Goodreads Giveaway & Announcement

Sporatic girl strikes again! Yep, I've been quiet, or at least quiet HERE. Distracted might be a better word -- I've probably never actually been quiet in my life!

Two Quick Things

• Goodreads Giveaway widget added above! For my August book -- formerly known as Circus Medicus, it has a proper title now: Return of Dr. Irresistible! 

• Starting July 21 -- I'll be running a free workshop on the Harlequin forums--which is an ever-free and fantastic resource/support group if you want to write romance, especially category romance. Lots of info, and lots of fantastic opportunities there.
• Title: Digging for Your Muse: Manufacturing Creativity
• One Line: Using mindmaps to generate unique stories you(and your readers/editor) can get excited about.
• Blurb: The workshop will also demonstrate techniques for using mindmaps as a problem-solving tool to get you through the obstacle course you run from Page One to The End.

New Release

www.Harlequin.com

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I discovered something today! At Harlequin.com, they now have books available a month before their release month for purchase. This is how it's been at millsandboon.com for as long as I've paid attention, but North America was still limited to release month.

Now, some lines have all their different versions available right now(Michelle Smart's March Presents is flipping awesome), but Medicals have only ebooks available. They will become available at other retailers in March.

Before I Was Published...

Release: March 2014

Before I was published, I was a lot better at maintaining some kind of presence on my blog. Not stellar, of course, and most of my posts did tend to go somewhere not related to writing... But there were projects to follow!

Now, most of my project time is actually time I spend writing. Or watching Buffy marathon on Netflix... which I claim is a writing-related activity because Joss Whedon is a masterful storyteller... but before this post becomes an homage to all things Joss...

UPDATES: 

• Circus book revisions turned in yesterday. Hope I don't have any other revisions to do. Title: Return of Dr. Irresistible and will be out Aug 2014
• I know roughly what both Medicals I'm contracted to write in 2014 will be, and I'm excited about them. Special projects! 
• Decided I want to write for a second line and have been kicking around ideas for that, but other than SOMETHING REVENGY, I don't know what that first project will be. I'll probably let you all know after it's written and I'm in that predictable THIS-STORY-IS-RUBBISH-MY-EDITOR-WILL-HATE-ME stage, where I've sent it and can't edit anymore but I know someone will be reading it... In other words: I'll be late to update my blog(Another predictable stage for me). 

I did have several small tatted projects for Christmas, and one very large one... but I can't find the pictures I took of  the large one, so a picture of the small one!

Goodreads Giveaway!

Giveaway alert! 

See widget above or click HERE

New Harlequin Contract!

Offered three book contract today(Medical Romance line), the fools! MUAHAHAHA...ha..ha.ha *maniacal laughter until hoarseness sets in*

The first book of those three will be my ridiculously working-titled: Circus Medicus. I thought about calling it Three Ring Love Affair, but that sounded distinctly ménage... and maybe a little kinky for category romance :)  I'm currently in the part of the writing process that I hate: the first three chapters. So slow. SOOO SLOW. Can't wait until I get to the middle, when it's all I can do to keep up with the mayhem and don't have to work at throwing out plot threads while keeping the reader interested.

Luckily, Author Amendments for book2--Uncovering Her Secrets--also came today! Just in time. I needed a break from the current WIP. So I've just finished printing them and have my highlighters and many-colored ink pens for making any corrections needed.

And I like to put in pictures, but since the only interesting pictures I've had lately have been frog-related: I re-share one and add a second one of the tiny frog who has been hunting in my kitchen window. See the hair on his bum? That's because he tried to get away from me by jumping onto the cat's bed... and it stuck to him since his skin has the general consistency of a Wacky Wall Walker.

That spec is not frog poo... just FYI

He looks so smart! I <3 this picture.

Upcoming Blog Tour for Craving

Tour Schedule also here, but text list below! 

 

 Sept 30th- Busy Mom's Book Reviews- Guest post/Review
Oct 1st- Deal Sharing Aunt- Interview
Oct 2nd- Rose & Beps Blog- Guest Post
Oct 3rd- Save Your Money For Books- Review
Oct 4th- Romance Bookworm- Guest Post
(none on weekend)
Oct 7th- Blue Eyed Book Reviews- Review
Oct 8th-Queen of All She Reads- Guest Post/Review
Oct 9th- Melinda Dozier- Interview
Oct 10th- Guardian's Hangout- Guest Post 

(Stop 2) Harlequin Junkie- Guest Post

 Oct 11th- Faerie Tale Books- Review/Promo

Will have a Rafflecopter set up for the tatted jewelry prize pack(with gift card and copy of Craving included!), as well as several copies of the book along the way.

