The Dynamic Trio - Blog

And I’m not talking about a new dance…

I’m talking about the process that comes after you finish writing a manuscript. The process of sending out and waiting. The process of trying to figure out ways to check in without being a pest or seeming impatient when you’re totally impatient and dying to know.

I hate the slog.

When I’m writing, I don’t think about the slog. I just write. But the minute I’m done with edits and revisions it’s all I can think of. The wait. Oh god, the wait is horrible. I hate it.

The wait is that place deep inside you where you first think your book is fabulous and will be snapped up immediately. But the longer the wait, the more the insidious whispers start about how much you suck. About how weak your story is and how you’ll never sell again. Those sales before were all abberations and it’s all downhill from here. When people don’t reply to your emails right away you begin to worry that they’re mad at you or they have something bad to tell you and don’t know how to say it.

The slog, in a nutshell, takes the very confident person and turns her inside out. Sometimes when it’s late and I’m tired and trying to pretend that the slog doesn’t bother me, I like to imagine people like Nora Roberts dealing with the slog. You know just to make myself feel better. I know she did her time but it makes me happy to think about one author who doesn’t have to worry about that next contract. I like to imagine that Nora sends her pages in and everyone grins and says, “It’s good Nora sent this. We love Nora” and she cackles with glee, her power running through her veins and letting the rest of us live vicariously through her. But I digress and that sounds sort of scary. I think I’ve been eating too many Lean Cuisines and bugging my agent too much and it’s making me all loopy. Or rather, loopier.

Essentially, I’m babbling because I am currently slogging over FIVE manuscripts. FIVE. It’s enough to make me eat one of those extreme meals they were talking about in the New York Times today (with two days’ worth of calories in one serving). But as I’m currently nervously nauseated, I’ll probably heat up a lean cuisine and curl my lip at it, accusing it of ruining my life and posting here instead of emailing my agent, yet again today.

Oops, almost forgot about my turn to blog today. Food is figuring on my mind at this very instant since I’m about to have lunch, so I thought I’d talk about food. Always a favorite topic in our house.

Today I’m going to have a cheddar cheese, salad, and pickle sandwich and fruit before I head back to my writing cave. I like sandwiches for lunch and I go into a tizz if we happen to run out of bread. Since we’re not near shops we have to plan ahead in the bread department. We have emergency crackers but they’re just not the same. Sometimes I have toast with slices of fresh tomato and lots of ground black pepper. That’s a personal favorite. In the winter I like baked beans on toast or a bowl of soup - both great comfort foods. I luv soup.

What’s your favorite food to have for lunch? Do you tend to eat the same thing all the time? (I do!) What’s your favorite winter lunch? Summer lunch? What food can’t you do without at lunch time?

Okay - lots of things for you to comment about. This day next week I’m going to pick one name from all the commenters and send them a download of my latest Ellora’s Cave release, UNFORGETTABLE. I won’t necessary pick a comment from this post - I might pick one from Lauren’s upcoming posts or maybe TJ’s, so comment up a storm. The more you comment, the more chances you have

I am declaring my own special holiday. Today, it’s “Drop a note to a buddy” day. So here’s my note to all of you ’cause you’re special.

Actually, I’m just feeling mushy and sentimental while packing to go out of town…again. I actually miss the loops and comments from you all when I’m gone. I thought this was cool, so I’m sending it along. I love WebShots and have been using it on my desktop for years. I also love gorgeous men (geez, imagine that) and this one was found in the Fantasy section! (Just click on the picture to make it bigger…then you can drool like me!)

Have a great weekend, and thanks again to all of you who played my “Muse” contest :D

I’m a very definite morning person, and I blame my father. He’s a farmer and he’s always climbed out of bed at five most mornings to start work on the farm. Milking cows, feeding animals and all that sort of thing. My Dad thinks that everyone should be out of bed early and as a kid, I didn’t have much choice. It was also very much a case of early to bed, early to rise.

I’ve ended up a morning person by default, although I stay up much later than my father. My brother, sister and I all know it’s pointless ringing him after seven at night because he’ll be in bed asleep!

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Thank you guys so much for all your fabulous ideas while my muse is off gallavanting somewhere! I’m actually having a tough time deciding which way to go because they’re all such cool solutions.

While I may be undecided on the plot, we can definitely pick a winner out of the hat!

And the winner of a download of choice AND a goodie box from moi is LISA W! E-mail me, chicklet, at tj@tjmichaels.com. You have one week to claim your prize.

And the Raven Vampire Bash was KICKIN’ !!

TJ

My latest release with EC is out today. Unforgettable is a change of direction for me since it’s a 20th century historical. I loved writing in this era and hope to write more in the future.

Here’s the blurb:

1941. Britain is at war and under threat from the enemy. Life is fragile and love is more important than ever.

Margo can’t forget Johnnie. A chance meeting brings an opportunity to correct past mistakes, to show him they belong together. Bombs rain down on the city and they take refuge. It’s a night of discovery, of passion and bittersweet love laced with danger and the realization that Johnnie must return to fight the enemy. Margo is thrilled they’ve become lovers, but in the morning old problems resurface and she faces one final test to prove their love is unforgettable.

