Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com www.LibbysBooks.blogspot.com A funny video by mystery author Parnell Hall (like moi, an Edgar nominee!) has been making the rounds. Maybe you've seen it. If not, here 'tis: Whew -- that's the first time I embedded a video. Hope it comes through okay. If not, you can go to this link to see it. Parnell's poking good-natured fun at challenges all authors who aren't bestsellers face--how do you get the word out and draw crowds to book signings and to buy your book in general? Here's the secret -- Okay, you didn't really think I'd give away the secret, did you? Especially when I don't know what it is myself! :-) Seriously, most authors do their best to attract folks to a book signing with the usual tricks of the trade. Personally, I send out postcards announcing the signing to a growing list of folks interested in my books. I have one list of all the folks in my neighborhood and I'm sure to add a little label on th...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com First, let me apologize. I've been so swamped with work and family activities that I haven't kept up with the blog lately. I was just reading through some of the really lovely blog posts about mothering and new beginnings that I've missed. They are wonderful and very moving. What lives you've led, ladies! Really sweet and full lives. Thanks for sharing your stories. As for me, my mothering and new beginnings stories are simple. I have three kids and love them to pieces as any mother would. The oldest writes for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. The middle child is in pilot training in the Air Force. The youngest works for a think tank in DC, but she also writes fiction on the side. And the latest big news for her -- she just signed with an agent at the Gelfman Schneider Agency! I think I'm more excited for her than I was for myself when I first signed with an agent. It's been so fulfilling to use my experiences to help gui...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com What a month it has been! My Own Personal Soap Opera hit the shelves, and I hit the virtual road for my eco-friendly virtual book tour, stopping by blogs hither and yon, answering questions about writing and having a blast. Seriously. I did have a blast. On this blog tour, I decided to throw three sheets to the wind and write funny and silly as well as serious and writerly. My favorite stops, in case you missed them: Fresh Fiction on April 7 where I penned a "scholarly essay" on How to Write the Comedic Novel. This here blog on April 13 where I was interviewed about my little-known history. The Love Romance Passion blog on April 12 where I talked about soap operas. The Books and Needlepoint blog on April 20 where I talked about books I "faked" reading and more. The MamaWriters blog yesterday where I talked about how to nurture a writer in your family, using my sweet and talented daughter (who has a book coming out this fall!...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com So, did you see that episode of The Office where Dwight gets a knock on the head and ends up with a concussion, and on the way to the hospital, Jim keeps spraying him with a plant spritzer bottle to keep him awake? Man, was it ever hysterical! But chances are you're not laughing. It's awfully hard to describe humorous scenes in a way to make the reader laugh or even smile. Writing comedy is tough work, I tell ya, tough work. Not for the faint of heart. But I love it. I love it so much that I can't stop doing it. My Own Personal Soap Opera , my latest entry into the humorous women's fiction genre, releases today. Publishers Weekly says it's "heavy on humor . . . Malin coaxes plenty of laughs." Booklist says it's a "world of wit and chaos . . . smart and insightfully written." And I didn't even pay those folks to write those things. Well, not much anyway. No, really, I didn't. Many people I know (wel...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com Many moons ago--well, really, about one--I wrote a post about Bal'mer (that's Baltimore, Maryland), my hometown, and how I often set stories there. There's one other spot that ends up skittering through my tales from time to time -- France. The heroine in my very first humorous women's fiction, Loves Me, Loves Me Not , took off for France at the end of the book, fleeing some weighty problems. Once there, she had to decide on a dime whether or not to return early to take a chance on love. In Fire Me , the protagonist doesn't go to France, but she does daydream about speaking in French. Whenever she's stressed, she hears herself prattling like a character in a French movie, her passionate problems rendered dispassionate at the flick of a " mais oui, Mademoiselle ." One of the lines she thinks to herself in this episode is " Je vais cherchez du bon vin a la cave " (or something like it). That's a line from...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com When last we left our heroine . . . Actually, when last I darkened these blog pages with a post of my own, I was talking about writing, my thoughts and fears when I first started out. Since that time, a friend sent me a funny and clever article entitled Ten Rules for Writing Fiction , a compilation of such lists from various authors. In case you don't skip on over and read the whole thing, here are some of my favorite tips: Try to leave out the parts readers tend to skip (Elmore Leonard) Take something to write on (when traveling). Paper is good. In a pinch a piece of wood or your arm will do. (Margaret Atwood) Do not place a photograph of a famous author on your desk , especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide. (Roddy Doyle) Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. (Neil Gaiman) As you can see, some of the tips are tongue-in-cheek. Others are more serious and personal to the writer -- advice on...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com The last time I posted here, I talked about my "first love" -- music. Even though music was the first love I dedicated my energy and passion to, writing has always, always, always called out to me. As soon as I could string words together, I wrote stories, poems and essays. In creative writing class in high school, friends and I would exchange "fan fiction" -- stories involving our favorite television shows. But I didn't start dedicating energy and passion to getting my writing published until later in life. For that I have my dear sister to thank. She's the one who encouraged me to try getting a romance novel published when I was between freelance writing projects and looking for something to do to make money. Once I knew that this very practical person in my family wouldn't think I was crazy for spending so much time at the computer writing fiction, I was on my way. For most published authors, it's a tough slog fr...