Happy Fourth of July!

It is a gorgeous day in San Francisco, and while it's never clear whether the weather will hold, I've got my fingers crossed that there will be no fog to mar the fireworks tonight. I'm dragging myself down to the wharf in a few hours to go out on a boat with my visiting uncle, aunt, and cousin; barring any major weather-related problems, we should have a great view of the fireworks over the San Francisco Bay. I'm a confirmed Anglophile whose romance novels celebrate all things British, but on the Fourth I always take a moment to celebrate that we pulled one over on our mother country and won our independence. We may not have the fabulous traditions, the ancient castles, or the delicious accents, but I like to think that our dreams and our remarkably fluid society make up for our relative youth and brassiness. There are few countries in the world where a girl (shudder) from a rural farming community (double shudder) could escape a life of drudgery to attend an elite university and make a good living for herself. My path was eased by fantastic parents, but there were no real obstacles other than the limits of my own ambition, and for that I'm very grateful.

So, despite these "troubled economic times" and the various stresses and problems of the past few years, I still consider myself remarkably fortunate to have been born in America. I consider myself even more remarkably fortunate that my family and friends are so supportive of my dream of becoming a romance novelist, despite the challenges that I face along the way. And there's no better time to celebrate all of this than Independence Day.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! What are you doing to celebrate?

Snazzy New Name, Same Great Content

After much debate and back-and-forth with my agent, we have officially decided to shop my manuscript under the title ONE NIGHT TO SEDUCTION. I love it; while AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE amused me, mostly because it was an unexpected play on Al Gore's INCONVENIENT TRUTH movie, it wasn't quite what most readers are looking for. And, I can continue the theme with the next two books: ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL and ONE NIGHT TO SURRENDER. You can check out the blurbs for all three books in the "Books" section above. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

The Joys of Twitter

I was one of those people who scoffed at Twitter. Given that I didn't particularly enjoy the pressure of updating my Facebook status, I was even less enamored with the idea of doing something that was the equivalent of a hyper-updating Facebook feed. However, I'm not one to turn my back on new technologies. I live in San Francisco and have a day job in Silicon Valley, so being an early adopter is almost required. I signed up for a Twitter account a couple of months ago, expecting to update it a few times and abandon it...

...and yet I find myself in love with it. I usually update it three or four times a day, mostly with minor observances about my daily life. I also check it compulsively, and I enjoy seeing what else is going on in the Twittersphere.

But I think the real reason that I love it is because I see it as a challenge. I refuse to compromise my grammar or spelling to fit into the 140-character limit -- and so expressing myself in my natural style within such a small format is no easy feat. Perhaps it's no surprise that I'm drawn to that kind of challenge. In general, I tend to tread the most difficult paths. For instance, setting a goal of supporting myself as a novelist is about as frustrating as attempting to turn lead into gold, and yet I'm not going to let anything stop me. When put into perspective like that, keeping my Twitter feed updated is beyond easy.

You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ramseyromance, or read my updates in the sidebar of this website. What do you think of Twitter?

The End of the Agent Hunt

I have fabulous news to report -- my search for an agent is over! It all ended much more quickly and dramatically than I expected. Two weeks ago, I was worried that I might never sign (yes, I'm impatient -- it often takes years to sign). But then, last Thursday, a totally wonderful agent called me while I was at work to offer representation!

She was already at the top of my list based on her reputation, and her sheer enthusiasm for my work while she offered representation was enough to put her over the top. Still, I've read enough horror stories about failed agent/author relationships to be wary, and so I contacted the other agents who were considering my work to let them know that I had received an offer. By the end of the weekend, two other agents had made offers -- and so as of Memorial Day, I was suddenly in the unexpected position of having to come up with interview questions so that I could choose between the three offers!

I spoke to all of them on Tuesday, and while I felt that all of them could have been good fits for my work (and one in particular was the other top agent on my list, making my choice more difficult), I ultimately decided that the first agent was the best fit for my long-term goals. I mailed the contracts on Friday, and we're talking again this week to discuss the process for submissions to publishing houses.

So, it's been a complete whirlwind, and obviously I'm very excited. However, I realized while I was on the phone with one of them that I've successfully scaled the agent mountain and reached the peak -- only to discover that there's another, bigger mountain looming in the form of beginning the search for a publisher. Happily, my agent (I love saying that!) will be my partner on that climb, so I'm not alone -- but this is by no means a done deal. I spent the weekend brooding over that sobering fact, but I can't brood for long; the excitement of continuing to make progress towards my goals will pick me up again.

This means that, as of tonight, "The Agent Hunt" will be retired as a label -- staring this week, "The Publisher Hunt" will begin! Stay tuned...

Bone Daddy

I had to share this deal that I found in my latest email from Publishers Marketplace:

FICTION: WOMEN'S/ROMANCE
R.G. Alexander's BONE DADDY, a three-novella single-author erotic anthology about a sexually charged voodoo spirit, the people whose bodies he inhabits, and the mischief he creates, to Kate Seaver at Berkley HEAT, for publication in summer 2010, by Roberta Brown of the Brown Literary Agency.

