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July 26th, 2010
This week, just about everyone in the romance writing industry is going to be heading to sweltering Orlando for the Romance Writers of America National Conference, and I for one, am so excited. How excited you may ask? Excited enough that I have been packed for a week now – and I won’t even be there until Friday!
I’m only going for a truncated visit, so sadly I’ll miss the Literacy Signing on Wednesday evening, but if you happen to be in the Orlando area, I encourage you to stop by – its open to the public, over 500 authors will be signing their books and I guarantee you the space will be air conditioned. The thought alone of Orlando in July makes my hair curl.
But I will be there for the Berkley House signing for conference attendees on Friday and the RITA awards on Saturday evening. Since Revealed is a nominee, there is no way I’m missing my one chance to give an Oscar speech, if I win. Maybe even if I don’t win. I’ve hired Kanye West to come steal the mike from Tessa Dare when her name is inevitably called. (By the by, I just finished Seduction of a Siren. DUDE. So Good! Which is so aggravating for me!)
I prepped for this year’s Romance convention, by spending this past weekend at another convention: the San Diego Comic Con. I have long wanted to go, and witness the madness. But since previous to this year I lived 3000 miles away, it seemed impractical. Being only 150 miles away now, I had no such excuse.
It was INSANE. I have never seen anything quite as colorful, and loud and yet polite (except for the guy who got stabbed, but there is not violence like nerd violence) as comic fans. My favorite booth was naturally, the BBC America, aka the Doctor Who booth. I got T-shirts. I curse myself for not getting a desktop dalek, but since I already had a TARDIS piggy bank, I thought the dalek might have been overkill.
(these are my Doctor Who shirts. Jealous?)
But the best thing about Comic Con is that everyone there loves comics. And that got me in the spirit for RWA, and now, as I sit at my desk and write, I can only think on the awesomeness of the coming weekend, the friends I will meet and those I have yet to, and the easy joy of being around a sorority of women who simply love romance.
If you happen to be there, please come find me and say hello! If not, until next week – happy reading!
Posted in Los Angeles, RWA, Writer's life | No Comments »
July 18th, 2010
I sit on my couch. A lot. Not because I’m lazy… although if you accused me of that in a court of law, I’d likely have to concede the case. I do a lot of work from my couch, I work off a laptop so much the couch, over the last five years has molded itself to my body. I have, if you will, a molded perch… and the molded perch has become the problem. Suffice to say, I’m getting a new couch.
I have catalogues. I have gone to a number of stores, I have done the sit test. I have collected swatches. And there is one conclusion I have come to definitively:
Swatches make great coasters.
They’re the perfect size! And you don’t care if you mess them up! Because they’re free!
Case in point:
(Diet Coke is the nectar of the gods. Just FYI.)
Other than couch-testing, I’m working hard for the money, and looking forward to RWA in less than two weeks! I hope to see many of you there, and if you see me walking around like a lost little lamb, don’t be shy, say hi!
Until then, happy reading!
Posted in Writer's life | No Comments »
July 12th, 2010
In about three weeks, a couple hundred romance authors and a couple thousand romance fans are going to descend upon Orlando, Florida for the annual RWA National Conference. And I. Am. Psyched. I’m talking, like, better-than-Predators psyched. Better-than-a-line-by-line-reenactment-of-Ghostbusters psyched. I get to see a bunch of friends I only see online otherwise, and hopefully make some new ones. I get to interact with fans, with industry professionals, and I’m frickin’ nominated for a RITA, people! There’s no way I’m missing this.
But one of the best things about this year is the fact that we will be having the conference at the Walt Disney Resort…which means I get to face down my old nemesis, Space Mountain.
