Blood Cursed cover art

Is this awesome? Or is it, like, totally awesome!?!

This is my fourth Craig White cover and I love it. Love, love, love it. It is so much what the book is about that I can't think of anything I'd like better.

"Sigh. So... what's the book about, then?" you ask patiently? Behold, cover copy.*

Enter the fierce, fantastical world of the Shadowfae, where blood is a drug, magic is a crime, and love is the most dangerous weapon of all…

To a vampire, nothing is sweeter than bloodfairy essence -- and Ember is the most sought-after fairy on the underworld circuit. Selling her blood to the highest bidder -- and robbing her clients in the process -- Ember has unwittingly become a target of dark and dangerous forces. Her enemies are everywhere. And if she hopes to survive, she needs protection...

Diamond is a glassfairy who, for better or worse, knows his way around the vampire underworld. Smooth as silk and tougher than trolls, Diamond is Ember’s only chance to keep her magical blood inside her body, where it belongs. But he also poses a threat to Ember, a strange kind of danger she’s never experienced before: She’s falling in love with him...

Yay! I'm so excited. Release date is 2 August 2011, US and UK and Canada.**

And if anyone out there's doing their Cool New Covers of the Week post, or Awesome Homicidal Chicks in Tight Dresses or suchlike, please feel free to plaster this one all over it, should you so choose :)

In other news:

Today, I finished my demon-hunting witches short story! Yay! It's tentatively titled CHERRY KISSES. Coming soon to an anthology near you.

And lastly: remember, you've got until midnight Friday West-Coast-US-time to enter last week's Friday Fancies giveaway of Eve Silver's SINS OF THE HEART. It's a great book. You know you want it.

*This may not be the final cover copy. But it's near enough.

** Those are pre-order links. The more orders, the more copies they print. If you enjoy my books, you'd really be doing me a favour...

Market research, and how not to be misled

Welcome to Writing Wednesday, where I hopefully have something interesting to say about... well, about writing. Or publishing. Or agents. Or chocolate overload during a Supernatural marathon. Or anything to do with this crazy business.*

I'm in the middle of writing a short story, which is unusual for me -- I've written I think five... no, make that six... six novel manuscripts in a row, and only three shorts in that time, two of them in the last six weeks.

And one sad thing about getting published -- about deciding to do this mad thing called writing for a career -- is that I no longer have the time to write stuff I don't think I can sell. That means I'm always writing to a market, whether it's an established line at a single house, a collection of prospective houses or even just a genre, with all its conventions and no-nos.

So if I'm writing these shorts, they're for a specific market. You think agented writers and published authors don't have to do market research? Bzzt! Lose five points or your pants. It's even more important, because a story with no market is useless to us. A waste of our time. And time, sadly, is money.**

So, market research. That's to say: reading, right? Lots and lots of it. What's selling well in a particular line? What are the really popular big-time authors doing, and how can I do it too?

Right?

Wrong. You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye.

DON'T read the big-time authors in your chosen line/imprint. No no no no no. Don't. 

Well... what I mean is, hell yes, read the big-time popular authors, because they're awesome! Just don't read them for research.

Because what they're doing, they've earned the right to do, with book after book, years of consistent sales, a profitable backlist. If their books go out on a limb, it's because the publisher trusted them to pull it off.***

I, on the other hand (and probably you, too) am a relatively new author, with only a short track record with a single publisher. Sure, I hand in manuscripts on time and do my edits without complaint and tidy up before the copy-editor. But the bestseller lists don't know me from a bar of soap. No house in their right mind is going to trust me to do jack shit.

So whom should I look to for research? The debut authors, of course. They're the ones who are selling from the slush pile, rather than on track record and a three-line pitch to the editor-in-chief from their agent. They're the ones who are dropping jaws at the editorial assistant's desk, lighting up the imprint editor's eyes and eliciting grins at acquisitions meetings.

They're the ones, in fact, who are writing what's selling, without the benefit of track record, RIGHT NOW. Not fifteen years ago when your favourite big-time author was a chicken.

Of course, in print publishing, RIGHT NOW is relative. It means probably twelve to eighteen months ago, minimum. But it's the best indication you'll get. And no one's saying the big-time authors aren't writing good books -- but bestsellers can generally write riskier books than newer authors, especially in category lines like Harlequin Whoever. If you're reading along and wondering how the hell the author gets away with first person present tense and Flashback Hell when the sub guides say third person past only and no flashbacks or we'll come around to your place and kill you -- chances are you're reading a more experienced author.