My Book! In the flesh!(or the paper...)

I got a package in the mail from the UK...

It's my book! All 3 paper versions of it, so I'm sharing. I'm also running around in circles hooting like a maniac, but no one gets to see a picture of THAT.

 The poor DHL man inhaled a gnat when he was trying to tell me to sign for it. But that's a small price to pay! :D (Poor DHL Man...)

No.Am. Cover for 2012's SYTYCW Entry!

Love how the white sheets blend into the white format of the North American medical covers. The smokin' hot couple looks even better in big format than I had hoped!

Tickled pink!

Compare to UK Cover here

First sale!

My So You Think You Can Write submission sold to Harlequin Mills&Boon Medical Romance line this morning!

I had an uncertain inkling it was coming since Wednesday morning.

I was composing a post for the SubCare thread at the Harlequin forums--just a roll call post announcing what I had out where--and before I hit Submit on the post I got an email from the lovely Suzanne Clarke, who has been working with me through the revisions. The email said basically, I want to call you.

At that point, I had an out-of-sanity experience.

In my mind: Upon reading the email, I gracefully sail into the other room and mention in completely casual tones, "Oh, by the way, this wonderful editor wants to talk to me." La la la

What really happened: I jumped up and ran through the house, but before I got to the other room, I forgot how doors worked. So I slammed into the door a couple times before I realized that I had to, oh, I don't know... TURN THE KNOB. And then I blurted out "SHE WANTS TO TALK TO ME ON THE PHONE!" Message delivered(sort of), I barreled back to my computer like Animal from the Muppets. She who? Who needs coherent details?

Later, I missed the call. You know, like a sane person who can't figure out what phone to answer when she hears ringing. Or doesn't hear ringing, because the phone I took with me through the house(and back yard) was the wrong phone and too far from the phone base to ring.

Rescheduled call for next day, but germs conspired to thwart our plans that day. Germs are devious little monsters. I know these things. I write medical romance. (heee)

Today she called and I giggled through the whole conversation, I think. Fairly certain I sounded like an escaped mental patient. But she said wonderful things, some of which I kind of remember! After I squawked a few monosyllabic words, she told me the new title and scheduled release date.

From here on in, Mountain Man has been new-named: Craving Her Rough-Diamond Doc, and shall be born into paper and ink October 2013 :)

I have a few tweaky revisions to make yet, which I'm fixin to tackle(when my brain resumes functioning). After that, I'll be brainstorming next story so I can whip up a short outline to pitch(Did I mention: Two book contract? YAY!!).

Maggie(my dog) has no idea what's going on, but she's very excited that there's lots of giggling and happiness today. She keeps doing the Maggie-dance: this involves hopping, massive tail wagging, occasional barking for no apparent reason other than she wants to make noise too.

SYTYCW Interviews

My pal Maria Buscher decided to interview entrants into 2012's So You Think You Can Write -- Harlequin's writing competition. So if you're curious how other entrants have been getting on, stop by her blog.

My interview kicks off the series, talking about Mountain Man:MD and what I've learned from revising him(so far). But I'm sure the others will have useful advice :D

New interviews will go up on Thursdays. Stop by!

Next few interviewees:

• Fiona Marsden (Feb 7)
• Janie Couch (Loveylove day! Feb 14)
• Heather Gardner (Feb 21)
• (There will be more, just stopping the list here.)

Wheee.... Scarves & Other Nonsense

From mid-August until December 25, I made 46 scarves. *crosses eyes*

Grandma Hair: Unchanged since the 80s

I got to witness half of them finding an owner at the family Christmas party. I thought I was gonna get to see an Angry Octogenarian Christmas Throw-down over the sparkly scarves. And they weren't even that sparkly. Imagine if they had more than a single thread of shiny silvery something-or-other woven through the polyester!

I'm sure my great-aunts would've been too polite to do any hair-pulling(or too smart to do any hair-pulling--when you get your hair set in a salon once a week and coated with enough hairspray to survive a nuclear blast, if anyone messes with it they might break a calcium-deficient finger). The little mental-trip I took to picture this granny-scuffle (as I huddled in the corner while they dug through the pile) was a nightmare of shiny shoes, broken hips and Christmas sweaters.

