Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Excuse me while I have a wee muppet flail. GIFSoup KISS THE EARL is finally here!! It's here! It's really really here! Okay, so those of you who don't know what I'm flopping around about, here. Check out this sweetness, and tell me I'm wrong to be jumping up and down. :) This is the third installment in the Geek Girls series. But don't let that stop you! This story stands on its own. It's gotten great reviews from RT (!!!) and Booklist (!!!!) and early reviewers alike. I'm extremely proud of this story. It took a whole lot to get it out there, but now that it's here, I'm over the moon! This book was scheduled to release over a year ago. But then something called "rebranding" happened, and that meant new cover, new marketing, new edits, and a lot more time. It was stressful, but luckily I have an angel of an editor who never let me flip out too much. :) The result is a story that I think is the strongest in the series. I h...

by Olivia Cunning Figuring out where a story begins can be one of the most difficult things for a writer.  If you start too early, you end up with a bunch of back story that has no bearing on the plot.  If you start too late, your readers might not feel connected to your characters before you throw those characters in front of the proverbial tour bus.  If readers don't care about your characters, they might stop reading. Finding that perfect spot to begin your novel can be a challenge. Starting Backstage Pass was relatively easy. It starts a few minutes before the hero, lead guitarist Brian Sinclair, and the heroine, human sexuality professor Myrna Evans, meet for the first time. Here's a little parody I made of their meeting. No, it's not REALLY  this silly when they meet. This is what happens when I'm trapped in all-day meetings at work. I find ways to amuse myself. If you'd like to read the real first chapter, which is still funny, but not "dumb" ...

Yes I am a writer, and yes I do inject humor here and there within my story, and yes I love to read humorous tales. But I am also a devoted lover of movies. I like just about all types of movies, my entertainment bones tickled by everything from heavy dramas to action flicks to sweet romances to westerns to family/childrens and so on. But there is one category of movie – what we have dubbed “ stupid comedies ” – that can almost be embarrassing to admit watching. Hide your face in shame if you must, but let’s face it, sometimes a person needs to zone out for a couple of hours with mindless entertainment requiring zero brain cell usage, content in the knowledge that you will laugh until your side hurts and/or milk spurts out your nose. Here are a few of my favorites, proudly proclaimed! Happy Gilmore – Gotta admit that I like Adam Sandler. Not everything, but most of them. Waterboy deserves an honorable mention and I liked Big Daddy , but Happy Gilmore is my favorite. Every time the g...

by Amanda Forester The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business. --John Steinbeck I used to look forward to Sundays because the newspaper would publish the comics in color. Remember the olden days when they had newspapers? In honor of the Sunday funnies I’ve attached some clips and quotes about the editing process from a more lighthearted perspective. After all, if you do not keep your sense of humor in this business you will soon decide your father was right all along and drop writing to pursue that career in underwater welding. Yeah Dad, I know, unlike writers they’re always in demand. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. –Anne Lamott Writing is an odd business. Everyone seems to have ...

Two guys walked into a bar , no wait, it’s a priest and a rabbi entered a bar , um, no that’s a cop and a monkey are in a car and the monkey says, um… OK, I can’t remember jokes for the life of me. Five minutes after the punch line I would be hard pressed to retell the joke to someone else, and if I did remember how it went I would not be able to deliver it right. Guess I am just not a funny gal. Sarcastic, yes, and witty at times, but not funny. Some people are born with the gift. My sister’s second husband could have made millions as a stand up comedian. He was, hand’s down, the funniest person I have ever known. Watching a B-movie with him was a hysterical experience! He had the gift. His son, my nephew, inherited that gift and is almost as funny as his dad. One thing I learned hanging around with the jokesters of our family is not only will you have a great time, but everyone becomes funny! It is like the funny-aura oozes out and infects those surrounding until we are all bursting...

Do you hear that thumpa-thumpa? That's my heart beating fast as I anticipate the official release of Fire Me on May 1! Actually, the book's been shipping early, if amazon is any guide, and I was thrilled to receive my own copies from Sourcebooks a week ago. And let me say again -- they are gorgeous! The finished book is slightly different than the ARC, with a deeper blue on the cover that really pops and the lovely blurb from Melissa Senate. I know folks might be tired of me recapping Fire Me's story, but for those who don't know, it follows PR specialist Anne Wyatt through one crazy work day as she tries to "win" a lay-off and the severance package that goes with it (since she's leaving for another job anyway). She learns a lot about herself and love in the process. Fire Me is a comedy (uh, ya think? LOL!) which presented all sorts of challenges to this writer as I struggled to come up with funny situations, turns of phrase or ideas that worked as s...