Kiss often and s-l-o-w-l-y

Test for cherry adair

David bought me all sorts of lovely things to pamper myself. . .body lotion, my favorite perfume, corn plasters (?!), more lotion, nail polish, perm rods (?!) more lotion, nail file, more lotion, scented candles, more lotion. . . and a bottle of prune juice. Large. LOL  I love that man.

Everything I've ever wanted to try, I've tried – of course that doesn't mean everything I've tried I've succeeded at <g>

I'm originally from Cape Town South Africa, I used to be an interior designer, I have a passion for motivating unpublished writers to achieve their goal. (sometimes with the application of my shoe to their bottoms if necessary! Lol)

I'm a stripper. A fruit. A rude connotation A blossom.  And a bomb.

Typing CHAPTER ONE and/or typing THE END <g>

Yes. It’s a silly name for an adult really. It sounds like a fan dancer! Lol  I swore I’d change it when I turned 30. Then 40. But now it’s kind of grown on me, and it is memorable, so I guess I’m stuck with it.

Nope

Yes. It will be available in 2009.

A printable list of my books is available here. 

See printable pdf.
Printable Book List

No never.

No. But thanks for sharing. :-)

Yes! Hunt’s book is called HOT ICE. 
And before we continue- WARNING!!!!! DO NOT go back and read that ill fated  chapter!! Those people are imposters!
Here is the saga (should you care to know why the excerpt in the back of KISS AND TELL bares little or no resemblance to the actual book HOT ICE.)
Right after writing Kiss and Tell I started Taylor and Huntington St. John’s book.  I'd only written that one chapter (which the publisher  insisted on putting in the back of Kiss and Tell before the page was cold from my printer!!) when they asked me to stop (aaaargh!) and write the Wright brother’s books instead. They (and me too) had received a gazillion letters requesting those books. So I stopped, mid stream as it were, put Hunt and Taylor aside, and wrote the four books for Marnie's brothers. (Hunt shows up for a brief appearance in Derek’s book ON THIN ICE)
That of course was...how long ago? About 5 years now. Well, the characters stayed in my head, but when I was ready to go back and revisit them  weirdly what I had them doing, and where I had them doing it  etc. was all WRONG!!
Still, I've never had a character stay with me as long as Hunt has. The very second I started HOT ICE he was right there in three dimensions. Same names for Hunt and Taylor. But everything else is now different.
I don't think people will be disappointed when he finally takes his turn.

No. But thank you for asking. :-)

The second (3rd, 4th, 5th lol) draft.  For me, writing the first draft is like building a house half a brick at a time with one arm tied behind my back and a blindfold on! Slow and painful. Unfortunately at this stage of the process I have the attention span of a water newt, and can’t seem to sit still for more than 15 agonizing minutes at a time. But once the walls are up, I’m filled with gusto, and then I’m obsessive about getting all the finish work done. (once a decorator, always a decorator. :-) I love the process of polishing and rewriting. I love the minutia of the last tweak, that last spit polish before sending it off to my editor. I even love revisions from my editor, because that gives me another shot at making the book shine.

Every book has an enormous amount of research done before and during the process . I usually end up with half a dozen 5” binders bulging with paper. Over the years I’ve made some incredible contacts. (name drop alert :-) Fabien Cousteau’s (Jacques grandson)  knowledge and expertise were invaluable in IN TOO DEEP.  (and just look at this man! He should be on a book cover. http://www.fabiencousteau.com/ 

Two amazing readers drove all over the city of Cairo for me, following the streets I’d traveled via a map of their city for OUT OF SIGHT. The people of Alaska were incredibly generous with their time, and fonts of fascinating information, and brimming with true accounts of their own Iditarod trips for ON THIN ICE.

I’ve been put in touch with men whose names I don’t know, and men’s whose job descriptions are classified. I’ve met men and woman that in my ordinary life I’d never have even known existed. They tell me what they can, and I fill in the blanks using other form of research and my imagination.

I do a good deal of research on line, through library books, with the help of librarians who seem to know everything, and talking to people who know people. (that whole 6 degree separation thing is as true as it is amazing.) I even research  what I think know, just to be sure. Readers are intelligent and knowledgeable and they know things! :-) So the research better be the done to the best of my ability.

