Hi all!  On the last day of 2011, I thought I’d post the first excerpt of Hunted.  Here it is:

The warrior in Conn roared to life, overtaking any rational thought.  He shot his arm up to grab her wrist and force the blade from his throat.  “Let go of the knife, Moira.”  Soft skin covered toned muscle under his hand.  He could tighten his hold and make her drop the weapon, but that’s not how this was going down.

“No.”  She took advantage of his movement and dug her heel into his thigh, clapping his ear with her free hand.

Pain exploded in his skull.  His temper howled.  Clutching his fingers into her hair, he jerked her head back.  The white column of her throat stretched.  She yelped in protest.  He lowered his head, his fangs elongating completely.  His lips enclosed her skin.

He struck.

Her entire body went rigid.  The knife clattered to the floor. 

He drank.  Honey and spice exploded across his taste buds followed by a punch of raw power.  His mind swirled.  Arousal, lust, fire whipped through him until the need to get inside her pushed all other thoughts away.  Quick swipes of his tongue sealed the wound and then his mouth was on hers, delving deep. 

She moaned low in her throat, pulling him toward her.  He released her arm, encircling her waist and tugging her forward.  Better.  Now he wanted her naked.  Heat cascaded from the woman.  His tongue tangled with hers, the little whimpers gasping from her boiling his lust even higher.

The boom of a gun being fired jerked him away.  He jumped around, using his body as a shield.  Kell stood in the entryway, calmly placing a Beretta in his waist.  Plaster dropped from the ceiling marred by a large bullet hole. 

Conn snarled.

Kell held both hands out.  At six and a half feet with midnight dark eyes and hair, the witch took a placating stance that had to be unfamiliar.  He wiped plaster off his shoulder.  “I know it’s deadly to mess with a vamp and his mate, but we really have to go.” 

The whirr of a helicopter startled Conn.  He hadn’t heard it arrive.  Not good.  “Where?”

“We’ve been summoned by the Council,” Kell said.  “Now.”

Moira leapt off the counter to land next to Conn.  “We’re already late.”

He grabbed her arm.  “I’m going with you or you don’t go.”  He needed answers.  If the stubborn witches in the room wouldn’t provide them, he’d go to the top.

“While he can’t see the Council,” Kell dropped his gaze to his cousin, “we could use his help.  At least until Daire and Adam return.”

Conn stilled.  “Daire and Adam?”  Kell and his two brothers served as the chief enforcers for the Nine.  Something huge must be going down if they all had been summoned at once.  Suspicion tightened his shoulders.  “Why are you with Moira, Kell?”  Conn’s voice dropped to an octave that should’ve warned his friend.  He’d assumed Kell was with Moira to await him, performing his duty as liaison and enforcer.  Perhaps Kell provided protection for Moira.  If his mate needed protection, someone should’ve called him.

Kell cut his gaze to Moira.  “I believe that’s a conversation between you and the Seventh, Kayrs.”

“Don’t call me that.”  Moira stiffened.  “You’ve no right to be pissed, Kell.”

Kell stepped forward, his eyes blazing.  “No right to be pissed?  Are you kidding?”  He swept his hand toward Conn.  “There’s a good chance I’m going to end up in a fist fight with one of my best friends because you’ve refused to get your life in order.  And now it might be too late to fix our world.”

One step had Conn in front of Moira.  “Don’t yell at her.”  A brawl was guaranteed at this point.  Though the first punch came from the brat behind him.  Two fisted and right to his kidneys.

“That’s it.”  Conn swirled around and ducked, tossing his witch over his shoulder.  She bellowed in surprise.  He pivoted, heading for the exit.  “Since I’m under strict orders from my king not to piss off the council, we’ll go meet with them now.  You can explain what the hell’s going on during the flight.”  He strode through the door and into the sun, not caring whether or not Kell followed.  Moira struggled, smashing her hands into his back.  “Then, mate, we’re going home.” 

Rage burned in his gut.  Moira’s family had power and knew how to wield it.  The second he forced her from Ireland, they’d declare war.

So be it.

1) Romance readers have some serious depth.  I spent several emails with one fan about the philosophy of good vs. evil and whether the Kurjans even had a chance to be good.  Loved it!

2)    Any jackass can leave a review on goodreads or amazon.  My favorite was the gal who sent people to buy her book instead.  Classy.

3)    Readers like the heartwarming stuff…even in a sexy book.  I’ve had more comments about how cute the big, bad, vamps are with little Janie. 

4)    People who tell you the ‘sex is too much’ in book one…have already preordered book 2.  Yeah.  You know who you are.  🙂

5)    If someone tells me how wonderful the “world building” was…the sex may have been too much for them.

6)    Getting stressed about aspiring authors dropping your name to your editor or agent is just silly…they’re used to it.

7)    It’s a high-low profession.  One day a national magazine recommends your
book…the next day another national magazine doesn’t like your characters.  Keep it steady by remembering…it’s all about the story.  Forget the rest.

8)    Promotion and social media are a must.  But writing the story should always come first.

9)    Your editor is on your side—completely.  Anyone who thinks it’s a battle between the author and the editor…probably doesn’t have an editor yet.

10)  It’s okay to say ‘no’…even if you’re a nice person and really do want to help people.  Unfortunately, there’s only so much time in the day, and hopefully you have a life too.  Protect that.