But the scarves went over well.
Even the non-sparkly ones.
And I may never make another scarf. Ever.

Got another round of revisions for Mountain Man: MD, and praying I can follow directions. And since I should be working, I'm taking a break to post about granny-fights and wondering how come pervy people reached my blog with the keywords: kids sleeping in their underwear, and teenagers fighting.

That's it, Google's off the scarf-list for 2013.

NaNo and SYTYCW Updates

So, I have been lax in posting here. I tend to do that when I'm dug into a project.

First, a confession: It wasn't my NaNoWriMo project. I was buzzing along with NaNo and the day after my last post I got a request for the full manuscript from Harlequin for Mountain Man:MD (which I'd entered into SYTYCW). I really didn't expect it. I still have a manuscript under consideration with HQN, and since I hadn't actually gotten to any medical situations in the first uploaded chapter, I'd already decided I should probably start thinking about reworking the story for Special Edition or SuperRomance. I stopped revising it when I didn't make it to round two of the competition, and shifted focus to my NaNo synopsis for Savvy's Bootcamp.

I sent off the first half(which had been revised) and have already gotten notes back on that and am working those notes into the revision process. But, I've had such a good reaction from everyone with this story that my husband says I'm no longer allowed to bemoan how much I suck as a writer.(So I'll stop doing that for, you know, a week or two *hah*)

So you can guess what else I have to report: I have once again sidelined eWife(my NaNo project). A bird in the hand, and all that. I have story guilt though, and I'm planning on digging back in December or January at the latest. Writing a book and revising another in one month was a little too much for my little brain.

Next year, I MUST resist the lure of NaNo. I always start with such good intentions. I can write a book in a month(Mountain Man was written in 16 days), just apparently not when it's in a NaNo month. But it's hard to feel too bad about that right now aside from letting down my Savvy team. That's why the frowny face. -->

SYTYCW and A Request

I am a category romance junkie. Those of you who run in romance-writing circles have undoubtedly heard about Harlequin's yearly So You Think You Can Write talent search. This is the third year, and it is taking place earlier than other years as it was combined with another of their talent-search contests that's been discontinued, New Voices.

I said I wasn't going to enter(it can really be a time suck if you keep haunt the site for hours a day, obsessing over your votes), but I kind of got talked into it! So, now I'm making a mad dash to finish this new book on the off-chance that I make it to round two.

Which brings me to my request: the first round elimination is mostly decided by a public vote. You can vote once per day, and if you feel inclined, I'd be happy to accept a click on behalf of Mountain Man: MD (It's under my real name--no signing up under a pen name anymore, alas!)

Or there are loads of other entries up that are just as shiny, if not shinier, and I'm sure their owners would be happy for your vote too. You know, if you feel opinionated and like to click virtual buttons(and who doesn't like that?).

(I need to learn how to do some self-promotion without cringing--like I'm cringing now.)

Accountability Update & Bready stuffs

Loving the snowflake method for writing. First time using it, and feeling ridiculously empowered. Building from one sentence to one paragraph to one page... and on to a (short) prototype first draft takes all the overwhelmed feelings away from the process. No start at A and write 60K words and hope you end at Z, the gradual expansion makes it all feel very possible. It's comforting.

First draft goal has evolved. Harlequin announced a fast-track for their Romance/Riva subs, and since Riva is where I feel my voice belongs within the Harlequin family, I've derailed from eWife enough to start working on another story. Much as I am uncertain about my ability to write two projects at the same time, my first draft on eWife by April 1 goal has become Prototype First Draft by April 1, and actually I'm ahead of schedule on that.


Amending goals to include prototype draft of the Fast-Track Riva manuscript, along with first chapter and synopsis by April 23, which is the end date on submissions.

Finally, is it crazy to feel like I'm cheating on my wildyeast starter to contemplate baking with any other kind of leavening? Seriously, I'm like... if it doesn't use the starter, I ain't making it. That can't be normal. I don't even know if you can use it for stuff like... cookies. Or biscuits!

Medical Romance Book Review: One Month to Become a Mum

... Is the most excellent debut from Louisa George.

I don't even know where to start with this review. It's not often that I write them, and even less frequently do I write reviews for fiction.

I could say I loved it(I did), and gush about how the characters were drawn so sharply I couldn't fail to love them(Yep, that's true.). I could say I had to put it down in the middle when duties dragged me away, and I couldn't wait to get back(Also true), or that the emotional wounds were so deep I could almost smell the blood(I connected with the characters, does it show?).
 
