Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Plotter Vs. Panster

A Writer’s Journey: Life Of A Panster

Author Promo: What do you notice?

My question today is all about authors and promotion. I’d like your opinion, as much to appease my curiosity as anything. Authors are crazy creatures. We’re fruitlessly looking, pretty much all the time, for ways to catch a reader’s attention. I say fruitlessly because in some ways whether we catch a reader’s attention or not can sometimes be out of our control. The best thing we can do is attempt to write the greatest book possible, and then word of mouth can often do more to sell a book than anything else. So tell me…what types of promotion grab your attention?

Easy to navigate website?
Promo items such as pens, business cards, key chains, cover flats?
Email newsletters?
Printed newsletters?
Blogs on an author’s website?
A blog on a site like The Bradford Bunch?
Book trailers?
Reviews on a review site?
Reviews posted on an author’s site?
Other things I haven’t thought about? If so, please list them.

And here’s a last question…how does an author’s public persona (in person or on line) effect whether you buy their books or not? If so, how?

Post and you may win a download from my backlist! I’ll select one winner at the end of the day.

Until next time, I hope everyone is having a great New Year.

Finding The Fear: Writing Suspense or Paranormal

I’ve read a few suspense and paranormal novels that talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. Why? They lacked passion, the true emotional heaviness which guarantees the reader becomes caught up in atmosphere and the inherent feeling of dread. Does a novel have to be blood and guts to scare you? It can, but it doesn’t have to in every case. Subtle layers of tension can also create a world as transfixing, as terrifying as blood splatter and rolling heads.

INTIMATE ALLIANCE AND HOT MILITARY HEROES

Just last week I blogged about my print release, INTIMATE ALLIANCE, but in case you missed that blog, I’ll chat with you a bit more about the whole idea behind the series, the HOT ZONE and where it started. Plus, INTIMATE ALLIANCE comes out at a perfect time for me because the first story within this book, MALE CALL, just won the Passionate Plume Award for best erotic romance novella for 2007. WHOOHOOO!

INTIMATE ALLIANCE HEATS UP IN THE HOT ZONE!

Hey everyone. Are you the type of reader who enjoys hot military men? I mean in your fiction novels…unless you enjoy hot military men in your real life, too. (AHEM.)

I’m happy to blog today about my print edition of the first two novellas in my HOT ZONE series here at Samhain Publishing. INTIMATE ALLIANCE comes out August 26, though you can already preorder it at places like Amazon.com.

By The Seat Of Your Pants

By The Seat Of Your Pants

Humans are strange creatures. Very strange. Think about it. We say we don’t like real life danger, yet we spend time in front of the television watching Most Shocking or Most Daring (I do), or we thrill to the danger in an Indiana Jones movie or the psychological scare of Disturbia (love that movie.) Some of us take it a step further and actually sign up for the white-knuckle experience of skydiving, base-jumping, rock climbing, or white water rafting. Truth is that most of us want the excitement to be vicarious. Take me. When I was a little kid, I was a girly girl. On the playground, I would say to the kid hanging on the monkey bars, “You’re gonna fall off that.” What happened? The kid would fall off. I felt vindicated.

Military Heroes in CLOSE QUARTERS

Military Heroes in CLOSE QUARTERS

I know many of you enjoy Alpha heroes that are still Beta enough to cradle a baby and yet tough enough to protect a woman. In my HOT ZONE series at Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com, I wanted to introduce these heroes in “slice-of-life” stories set in a small Wyoming town. So far the response has been outstanding, and the next installment is CLOSE QUARTERS (released today). How did I get the idea for this story? Well, I was hanging around one day doing dishes by hand (boring). I saw in my imagination a man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with horrible colors that was way too big for him. I saw him sitting in a diner being covertly observed by a woman. The woman thinks his Hawaiian shirt is ugly. A few moments later, her hasty impression of him is altered forever when the coffee shop is robbed.

Here’s a blurb and excerpt to give you a small taste of CLOSE QUARTERS:

PRIVATE MANEUVERS-THE HOT ZONE IS BACK!

No, I’m not talking about global warming, a great day spent on a tropical beach, or a heavy duty survival reality show where you’re stuck for weeks on end with hunky men who can make a raft out of palm trees and sunscreen out of an exotic combination of plant and herb. I’m talking about my series at Samhain Publishing.

My first story with Samhain Publishing was released in May 2007 and is called MALE CALL. At that time I didn’t have a notion of writing anything in a connected story or series. Bang! One day an idea just came to me. After writing the first story about an Army reservist overseas in Iraq falling in love with his pen pal back home, I knew I had to write about more men who experienced wartime and the women they would love. So, the HOT ZONE series was launched, and I haven’t looked back. In the second story, UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, I used the theme of old friends coming back together after twenty years and renewing not only their friendship but discovering a simmering romance and danger.

Both MALE CALL and UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER will be packaged together in a print edition in late August 2008 called INTIMATE ALLIANCE and you can already preorder it at Amazon.