I’ve also received my very first review for Unforgettable today, which I was thrilled with, from The Romance Studio. “Shelley Munro has done it again! She has written another passionately erotic book which is close to perfect! This is not my first Munro book, but it might be my favorite. From the sentimental timing of the book’s plot, to the incredibly surprise ending, Ms. Munro has excelled in her craft.” Brenda Talley, Five Hearts

Buy your copy here

Also huge congratulations to TJ on her release of Carinian’s Seekers and Lauren for her print release of Taking Chase!!

Taking Chase is out in print today. This makes me very happy. I loved writing it and I love Cassie and Shane as a couple. I love writing romance. All kinds of romance from sensual to downright scorching and I love to read romance from all spectrums. Sometimes, I wish spines weren’t imprinted with genre labels because inevitably people will see that and build expectations and be disappointed.

I was thinking about romance and the things I’ve read lately about romance - from Maureen Dowd’s dismissively insulting op ed piece in the New York Times to some of the things around the web about what a romance is and isn’t and what makes an erotic romance erotic, etc.

It gets back to something I said recently at RTB about perception. We all read a book from our own perceptions. It’s a matter of what we like and don’t like, what our experiences are and what our biases and filters are. Some people look at the Sookie Stackhouse books for instance and think they’re romances while I look at them and see them as paranormals with romantic sub-plots. Doesn’t stop me from reading them, I like them very much, but my perception colors my opinion and expectations.

One person’s best romance ever is another person’s DNF. And IMO, that is what makes the world so interesting. That two people can view the exact same thing in such a different way. I think that’s worth celebrating.

A week or so ago we were discussing time travel on the Ellora’s Cave chat list. Most of us loved the idea of time travel but realized the lack of modern amenities plus disease and other nasties might send us back to the present in a hurry. Then there was the question of traveling forward in time or traveling back. Which would you choose? Decisions, decisions.

Time travel and history has been on my mind recently since I’ve felt a yearning to write a historical or two. I’ve filed an idea in the filing cabinet inside my head. My naughty muse keeps dragging my idea out and shoving it into prominence. “Brilliant,” he raved. “Absolutely brilliant. We should do this RIGHT NOW.”

My flat no took him back a bit, and he threatened to run off with TJ’s muse again. When I vetoed this idea, too, he sulked for a bit but did get back to work on our current work in progress, a feline paranormal. Color me one relieved author!

Anyway - back to time travel. As long as I could visit for just a short time, I’d go to the 18th century and Georgian England. Where would you go?

I’m a royal Harry Potter idiot! It’s all my kids’ fault. I started reading the books to see what my kids were up to, then got hooked. If the movie is coming out, I’m there. Book being released? I’m there…though I must admit instead of waiting at Barnes and Noble at midnight and paying full price, I wait a day or two and get it for 20% off at my local grocery store chain :D

It was amazing how much controversy was stirred up the Potter craze. Unfortunately, alot of it was by folks who’d never read the books and swore there was real magic hidden in the pages. Well, NOT! There are great site at MuggleNet where the author herself debunks alot of the myth around her books. It even has a glossary of the words she made up or took from Greek mythology that many swore were kind of real.

If you’re a Harry Potter nut and waiting anxiously for the movie, Order of the Phoenix, or the final book, Happy Potter and the Death Hollows, to be released, drop me a note and let me know what you enjoy about the books/movies.

So I’ve just contracted my first erotic fantasy novel with Samhain. This one, Reading Between the Lines, will be out this fall and it’s got a lot of Celtic mythology in it-a favorite of mine. Oh and hot sex, hee!

I’m really into Making Chase now! I’m so happy about this book. I’ve been sort of dragging my feet and working around it but once I started on it earnestly, Tate just grabbed me. Tate and her family are really the heart of this book. They’re nearly ready for the first kiss and Matt’s just realized that he likes her likes her.

BTW, Taking Chase won the CAPA for Best Romantic Suspense! I was thrilled enough to have been nominated in three categories but to have won? Wow. There were some fabulous books and authors nominated this year so I’m touched, honored and humbled that I won. Thank you to all the reviewers who nominated and voted for me and thank you to everyone who has congratulated me as well, that’s been such a lovely part of my week.

And as a nice little bonus, Taking Chase is out in paper on Tuesday the 20th! Wooot!

Let’s see what else? OH! My Harlequin contracts finally arrived. OMG! SQUEEE! It’s real! It’s real and like a lot of pages and it has a force majeur clause. This always makes me laugh because I have leftover oddness from my law school days. I laughed when I saw it in my mortgage too (although I was also sort of giddy then as well)

Busy week, spent most of my day today cleaning my bedroom and dealing with laundry as well as getting nearly 3K in on Making Chase. Not too bad for not quite 4 pm!

How is everyone’s weekend so far?