I don't often gush over books with children with them. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, but I don't have any and sometimes the stories with secret babies and pregnancies are harder for me to identify with and I'll skip over baby stories for their non-baby counterparts. Had I not won the book, I may have not read this one(and probably wouldn't have because it's not on sale in the U.S. for some reason). That would have been my loss.

If I'm trying to figure out something on my own, I think I'm something of a slow learner. If you explain a new concept and give me examples, I'm quick to catch on. If you give me two very similar things and ask me what's different about them, the chances that I'll highlight the important differences are slim. What is logical to one person is not logical to me, and that's always how it's been.

I said that to say this: Louisa's writing made me realize what is missing in my own writing with such clarity I can only call it an epiphany. I'll look forward to her next release, with or without a baby.

Books, Accountability, and The Walking Dead

First, I have to say I love winning books! I actually got the one from the referral link a few posts ago, and am happily reading Louisa George's debut today, which I just noticed isn't available for purchase through harlequin.com, only Mills&Boon. Only three chapters in so far, but loving the characters! I also managed to snag a Superromance(ebook link: Here Comes the Groom) from Karina Bliss the other day on the Superromance blog, so it's next on my TBR pile.

On the goals: So far, so good, though it might be a two steps forward, one step back sort of 'so far, so good.' I am keeping up with daily word count, but today I decided to start the story over. So much has changed I feel like having a rewrite of the first couple chapters will be more in tune with my vision of the story, and will also help propel me into the way the rest of it needs to go. Plus, it should be pretty easy since I already have written this once. Or twice... Okay, this is the last time I'm starting over before finishing the entire draft... but I am starting over again today: eWife v 3.0.

Who's your daddy!?

Finally, I'm addicted to The Walking Dead. Like, really addicted. I knew I loved it because it's all about the characters and how they change during their tentative zombiepocalypse survival, but I never really put together how much it was like a soap opera with a living dead backdrop before. It's no wonder people get addicted to it.

I even actually connected(briefly) with a, er, somewhat unsophisticated cousin(who I usually fail to interact with) over The Walking Dead. I asked her: which character do you like the best? And who do you think would be the best leader? Both of her answers were: Daryl (which really didn't surprise me, I do live in Appalachia). So I'm going to ask ya'll: Who do you like best, and who would you want to follow? And WHY? That's the important bit. What is it about these characters that inspires or interests us?

For me, I just love Glenn, he's still sweet and I think he has more innocence about him than Carl does, and Carl is like... 10 or something. It's neat to see him remain untainted, somehow, by all this. Bad stuff might make him sad for a bit, but he rebounds, and still thinks of others first. I know that overall, this is Rick's story - he's the protagonist, the leader/character who struggles the most with whats moral and what needs to be done. But, I have to say, if it was all about staying alive, I would back Shane to keep me alive. I hasten to add: He could keep you alive, but only until his bad people skills and hair-trigger forced you to kill him, OR YOURSELF.

And as much as I hate to admit it(since it doesn't speak highly about my maturity, stability and reason), sometimes that caveman thing Shane has going on is hot. You know, a really destructive kind of hot. Future burning-bed kind of hot. And to my shame, I must concede I still have the urge to fix the bad-boy. What's up with that? I should be past that by NOW, surely.

Medical Romance and North America

In March, Harlequin is doing a Spotlight on Medical Romance in their forums. In the UK and Australia, there's nothing new about Medical Romances, they are actually available in stories on other continents, but here in North America you can only buy them online. And if someone doesn't frequent Harlequin.com, what are the chances they'll even be introduced to them?

So, I'm making 2012 my year to introduce North American romance lovers to the awesome that is Medical Romance. If you live on this Medical Romance-deprived continent with me, get your MedRom fix in paperback so you can join me in donating your gently used copies to your local library. If your library is like mine, they'll shelve pretty much anything donated, and if we can get those books on shelves--the North American romance-loving public can be introduced to them without having to take the initiative to seek out books they've never heard of. It might be scheming big, but it'd be awesome to one day see these fantastic stories alongside their other category counterparts on shelves in my neighborhood.