The reason I had to share is because my father, for whatever reason, likes to say "bone daddy" in a rather menacing voice when he's got his electric carving knife out and ready to do some damage to a ham or turkey. Reading this sale announcement and hearing my father's voice in my head saying "bone daddy" has scarred me for life!

Today was fine on the writing front, albeit not fantastic; I wrote ~2000 words, which is less than half of what I wanted to write, but is still eight pages farther along than I was before today. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write tomorrow, but the day job requires some serious attention. Have a lovely Sunday!

Bloom Where You're Planted

While my day job provides many benefits (such as a paycheck) and many frustrations (such as the sixty-plus-hour weekly commitment that pulls me away from my writing), what keeps me going back is my fabulous set of coworkers. I'm very lucky in that I actually enjoy seeing many of the people I work with; there are always the occasional people whom I avoid when I see them walking down the hall, but they are far outnumbered by the people whom I would gladly sacrifice ten minutes of precious worktime to catch up with.

I had a meeting today with one of my direct reports, and the meeting reminded me just how lucky I am to work with these people, and even more importantly how much I just need to figure out how to balance the job and the writing and not get frustrated when either one is not going exactly right. The person I met with was an officer in Iraq and served two tours before leaving the Army and going into the private sector. As we were talking, he mentioned something that his grandmother told him before he left for Iraq -- that it was important to "bloom where you're planted." Isn't that excellent advice? Regardless of whatever situation you end up in, you can still strive to bloom in it.

This is far sappier than I usually get, so I apologize for the uncharacteristic lapse. I will be back to my regularly scheduled snark tomorrow!

My Favorite Things: Hair Tinsel

Occasionally I intend to post things that I currently love. Top of mind (and head, ha) right now is hair tinsel! One of my friends got it last week, and I just had to copy her; I adore sparkly, shiny accessories, and luckily my day job allows me certain freedoms in terms of my ability to occasionally act like I'm sixteen. Since I have never dyed my hair and do not intend to start until the grey starts its inevitable assault, hair tinsel is an appealing option for adding some flare to my hair without damaging it.

Essentially, the tinsel is hair-width metallic fibers that a stylist ties to individual strands of hair near the roots. Once tied in place, the strands stay there until the hairs fall out. The tinsel can be shampooed, styled, blow-dried, etc., just like normal hair -- but I would swoon with ecstasy if my normal hair could ever turn to tinsel on command.

Ten strands of metallic purple tinsel later, and my long brunette hair suddenly has an edge to it that I adore. It's not over-the-top noticeable, but I love when the metallic strands catch the light. While it's not something I would do all the time, I'm pretty sure I will have to do it again for the RWA conference -- perhaps a color to match my Golden Heart Award Ceremony dress?

To see what hair tinsel looks like, check out this site; I got the tinsel put in at a salon in Silicon Valley. Enjoy, and comment if you decide to get tinsel!

I Love Me Some Star Trek

I didn't expect to love "Star Trek" quite as much as I did, but it had the perfect blend of action, comedy, and character development to kick off the summer movie-going season. And quite unexpectedly, this is the only movie I can remember in which I cried in the first ten minutes.

And if nothing else, I have a new inspiration for my bad-boy heroes -- Chris Pine as Captain Kirk is fabulous! Check him out below...

I Need To Get On the Rewriting Classics Train

My favorite new deal from Publishers Marketplace for this week is:

Janet Mullany's THE IMMORTAL JANE AUSTEN, a humorous novel about Jane Austen in Regency England who joins the vampire resistance in Bath when England is invaded by French forces, to May Chen at Harper, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency (world).

WTF? What is it with Jane Austen being rewritten in a variety of ridiculous ways? I need to get on this bandwagon; it's just too bad that by the time I finish a book for this trend, the trend will already be dead. I suppose that means I should focus on submitting AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, rather than developing a version of Upton Sinclair's THE JUNGLE in which he explores the horrors of the meatpacking industry and discovers that all meatpackers are, in fact, syphilitic zombies intent on infecting the American population in an effort to upgrade from their filthy tenement apartments.

Actually, given the state of the market, that idea may have promise...

In Which This Author Receives a Shock

Sincere apologies for my silence over the past few days. It's been something of a whirlwind (as all of my weeks are -- for some reason, I haven't had a single week in months that was devoid of chaos), and the blog was deprioritized as a result. I found out last Wednesday that one of the final-round judges for the Golden Heart wanted to see my full manuscript!

The good news is that this indicates that the editor has some level of interest in acquiring my book. The bad news is that I was in the middle of doing some revisions, and I only had forty-eight hours to submit my full manuscript to the RWA office. Needless to say, this was cause for alarm; while none of my edits were dramatic, I wasn't as far along as I would have liked. Luckily, I work at one of the few places in corporate America in which my boss and all of my directors are supportive of both my writing career (and yes, they know I'm writing romance) and my "real" career, and so I was able to take Thursday afternoon off to polish up my draft. Now it's back to the grind to get caught up at work, but a request from an editor made my week :)