Who Pays?

Note: Because we're revamping this blog a bit, I don't yet know what I'm going to do with my Fridays. I might post book recommendations, or who knows? So until I've decided, I'm going to copy my Friday posts from my own blog. Since I usually post about genre-related stuff, I don't think you'll be bored. Forgive me, but I promise I'll come up with something clever soon.


So reading this article on Gawker got me thinking.

The article, for those who don't want to or don't have time to click and read it, is about "going Dutch" on dates. Specifically the first few dates. And whether it's okay for a man to expect a woman to pay for her own dinner on a first date. And whether women should expect to have their meals paid for. And if it's about men being cheap or women being empowered. Or whatever.

I haven't dated in some time, and when I did...well, frankly, I pretty much never did. Not your typical dinner date, anyway. I'd usually hung around with a guy for some time before we really went out together. Or we'd already kissed, or whatever, and so were dating. Usually we were both so poor that whoever had money would pay. But we were also barely in our twenties and spent most of our available cash on beer.

But even then, if it was a date-type evening, I never considered paying. When my boyfriend would say he wanted us to go out to eat, we both took it for granted he would pay. When we just decided to go out on the spur of the moment we'd go dutch, but a "date"--he paid. (Unless I took him out for his birthday or something.)

All of my heroes in my books pay. For everything. This has a lot to do with them being richer than Croesus, but I admit, it's also because I think the man should pay, at least in the beginning. He's the one doing the inviting*, he's the one doing the seducing, so he pays.

And the way he asks always indicates he's paying, too. Not "Why don't we go out to eat?" but "Let me take you out to dinner" or "Come on, I'll buy you dinner." And my heroines don't argue with that. Sometimes they may think about not turning down a free dinner, but, oddly, power struggles in the relationships of my characters are never financial (I say "oddly" because it's only just occured to me). Not one of my heroines feels she's less independent and strong if she lets the man pay. They make it very clear that he's buying dinner, not her body, (not stridently; the topic is never discussed, it's just clear) and that they expect to be treated and spoken to a certain way and that's that.

Perhaps it's because my heroes, however criminal their other activities may be or no matter how coldly they may order the deaths of their enemies, are gentlemen.

Or perhaps I'm a totally clueless dinosaur and should be shot for betraying womankind.

What do you think?

(*the person who does the inviting should pay. This is the only exception to the "men should pay" rule. But then, I don't believe women should ask men out, either, and the reason is because if a man's not man enough to take a chance and ask you for a date, maybe he's not man enough period. I've asked a few guys out over the course of my life, and it's never worked out. It sets a precedent, I think, where you're the pursuer and he gets to sit back and let you do it. It makes them overconfident.)

WHORING MYSELF AROUND THE INTERNET:

I'm over at The Book Bitches guest bitching about Jackie Collins, come on by and say hi! The Bitches are awesome fun, and they did a little interview with me as well (below the first post).

I did an interview at Rachel Carrington's blog about my Publishing series, so check that one out too!

Brand new release and new feature next Thursday!

Hi guys! YAY! Another Devarian story has just hit the cyber-stands, so I thought I'd bring you an excerpt today. And next Thursday, I hope you'll join me for the first Sierra's Story Hour -- every week, I'll be posting an installment of a new short story, and when it's done, I'll post the whole thing on my free stories page at sierradafoe.com and start another!

For today -- hot off the presses from Changeling Press:

Devarian Renegades
by Sierra Dafoe

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=682

Captain Merrin Trafalgar’s life is going to pieces. Recalled from space on the verge of discovering a new planet, she’s immured instead on a backwater planet, guarding gelded work-slaves in the wheat fields of Harth. The one thing she has to look forward to is being reunited with her two pleasure-slaves. But in her absence they’ve fallen in love -- with each other! Even worse, Merrin finds herself drawn to the handsome, enigmatic Rolen -- but how can a gelded work-slave rouse such longing in her?

When Rolen reveals his secret, Merrin knows there’s only one answer for her and her forbidden lover -- go renegade!

