But I got stuck, and had to back track. Dang it! Ever had the happen? Thought you had the perfect angle...the right conversation...then blam! Nothing works? Sheesh!
So I erased five pages and started the chapter over again...and this time it was rolling perfectly. Oy Vey! Another glitch! Gotta re-read again. Stop rushing. Slow down and B-R-E-A-T-H-E!
Aaaah. Much better. Now if I could only figure out why that damn chapter seems so weird...
Pray for me, dear friends...send me blessings and vibes and all that great stuff (Please send Godiva) and remind me that it's all just a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get until you take a bite.
How do YOU handle these little glitches that pop up whenever things are rolling smoothly along?
I had so many readers (and reviewers) say they really wanted to see Cal get his own story, I decided to go for it. Cal is getting his own story...and his own woman.
If you have not read Hallie's Cats, you will possibly get a bit lost in the sequel, so I am going to be adding a "prologue" for the Seronta Clan story to my website on Monday. It will give enough background on both stories that readers will know how they came to be, and what their history is.
I am getting up on my preaching stool...
I have been getting a few complaints about the shorter books, which readers mistake for "Quickies", because folks don't understand Ellora's Cave's length requirements. It goes by word count rather than pages. To quote one reader who was unhappy, "This isn't a Novella...it's a Quickie! It's only 67 pages long! Not worth the money!"
In case the reader who felt that Jillian's Job was "okay, but not as good or funny as I expected. He really does treat her as an arrogant jerk throughout, & if not for the "I've suddenly discovered I've loved you for years" ending I would've been very angry at both of them" is reading this, please understand that every writer has a style, and each writer fills in the reader with many types of information such as innuendo, flashbacks, conversation, etc., which if read quickly and without comprehension, leaves the readers saying "Huh?" I apologize if that happened for you.
Mike Furie is a jerk only because Jillian perceives him to be a jerk for not seeing her as a woman. Jillian vents to her family about how he uses her and treats her, but does he truly do that? How many generous, sensitive things does he do without having to be asked? Like the lost luggage? Or the broken bone? Or the kid with the bike? Or the new satin robe and negligee? Does Jillian allow herself to be used because she is so in love with him? When he takes her to Tahoe, it was because she basically told him she wanted to be seen as a woman, not as a piece of furniture. Up until the night she got snockered and admitted what she felt, he kept a professional distance, despite the fact that he really wanted more than a boss-employee relationship with her. There were so many things that the man did that showed his true feelings, but also indicated that he was a man who couldn't show his feelings easily, that women e-mailed me to tell me they loved him as a hero.
I would say that makes Mike Furie quite a man.
Trashing an author's book on a rating page is up to the reader. But to say that he treats her like an arrogant jerk throughout means you weren't paying attention. Or you stopped reading and only went for the sex scenes. Which is fine, because I always do the same thing. LOL.
Try reading the book again, and read the innuendos, conversations, and flashbacks again. If you still have the same opinion of the book, e-mail me. I will send you a free book under a different title.
Mine is to write one book a month for the next twelve months.
"Why", you ask?
Well, authors don't make a great deal of money on their books...at least, not unless their name is Stephenie Meyer or Nora Roberts. Most of us make far, FAR less. I had a woman ask me how it felt to make a "seven figure income" per year, and I almost laughed. I informed her (nicely) that if I combined my total income from all sources, I wouldn't come anywhere near the seven figures she mentioned. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to make a five figure income in a year. (And that includes my regular income.)
With e-publishing, an author must develop what we call a "back-list" of books. Because our new releases are only big sellers (if they sell at all) during the first three or four weeks that they are on the main pages of the publisher's website as new releases, we must have a number of prior releases shown on our back-list that might entice a reader to buy one or two of our older titles.
So far, I have six published books, with two more ready for release this month and next month. I have two different publishers, so my "back list" for Ellora's Cave is the four titles I have published through them, and my Resplendence back list has only two books in it. So...I must continue to write new books to get folks to go look at my back lists. Make sense?
In order to maintain any kind of sales after that first month of high visibility, an author must continue to put out new releases in order to attract buyers to their back lists.
