A Call to Crack the Whip

I'm running behind! And I want your help to keep me on track.

Back at the first of November, I set a personal deadline of the end of this month for finishing the next installment in the Hauberk series. Life decided to throw a couple challenges (or more) in my way. Ten days later, my mother had a stroke and I lost a week of writing time. Still, I managed to finish the first draft the first week of December, one week late.

In December, I figured I should probably spend some time buying my family some Christmas presents, and even spend some time with my family while they were home for their holidays. One of my editors must have heard me say this to them because she sent not one, but TWO sets of edits, one due a couple days before Christmas, and one due New Year's Day. I prevailed and got them both done. But it meant I didn't get to work on Troy's story as much as I wanted.

On Friday I posted on Facebook that the day had been a day of interruptions. I had two IM sessions open with two critique partners, my son Guitar Hero walked into the office about something or other, Gizmo Guy walked in a minute later carrying Spike and promptly set down the cat on my desk in front of my monitor and proceeded to join in the conversation. That pretty much describes the entire month of January. Constant. Interruptions.

I have managed to get a second draft done, but I need one more pass before I can send it out to my critique partners, and thence to my editor for her approval.

So here's where I am coming to you. I'm going to put a sign on my office saying "Enter at Risk of Death" and give everyone in my real-life the stink eye if they so much as think about turning that doorknob. But I also am having problems with distracting myself with all the fun stuff there is to do online. So if you see me on Twitter, or on Facebook between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., you have my permission to give me hell. Tell me to get off the net and get back to writing.

Crack that whip!

Snippet Saturday - Fight

Today's Snippet Saturday is about fights. There are physical fights and emotional fights that I could choose from. There's a physical fight in my upcoming Deliberate Deceptions a la Mr. and Mrs. Smith I could have put up, but I figured you might need a reminder of Chad's character, who is the hero in Deliberate Deceptions.  So I pulled out a scene from Personal Protection where he's arguing with a very stubborn Sam about accepting his own bodyguard.

Personal
Protection

copyright© 2009 by Leah Braemel

Chad carefully slid the photograph back into the envelope. “This has been going on for three months now, Sam. At least let me assign a couple of CPOs to you.”

Sam scowled and flopped into his chair. “Come on, Chad, I don’t need close protection. Of all people, you know I’m trained in escape and avoidance techniques. In fact, I’m better than anyone you’d assign.” Sam shifted in his chair. “Besides, what’s it say to clients if the owner of a protection agency can’t protect himself?”

“It says he’s smart that he knows he needs an extra set of eyes. Damn it, Sam, this is no idle threat. You’re being followed. Stalked. And someone broke into your apartment, remember? The bastard could have set a bomb to go off when you opened the door.”

“Yeah, well…”

“What’s Mark say about the threats?”

Sam shrugged one shoulder. He’d meant to talk to his Dallas-based partner last time he’d flown down to Dallas but then Mark announced Jodi’s pregnancy and Sam hadn’t wanted to intrude on his friend’s happiness. And now he felt uncomfortable discussing it via email. Oh, by the way, thought you should know, someone’s taking pictures of me. Yeah, that would make him sound a real lame-ass weenie.

“You haven’t told him about them, have you?”

“Damn it, Chad, there’ve been a half dozen pictures in the past three months. And the phone calls—it’s some kid who dialed a random number and got lucky, that’s all.”

“Christ, Sam, listen to yourself. You get a picture doctored so it looks like your brains have been shot out, you’re getting phone calls with some mechanized voice telling you to prepare to die—”

Sam covered one fist with the other, cracked his knuckles. “If they wanted me dead they could have shot me any one of those times, but they didn’t. They took my picture a couple times and made a coupla calls. Big deal.”

“What about the break-in? No,” Chad corrected himself. “They didn’t need to break in, they had a key. And they knew the code to disable your security system so they could take as much time as they wanted. And yet here you sit trying to pretend it’s…what? A kid pranking you? Some practical joke?”

Yeah, the break-in had been hard to ignore. But damn it, that meant he knew whoever it was who was stalking him. Intimately. This wasn’t something he wanted to call the cops in on. He’d handle it himself. “So they emptied the ketchup bottle on my bed, along with one of those damned photos. That’s it. They’re not trying to hurt me, Chad.”

Chad forced his shoulders down and exhaled through his mouth in a long slow blow. “Sam, if I were a client receiving these pictures, you’d recommend I wear a vest every time I went out in public. You’d tell me to change up my routine—to take different routes at different times—”

“I’m already doin’ that. I check my six regularly—no one’s following me. They’re trying to psych me out, that’s all.”

