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If you’d like the answer to that question, you’re in luck!

During the month of August, I’m teaching an online class on that very subject

Here’s the info - I hope to see you there!

PERMISSION GRANTED TO FORWARD

Living the Life of a Writer: Is it all Really Glamour and Bon Bons?

When people think about the life of a writer, they might envision said writer dressed in comfortable yet designer clothes, sitting on the balcony of their posh but understated mansion that overlooks a pool and possibly the scantily clad pool boy—or girl.  Said writer sips a fruity drink from a martini glass while typing their next masterpiece in between calls from their agent, movie studios and other authors, while their personal assistant bustles around them taking care of the small but insignificant details.  Unfortunately, unless your name is Nora Roberts, James Patterson or Steven King, this picture is much more myth than reality.  So, if you want the cold hard truth, be sure to check out Tina Gerow’s August workshop for STAR.  Tina will enlighten us about the business of being a writer.  Her workshop will cover topics such as money, sales, agents, editors, deadlines, promotions, and even critique groups.  She will share an insider’s view of the pros and cons of being a writer.

Tina Gerow’s Into a Dangerous Mind, won the award for Romantic Times Best Small Press Contemporary Paranormal in 2006.  Since then, Tina has published several more books, including the popular Maiden series.  She also writes for Kensington’s Aphrodisia line as Cassie Ryan—the first of her three book erotic paranormal romance series, Ceremony of Seduction, released in August 2007, with Visions of Seduction scheduled for a June 2008 release.  Tina is an active speaker on several subjects including promotions, character creation, goals, motivation and more.  She has spoken at several RWA chapters, as well as at the Romantic Times Booklovers convention in 2006 & 2007.

This 4-week long online writing workshop is conducted using a private listserve. It’s easy to participate; if you know how to send e-mail, you’ve mastered all of the necessary technical skills. The class costs $15 for RWA members, $20 for others and begins on Monday, August 4, 2008.  The deadline to register is August 1st. To enroll in this class, send a check or money order (in U.S. dollars) made payable to STAR Writers Workshops to the STAR Workshop Coordinator, Jennifer Lorang, at 20 Mohawk Drive, Lisle, NY  13797 USA (include your name, e-mail address, phone number, workshop choices, and RWA number, if applicable). You may also register via Paypal by sending the payment to starpay@gmail.com no later than August 1st. If using Paypal, please send your information (name, e-mail address, phone number, workshop choices, and RWA number, if applicable) to the coordinator at rav37ven@aol.com.  You will be automatically enrolled in the class during the last week of July. For more information about the Southern Tier Authors of Romance (STAR), or to see the list of other upcoming 2008 workshops, please visit: http://members.aol.com/starrwa/workshop.html.

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Barbara Vey is a very sweet lady who writes a blog for Publisher’s Weekly. It began as a blog about “women’s fiction,” but when she delved in and realized that depending on who you ask, the definition of women’s fiction is about as wide as the Grand Canyon, the blog really became about authors, the books she loves and the publishing industry.

She sent out an invitation yesterday to her one year blog anniversary party, which spread through the author community like wildfire. Over 75 of us so far have volunteered items to give away to commenters (aka party participants). So, when you get a chance, stop by, leave a comment and help us celebrate Barbara’s one year of blogging, and not only will you have a chance to win a copy of Ceremony of Seduction, but tons of other great stuff! Click here to visit the site.

I’ll be the one standing by the martini bar!

Cassie/Tina

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This is a question I’m asked quite a bit by pretty much everyone except for other romance writers or people who already love the genre.

Our genre takes quite a bit of flack from those who don’t really understand modern romance novels, and, in fact, quite a few of them have never read a romance novel.  That part always amazes me, but then again people often criticize without full information in this day and age.

I remember when I was younger, borrowing my mother’s Harlequin romances and reading about heroines who waited for alpha males to save them and swooned at the slightest provocation.  I wanted to shake some sense into them and tell them to grow a backbone!  My twelve-year-old sensibilities just couldn’t stomach more of that, so I didn’t touch another romance novel for sixteen years.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Harlequin.  Those were the kind of romances the core romance reader wanted at that time, and that’s what Harlequin provided, and they have grown and changed with the times and are still a strong company today.  However, from my “worldly” twelve-year-old perspective at the time, those books made me shudder!

That’s not to say that I wasn’t an avid reader during those years.  No, just the opposite.  I devoured Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan and anything else that caught my interest in the sci-fi/fantasy section of the bookstore.  But I made a wide berth around the romance section.

Now here’s a funny side note.  My parents and most of my friend’s parents thought we were reading books with wizards and dragons and spaceships in them, which was true.  But if they had only known the amount of steamy sex (and yes, even romance) in those books, they would’ve taken them away from me post haste!  In fact, my son KNOWS I know what he’s reading and what he’s not since I’ve read most of the books he is starting to pick up, and if I haven’t read it, I’m such a quick reader that I finish it before he gets very far.  (Poor kid!  LOL)

Anyway, back to my main point.  I spent those sixteen years of my life sneering at the romance genre without really realizing all the changes that had taken place.

But then, fate intervened.

I went on vacation with a friend and ran out of books.  (I mentioned I’m a quick reader, right?  I meant it…lol)  We weren’t close to a book store (sacrilege!), so I borrowed one of hers–BORN IN FIRE by Nora Roberts.

