Up In The Air

I was recently asked by my agent to give an estimate of when I might be able to get her a revised final copy of the complete manuscript she's currently shopping around for me. I really wish I could tell her.

Not because I don't have a clue how long it takes me to type in (I'm one of those freakish throwbacks who writes first drafts in longhand) and revise half a manuscript, but because my "life" is currently up in the air. The fella is waiting to hear on a job offer that will potentially have us moving halfway--no, about 3/4 of the way across Texas. We currently live in the Panhandle (that's the square, not-very-panhandle-looking part that sticks up at the top, for those of you who aren't familiar with the nomenclature), one of the more westerly parts of the state. The new job, if it happens, will take us to the Texas Gulf Coast. (Yeah, I know, they have hurricanes. We have tornados. Not a lot of difference, IMO.) But until I know whether I will be packing up my household goods and moving them over the summer, I don't really know how long it will take me to get this ms. revised and sent off to the agent, because I don't know how much time I'll have.

Summer is already filled with three conferences (an all-genre one in June, RWA's conference in July, and a science fiction/fantasy con in August), plus the mandatory visits from the grandboys, so I'm already working around those as is. If we add a move (and the insanity-making elements of selling and buying a house) to that--well... But I do keep thinking how much fun it will be to introduce my landlocked grandsons to the beach. I don't want them, like my nephews once did--mistaking a golf course sand-and-water hazard for the beach...

(My middle sister lives in Idaho, and when our kids were little and her family came to visit the Texas branch of the family, we got a golf course condo in Rockport, on the Aransas Pass (No "k" in Aransas, and it's pronounced ah-RAN-sahs), because we thought it would be safer with a horde of pre-schoolers. There was a pond behind the condo, surrounded with sand, and when we all arrived, the nephews spotted that pond, and went running out to it screaming "The beach! The beach!" They were duly impressed when they saw the "real" beach.)

I do know in general how long it takes me to write a book of a given length. And I know how long it takes me to get it revised and ready to ship out. Of course, given the fact that my books tend to grow when I'm writing them, it can sometimes take a little longer than I expect to reach the end. The writing business is insane as it is. When you add life to it... the insanity compounds.

Has life tripped you up lately? We'll listen, if you want to share.

Family Stories, Available Now!

Last Monday, I did an errand for my son and realized I was next door to the bookstore where I would soon be holding my book signing for my new release. Even though my book wasn't supposed to be out yet, I thought I would slip in and see where it would be shelved. When I rounded the corner of the romance aisle, I saw three copies of the book already displayed!

At first, I wasn't sure if the books were really there. Over the years, I've done a lot of positive imaging, standing in front of bookshelves and envisioning my book next to some of my favorite authors. A tiny part of me wondered if my active imagination was once again helping me with this writing process.

This time, no imagination was involved. The books were really there!

FAMILY STORIES, for the new Harlequin Everlasting Love imprint, is my first mass market book. I've published others for a more select market -- the libraries and educational markets. Finding the books listed in the library was fun. But seeing the books on a shelf in a bookstore was a much different thrill. Now I can have friends go into a real store and buy the book, rather than selling author copies out of my car trunk. While that's satisfying in its own way, seeing the book on the shelf makes this whole process more valid to me.

I stood in front of that shelf for a few more minutes and then started to leave, planning to come back later with a camera. Then I remembered my sons had convinced me we needed phones with cameras this time. I stopped the nearest stockboy and asked if he would take a picture of me with my book.

He gave me an odd look. I quickly assured him this wasn't just a book that I was buying but one that I had written. I grinned at the look he then gave me. He looked at me and then my book and then snapped a picture of me standing in front of the Romance Series section, holding a copy of Family Stories.

I thought I could include the picture today but the computer-savvy son is off at University and I had to finally quit trying to make it happen. Instead, I'll direct you to the copy of Family Stories listed on the side of our blog. And if you'd like to stop in and pick up your own copy -- at a real bookstore -- well, my next picture is going to be me walking in and not finding any books on the shelves! Because that means somebody bought them!

