Moving Blogs

I’ve been running a couple of blogs on WordPress for a while now, and I love their stats and ease of use.  But they have one big disadvantage – no notification if anyone posts a comment.  Lengthy trials have proved to me that I *need* that feature, or I just don’t check back and reply.  So I’ve decided to move my blog over to Blogger.

Of course, since I posted that, they added the function to WordPress too! So I am reviving this blog after all. Currently running both in parallel and seeing whether that works or – if not – which one it makes sense to get rid of.

An interview with Lex Valentine

Who has been the biggest influence upon your work?

I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, but until the past two years, I’ve kind of cyclical. I’ll write, then I won’t. So I would say that if we’re just talking about this current cycle, which I feel is really my strongest and final cycle (I doubt I will ever stop now as I have in the past because I seem to have found my niche)… I would say that Katie MacAlister and Julia Quinn have influenced me the most because I identify so well with the way they mix humor into their stories. And Katie also because that’s where the genus for The Bar Story came from. Writing at The Bar is what put me on the path that I’m on now. The friends I’ve made there are priceless to me, in particular Jen, Laurie, and Mary. They too have been an influence on my work.

What upcoming project of your own are you most excited about?

I should really be the most excited about Shifting Winds since I just signed a contract for it. However, I think Silver Lining which has been subbed to Midnight Showcase is the story I’m most excited about. This story was born from a song I heard by Lady Antebellum and a fantasy I had of my ex. It’s an intensely personal story for me.

While doing research have you ever done anything really exciting or
strange?

Not really. Although, I did have to email a friend in Scotland who is into BDSM to ask him about floggers and whips when I was writing The Whip & the Chair, the 3^rd story of my trilogy for the Pink Chair Diaries. And strangely enough, it’s not Whip that my friend likes the best. He likes The Wiz & the Chair better as evidenced by the comment he left on it. All the cemetery stuff in Shifting Winds I know because I work in that industry.

Who is your favorite fictional character created by someone other than yourself?

If I don’t count the characters at The Bar (an online paranormal/urban fantasy where I write) and I choose only from published works… Colin Bridgerton in Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn or Julian St. Claire in Riding the Rail by Julia Devlin. If I did count The Bar it hands would hands down be Alaric Kohl who was created by and written by my friend Jennifer Morgan. In fact, Alaric totally wins out over the other two.

Who is your own favorite character?

Right now my own favorite character is Alexa Harte, a vampire in my WIP entitled Never Been Bit. Alexa lost her bloodmate and because of it, she shouldn’t be alive. She doesn’t know how or why she survived the loss of her bloodmate and she’s pretty heartsore, but she’s feisty and amusing even though underneath she’s ripped to shreds.

What are you enjoying reading at the moment?

I’ve been riveted by two of the series written by Jennifer Leeland. The Command series takes place on the planet Asberek. The other series is a BDSM lifestyle series set in Northern California. I’ve read the two books in each series and they just left me panting for more. The third book in the Command series will be out soon and Jen’s hard at work on the third book in the other series. She’s a great writer, and a great friend. At the moment, she’s the only author I’ve been re-reading too!

Do you do anything to summon up inspiration – write to music, have a special writing hat etc?

I don’t like to have distractions. I hate it when my kid plops onto my bed and turns my TV up full blast with House or Ghost Hunters on. Sometimes I have to shut the doors to keep the kittehs out because they’re rowdy too. I sometimes play music if I think it will help the mood, but otherwise, there’s nothing really. I just need to have the characters in mind and the keyboard in front of me.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I work a lot. I’m IT so sometimes I get calls on the weekend or in the evening. I read a lot. I talk on Twitter on the Yahoo loops and YIM to friends. I play an online horse racing sim game and I moderate the message board there for the game creator. Other than that, I spend my time reading the blogs in my feed reader and commenting on them. The blogging community I belong to is the greatest group of people. I’ve met some of them in person, and I adore them.

What works in progress have you got on the go at the moment?

