Check Out My Guest Blog on Using Screenwriting Tricks in Your Novel!

Apologies for the blogging hiatus, dear readers; one of my friends passed away a month ago, just before I went on a three-week roadtrip (during which I drove 4500 miles), and it has taken me awhile to get back into my regularly scheduled life. I will be active here again any day now -- but to tide you over, check out my guest post on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog. I'm chatting with my fellow 2009 Golden Heart finalists about using screenwriting tricks to plot your novel -- please stop by and say hi!

Writing Life: I Wish I Could Be "Limitless"

I saw the Bradley Cooper vehicle "Limitless" a few weeks ago and loved it, despite the somewhat mixed reviews. Early in the movie, he starts taking a drug that grants access to the 9/10ths of the brain we supposedly don't use, and the first thing he did was overcome his writer's block and finish his novel in four days. He went on to do lots of other things unrelated to writing and entirely related to shady dealings, but for me, the writing fantasy was simply wonderful. And my fascination, despite the negative side effects the character suffered, certainly worried my friend -- she kept leaning over the armrest to whisper, "No! No drugs!"

Luckily, the drug was fictional, and given that I don't indulge in anything stronger than Diet Coke (and the occasional mojito or three), I'm not in serious danger. But I read a Salon book review today that brought it all rushing back. And if that book can cure my block without the side effects of a (fictional) drug, perhaps it's worth exploring.

The article is here; it briefly discusses "Limitless", but is more focused on a book called "The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain" by neurologist Alice Weaver Flaherty. This quote from the article stood out to me: "In other words, beyond a certain point, the more difficult a writing task, and the more you think it matters, the more likely you are to become blocked."

I'll have to buy that book and get back to you on the rest of it, but that pretty much sums up my writing experience to date. If I'm just writing for fun, or if I have a pressing deadline, the words come out automagically. But if there is no deadline, just an exhortation to write the best book possible, and if the idea I have is so wonderful that I despair of ever getting it onto the page, I end up curling up into a ball and staring at the ceiling, wishing that my calling was something less difficult and more lucrative, like dentistry or accounting. (note: no offense meant to dentists or accountants)

I eventually manage to get the story out of my head, once I get over the fear, but the fear stage is a dark one. And if someone offered me a pill and said that it would cure the block...

...I don't think I would take it. Not out of any sense of nobility or morality -- I'm not a saint. But I would question whether whatever I wrote was really me, whether the experience was an authentic one or was somehow twisted as the chemicals in my brain realigned themselves. And for all that I complain about the block, I love what I produce when I overcome it -- and overcoming it is just a part of my process, the same as proofreading or daydreaming or rewriting is.

Do you struggle with writer's block? How do you handle it? And would you take the magic pill or suffer on without it?

How to Follow One of the Top Romantic Comedies of All Time

This is so totally not Regency-related; it's not even book-related. But, I trust that you will give me the liberty to occasionally post other things that amuse me. And right now, I am amused by this short movie for a supposed sequel to "When Harry Met Sally". This isn't a fan-made ripoff; it stars Billy Crystal and Helen Mirren. Let's just say that their attempts to refresh the story for a modern audience are hilarious. Check out the video here and let me know what you think! And if you have other videos I should watch while procrastinating, please do share.

Steal This Look: Striped Evening Gowns

What's old in fashion is always new again -- and I would certainly rather steal from the Regency period than from the 1980s. While the west coast hipsters gradually descend into '80s-ville and drag the rest of us with them, I'm fighting the trend and trying to stay true to my own style. The biggest style issue I'm facing right now is the search for an evening dress for the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart/RITA awards ceremony. It's a posh, glittery affair, and since I'm a Golden Heart finalist this year, I'd like to look my best. But where, in the name of all that's holy, can I find a dress that is both demure and cutting-edge, classic and modern? And is there any magic potion that can make me look taller than 5'0"? I can't find anything for my height problem (other than unwearably high heels), but I may be onto something for the dress...