Chad continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “You’d insist I used one of our special bullet-proof limos with a bodyguard trained in defensive driving as the chauffeur, and you’d assign a team of Close Protective Officers to guard you twenty-four/seven. And if I still didn’t listen, what would you say?”

Sam slumped back in his chair. “I’d ask you if your will was in order.”

Chad folded his arms across his chest and rocked on his heels. “So tell me, Sam, you got your will in order?”

Don't forget to visit the other Snippet Saturday participants:

Lissa Matthews 
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane 
Jody Wallace
Helen Kay Dimon
Sasha White

He's Baaa-aack!

Want a chuckle?  The Old Spice guy is back!



Help, I've fallen captive to his striking brown eyes and I can't get free...

Happy 4th Blog Birthday

Four years and 1124 posts later, I'm still here. And I'm published, with three books already out and two more releasing in a few months.

Color me surprised.

My first post was about my decision to jump into the deep end of the publishing pool, to put my writing out there and hope that maybe, just maybe, someone might like it. Little did I know that I would receive my first contract a year later in 2008.

Over the past four years I've talked about my husband Gizmo Guy, and my sons, Guitar Hero and Curly. I've shared my struggles with my parents and their health. My father's massive stroke that meant he'd never come home again. His death last April. My mother's stroke last November. My own health issues, and Gizmo Guy's too.

I've burnt out a laptop, discarded a desktop. Changed out a monitor. Kicked Gizmo Guy out of his desk and taken over his office. (Until the boys move out so I can remake one of their bedrooms into an office that has a window with light instead of this cave. Though it doesn't look like that'll be happening any time soon.)

I've rejoiced here on my blog when I received my first contract. And my second. The third, fourth and fifth.

I love being able to share my covers. I worried about the excerpts I put up, wondering "does that show the book in its best light? Will readers find it interesting enough to buy, or will it turn them away?" I rarely offer writing advice because, heck, I'm still figuring it all out too. When I turned 50, I indulged myself and invited some of my favorite authors to help me celebrate. When it ended, I continued inviting authors to come be my guest every Wednesday.

I've made friends via my blog. Some whom I've managed to meet in person, and others whom I've never met outside the cyber realm but hope to one day, both readers and authors.

In the past four years, this blog has gone through a few changes too. Originally I had a gargoyle as my main image--I was writing a paranormal about a gargoyle that came to life at night. Once I finished it, I blogged about a manuscript I was writing about a merman banished to a landlocked lake in Alberta, so the paranormal elements stayed. Then I got my website and it changed looks again. And now it's morphing yet once more as it changes to reflect that I write,  not only contemporary romances, but westerns, including a historical.


All genres I never could have predicted myself writing, or selling, when I wrote that first blog post back on January 26, 2007.

Which makes me wonder where I'll be four years from now. Ever think about that? Ask that question I used to hate in interviews...where do you see yourself in four years? What do you hope to have accomplished by 2015?

Here's hoping we'll all find that "bluebird of happiness."

On plotting, edits, and travel plans

Wow, we're at the last full week of January already. Time it is a-flying.

I'm back in my editing cave--my editor over at Samhain sent me Deliberate Deceptions for a round of edits, which means another deadline, though this one shouldn't push me too hard as I have two weeks to do them.

I want to get them done far before that as I also have a self-imposed deadline of the end of this month to finish the third draft of Troy's story (Hauberk book 4--which is STILL untitled, darn it all) so I can send it off to my critique partners.I'd originally pegged that deadline for mid-January, but two rounds of edits for Tangled Past PLUS Christmas and my mother's stroke set me behind just a tad. And like I said, it's a self-imposed deadline, not a contractual obligation. So there's not as much pressure if I'm late by a few days.

In addition to those edits, I'm already mentally plotting what books I want to write for next year and trying to figure out how long it would take me to write each one. Over the past year and a half, I've discovered it's much more efficient for me to draft up a synopsis of an idea, and get to know the characters for a few weeks or months before I start writing them. It saves a LOT of rewriting as my characters reveal their issues while I'm washing the dishes or doing laundry. (Yup, for some reason my brain seems freer to wander when I'm doing housework instead of sitting staring at the computer screen. Ideas and solutions come at the weirdest times and places. You'd probably wonder at my sanity if you followed me around for a couple days.) Anyway I'd much rather write a shorter first draft and then add scenes to subsequent drafts than to write thirty thousand words and slash fifteen thousand. Adding is much more satisfying than deleting.

While I'm doing my edits and plotting, emails are flying back and forth with my new webmistress over the redesign of my website. More excitement and worry, especially since the folks over at Harlequin are critiquing their authors' sites and making suggestions on how to tweak it to make it much more reader-friendly, and easier for you to buy our books.