I have Alexa’s story which is one of the Twisted Tales of the Darkworld. I also have an urban fantasy called Dream State about mutants who are the only ones who can see the monsters who have been invading the world. Then there’s A Heart to Match which is a contemporary cougar romance about a model who falls in love with a romance author because of her blog and vice versa. I’m also about half finished with Hot Water, the sequel to Shifting Winds. It’s about the siblings of the couple in Shifting Winds. And finally, I have a ménage story called The Hedonist Club about a woman who buys a software company and falls in love with it’s former owner, who has just retired (at a young age) and bought a swinger’s club. The last thing I’ve got going are two plots that I’ve barely starting the writing for. One, is the third book of the Twisted Tales of the Darkworld – What You Wish For, and the other is the sequel to Hot Water. And finally, I have Regency romance that has 75K words and an ending I won’t write because I don’t like what I’ve plotted. After a year, I’ve gone back to the drawing board on the ending for this. I don’t want to waste 75K words.

Tell us about the books you have out:

I haven’t been pubbed yet, but I recently received my first contract for a novella called Shifting Winds which is about a vampire who wants a one night stand and picks up a dragon who is a home and hearth kinda guy looking for his mate. It was picked up by Pink Petal Books and will be out in the spring of 2009. I’m currently working on the sequel to this book, which I hope to sub to PPB as well. In addition, I have 3 other manuscripts subbed. Runaway Train is a short, erotic story about a female vampire named Dante who meets a werewolf named Roman on a train. It’s pretty much nothing but sex. Silver Lining is about a woman in her early 40’s who tries once last time to find someone to love. What she actually finds is a past love that she never forgot. The Pixie Prince is a Twisted Tale of the Darkworld. Each of the twisted tales in my world is based on a fairy tale, folklore, legend, or nursery rhyme. This story is a twisted version of the Princess & the Pea staring Max Fever an underwear model who becomes the Pixie Prince.

If your book became a big Hollywood film, who would you cast to play your characters?

For Shifting Winds, I see actor Victor Webster as Declan and maybe someone like Anne Hathaway as Elysia. I often visualize my characters as someone. Model Travis Fimmel is Max Fever the Pixie Prince and model Katie Green is Alexa Harte. I see model Anderson Dornelles as Olivier Wilde. Actress Rachel McAdams is Dante DeAmbrose and model Rafael Lazzini is Roman Wulf.

Have you ever won any writing awards? If so, what?

I recently won third place in a Halloween Flash Fiction contest sponsored by the Seven Wicked Writers. The five finalists were judged by the publisher of eXtasy books who then actually invited all five of us to submit to her a finished project based on the flash fiction. I’ve also won some writing contests on writer websites and message boards.

Do you think you have specific themes you continue to return to? If so what are they?

I’m a cougar, so I tend to lean toward cougar themes. I also have a tendency to go for stories where someone has lost their mate or lost a lot in their life, characters with a despair so great it’s almost ingrained, who find love and have their life renewed by it. The only other theme I can think of that I tend to favor is the one of lost love that’s found again.

What one thing are you the most proud of in your life?

My teenage daughter Nikki. Recently, she got a job as an internet DJ (Stikki Nikki at Outlaw Radion on fubar.com) and it’s been really awesome watching her blossom and learn responsibility.

Do you characterize by observation or introspection?

Both. It’s different for each character. Some are better described by their own thoughts. A character like Maris in Silver Lining is a creature of introspection. She holds her cards, her heart, her soul, close to her chest and doesn’t reveal things to others. The only way a reader gets to know her is through her own thoughts. A character like Declan Antaeus in Shifting Winds is deep, but he’s basically WYSIWYG. He’s outgoing and charming, intelligent and deeply committed to his family, an honor bound man who isn’t afraid to show his emotions. A character like that is often better described by the other characters.

Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?

My favorite author changes all the time. Currently, I have to read ANYTHING by Jennifer McKenzie/Jennifer Leeland. I love Jen’s writing. Of course, when she’s writing on my blog that I’m brilliant, I love that the most. Just kidding. Hee hee. I think I really love her characters from Asberek. They are people you can identify with. She really gets under their skin and shows the reader who they are. I love a writer who can do that. My favorite genre is paranormal romance. Anything with vamps usually. I love those biters!

Have you seen those ‘author’s cave’ photos that show the office/study/corner of the table where famous writers work?

What does yours look like? OMG. I don’t know if I could show it. I have a totally messy desk. It’s an old IKEA desk and the white paint is dirty and scuffed. I have soda cans, water bottles, and candy wrappers and coffee mugs as well as bills and little giraffes on it. Actually, there are a few photos of my desk on my Flickr account because the cats like to sleep on it and we’re always taking photos of them. I built my computer myself. I have a 19” LCD monitor that I love and a leather chair and a cool little foot rest. I’m comfy mostly but it’s a pigsty. LOL

Do you enjoy TV and movies? If so, what are your favorite shows/films? Do you find they inspire your writing?

I don’t watch much TV and I never go to the movies. I do watch CSI and I do a recap for a friend’s TV blog at snackiepoo.com/teevee. I also watch In Plain Sight. Other than that, I watch nothing but sports: horse racing on TVG and auto racing on SpeedChannel or ESPN. Sometimes I will see something that inspires me, but usually it’s people who inspire me, or something I’ve read.

Now, use this space to tell us more about yourself.

I’ve been on the internet since 1995. I’ve had winterheart.com about that long. I’m kind of a domain idiot. I have a bunch of them. Here’s a list of them:

Winterheart.com – My personal website under my longtime nickname Winterheart (long time as in 20+ years). Most of my friends call me Winter and have for more than 20 years.

Sunlightsucks.com – My personal blog where Winter bitches about life and posts hotties.

Lexvalentine.com – My official author website. You’ll find all the info about my writing and WIPs and trailers here. Also, I have a writer’s blog here. I post excerpts and talk about the craft of writing and all the attendant stuffs.

Rottnroll.com – This is my DH’s domain. Mostly it’s a showcase of the websites we’ve built over the years, and has info in case an author wants us to create a cover or a trailer for them.

Winterheart.com/thebar – This is the home of the The Bar story. The Bar is an online paranormal/urban fantasy serial story written by about 10 people from around the world, male and female alike. (The males are all hotties.) Anyone wishing to read the Bar or become a writer there can email me at winter at winterheart dot com.

Sociallydead.com – This is my daughter Nikki’s (aka Motley) blog.

Davestiara.com – We built this to post photos and stories about the tiara that belongs to Dave2 of blogography.com.

Greatplainsresidency.com – A site I built for a group of people from the horse racing game I play.

You can also find me on the web in these social networking places:

MySpace.com/cemeterywinter

Facebook – winterheart

Yahoo Instant Messenger – knacwinterheart

Twitter – lexvalentine, winterheart

Brightkite – Winter

Flickr – Cemetery Winter

YouTube – lexvalentineauthor

Blogging about ghosts

I’ve written a post for Jeanne Barrack’s ‘Sweet Flag’ blog on the subject of historical ghost stories, which might be worth checking out if only to see how someone with no real authority on the subject gamely pretends to know what she’s talking about 😉

Alex Beecroft – Writing the Historical Ghost Story

No NaNo this year

I really don’t think NaNoWriMo was meant to be this year for me.  Having finally recovered enough to write again, I’ve just got my first lot of edits through on False Colors – which naturally take precedence.  So far I’ve discovered that

1. I can’t tell ‘counsel’ from ‘council’.
2. When formatting a book, you do not have two spaces after each full stop.  You only have one.  Nor do you have a blank line between paragraphs.  Nor do you have a space on either side of a dash.  I guess it all saves paper!
3.I may go over the top a bit with ship-jargon.  OTOH, when your character is moving around a ship, is it better to say ‘he descended to the orlop and sat down in the cable tier’ or ‘he descended to the lowest deck and sat down in the area reserved for drying out the ship’s cables’?  I suppose it depends on who’s reading it!

I wonder if I should take down my NaNo WIP.  I am still going to finish it, but it will have to be some time in December now.

An Interview with Eve Summers

We’re talking to Eve today on the eve 😉 of her new release, ‘Slave of my own Desire’.

What upcoming project of your own are you most excited about?
I’ve done contemporary, I’ve done science fiction, so I guess it’s time to move on to historicals. Two periods in history have always fascinated me: Ancient Rome (that’s approximately 2000 years ago) and the time of the Witch Hunts.
While doing research have you ever done anything really exciting or
strange?
Oh, that would definitely be a yes. For example, when researching the world of prostitution for one of my books, I went to speak to The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC). Those were the early in my writing career, and I felt it would be boastful to say I was a writer, so I pretended I was considering supplementing my income by working part-time as a sex worker. What can I say? The things we do for the love of writing….

Who is your favorite fictional character created by someone other than yourself?
That would be Sawyer from LOST. I have a huge crush on the actual Bad Boy character in the story, but it doesn’t hurt that the actor looks like Josh Holloway!

Who is your own favorite character?
I’m in love… ok, make that in lust… with all my male protagonists. They are confident in life and fabulous in bed. They may be naughty but they know love and friendship.

What are you enjoying reading at the moment?
“Knights & White Satin” by Cash Cole. It’s m/m erotica, with lots of beautiful moments.

What works in progress have you got on the go at the moment?

I’m putting the final touches on a hot interracial romance, “Fiji on fire, Fiji on ice”. The heroine is an Ice Princess, the hero is pure fire, hence the book’s title. I’m having a lot of fun with this one, because every chapter’s heading is a name of a cocktail, like “Little White Lie” or “Double Trouble” or “Flaming B J”….. And, of course, the cocktails themselves are “fire” and “ice” too.
Tell us about the books you have out
“A Slave of My Own Desire”, an erotic Halloween romance, has just been released by Red Rose Publishing (www.redrosepublishing.com). One reviewer has dubbed it “The electric mix of Hot Chocolate and Cool Vanilla”.

Here is the blurb:
Clare’s ex-fiancé treated her like a queen: he was kind, attentive to her needs in bed and b-o-r-I-n-g. He never made her do what she wanted him to make her do.
From the moment Clare sets eyes on David at a Halloween party, her hormones go wild with desire. His arrogant smile promises something darker, deeper and more intense. He is Trouble – with a big, big T. And yet, the mistake of letting him would be even bigger.
David believes love is not worth the pain it brings, no matter how divine Clare looks in her goddess costume. To him, she is just a rich white girl bored of vanilla sex, and he is happy to show her a good time. So why does he melt inside every time their eyes meet?

If your book became a big Hollywood film, who would you cast to play your characters?
Him: Isaiah Washington (Preston Burke from Grey’s Anatomy)
Her: Julie Delpy (“Three Colours: White”, “Before Sunrise”)

Alpha males, do you – (a)love them? – (b)think they should be shot? Why?

I love alpha males. There is something very sexy about arrogant successful men, and it’s not only their yachts. I guess deep inside I’m a cave woman who wants to be dragged by the hair to my mate’s lair, LOL, and it takes an alpha male to do that in today’s politically correct society….

Do you enjoy TV and movies? If so, what are your favorite shows/films? Do you find they inspire your writing?

If you divide people into those who like books and those who like the silver screen, then I’m definitely a book person. Having said that, most of my male protagonists these days are charming bad boys like Sawyer from LOST, and they have the brains of Michael from Prison Break. I also love the humour in Weeds and the quirkiness of Eureka. How’s that for somebody who claims never to watch TV?

Use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.

I’m one of those weird people for whom words are reality. Not in “The Secret” kind of way where it is enough to name your wish and the universe provides it. More like hypnosis, or a self-fulfilling prophecy. If somebody tells you on a daily basis that you are stupid / capable / a great lover… then chances are, you will begin to act that way. So, I love words. They are my greatest aphrodisiac and my erotic romance books rely on witty / hot dialogue to stoke the passion.

For erotic books by Eve Summers, please see:
• www.redrosepublishing.com.
The Red Rose Publishing website is running a contest between now and December 2008. You can win real diamonds! Check it out.

For crime fiction, romance and poetry, please see:
• http://yewalus.kiwiwebhost.net.nz/
• www.amazon.com
• www.fictionwise.com

My blog: http://yewalus.blogspot.com/

We have flies!

Thank you to everyone who chipped in with suggestions as to how to turn the flappy bits into a workable garment. It took me almost the whole day, but I have got there 🙂

This evening I sew the buttons on and make button holes for the fly (and lace the back), and then tomorrow I can do the knee flaps and bands. Then there will only be a cap for Rose, neckcloth for Ailith and Rose, waistcoat for Ailith, Rose’s petticoat to turn up, Andrew’s coat sleeves to hem and buttonholes to put in his coat and waistcoat. Then we will all be clothed except for me!

WOS

30,615 / 35,000 (87.5%)

Next comes the grande finale, and then the wrapping up and HEA. Time to break out the special effects 😉

Cover art?

I decided to put my icon making experience to work and see how I was at
producing book covers. I’m hoping to have ‘The Boys of Summer’ finished
by Christmas, so I thought there would be no harm done if I made a
mockup of a cover for it which I could have at hand, just in case LBR
wanted it.

I have this crazy idea that I might like to branch
out into doing cover art 🙂 So I found some stock photos and knocked up
a possible cover for The Boys of Summer (lighthearted m/m surfing
novel) and The Mysterious, which is the anthology ‘Wages of Sin’ is
destined for.

  

Obviously
they’d be bigger (and therefore the text would be easier to read) in
real life!  Also they wouldn’t have the watermarks on because I would
have paid for the use of the image.  But what do you think?  Should I
give up the idea now and stick to the day job?

Lost in Austen

(Not quite ‘see below’, but if you click on the picture it will take you to the ITV Lost in Austen page.)

So, did anyone see ‘Lost in Austen’ last night? What did you think?

I admit I arrived a little late and the modern girl had already switched places with Lizzie Bennett. But as she was only being introduced to the family, I can’t have missed that much.

The premise of the programme, if you haven’t seen it yet, is that Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice switches places with a modern Austen fan. Lizzie gets to do something mysterious in the modern world, and the other girl, Miss Price, gets to live in Pride and Prejudice. Me, I’m curious to know what Lizzie is getting up to in modern London, but so far this hasn’t been addressed.

So, queue Modern girl blundering around in P&P, simultaneously knowing too much about the plot of the book, and too little about the rest of the society to be able to fit in. Naturally everyone is very curious about her, and her presence begins to disrupt the story in significant ways.

For example, Mr. Bingley appears smitten by her charms. I really hope that the ‘look, I’m wearing no stays’ boob shot isn’t meant to be the whole cause of his infatuation! Perhaps he starts off with ‘OMG boobs!’ and works up to being intrigued by a woman who’s so different from everyone else – as per the rules of most Regencies, except Jane Austen’s.

Cue lots of guilt and scheming on her part to try to get the story back on track. Meanwhile Jane is being lovely to her, Charlotte Lucas is proving to be as on the ball as she is in the original, Mrs. Bennett is see-sawing between far too sharp and her normal dim self, and Modern Girl is getting rapidly out of her depth.

I enjoyed it more than I expected, to be honest. There were some cringeable moments at the start, when it looks as thought the P&P characters are going to turn into caricatures of themselves. But then I thought it settled down and occasionally showed some real insight into the characters. In fact, Darcy’s dancing with Miss Price when he wouldn’t have danced with Lizzie was a stroke of genius, and showed him in a better light – as a friend of Bingley’s – than the original. Mr.Darcy does ride rather roughshod over Mr.Bingley in the original, and I liked very much that this gave him an opportunity to show that Bingley might get something out of the friendship too.

Is Modern Miss Price a bit of a Sue? I think that will depend on whether Darcy falls for her too. A modern girl who fell into P&P and ended up with Bingley would at least be original. Then Jane can marry Darcy and Elizabeth can become a high profile barrister in modern London… Or not. I haven’t read the book on which this is based, so, if you know, don’t tell me how it ends! I’m hooked enough want to tune in and giggle with nervous but thorough enjoyment next week.

Oh, being the dunce that I am, I hadn’t realized that it was adapted from this book

which I do own and have read!  I still don’t know how it ends, of course, because it could end in numerous different ways depending on how the reader plays it.  And the TV programme, of course, could come up with something new anyway.  Good stuff!  Now I’m looking forward to next week even more.

I can recommend the book too, btw.  I enjoyed it a lot.

Progress report

Wages
of Sin – novella – written

So that’s the first chapter done. I’m planning to have about 11 chapters in total, each somewhere around 2500 to 3000 words long. In this one I have introduced the hero, knocked him down with a carriage, half suffocated him and killed his father. Next time I plan to get nasty 😉

What I haven’t done so far is introduce the romance but I’m hoping it will be OK as long as I do it in chapter 2.

Also I have found pictures.

Painting and Decorating blues

So yesterday the girls both reminded me that I’d said they could paint their bedrooms during the summer holidays (where ‘during the summer holidays’ = ‘two days before the end of the holidays’).  If I’ve gone silent it’s because I’m up to my elbows in paint.  Rose wants one black wall, and three a sort of greenish grey – she thinks it’s elegant, I think it looks like Morgul Vale.  Ailith wants one bright red wall, three white, and a Union Flag on one of the white ones.  All of this would be a lot easier if you could just step on their floors without crushing some treasured relic.

So, not only is my writing on hiatus, but my 18th Century clothes making is on hiatus too.  Seriously, if you’re a mum, your life is not your own in the summer holidays.

However, I have psychologically prepared myself for September by making icons for the stories I’ll be working on when I get my life back.  I’m all ready to start now!