The story goes like this: when I was nine, my family took a candy-and-nostalgia fueled trip to Disney World. We rode the rides, Mr. Toad, the Haunted Mansion, etc. Went up the big ball o’ Epcot, and even saw the Michael Jackson show, Captain EO. But the one ride I refused to go on was Space Mountain. It was a roller coaster. In the dark. I don’t think my logic was unsound. But being as my mother was understanding and had two other kids to deal with, she let me sit Space Mountain out. But being as my father didn’t want me to A. be afraid of a rollercoaster, and B. miss out on the experience, woke up extremely early on the last day we were there, and took me to ride Space Mountain, before anyone else was in the park.
We rode it three times.
And now, I have to opportunity to face down my old friend and nemesis, and conquer Space Mountain once again!
If I get to leave the conference hotel, that is.
I encourage everyone in the Orlando area on July 28th to attend the Literacy Signing at RWA. Its open to the public and all proceeds benefit ProLiteracy Worldwide. There will be 500 of your favorite authors there, autographing their works. Unfortunately, I will not be one of them, as I won’t be getting to the conference until the 30th. But go! Have fun! And if you’re attending the conference, see you on the 30th!
Lots of work this week, but hopefully some summer fun. Until next time, Happy Reading, everyone!
Posted in RWA | No Comments »
July 7th, 2010
Three-day weekends are a bad idea. I know, I know, I’m taking the minority opinion on this one, but they are! Oh sure, we all love having that extra day, we all say we’ll get stuff done with it – do our laundry, go through our filing cabinets, possibly even take a trip and spend time grilling hot dogs or baking pies with the family. And some people I am sure, actually do that. They spend the weeks ahead of time planning the weekend, buying the necessary equipment, lawn chairs, or ingredients. And I was one of these people. And what did I end up doing this weekend?
I slept.
Well, I must have, because otherwise I had a blackout experience and have no idea where the weekend went. Saturday? A blur. Sunday? Shopping then a blur of hot dogs and fireworks and vegetating. Sunday? Pretty sure I actively tried to stay in bed until noon. All of this means that I don’t get any of my weekend work done, and my blogging, which I try to do on Sunday nights, is pushed to Wednesday. Wednesday, people! So, if you could cool it with the vacations and three-day weekends that wreak havoc on my schedule, I’d appreciate it. I ask this not for me, but for you.
All incredulousness aside, I had a lovely three-day weekend, what I remember of it, and this week is going to be spent cleaning out files, and cabinets, and doing all those things I haven’t gotten around to yet J
Happy reading!
Posted in Writer's life | No Comments »
June 28th, 2010
Since I have turned in my latest draft a couple weeks ago, I have let myself start reading books again. I am glutting myself, really. And it is at *just* the right time, because there are a number of my favorite authors who have had their books come out in the past month. So without further ado, I present to you the latest in What Kate’s Reading!
After a long reprieve, I tend to glut myself on historical romance. It’s my first love, and I’ll always come back to it.
First up was Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake, by Sarah MacLean.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Sarah MacLean a few months ago at Lady Jane’s Salon, where she wowed everyone with her reading abilities. And the book lived up to the chapter taste we got that evening. Lovely writing, great vulnerability in her characters – which is not easy to pull off. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and wanted to strangle Sarah when I found out this is her debut adult book (she has a YA historical – The Season – under her belt). I can only imagine how awesome her future works will turn out to be.
 Next, I turned to one of my faves, the perennial Julia Quinn, with Ten Things I Love About You. (Side note: what is it with the numbers in the book titles? I cannot wait to come across a book titled Eleven Lords a Leaping into You Arms). It was a solid story, a lot of good interaction between the characters. Add in Julia Quinn’s dialogue, and it’s hard to ask for more than that.
I broke my short numerical streak with Lisa Kleypas, who is another fave (I love her contemporary  Texas-set stories) and her latest in the Hathaway series Married by Morning. I love the Hathaways. I wanna be a Hathaway, especially if I lived during the Victorian Era. And this novel simply fostered that desire.
 Last but not least, I read Girls Dinner Club by Jessie Elliot. It’s YA, and its set in Brooklyn, and I sort of love almost anything set in New York (I’m on a nostalgia kick for my old hometown). A very kind story about three high school aged friends who help each other through a period in their lives by having weekly dinners. I consider it a historical romance palate cleanser.