Being a slow learner, I wrote 17 full manuscripts before I sold The Mercenary in 1994. And before you ask: no. They will never surface, and no,  I do not have them stuck under my bed for later use. The day after I sold my first book I had a touching and emotional manuscript shredding ceremony in my office involving a lovely Chablis, a shredder, and a considerable amount of nerve as I feed those pages, 5 at a time, into the unforgiving (and frankly disinterested) mouth of that machine. I consider those shredded beauties a large part of my learning curve.  (told you I was a slow learner :-)

Not yet.  TAKE ME was optioned by the Oxygen Network for a made-for-TV- movie, but hasn’t been made yet. (You’ll hear me yelling when they let me know when. And if you can’t hear my shout of excitement  from where you are, then I’ll post the News on my HQ page.

The internet is a valuable resource. As is your local library. Also, joining a writing organization like RWA will give you tons of info on agents and other business and craft related information.

Usually one single title and a novella.

I could, but this is what it looks like - %$#^@*&J*()^%. So hard to read. :-) Seriously, I’m trying to write faster, I really am. But this seems to be my rhythm for the moment.

The reprint of The Mercenary (with 100 added pages) is has been reprinted, and is available had your fav bookstore.

Send your targeted publisher (see #20  a query letter.)

HOT ICE is the short answer :-) See ARE YOU EVER GOING TO GIVE US HUNTINGTON ST. JOHN’S BOOK?

(a) The very best advise I can give you is to sit in that chair and write. That’s what writers do. They write.  Everyday. Consistently.
(b) Finish what you start. Write the book from Chapter One to The End. Don’t give up after writing the first three chapters (and re-writing them. And re-writing them. And re-writing them.)
(c) Learn you craft well by reading as much as you can about the craft of writing.
(d) Read voraciously - anything related to what you are writing. If you’re writing an historical, read historicals. Save your favorite authors to read when your own writing is done for the day. Instead, read new authors to see what it was about their book that sold to that particular publisher.
(e)Do your research, and do it well.
(f) Pay attention to the market.
(g) Formulate a career plan for yourself, and then list the strategies you have to take to make it happen.
(h) Give yourself deadlines and stick to them.
(i)  Give yourself realistic goals. Things that you can actually achieve without being Superwoman.
(j) Give yourself permission to write badly. You can’t polish a blank page.

Nope. He knows the difference between real life and fiction.

See #1.

See #2.

I love, love, LOVE to read, and will read almost anything, but primarily I read Romance because it’s what I love the best. :-) Only THREE favs??! In no particular order: Nora Roberts, Carla Neggers,  and Linda Howard.

I don’t know. Probably when I’m either dead, or very, very famous. :-) AH! I’M NEITHER, BUT SEE #18

Absolutely everywhere. In the grocery store, on the news, reading the newspaper, an unanswered question in a movie, and my fertile imagination. An entire book could come from the characters name. Or something they say in one of my other books. I’ll run out of time before I ever run out of story ideas.

No. But thank you for asking, I’m sure it’s fabulous, and wish you the best of luck. :-)

Yes. Eventually. :-)

No. The art department at the publishing house do all book covers. I give the publisher my input, they smile nicely, and then do pretty much what they like. I’ve been blessed by the cover gods for most of my covers. (although I still puzzle over the red smoke (red fabric?) (red ectoplasm?) coming out of Joshua & Jessie’s heads on the cover of TAKE ME. That cover looked a bit alien abduction to me. :-)
Ironically, I had two covers shown to me in 2004 that I truly hated.  In both instances I used juuust the right descriptive words to explain what is was I didn’t like about them. :-) Two. . .boys?! Nope, this is a hetero love story. And the other; Cro-Magnons climbing a mountain? Neither the semi-naked Neanderthals, nor the mountain, featured in the book.  Lol.  Both covers were changed pdq. :-)

No. And frankly, if my life was that exciting I’d have a coronary! :-) Contrary to popular belief (Ok, there may be a few exceptions out there) nobody’s real life comes even close to fiction, no matter how sure we are that our own particular life story is hang-on-my-every-word-fascinating.

(a) Thank you for the compliment.
(b) My husband does all my laundry and counts every piece.
(c) No. I’ve never thought of doing that.
(d) No, we do not have similar tastes.  Better luck elsewhere.
(e) Thank you, but I don’t want to become your pen pal.
(f) I’m moving to another State on Thursday.