honest conversation.

Real, sustainable, deep conflict isn’t that simple. In order to solve it, your characters have to change. They have to reach a crisis point and address a world view they’ve held for years, and make a conscious decision to think and feel differently.

I did a post a long while back called the onionparfait , about how a book is layers upon layers. Layers of conflict, layers of character.

You have, especially in category romance, the external right up front. It’s the thing that pushes your characters into close proximity with each other. And then as the story progresses, that part of the conflict starts to recede into the background as the deeper conflict and theme emerges.

Conflict and character go hand in hand. Their internal conflict will affect how they act, how they relate to other people. The relationships they’ve had in the past, the relationships they have now. It will affect how they interact with the hero or heroine. It will affect how the sex plays out in the loves scenes. Conflict is a part of the character, not just something you talk about in exposition.

With characters you have layers as well. You have essence vs identity. Who they are, and who they show the world they are. Or, in some cases, who they are vs who who they THINK they are. These can be very contradictory things, and when they are, I think it makes a character more interesting, more dynamic.

In my most recent MS, A Game of Vows, the heroine, Hannah, is an extremely competent and gutsy business woman. She’s probably the most full-on heroine I’ve ever written. She doesn’t just go toe to toe with the alpha hero, she does her level best to flatten him, particularly when she begins feeling a connection to him.

That heroine, who was so intense and hard on the outside, is by far my most broken on the inside. Her image is essential, projecting strength is essential, because her wounds are so great, and exposing them would mean dealing with them.

So she has a very clear cut difference between who she is, and who she pretends to be. Getting to the heart of her conflict is a stripping away of layers.

Very much like the external/internal conflict structure in the whole MS, you start with the simple, the obvious, and move deeper into the truth as the story progresses.

The black moment happens when the conflict comes to a head. When one character is pushed further than they’re ready to go. Example: your heroine is asking for love and your hero is not ready to give it.

All along the way the characters have been changing. They’ve been confronting elements of their conflict. But this is the big break. This is where everything, all the self protection, has to fall away.

This is the moment where your character has to decide: what’s scarier? Letting go of everything they’ve put into place to protect themselves? Or losing the person they love?

That’s how I deal with internal conflict, and how I use to take my characters on a journey, and hopefully take the reader on one as well!

If you have any questions about character or conflict or...anything...please ask in the comments! 

Thanks Maisey! And yes, please DO ask questions!! Maisey is one wise and VERY knowledgeable lady :)

You can find Maisey at her website, on Twitter (LOTS) and on Facebook. 

Blurbs for Maisey's recent books:

The Petro Proposal

The first time Maddy Forrester heard her boss’s mesmerizing voice barking orders down the phone, she knew he was a force to be reckoned with. But nothing prepared her for the sight of Aleksei Petrov. He is the last thing Maddy needs, but the first thing she wants!

Aleksei is determined not to mix business with pleasure, but he struggles with the irresistible sparks his feisty secretary ignites in him- she’s a problem he does not want.

The proposed solution? One unforgettable night to fulfill their every wicked desire.

Girl On A Diamond Pedestal

Never been kissed.

Noelle was once the girl who had everything. Until the piano prodigy fell from grace. Destitute and desperate, she’s forced to accept billionaire Ethan Grey’s convenient proposal.

Ethan wants revenge – all he needs is Noelle’s signature on the marriage certificate. Yet his carefully composed façade cracks in the face of her innocent attempts at seduction.

Noelle’s only ever felt love and excitement whilst at her beloved piano – yet now her traitorous body craves the white-hot passion ignited by Ethan’s skilled touch. But will he ever see her as more than a means to an end?

My Keeper Shelf - Part One (category romance)

I used to be a hoarder and keep absolutely EVERY book I've ever bought, but now, I'm more ruthless because my book collection got simply ridiculous and we've moved around a lot. Removalists (and husbands) get cranky having to cart around heavy book boxes. Go figure!

Anyway, I was sad to throw many of my massive collection of Mills & Boon novels away - some I gave to my mother-in-law who is an avid fan too :) But there are a few category novels that will stay with me until they pack ME up in a box and no doubt my boys will have to decide what to do with mum's tatty old books. These are the novels that I plan on rereading one day when I have OODLES AND OODLES of time (of which I don't right now).

Here's my Mills & Boon Keeper List:

• The Magnate's Indecent Proposal - by Ally Blake - possibly my favourite category book of all time. I will NEVER loan this out and DIE if I lose it. 
• The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella - by Liz Fielding
• Molly Cooper's Dream Date - by Barbara Hannay
• Wife For A Week - by Kelly Hunter
• Take On Me - by Sarah Mayberry
• The Princes of the Outback series - by Bronwyn Jameson
• In McGillivray's Bed - by Anne McAllister
• Breakfast AT Giovanni's - by Kate Hardy
• Oh-So-Sensible Secretary - by Jessica Hart
• Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal - by Heidi Rice

I get excited just typing these titles.

