She interrupts me. I interrupt her. Elle A. Muse is unfortunately not amused…
Ooh, lookee, the second Friday the 13th of the year! How did I get so lurky?
I’ll be doing proofs for Penhy’s thrid release all weekend. Cross your fingers that my eieballs don’t look like fried beans at the end of it all.
Just kidding! Usually myRed Sage proofs/galleys/whatever your publsiuehr calls them, aren’t anywehre near as scary as those I’ve heard of from other publishers. Cross your fingers that the good lick continues.
I participated in an interview recently along with 12 other romance writers including Allison Brennan, Rebecca York, and Kasey Michaels. The interview, Romancing the Genres, is now on-line at WOW! Women on Writing.
Please check it out if you get a chance. Penny makes a quick appearance. 😉
Thank you to Beth Daniels for inviting me to participate!
When I first began hosting guest bloggers, I thought it might be a cool idea to host up to one guest per week. And I always have a good time with my guests, but four guests per month is a lot of work. I realized this when I hosted three guests in February. If three guests is a lot of work, then four is even more so, right?
Right.
Because I not only have to coordinate, format and schedule the blogs, I also feel duty-bound to promote the heck out of them and to stick around the office the date of the blog in the event the guest needs me (like when my spam filter went gonzo a couple of guests back).
So Guest Blogger Madness continues, and it’s March, so I’m dubbing the month Guest Blogger March Madness. I have four guest bloggers in March. Two have already visited. The next two are visiting on the next two Mondays (the 16th and 23rd). After that, well, I’m taking most of April off. Only one guest scheduled to appear that month. Then three in May. June and thereafter, I plan to narrow the schedule to no more than two guest bloggers per month. That’s a schedule I feel I can maintain without feeling too restricted by, well, a schedule.
However, next year, depending how I’m feeling, I might go all out for March. If I’m going to host Guest Blogger March Madness, why stop at four guests for the month? Why not host two per week? Eight for the month? I’ll truly be mad by the end of it.
Good idea, bad, indifferent?
How do you feel about guest bloggers? I enjoy interacting with the new commenters who visit during my guest blog dates, and I enjoy getting to know the guests in the weeks preceding their dates. But there are sooooooo many opportunities to guest blog out there… Do you feel inundated with opportunities to visit guest blogs and possibly win free books? Would you rather I keep to my vow to restrict myself to no more than two guests per month come June? Or do you like the guest bloggers, even if you don’t always comment or have a chance to visit?
Now’s your chance to help mold my actions for the remainder of the year and next March.
I’m recovering from my flu and getting back to writing, but Daylight Savings Time definitely hasn’t helped. I’m waking up at the same time, but it’s too dark to walk the dog. No, I won’t walk her in the dark alone anymore, not even with a flashlight, despite that I live in a safe neighborhood. We won’t go into why! (Other than to confess that it was a little whoo-whoo).
Plus, DST always makes me feel a little jetlagged. Yes, it’s only one hour, but the spring has left my chicken. I need my sleep!
Here’s some good news! Finally got to the eye doctor, and despite the problems I’ve had lately, they aren’t due to any dreaded eye diseases. Probably just incompatibility with my (formerly) new contact lenses (I say formerly, because I tossed them out). I’m test-driving a brand of multi-focal contacts that allow in more oxygen. In a couple of 
weeks, my optician is bringing in yet another (brand new) brand. I’ll try them both, and if the dry eye situation doesn’t improve, I’ll go back to my old trustworthy contacts and reading glasses…until I feel brave enough to tackle laser surgery without visions of Malcolm McDowell and A Clockwork Orange dancing in my head.
Can you say Crazy Laser Eye Guy anyone?
I LOVE ROMANCE
I love romance. I love it in everything. I just, in fact, had a dream where Anthony DiNozzo from NCIS, was falling for his partner (NOT Ziva). The tension was terrific (yes, I know, my dream). This is a guy who doesn’t go looking for love, and watching him fall was so much fun.
