Jaci Burton’s Muse

Shelley Bradley’s BOUND AND DETERMINED is a new release from Berkley and gathering tremendous buzz. Hot and sexy, and it just received a Top Pick from Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine! Woo hooo Shelley! Shelley is a wonderfully talented author and I highly recommend this book!

You can purchase it here

Jaci

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Wanted for kidnapping: a bubbly blonde with a penchant for trouble. May be armed (with good intentions) and dangerously seductive…

Kerry Sullivan is running out of time-and patience. With her brother wrongfully accused of embezzling millions, she can’t face one more humiliating hang-up from the man she’s begging for help. Rafael Dawson may be one of the top electronic security experts in the country–and the only man who can prove her brother’s innocence–but his phone manners are appalling. Damn Yankee. Too bad kidnapping the man isn’t an option. Or is it?

There’s nothing Kerry wouldn’t do for her brother. There are lots of things she longs to do to Rafe Dawson when he’s lying tied-up and naked in her secret hideaway. Rafe is certainly something to look at, but Kerry’s brother’s life is riding on her pulling off the impossible: getting this man who’s always in control to lose it. But when the tables get turned, Kerry finds herself at Rafe’s mercy. And the only way to get her way is to let him have his way–with her…

And dayum….is that a fabulous cover or what?

This is the cover to my new Ellora’s Cave book, releasing February 1st. It’s a fantasy and the continuation of my Kismet faerie series.

Yowza!

So, Diana Peterfreund did this on her blog , and I just loved the idea of showcasing the road to publication. Decided I’d do the same thing.

We often only talk about our successes, and sometimes it looks so easy. It isn’t. Well maybe for some people it is. But for many of us, the road to publication is fraught with wrong turns, stops and starts and big-ass bumps. *g*

So here’s my long road…

Early Summer 2001 - I had just moved in with Charlie and during the process of really getting to know each other, I had told him I used to dabble in writing romantic fiction. After much discussion of all the reasons I put it aside (kids, career, non-supportive now-ex-husband, etc), he suggested I start writing again. So I did. I took out a pad of paper and a pen and plotted out Magnolia Summer, a contemporary romance. I joined eharlequin and formed an online critique group. I finished the book in 4 months and decided to target Silhouette Desire. Sent off my query with my heart in my throat, and jumped for joy when they requested a full!

The very first book I ever finished had been requested by a major NY publisher! I was soaring! I immediately started another book, certain they were going to buy this book and would ask for another. I started a ranch story called Rescue Me.

6 months later I received a form rejection letter for Magnolia Summer. A-form-rejection-letter.
Nearly a year after pouring my heart and soul into this book, and they rejected it. With no explanation why. Just…this didn’t work for us.

I was crushed. I love Magnolia Summer. Charlie loved this book. He edited every word of it for me. I had my hopes pinned on publishing this book. How could they not love it like I did? (Clearly everyone in publishing is stupid and don’t recognize a bestseller when they see one. *snicker*)

Nevertheless, I scooped my heart up off my shoe and shoved it back in my chest, continued to work on Rescue Me and finished it.

Winter 2002 - Queried Rescue Me to Silhouette. A month later received a request for a full! Woo hooo, the journey of anxiety begins again! I sent it off, and waited. Waited. Waited. Started another book, Nothing Personal, this one a marriage of convenience story. After 6 months and no word, I contacted the editor, who called me back and wanted me to revise Rescue Me, shorten it for the Desire line. Wooo hooo! She liked the story! There was a chance they’d buy it! So I worked diligently, revising my heart out, and resent the book.

Fall, 2002 - Talked to the editor at Silhouette - Well no, Rescue Me isn’t really going to work for Desire. Sighhhhhhhh, once again, heart broken. But she wants to see more from me. Okay, so I send along Nothing Personal and a proposal for another book I’m currently working on.

In the meantime, I decided to query agents. Don’t ask me why since I was targeting category, but query I did. Got lots of rejections on my queries. LOTS of rejections. A few requests to see Rescue Me’s partial. A few requests to see the full. Very cool. Agents want to see my work. Things were happening.

Then more rejections on those partials and fulls from those agents. Sigh. I was really beginning to hate rejection letters, especially since I was amassing quite a nice pile of them. Okay, so decided at that point that I didn’t need an agent. *g*

Spring 2003 - No word from Silhouette. By now I have almost two years invested and nothing to show for it. I’ve entered contests, joined RWA, won a couple contests, my work is being recognized, but why am I not selling? I feel like I”m SO close, but I’m so discouraged. And the wait is interminable. I can’t stand this! Argh! Then I find out about this new publishing company called Ellora’s Cave. It’s epublishing, and it’s erotic romance. The hot stuff.

