Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Christmas is over and we’re three days into the New Year. How many resolutions have already been broken? I tend not to make resolutions. I like goals. I like to be able to check things off my to do list.  Some goals aren’t as easy as others to put on paper and achieve. Some are more abstract like be a better person. But there are ways of making that tangible. What could you do to quantify that? Donate to the animal shelter, volunteer your time? The promise to get the credit card cleared is another common promise…but again a plan of attack is needed to make it happen. Exercise is another resolution that often gets ditched early because people make huge promises and are discouraged early. So start simple with small goals. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to run 5km, I built up to it. Fitness goals are much healthier to achieve than the elusive ‘beach body’ (What is that any way? Seriously if you have a body it is beach ready). A fitness goal is easily quantifiable, te...

When it comes to year-end lists, I'm a happy addict. My husband jokes, "You have lists for your lists." He's right! I get a charge out of reading and putting into action those 10 Ways to Declutter Your House or 9 Steps to a Better Budget . As one year comes to an end, I like taking stock and seeing what needs to be accomplished in the next one. Not all of the goals are achieved, or achieved in the timeframe I want, but life's a journey. Plans need tinkering. This year my usual ambitious perspective veered off course. A different kind of change came. The favorite "Holiday Adventure List" would be no more (not all my lists are task oriented...some are loaded with fun). Every summer, Christmas, and Spring Break for the last 14 years, our family made lists of places we wanted to explore and things we wanted to do. The ritual started when my boys were young. We made plans to visit a certain animal at the zoo or go to a bookstore. There were...

Every year I set goals. For the past couple of years one of them has been to come up with a Christmas themed story. After three years I still have nothing. Zip. Nada. Not a hint of an idea. I can get ideas from the weirdest of places. I was talking to a friend about good names for heroes and she mentioned her grandfather’s unusual name. I got a whole story in about 10 seconds. Mad scribbling ensued and the idea is pinned to my board. The most recent ads for the Western Australian Opera  were very inspirational (not that I’ve written that story yet either). A conversation on a plane about ménages and what made them work or not (in our opinion) triggered another story (which is now on my pile to polish up). However Christmas is eluding me. I see all the Christmas stories and the novella anthologies coming out. I like reading them. I love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I loved the Doctor Who version with the flying fish in the fog (it’s awesome even if you don’t ...

By Robin Kaye When I was a kid, I did a lot of skiing—my family had a place in Sun Valley, Idaho and we’d usually spend three weeks a year there skiing. Like most other skiers, every night before I went to bed wearing my pajamas inside out and backward—a signal to the snow gods that I was ready for fresh powder—I’d pray for snow. I prayed, not only because the skiing on fresh powder would be great, no, I had another reason—I longed to ski virgin snow. I’d wake up extra early after a snow and arrive on the mountain well before the lifts opened with a backpack full of bribes for the lift operators—warm scones and hot coffee worked the best. They’d be bundled up against the early morning chill, sweeping the snow from the chair lifts and sometimes, if I got very lucky, they’d let me ride up before the mountain officially opened so I could be the first skier down. There’s nothing like skiing virgin snow—the only sound you hear is the wind whispering through the trees, the swish of your own ...

There's a sign on my fridge that my wife put up there, a misquote from an early novel of mine she read while we were still dating, "Violet is level six, start where you stand." It's become one of our house mottoes. When life is really being nuts or unpredictable we acknowledge that whatever ridiculous circumstance we've arrived in, and we've landed in many, We start here! Look forward! So here we are at the New Year, January the 1th. For me this is always a time of thinking and planning and wondering. Wondering at what the last year brought: 4 books written (2 joyfully and merrily for Casablanca) and a new job in a new city (that was a serious "Violet is level six" type of experience as it all occurred on 9 days notice, but that's a different story). Also, being January the 1th, I spend a lot of time wondering what the next year will bring: the launch of my "The Night Stalkers" romantic suspense series, 4 more books (including more f...

By Tracey Devlyn Welcome to my first blog! I’m so excited to join the Casa ladies. Since signing with Sourcebooks last spring, I’ve been a regular visitor and sometimes commenter on the blog. So, I feel like I know a little bit about everyone already. This year will be a year of firsts for me. First editorial notes, first marketing plan, first blog tour, first book…well, you get the picture. Although some of my firsts make my knees clang together just thinking about them, I’m looking forward to every minute of this year’s journey. And next year’s and the next. In an effort to start off 2011 right and to stay organized, I pinned my annual writing goals next to my desk, so that they’re forever in my line of sight. I also published them on my website for accountability purposes. Not so easy to ignore them now! In my day job, I’ve established annual goals for years, so it was easy to transfer that habit over to my writing. Annual goals act as a road map. I’ve found they keep me on target ...

The day before I flew off to DC for the RWA National Conference, our wonderful and adorable publicist Danielle Jackson sent me the preliminary list of websites that have agreed to host me for blogs or interviews as part of the “Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley” launch. The official date of release is September 1, but as we all know, the blog blitz virtual tour begins several weeks prior! I thanked Danielle, but also told her that, all things considered, I refused to more than glance at the list until after the conference and family vacations were over! Well, the time has come and I can no longer find excuses to procrastinate. Well, I could – LOL – but I shall attempt to be a responsible, good little author and start writing my blogs ASAP so I shan’t be doing what I am doing at this very second, i.e. writing my essay some six hours before it is due to post! Ha!! I have thought a great deal on the themes for the bulk of my blogs when “Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy” was rele...

Every January, we hear about people setting goals for themselves– resolutions to live better, work harder, lose weight, quit procrastinating. The list goes on and on. A key factor in whether a person will be successful in their New Year's endeavors is how that person approaches the benchmark they've set. So now, as the first quarter of the year is drawing to a close, let's look at a few things you can do to help you reach those writing goals you set back in January. 1) Be realistic. If you've never been able to write more than 3 pages a day because of your day job, your health issues, or your family responsibilities, don't set yourself up to fail by setting an unattainable goal of writing 10 pages a day. While you want to stretch yourself, setting the bar too high can quickly lead to frustration and make it too easy to give up. 2) Define your goals in terms of what is within your control. Too often I hear writers say their goal is to sell a book by a certain date or...

Hi everyone! I’m thrilled to turn over the blogging reins today to an amazing fellow author (not to mention my kick-butt critique partner) Katey Coffing, whom I love despite the fact that her high energy levels make me look like a slug most days. Not only is she a coach for women writers, many of whom she has shepherded on to publication, but she also writes lush, drool-worthy fantasy romance, earning herself a Golden Heart final last year with the sumptuous Kiss of Fate , which is currently out on submission to find a home of its own. Katey’s writing is one of my favorite escapes, and her advice is always spot-on, so I thought I’d have her over to talk shop today. She’ll be in to chat, so please say hello! A novelist's goal is to create a tale that will enthrall her readers. Sometimes the process of creating the story engrosses the author, too, and the novel practically types itself. Unfortunately, most of the time it doesn't, and we have to painstakingly assemble the wor...