Excerpt

Rolen walked silently beside her, his hand occasionally touching the small of her back as he guided her along the darker stretches of the path. The night must have grown cooler, because Merrin was intensely aware of his touch even through the thin fabric of her uniform, of the warmth of his fingers and the breadth of his hard, work-callused palm. It felt so different compared to when Stevan touched her, or Amur…

“You won’t… you won’t tell anyone about this, Rolen, will you?” Glancing sidelong at his stern profile, Merrin saw him grimace.

“Of course not. Everyone has secrets, my lady.”

And what secrets would a work-slave have? Merrin wondered. But she couldn’t bring herself to ask. It would be violating, somehow, what he’d given her.

They walked in silence for a bit. Then Rolen asked, “May I ask you something in return?” Merrin hesitated, then nodded. “What is your name?”

She let out a small, surprised laugh. “Merrin. Captain Merrin Trafalgar.”

“Merrin.” He said the word as if memorizing it, storing it away somewhere behind those black eyes. “Thank you, my lady.” A moment later, he murmured, “They must trust you immensely. I can almost see why.”

“They?” Then she realized he was speaking of Stevan and Amur. “What does trust have to do with it? They’re pleasure-slaves.”

The glance Rolen gave her was almost pitying. “How much simpler would it have been to lie to you? To hide what they felt for each other? Simpler… and safer. They must have been terrified you’d separate them, sell off one to punish the other.”

Merrin opened her mouth to protest -- but the memory of Amur clinging to her with an almost desperate fierceness as Stevan told her, Believe me, there is no one to whom I’d rather belong, cut short her words.

Rolen was right. That was exactly what they’d been afraid of. “What do you think I should do, then?”

In response, Rolen grabbed her arm and dragged her to him, his mouth covering hers with an urgency that left her breathless. His kiss was wholly inexpert -- rough and abrupt -- yet the hunger in it, as he crushed his lips down upon hers, set her head reeling. His spicy, musky scent filled her nostrils, banishing rational thought so thoroughly that when his tongue prodded lightly against her closed lips, she moaned and parted them.

Hesitantly at first, then with more assurance, his tongue plunged into the wetness of her mouth -- tasting her, exploring her, devouring her.

His huge, work-hardened arms clamped around her, pressing her to his chest. She could feel the thunder of his heartbeat beneath the sturdy ribs, the firm swell of his pecs…

Merrin trembled, feeling desire rake her from her scalp to the very tips of her toes. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Her cunt was on fire, desperate for a connection they could never have.

Just as suddenly as he’d seized her, Rolen turned her loose, and Merrin staggered, crying out in shock. For one second he stared down at her, his massive chest heaving, his eyes, black and wild, burning down into hers. The thin moonlight filtering through the leaves above etched his face, revealing a shocked vulnerability that pierced Merrin to the quick.

Then he stepped back into the darkness, becoming nothing more than a shadow against the shadows of the trees. “Forgive them, my lady. Nobody chooses who they will love.”

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=682

Wild Wednesday Number One!

It's time to get....WILD!!! That's right, from now on, Wednesday's on the Deliciously Naughty blog will be Wild Wednesday's. You can look forward to hot man meat, sexy excerpts, maybe a little flash fiction of the naughty variety, and more.

So I hope you'll join me here every hump day for a little naughty fun.

This is an old man meat blog of mine, but it seemed like the perfect thing to get my Wild Wednesday blogging off to a rousing start with LOTS of yummy manliness.

Enjoy!!

Anna J. Evans
http://annajevans.com
fan the flames...



"Are you looking at me? Are you checking out my manliness? I challenge you with my eyes and clenched eight-pack...go ahead, make fun of the bandana tied around my wrist....I DARE you."



"Yes, I'm also manly....what are you going to do about it? Yes my manly nipples are hard...the water is cold...do you have a problem with that?"



"I'm too manly for my hoodie, too manly for my hoodie, too manly also for my dog tag."



"Manly men can not be tied with string, you must use rope, fool! Soon I will pull free and give a taste of a manly ass-whooping unlike anything the world has ever known."