I know four books in a matter of two weeks is not a high rate of reading, but I have every confidence I will get back into the swing of things with aplomb. (That’s not to say I don’t have work to do. I do, my editor and agent, I swear I do.)
But until next week, I wish you (and me!) happy reading!
Posted in What I'm reading | No Comments »
June 20th, 2010
I recently went through a bunch of boxes of old papers and what not (and you have no idea how pleasant it is to do something like that for someone who has been focused solely on her deadline, and slightly OCD to boot) and discovered an old New Year’s Resolution list.
I couldn’t tell you the year of it, but by my handwriting, I’m going to say late high school/college. Among other mundane items that would never be completed (lose 15 lbs! Write a movie!) is, in the boldest possible hand, the simplest of instructions: Be Brave.
Now, I can’t remember why I wrote this. I don’t remember myself as an overly-reticent teenager. May be New Years caught me at a somewhat melancholy time, when I had not shown enough gumption with a boy or in a class. But for some reason, I felt the need to remind myself to step outside my comfort zone. To take a leap.
Bravery has to be taken into account when writing. Now one wants to read about a comfortable person in their comfortable life. The thing that scares you is also the most compelling, and the most difficult to explore. The great themes — love, death, passion, pain – are not, repeat, not experienced by the wallflowers. And as a writer, I have a tendency to keep things light. I like the fluffy. It feels comfortable.
Light and fluffy makes a nice cupcake, but not drama.
I try to keep that in mind now, as I gear up to start my next story. It may only be a germ of an idea right now, but soon enough I won’t be conversing with myself in hypotheticals. Therefore, I cannot be missish now. I have to take a leap. I have to be brave.
Posted in Future books, Writer's life | No Comments »
June 16th, 2010
I have a chalkboard on my wall that lists things I have to do. There are some things on this list that are finished right away, like ‘laundry’ or ‘buy OJ’, and there are some things that take a little longer, like ‘finish writing novel.’ That one, I just checked off. But there are some things that will never get checked off the list. For me, it’s ‘Fix Clock’. (Long story short: When I was moving in to my apartment, I have a clock that broke, that I should get fixed and haven’t. The End.) I could write something poetic about time having stopped, but it didn’t, because it’s been almost a year since this occurred.
Which means it’s been almost a year since I moved to Los Angeles.
I look at my life a year ago versus now, and from the outside, it has changed pretty drastically with pacific coastal living. I’ve changed jobs (again!), and started driving regularly – and swearing at other drivers, as is natural. I have a whole new pack of friends, I haven’t had to wear a winter coat since early 2009, and have actually gone hiking voluntarily. These are things New York Me would not be doing.
But here’s the thing: New York Me and LA Me aren’t that different. LA Me still loves to write books. LA Me still has eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast. (LA Me also still has to go back into her apt one last time to make sure she turned off the stove…) LA Me still wants to have brunch on Sunday with her New York girls. LA Me still wears laceless chucks as her go-to shoe. And New York me would, dollars to donuts, not have that clock fixed yet, either.
Which is kind of comforting.
Turned in the book this week, so I’m giving myself a short break from writing. Extremely short, because I have a couple of ideas I want to explore, that need to be jotted down…
As always, Happy Reading!
Posted in Future books, Los Angeles, New York, Writer's life | No Comments »
June 6th, 2010
I have been MIA for the last couple weeks, because I’ve been pushing hard trying to get through this draft of the next book, and I’m happy to say that as of this past week, I wrote The End on the page! To be realistic – this isn’t ‘the end’ per se, I still have a little time before deadline, and will be doing a massive read through, but it still feels so damn good to have gotten a (hopefully) coherent story on the page.
But since I’ve been out of it so long, I feel the need to recap things that have happened in the intervening time. So, here’s what’s been going on in the world, in no particular order of seriousness or global impact.