Advertising? With all the competition out there, advertising is a small drop in the bucket when it comes to keeping a book in the public's eye. Many authors will keep touting a release on all the groups and loops they frequent until no one will even click on the links anymore. You can only promote a book for so long before everyone just deletes your posts. And unfortunately, the great majority of the groups and loops out there in cyberland are author groups...not reader groups. The vast majority of group/loop members are other writers, all vying for promo time on these huge loops. And when I get 500+ promos in one day, I simply delete them.
I have held free giveaway contests on every new release I have had, hoping that the contests and the promo would attract readers. I have paid for a Newsletter. I have several blogs and websites. I have given away many free copies of books to generate interest. Maybe the winner will like the book well enough to purchase some of my others. Maybe. And maybe not. LOL!
I write erotic romance. Not every person will like every book I write. I have had love letters and hate letters. I have had readers tell me they love my books. I have had readers tell me they were disappointed that my book wasn't as good as a previous book. Every reader has their own opinion. I appreciate them taking the time to tell me how they feel, but I know that not everyone will be happy with all of my various books.
So how can an author reach new readers? Get interviewed on other authors' blogs? Place a paid for ad in a magazine? Get the various book review sites to review your books and take the chance that the reviewer may deep six your book instead of rave about it? How many ways can an author promote his or her books? Too many to count. But not all are effective. So building that back list still appears to be the best insurance when it comes to getting sales. That, and getting your name to become a household word without having to resort to running naked through the Supreme Court when there is a high-profile case being decided.
So if all of you stand outside on your doorstep and shout "Fran Lee" at the top of your lungs every day at noon, maybe my name will become a household word. And then again, maybe not.
On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave To Me A Partridge in A Pear Tree!
Have a wondrously happy First Day of Christmas!
May the beauty of the season be yours today and through the twelfth night, and may you stuff yourself silly on goose, turkey, ham, lamb, or whatever your traditional Christmas feast contains!
And I want to say Merry Christmas to all of my dear friends!
I have put Christmas blogs up on all of my sites...each one is a bit different, so I would love it if you went over and checked them all out. If you don't have the URLs, I will add them here. This is a very special time of year for me...I have always loved the season, and the sounds, smells, and tastes of Christmas, as well as the wondrous joy that we share in the holiday season.
I have many non-Christian friends, and I will include them in a very special holiday dreamed up by a dear pal...I wish all of you a Merry Chrismukwanzaa!!!
I will post my special Christmas blog on the 24th...so please drop back again!
What good is a dream income, access to a private jet, all the perks that go with being Mike Furie’s überproficient personal assistant, if Jillian has no life? She wants a life with a man in it. And staying with overbearing, totally sexy, self-serving bachelor Mike, will lead nowhere.
A trip to Aspen to “rescue” Mike from the clutches of the latest woman seeking to sink her claws into him, an excess of champagne to fortify her, and she tells him what she thinks of his high-handed tactics. She’s quitting. Again. So how the hell did she end up in bed with him in a Tahoe honeymoon suite, naked? Why can’t she recall how her signature got on that marriage license?
Mike discovers talents he never knew Jill possessed. Now he has her right where he wants her. And he wants her again…and again. In his bed and under him. But it’s not all about the lust, and if he gets his way, Jillian won’t be leaving his side, or his bed—ever.
Excerpt:
She stepped up the final carpeted stair and paused, glancing around the smaller salon that opened up over the gallery at the head of the stairs, before narrowing to the corridor that led to the bedrooms at the back of the level. The bronze and smoked glass chandelier at the apex of the vaulted ceiling cast warm light over the area, and made her shimmery gold overdress and glittering jewels look even more amazing than they had in the showroom. She decided that not a soul would recognize her unless she introduced herself, so she gathered her courage and moved slowly toward the center of the gallery, looking about for Furie.
Heads turned to follow her progress, but no one called out her name. She was not a familiar face to the beautiful people. Only his employees knew her well enough to recognize her. Her anonymity was assured.
And then she saw him, standing uncomfortably in a tight group of people, with a stunningly beautiful supermodel type holding onto his arm like she had grown there, her laugh a high tinkle of feigned amusement that never quite reached those gorgeous amber-colored eyes. She stood for a long moment, relishing the amount of discomfort he was experiencing, waiting for his eyes to swivel her way before she made her grand entrance.
