Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

How quickly the time has gone. It seems just yesterday I got a call from my agent that the first book had sold. The time between selling and the book coming out seemed to take forever, but now it's flying. The second book is out and I’m struggling to keep up. I have to say I'm so excited to have two books under my belt, and I'm just amazed at the readers. I always heard authors say how great their readers were, and now I understand. It’s just the best feeling to know that your story has touched someone, entertained someone, made them laugh or cry. And we have a lot of great releases this month. Just look at this banner on the side to see what a great selection we have. My series is about Secret Warriors, Ancient Evil, and Destined Love. Part of a secret society of warriors ordered by Michael the Archangel, these warriors are all that stand between humans and the demons set on destroying the world. These warriors exist all over the world, but this series focuses on the S...

By Anita Clenney If August gets hotter than July, I might have to move north. It's been a scorcher here in Virginia, and while I don't mind the heat, I hate to sweat. Between the sheets and between the pages is a different thing. Every reader has their preference for sex scenes, from mild to hot, and everything in between. For myself, I don't don't like flowery sex scenes, and I don't like graphic sex scenes. It's a little hard to describe exactly how I do write them, so I thought I'd post Faelan and Bree's first "encounter of the sexual kind" in Awaken the Highland Warrior. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bree stared at the closed door. What was he doing in there? Cleaning? He’d agreed to take bathroom duty, since she didn’t have fields to be plowed and cows to be milked. A woman couldn’t argue with that. He could be trying to avoid the sparks flying between them. The look he’d given her in the bathroom had darn near incinerated her. Bree put her ear against t...

By Anita Clenney There was a discussion on the loop recently about funny stories when we got The Call. Well, my The Call story wasn't funny, but I do wish I could change my first Editor phone call. We all know how exciting it is to finally sell. We get a publisher, and a real live editor. OUR editor. That was such a proud thing for me, to be able to say "My Editor." Bliss! I think I tossed out the words as often as I could in conversation. So imagine how excited I was when I got my first call from my editor. She said, "Anita, this is Deb Werksman, your editor..." Wow! But a few seconds after she started talking, my phone went nuts. The signal was going in and out. I could hear every other word she was saying. This was my first call, so I didn't want to keep saying, "Can you repeat that?" I walked all over the house frantically trying to get a stronger signal. I finally ended up outside on the deck. By then, I had total silence for a good minute. Th...

By Anita Clenney Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to Martha's Vineyard with my husband, my agent and several of her clients for an agent/author panel at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. A wonderful bookstore that was voted PW Bookstore of the Year in 2002. My husband went with me because in almost 14 years of marriage, we had never really had a honeymoon, so we decided this was it. The bookstore event went great, but it was my first time on a panel, and I was a little nervous. A couple of the others were too, since we had expected a dozen or so aspiring writers to attend, but it turned out to be standing room only. The bookstore was pleased and the audience was excited, and I survived my first panel, and my first TV interview. Each author had a 30 minute interview for a show that will run on the local TV station. The event was set up by mystery writer Cynthia Riggs (pictured here with me), who writes the Martha's Vineyard mysteries starring 92 year old amateur sleuth Victoria Trumbu...

By Anita Clenney We all know that the writing business is tough, whether you're just starting out and waiting for The Call or a veteran author, as I learned in my retreat this weekend at the published authors' roundtable discussion. Getting published opens up another set of fears. What if it doesn't sell? What if I can't write another book as good as the first? What if it gets bad reviews? How am I going to promote? What is I can't stay published? And for me a biggie was, what about booksignings? I imagined this nightmarish image of me sitting in a big bookstore, my face pale, looking like a deer in headlights as people walked through the door and past my little table. My experience was anything but. First, let me start with the day before. My dear friend and critique partner, Dana Rodgers and I headed to Boonsboro, Maryland, where Nora Roberts husband's bookstore is located. What a drive. It was gorgeous, the storms from the night before were fading away. And i...

By Anita Clenney You know, until I read Mary Margret's blog, I couldn't remember my first kiss. I recall it now, just a quick peck, nothing spectacular. Now the kisses that stick in my head are the paper kisses. Ah...Donny Osmond. I fell in love with him at age nine and the love lasted for many years. Of course, I can't imagine what I was thinking now, but I adored him and gave his posters lots of kisses. I could almost feel his lips kissing me back, his arms pulling me close. Now my daughter is crazy about Justin Bieber, and he looks a lot like Donny did back then. Must be genetic. Awaken the Highland Warrior is the first book in my Highland warrior series. Here is Faelan and Bree's first kiss. Not quite what she expected. She started from the kitchen, when a crash sounded from her bedroom. Gripping the tray, she ran down the hall, coming to a halt in the doorway. He was naked, sprawled face down on the bed, bare as the day he was born. The lamp was overturned, his clo...

By Anita Clenney It's a brand new year and I'm looking for a brand new me. This past year was wonderful with so many firsts. First sale, first edits with my editor, first copy edits. I survived it all, and I enjoyed it, but now I'm looking for ways to make myself more productive, work smarter - not harder, have a better attitude, and get my priorities straight. At the moment, they're slightly askew. I'm starting book three in this series and it got me thinking about how a story starts. I love new stories because I'm like a kid with crayons and a blank sheet of paper. I can go any direction, use any color, any shapes. But I have to have an idea to start, and if it's a series, the new book has to be great on it's own, but make sense within the series as well. I love plotting and brainstorming. I think it's my favorite part of writing. I usually mull over a story for a few days, plotting as I drive or as I'm falling asleep. I build it in my head, th...

This month we've been talking about abundance, which can be good, bad, or downright ugly. Abundant health – good, abundance of adverbs in your story – bad, abundance of drive-thru meals after two weeks of football practices, and eating said meal in the car in the dark – downright ugly. The shriveled up lettuce always lands in cracks too small to reach, and left-overs get shoved underneath the seat, only to be found when the aroma finally overwhelms the smell of well-used football equipment. But I’ve had an abundance of good news this year. First, in preparation for my agent submitting my story, I got my website. Now I was worried about getting a website, because if you knew me better, you’d know I’m totally rotten at decision making. There are some things I know right off that I want. I’m going to get it no matter what, other things…well, I can deliberate for hours, sucking everything around me into the void of confusion. When eating out, my husband pleads with me to just let him o...