Events in our lives shape these traditions.  I use to make a popcorn garland for my tree every year but now, with my beagle, my tree would be destroyed if I dressed my tree up in her favorite treat.

I always find traditions fascinating.  Staying up until midnight, popping the bubbly, and ringing in the New Year.  Sharing a kiss, sometimes with a stranger, the first kiss of a new year.  Some people stay up all night and greet the sunrise.

Did you know that the most commonly sung song by English-speakers on New Year’s Eve – and also the song that almost no one knows the actual lyrics to – is Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns in 1796?

Robert says that he refined the lyrics after hearing an old man in Ayrshire, Scotland singing it.  Auld Lang Syne literally means “old long since” and means “time gone by.”  The song asked if old friends and times will be forgotten and promises to remember people of the past with fondness.  ”For auld lang syne, we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet.”

Traditions are everywhere and different all over the world.

In Britain, they celebrate with First Footing – this was someone special who would come to your house baring gifts.  People hit the streets at midnight, visiting houses.  Usually, you would be visited by a neighbor who would bring coal for the fire or shortbread.  It was considered especially lucky if the first visitor to your home on the New Year was a tall, dark, handsome man.

The Dutch actually burn Christmas trees in the street on New Year’s night.  They, its a great way to make sure you get rid of your tree for the coming year, right?

Over in Spain, to insure twelve prosperous months, they eat twelve grapes at midnight.  While in Greece, they bake Vassilopitta – or St. Basil cakes.  This is a cake with a gold coin baked inside.  Whoever gets the coin will be especially lucky that year.

New Year’s is the most important holiday in Japan as it is a symbol of renewal.  They hold Forget-the-Year parties all through December to bid farewell to the problems of the past year and prepare for a new beginning.  Grudges and misunderstandings are forgiven and major cleaning is done to the house.  It is said to be very bad luck to start the year off in a dirty house.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, Buddhist temples strike their gongs 108 times to expel 108 types of human weakness.

On New Year’s day, no work is done.  A day of joy, children recieve small gifts with money inside.  Sending New Year’s cards is a very popular tradition in Japan.  In fact, if it is postmarked by a certain date, the post office guarantees delivery of all New Year’s cards by New Year’s Day.

Then you have the various American traditions.  Watching New York’s ball drop – we also have the Peach Drop here in Georgia.  The New Year’s Ball in Time Square actually started in 1907.  Back then, the ball was made of iron and wood.  Now its made of Waterford crystal.

I didn’t really watch the ball or Peach drop until I was much older.  Even now, its rarely on my television.  Probably because I didn’t grow up with it.

My tradition came because of my situation with my parents.  They divorced when I very young, not even two yet.  As I grew older, I would spend Christmas with my mother and New Year’s with my father.  This means that my dad and his girlfriend would be passed out drunk before ten and my little brother fell asleep watching some movie.

I’d stay up late, curled up on the couch with a soda and a book, reading until I heard the neighbors shooting off fireworks.  Looking up, I would see it was a few minutes passed midnight and everyone in the house was sleeping.

Getting up, I’d so out on the porch, freezing cold and clutching my paperback and I’d watch the fireworks the neighbors were shooting off.  This was in Alabama, too, so they were really good fireworks.

Its funny because fireworks and noise makers are in most New Year’s traditions.  It goes back to ancient times when people thought that fire and loud noises would keep evil away.

My father-in-law, in fact, rings a giant bell that hangs outside in his yard every year at midnight.

When I got older and started staying in Georgia to ring in the New Year, I did go to my share of New Year’s Eve parties.  But I find now that I am married with a home, I am content to spend New Year’s at home, curled up with a good book and drinking pink champagne as my husband plays video games.

This year’s reading choice:  Last Chance to Run by Dianna Love.

While that might seem boring or sad to some people, honestly, I love having that time to dive into a great story.  Do I feel like I missed out sometimes because everyone else was sleeping?  I used to but not so much anymore.  I had my own tradition, even if it wasn’t a common one and now its one I take comfort in.

New Year’s day we’d come home from Daddy’s and my mom would fix collards and black eyed peas and to this day, I go to my mom’s New Year’s day for just that meal.  After all, collards brings dollars and peas bring pennies for the coming year.  Its important to eat lots of them. hehe

What are your traditions?  Do you have any non-traditional traditions of your very own or are you our partying until the sun comes up?  Share with me and you could win your own, brand new copy of Last Chance to Run - the very book I ran in 2013 with just a few days ago.  A fabulous Romantic Thriller autographed by Dianna Love herself.  It’ll be personalized with the winner’s name and believe me, this is one fun and riveting read.

And I just want to take a moment to thank Dianna for her donation.  I’ve been enjoying this book and was thrilled when she agreed to give away a signed copy of it on our blog today.

Oh, and for anyone out there even a little curious about what they’re singing when the clock strikes midnight:

 Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp,
And surly I’ll be mine,
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We  twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.

 For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.

 For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And there’s a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

 For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

Dianna Love, myself, & Sherrilyn Kenyon
at Moonlight & Magnolias 2011

I am sitting here with my morning cup of coffee basking in happy memories.  Saturday, August 11th, Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love were doing a book signing at the Barnes & Noble just half an hour from my house.  As soon as I realized it, I was hopping around with excitement.  Not only are these two very talented authors, they’re two of my favorites.

I started calling everyone to let them know; including two of my cousins all the way in Alabama.  When Makenzie answered, I simply informed her, “You and Dalton are coming over here next weekend!”

“Well, we were actually talking about that,” Makenzie confessed, since they hadn’t visited with us all summer and she’s be going back to her University soon.  ”But why?”

“Because Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love are going to be here next Saturday!” I all but shouted.

“Really?” Makenzie asked, excitedly.  And that was that.  They were on their way.

Makenzie was clearly bragging about getting to see Sherrilyn and Dianna because I got a text from her a few days later

Here I am with Dianna Love

asking if she could please bring a friend, Kelci, as well.  This made me smile.  Of course she could.

Writers are my rock stars and I always love to see when they’re other people’s as well.  These are amazing people, all of them.  Whether I enjoy their books or not.  They sat down and they FINISHED their manuscripts, got them published and, out there somewhere

in the world, they touched someone’s lives.Writing is hard but amazing when I really think about it and, to me, Sherrilyn and Dianna’s rank up there at the top of my favorite authors’ list.

Sherrilyn Kenyon began a Young Adult series called, The Chronicles of Nick because her teenage sons said they had nothing to read.  She realized they were right.  Most Young Adult books out there seemed geared more toward females then males.  So she wrote one geared very much toward both.

When this series came out, I got the first one for my cousin, Dalton, Makenzie’s younger brother.  He loved it, Makenzie stole it, Dalton wanted more.  In the end, I got him and his sister hooked on the Dark-Hunters and the paperbacks they borrowed from me started circulating through their high school.  Both female a nd males were reading these books.  The Baledors are now making the rounds.

Dalton, Me, Makenzie & Kelci waiting for
Sherrilyn & Dianna to Arrive

That’s magic.  Three teenagers fresh from high school drove 3 hours over to my house in part to see family but mostly to see Sherrilyn and Dianna.

I regaled them with stories I’d heard from both authors in the past and they laughed, hanging onto every word.  We get to Barnes & Noble and many of those stories were repeated.  They shared looks like they had an inside source to the writing world.  Makenzie is also very ready for my first book to come out so she can go around going, “See this book?  I know the author.”Side note:  Since Makenzie is going to brag on me, allow me to brag on her now.  I’m very proud of her.  She graduated Salutatorian of her high school and is now attending a very good university studying for a degree I can barely pronounce.  Go Kenzie!

While I hardly expected special treatment while there, I have to say it was rather an ego stroke when, upon arrival, Dianna noticed me in the audience and gave me a hug.  We chatted when I was standing in line for autographs.

I just have to say it again, writers are my rock stars!

Getting photographs in front of it, the driver had just come out and was watching us.  I asked, “What’s it like on the inside?”After we got our books signed, we remembered the awesome tour bus outside.  Hoping it had not yet left, we ran through Barnes & Noble to get to the outside.  It was still there!

“Do you want to see?” he asked.

OF COURSE WE DID!  He gave us a tour of Sherrilyn and Dianna’s tour bus.  It was absolutely jaw dropping inside.  I kept thinking, “Now this is the way an author should travel.  Rock star!”

Makenzie inside Bus

When we were done, we were all on Cloud 9.  Seeing Sherrilyn and Dianna was absolutely fabulous, getting to see inside their tour bus was just icing on

the cake.  That night will be in our memories forever.  I can only imagine the bragging Makenzie and Kelci will do once they’re home.  Dalton isn’t much of a bragger.  I have a feeling he’ll let his sisterdo that for him.They had the time of their lives and I’m glad I could help make that happen; that they didn’t let this opportunity pass them by.

One day, I hope I can be a ‘rock star’ like Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love one day.  Change a person’s life with a stroke of a pen and a friendly smile.  That’s truly awesome.

Thank you, Sherrilyn & Dianna, for the great tour and the unforgettable evening.

How do you generate and maintain that precious commodity – reader loyalty?

At the May 21 Georgia Romance Writer’s meeting, dynamic duo, New York Times  bestseller Dianna Love (www.AuthorDiannaLove.com), who co-writes  thrillers and urban fantasies with #1 NYT bestseller Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Contributing Editor for Publisher’s Weekly, Barbara Vey (www.BeyondHerBook.com), intrepid reporter, romance ambassador, avid reader and beloved and influential blogger of the popular Beyond Her Book blog, shared their secrets about reader loyalty. Their advice was as good as gold and just as hot a commodity. Here are some of the highlights:

• Reader loyalty comes before you write the book. Once readers learn about you, you’ll have a built-in audience.
• Readers read books. They love books. They love to talk about books. Give them a reason to read your book. Talk about the book. 
• What do you like to read? Try to be a reader. You were a reader before you started writing.  
• Readers get their reading lists from book blurbs.

“It’s not always convenient to be an author,” says Vey. “You’re going to meet people everywhere, so when you walk out the door, you’re on. You never know if you’re going to be talking to your future readers.”

Vey advises authors not to write off any segment of the population. “Don’t assume someone wouldn’t want to read romance,” she says.

“Get out there and sell yourselves,” Vey adds. “You are a business. You are a commodity, so start thinking about yourself that way if you want to be successful. The more people out there who know your name, the better.  If they see your name, they’ll remember it. Use your real writing name on Facebook, Twitter, or any social media and buy your domain name. When a reader goes to a bookstore and sees all the thousands of books, they’ll say, ‘I recognize that name.’ Authors, carry your bookmark or a copy of your book.”

“Brand yourself,” says Vey, who notes that ‘Barbara Vey’ is a brand.

• Creating and maintaining a Web site, refreshing and rebuilding it every couple of years may take time, but readers go straight to your Web site.

• Don’t do 100 blog tours. Pick a big blog, like Petit Fours and Hot Tamales, Romance Bandits, or Seekerville, and guest blog. Look at a site first. Does the site get traffic? When someone interviews you, show up and post a reply. Guest bloggers should be available to answer questions.
• Give away books and you’ll get so much more in return.   
• What readers want and writers think they want are different. Readers want consistency. They want a good story.  You make a promise to them. They don’t want to feel like they’ve read it before. They want a new twist.

Dianna Love: “We’re going to do it one reader at a time. It’s less expensive to keep a reader than to get a new reader.”

What builds reader loyalty? It’s that connection to your readers.

“Find that common ground with the reader—the reader connection,” says Vey. “Readers and writers have to form this community, and when they do, they will follow you to the ends of the earth.”

Reader Events/Signings

Dianna Love: What do you like about signings? If you’re going to spend time meeting readers, make it worth the time. Enjoy what you do. Readers will know if you enjoy meeting them. Readers find it fascinating to see their favorite authors stopping by. If a reader does something positive, say thank you for doing it. Get to know authors near you. Thank other authors for putting your book out there.

Blogging

Barbara Vey: If you’re writing a blog for writers, that’s fine, but don’t expect readers to come. If you’re writing it for readers, make it for readers. Say something embarrassing that they’ll identify with. Find that common ground that make people want to seek you out. Post photos of your kids, food. Do giveaways, free stuff—that drives traffic. Include a sentence about what you’re doing.

Barbara Vey receives this feedback from her followers: “You know why I love your blog, because you write to everybody. You talk like you’re talking in real life.”

 “Always be positive and polite,” says Vey. “I will not post anything that’s negative or anything that attacks an author. It’s a difficult business. We should all be supportive of each other. Do not engage if someone says something negative about you.”

Social Networking

• Use Twitter. Retweet. Use Facebook.
• Keep in touch with readers.  Your Facebook page is a place where readers and authors can get together. Announce your release date.

This excellent advice was corroborated at a seminar at the 2011 RWA annual conference I attended in New York called “Tweet It, Blog It, Face It: Self-Promoting with Social Media,” with Liz Edelstein and Megan Frampton.

• Set up a Facebook Fan Page (Best social networking tool). (I heard that more than once)

• “Twitter is like a blink. Facebook is like a stare.”

In another session (Spotlight on Kensington), attendees learned what to do when they are ready to market their books:

• Get quotes from recognizable name authors for your book jacket.
• Define your goal. There are no shortcuts.
• Surround yourself with people who inspire and challenge you.

Understand your consumer. Determine who you are trying to reach and offer something of value to them. If you’re writing women’s fiction and your book features a character that quilts, reach out to the quilting community. If your romance features a heroine who runs a cupcake shop, offer recipes on your Web site or blog. Share some aspect of yourself you don’t mind sharing.

• Hand out chocolates, romance trading cards, postcards or bookmarks at your signing.
• If you’re going on a family vacation you might e-mail your fans on your Facebook page and tell them where you’re going to be on a specific date and invite them to talk with you and bring your books to sign.  
• Treat your career as a small business.
• Upgrading your Web site (and keeping it up-to-date) is the best marketing tool.

Some great advice we can all use. Do you have any advice you’d like to share about maintaining reader loyalty?

Drum roll please….

*************Using the wonderful randomizer program******************* #0***************

And the winner is – - – - our first commenter (plugged in 0-32)

KAT or Kathy as she signed her post.  Kat, shoot me an e-mail at tamibrothers@yahoo.com.

Thank you to all who commented and to all who stopped by to read my post today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only 5 days left!!!  We are down to the wire as the Brenda Novak Annual Auction for the Cure of Diabetes 2011 winds down.  This is not only a terrific cause to get behind that will make a person feel good for helping out, it is also a great place to find some terrific loot!

Hand Crafted jewelry pieces

Baskets OVERFLOWING with fabulous treats

Manuscript critique, after critique, after critique

Books, books, books and even more books!

Incredible Coach purses

Super Fan Packages (gotta love that Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love and Mary Buckham)

Writers Digest Reference Books (shameless plug for my donation…<g>…)

Don’t miss out!  You won’t be disappointed…

~~~

2011 Year of Reevaluation – Family Time

By Tami Brothers

The Kid – - “Ummm, you really want to try this game?”

Me – - “Sure.  It doesn’t look too hard.”

The Kid – - “OK.  If you say so.”

Ten very looooonnnnnggggg minutes later (I lasted this long because I spent most of that time creating my Avatar for the game).

The Kid – - “You really aren’t very good at this.”

Me – - “Yeah.  I’m coming to that conclusion.”

The Kid – - “Then why you still in here?” (here being the game room)

Me – - “Just trying to spend time doing stuff you like to do.”

The Kid – - “Really?”

Me – - “Yep.”

The Kid – - “How about we go to GameStop?  That’s something I really want to do…”

My family had this brilliant idea back in December to embrace 2011 and Reevaluate everything we’ve been doing up to this point in our lives.  To say it mildly, we were not impressed.  We had backed ourselves into a corner that didn’t leave us much wiggle room to maneuver through life.  During our country’s current economic struggles, THIS was not a position we wanted to be in.  Change had to happen and it had to happen now.

After listing our too-big house for sale, we progressed to taking control of our Budget, de-cluttered our house, and finding a balance with our health and eating habits.  All these changes were like learning basic math compared to the next topic we tackled.

Reconnecting as a Family

Sound like a simple idea.  Log off the computers in the evenings, eat some meals at the dining room table, take the dog for a family walk.  Easy peasy.  Not!  We jumped from addition and subtraction to calculus and statistics in ten seconds flat.

The activities that are working

Don’t get me wrong.  There are some things that are working.  We have been doing a pretty good job of walking the dog as a family at least three times a week.  Those other times she has to settle with playing in the back yard because we have been swamped with afterschool activities.

We’ve also done very well sitting down as a family to eat dinner at the table at least three times a week (again the afterschool activities have really made this tough to do).

I’ve scheduled something out of the norm at least once per month.  This month is the Renaissance Festival here in Georgia.  Next month we are headed to a water park.

Even with these activities, we don’t feel like we are really where we want to be yet.

Epic Fails

Okay, so I’m TERRIBLE at video games.  We’ve discovered that Pokémon is really the only one I can play without dying (Note – these are games for older kids.  Maybe some of the younger ones might work… but that defeats the purpose of spending time as a family).  Although I really like that transportation helicopter with the mini guns and missile launchers (on Halo: Reach), I just can’t live long enough to fly the darn thing. And hubby doesn’t like playing the games at all, so that really didn’t work.

We’ve been working at clearing the smaller trees and brush from some land we bought.  This has been a huge undertaking.  Unfortunately, everything we need to do is done separately.  Hubby in the Bobcat.  The Kid on the mower.  Me picking up sticks and raking the leaves and brush away from the larger trees.  Although we are doing something together, there is not much communication going on.

My plan was to disconnect from the computer and electronics in the evenings and sit together as a family to watch TV or connect before bedtime.  With the after-school schedule, hubby working on clearing the trees, me trying to keep up with the whole writing gig, it just isn’t working.  After spending all day at work/school, we are maybe able to disconnect one night a week.

Any ideas?

Although we are slowly getting back on track, I’m just not satisfied with the results quite yet.  This is where you come in. 

If anyone has any ideas on how to reconnect as a family (that would stay within a tight budget), I would really appreciate hearing them.  To sweeten the pot and maybe get a few more people to share some ideas, I’m offering a Starbucks gift card to one lucky commenter.  Just leave a comment today and I’ll draw a name first thing tomorrow morning and post it here in the comments section.   

Interested in winning other prizes?  I’m participating in a Splash into Summer Giveaway blog hop Wednesday May 25^th through Tuesday May 31^st (along with almost 300 other blogs!).  Pop on over to my personal  blog and check out the prizes.  Entering is easy.  I’d love to see you over there!

Come back June 23rd to hear how I’m trying to find a balance between The Day Job and my writing.

Have a great day!

Tami

But here it is.  You probably don’t want to wait while I figure out how to embed some of that stuff.

First place and winner of a critique from agent Chelsea Gilmore of the Maria Carvainis agency is:

Aislinn Macnamara: A Tale of Two Sisters

Aislinn has also had a request for the full from Chelsea!  Considering her Golden Heart final last week, Aislinn deserves major congratulations.

Our other finalists are due major honor for getting this far.  Each lady will be receiving a copy of the exclusive Petit Fours and Hot Tamales cookbook featuring recipes from our members and guests such as agent Chelsea Gilmore, Publishers Weekly’s Barbara Vey, author Dianna Love, author Hank Phillippi Ryan and many others.  Our other finalists placed as follows:

2nd Place:      Ann Van : Tokyo Dare

3rd Place:      Cindy Carroll: Ghost Ties

4th Place:      Kelly L. Stone: Atlantis Lover

5th Place:      Sharon Wray: Midnight Guardian

Ladies, congratulations to you all for making it this far.  Please join us next year, same time, same place!

If you’re an aspiring author, I’d like to give you three reasons why should you consider jumping into NaNoWriMo: Production, Consistency, and Accountability.

PRODUCTION: First and foremost is to push yourself to produce. To have what it takes in this industry, you have to be able to produce books, yes, books plural, every year.  Gone is the writing career where one book a year was more of the norm.  For example, want to write for a Harlequin imprint?  An interview I had with Steeple Hill editor Melissa Endlich at RWA Nationals this year emphasized the need for authors who can produce two or three category books a year.  Writing single title?  When I look at top single title romance genre authors like Dianna Love (www.authordiannalove.com)  and Sherrilyn Kenyon (www.sherrilynkenyon.com).I see at least two releases a year and often more.

My point?  Learning to push your word count is an important skill, even if you don’t make the NaNo word count.  Think of it as exercise, you’ll build the muscles you need for later.  A bit of a writing boot camp for enlistment in the ranks of published authors.

CONSISTENCY: A second strong reason is to build consistent writing habits.  Aspiring authors can get away without writing every day, but it can create bad habits that set us up for failure when we do sell.  The only way to learn to make deadlines is to build that consistency into your writing habits.  You can get away with distractions and self-indulgence when there’s no deadline looming.  But for publication, it won’t work.  Here’s your chance to develop a daily writing habit.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Third is the fun form of accountability that’s inherent in NaNoWriMo.  When you create your free account, a fun little counter comes with it.  You and your writing buddies can follow each other’s progress with daily inputs to see how the total grows.  There are also local and regional NaNo events that you can attend where you spend time with a lot of other participants writing and consuming copious amounts of sugar and caffeine.  For myself, since I don’t live that close to any of those events, I’ve enlisted some personal writing buddies and we’ll keep up with each other on daily emails as well as our NaNo writing counters.  There’s nothing like the energy of other people to help spur you on, particularly in what is usually such a solitary endeavor.

Still not sure you can do it?  I know that some of you glazed over at the 50,000 word count for the month.  True, it’s an intimidating amount taken as a whole, but if you break it down into daily and weekly goals, it’s a little more manageable.  It’s approximately 12,500 words per week divided by the number of days you can realistically write.

Need a little extra push?   Leave me your email address and I’ll include you in my personal NaNo accountability group.  Please include your NaNo name in your email and your daily/weekly goal.  My NaNo name is dlk777.

What are you waiting for?  It’s Tuesday and you need to get those fingers flying.

These sound pretty much the same and it’s normal to find one word used as a synonym for the other word.  I’ve read a lot of different explanations of each term and I can’t declare any one definition correct or wrong – in my opinion.   From what I’ve seen in recent fiction, there’s quite a bit of cross over between paranormal and supernatural in the realm of the unusual or the unexplainable.  That makes it sometimes hard to define one or the other.

Here’s a couple of definitions I’ve found:

Paranormal – extrasensory, something beyond the realm of normal experience or that which cannot be explained by science

Supernatural – This originated in the 15^th Century and was considered an existence beyond that which we could see within our universe – perhaps a ghost.

Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Fantasy…all fascinate me.  I like to read stories full of surprises whether it’s an historical supernatural or a contemporary thriller, and beings with the capability for magic or unusual powers have always surprised me.

In truth, we probably owe Walt Disney big thanks for keeping magic alive in our world in a way that was entertaining.  I loved Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  What kid didn’t want the ability to fly and visit a fantasyland?

Now that I’m an adult, I still love things that can’t be explained. That’s why I started toying with the idea of the Beladors back in 2003.  The premise for this story came from a question that popped in my mind – What would happen if different pantheons bumped into each other and had a dispute?  Who would win among gods and goddesses who were Celtic, Hindu, Castilian, Greek and so on?

From that, I came up with VIPER, which is an international coalition of powerful beings who joined forces to protect mankind from supernatural predators across the world.  But I wasn’t writing vampires or werewolves, so when my agent at the time took it out, she was told the series was too unusual to market.  Caveat:  Sherrilyn Kenyon was told the same thing when she first tried to market Dark Hunters. <g>

I put the series aside when one editor said I might just be ahead of the curve on what’s coming next.  I was fortunate to sell a novella to St. Martin’s Press that was released as part of the DEAD AFTER DARK anthology, and had a terrific response from readers (still getting emails).  When Pocket asked us (me and Sherrilyn) about a paranormal idea, we discussed collaborating on the Beladors and pitched the project as an urban fantasy series.

Back in 2003 I had envisioned a tribe of warriors linked through the centuries by the blood of their ancestors and ruled by a Celtic goddess.  While writing the novella, three characters – Evalle, Tzader [pronounced Zader] and Quinn – walked on stage as major secondary characters.  They came pretty well developed right off the bat.  That’s when I finally settled on having a series based on the three of them.

This series introduces a mix of powerful beings such as Beladors from Celtic origin, the Kujoo who are Hindu, witches who are both of the light and the darkness, Nightstalkers who are informant ghouls,  plus gods, goddesses…a blend of paranormal and supernatural. 

In the first book – BLOOD TRINITY – Evalle Kincaid is in the spotlight as an Alterant, which is part Belador and part unknown.  Every night when Evalle steps onto the streets as a Belador warrior, she’s faced with the paranormal and the supernatural, both friend and foe, but sometimes the ones who challenge her most are…humans.

You can check out an excerpt of BLOOD TRINITY on my website  at http://www.authordiannalove.com/books/bloodtrinity.html.  Click on the link on that page to meet some of the characters.

To celebrate the release of BLOOD TRINITY , which was released October 19^th, just post a comment (hello is fine :->) and you’ll be in the drawing for a copy of BLOOD TRINITY signed by me and Sherrilyn.

So what about you?

What do you consider paranormal or supernatural?

It’s the perfect season for sharing other-worldly stories, so do you have any real life experiences that were unexplainable?

Have you had any encounters with ghosts or other out-of-this-world beings?

Thank you, Petit Fours and Hot Tamales, for inviting me back to your blog and congratulations on the new hot look!!

I sat down to write my first book in 2001.  I started writing the story I wanted to read, one that opened fast and the pace only picked up.  When I sold that first book it still had very close to the original opening that were the first words I had typed.  As a reader, I’ve always had to be captured quickly to consider buying a book, mainly because I did not have much free reading time (and have even less these days) so I would not commit to reading a story that did not interest me right away.

This came in handy later on when I decided to try writing a book.  Don’t get me wrong – I still had plenty to learn about writing, but openings have always been something I look forward to writing.  If some of you are readers who have harbored a secret desire to write – why not?  Just like me, every writer I’ve ever met was a reader first.  It has been said that “everyone has a story inside them.”  And for the record, if you think “I’m just a reader,” there is no such thing as “just” a reader. You are precious to all of us who write and the most important person in our world when we sit down to create a new story.

You’re still probably wondering what we’re doing today on the PFHT blog that both Writers and Readers can participate in.  This is a fun writing challenge.  We’re going to play with opening lines.  First Tip: When I’m working on an opening, I want to get anchored in the setting early so the reader isn’t wondering if they are in a metropolitan city or a thousand leagues beneath the sea or light years away in outer space.  But if I have to choose between setting and hook in that opening sentence, HOOK will win every time.  Mixing the two is even better.

Sherrilyn Kenyon and I co-author a romantic thriller series based on the Bureau of American Defense (BAD) Agency.

Each of our first three BAD Agency stories begin with a black ops mission that sets the tone and the pace for the stories.  SILENT TRUTH, our next release on April 20^th, begins with Hunter Wesley Thornton-Payne III approaching a sheer cliff on a Hawaiian island that rises out of the ocean he and a team mate will have to scale to reach their objective.  But that’s only the beginning of his night that will take an unexpected turn.

Second Tip: When I read a story, I want to be pulled into that world one step at a time.  But just like when you climb steps that go up for fifty feet you don’t want those steps too close together or too far apart.

Ready to give it a try?  Great.  Here’s what you do:

READERS – Feel free to use the writing prompt below.  If you don’t want to do that, find an opening line (the very first line) in a story you like and post it with the book title and author.  And tell us what grabbed you about that line.  The line can come from any book and doesn’t matter if the rest of the book was good or not BUT PLEASE do not post anything negative about anyone’s book here.  That’s why there is chocolate and vanilla – because we don’t all agree on everything, but both ice cream flavors are loved by millions.

WRITERS – Below are five “generic” opening lines for a scene. They are written in first person Point of View (POV) such as “I turned in my homework on time.” and third person such as “Genevieve turned in her homework on time.” You can change the point of view.  Enhance (use names, descriptions, etc) the opening line any way you want as long as we can identify the opening you chose without you having to tell us.  Write the first scene that comes to mind. Don’t worry about being correct on anything—just write and have fun.

WRITE AN OPENING PARAGRAPH OF NO MORE THAN FIVE (5) SENTENCES.  [If you don’t want to write an opening paragraph then give us an interesting opening line YOU made up.]

1) She waved at the trophy-wife her neighbor had married a week ago and wondered if the petite brunette woman knew what had happened to the man’s last two wives.

2) Call me negative, but I doubted the demon striding toward my bakery was interested in the special I was running on macadamia nut chocolate muffins.

3) I’ve had unshakeable faith for twenty-eight years, but the letter in my trembling hands had the potential of destroying all I believed in.

4) She raised her eyes to his face and said, “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m putting my mouth on that.”  [Note - No erotic openings - strong openings do not default to the first easy leap and that’s not at all what I was going for with this one.  The person who does guess what I envisioned when I wrote this will win a choice of the books listed below.]

5) He thumbed the release on his weapon and counted to ten…then to twelve, just to assure she had plenty of time to remove that last piece of clothing.

PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES…

In addition to the book I’ll give away to the person The PFHT will draw

three names from everyone who posts (even if it is just “hello” ) by

midnight today.

You can choose to receive a copy of one of the following books:

PHANTOM IN THE NIGHT (Bureau of American Defense)

WHISPERED LIES (Bureau of American Defense)

SILENT TRUTH ((Bureau of American Defense)advance copy – being released April 20^th)

DEAD AFTER DARK (Paranormal anthology that includes Dianna’s debut Belador novella)

BREAK INTO FICTION ® (for writers)

THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TODAY!!!

NYT Best seller Dianna Love started writing suspense while working over a hundred feet in the air creating spectacular marketing projects for Fortune 500 companies.  Her first book won the prestigious RITA award and second one debuted on the NYT list.  She writes thrillers and urban fantasy, now co-writing a contemporary Bureau of American Defense (BAD) Agency thriller series with #1 NYT best seller Sherrilyn Kenyon and an upcoming paranormal thriller – BLOOD TRINITY – based on the Beladors®.  Their next release is the romantic thriller SILENT TRUTH (Pocket/April 2010).  An international speaker, Dianna teaches the highly-successful Break Into Fiction® Character-Driven Power Plotting program that is now in a book.  For more on her visit www.AuthorDiannaLove.com and www.BreakIntoFiction.com

Did that title hook you into reading? Yes, I thought it would. It resonated enough with me that I wrote it down when Bob Mayer said it at a One-Day Workshop last year.

Are all fiction authors liars? Absolutely! (and proud of it!) This is one time when it’s okay to stretch the truth to fit your story and make your characters larger than life, meaner than a snake or sweeter than pie.

So, what are the ABCs of lying? Easy. The best liars, the most creative liars, win. Simple? Hardly.

When plotting your fiction book, it must start with a hook that will grab the reader, but then it must speed along to that Black Moment, that point in the story that forever changes the course of someone’s life, that situation where our beloved character is thrown to the wolves. This is when the rubber meets the road and he or she must take the bull by the horns and decide what to do next. There’s no going back…the bridge to yesterday just collapsed into the river.

Vince Lombardi said, “Success demands singleness of mind.” Your character must stay the course and your story must move with “singleness of mind” toward a conclusion, not straying down rabbit trails or getting bogged down with useless chatter.

So, let’s look at a quick example of what I’m talking about.

Some Black Moments put the character into a tight spot where they can’t undo a decision and their only choice is to move forward and deal with the consequences. Just how black is your black moment? Black enough?

Has one of your characters ever wished she were unpregnant? Undrunk? Unmarried? Once she is, it’s too late to be “Un” again. Like it or not, she’s married, pregnant and drunk. Oh, she can have the baby (or abort it), get a divorce or throw up, but the consequences will always trail her through her fictional life as your heroine. Well, maybe not the drunk part, but if your character drank and drove and crashed, there might be some long-term consequences in that also. At the very least, she’ll have a hangover and the mother of all headaches.

When you write a story, or when you read one, you want the hero and/or heroine to have huge obstacles to overcome (Dianna Love calls it making a situation suck and then make it suckier) but then we can root for them when they tackle these “suckie” things in life and win. We love to cheer for winners. Why do you think we write…or read romance? Almost always, the perfect guy gets his perfect mate in the end and they ride off into the future to live happily ever after…or until the sequel when the world trembles around them again and another Black Hole opens up to swallow them.

Do you enjoy throwing your characters into black moments (sneering as you rub your hands together in glee) or do you “hurt” them because you have to in order to give them something to overcome? Does it hurt you as much as it hurts them?
Share with us about writing Black Moments in your manuscripts, we’d love to hear your suggestions and experiences.

By-the-way, did you notice all the cliché’s? These are the things we’re supposed to avoid writing in our books. We need to have a fresh voice, a new and unique way to say these same things. How many of these no-nos did I include?

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