So read the new authors to find out what's selling last week. Read the big-time authors to find out what you can get away with, in a year or two when you've got credentials.

Then again, what the hell? Maybe your wacky idea will sell gazillions. If you don't try, you'll never know :)

* Yes, of course watching Supernatural for hours at a stretch is part of the writing business. You can't work ALL the time...  anyway, did you and I have that little chat about Sam? Yeah, well. I meant it. Hands off.
** Well, yeah. That's not to say it's very much money. If I worked out how much I get per hour, I'd give up and work at Starbucks. Just don't do those sums, people. They aren't worth it.
***  The book, that is. Not the limb. Mixed metaphors 'R' us.

Teaser Tuesday

It's 11:56 pm right now. I just scrape in for Teaser Tuesday :) it's a weekly meme hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading:

1) Grab your current read.
2) Open to a random page
3) Share at least two 'teaser' sentences from that page -- no spoilers, please!
4) share the title and author so others can add it to their TBR if they like the teasers.

So here goes, from the open page on my Sony Reader:

'Vinny, eh?'

She leaned even closer. Her lips were but a kiss away from mine. A man should offer some means of thanks for such an offer. But I like to keep my lips away from the suspicious sorts.

'Short for Venezia,' she whispered.

'Isn't that in--'

'My mother had a thing for Italy. Here's the deal, Michael. I'll show you the halo. You pay me ten thousand for the information.'

--From page 8 of HALO HUNTER by Michele Hauf.


And, because I'm an author and therefore supposed to pimp my own books :) here's one of mine:

My thrall bangles tingled, and heat prickled up my arms, sickly sweet. Inside my belly, my drug-sleepy rapture coiled contentedly, lazy like a deadly snake in the sun. Thrall always knows its own, no matter how I squirm and evade.

Kane stared at me, green sparks of amusement dancing in his hair. My heart sank, but at the same time, an unfamiliar, unwelcome warmth shivered through my blood. For once, I was pleased to see him.

--From page 16 of SHADOWFAE, by me :)








Thanks for playing, folks!

In the middle of a new story

I had a few votes against Man-titty Mondays (boo! hiss!) so we'll stick with random m-words until I can think of something better. Muddlings? Madness? Mutancy?

Spent the weekend watching cricket (eek!) and doing my civic duty as a Romance Writers of Australia contest manager. Any of you entering the Valerie Parv Award this year? You'll be dealing with me, bwahahaha...

I'm in the middle of a new short story (demon-hunting witches, yay!) and it's going pretty well so far. It's a challenge to write to a theme, yet keep the story true to the world-building I've already done. It's a Shadowfae story, in case you're wondering. New characters, new messes, same horny fairies. Amen :) All things going well, you'll see it in a St Martin's Press anthology later in 2011.

Writing a 10K short is challenging, too, when you're used to 100,000 word novels. The outline has the same shape - it's just a lot smaller, and everything has to be simplified. World-building has to be slimline. And as for backstory -- forget it, unless you can work it seamlessly into the story. You don't have time for flashbacks or paragraph-long ruminations on what just happened. Efficient scene-cutting (as in, deciding where you start and finish a scene) is crucial... hey, I just had an idea for my writing post on Wednesday! I'll shut up about it now :) you'll have to wait for my wisdom. Sigh. Oh, well.

Meanwhile, don't forget to enter last week's Friday giveaway -- Eve Silver's SINS OF THE HEART.

And here's an interesting link: one author's take on what it's really like to get published. I'd have to say I agree, though I'd never have believed myself two years ago -- selling is the easy part, folks. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm the last to whine about how hard it is to have a contract with an advance and an awesome editor and a big publishing house distributing my books. Wow, this diamond up my ass really hurts, y'know?

But pre-contract, all you have to care about is how good your book is, and researching markets. That's it.  Once you sell, there's so much more at stake. So much more you can mess up. So much more you have no control over. You think rejections are frustrating and beyond your control? Wait till you have to deal with sales figures, and reviews, and why your book is or isn't in stores, and why your book is or isn't an ebook...

But hey, I wouldn't give it up for anything :)

Friday Fancies: Sins of the Heart by Eve Silver

Hello and welcome to Friday Fancies, a new feature on my blog where I'll be sharing some recent reads I loved and giving you eager reading folks the chance to win your very own copy.