Okay, so I tend to write hot sex scenes and have had to tone them down for the Silhouette stuff. I buy some Ellora’s Cave books. Whoa. Those ARE hot. But fun. I sit down and write a very hot book called Paradise Awakening, and send it in to Ellora’s Cave. 8 days later they email me and say they’re buying my book.

I’m a published author! Woo hooo! I’m ecstatic! Of course it’s epublishing. So not everyone will see it as a huge success, but I’m still thrilled. I will have a book published. And I love writing for EC. In the meantime, I still want that NY contract. (Hey, it’s my dream, dammit!)

Summer 2005 - I’ve been writing for Ellora’s Cave for two years. Have nearly 25 ebooks out and about 12 of those in print. Now some of my peers and friends in epublishing are selling to NY print publishers. tap tap tap. I haven’t sold to NY print publishers yet, dammit. And despite the fact I LOVE writing for Ellora’s Cave, I still have that dream.

Well, it’s time to do something about it. But what? Ya know, sometimes things just happen at the right time for a reason. It just so happens this very cool agent named Deidre Knight has started a blog, and I just so happened to run into her on her blog and started posting. We started talking. I queried her about some of my work. She liked my work. She signed me. I wrote a proposal, then another, then another.

One of those proposals was Surviving Demon Island, which I frankly thought was total crap (I blogged about the whole ‘crap’ thing back in August 2005). Deidre made me send it to her anyway. It sold at auction to Bantam Dell about 4 days after Deidre got it.

Last week she sold me to Berkley.

The road to publication does have some big-ass bumps. Sometimes boulders. If you’d asked me in 2001 if I ever thought I’d get this far when I took out that pad of paper, I’d have laughed hysterically. No freakin way. But I did. I worked hard. Damn hard. I studied, I learned, I listened and I continued to read. I joined RWA and met some amazing writers, both published and unpublishied. I made so many mistakes and wrote some horrible books (though I did rewrite and sell Magnolia Summer to Ellora’s Cave and it ended up with a Top Pick from Romantic Times *g*).

But I never gave up, despite countless rejections from publishers and agents. Actually, my current agent rejected me several times a few years ago. I never even made it past the query stage with her. Of course, back then, I really WAS sending her crap *g*

Sometimes it pays not to give up. ;-)

So, hubby and I went to see Underworld Evolution yesterday.

Did I love the movie? Yes.

Did it have flaws? Yes.

But I won’t go into what I thought those flaws were because I don’t want to spoil it. Other than to say as a writer of paranormal, worldbuilding and staying true to your rules within that world and making sure it’s clear and makes sense are essential. I found myself watching the movie and making mental notes about my own books to make sure I don’t make mistakes.

Like how a creature dies. What are the elements that will kill off a paranormal creature, and if you create a world, making sure the reader knows what those elements are, and then staying true to those elements, or at least making sure they make some freakin sense. And if you deviate from your own ‘rules’, then explain why.

For example….if you have a creature, and a certain kind of weapon will kill that creature, and then suddenly that kind of weapon DOESN’T kill that creature any longer…..please explain why. Or if a creature is killed and is lying dead for awhile….and is suddenly not dead an hour later, please explain why they’re no longer dead when you thought they were dead.

Confused?

So was I.

*g*

Anyway, great movie, but I had some issues with it. And it was a fabulous learning experience for me as far as what to watch out for when creating my own paranormal worlds and the rules my characters have to live by within that world.

I’m thrilled to report that my fabulous agent, Deidre Knight, negotiated a two book deal for me with Berkley!

The two books I’ll be writing will be for their HEAT line. The first one, tentatively titled WILD, WICKED AND WANTON, will be a contemporary–interconnected stories about three lifelong girlfriends who make a bet to have uninhibited sex over a weekend. The second book is yet undeveloped.

I’m so thrilled to be writing for Berkley and really excited about writing more erotic romance!

Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m clearly contact lens challenged….

Yesterday it took an hour to get the left lens in. Then I couldn’t see all day. Maybe I had it on inside out.

Last night I went to take it out and couldn’t find the damn thing. I mean i poked around my eye for-freaking-ever! Obviously I never had it in and that’s why my entire day was a blur (okay, most of my days are a blur, but we won’t get into that).