Plus I have to leave some time open for the conference in New York at the end of June, and possibly another conference later in the year--perhaps one more oriented toward the reader as opposed to the writer. Do you go to readers' conference such as the huge Romantic Times event in April or Lori Foster's event in June, or Lora Leigh's Reader Appreciation gathering in October? I'd love to meet some of you...Where are you going to be?

Snippet Saturday: Bad Mood

Ever woken up in a good mood only to have it go downhill real fast? Today's Snippet is about bad moods. Sam's mood has been in a downward spiral all day. It started the night before when he found someone had broken into his apartment and left him a threatening message. It got worse when Chad, his second-in-command, insisted he accept a detail of bodyguards. It hit rock bottom when Chad made Rosie Ramos the head of his detail of Close Protective officers. Rosie! Not that she's not a perfectly capable CPO, she is, but damn it, he's been attracted to her for over a year, able to only look but not touch since she's his employee. Now he's got to be around her 24/7. Yup, it's enough to put any guy in a bad mood...

Personal
Protection

copyright© 2009 by Leah Braemel

The limo pulled into the underground parking lot and past his Jag. A sigh escaped Sam as they cruised past his Harley. The crisp October day would have been perfect to drive his Road King. Instead he was cooped up like a damned dog in the back of the limo that finally stopped near the elevator where Rosie was waiting.

Damn it, why had Chad insisted on Rosie Ramos as his lead CPO? If he’d wanted a woman to accompany him to any upcoming parties or meet ’n greets—the reason Chad had given him—why not McKee or Anderson? Neither of those women got his cock twitching like Rosie did.

The fantasy he’d had of getting her alone in his apartment hadn’t included her wearing a gun and acting in as his personal bodyguard. All right, maybe one had. But, damn it, if a bullet was going to be aimed in his direction, there was no way in hell he wanted the little spitfire throwing herself in its path. He’d rather have her throw herself in his bed. Go down on her knees and unzip his fly… Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

“All clear, Mr. Watson,” Rosie said quietly.

“Of course it is.” Sam ducked his head and clambered out of the limo, then stomped to the elevator. Goddamn it, she’d even acquired a key to the elevator, locking the door open so no one else could use it. He ignored that it was standard operating procedure and lashed out, “You think other people might not need the goddamned elevator?”

“Better than having the door open and somebody shoot you from inside. Besides there are other elevators still available.”

Her voice was so damned reasonable. Placating. Like he was some baby to be soothed out of a tantrum.

Which is exactly how he was behaving but goddamn it, his people were supposed to be protecting others. Not him.

She turned the key and let the door close, pressing the button for the penthouse. The elevator began to rise, a quiet chime announcing each floor they passed. And with each ding, Sam became more and more aware of the delicate smell of apricot shampoo and woman filling the confined area. He closed his eyes, trying not to deliberately inhale great lungfuls of that amazing scent.

As long as she was around him, he’d not sleep. Instead he’d be staring at the ceiling imagining what it would feel like to cup her breasts in his hands, to unzip her pants and nudge aside that blue thong. Imagine going down on her and tasting her honey. When she’d been in the gym doing those stretches, he’d obsessed about some of the positions she could get into while he fucked her. Then in his office while Chad had been briefing her, he’d pictured her stretched out over his desk, her legs hitched over his shoulders. And now she’d be in the next apartment, so damned available.

Damn it!

“Mr. Watson, do you have a problem with me guarding you?”

“Nope.” He couldn’t help that his answer sounded like a growl. He had one helluva a problem and at the moment it was punching against his zipper. He shifted his briefcase so she wouldn’t see his hard-on.

“I mean, do you have a problem with a woman guarding you?”

Shit! She thought he didn’t want her because she was a woman? Why not add sexual discrimination to the mix today? He exhaled and opened his eyes. “No, Ms. Ramos, I do not have a problem a female operative leading my team.”

“Then do you have a problem with me personally?”

Was it a problem that he was imagining pinning her up against the wall and ramming into her until she screamed her release? How the hell did he explain that to her without getting slapped with a sexual harassment suit in addition to the discrimination one?

“If I didn’t have complete confidence in your abilities, you wouldn’t work for Hauberk, and Chad wouldn’t have personally chosen you as team leader.”

That must have been the answer she was looking for. She nodded, and her shoulders imperceptibly relaxed. “Thank you.”

“I’m pis—ticked off at whoever is sending those damned photographs, and I fu—frickin’ don’t like having to accept that I had to ask my own people to protect me. Leaves me damned twitchy. So don’t take my grouchiness personally, Ms. Ramos. It’s not directed at you.”

No, what was pointing directly at her was his goddamned dick.

 Don't forget to visit today's other Snippet Saturday participants:

Lissa Matthews 
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane 
Jody Wallace
Helen Kay Dimon
Shelli Stevens

Don't miss...