"Hell yeeeaaasss, I'm manly. See how I stick out there all proud like? So I got some kind of burlap sock tar baby lookin' thing on there. So what? You know you still want me to rope ya little filly."

Wow, a lot of attitude in the man meat today....let's mix it up a bit...



"I too am manly...manly and deep and contemplative, manly and intergalactic. I see the chaos of the universe and want to weep, but instead I clench my abs and call for my captain...oh captain...."



"I'm not compensating for anything. I need a big sword because I have a lot of heads to chop off. And that's sweat, not baby oil. I. Swear. To. God."

(Oh my god, I love the Rock...I really do. There's something weirdly hot about a guy whos bicep is bigger around than my waist. Or am I psychotic?)



"Come on baby, run your hands through my mullet and kiss your way down my hair-shirt. If it gets stuck in your teeth, well...it just might be the dental floss nature intended."



Man meat a' la mode with fresh berries. Truly a manly treat.

When I Knew

People often ask "When did you know you wanted to be a writer?"

I don't know that I can actually pinpoint a specific time or place. My first experience as a writer was in sixth grade. Our teacher would give us an opening line and have us write a short story. Most of mine were fantastical and I seem to remember they ended something like "But it was only a dream." LOL I've improved since then, thankfully.

I really didn't do any more fiction writing until around 1998. And that was partly because someone told me I couldn't. Oh, not me specifically, but people in my profession. So I set out to prove her wrong.

And I did. But it wasn't until about 2005 that I seriously started thinking about doing this for a living. Being a writer, I mean. And I'm on my way. Nowhere near being able to support myself yet, but that'll come. I hope.

What would I be Doing?

Hmm. Ideally I'd be married to a millionaire, sitting on our yacht sipping cocktails.

Other than that? Maybe a carpenter.

I'd actually really like to be a carpenter. I see them and I'm jealous. I'd love to be able to work with my hands like that, to make things, really make them from raw materials. I'd love to be able to use big tools. I'd love to hammer things. (When I got my first apartment I made a special trip to buy a hammer, and I felt so cool and grown up and womanly. I owned a hammer! I could hammer things. It was a special moment.)

Because my Dad and brother are big gearheads, being a mechanic always hovered in the background for me too. I like cars. I'd like to know how they work, how to fix them. They're like little mysteries, and who can resist a mystery?


I guess what all those jobs have in common is they're all about fixing and creating. And tools. Which writing erotic romance and urban fantasy incorporates pretty smoothly. :-)

Hey Mom, I wanna write smut!

Y'know, I'm just thinking about that this morning -- it's a strange career choice, being an erotic romance writer. It's incredibly long hours for not much pay, especially at the beginning. It's the sort of thing that's sometimes awkward to talk about in mixed company (I'm picturing my poor mom introducing me to her friends.... "And here's my daughter -- she writes sex scenes for a living." LOL!)

Poor mom. Writer was always on the agenda, although it was supposed to come after my brilliant film career, if I remember right. And the single largest hurdle I always faced to writing professionally was choosing a genre.

You see, I love it all. I am a major fantasy addict. I love sci-fi -- Heinlein, Niven, Philip K. Dick. Historical fantasy? Mary Stewart? Mary Renault? (why didn't my mother name me Mary, dang it!?) Morgan Llwewllyn? OH man! I am so all over that! And contemporary, humorous, quietly caustic stuff... Well, I finally got to go there a little with the Shifter Sisters. Swashbuckling adventures, high rolling seas, dashing pirates -- and dragons and mighty quests and magic swords (nope, noooo pun intended there!) The far-off, the fantastic, and the occasional foray into the domestic and familiar... There is, I have no hesitation in saying, only one genre of literature that allows me all that. Plus it's got sex, too -- how can you possibly beat that?

Hey Mom! I'm gonna be an erotic romance writer!

She'll recover, some day... LOL!

-- Sierra

www.sierradafoe.com -- new site redesign in the works!