Barbara Freethy Asks: What's In a Cover?

Since it's Wondering Wednesdays, I thought I'd ponder the subject of covers. I have been both blessed and cursed by the Cover Gods as you can see by the accompanying photos. My recent romantic suspense, TAKEN, received First Prize in the Houston RWA's Cover Contest for romantic suspense. Published by NAL, I think this cover did what a romantic suspense is supposed to do -- it grabbed the reader's eye with bold colors and a different look.

However, when I was writing more in the single title romance arena, the publishers dabbled with various kinds of looks. I had a lot of flower covers, a lot of blue covers and then there was the disaster on the right. ALMOST HOME is a book set in Kentucky at the time of the Kentucky Derby. It's about a thoroughbred horse ranch and blood lines and people searching for who they really are. When Avon told me they were going to give me a "horse" cover I imagined a beautiful, inspiring thoroughbred against a moonlit sky (or something like that). As you can see I got a cross between the cartoon cover look that was just beginning to boom and well ... I'm not exactly sure what the rest of it was supposed to be ... the flowers I had before?

This cover was so bad that several major book buying accounts actually suggested it should be changed and there were plans to do so ... but then Avon got bought by Harper and there were all kinds of changes and in the midst of it all, my cover was published. Some authors would like to think that a bad cover isn't that bad ... I have to tell you that it can be ... My #'s dropped with this cover considerably. I don't think the readers knew what kind of book it was or just thought it was so ugly they didn't pick it up. Thankfully, after that Avon went back to the pretty flowers, etc.

However, "pretty" can be another problem. A friend of mine writes historicals and her covers are gorgeous, and are often some knock off of a beautiful painting, but it seems that they're almost too "pretty" or too "quiet" for the market. The book buyers seem to gravitate toward covers that hit them over the head in some way.

So I'm wondering what drives you to pick up a cover? Are there certain colors or looks that you automatically pick up? For instance do single bare-chested men attract you more than a pair of dangling female legs and sexy high heels? Or vice versa? Do you like sweeping landscape looks or Adirondack chairs at the end of a pier? (Does anyone remember when those were big?) Do you like the clinch cover? Do you feel like you know exactly what you're getting? And is that the ultimate question -- does the book have to deliver exactly the kind of story promised by the cover? Do you ever go back to check if the hero's hair color was right? God forbid the hero has red hair -- in my experience you'll rarely find a red-haired hero on the cover So, what do you think? Are there any book covers that stand out in your mind (besides Christina Dodd's three armed heroine - does anyone remember that?)

Five O'Clock Shadow

My new, sexy, funny romantic suspense (still spine-catagorized as contemporary for whatever reason known to the world of publishing) is now AVAILABLE...

Five O'Clock Shadow Kensington ISBN 0821779788
www.geniedavis.com

First, some promo/reviews; then a little background on the book.

Let's see, RT gave it four and a half stars and all of the reviews so far have been great, which warms my heart, and who knows, might improve my ranking on Amazon.

RT said - "A thoroughly engaging heroine whose witty, first-person voice and palpable love of music make this novel terrific. Davis gives all her characters strong dialogue, unique personality
traits and an amusing, offbeat plot to work their way through. But Jessie's narrative is especially delightful. The song references are great fun and in keeping with the heroine's point of view, while her relationship with the hero is steamy but with an underlying tenderness that makes their love scenes compelling.

Romance Reviews said - "...readers will soon fall in love with the dark, sexy man who captures Jessie's heart. The heart and soul of FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW, however, is the suspense that pulls you into the story and grips you till the end. I had an inkling of who was
behind the threats, but even then, it isn't really obvious. It is those kinds of red herrings
which mark FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW as an excellently told tale. Danger and passion fill the pages of FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW, and if readers haven't picked up a Genie Davis book yet, then I urge them to do so today."