Oh, but this morning, as I’m rubbing my itchy eye, lo and behold, out pops the contact lens!

I’m such an idiot. I need help. *g*

I hope to have very good news to post soon… and no, it won’t be about my contact lenses…hehehe

Yesterday, Charlie and I had eye doctor appointments. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m wearing my glasses all the time. Blech. They bug me and I don’t want to wear them all the time. So I told the doc I wanted contacts.

Got them.

I’m freakin blind! Ack! Okay, not blind, but I’m nearsighted in one eye, farsighted in the other, and one of the contacts is a bifocal. This is requiring some adjustments to the old eyes. And everything’s blurry as hell.

We won’t even get into how long it took me to get the left one ‘in’ my eye this morning, or the fact I lost the left one IN my eye yesterday and how long it took to get it OUT!

I’m looking upon this as a challenge. I WILL wear contacts. I hate wearing my glasses all the time.

So I can’t friggin see right now. I don’t need to see to write. I’m a touch typist. I can do this.

ghws eg wueapos dog heoriatgh sag dstop wehth galskjdf!!!!!

And that’s all I have to say about that….

;-)

Full moon and Friday the 13th

Significant? You tell me. I’m not really superstitious, but it sure makes me want to drag out my wolfie plotlines and get crankin again.

Sadly, not on my agenda this week.

Demons are, though. So close enough.

Shan was blogging today about her talisman, her hackeysack. Something she fiddles with, that she has to have around while thinking, musing, plotting, scene structuring and the like.

I don’t have a talisman and I’ve decided I need one. (No, we’re not going to ask why I need one…I just do *g*)

So help me figure out what I need.

Or maybe I should have people send me free stuff, and i’ll choose one as my talisman (bwahahahahahahahaahaha…this so works for me in a totally, greed-filled, capitalist way *g*)

Maybe I should buy one of those squishy pillows that everyone seems to love. Or my own hackeysack, though I hate to copy. I have my two puppies, but they don’t count and wouldn’t appreciate me squooshing them in my hands when musing. Stuffed animal? Something demon oriented? hehehe.

What would make a good talisman? Any ideas? Help me out here, people? Does anyone else use them?

Am I obsessing? Don’t answer that, of course I am. Just work with me here, people.

One proposal down, one to go.

Finished up a proposal earlier this week and sent it to my agent, who loved it! Wheeeee! So she sent that off, which means it’s off my desk. (I’m oh so excited to get anything off my desk and onto someone else’s these days *g*).

Now it’s onto this monster proposal for Book 2 of my Bantam Dell contract. I seem to have written a 34 page synopsis. WTF. That almost qualifies as a short book for Ellora’s Cave. *snort*

Um, verbose much?

Blech.

Now to see if I can cut that down a bit and write the first 3 chapters of the book.

But I’m making headway.

I’m up to my ass in revisions. I have 3 books in edits right now, so it’s like an assembly line of revisions here.

I just finished first round revisions on Surviving Demon Island, so baby #1 goes back to my editor tomorrow. And after closing the document, I sat back and thought about this whole revision/editing thing.

I know a lot of writers bitch and moan about having to do revisions to a book. After all, how dare an editor tamper with our greatness? *snort*. (Sorry, had an Anne Rice moment there *snicker*)

I wondered as I reviewed the revision letter, how many authors take exception to editors slapping our babies. How many argue each and every point, clinging to the original manuscript as if any minor change will forever alter the flavor and beauty of the author’s masterpiece.

Puleez.

Yes, we pour our heart and souls into our writing. But our books are also a product, and as writers we have to occasionally take off the artist hat and put on the business hat. The editor’s job is to take the original bare bones product and make it better. Make it prettier, more saleable to the end consumer (i.e. the reader). If we claw and fight and scratch and argue over every phrase, every paragraph, every word, we’re defeating the purpose of having an editor. We’re preventing the editor from doing his or her job. We’re not wearing our business hat.

We’re hurting our own babies by not letting someone else help us care for them.

I love revisions. I never take criticisms personally. When I receive edits, my editor is not saying “Jaci Burton, you really suck as a writer.” They bought the book. Clearly I don’t suck *g*. She is saying “You wrote a great book. Here are my suggestions to make it even better.”

I love that. It’s a business partnership, and one I’m honored to be part of. She has her job for a reason. She doesn’t tell me how to do mine, and I don’t tell her how to do hers.

Onto the next manuscript. ;-)