So…my book is in and I have no deadlines hanging over my head…for now.  Let’s have a fun blog.  So many editors are on twitter, I thought it’d be fun to discuss:  

WHAT NOT TO TWEET IF YOUR BOOK IS LATE

1.  I just can’t get past level 70 on Cake Mania 3.

2. I know I should be doing something right now…what was it?

3. Ohhhh.  A Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon just started.  Have to watch!

4. I think maybe I’ll switch jobs now.

5. I know I have a book due, but I just can’t stop writing this other genre.  Maybe I’ll get back to the other book soon.

6.  I should’ve been writing today…but Macys had an awesome sale!

7.  I just had my third coffee with Rumplemintz in it.  Is it 10am yet?

8.  Man…I’ve been drunk for almost a week.  Not long enough.

9.  Involuntary committment isn’t so bad.  I like crazy people.

10.  Darn it.  My boyfriend refused to bail me out.  I’m here in jail for another 48 hours.   HAHA

(For the record, I’ve never tweeted any of the above and my book was on time.)  🙂

Hi all!  So, today is the release of FATED.  The e-edition will be available on March 1st for kindle, nook, sony, etc.  For anyone in the area, we’re having a launching party tonight at the Gourmet Way from 4:00pm to 7:00 pm…regardless of the winter storm warning just put out.  🙂  I hope to see you there!

I’ll post tomorrow or the next day about the launching and how it went.  Today I need to go help unpack books for the launching, and I thought maybe I’d drop by Hastings and Borders to see, ah, my book on the shelves.  I’m also over at Savvy Authors talking craft in the terms of layering and lasagna.  And…I have some friends with releases today:  (And for the life of me, I can’t get the books to be of equal size!  WordPress is being difficult today.)

Hi all!  I’ve been interviewing industry professionals the last month or so during the countdown for FATED to be released.  As you know, the release date is next Tuesday, Feb. 22nd!

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know my editor at Kensington is Megan Records.  You also know that her authors fondly refer to her as ‘magnificent.’  Yes, the alliteration works well with her first name.  But it’s also true.  She’s fantastic to work with and even took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us today.

1)      I was hoping you’d share your statistics for 2010.  How many queries did you receive?  Out of those, how many partials and fulls did you request?  How many new authors did you sign?  How many of your current authors did you re-sign?

I don’t keep stats on queries, but my guess is that I request about 50% of the time. I got roughly 300 submissions, out of those I signed 5 new authors. I re-contracted 3 authors.

2)      What makes for an excellent work day for Megan Records?

I have a ratings system. I rate the day’s good happenings from 1-3, and bad things from -1 to -3. Any day that totals 3 or over is an excellent day. Examples of excellent things: a new quote or the promise of a read from someone really big, extra special promo news, making “the call,” reading an awesome new manuscript from one of my authors, etc.

3)      You work with a myriad of different authors.  Do you find your style adapts to each one?  Or is your process pretty much the same with each author?

I have the same general process, and then adapt according to the needs of each author. For example, some authors prefer specific edits, whereas with some, I can say, “This part with the killer? Not buying it,” and they can go in and fix it. In order to maximize the talents of each author, I have to be willing to adapt.

4)       Are you looking for any type of book in particular right now? 

I am always looking for AWESOME. That is all.

5)      How far into a book do you usually know it’s a keeper?

Honestly, I don’t usually know until the end. I can like a book just fine, and read the whole thing, but be able to put it down and forget it. My “keepers” are ones that I think about the next day, and a week later, and then I try to convince other people to read. It’s a necessary distinction…I currently have 600 keepers at home, and that’s not including my own authors’ books (which are all keepers!).

6)      If you weren’t an editor, what career path would you choose?

You mean I should have had a back-up plan?!? I think I’d probably be a computer programmer.  I do enjoy puzzles and have always been good at technical things. 

7)      I notice most of your authors are on twitter, facebook and have their own blogs.  Do you check in with these sites once in a while?

Yes, I follow and friend my authors usually, but I only check out blogs once in a while. Back when I was a baby editor, I was much more attentive, but then I kept acquiring authors and now it’s too overwhelming. I would get NO work done!

8)      Is there any advice you have for new writers?

RESEARCH. And I’m not talking about researching facts for the actual manuscript (which is also necessary). I’m talking about researching publishers, editors, agents, query letters, the publishing process, etc. With all the information available on the internet today, there is absolutely no excuse for sending me a query addressed to “Dear Editor” about a cozy mystery (which I have zero interest in).

Slight tangent: If you are sending me a query about a cozy mystery because you have queried every editor you can find who represents cozies, they have turned you down, and you are now thinking, “Well, it never hurts to ask!”, don’t. It does not come off as daring, it comes off as, “Cannot follow directions,” which, in case you weren’t sure, is bad. Most likely there is something not right with your query, your manuscript, or both. Revise.

Okay, back to main point. Before you even THINK about sending that query, you should be researching which publishers are likely to publish this sort of book, which editors seem to like books similar to yours, etc. If you can’t be bothered to Google my interests, I assume you can’t be bothered to make edits, promote your book, or anything else I would ask of my authors.

Let me put it this way: I am much more likely to forgive an earnest, well-researched query that is a bit unprofessional (e.g. names all the author’s children, their ages, and their schools) than a query addressed to Mr. Records.

Kensington does take unagented submissions.  There’s more information on their website under submission guidelines.   So, thanks everyone for dropping by my blog today.  I hope you’re enjoying the interviews this February!