Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

by Malena Lott You know the advice to never save your china for special occasions? And to not wait until your house is clean to have a party? And the one about not waiting 'til tomorrow to do what can be done today? Yeah...I'm workin' on that. As many of you know, I've been working on a Create Your Own Renaissance series over on my blog at www.malenalott.com. The whole gist is that we'll not wait for great things to happen to us - we'll go for it. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT.  So that got me to thinking about the lil things in life that I love to do, but don't do enough. Like dancing. Anytime, any place. And apparently, any music. My kids have started attending one of those big, high-tech, non-denom churches with the Christian rock music, big screens, donuts and prizes for things like learning your Bible verse. A far cry from the shhhh, let's be quiet and not shake your foot in church I grew up in. Thing is, I LET MY KIDS PICK THEIR CHURCH. In my own spiri...

Happy Day-After-Christmas. The wrapping was torn from the presents without care in hope that an (iPod) inside would be there. (Insert tech gadget here.) Isn't it so fun to get what you want for Christmas? It's even better to get the life you want, all year around. Wanna hear the good news? It's *not* just the day after Christmas; it's the beginning of Reflection Week. This is how it works. You start thinking about all the things that really rocked in '08 in your life. As they say, you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. When I started the ATHENA Institute in '06, I started facilitating workshops in five life areas - so that's a nice starting point for reflection. Grab a notebook and do a list of whatever comes to mind in these areas: Body, Mind/Spirit, Home, Work, Relationships. For example, under Body, I'd list that I started working out in October, and did a fairly good job of cutting out fast food. ...

by Malena Lott We live in a society of labels, so it's no surprise one of the first questions people ask upon introduction is, "What do you do?" Over the years I've "been" many things. Eckhart Tolle ( A New Earth, The Power of Now ) says he usually answers, "I'm a writer," because, "I Am" just doesn't cut it for most people. Unlike a lot of answers, I suppose, "I'm a writer," typically gets a raised brow. A humph. Or an oooh/aaah reply. "Really? That's cool. What do you write?" I usually start with the biggie. "Novels." Then add, "fiction," because there are still a lot of people that don't know that a novelist is an author of fiction. I'd say 9 out of 10 times, the person goes on to say, "I could never write a book. Wouldn't even know where to begin." Everyone knows what a daunting task undertaking a novel can be. Especially those in the thick of i...

By Malena Lott John Edwards actually did a nice set-up for my blog entry today. Convincing the country that no matter how cute your face, eloquent your speech, big your bank account, happy you seem to be in your marriage to your smart wife, you can still screw things up for yourself - literally. Marital infidelity may well be the best example of sin immune to race, age or income bracket. You see, in my November novel Dating da Vinci, my protagonist Ramona believes her late husband may have been unfaithful before he died – with his ex fiancée who broke his heart just before he hooked up with Ramona. That he may not have been completely “over” her. It doesn’t help that Monica is a gorgeous, powerful attorney. Ramona decides she can’t completely move on until she knows the truth about Joel and Monica: why their engagement was broken off and if Joel cheated, since he was the architect on the new law firm where Monica was a partner and was spending a lot of time with her. To make matters w...

By: Marie Force I've just come from the RITA and GH Awards ceremony that capped off RWA's 28th Annual Conference in San Francisco. It's been an amazing few days during which I finally met our lovely editor Deb Werksman, along with our dynamic publisher Dominique Raccah and publicist/blog mate Danielle Jackson. Last night, Dominique took us all to dinner. I ended up in a limo with Casa blog mate and buddy Loucinda McGary (aka Aunty Cindy who took me and some of my New England Chapter friends to a fabulous hole in the wall in Chinatown on Thursday night) and new Sourcebooks author Judi Fennell. As we were coasting up and down the huge hills of San Francisco, we were talking about our kids and our dogs when all of a sudden it dawned on me that we were in a LIMO that our PUBLISHER had provided. I urged Cindy and Judi to join me in a "moment" to celebrate this significant occasion in our writing journey. So next year, when we're all together in Washington, D.C., if...

You know the saying - location, location, location . I used to be the same way about my writing. Same seat, same time of day, muse enters. Voila . I fondly remember the days in my mid-twenties where I could write until way past midnight and still feel the creative juices flowing as I put my computer to sleep. Yet the more kids I had (now up to, and stopping at, three) I've learned I have to be able to write anywhere, any time, or well, it just ain't happenin'. My muse, it seems, is now a morning owl. And she requires coffee. Not just Folgers, either. If she doesn't get Starbucks, she just doesn't put out, the wench.  When my youngest was two, I hammered away in the early morning hours writing Dating da Vinci (Nov. '08) up in the playroom/office on a big Mac. Then my toddler Owen's demands usurped that of my muse's. I was upstairs, he was down, and that doesn't bode well for the whole supervision thing. Big Mac couldn't be lugged around, so I inve...