During the Regency, vertical stripes were in. The dress on the left is from 1810, and you can see the usual odd tradeoffs made by Regency women -- anything above the ankle was much too scandalous to be shown, but one's breasts could (and should!) be displayed just above a precariously high waist. For evening, sleeves could be quite short, but some desultory attempt to cover at least a bit of the shoulder was de rigueur. While this lady has taken one of her gloves off (she's such a shameless hussy), gloves were always worn when out of doors, and ladies usually wore quite long gloves with their evening gowns.

Sadly, I don't own any hats or bonnets; I haven't even had a baseball cap since I was in high school, and since I wasn't invited to the royal wedding, I haven't invested in any grand hats or fascinators. I may be living the hip Regency writer life, but there's little use for dress hats when my social life typically consists of going out for casual dinners. But, the vertical stripes are quite flattering for someone of my, er, modest height. And, I've always found the empire waistline to be more flattering for my figure than anything else -- so perhaps stealing from the Regency will work for me.

During my search, I stumbled across this dress from Betsey Johnson. I usually avert my gaze when I walk past her store in the mall, since most of the dresses seem to just barely cover one's girly parts and I have nowhere to wear them to even if I wasn't afraid of a Britney Spears circa 2008 display of all my goods whenever sitting down or exiting cars. But, this dress is lovely. It's made of taffeta, which existed during the Regency, and it has the lovely striped theme that I'm looking for. It also has a banded empire waist like so many Regency dresses, without giving me a thrust-up shelf of cleavage that would be utterly wasted on an audience of 2000 women with hardly a male in sight. It's hip, fresh, feminine, interesting...and, sadly, $450. A Regency heiress wouldn't bat an eyelash at that, but I'm not quite an heiress, so I suppose it's back to the drawing board.

Are you looking for a dress for a special occasion? What have you found? If you're not looking for a dress but would like to contribute to my dress fund, please feel free to email me :)

What I'm Reading: April 2011

I'm on a bit of a reading binge -- of all the binges I engage it, it's the worst for my eyesight, but my hips are certainly happy that I'm choosing books over cupcakes. But since I just finished a manuscript of my own, I'm taking some time to make a dent in my to-be-read pile. The pile is more like a Hydra than a finite resource, and books that I've always meant to read somehow manage to spring up and replace anything I finish, but that is not such a bad problem to have. Here's a taste of what I've read and what I hope to read in April -- what am I missing?

Finished:

- Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet (starting with VISION IN WHITE). Borders's demise was my gain, since I got the whole quartet in trade paperback at 50% off, and I read them over the course of two days (I told you I was bingeing). They're sweet, utterly charming, and put me into the darkest despair over whether I will be able to write such wonderful stories consistently for the next three decades like Ms. Roberts has.

- Deanna Raybourn's SILENT IN THE GRAVE and SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY. These have been on my TBR pile for ages, ever since I got SANCTUARY for free at the '09 RWA conference, but it was her latest release (DARK ROAD TO DARJEELING) that finally prompted me to read them. I love India, so I can't wait to get to DARJEELING, but I was a good girl and went back to the beginning of the series first. These books are wonderful -- the Victorian mystery with strong romantic elements and a very slight tinge of paranormal is a nice break from what I usually read, and the heroine is great. Better, the hero is my favorite kind of brooding, enigmatic alpha male -- I very much recommend them (and him ;).

- Anne Stuart's RUTHLESS. This reminded me a lot of Georgette Heyer's THESE OLD SHADES, if Heyer had written sex scenes (which would have made her books the best romance novels in the history of the world). However, I can only recommend RUTHLESS if you have a secret fondness for the bad old romances of the '80s -- there's more kidnapping/coercion than one usually sees in modern romances. If you, like me, have a tattered collection of Johanna Lindsey books that you sometimes go to for comfort, you'll probably love this.

To Read:

- Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Okay, not so romantic. But my next book involves some ODYSSEY-like wandering, and I actually adore the translation by Robert Fagles that I linked to above. I read it all the way through a decade ago, and I'm excited to revisit it.

- Sarah MacLean's TEN WAYS TO BE ADORED WHILE LANDING A LORD. Another score from a bankrupt Borders; I loved her debut, and can't wait to read this one.