One lucky bastardess

That's what I am. I have three jobs and I wouldn't trade any of them in for something better. There's nothing in the world I'd rather do than what I'm doing. Writing books has been something I wanted to do since I was seven years old and the fact that I actually got to see that childhood wish come true is just...a blessing. (Sorry had to get a little corny there for a second.)



My second job is as a freelance photographer for our state's paper. I've only been working this one for about a month, but I'm LOVING it! Photography is by far my favorite hobby and to see a hobby start to bring in some money and additional opportunities for tax deduction, well, there ain't much better than that. And I get to go cool places and meet interesting people and have a good excuse to get up in their faces and snap away. Awesomse stuff (and a good excuse to ask for a camera upgrade for Christmas I do believe, lol!)



And my third job, which I couldn't decide to talk about first, or save until last. Those three up there on the bottom bunk. Helping raise these kids is by far my hardest and most time consuming job, but also the most rewarding. Until I had Roo, I had no idea I was capable of such fierce, fantastic love. And until I started helping raise the girls, I had no idea I was capable of loving kids that weren't 'mine' biologically in that same all-consuming way. But now, I don't know what I'd do if we lost one of them or they decided to go live with their other parent instead of me and the hubs. I love them so much, and am willing to do whatever it takes to see all three grow into strong, confident, loving grown-ups who are as well-equipped for life as I can help make them in my job as 'mom'.

Sniff! Talking about that third job always gets me choked up. Speaking of, gotta go wake those kids up.

Happy Wednesday all,


Anna J. Evans
http://annajevans.com

What would I be doing?

For once, an easy question! My day career, librarianship, is my second love. No, I don't get to read books all day. The particular job I'm in right now isn't a job I ever expected to have when I started out being a librarian, but it's very fulfilling. My dream librarian job is to be the manager of a popular fiction/materials collection where I can at least *talk* about books and movies and music all day. I truly have a deep love for the entertainment factor of reading and I can't imagine working in any other fields besides librarianship and writing. Being a librarian is a *lot* more than books, but that's a lecture for another day ;)

What I Do To Pay The Bills

I know I've talked about this before and folks are probably getting tired of hearing me piss and moan about it. LOL But here goes...

For over 20 years I've been in the Human Resources field in one aspect or another. I started out as a receptionist for a personnel recruiting firm, worked my way up to Office Manager/Interviewer. From there I went to a large home health care company where I was recruited nursing and non-nursing staff, and ended my tenure there as a generalist providing overall HR support to two of their divisions. Then I went on to a cable company as Risk Administrator, where I handled Workers' Compensation, General Liability and Vehicle Liability and leaves of absences for employees. In 2000 I decided I'd had enough of Ohio and moved to Arizona, where after 3 weeks of being unemployed I took a job with a credit union as their benefits person. After a year and a half I was promoted to Assistant Vice President. When I left there after 5 years, I had been Vice President of Human Resources for 3 1/2 years.

Then I took 11 months off and wrote, wrote, wrote. At the end of July 2006 I had to go back to work. I started with my current company as a part-time HR Assistant and, in December, went full-time as their HR Administrator. I'm back to being a generalist, doing just about everything that needs to be done that's personnel related.

Beginning today, I'm cutting back my hours to 30 hours a week, and I hope those extra 10 hours will be put to productive use. My dream is to be able to support myself with my writing--it seems there aren't a lot of authors who can do that. But my needs are simple LOL. I'd be willing to live on popcorn and green beans if I had to...

I remember the first time I picked up one of my Mom's romance novels and read a bit of it. Unfortunately I don't remember the title, or the characters. All I remember is one line:

"...Previously, she'd been a virgin in both passages..."

I had NO idea what that meant. I vaguely recall something about the hero flipping the heroine over before that line, but I still had absolutely no idea what it meant. I remember puzzling about it in the creek behind my house. At least, I puzzled on it until a big dog came along and scared me and I ran away. I'm not joking. He was (I now know) a Great Dane. It's a very clear memory.