If you live in Canada, tune in to CTV's new Marilyn Denis show (I'd noticed her missing from Citytv's Cityline but had no idea she'd moved over to CTV and gotten her own show -- way to go, Marilyn!) Anyway, today Marilyn's interviewing Carina Press's Angela James about e-readers.

If I can find a link that streams it or if I can find a clip on a video I can embed, I'll try to find it and post it so people outside of Canada can watch it too.

**Edited** So people outside of Canada couldn't watch it live, but they will be able to see it now all the provinces have seen it.  It's at right here as part of www.marilyn.ca 's website.

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.  ~Bertold Brecht

You may have noticed the header on the blog has changed.I'm in the middle of updating my website and this will give you a sneak peek at a tiny part of it. (You won't get the great unveiling for a while yet as we're still populating the pages. In the meantime the old one is still up.)  There will be drop down menus including a coming soon page and more buy links. There will be an extras page with my free stories to download, book trailers and deleted scenes, and maybe even a Hauberk org chart. But there will not be any music or blinky graphics. I promise! 

Now's your chance--before we're done designing the new website, tell me what you want to see on it. Got any requests?

If I can make it there...

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving in June
I'm going to be a part of it
New York, New York!

(my apologies to Fred Ebb, the lyricist of the original New York, New York song)

I just registered for the Romance Writers of America's national conference in New York this June. It's the first conference I've been to in a couple years, the first Nationals since 2007.  For those non-romance writers who are unfamiliar with the conference, this is the conference to attend. Approximately 2,000 romance writers, editors, agents and other industry professionals spend four days mixing and mingling, culminating in the RITA awards dinner -- the romance industry's version of the Oscars. (Not that I'm anywhere near the running for one of those.)  Glitz, glamour, schmoozing. Anxiety over pitch sessions to editors or agents followed by mimosas as a reward.

Gizmo Guy will be going with me this time. He's been talking about this trip for two years since he discovered it would be held in New York. He used to work a lot in the Big Apple and has wanted to show me around for at least 15 years but I'd never managed to get there.  So we've booked a couple days before and a day after to give us time to explore, just the two of us.

So if you're in the New York area sometime between June 26th and July 2nd, give me a holler and we can see if we can hook up. Or if you have a favorite deli or place to visit in the city, let me know.  I'm already excited!

How to Drive Others Crazy

Sometimes, no, most times, I pity people who have to endure conversations with me, especially if I'm having to make a decision. Why is that? Because I'm certain this is what I sound like...



"It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green"

"Uh huh"

I know exactly what I want, but trying to meet my expectations. Well, that's tougher. Especially after you've had to listen to me blather on to get to an answer.

(I love those old black and white movies, with their snappy dialogue and comic situations. Throw in Cary Grant and Myrna Loy (or Doris Day and Rock Hudson) and it's usually a great time to curl up on the couch with Gizmo Guy (or Spike) and ignore those decisions that have to be made.)

Snippet Saturday - Dark Moment: Tangled Past

 As you can tell from the title, today's Saturday Snippet is about the "dark moment" -- now often in romance writing, writers refer to the 'black moment' -- that's the moment when the storyline has twisted so the hero and heroine have been torn assunder. Usually it's done through actual physical separation -- the heroine's been kidnapped or the couple have broke up and there is an actual physical distance between them. Tangled Past is slightly different, as you'll read. Because sometimes the most painful separations can occur when the person you love is standing right there in front of you....

Tangled Past

Sarah woke to an empty bed for the second morning in a row. She quickly washed and dressed and hurried to Nate’s room, where Jackson had kept vigil.

Martha stood in the doorway, a breakfast tray in her hands. She shook her head. “Jackson won’t eat, the stubborn man.”

“He barely touched his dinner last night too.” Sarah peeked in the room and found him sitting on the edge of the bed, wiping Nate’s forehead with a damp cloth. “I’ve never known two men to be such good friends. Mr. McLeod didn’t even sit with my mother when she was dying.”

Then again, maybe he’d been happy to see the end of the woman who had brought him such shame.

“Come on, Nate. You gotta fight this.” The tenderness in his voice brought tears to Sarah’s eyes. Especially when he leaned over the still figure on the bed, putting his mouth next to Nate’s ear. “You can’t leave me. Don’t die on me, you hear?”

She could barely hear Nate’s rasped response. “You’ve got Sarah now. You won’t be alone.”

“Damn it, you can’t die. I love you.” Jackson gathered Nate into his arms, cradling him like a child.

Sarah had to step back and rest her head against the hall wall, fighting the tears burning tracks down her cheeks. How she’d long to hear him say those words to her. If he could love Nate, maybe one day he’d come to love her too. Or was it even possible for a man who loved his friend that way to love a woman?