1. The Gulf is an Oil Slick.
As I look at pictures of baby ducks covered in oil, I have never been happier that I drive a hybrid. Now, can we please plug this leak? Please?
2. So You Think You Can Dance is back on!
I love you Adam Shankman! I even saw Step Up 2: The Streets! In the theater!
3. The Summer of You is now available on Kindle.
I don’t know when this happened. I was likely drunk at the time. Previously, my publishing house (Berkley Sensation, which is a division of Penguin) has been in a dispute with Amazon regard ebook price points. This happens so far above my level that I have very little knowledge of what occurred, but I can certainly see both sides of the argument. However, it did delay the release of new books from my house to Kindle. But now that’s all taken care of! Yay!
4. Summer Movies!
Ok, I have not actually been to the movies in a couple weeks, but I did see Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood (ok and meh, in that order). I’m really looking forward to Inception, and Toy Story 3, and maybe Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. (I’m just wondering what Michael Cera’s schtick will turn into in a decade.)
5. I’m gonna be in Turkey!
Not physically. But I have sold foreign rights to Compromised, Revealed, and The Summer of You in Turkey! This marks the third language I’ll be in, after English (duh) and Russian.
I’m sure a million other things occurred (I know Lost ended, but I don’t watch it, so I didn’t care) but this is all I’ve got off the top of my head. This week – I will not be writing for once! I will be instead, revising! And, oh, maybe I’ll read a book or two… how exciting…
It’s the little things, really.
Happy Reading!
Posted in Books, Compromised, Revealed, TV & Movies, The Summer of You, Writer's life | No Comments »
May 16th, 2010
Hi everyone. My deadline is looming, and as such I missed posting last week, and will likely miss posting again until the book is done. If you would like to read a treatise on the pressure a deadline puts on writers, my friend Megan Crane explains it a lot better than I do. (She’s on deadline too. One day, both of us will see sunlight again. And maybe a movie.)
OK, I’ve got writing to do, so be good while I’m away, and happy reading!
Posted in Future books, Writer's life | 1 Comment »
May 3rd, 2010
This weekend, I ditched all the loads of work I had to do to attend a wedding in Virginia, which is approximately 3000 miles away from where I live. I spent a total of 36 hours away from my computer, 12 of which were on a plane and 12 of which were sleeping, and 4 driving to and from the location, so in total, only 8 hours that could have been used getting work done were partied away, so I don’t feel too bad.
It was a lovely spring weekend in Virginia – everything was green, the wedding was gorgeous, the couple young and happy. BUT – the awesomest thing about the wedding was that the best man actually FORGOT the rings.
I know! It’s so much a cliché that it doesn’t happen. Ever. Except this time, it did! Here’s a small dramatic reinterpretation:
Officiate: Do you have the rings?
(Groom turns to Best Man expectantly)
Best Man: Uhhh…
(looooong pause)
Groom: (to Best Man) Seriously? You have one job.
The bride and groom laughed it off, borrowed rings from the audience and continued, and when their true rings were found, they had their own private, ad-hoc ceremony. But this moment got me thinking about clichés. How often do clichés, those things that we think are just so banal and hackneyed, actually happen? How often does the one cave a stranded traveler take shelter in house a coterie of bats? Or how about the lead actress of a play breaking her ankle in the first act, to be replaced by her green understudy, who instantly becomes a star?
As a writer, I spend an awful lot of my time trying to avoid clichés – I want my characters to be well rounded, interesting individually as well as together, and as such I don’t want to write something that I feel is predictable or has been done before. But sometimes… sometimes a cliché is too good to not use. If you think I’m not writing missing rings at a wedding into a future work, well, then to paraphrase another cliché, you’re as deluded as the girl in the horror movie who runs up the stairs thinking to escape the crazy psycho.
Got any thoughts or opinions on clichés and their uses? (Or would you rather avoid the use of them altogether?)
That’s all for me this week — since I’m back from the wedding, I’m back at my desk, working hard…
Happy reading everyone!
Posted in Writer's life | 1 Comment »
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