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com A long time ago, in a galaxy far away--specifically, right after I graduated from college--I worked as a Spanish gypsy, a Russian courtier, a Japanese Geisha, a Parisian bohemian, a Middle Eastern slave, a French courtesan, and a Chinese peasant. Those were the roles played by chorus members of Baltimore and Washington Operas as they put on productions of Carmen, Eugene Onegin, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Salome, La Traviata , and Turandot . I was one of those chorus members, happily arriving about an hour before each performance, traipsing through the stage door with makeup bag in hand, ready to be wigged and dressed. To get ready for this backstage preparation, the women were all required to flatten their hair into pincurls and place a stocking cap over all. Then we'd head to the wig room where the loveliest hairpieces would be placed on our heads, glued to our foreheads with fine netting. Back to the dressing rooms where hired "dresser...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com As I write this, a warm wind rattles window panes as a January thaw day places a down payment on spring. Here in the mid-Atlantic region, it's not unusual to experience these "outlier" days when temps shoot up to the forties and sometimes to the fifties in winter. When I lived in Vermont, an atypical winter day might put you over freezing, but just barely. Not a cold-weather person, I'm happy to be out of that icebox. I love the spring season and already eagerly look at forsythia branches for signs of awakening buds. Spring itself is a time of awakening, signaling the start of something new in ways that a champagne-soaked 12:01 a.m. on January 1 just can't do. Warmer weather means shedding coats, opening doors and windows, and generally liberating ourselves of winter's layers. It's a time of expectations--what will the melting snow reveal, what flower will bloom next, what bird will return to the trees, what romantic eve...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com I can't get it out of my head: Oh, oh, oh/Woke up today/Feeling the way I always do. . . Yup, the first lines to "Good Morning, Baltimore!" from Hairspray . Tonight, hubby and I head to Lancaster's American Music Theater to see a touring production of this musical, the tickets a Christmas gift from our son. Going to see this show means we'll miss watching the Baltimore Ravens face off against the Baltimore, er, no, the Indianapolis Colts. As a Baltimore native, it hurts to write "Indianapolis" in front of that sports team's name (sorry, all you Hoosiers!). I remember the heartache the city's residents experienced when, in the middle of the night, March 29, 1984, Mayflower vans moved the Colts from Charm City to the Midwest. That pain cuts deep. At my father's funeral two years ago, a cousin reminisced about that day, the bitterness still in his voice. It was a fitting tribute. My father had been a big Colts ...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com Over the holiday, my husband and I treated ourselves to a re-viewing of the movie Star Trek . We'd seen it in the theater and loved it, and I wanted to judge whether it still held up on the small screen. It did, and then some. If anything, more intimate moments popped more for me on our modest-sized Toshiba. One of the pleasures of watching a DVD, rather than the theatrical version, is clicking your way through to the "extra features." So we did, finding the "commentary" and watching a bit of the movie all over again while listening to the director and others offer insights into the action. And here was a surprise -- the director had originally thought of opening the movie with the birth of Mr. Spock, instead of the action-packed moments leading up to Kirk's father's death. As Spock himself would say, this discussion of alternate beginnings was "fascinating." If the movie had started with Spock's birth, it...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com In my April 2010 release, My Own Personal Soap Opera , soap opera head writer Frankie McNally rarely has to deal with actors' agents. But as writers, we all interact with agents regularly. (And how was that for slipping a mention of my next book in with the topic of this post? LOL!) When I first started writing seriously, I queried agents left and right, scrupulously researching which agents would be best for me. For any aspiring authors on this blog, here's a quick rundown of the kind of research you might find valuable (I did): Read Publishers Lunch, the weekly round-up of deals produced by Publishers Marketpla ce , noting the agents representing works that are in the same genre and of the same tone as yours. Consider subscribing to Publishers Marketplace so you can search their deals database. Use websites like AgentQuery.com to look for more information on agents, whose names you cull from Publishers Lunch. Also use AgentQuery to look up...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com Sourcebooks' artists have done it again! The cover for my April release, My Own Personal Soap Opera , is in and I love, love, love, love it! Let me count the ways: The cover captures the spirit of the book--humorous women's fiction where the heroine's main question is: where am I going? The cover plays off the word "soap" by having the woman sitting in a tub. The end of the book has the heroine in a tub, so it's a really nice overlap. The cover "brands" my kind of story because it has similar elements to my first Sourcebooks release, Fire Me --girl's partially obscured face in the lower left corner, blue-sky, cloudy (or bubbly!) background, a sense of impishness and wonder. So, thank you, Sourcebooks artists for another fantastic job! Covers ar e so important, and authors rarely have control over what goes on them. One of the things I've loved about Sourcebooks is how they ask authors to let them know what k...