Quirky Romantic Mysteries and Regency Romances

I’m starting a series of guest bloggers hopefully every Wednesday and Friday. Please welcome my first guest and chapter mate–Dennis Clarkston!

Hello, have you ever thought about a character being troubled over a certain birthday.   We writers usually write about what we know or experienced.  And, what I know is that several of my friends and acquaintances experienced bad days on their 30th and 40th birthdays.  Just the thought of those days placed them in a state of depression.   Their funk would last that day but most last several days.  They worried about life passing them by and a passing of an era.

So, when my 30th birthday came around, I expected this big heavy weight to land on my shoulders (WHAM) and force me into a depressed state of mind.  After waiting for 30 minutes for something to happen that morning, I decided to just get on with my day.  To me, it turned out to be like any other day.   Well, almost like any other day.  Yes, a normal day in that I felt no regrets or did not fret.  No, not a normal day in that I usually don’t get to eat on chocolate birthday cake every day. (Mmmmmm, Chocolate!! – LOL)

Then came my 40th birthday.  Again, nothing major happened.  It, too, turned out to be a normal day except for the birthday cake and a few phone calls.  The sky did not fall; the world did not collapse; or the truck started.

Now, let’s relate this back to the characters and add some “What ifs…?”  What if the heroine was expected to be married by 30 but found herself single on that day?  How does this affect her?  What if in her attempt to keep her spirits up, she runs into Mr. Right?  Does this kill her funk when she falls for him?

On the subject of writing what I know: What if the hero soaks in the information he picked up from his friends who had turned 30?  What if they tell stories of horror and angst?  What if his 30th birthday is weeks away and dread settles in?  What if when he reaches it, he finds that it is just another ordinary day?   What kind of lesson does he learn from this?

What if the day before his birthday, this wonderful woman catches his attention? What if all thoughts of his birthday disappear?  What if he had been set up for a blind date on his birthday, but he wanted to date this wonderful woman instead?  What if in the process of trying to find this woman, he lost her in the crowd?  What if he finds out that his blind date was this wonderful woman he saw the day before?  What will he remember about his birthday?

To me, this is not enough to build a novel around but it could be used to spice it up some.  One might be able to use it as the hero’s/heroine’s minor internal conflict that can influence the course of his/her actions.

Have you had something in your past that you dreaded and then discovered that it was really nothing?  Have you been bothered by any of your birthday’s? 

Now, you may be asking, “Why this topic?”  Well, yesterday I celebrated my 51st birthday.  And, again, it is turned out to be just another day but with, Mmmmm Chocolate, cake. 

——

Dennis H. Clarkston lives in the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase, Natchitoches, La.  He has both a BA and a BS.  No, that does not mean he has a Bad Attitude and is full of Bull S—.  Though he feels like he needs some to complete his books. 

His dream of writing started in first grade but did not start writing seriously until he hit 24.  He started many novels but never made through to complete the first draft of any until this past July.  Likes to write science fiction that is action adventure based or is that action adventures that are science fiction based.  All have comedy, romance and mystery tossed in as well.

Currently, Dennis is running through his first edit of his first novel and hopes to complete his second edit by the end of September.  Then, he hopes he can let it go to someone to critique.  

Blog: blog.clark-stone.net
Email: garnara@gmail.com

I know a lot of people wonder about what comes after the sale. I’ll do my best to give you a quick inside peek of how things are going down for me.

After I signed my contract with Turquoise Morning Press I entered the  INFORMATION HIGHWAY and I sucked up as much of it as I could. There’s publisher author loops to join, publisher reader loops to join, information about future submissions to review! My publisher had not yet released their first books when I signed on, so I went to the author loop and reviewed all the past messages. It gave me a good feel of how they operated and answered many of my questions. I filled out cover sheet information, tax information, and something else so I can get money when those royalties start rolling in!

My publishered urged me to pitch her more ideas, to not feel like we had to wait until my book was edited and everything before we could get more going. So I did! I worked up a proposal to take Through The Wall into a series and pitched her the idea. And she loved it!  We launched right into contracts for the second in the series On The Fence and I’m looking at four more novellas to pitch her.

So while those ideas are steaming and sizzling and coming together in the back of my mind, I moved on ahead into a few promo things. I began work on a book trailer, picked at updating my website, and just all over, tried to get prepared and stay ahead of the game.

And cover pretties came! It was a whoose all over again of website updating and celebrating. I have to say, it took me longer than I expected to get my cover up at the various places I visit online…and I didn’t even change my avatar photo at twitter, facebook, blogger, word press, Romance Divas…or oh, my! There seems to be so many! And how in the world am I ever going to keep up! But I pushed through and kept forward movement going.