I can still remember diving into that book and becoming thoroughly hooked!  Not only did it have a rich plot, great setting (one of the richest descriptions of Ireland I’ve ever seen in a novel), characters that jumped off the page and made me believe that if I got off the plane in Ireland today that these people actually live and thrive there.  However, it also had some great love scenes and took me through an entire range of emotions before I got to the words “The End.”  I was hooked!

I finished it within the day and the next day drove an hour into the next town to find a book store.  You can imagine my surprise when I found the other two books in the trilogy (BORN IN ICE & BORN IN SHAME) in the romance section!!  A little more time spent perusing books in this section I hadn’t stepped foot in in sixteen years showed me that many of my favorite genres had now blended with romance.  There was sci-fi romance, fantasy romance, horror romance, paranormal romance, romance with suspense and even erotic romance, just to name a few.  This was my kind of romance!

Needless to say, as I sit here today, a multi-published romance author under two different pen names, I’m very glad to have stumbled onto that Nora Robert’s book when I did.  And, in fact, I did thank Nora when I finally met her at a Romance Writers of America conference in 2004, and she weathered my fan adoration with poise and a smile. :)  Thanks Nora!

So, what made me think of this blog?  I just finished a book that sucked me in, kept me interested, introduced me to characters who will stay with me for quite a while, and took me through a gamut of emotions from outrage to sadness to joy, and there were tears of happiness in my eyes as I read the last line of the book.   The book was THE PERFECT KISS by Anne Gracie, a historical romance, and I highly recommend you read it if you haven’t yet.

If like a lot of others, you haven’t given the romance genre a try lately, or at all, you may be missing out on some of the best books you’ve ever read.  Not to mention some great gargoyles, vampires, fairies, Klatch witches and angels. (self promotion, plug, plug, plug…lol)  But seriously, give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.

Cassie/Tina

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Every now and then I do a google search on each of my pen names and my book titles. It’s a great way to find out if you have any new reviews on your books you didn’t know about, what readers are saying on their blogs, which countries are carrying and selling your books and much more.

However, during my latest foray around the world wide web, I found a review on Amazon UK titled “Hated It,” which detailed a bunch of reasons why they, well…hated it.

Now I’ve been in this business long enough to know that some occasional bad reviews are just part of being a writer. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t wince with each bad word written about me or my work. And the fact that I’ve seen literally dozens of great reviews or great comments for every bad one doesn’t seem to make those few bad ones hurt any less. After all, a lot of myself went into each and every book, and no matter how much practice you get - it’s hard to realize that criticisms of your work aren’t really criticisms of you.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t dwell on those few bad comments for very long, but they do strike a blow to my writing self-esteem for a few long seconds.

I know some writers who refuse to look at ANY reviews or comments about their books or their pen names. I’ve thought about adopting that same practice, but reading those great reviews and those great letters I get from readers really gives me a boost, and helps me speed forward through whatever writing I have to accomplish for that day. So, I guess I’m not willing to totally turn my back on all reviews, which means I just have to develop some tough skin and keep on hoping the good to bad ratio stays at much more good than bad.
How does everyone else handle the occasional bad review? Any nuggets of wisdom?

Cassie/Tina

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Lately I’ve heard of a bunch of people jumping on the bandwagon of writing to Soundtracks. 
 

I had never heard of this before last year when my friend Cheyenne McCray mentioned that she does it. 
 

I had always written and just tuned everything else out.  (Hey, I grew up in a household full of people who yelled and now I have a kid, I’m good at tuning out excess noise)  I can even write and ignore TV unless it’s a movie I really like J  But I knew I couldn’t write to music with words, because then I tend to type the words, which doesn’t really help my WIP and would most likely get me into trouble for copyright violation.
 

But when Cheyenne suggested it, she told me that some of those soundtracks are such great mood music that it really enhanced her writing.  So, I figured, what the hell, right?  I have nothing to lose if it doesn’t work.  I had a few soundtracks sitting around the house, Star Wars and The Mummy, so I loaded them up on my iPOD and took them with me for my midday Starbucks writing time.
 

I was amazed at the difference that writing to soundtracks made in my writing.  Cheyenne was completely right.  The “mood” of the soundtracks really fired my creativity and my productivity, so now my iPOD is a staple whenever I write away from the house and sometimes when I’m here.  (Sorry, honey – it was really hard for me to write while you were playing guitar and singing and the TV was going in the background…)     Anyway, having the headphones in and being surrounded by this huge, mood music really helped me suck myself deep inside the story and I think my writing was much better because of it.
 

I’ve expanded my soundtracks to include Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 & 3, Mummy 2 and Van Helsing.  I just stick them on shuffle and let them play.  It’s not really the individual songs – although if I’m in a tender love scene and something bloodthirsty or battle sounding comes on – I can just forward past it.  And for the most part – I don’t even really “hear” the music, but the mood definitely steeps inside my unconscious. 
 

I’d love to add to my collection.  Things like The Bourne Identity, The Rock, Harry Potter (any of them), and Robin Hood.  If anyone else has some good ones to share – let me know and I’ll add them to my Wish List for my family J
 

Happy Writing!
Tina/Cassie

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