If you've never read a medical romance, here's my top five reasons to give them a try:

1. Over the past year especially, there's been a distinct trend toward young voices. These are not your mother's medical romances. 
2. Drama, baybay. These stories are high octane, packed with emotion. Not just life and death situations, either. Medicals aren't afraid to tackle the darker, grittier subjects often considered verboten in category romance. 
3. Variety in sensuality. Some are tender and sweet, and others will Set Your eReader on fire(like Wendy S. Marcus's Once a Good Girl)
4. More variety! Big city, small village GP, or on a hospital boat sailing down the Amazon(like Tina Beckett's debut shown at the top of the page) -- these stories can take you anywhere.
5. What's more heroic than people who devote their lives to saving others? Don't they deserve some Happily Ever After?

If you want to join me, I'd love to keep track of what's going on where. Leave me a comment, or email me: amalieberlin at gmail dot com. If you like and read medical romance and want to share a favorite author/title/theme/whatever, I'd love to know.

Or, hey, if you write for HMB Medical Romance and want to donate some books to NA libraries, I'd be happy to help anyway I can -- either by finding addresses of the libraries or locating folks willing to deliver to their local repositories for all human knowledge :)

I refuse to believe that a country that craves doctor dramas on TV doesn't have a place for it on the book shelves, too.

Accountability

The first couple chapters in a new project are extremely slow and un-fun for me. There are many reasons, which I will probably write about at a later date! This post is solely to give myself a public deadline so I stop doing silly, unproductive yet highly amusing procrastinationalatory(like make up words) stuff.

Present Status:
Word Count: 2500 (possibly extremely lame words)
Plotjitsu: Lots of scene cards already written up so I *should* know
              where to go if I can stop questioning and dithering.

Goal 1: Rough draft of Chapter 1(approx 4K words) completed by the weekend
Goal 2: Polished and uploaded by midnight EST Sept 15.


BTW: If you are an unpublished romance writer and you want to give the competition a go, it's free, and information can be found at www.romanceisnotdead.com -- there is also a Facebook group page located here

New Voices -- 2011

It's that time of year again, and I'm both excited and terrified. The closer it comes to story upload date, the more I dread it.

Last year at this time, I was just starting out in my effort to give writing a serious shot. I'd had one tiny victory, so I was feeling confident as only a newbie can. I was 100% stoked to upload my chapter. Everyone would love it, right? Naturally, it was going to be awesome. I had an awesome story. I had awesome characters(still last year's thoughts). I was totally going to make the first cut.

Except I didn't. Okay, regroup. This is okay. I'm going to make that callback list for sure! Wrong again. Hmm, maybe I'm doing this wrong...

I know, I'll get a couple craft books. That will square me right up. More questions emerged. I'll take an official, pay-lots-of-money, several-month writing class. This will teach me(and it did) lots of things I'm doing wrong. I'll write, and rewrite, and rewrite. Read more craft books.

One year later, I've probably read 30 craft books, of which 20-or-so I own. I've joined RWA, national and local chapter. I've got a writing group. I've been to a couple writing conferences/seminars. I've got an awesome Critique Partner. I have written approximately 120K words (on one story), and submitted it. I've learned a lot, and I've invested a lot of time and money in doing so.

Which brings me back around to my terror. I desperately want to enter, and I will do so, but this year I've lost my newbie-confidence. Instead of being certain my idea is great, I oscillate between certainty that the idea is golden, and even sharper certainty that it will be universally reviled. How's that for being a walking contradiction?

The other thing that scares me is that somehow I've started to think of this single contest as some kind of validation. If I make one list, or get X-amount of positive feedback, or whatever... that it will prove this year and the associated $$ will have been a wise investment. And, of course, when it doesn't, will that mean I've wasted my time?

There are writers who have been doing this for years and are in the same boat, and a year in I'm already asking these questions. No idea what that means, but I do feel a bit like a whiner even expressing these feelings.

I'll definitely enter, come hell or high water(though if both come, I make no promises). And I am excited to do so. Despite my terror. I am trying to manage my reasons for entering.

• I find participation in these large-scale events invigorating. They remind me why I love to write when I'm struggling with self-doubt.
• Someone has to win, and sticking with the contest through the whole process will allow me to learn, first hand, what it is about different entries that garners attention. What did they do right? How can I implement this?
• It is genuinely fun to read all the different entries, especially when I may not otherwise approach a particular subgenre.
• May possibly gain some insight as to whether my story hooks are too off-the-wall(which I am actually very worried about).

Going to have to stop worrying about all this and actually write the damned book soon! Like... now.