I love the build of the romance, I love the tension, I love the balance a writer has to find—don’t pay it off too soon, don’t pay it off too late. (In the book I’m listening to, I’m afraid it’s dragged on too long. It’s an older historical, though, so it makes sense in the context of the time, but still….)
All the shows I watch, except Supernatural, have romance in them. In fact, to get me to watch a show, just mention the romance subplot and I’m there.
I’m judging a contest, and got the single title category. The first two entries I read didn’t introduce the hero. They were great stories, well written, but no hero. The third entry not only introduced both the hero and the heroine, it gave them a past. I was so hooked.
Whether I’m reading or writing it, the story flows best when the hero and heroine are on the same page, interacting in whatever manner. The first romance I read as an adult separated the hero and heroine for pages and YEARS. And then there was DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, remember that? How long were Clair and Jamie apart? 20 years? My heart broke for the time they lost.
I made some of the same mistakes in earlier versions of HOT SHOT. I sent Gabe out on heroic deeds and left my heroine back in camp, anxious to write about it secondhand. Oh, no, no, no. That did not work. I revised so that Peyton, my heroine, witnessed Gabe’s actions firsthand. This helped her understand him better, helped her understand the very heroism she’s writing about. Separating them from the rest of the crew was an even better chance for their romance, for their sexual attraction, to blossom. The more time they spend on the page, the more I believed in their love. I knew they would get their happily-ever-after because they worked for it on almost every page.
What brings you back to romance novels? The happily-ever-after? The journey? Do you have to have romance in the books you read and the shows you watch?
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Leave a comment to enter to win a print copy of HOT SHOT. Entries accepted until midnight PST.
To read MJ’s bio and the back cover copy of HOT SHOT, please see yesterday’s post.
To learn more about MJ and her books, please visit her website.
Tomorrow, please welcome contemporary romance author MJ Fredrick to the blog. MJ’s blogging about why she loves romance and is giving away a copy of HOT SHOT, which recently released in print from Samhain Publishing.
Back cover copy for HOT SHOT:
Peyton Michaels expected her assignment to be simple—write an article about everyday heroes. Heroes like Hot Shot firefighter Gabe Cooper. She never expected to find herself running up a mountain, a wildfire nipping at her heels, her life in his hands.
And she never expected to be drawn to Gabe. After the loss of her husband in the line of duty, the last thing she wants is to fall in love with yet another man who routinely puts his life at risk.
Gabe has had enough of women who want to make him into someone he’s not. Women like his ex, who couldn’t handle the heat of his job. Like Peyton, who sees him as a hero when he’s just a man doing a job. Except time after time, the pesky reporter proves her mettle. And gets deeper under his skin.
But there’s an arsonist at work, and danger is closing in with the speed of a raging brush fire. Peyton and Gabe have to dig deep for what it takes to be a real hero—to find the courage to reach out and grab a forever kind of love. Before it’s too late.
About MJ:
MJ has been writing forever. In elementary school, she wrote plays and pseudo-Trixie Belden mysteries. After fifth grade, she wrote her first romance, a Grease rip-off. She continued writing serialized stories throughout high school, then went to college and got married. After her son was in kindergarten, she started writing again and joined RWA. Four years later, she got serious and buckled down. Two years after that, she finalled in RWA’s Golden Heart in 2003, and the ball started rolling. Even that wasn’t the magic touch, and MJ finalled three more times before selling in 2007. After completing 20 manuscripts, her first two books were out within two weeks of each other, and both have firefighter heroes! WHERE THERE’S SMOKE is in print from The Wild Rose Press, and HOT SHOT, a romantic suspense, from Samhain Publishing has just been released in print. MJ also has a Wayback Texas story from The Wild Rose Press in ebook and an essay in IN THE HUNT, Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural, available March 2009. Her next book, BENEATH THE SURFACE, her 2007 Golden Heart finalist, will be coming from Samhain summer 2009.
Visit MJ at mjfredrick.com and marywritesromance.blogspot.com.