Today PRIVATE MANEUVERS is available! Both the heroine, Marisa Clyde, and the hero, Jake Sullivan, showed up at the end of UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER and screamed for their own book. How could I refuse? Marisa wants nothing to do with the soldier who is acting as a temporary bouncer in her uncle’s tavern. Stoic and over six feet of smoldering masculinity, the hunk helped rescue her during a tour gone bad in Mexico. During those few short moments after she first met him, the tension between them screamed off the charts. A devastating hurt in the past blocks her willingness to surrender to him. If she can wait him out now, he’ll only be in town a month and then he’s out of her life. Jake watches Marisa like a hawk, well aware his need to protect is messing with his mind and making him care for Marisa way more than he should. Priding himself on clinical detachment in the game between man and woman, he figures once he’s slept with her, she’ll be out of his system for good. But that’s before he experiences her on a deeper level and learns she just might be in danger again.

With these novellas I tried to convey a sense of homecoming and what that can mean to someone who has survived a dangerous situation. Plus, I wanted the character’s pasts to catch up with them in some way, to have them stretch and grow and discover it is possible to find love even when you least expect it.

What types of stories make your blood race? Do you like stories set in dangerous situations, or do you prefer the more mundane and often more realistic home fire settings? Stay tuned to my web page at www.deniseagnew.com and www.myspace.com/deniseagnew for all the news on this series and my other series and stand alone novels.

Success: What It Is and What It Isn't

While watching Sawyer and Kate snog (I’ve got TiVo, and I’m a couple episodes behind of LOST), I realized the blog I’d planned for today didn’t blow my skirt up. Instead I decided to talk about a writing subject I’ve worked on for the past year.

Success.

Not getting it or spending it or keeping it, but deciding what it is in your deepest heart. I contend that most people never define success for themselves. They spend most of their life believing what other people tell them. Why? Human nature, being what it is, likes to categorize, count the beans, reward the strongest, the tallest, the slimmest, the prettiest, and the handsomest. You name it, we’re into labeling and making sure it’s categorized as good or bad. We all think we know what success is because we’re told my the majority what to think. But is that really what success is for us as inviduals and does adhering to that definition benefit us or eventually tear us down?

Okay, then, what is it?

Money? Some would say so. Prestige? Many believe so. A promotion in a career you love? It’s a word fraught with definitions. Can you think back to a time when the pressure cooker ignited and required you to succeed at grades or maybe sports or something else you hated? Of course, in childhood we’re required to make steps in life to reach success, to learn and grow. As an adult the rules can be different.

How, you might say, does this relate to the writing world? Simple. Well, okay. Not so simple. Society at large tells us what is hip, what to watch, what to wear, how to act, what to do, and what…sometimes…to think. How far we take that overwhelming pressure to conform and comply with the rules depends on our self-esteem and understanding where our boundaries lie. Like many people, if you’re too guided by what other people think, you can make some horrific turns in your writing career that you may not want to take. Trouble is, you won’t even know you’ve taken the wrong step until it bites you on the butt…big time. I’ve gone out on a limb a few times in the last year and encouraged other authors to make certain they look deep into themselves about what they honestly want to accomplish with their writing. Not what their mother and father say they should do with their writing career. Not even what their agent and publisher say. Right from the beginning, when you’re putting your toe in the writing world, make certain you know what will make you happy. Don’t assume that if you have a NY publishing deal you’ll be riding a wave fraught with little danger or hardship. Don’t assume that the grass is always greener over the proverbial septic tank. Take the time to define the parameters for yourself and discover what you and you alone define as happiness within you writing world.

Tell me what your definition of success is in your life and you could win a download of one of my out of print novels. I’ll pick a random winner late in the day and post to this blog.

April 1 I’ll be back to block about PRIVATE MANEUVERS, the next story in my HOT ZONE series here at Samhain.

How's Your Holiday Mojo?

If you’re expecting me to write one of those holiday pick-me-up blogs to make you feel good…well, you’re right. I didn’t have an easy time thinking of a great blog today, so I figured all I could do was give it my best shot.

One of the best things I’ve done for myself during this season is to refuse to get caught in the humdrum. You know, the frantic shopping, the insane decorating, the crazy-making stuff. Every year I enjoy my Christmas tree, the presents under it, and the gorgeous decorations in all the stores. What I try not to do, though, is to drive myself nuts getting caught up in the insanity associated with the season. I totally understand the concept of wanting the perfect holiday. I’ve had some not so great ones before. Yet every New Year brings a fresh opportunity to have a great holiday whether it be at home alone with my hubby, or enjoying time with my large, growing family (I’ve accumulated a lot of grand babies and great nieces and nephews in the last few years).
Several years ago, I wrote a novel about a heroine who has never had her perfect holiday. The heroine’s family life had a huge impact on how she viewed Christmas and what the holiday meant to her. The hero, who always experienced the excitement and warmth of a big family holiday, sees the holiday in a different way all together than the heroine. He sees her desire to create the perfect season as a frantic, frenzied rush of over decorating with so much bling that his teeth hurt. He’d rather have a quiet, no frills holiday. Underlying his need for a tranquil holiday, though, is a desire to avoid the pain of his wife’s death. I loved putting together this story, which is quiet a bit different than my usual foray into suspense and the supernatural. That story, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, is out of print. But, in the spirit of gift giving at the holidays, I’d like to give you a chance win a download copy. There’s a catch…stop by my website at www.deniseagnew.com and search for the answer to this question: who is the next hero showing up in my HOT ZONE series at Samhain? First person to get it right wins the download of ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS. Send your answers to danovelist@cox.net

In the meantime, enjoy your holidays, but don’t stess. Relax. Listen to some great music. Find time for yourself. Decide what you really want for the holidays. ☺