Remember that book trailer I was working on? I said, no way am I waiting. Now that I had my cover, I jumped in there and got myself busy and got that thing finished. It’s a bit early to be flashing that thing around and trying to draw attention to it–my book doesn’t come out til end of December!–but I decided having something doesn’t mean I have to run around all over the internet shouting it from the rooftops.

I quietly sent it to my publisher and she linked it, I put it on my website and am sending it to an interview next week. Oh, and since you’re here and if you’re curious, here’s my trailer below. Low cost was the name of the game here. I created it myself in Windows Movie Maker. If you can work MS PowerPoint, you can do Movie Maker. I bought pictures from istockphoto.com and in all, I spent about $18.00.

Julie Lindsey asked me to be part of a Writer Wednesday series. I was thrilled and said yes!

 ”Rejections are part of the business. Yes, they suck like wow, but again, part of the business. They can be for any number of reasons. Such as taste, for example. Your voice and style. A reader’s book taste is like their food palate. Reading a book you don’t like is the same as being told to drink Coke and enjoy it when you’re a die-hard Dr. Pepper fan.”

for more head over to Julie’s blog…Musings From The Slush Pile

At Lori Foster’s Readers and Authors Get Together 2010, I sat through a Q&A editor panel with Monique Patterson from S. Martin’s Press, Margo Lipschult from HQN and then Laura Bradford from Bradford Literary Agency joined us!

Here’s my notes on that session. Beware—any misspellings or confusion you might get from this are mine and mine alone. The questions were firing off in this workshop and I was just barely keeping up! So let’s get started:

Monique Patterson (St.Martin’s Press): MP
Margo Lipschultz (HQN): ML
Laura Bradford (Agent): LB

MP: editorat SMP. Wide range bks, commercial, thriller, romance, diet bks, mem. anything. No-acadm. 650titles per year. women’s fic: suspense, paranormal. No inspy/sweeter–Other SMP editors do those. Select amount of literary fiction and nonfict new voices. Next star.

ML: editor HQN. Singletitle line. Mira, Luna, HQTeen. Diverse amt of books. New stuff: Hqnnonfiction, hqteen: ages 12-19. RS-short on those. Hist:fab authors there. Looking for any romance: upmarket women’s fiction such as: WEIGHT OF SILENCE (MIRA), YAprojects

-Do you work through agents?

MP: both. Signed some non-agents, but they usually get one soon. Recommended.
ML: Recommended. Series (category) editors will work directly w/authors. Accept queries, but when she’s seriously ready to work w/authors they find an agent, or are already talking w/on.

-What’s your work load? Meetings vs. email vs. reading?

MP/ML: in office: no reading. Instead, meeting, phone calls, email. Mngment of everything outside of editing. Nights and weekends is when the editing gets done.

-How many edits does a book usually go through? How long will you keep working w/author on that book?

ML: it can vary. 5 or 6 revisions on one author in one book. Next book same author, one. On their current authors, they’ll turn in proposals and chapter outline for upcoming booksthose early stages are most collaborative.

MP: ditto

What do you look for in a synopsis?
ML: over arching, main points, internal/external conflicts

-Do you monitor other houses? What about when there are 2 similar ideas?

MP: kind of know of various things other publishers are doing through publisher’s lunch. Market can bear…any number of Scottish historical at once. On things like nonfiction, then it becomes a race to get to the market first. People are not likely to buy the same topic of nonfiction book like they will in fiction.

ML: we also monitor (or are aware) of things like covers. Not only of what’s coming up but what’s been out. I can see an author at SMP and wonder, how can we find someone like for us at LUNA? Identify trends, why they’re working and how can we tap into them?

-What about trends? And how much longer do you think it’ll work?

MP: paranormal, YA, historical are in. Contemp romance (contemp comedies) market to come back. Bubbling about steam punk romance. Post apoplectic.

ML: ANGELS are huge right now w/JR Ward’s new series. Vampires not going anywhere. Steampunk YA. Steampunk: less sophisticated, more mainstream it’s becoming–can make for bigger potential.

-Will steampunk last?

MP: don’t really know. Everybody’s just watching. Lots of interest. 10years ago? Couldn’t give away paranormal. Now it’s everything anybody wants. It’s all on timing and hoping it’ll happen.

-What about YA steampunk authors?

ML: 2011 at HQTeen.

LB: just sold steampunk due out in 1012. Not very sciency. Mash-up of fairy and steampunk. Set in California/San Fran around earthquake. Has steampunk mood/sensibility. Author: Suzanne Lazer.

-WHAT IS STEAMPUNK???

Short definition: historical setting, sometimes w/historical fantasy, but with technology beyond their standard means. Airships, computer like machines—but clockwork base or steambase. Example: WILD WILD WEST (will smith)

-Women’s fiction. Definition, commercial, others?