Don't forget to visit the other Snippet Saturday participants:

Lissa Matthews 
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane 
Jody Wallace
Sasha White
Helen Kay Dimon

Want to know what an editor does?

Novels Alive TV interviewed my Samhain editor Tera Kleinfelter at a Romantic Times conference. After you read the article, click on the video to the right of the interview and hear what Tera does as an editor. It's not all reading manuscripts...

Meet Keri Ford: Southern Belle

Hi, Leah! Thanks for asking me to join you today. I can't wait for you to meet my handsome friend, Parker. He's the hero in my novella Through The Wall, but he doesn't know that yet. He's a mechanic and sent me a message about some sudden work and will be a little late.

Before he gets here, let me tell you about him. He's hot, charming, hot, good with his hands, and hot. I suspect he's got a secret huge crush on his best friend, Stephanie, but he's not acting on. I'll see what we can get out of him today.

*knock-knock*

Keri: That must me him! *Parker swaggers in* Hi, hon. This is Leah.

Parker: Hi, Beautiful. Sorry, I'm late. Mrs. Harris--I'm not sure if you know her, but her car ran out of gas and was full of groceries. I ran her home, unloaded her groceries for her and then took care of her car.

Keri: For something like that, it's okay. Here. Leah fixed us some tea. You must thirsty after all that. I asked you here with me today to tell us about Stephanie.

Parker: *chokes on tea* *beats on chest* Why--*voice cracks and he clears it*--why ask me?

Keri: You've known her a long time. How did ya'll meet?

Parker: I met her shortly after she started dating my former best friend.

Keri: Former?

Parker: *Face reddens. Temples tick.* Fucking bastard was cheating on her with her best friend. Stephanie's divorce was really nasty. Son of bitch treated her like shit and then made each step hard as hell. That's when Stephanie and I became really close. Uh, can I cuss here?

Keri: I'm sure Leah will do *@&# in place if it's a problem. Just how close are you to Stephanie?

Parker: Just friends. And that's all. She doesn't need more. Her divorce was final just three months ago.

Keri: So you're interested in more?

Parker: I didn't say that.

Keri: It was close enough.

Parker: No it wasn't.

Keri: Yes it was.

Parker: No.

Keri: Don't argue with me. I know you want her.

Parker: *scrubs hands through his hair* Fine, yes. I want her. God, I want her more than anything. I've wanted her since the first time I saw her and she'd started dating him. I tried finding another woman like her, but there's not another out there.

Keri: She's single now.

Parker: Her divorce was just final. She doesn't need me right now. I don't want to be her rebound. She just needs some time.

Keri: You said her divorce was long and nasty.

Parker: Yeah. Took over a year from the time she found him cheating until papers were signed.

Keri: Wow. So over a year now? And you think she wouldn't be ready for something more?

Parker: Too soon. Another year or so. Maybe eight months and then I'll consider it.

Keri: And what about you until then?

Parker: What about me? *pulls shirt away from chest* I'll be fine. I've been hiding my feelings from her since I met her. I can make it a little longer.

Keri: That's sad. You should confront her.

Parker: I know what I'm doing.

Keri: Sure you do. You have man parts, you know everything *rolls eyes* You know I wrote a story about you and Stephanie.

Parker: *frowns* Why? What's it called?

Keri: Through The Wall.

Parker: Why that title? What does that mean? *cell phone trills* afraid I'm going to have to cut this short. Stephanie is asking me for supper and she's not supposed to know I'm here.

Keri: Ok, I'll see you later. Thanks for coming. *waits until he leaves*

All right, let me tell you more about this story now. Parker is an idiot.

Through the Wall

by Keri Ford

She doesn't want wild and raunchy, just a little spice….

Stephanie listens to her neighbor's exciting sexcapades through her bedroom wall. What used to make her blush now has her reaching for her vibrator. But she's had enough self-fulfillment and wants the real thing.

He wants commitment and long-term, not a quick roll….

Stephanie is the only woman Parker ever wanted. He's tried for years to find a substitute, but there isn't another woman like her. Stephanie's now available and he knows if he gives her time to overcome her ex-husband, he can have his long-desired chance.

Short-term does not lead to long term. Or can it…?

When Stephanie digs up the courage to ask Parker for something a little exciting and spicy, she's surprised to see him nervous while rejecting her. She's known Parker for a long time, but never seen him nervous, especially about a girl. Parker knows he could never be satisfied with having Stephanie temporarily. As she asks and tempts him, he begins to think short-term would be better than nothing at all. Unless he could convince her into more.

Through The Wall is now available! Thanks for having me Leah!