And Booklist said - "Davis' romance is fun and entertaining with a real man's man as the romantic lead..."

Here's MY blurb about the book --
Jessie Adams, indie-rock DJ, part-time musician, and full-time fool for long haired rockers
makes a run for local political office to help save her best friend's music club, and finds danger in a stranger's threats and an intense affair with Chuck, a cop with his own cause. When your life depends on surviving both love and a political campaign, winning is only half the battle.

And now for a little bit of background after the endless promotion:

The small town politics in this book were inspired by my own local run for school board...although no one tried to kill me and I never met ANYONE like Chuck, I'm sure alot of people wanted to kill me for my views about the public schools in my town (not positive) It was also in part inspired by hilarious in fighting on a PTA board ...the sort of stuff that if you put in a book as it happened no one would believe it was true. Improbable! Unlikely! A PTA! That's supposed to be civilized, unlike, say, publishing...oh, I changed the name of my town to a fictious town -- only to find out later (but too late to change!) that such a town by such a name does exist nearby.

Lastly, the back cover copy refers to Waikiki. The book has nothing but a glancing reference to Waikiki. The book was running too long and I cut out a hundred pages prior to turning in the complete manuscript. This is what happens when your publisher does not let you see the back cover copy before they print it...

On Danger's Edge--Counting Your Blessings

It's a Sunday, in fact, Super Bowl Sunday, and today I'm sitting here counting my blessings. It isn't about Super Bowl. No, I'm not much of a football fan, but it is about being grateful. I'm glad God has given me the opportunity to write, to have the life that I have. Oh, it took a while. Part of it had to do with me believing in myself. But I'm grateful for the lessons. I'm blessed in that somehow, the Great One found a way to put the family in my life that I have--for the good and the bad, as we celebrate the good and learn from ours and others mistakes. Life has a way of changing you whether you want it to or not. Sometimes we just need to embrace that change.

Last year was a tough one for me. My husband was deployed and my mother passed away. And there were other, smaller and less important emergencies that happened that my son and I dealt with. The writing helped me. I was able to finish another book. Intimate Deceptions came out in November.

But things has a way of working themselves out. This year has been a year of good things. Intimate Deceptions is getting stellar reviews. I've gotten a Recommended Read from Joyfully Reviewed and the very first Coffee Time Reviewers Recommend Award. Then there was the biggest news of my writing career--my nomination for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards for Small Press for my book On Danger's Edge, which was reviewed by Romantic Times last year. I'd gotten 4 1/2 stars on it. which thrilled me at the time as well. To me, this was incredible. Yep. The biggest thing in my writing career to date. And yes, I'm grateful. I'm grateful that people are willing to read my writing, much less like it!

And I'm thrilled that I can make a difference to someone, even if it is just a short respite in their everyday lives. And grateful that there are wonderful people that I deal with in this profession.

My husband is home now. I'm thankful for that. And he has a position training troops for combat, one that should keep him stateside for a while--a blessing.

At times like these, I think and pray for all those who have gone through periods like mine. It is my greatest hope that they see beyond the moment--see the greater things that lie ahead. Change isn't always good. And sometimes its fearful.

But there is always a lesson of growth in it.

Many blessings to you all, and have an excellent day--even with the Super Bowl!

~ Lise

How much danger would you face for the perfect romance?

Lise Fuller, www.lisefuller.com, ROMANTIC TIMES REVIEWERS CHOICE NOMINEE for 2006; Pikes Peak Romance Writers 2006 Writer of the Year

~On Danger's Edge, print-03/07, available in e-book, Cerridwen Press, http://www.cerridwenpress.com/, 4 1/2 Stars from Romantic Times

~Intimate Deceptions, available in e-book, Cerridwen Press, http://www.cerridwenpress.com/, RECOMMENDED READS from Coffee Time Romance and Joyfully Reviewed

~Cutting Loose, print-04/07, available in e-book, Cerridwen Press, http://www.cerridwenpress.com/