But the first one I really remember reading, cover to cover, was "Romancing the Stone" by Catherine Lanigan writing as, of course, Joan Wilder.

I grabbed it because I'd loved the movie. Boy was I stunned. There's a sex scene like two chapters into it! And another fully detailed one later, where Joan and Jack finally get together.

I was eleven or twelve, and I was frankly shocked. And really intrigued. I must have read those scenes dozens of times, glancing around frantically so no one would see--I'd love to find a copy of the book now to see if they're as explicit as my recollection. (Not too much later I happened across a copy of "My Secret Garden", Nancy Friday's landmark collection of women's sexual fantasies. THAT scorched my eyeballs. WOW. I've actually been tempted to pick up another copy of that one too, to see if it's as hot as I remember. It probably is.)

I wanted to intrigue people like that. I wanted them to not be able to tear their eyes away from the page. I wanted to write exciting, sexy stories about people doing exciting, sexy things.

I wanted to write romance, so I could fit it all in.

The magic bookshelf

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

A Primer in Romance

So many books, so little time to blog, but here are some highlights from my road to romance reading and writing! My very first book with romantic elements was "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. I read it for the first time at age seven and then reread several times after. When I was a little shit, I didn't understand that Jo and Laurie wouldn't have been good together, however, and would mourn his marriage to Amy every time. (Dumb! Now I know better, lol. Who would want to be married to Laurie?)


"Anne of Green Gables", the entire series, still one of my favorite romances, though I stop after she and Gilbert get together because Anne gets kind of bitchy in the later books. Probably all the children...says the woman with three, lol!


Kelly totally stole this one from me yesterday (biznatch!!!, lol), but I have to mention it anyway. Another one of my early favorites. Probably too early. My mom let me read anything I could get my hands on as long as it was in the children's section or considered a 'classic' or 'award winning' books. I'd read a LOT of interesting things by the time I was ten.



What she wouldn't let me read, however, were HER romances. But I read them anyway :). I would sneak them out from the pile beneath her bed and hide them in my room until I'd finished. I read "Knight in Shining Armor" when I was probably....eleven? I still think it is one of the BEST romances ever. (Haven't read it in a while, but still...it just rocks, the heroine goes back in time, lots of adventure, a very compelling read!) My early exposure to 1980's romance is probably responsible for my taste for writing erotic romance. I mean, once you've grown a taste for ripped bodices, you never go back right? Lol.

Happy Wednesday!

Anna J. Evans

http://annajevans.com

Most influential book/s

My life has always been full of books since I was a baby. My dad is a *huge* pleasure reader. It's hard for me to think of one book that's had the most influence on me. The book I remember most from when I was a wee child is "One Fish, Two Fist, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. The next book I remember marking a milestone for me was "Bunnicula" by Deborah and James Howe because it was the first book I read which was around 100 pages (99). After that, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare really struck a chord. I think it's probably the first time I read a book and realized the part of the plot I liked best was the development of the relationship between Kit and Nat. A couple of years later, I read "Strictly Business" by Leigh Michaels, my first "adult" romance. It's been downhill ever since :)

One of My Favorite Books From Childhood

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

I absolutely loved this book. It had a female protagonist who was awkward, unsociable and uncomfortable with her looks. Just like me at that age. Meg Murray had tremendous untapped potential but felt overshadowed by her brilliant and beautiful mother. Her greatest strength was the love of her family, especially her little brother Charles Wallace.

Meg, Charles Wallace and a boy from Meg's school (and her later love interest)--Calvin O'Keefe--meet up with Mrs. Whatsit, a celestial creature who looks more like a tramp. She and her friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which take the children to find Meg and Charles Wallace's father, who's captive on another planet. Along the way they must fight a great evil and meet alien creatures that are amazing and wonderful.

A Wrinkle in Time is about the battle between good and evil and the ultimate triumph of love. This book is followed by A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. But I think Wrinkle is still my favorite, because it introduced me to that awkward girl who was so much like me, and was my introduction to fantasy/sci fi.