This fortnight's Friday Fancy: Eve Silver's SINS OF THE HEART, book 1 in the Otherkin series from HQN.

What it's like: Egyptian mythology, plus romance, plus some lovely icky bits! Hot hero who doesn't posture (he's cool enough not to need to -- and yay! he's blond! see, you can have a blond hero), strong and active heroine who doesn't whine. A good mystery plot. Oh, and bleeding hearts in bags. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Why it's cool: horror and romance. I mean, real horror. Not just dudes we are told are bad-ass who never actually, well, do anything bad-ass. These guys are the real deal. Soul reapers who actually reap souls -- and it's not some nice clean magical process where no one gets their hands dirty. It's messy, painful and scary. An author after my own heart :)

If you're a writer: Eve Silver knows how to mix subplot material with the romance plot without letting the main story get lost. She lets the characters' actions speak for themselves, instead of having to tell us how cool they are. And unlike some writers {cough me cough} she knows when to stop with the horror. Just enough gory details to fill in the picture, and then she lets you go. So it isn't overwhelming.

So. Wanna win a paperback copy* of this awesome book? Of course you do. Leave me a comment here, follow me, tell all your friends about Friday Fancies, do something nice like that (it's the season for nice things, after all!) and next Friday I'll pick a winner at random. If you live where the Book Depository ships, you can win. Easy.

"But I already have this book!" you cry? Well, that's okay. If you win, you can choose any book from the trilogy for your prize -- SINS OF THE HEART, SINS OF THE SOUL or SINS OF THE FLESH. I have them all, and they're all equally cool.

So you tell me: do you like horror, gore and icky stuff in your paranormal romance? What are some other good horror romances? Who's your favourite bad-ass hero? Or,  do you prefer your vampires sparkly and your werewolves to change in a puff of 'it's magic, okay', rather than all that flesh-tearing and tendon-popping?

*I can't gift e-books. Sorry, I'd love to, but this is Australia. We don't have e-books here.

My new blog!

Welcome!

If the Blogger gods are smiling on me, this will cross-post to LiveJournal as planned -- hope it works!

For any LJ folks who might want to switch over, my Blogger site is http://erica-hayes.blogspot.com -- and my LJ remains http://faerylite.livejournal.com. I'll be cross-posting everything, at least for a while, so follow me wherever you like!

If you're wondering where all the posts below came from, I've imported everything from LJ. So not a single pearl of my wisdom will be lost. I know, I know -- what a relief!

Seeing as I've got this new flashy site, I'm gonna kick off tomorrow (Friday) with some Friday Fancies. What's Friday Fancies, you ask? Well, it's where I get all gushy about a book I like, and then give you the chance to win a copy. Simple.

I'll be giving away a new book on Friday every couple of weeks, whenever I read one I feel is worthy of the instant fame and glory my recognition will bring. That's the kind of generous soul I am.

So stay tuned, bat-listeners. I'll also be doing Writing Wednesdays, where I share my latest earth-shattering epiphanies about the mysteries of writing and publishing. And when I can think of something cool and alliterative for Mondays, I'll do that too.

In fact, I'm open to suggestions. What's a good M-topic you'd like to see on that dreaded first day of the week? Mournful Mondays? Monsters and Mayhem? Monday Man-titty*?

*Actually, no. This blog will be a MTFZ (man-titty free zone)! Unless, y'know, it's on a book cover. Or I really feel like it.

UK release, we haz it

Just a note to say that POISON KISSED is now available in the UK!! So if you're one of those folorn, left-out folks who can't access the US Amazon or Book Depository sites, you can now order from Amazon UK or BD UK.

Also check out my latest interview and giveaway at Nocturne Romance Reads. Ever been dying to know what the Shadowfae Chronicles theme song is? Sure you have.

In the meantime, I've been working on a vampire short story, and kicking a few proposals for novels into shape. They don't look much like novels yet. But they're getting there.

I start with some random idea, about a turning point or a character dilemma. But novels need plots, and I have neither the time nor the reckless hubris (you know who you are, folks) to begin writing on a project when I don't know for sure there's a decent plot in it.

An idea is not a plot. A scenario or a pile of world-building is not a plot. 'And then they fall in love and defeat the bad guys and save the world' is not a plot. Even if a few six-figure-advance YA authors seem to think it is.

So if I seem unproductive for a while, it's because I'm spending time plotting. And I plot because I don't have time to waste. Strange, but there it is.