- Christina Dodd's TAKEN BY THE PRINCE. This is getting a lot of good buzz on Twitter and was recommended by a bookseller, so it's sitting on my shelf gathering dust until I get to it.

- Amanda Quick's ARCANE SOCIETY books. Her alter ego, Jayne Ann Krentz, is speaking at Kepler's Bookstore in Menlo Park on April 26, and since I devoured all of Amanda Quick's early books before somehow falling away from them, I'm eager to get back into her work before the talk.

What have you read recently? What are you planning to read? What should I add to my teetering TBR pile? Please share!

We Interrupt This Blog To Temporarily Direct You Elsewhere

Don't go away forever - this is still where it's happening (some days, when I'm not so busy living my hip writer life that I fail to blog). But, I'm blogging today over on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood site, where I interviewed my fellow '09 Golden Heart finalist Cynthia Justlin on her new release HER OWN BEST ENEMY. It's romantic suspense, not historical, but I suppose we'll forgive it this time :) Check out the interview here - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

On Pulling A Book Out Of Thin Air

The glow of finaling in the Golden Heart is still strong, but I spent enough time celebrating over the weekend. The task for this week, my dear readers, is to write an outline for my next book (tentatively titled ONE NIGHT TO SURRENDER, although all titles are subject to change without notice). The challenge with writing the outline unfortunately extends beyond trying to remember whether to use uppercase or lowercase Roman numerals - and since it's more like a synopsis than an outline, Roman numerals never come into play. Rather, the challenge is that as of right now, all I really know is that the heroine is named Ellie and that the hero is Nicholas Claiborne, marquess of Folkestone. I'm on such a roll, right?

But despite the stress of coming up with a plot out of thin air, this is one of the most entertaining parts of the entire process, and I don't want to rush it. This is when you can fall in love with the characters, before they do something unexpected on page 150 and blow your carefully constructed plot-boat out of the water (to make a somewhat questionable metaphor). This is when you can brainstorm ridiculous plots and subplots (he's a pirate! no, he's a vampire! no, he's a were-whale!) without committing to anything. This is when it all looks like it's going to be an easy, effortless book, one that you can write in perfect bursts of productivity every afternoon before going out with friends and pretending to be a glamourous writer.

So, I intend to enjoy this week, and I will keep you posted as developments unfold. I also intend to get back into blogging now that I've emerged from my editing cave - if there are Regency topics you'd love to see addressed, please let me know!

ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL is a 2011 Golden Heart finalist!

I'm so excited to report that my latest project, ONE NIGHT TO SCANDAL, is a 2011 Golden Heart finalist in the Regency historical category! I got the call this morning from Sylvia Day (after some back-and-forth due to the fact that I live in a strange cabin-like house in the 'woods' of Palo Alto and have poor cell reception), and have been celebrating like a crazy person for the past hour. More to come on this project in the next few weeks - it's finished and in the hands of my agent, so hopefully we'll start submitting to editors soon. For now, it's on to the next book, with some much-needed downtime to celebrate and regroup.

Congrats to all the other finalists in both the Golden Heart and RITA contests - I'm looking forward to meeting all of you in NYC!

What I'm Reading: March 2011

As usual, I'm not reading any historical romance at the moment. I'm too deep into edits for my current project, and I find that I can't read historicals when I need to maintain a grasp on my own voice. Instead, I've been reading more paranormal -- rather like the Regency's fascination with Gothic novels. I do find it rather interesting that works with fantastical elements appeared relatively soon after the development of the modern novel in the mid-1700s; for all that paranormal is such a huge trend right now, it's a good reminder that the paranormal boom/bust cycle has been going on for at least two centuries already. Take that, Edward Cullen! Anyway, here's what I've recently read and what I can't wait to get my hands on this month:

• DREAMS OF A DARK WARRIOR by Kresley Cole. I have been salivating for this book since approximately two seconds after I finished her last book, and it didn't disappoint. The story was v. moving, the hero was dark and brooding (just how I like 'em), and the heroine was of a particularly kick-ass variety. I can't recommend this book, and the entire Immortals After Dark series, highly enough - if you haven't tried it already, you really must. However, I must warn you that you're going to want to read the next book as soon as you finish this one, and as it's not out for another year, you're welcome to join me in wailing and gnashing of teeth while awaiting it.
• RAZIEL (THE FALLEN) by Kristina Douglas. I've been meaning to try Anne Stuart's historical books for ages, but as I mentioned before, I'm not reading historicals right now. But when I heard that she just started a new paranormal series using the name Kristina Douglas, I couldn't help myself. I generally enjoyed this book, but as usual with many series books, I get so excited by the story that is being set up for the sequel that I kind of forget to enjoy the one that I'm reading. Overall, though, it was a great 'debut' paranormal.
• Six not-to-be-named Golden Heart entries. I signed up to judge this year, and as usual, I procrastinated. I'm done now, and while I didn't thoroughly enjoy every entry that I read, there were a couple that I'm still thinking about, which is a good sign. I can't wait to see who finals in the category I judged.

As for upcoming books, I have a whole shelf of books (well, multiple shelves of books) that I intend to read as soon as I finish my edits. More specifically, I've got titles by Tessa Dare, Courtney Milan, Delilah Marvelle, and a bunch of others on the historical side; with paranormals, I'm super psyched to read the latest from Addison Fox and the debut from Tamara Hogan (both of whom were fellow 2009 GH finalists).

What are you reading? Are there any great February or March releases that I need to add to my pile?

Live Like a Regency Heroine: Replace Servants with Overpriced Appliances

Apologies for the lack of posting last week, dear readers. I took a much-needed jaunt to Monterey, where I avoided all sites of interest and locked myself in my hotel to edit my latest project. I almost felt like a Regency heroine, even though I was wearing pajamas most of the time -- as an unmarried lady with no male relative or servant to escort me, I instead confined myself to my rooms and wrote. It would get old v. fast, but for a few days, it was wonderful. But the point of this post is not Monterey -- instead, it's about servants during the Regency. In every Regency romance I've ever read, at least one of the protagonists had servants to attend to their every need (it is a fantasy, after all -- and how many of us fantasize about working twelve hours a day in a factory or toiling as a milkmaid?). Even the smallest middle-class households had at least a stout maid or footman to do the heaviest work; without any mechanized help for laundry, cleaning, cooking, or other chores, keeping up a household was endlessly grueling. But how could a family afford to hire so many servants?

The answer: human labor was incredibly cheap by today's standards. A maid could be hired for £6-8 per year, in addition to room, board, and a few articles of clothing -- roughly equivalent to only £450 ($730) per year today. As an example of what the purchasing power of those pounds was, a lady could buy roughly 12 pairs of silk stockings, or three pairs of walking boots; she could not even think of buying a cashmere shawl, which could approach a price of £60 (nearly £3370/$5480 today -- this was back when all the cashmere actually came from Kashmir and had to make its perilous way to England by sea).

Obviously, to live like a Regency heroine today, I would need to pay someone much more than $730/year to wait on me (I would also have to start wearing silk stockings instead of Uggs, but that is another matter). However, the advantage (or disadvantage, if you are a Luddite) of the Industrial Revolution is that we now have appliances to replace many of the tasks that servants used to do.

The appliance I'm currently salivating over is the Breville One-Touch Teamaker (and no, I'm not a shill for Breville - I found this on my own). It has all the bells and whistles one could ever want in a teamaker: an automatic start timer, a keep-warm function, and settings to control the exact time and temperature of steeping, since different teas require different brewing times and water temperatures. At $249.99, it seems absurdly expensive for a teamaker; after all, my teakettle, which cost approximately 15% of that, has held up for years. But, to look at it another way, the teamaker costs 1/3 of what it would have cost to hire a maid for a year, and she would have brought me hot tea whenever I wanted. With that (questionable) logic, I've almost convinced myself that it's worth the purchase. And the teamaker won't listen in on my conversations and spread my affairs to the entire ton, so that's a definite point in its favor.

Have you splurged on something lately that helps you to live like a Regency heroine? Should I buy the teamaker, or keep up the drudgery of boiling water on the stove?