Have you read these books? If so, what did you think of them? If not, what's one of your favorite childhood books?

If I knew then...

Oh boy.

One the one hand, a ton of stuff runs through my mind, everything from "I wish I knew then just how hard this was" to "I wish I knew that idea I had was a good one" to "I wish I knew how distracting children really are!"

On the other? Not much.

Because it's a learning process. Every word, every sentence, every page and chapter and book teach you something different. I'm a far, far better writer now than I was when I started four years ago. Hopefully I will be a far, far better writer four years from now.

I wish I'd known that finishing a book is itself an acheivement (hell, I wish I could remember that now.)

I wish I'd known that first books are rarely any good, so maybe those first few rejections wouldn't have been so hard.

I wish I'd known a LOT more about passive voice. "She felt" "he felt"--all fine in moderation, and sometimes there's no other way to say it, but boy, my first couple of mss were riddled with that junk. "She felt her hands clench". "She felt his hand close around hers." "She felt like she had to speak."

Sometimes those distancing words are necessary. Sometimes characters need to remove themselves from action. But sheesh, my characters did so much feeling and thinking hardly anything else happened. Instead of "she felt her hands clenched", just say "Her hands clenched." Or, better, "Her fingernails dug into her palms."

I wish I'd known about certain cliches: the Evil Ex, the Obvious Villain, the Frightened Virgin. All of which are stll useful, and can work very well. But the first ms wasn't the place where any of those worked for me.

Writing is about constantly improving. You know more than you think you do now. You'll know even more tomorrow.

Doing it the hard way

Yup. That's me. First object lesson of the day: never sign contracts for five releases in four months, LOL! If you've been wondering where I've been, now you know :p

Actually, pushing yourself to the limit is one thing I don't consider a mistake. I couldn't do it all the time, but it's a great way to flex your muscles and really go for it every once in a while. But a little breathing room would be nice, here (no one to blame but yourself, Sie!)

Actually, in light of recent events, there's a few things I've learned over the past year and a half that I'd like to share. The first one is: don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I have to start by saying I love Changeling. They're a great house to work for -- fun, professional, very supportive. And the checks come on time. Every month. Like clockwork. And I can shout to my editor when I'm having a problem. Hell, I can shout to the owner and she responds -- fast. In fact, I don't think I could have picked a better first publishing house, although I think there are some that are just as good.

Bit what if, God forbid, Changeling had gone belly up? Now, they happen to be a very solid and well-run company, with owners that have a lot of experience in running their own business. But disasters can happen to anyone, any time, and in the microcosm of e-publishing, the absence or illness of two or three key people could, in fact, bring an entire company to a grinding halt.

What if it had? Where would that leave me, with fifteen titles currently at Changeling -- and none anywhere else?

Screwed, that's where.

Another thing I finally figured out is that perhaps the single fastest way to increase your readership is to publish at more than one house. Each house has its own avid followers -- yes, some of them buy from a lot of different houses (and there's a lot of great houses out there to choose from!), but many of them don't. If a reader buys, say, only Ellora's Cave books, how is she ever going to discover you? So give her a chance to. It's not only smart marketing, it's also the best hedge you can have against the uncertainties of the e-publishing business.

That's assuming, of course, that you've done the smart thing and researched the houses you're submitting to. I did. I generated a list of five publishers I was interested in. And after a year and more of watching the industry, ya know what? That list hasn't changed.

Not that I'll likely submit to all of them! Although you know me; never say never... But writing for two or three makes a lot more sense than writing for just one -- even when that one is as well-run and reliable as Changeling is.

So expand your options. Take a hard look at the marketplace and research your targets. How long have they been around? How solid are their business practices? How enthusiastic are their authors, and are they authors who have gone on to have successful careers, win awards, break into print? There's a wonderful series of posts on evaluating e-publishers, and interviews with editors from some fantastic houses on December Quinn's blog -- check 'em out!

Them's my words of wisdom for the day, and I've still got those dang contracts hanging over my head! So, until next week --

Happy reading!