Read Chapter One HERE!!
~~~~~~~~~~

Visit Keri At:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

Through The Wall is now available in ebook format for only $1.99 from Amazon Kindle | Smashwords| Sony | Diesel | Apple | Barnes & Noble (Nook) | Digibooks Café | 1PlaceforRomance and 1EroticaEbooks | All Romance Ebooks and Omnilit | CoffeeTime Romance eBookstore

*Leah here: Keri was interviewed by KJ Reed on her blog the other day. I was seriously tempted to add the video here because every time I watch it I think of Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama. She's so sweet. And southern. But I figured that would be bad form to borrow it from KJ. So if you do want to hear a real southern accent, go on over to KJ's blog and watch Keri's video interview. It's a hoot.

Help needed for my To-Be-Bought list

So as I'm adding books to my new Book Crawler app, I'm also adding yet-to-be-released books that I want to buy/read. Believe it or not, I tend to rely on my friends to keep me in the loop when it comes to other authors' book releases.

I've added Jaci Burton's  The Perfect Play ... along with Jill Shalvis' soon-to-be-released Animal Magnetism (Feb. 1, 2011) and the next in Lauren Dane's Never Enough, the next in her Brown sibling series (though that isn't being released until September. Waaah!)

But I know there are more books coming out soon that I need to add to that list. I'm on a big contemporary romance and/or women's fiction kick at the moment. I'm pretty much done with paranormals, historical if it's not a Regency England-set story (I'm sorry, I've read so many of them they all sound the same), and YA is definitely not on my radar. If JR Ward has a new BDB book coming out, let me know, same with Patricia Briggs, either with her Mercy Thompson series or her Alpha and Omega (that's Charles and Anna's) series.

So here's your chance to pitch in: what books do you have tagged to buy/read when they're released in the coming months?

Yes, there is an App for that!

Yesterday I blogged over on the Samhain blog about having bought a second copy of a book accidentally--again--and wondered if there was a program that I could use that would alert me to whether I already owned the book. One that I could load up onto my iPod and take with me to a brick-and-mortar store where I don't have internet access, as well as being able to use it for my online purchases.

Lori and Erin left comments on my blog here, and over on Twitter Vashtan (aka Aleksander Voinov, author of The Lion of Kent amongst other books) also mentioned there was a free Goodreads app that I could download. That way I wouldn't have to re-enter all the books I'd already added to their database. Since I have over 300+ books listed as read or to-be-read, that was a major coup. So I downloaded the app and discovered it worked wonderfully, and headed off to the mall. Where my poor little wifi-enabled iPod Touch couldn't connect with the Bell Hotspot, which meant I couldn't connect with my Goodreads database. Rats.

However if I'd had a smart phone, or should I say, smarter phone this would have definitely worked for me. (While my Samsung Vice phone does let me surf the net with limited results, it doesn't allow apps.) So if you already have your books loaded up on Goodreads and need to check if you've already read or own the book, this works just fine.

Over on the Samhain blog, Dee recommended an app called Book Crawler (there's the full Book Crawler app you can buy for $1.99 or a Book Crawler Lite that's free. I sprang for the paid full version. After all, it cost less than a twonie!) What did I think of it?

Best. App. Ever.

If you want to see screen shots, the app developer Jaime has some up on her website here. What I LOVE about Book Crawler is I can use the iPod Touch's camera* along with a program called Pic2Shop (another free download) to scan the barcode of the book. The program will then go out on the web**, find all the data about the book and add it into the system, saving me a ton of work. I can then edit the database, adding the date I read it, give it a rating, add it to a collection, change the genre. (Sometimes the genres came in as rather bizarre categories. My copy of Silverborne was put in the "Epic" genre. Can't say I've ever heard that one, so I changed it to fantasy.)  I'm still playing around with it, learning what I can do with it, but so far it answers all my needs. Like letting me have a wishlist, or divide my books into collections (which I think will be handy if I want to add in Gizmo Guy's books so I know just which David Baldacci or John Grisham he's already read.)

Guess what I'm going to be doing the rest of the day?

*A note about iPod Touch use: Book Crawler requires an iOS of version 3.1 or later. Mine is a Gen4 version, so it has a camera and can utilize the Pic2Shop feature but Gizmo Guy's iPod is a Gen1 and Curly's is a Gen2 so it won't work for either of them.(I can see what GG will be asking as a present for next Father's Day, if not Valentine's Day.)


** Since my iPod Touch doesn't have 3G capabilities, like the Goodreads app, this feature will only work where I have working WiFi capability. I'll still be able to check to see if I already own the book on the database which is stored offline, but I won't be able to scan it to add to my "wish list" database while I'm at the store. (Of course, I can always enter the information manually.)

Is there an app for that?

I'm blogging over on Samhain Publishing's blog today -- I'm talking about keeping track of the books I've read or bought. And my unfortunate propensity for buying duplicate books.