In the next few days I'll do a post about my keeper single title books but first, if you read Mills & Boon, I'd love to hear some of your keepers and if not, I dare you to track down one of these titles and have a read :)

Theory on Thursday with Rachel Bailey

Today I'm ecstatic to have my RWAus twin on my blog - a MASSIVE welcome to Desire author, Rachel Bailey. We're twins because people actually mistake us for the same person - we often get each other's emails, more often Rachel gets mine cos she's far more famous than I am - and sometimes people who have known us for years, discover we're actually two different people. Seriously... it happens that much that we're thinking of getting t-shirts printed for conferences. Something along the lines of ''If you've read Rachel Johns, you'll LOVE Rachel Bailey'' and vice versa. Aside from our first names being the same, my ''real'' name is VERY similar to Bailey and well... you get the idea.


Rachel's chatting today about something I LOVE the idea of but have never actually managed to embrace properly so I'm hoping for some tips. 


Over to you Rach...

Inviting your right brain out to play

Popular psychology has a theory that our left brains are the place where most logical thinking happens, where we do our arithmetic, store the grammar rules and generally be rational. The theory goes on to say that our right brains are where our creativity resides, our imagination and intuition, and where we synthesise things.

You may already have a good relationship with your right brain, but my left brain usually jumps in before my right brain gets a chance to say much. So when I’m plotting a story, I have a couple of techniques I use to coax my right brain into playing with us.

One of those is collage.

You’ve probably read about collages and writing before – there are some great articles on the web, such as this one http://www.jennycrusie.com/for-writers/essays/picture-this-collage-as-prewriting-and-inspiration/ by Jennifer Crusie, so my post today is more about how collages work for me.

Sometimes when I’m rushing to plot a book, I consider skipping this step, but things always go easier for me later with the story when I’ve taken the time.

I generally start by flipping through magazines. There’s a stack in my office cupboard kept for just this purpose. I’m looking for the obvious: someone who might look like my hero or heroine (I also browse the internet for these) and settings that might occur in the book. But I’m also looking for anything that may *feel* right. It might be a bottle of red wine, or a posy of wildflowers, or a word, or a blue background. After a while the random images start to form a pattern. Or not. But, put with the things my left brain chooses, they always add up to an overview of the feeling of the story.

Then I’ll go to a craft store / craft section of a department store and scour for anything that feels right on their shelves. For a future book I’m planning I bought silver and purple felt stick on butterflies. They’re so pretty, and although I don’t think there are any butterflies in the story (or maybe there will be?) it’s probably going to be a metaphor for my heroine’s journey. Sometimes an image or an object I find will start my brain thinking about a whole new thread to the story – those moments are gold.

The background to the collage is important to me too. For Million-Dollar Amnesia Scandal, I stuck pieces of red and brown paper in a chequered pattern before adding on the pictures on top – the colours felt right. For What Happens in Charleston… I used thick black cardboard and sprayed it with gold hairspray to give it a glitter effect. (Probably my favourite collage background so far!)

The act of creating the collage is really useful to me in getting the plot together in my head and finding threads and aspects to the story I otherwise may have missed. But that’s only one purpose.

After I’ve finished a collage, I hang it above my computer while I write the book and it becomes an ongoing inspiration. When I first sit down in the mornings, I look up at the collage and fall into the story again – especially important if I’ve just been working on edits for another story and need to ‘feel’ this one again.

Also, when I have those moments where I wonder about what comes next, instead of gazing out the window (which would be sure to distract me), I gaze at the collage. Looking at the picture I’ve chosen for him pasted beside the picture of the heroine surrounded by all the colours and metaphors for their journey, I can almost hear them talking (or not talking as the case may be) and I know where the story needs to go. It’s like the collage becomes my muse.

Everyone’s brain works differently, so using collages may not help you at all – it might just waste your time – but it might be worth a try in case it does add something to your plotting experience!

So tell me, have you ever used a collage when writing? Was it useful or just a waste of time? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

(By the way, I haven’t posted any photos of my collages here because I’m sure they’d have images that are copyright to the photographer and I need to respect that.)

WOW Rachel, some of those collages sound AMAZING!!! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your collaging process with us Rachel. Do be sure to share your collage-ing experiences as Rachel said :)

Rachel's latest book is WHAT HAPPENS IN CHARLESTON (don't ya just love that title?)

Here's the blurb:

Money has always given Matthew Kincaid whatever he wanted. Yet now his son needs something even his millions can't buy. The widower's sole recourse is the surrogate who gave birth to his child - for she is also the boy's true biological mother.

Susannah Parrish needs no prodding to offer her assistance - a child's life is at stake. But to their mutual surprise, the minute she's back in Charleston and residing in Matthew's home, passion consumes them. Is this a relationship doomed by deception? Or is it the one chance at a love they both secretly crave?

You can find Rachel at her website, on Twitter and on Facebook (go ahead, like her. You know you want to :)).