-- Sierra

sierradafoe.com

The Shortlist....

Cause I still don't feel I've learned that much, though I know I'm practically an expert compared to the newbie I was when I attended my first RWA National Conference back in 2005. Okay, here it comes, what I've learned in my first nearly three years as a full time fiction writer:

1. Don't be afraid to bend some rules. Sometimes this will help you make friends and influence people and get your story looked at 5-6 months ahead of the other people in line.

2. Be careful about bending the rules. Sometimes this will get you on someone's shitlist, no matter how nice you try to be. If you're lucky, however, the person who didn't like your rule-bending will go apeshit crazy and bankrupt their publishing company. (Not naming any names here, but...yeah...)

3. Ditto what Kelly said about editing and *that*. I still battle that, that damned that!

4. Don't give up. If ten people say your manuscript sucks but you still honestly believe it to be solid, send it out again. This is how I finally landed my agent.....of course, we've yet to see if that book will sell, lol, but I have great hopes.

5. Keep your mind on the process, the writing, not on the finish line. Sure we all want to be best-selling authors--though just making a living wage would rock the kasbah in my book--but concentrating on that goal isn't the way to be a happy writer. Try to enjoy the day to day grind of pumping out those words, getting through your edits, and perfecting your craft. The rest of it, I believe, will come if its going to come. If you're stars are aligned and all that because...see #6

6. The best woman/man/writer doesn't always win. There's an element of luck in this writing game as there is every career. And there's also a hell of a lot of subjectivity and competition which makes it even harder to break out, get noticed, etc. That why you need #5 to keep you grounded and fight off any defeated feelings that may arise.

7. Getting an email from someone who's actually paid for and read your books and enjoyed them is one of the best feelings in the world. Better than any professional review (thought those are nice too :)).

I'm sure I could go on, but I've got kids to wake up and words to make--see #5.

Happy Wednesday!

Anna J. Evans

http://annajevans.com

What I wish I knew then

I look at writing as a continual learning process. It's hard to imagine what steps I could have just skipped over as how I write now has been built on what I've learned over the years. Here are some things I wish hadn't been such "duh" moments for me:

• "Was" is not an evil word.


• All things in moderation, especially "was".


• "That", when writing, is as bad as "uh" when speaking.


• You will *always* have to edit *something*.


• Someone, somewhere, some time, will rip you a new one over what you wrote.


• Someone, somewhere, some time, will adore what caused the other person to rip you a new one.


• Life happens. Roll with it.


• It helps to be disciplined, but if you aren't, you can still be dedicated.


• Keep that first manuscript around to prove you can write a novel.


• Do your best to finish for the day at a point where you know exactly what's going to happen next. Write yourself a note if you have to.

Write in good health!

*EDIT: Yes, I reviewed this post and read it out loud before I submitted it and yet, I still dropped a word. See, something else to add to the list: sometimes things will fall through the cracks despite your best efforts.

What I Wish I'd Known Then

So, here's our topic for the week. "What we've learned about writing, and what we wished we'd known when we started."

Well, you know they say hindsight is 20/20.

They're probably right. "They" sometimes are.

And, so, the million-dollar question.

What do I wish I'd known when I started? I'm happy to say my experiences--so far--have been quite positive. I haven't been caught up with publishers who seem to be going along fine but then start not answering author emails, not paying authors, etc. And I don't know that it was anything but blind stupid luck on my part.

Seriously. Well, all right. When I first started reading erotic romances (all on ebook, to begin with), I checked out several companies. I bought from several companies. And when I decided to try my hand at writing erotic romance, I looked at the publishers I'd been buying from. There were a couple that I hadn't been impressed with--either I felt their covers were cheesy or the books were riddled with errors. (With one book, by the fourth page I was so busy being distracted by errors that I completely stopped reading the story.)

I do wish I'd not spent as much time on shorter stories. Although they were excellent learning experiences, I sometimes feel I wasted time. I could have been focusing on much longer works.

Ah, well. Lesson learned, right?

Happy Labor Day to our American readers!