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com I find it hard to read while I'm writing. I'm too afraid what I read will influence what I write. Because I'm writing a lot, this is a problem! I just finished edits on my next Sourcebooks release ( My Own Personal Soap Opera ), and am continuing to work on another humorous women's fiction proposal. So, for reading pleasure, I often turn to novels outside the genres in which I write. Luckily, I'm a pretty eclectic reader, so this means I have lots to choose from. Lately, I've been exploring authors I loved as a girl. So when I was given a book gift card in August, one of my selections was F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack Up , a collection of essays, notes, and letters about Fitzgerald's life, particularly after he rocketed to fame and fortune as an author and careened down the corresponding slope when alcoholism gripped him and madness ensnared his wife Zelda. It's about the only bit of his writing I'd never r...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com I just handed in the copy-edited version of my next Sourcebooks release, My Own Personal Soap Opera . I'm always so, so grateful to copy editors for catching my inconsistencies (uh, if the heroine's cell phone jingles in most scenes, maybe it shouldn't chirp in another) and my outright mistakes (like misspelling a major character's name). I try not to beat myself up too much when I see these oopsies. What writer doesn't scratch her head trying to remember on page 170 what she called that secondary character mentioned on page 32? I've used the "find" function of MSWord more than once to doublecheck characters or word descriptions. Even though I try to be careful, mistakes still happen. Mistakes were a big part of my heroine's life in Fire Me -- she was deliberately trying to make them, in order to win the pink slip and a severance pay package. Her rationale was that a little embarrassment was a small price to pay ...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com In my book Fire Me , Anne Wyatt tries to figure out how to earn a living "doing what she loves," first pursuing a crazy strategy to get herself laid off so she can collect severance pay, all the while struggling with how to merge her artistic background with making money. In my next book, My Own Personal Soap Opera , soap opera head writer Frankie McNally has to come to terms with "loving what she does," that is, writing passionate and sometimes outlandish stories that enthrall millions but don't impress the literati crowd she'd hoped to join when she went to college. Both books share the common thread of young women finding their way in the world, settling into careers -- after they first figure out what career is right for them. Who hasn't been there? Or rather, what writer hasn't been there? Writers, I believe, struggle with both the questions that face my protagonists -- how do I earn money doing what I love, h...

By Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com When a dear friend commented to me that she was reading my book, Fire Me, two emotions immediately coursed through me in quick succession -- joy and panic. Joy because I was delighted someone I loved was going to read the book. Panic because I couldn't remember if anything in the book drew on any experiences I'd had with this friend! Don't get me wrong -- I'd never reproduce any real life experience in a novel in a malicious way. But most writers do end up drawing on real life experiences as a springboard at least for the imaginary tales they tell. I'm one of those writers. An overheard conversation, an observation about an attitude, an experience that's odd, funny, or poignant -- any of these could find its way into one of my books. It's not that I transcribe real life conversations verbatim. But if they stick in my head for some reason, I might pull them forward when just the kind of mood or temperament they typify is ca...

By Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com When I first started writing novels, I used to look at published authors with a combination of awe and envy. A member of various RWA email loops, I hung on the words of published authors who doled out advice, offering cautions as well as encouragement. The one discussion that turned my admiring smiles to disapproving frowns was when published authors complained about how being published wasn't Nirvana, that published authors faced a whole new set of problems once their manuscripts were accepted and put into print. Oh really? To the unpublished writer dealing with rejection and little reward, any problems associated with being published were ones I wanted to embrace! Give me those problems! Fellow writers felt the same way. Eventually, I did make it into the published authors club. And lo and behold, I realized firsthand that yes, published authors face challenges, too, that getting published didn't mean the journey was over or even smooth ever...

by Libby Malin www.LibbysBooks.com You've heard the stories -- Bestselling Author X sells his first book after a friend shows a partial of the manuscript to her agent, who signs the fellow and puts the book up for auction leading to a "major deal." Or Bestselling Author Y mentions his idea for a novel to an editor over lunch and she buys it sight unseen, leading to rewards, both financial and literary, for all involved. Don't those stories just make your teeth grind? Most writers' publication paths are bumpier, with stalls and stops along the way, and occasional breakdowns. But the overnight success stories do tantalize, and I wouldn't be surprised if many writers (if not most) cherished the dream that their rewards would be similar to those lucky authors who make it big quickly. When I first began taking writing seriously and committing myself to the goal of being published -- when I decided to stop dabbling and start working at it -- I cherished those dreams...

by Libby Malin The Romance Writers of America conference is just around the corner, which has my thoughts turning to those in my life who've influenced and supported my career. RWA is among them. I'd always loved to write and longed to be a published author. My sister knew of this yearning and encouraged me, urging me to try writing romance novels, which she enjoyed reading. Her support pushed me to pursue writing as a career, to invest the considerable time in finishing manuscripts and learning about the business. With her words ringing in my ears, I no longer felt...oh, foolish...for spending so much time writing when it wasn't at all clear any of it would pay off. A very practical person, my sister gave me "permission" to pursue my dream, turning on the switch I'd resisted touching for many years for fear of appearing silly or out of my league. I followed her advice and began reading romance novels, which I'd previously not picked up. I fell in love wit...