Since I posted it, Gizmo Guy has been scouring the web to see if there is indeed an app. Turns out there are several. I foresee a blog post here in the future rating them.

How do you keep track of what books you've read/haven't read -- I'm looking for a portable system you can take to the brick-and-mortar book store as well as when you're buying online.

Very Superstitious

For Christians, today's the twelfth day of Christmas -- the day the wise men arrived at the stable and presented their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. According to my mother, that means it's also the day to take down any Christmas decorations or face all sorts of bad luck.

All my adult life, thanks to Mom's reminders, I've assiduously ensured that my decorations are down by this magical date.  We took our tree down on the weekend, though I discovered a stuffed Garfield Santa toy in the living room yesterday. So I snatched it up and stuck it away to prevent bad-luck from falling on our household this year.

Mom is also a proponent of saying "white rabbits" three times before you speak to anyone on the first day of each month. I usually speak to Gizmo Guy before I remember to say white rabbits most months. Because he got up so much earlier than I did on New Year's Day, I did remember and managed to say them this month. (We'd gone to bed at ten, so it wasn't that I'd slept in due to overindulgence or anything.)

There's also the tossing of spilled salt over your right shoulder, and the fear of seven years bad luck if a mirror is broken. And yes, I give a nickel to anyone who might give me scissors or knives as a gift in order to preserve the friendship that might be 'cut' as a result.

There are more weird obscure ones too. Like not looking at a new moon through glass. I think mom used to tell me you were supposed to greet the new moon too by saying "Good evening, New Moon." Again, three times seems to be the charm. 

I doubt any of these rituals actually bring luck -- good or bad -- upon me or anyone in my household, but still, I do them "just in case."

Which reminds me, an ornament I cross-stitched years ago has been hanging in the window of the family room for years just because it's so pretty I don't want to take it down. It doesn't scream Christmas, so I justify it that it's not 'technically' a Christmas ornament. But considering all the health crises the family has had in the past three years, maybe I should take it down today.

Got any superstitions you're adamant about following? Or ones you've heard that make you laugh?

Calling Wererabbit

Wererabbit, you won the 2011 Toronto Firefighter Calendar contest last week. I sent you an email but haven't heard back from you.  (You may want to check your spam box.)  If you could sent me an email to leah (DOT) braemel (AT) gmail (DOT) com with your snail mail address I'll pop it in the mail for you. 

If I don't hear from you by this time next week, I'll award the calendar to the second name on my list. 

Plans for 2011

I've never been one for "resolutions" but I do believe in setting goals. I have quite a few goals this year, some relating to my personal life, and some writing related. I think most of them would bore you to death -- I mean, come on, doesn't every writer make a goal or resolution to "write more"? But there are some decisions I need to make that I'd love to have your input on.

Efficient seems to be my buzz-word for my goals this year. Most days this year I've ended up spending at least 15 hours per day at my computer. Maybe 6 to 8 hours may be writing or editing, but the rest is writing blog posts or doing the marketing dance. So I need to figure out a way to be more efficient about everything in order to get me away from my 'desk' and give me time to stop and smell the proverbial roses. (They have to be proverbial because I kill any plant I own with my black thumb.)

How can I be more efficient writing-wise? When it comes to my word count goals, I learned in 2009 and solidified that belief in 2010 that I need to plot out a story before I write it. Otherwise I end up writing 150,000 to 200,000 words to end up with a story that's 50,000 words.  By efficient, I mean follow the plan I'd set out without hopping down any of those tantalizing bunny trails that lead no where. It doesn't mean I cannot allow myself to wander off the path at all, sometimes that's when I have those epiphanies of where the story needs to go. But I'm going to be looking more at how I advanced the story each day more than worrying about that cherished 2,000 word per day count. (It doesn't make a damned bit of difference if I write 14K a week if I end up chopping out 10K of it.)I have so many stories I want to write, and deadlines, some self-imposed, some not, that I need to write as efficiently as possible.

How to make myself more efficient when it comes to marketing and promotion? Well, I have two releases in May this year, so I need to figure out the best way of getting the word out about them without wasting a lot of time and energy. I am not a marketing genius so figuring promotions out is a real challenge. Some marketing methods work with one book that totally fail with the next. Do blog hops work? Because frankly I'm finding less and less people have the time to go around and visit blogs. I know from personal experience I use Google Reader to keep track of my favorite blogs and if the title or first line on the preview doesn't grab me, I don't read it. I imagine you're the same. If you see "Oh, it's just another author promo post" you probably skip over it too. So I'll put the question out to you -- after word-of-mouth, how do you find out about new-to-you authors? Got any tips?