A man turned to glance at her from a jovial conversation beside her, and gave her a keen once-over before sidling up to her and introducing himself. He didn’t have to. She would known his face from the magazine covers and the tabloids as Jerrod Lane, two-time Academy Award winning actor and heartthrob of millions of females the world over. She glanced at him with a cool smile and replied to his outrageous compliment with a simple thank-you, before turning her gaze back to her boss.
“I haven’t seen you around before. And from the look of that boulder on your hand, I’d say you were taken…but Heaven help me, I wouldn’t be a red-blooded male if I didn’t try.” Jerrod slid one lean hand around her waist, and tried to draw her closer. His reward was an acid stare that could have wilted the entire White River National Forest. He grinned and released her waist, and said in a husky tone that had dropped an octave, “Who’s the lucky devil who’s got you wrapped around his pinkie?”
The moment he spoke, Michael Furie glanced up, his ice-laden dark blue gaze locked with hers, and his body unfurled from the defensive posture he’d assumed, forcing the female hanger-on to loosen her grip. Jill tried not to look shaken. She tried not to react to the heat that ran through her like a shot of fire from head to toe-tips, making her wonder numbly if the Manolo Blahniks had melted off. She smiled across the room at him, and Jerrod followed her gaze, instantly whistling softly and backing off a step.
“I should have guessed, Gorgeous. But if you ever decide to trade up, I’m always around.” He vacated his spot beside her as Furie slowly extracted himself from the other woman’s grasp, with a quiet “Excuse me.” Heads turned as he stepped out of the tight knot of bodies and moved across the gallery toward her, and she fought the urge to bite her knuckles and whimper. That man had such a walk!
She managed a brilliant smile up into his eyes as he stopped so close, she could feel his body heat through the silk of her gown, and she placed her hand with the blinding rock on it on his forearm, and said just loudly enough to be overhead for about ten feet, “Mike! Darling! I’m sorry I’m late!”
She noted the circuitous route those eyes took as they slipped over her gown, her jewelry, and the impressively breathtaking engagement ring she was prominently displaying, and a muscle twitched in the deep groove beside his mouth. He seemed to be fighting some dark and angry emotion that she feared she would hear about later, and in the most uncomplimentary tones possible, but surprisingly, he gave her a sexily crooked smile.
“Don’t I even get a kiss after waiting all this time for you to finally show up?” His voice was a sexy growl that was just loud enough for everyone within ten feet to hear clearly, although he pretended to be speaking for her ears alone. Jill felt like they were in a fishbowl, the way all eyes were glued to them. She stood up on her tiptoes and aimed for his cheek. But before her lips made contact, he turned his head and she ended up planting one smack-dab on his smiling mouth. And oh, what a mouth the man had…
And he didn’t settle just for a friendly kiss. He slid his arms around her body and dragged her up against his chest, smoothly covering her jerk of shock by catching the back of her head in the palm of one hand and slanting his mouth to take hers completely. His strong, champagne-flavored tongue slipped easily past her lips as she opened them to ask what the hell he was doing. Her heart rate ratcheted up as he traced the inside of her mouth sensuously. If she hadn’t known her boss so damned well, that kiss might have fooled even her, but she figured he had paid through the nose to be kissed, and she decided that she might as well let ’er rip.
Warring with his tongue, she explored the warm depths of his mouth as she slid her hands up behind his head and arched her body into his tuxedo, pressing her hips against his suddenly burgeoning cock, ignoring the rush of excitement his highly obvious arousal gave her, as she did exactly what she had wanted to do for the past six-plus years.
She kissed him—savagely, hungrily, possessively! Giving as good as she got from him, even though with him it was just an act to discourage the positively fuming blonde who had turned and stomped off toward the stairs back to the second level.
His mouth was decadently hot and delicious. The expensive champagne was dry and heady on his tongue, and she could not possibly have imagined how it would feel to have him kissing her like this—not even in her wildest wet dreams! His hot, spicy masculine scent filled her nostrils. Her heart felt like a super ball that might easily zap its way straight out the front of her silk gown and go bouncing wildly across the carpet if he kept kissing her.
Tongues tangling voraciously, breathing uneven and heated, their bodies were plastered hungrily against each other as his arms pulled her so tight into his embrace she could almost feel his spine. And then his hand cupped her ass in a familiar, possessive squeeze, and she inhaled and tried to back away. He murmured huskily against her lips, “Relax. You’ll survive.”