ML: Jodie Picoult. …there you go. Can be romance, but more about one/multiple women’s character arcs and how they change. Marriage breakup, health issue. Relevant topics people like to discuss. Emily Griffen (SMP author)—she’s good about asking ‘what if’ LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH (couple happily married. One didn’t want children and convinced the other not to. And then one morning wakes up and realizes that kid is wanted.). Many are 1st pov and telling the story of how they do it. Community oriented books.

-Professional Editor? Recommended for debut?

ML: can’t make blanket statement due to the different kind of editors. Likes to say yes, since she used to be one don’t think it can hurt, but do your research before you agree.

-What authors you work with?

MP: Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kristen Warren, Cheyenne McCray, Francis Ray, Susan Donovan, Celeste Bradley, Lora Lee.

-Does HQN have series that stretches as far as Kenyon (she’s at 12-14books?)

ML: Gina Showalter put HQN on the map for paranormal. LORDS of Underworld: 6 more next year and hopefully more. Probably their longest going. Suzannah Mallory tends to write tril. Lori Foster. And Victoria Dahl doing back-to-back tril. (caters to instant gratification)

-Any cool new creatures?

ML: banshees in HQTeen. Girl realizes she is one and she’s learning to predict death.

MP: depends on your imagination and what you can do.

-How do you decide deadlines?

MP: decided at contract stage: such as when 1st draft due. It comes in and it all depends. Likes to take about a month w/the mss. Sometimes quicker or longer, depending on what else is due.

-Ebooks?

MP: loves them. Got a sonye-reader before they started giving them to editors. Very exciting. Nobody knows how it’ll all look when the dust settles. No idea of end result. We know ebook sales are on the rise.

-When are you ebooks released?

MP: no windowing. Ebook released the same as print. *most of the time if there is a delay, there’s a glitch.

ML: HQN is the same. Sometimes there’s a gap of few days or week of when HQN ebooks are available and kindle. At HQN: doing ebook prequels to get the buzz going. Mini novella’s to be linked to first book.

-What format do you edit?

MP: Printed page. If she knows the author is clean, then she might do an electronic.

ML: Printed page. Houses are going to all electronic, so she doesn’t know how much longer it will last.

-Any new contemp authors?

MP: Susan Donovan. Looking for smart, sexy, funny.

ML: Lori Foster, Suzanne Mallory (series, small town. Family/group of friends), readers love a sense of community. Kristen Higgins (stand-alones describe as rom. Comedies/cute sweet, but feels they’re so much more).

-Small town or big for contemporary?

MP/ML: either one.

LB: I don’t get a ton of contemp submissions. (would like something like Suzanne Elizabeth Phillips)

-On settings. Main town is fictional. Is it all right if I mention real towns?

ML/MP: yes. You can base your fiction town on a real place and give it a spin.

-Is it better for real or fictional?

ML: depends. A lot depends on what the name sounds like. Sometimes, just the name of a town will draw her in.

-Any new authors you’re excited about?

MP: new to SMP Donna grant. Writing historical/Scottish. Historical romance authors: Tiffany Claire (oct, nov) THE SURRENDER OF A LADY. Very bold, set in a harem. Husband gambles her away and she’s sold into a harem. Hero is her 1st love, but neither families supported it and they went separate ways. Sees her again at this harem. He bids and gets her for 6months. Julie Anne McQueen: Scottish historical series back-to-back CLAIMED BY THE HIGHLANDER. Suzanne Enoch tentatively called HUSBAND HUNTER.

ML: Eve Silver. New to HQN. Back-to-back tril in oct. gods/goddess, sexy, lot of fun. DEBUT paranormal: Lori London in sweet blood series BONDED BY BLOOD (Feb 2011). Good vampires and not so good ones. Good ones in a guardian. Guardians protect vampires existence. Taking vampires and making them her own. They never launch too many new authors at once to test the market on taking new voices.

RWA Nationals is coming up in July! Wa-hoo! Every year at Nationals there’s an annual PRO-Retreat for RWA’s PRO Members. This year, each member will get a ticket for a chance to win a door prize–free when you show up! There’s no money exchange, nothing like that. Like I said, free when you show up!

But….but what are the door prizes? That’s where hopefully YOU come in! Agents, Editors, Published Authors —Please, if any of you can donate a critique, we’d have some serious love for you. Query letters, synopsis, manuscript pages, whatever you’d like and feel comfortable with, we want! (we’re greedy. not picky.)

If you’re interested, drop me an email:

keriford @ hotmail. com (no spaces)

Or my good buddy, Cynthia D’Alba (ArkansasCyndi), AKA POWERHOUSE behind everything RWA PRO at:

cynthiadalba @ sbcglobal. net (no spaces)

Thanks so much for the generosity I just know you’re wanting to dish out!