I know a lot of people say it's all about social marketing these days -- Facebook, Twitter, etc. I love Twitter. I love the access it gives me to my friends and also to strangers in the industry, and all the hints, tips and gossip, along with the sheer randomness of some tweets. I've discovered new authors that I've come to love and have become auto-buys for me, and have made notes about the industry that hopefully will help my career in the long run. Plus it's sometimes just a welcome change to be able to "talk" to people who get what it's like in this usually solitary career. I often use Twitter as my reward after a writing sprint so I may talk for 10 minutes then disappear for a half hour ...or a half week if I'm on a real deadline. If you're on Twitter feel free to follow me, I'm at http://twitter.com/leahbraemel and don't hesitate to say hi when you're online.

Facebook is more of a conundrum to me. I can see its attraction. Somewhat. It's sort of like Twitter where you can friend people and see what's going on in their world while not being limited to 140 characters. I love that people can connect with their favorite authors, but while I have over 1200 "friends" on my personal profile, I know about 5 of them in person. It also allows strangers to spam me with a constant barrage of invitations and notes about their upcoming book or..well, try to use the social networking aspect of it for more personal connections. I know I write steamy romances but in real life I'm married and happily, at that. But an awful lot of men don't seem to care about that. Frankly some of the requests I'm getting these days...well, they leave me more than a little creeped out. And they're starting to outnumber the spammy "buy my book" plugs from strangers.

So I'm going to be making a change on Facebook in the next few weeks. I currently have my regular profile, and a fanpage.  Later this month, I'm going to set my personal profile to family only and ask that people link to my fanpage (I still wish I could call it my "professional" page as fanpage sounds so...not me.) I will be sending out an announcement through Facebook, but if I unfriend you from my profile, please don't be offended. I'm still there--find my fan page and like it or friend it or whatever they're calling it these days. I'll be posting to it as well, so you'll still be up to date.

Finally, you may have noticed that my guest blogger list on my sidebar is rather spare for the coming year. I've done that deliberately. This blog will also be undergoing some changes in the near future and I didn't want to commit to too much until I know just what direction it's going. I should have more news for you on this later this month. Do you like the guest's blogs and being introduced to possibly new-to-you authors? Or do you skip them as blatant promo?

*Twitter and Facebook icons thanks to http://www.iconspedia.com/pack/icons-web-2-0-302/

First Snippet of 2011

Wow, we're into 2011 already!  It's looking like it'll be an exciting, and busy, year for me with two releases in May. 

Since New Year's Day has fallen on a Saturday, this week's Snippet Saturday is about new beginnings. So I've chosen to give you a sneak peek into one of my upcoming releases, Tangled Past. Sarah McLeod has been forced to marry a stranger, the enigmatic Jackson Kellar. The snippet I'm sharing is where the reality of her situation is beginning to sink in to Sarah...

Tangled Past

“It’s not a death sentence, darlin’,” Jackson murmured.

Sarah jerked her head up. His dark eyes assessed her, not in judgment but concern. “What?”

Clean-shaven and in the soft glow of the oil lamps lighting the lounge, Jackson didn’t look near as scary as he had last night. Especially when he pressed her knuckles against his lips with a fleeting kiss similar to the way he’d kissed her in front of the preacher that morning. He leaned forward and lowered his voice so the folks in the hotel lounge wouldn’t hear. “Bein’ married to me ain’t a death sentence.”

No? So why did ’til death do you part still pound in her ears louder than Bandit’s hoof beats on a hard-packed road?

Sarah swallowed as he lifted her left hand and ran a thumb over the wedding ring that her mother had once worn. The ring Josiah had produced when the preacher called for one. Right before the preacher declared them man and wife.

“You were staring at your ring as if it might poison you or some such. It’s just a gold band, and a used one at that.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Lots of women married men they hardly knew. Look at all the women who had come out west as mail-order brides. It could be worse. She could have been forced to marry Jed. She suppressed the shudder that ran through her at that thought. Jed wouldn’t have waited until they reached town to assert his husbandly rights. He probably would have taken her virginity as soon as they’d lost sight of the McLeod ranch, instead of taking her to a hotel for her wedding night.

Her wedding night. Where she’d have to do whatever her husband wanted. Accept whatever he was going to do with her without quarrel. She’d seen enough barn animals to know what to expect but the idea of Jackson mounting her, pushing his man parts inside her…she swallowed hard. She’d given her word she’d honor and obey him. Those words joined the death do you part phrase, creating a cacophony inside her head.

Don't forget to visit the other Snippet Saturday participants to see what they chose to ring in the new year:

Lissa Matthews
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels