With the holidays and such, I figured what better time than to break out a cover and blurb for a story with truffles in it. grins… Yes, I know, I can be evil, but, at least I’m not posting a truffle recipe…even though I have some really really good ones that I could tempt you with.

Sugar Rush is my first (is going to be my first) release with Loose Id. It is a contemporary male/female erotic romance. Bored now? Lose interest? There’s no kink, no menage, no paranormal or sci-fi or fantasy, it’s just straight male/female. According to my editor though, it’s an awesome hot book, but I think her opinion might be just a little on the biased side.

Why is it? Why is it that unless there’s some other element, like those I listed above, male/female contemporaries don’t do well, as well, incredibly off the charts well? I mean, Harlequin male/female books still do, but in epublishing, those that you find topping charts all over are the male/male, the bdsm clubs, the menages…add in shifters and sci-fi and you’ve got all slots taken. Of course, this is in general and every now and then there’s a different kind of book that runs up the bestseller lists, but it’s rare.

Don’t get me wrong, I read a lot of most of those types of books, though I’ve begun to back off some of them because they’re all starting to sound the same, follow the same cookie cutter outline. I do read straight contemporary when I can find a good one that tickles my curiosity. There just isn’t as much of it to choose from, though, if it’s a cowboy, or military man, yeah, those are all over the place and a lot of them are so yummy.

In the midst of all this, I’m a picky picky reader and your blurb better pull me in or the book better come highly recommended. I love hot yummy covers, and some authors I’ll buy right at the moment their book hits the shelves not caring what the story is about, but that’s just because they’ve proven themselves to me and are a favorite. I want a story that tugs at my core…

This is just an observation based on what I see at most publishers and distributors. Of course, there are definite exceptions to the rules and one day I hope to have that kind of following, but for now, I have to hope to tempt new and current readers with the fact that the heroine in Sugar Rush, Jane, makes truffles.

Here’s the blurb: (It hasn’t been through the blurb guru at Loose Id yet, so don’t shoot me)

Graham is twenty-six and has a dream job as a travel writer. He’s seen some of the most beautiful areas of the country and Colorado and the Rocky Mountains rank high on the list. With his latest article done and the six-month lease almost up on the small cabin in the valley, taking some personal time until moving on to his next assignment. In a downtown Denver bar, Graham meets Edward and after a short conversation agrees to a blind date with Edward’s business partner, Jane.

It couldn’t hurt anything, right?

Jane is completely oblivious to Edward’s machinations and shows up at Graham’s cabin to deliver a box of their handmade spicy chocolate truffles. She falls head over heels in lust the minute he opens the door. Jane isn’t sure what Cowboy Surfer, as she’s dubbed him, sees in her or why he’s so tenacious in his pursuit, but fails in her attempts to throw him off at every turn.

The inability to say continue saying ‘No’ leads to hot, scorching sex and follow-up phone calls full of suggestion, opening Jane’s eyes to the realization that maybe life doesn’t have to revolve around chocolate truffles, but rather around a delicious younger man.

I’m very proud of this book, even though I told my editor yesterday how much I hate it. It’s that whole editing and editing and editing thing that drives me nuts. Some authors have to do very little in the way of editing their books, and some, like me, have to basically rewrite the whole damn thing all the way through proofs.

This is my second longest book and for that reason alone I am proud of it. No, it’s not even 40K, but it is longer than 10K, 20K and that is an accomplishment for me. My next book with Loose Id, of which you will be hearing about in the next week or so for a naming contest I intend to have for it, is almost 50K. I have learned a lot writing these longer books. One, it takes longer, and two, it takes a lot more out of me and I end up putting a lot more of me into the books, and three, I am OCD. grins… I am perfection incarnate. Yes, they might take forever to edit, but, even that is less because of my editor and more because of my need for it to be perfect and whole.

Sugar Rush will *hopefully* release in late January 2010 and I’ll soon post an excerpt for you to read. Have a great Tuesday! Got all your shopping done? grins…

~lissa

Editors are incredibly important. They are valuable, indispensable assets to authors and we should treat them with the utmost respect. At the same time, they are not always right either. They are human, just as the writers are human. But, to make the book better, that we need to find common ground and work from it. That is what we should look to in our editors…knowing that they want our book to be the best that it possibly can.

Writers are not the easiest lot to get along with. We can be fiesty, insecure, pains in the ass, disagreeable, stubborn. We, or rather, I, like to believe I am right, 100% correct. I don’t like to think that my book can use improving, but honestly, once I think about it some, all my books can be. We should not be afraid to speak up, to ask questions, to seek guidance, to need brainstorming help from our editors. They are the one person we have to connect with, the one person we have to go through to get another book accepted. They are the one person that is going to have to go through that book as much as we the author did writing it, so they should want to help us. They also are overworked and often underpaid for the incredible task they take on. Editing is not easy. It is not a walk in the park. It is not something one can do willy-nilly. It takes a good deal of understanding, of desire. We have to know what the editors are thinking, what they are trying to say if we are confused by their words and they have to know what we are trying to convey in the story we are telling. They are the champions of our books and I for one and grateful to all of mine, past and present.

I learn a lot through each round of editing. I need to learn a lot. I need to become a better, stronger writer. I learn a lot through revising and rewriting. I learn a lot through the questions my editors ask throughout the story, even though from time to time I’m not sure why they’re asking me if I meant to say something. Of course I meant to say it, otherwise, I wouldn’t have put it on the page. But, learning is part of growth and growth is something I am very interested in in all areas of life, most especially though in this career I have chosen to pursue.

This week my editor at Ellora’s Cave announced to us, her authors, that she was leaving. This was devastating to me. I am a new author at EC and this news has scared me. She understood my writing in a way that I felt at home with. It took me a few days to be able to write to her and tell her how I was feeling, to give her my unfailing support in the new paths she has chosen, to share with her how much I learned from her during the very brief period of time I knew her. I did cry as I wrote to her and I did cry when she replied. It is like losing a friend.

It is a business. Editors come and go. It doesn’t mean we, as authors, have to like it. We simply have to accept it and keep writing, keep doing what we do through the fear, the uncertainty of what’s going to happen now. What if the next editor and I don’t get along? What if we don’t connect on that level that editors and authors have to connect on? What if the new one doesn’t like my writing, my voice? What if I never sell another book to them?

I feel some of these things even with editors that haven’t left.

I try to let my editors know that I am thankful for all that they go through for my books when I know they have many other books to get through, too. I try to take on a good deal of the work myself and not have to have them hold my hand through the editing processes.

I do ask a lot of questions though.

I am very fond of my editors. I would be devastated to lose any of them, even if it were my choice.

Suz from Ellora’s Cave.
Jana from Loose Id.
Bethany from Samhain.
Tera from Samhain.
Shell from Phaze.
Leanne from Cobblestone.

These women, all of them, have shown me things in my writing that I didn’t know what there. I have received good reviews and very bad reviews, great sales and poor poor sales and while the bad and poor ones sting, there are things to take away from them all. It’s important to remember that someone out there believed in the work, someone picked it out of a pile and said ‘I want to edit this, I want to work with this person.’ If we can remember that, well, then we’ve learned something about ourselves as authors, as people.

The editors are a piece of the publishing puzzle that we can’t do without. I am humbled and touched that I have been able to work with some fantastic ones. They are part of the reason I love writing so much. So, thank you, Suz, Jana, Bethany, Tera, Shell, and Leanne.

~lissa