Cover Reveal! A CHANGE OF PLANS by Donna K. Weaver

I ran into Donna K. Weaver a few years back in a writer's chat room and suggested that she might want to join my writer's group. Since then, I've cleverly tricked her into running the whole thing (see how smart I am?). She also hosts me every year for LTUE (three years running now), talks me off the occasional ledge, and is generally fantastic in every way.

Oh, and she totally writes me under a table. I got to read A CHANGE OF PLANS when it was still in beta reading and I loved it even then. It's been so exciting to see her go through the submission process, land a publishing deal, edit, design her cover....

Oh, yeah. The cover. Is. AWESOME!

Wanna see it?

Are you sure??

I mean, if you see it, you're going to want the book, and it's not out yet.

You'll have to wait until June 1st!

Really? Still? 

Okay, you asked for it.




Drumroll..................

See? Told you it was awesome. (I got to render an opinion on the final options and this was my favorite.) The description rocks, too:

When Lyn sets off on her supposedly uncomplicated and unromantic cruise, she never dreams it will include pirates. All the 25-year-old, Colorado high school teacher wants to do is forget that her dead fiancé was a cheating scumbag. Lyn plans a vacation diversion; fate provides Braedon, an intriguing surgeon. She finds herself drawn to him: his gentle humor, his love of music, and even his willingness to let her take him down during morning karate practices. Against the backdrop of the ship’s make-believe world and temporary friendships, her emotions come alive. 

However, fear is an emotion, too. Unaware of the sensitive waters he's navigating, Braedon moves to take their relationship beyond friendship--on the very anniversary Lyn is on the cruise to forget. Lyn's painful memories are too powerful, and she runs from Braedon and what he has to offer.

Their confusing relationship is bad enough, but when the pair finds themselves on one of the cruise's snorkeling excursions in American Samoa things get worse. Paradise turns to piracy when their party is kidnapped and Lyn's fear of a fairytale turns grim. Now she must fight alongside the man she rejected, first for their freedom and then against storms, sharks, and shipwreck.

Yeah, I know. Now you're all upset because June 1st is too far away, right? Well, console yourself with this trailer:

And follow Donna around the internet. Maybe if you're really lucky, you'll win an ARC or something!

Twitter: @TheDonnaKWeaver

Blog: Weaving a Tale or Two

Goodreads: Go add it to your To-Read list!

I'm a real fan of romance and this book was delicious--it is also a very clean romance, for all they have sand everywhere and very little to wear. :)

So what do you think of the cover? Don't you just want to pick it up and read it RIGHT NOW?

Debut Alert: FEUDLINGS

I have an amazing friend named Wendy Knight, who rode with me this year to LTUE, resisted the urge to freeze my bra during our LTUE slumber party at Donna Weaver's house, and monitored one of the pitch session rooms for me. She. Is. Awesome!

Also, she's an awesome writer, and her debut book, published by Astrae Press, is out TODAY! Behold the pretty!

I think the cover and tagline sell the book all by themselves, but here's the blurb anyway:

Nothing makes a new school suck worse than discovering the guy you’re in love with is your prophesied nemesis.

Ari is the most powerful flame-throwing sorceress ever, and her people’s last hope in an ancient war. But she’s also a seventeen-year-old girl, and in her free, not-hunting-nemesis times, she jumps from school to school, trying to figure out regular people her own age and pretending she’ll get the chance to graduate.

Shane lives a double life. He goes to school and masters the art of popularity, hiding the fact that he has a fate with a slim chance of his survival. He’s destined to end a 300 year-old war by killing or being killed. He knows he’s hunted by a powerful enemy who’s not afraid to die. Only problem? He has no idea who that enemy is.

When Ari shows up at Shane’s school, angry and sullen and determined to keep him at arm’s reach, neither of them realize they are supposed to be killing each other, not falling in love. Until Ari does realize it, and she almost dies – by Shane’s hand.

Awesome, no? You want to buy it, don't you? It should be up on all major ebook sites very soon, and I'll update this post once it is (or you can go search Amazon yourself--just saying), but for now it's available on the Astrae Press website. This book will start as an ebook, but will transition to print as soon as a certain number of copies are sold.

I'm just so proud of Wendy. She's such a sweet girl and I'm excited to see her taking this step (though, as always, I'm concerned about her dubious choice of high-heeled boots--not the best for support on rocky terrain). Also, it's fun to watch her hyperventilate in our online chat group. Just saying. :)

So how do you like the cover?

How Querying has Ruined me for Online Dating

First off, let me qualify--I'm not actually online dating. More dabbling. Browsing. I keep signing up for free memberships and creating profiles, but haven't seen anyone--much less been messaged by anyone--who has tempted me enough to shell out cold hard digital cash for the privilege of communicating with them.

Also, I haven't even been divorced a full two months yet, so I'm not exactly ready to start a new relationship. As a friend made me admit, I'm mostly interested in validation at this point... and my friends can give me that. So they tell me. (Still--why has NO ONE tried to set me up on a blind date? When does that start? *thinks blind dates are mysterious and exciting* *knows the reality will kill that illusion fast*)

Anyway, part of the reason that my desire for validation (of my perfectly valid desirability) hasn't driven me to whip out my credit card is the truly sad state of the profiles on these sites.

None of the examples below were taken from
the profiles of these handsome men.
In case you were wondering.

By which I don't mean there aren't great guys out there. Or that the guys are sad. Please don't think I'm down on men, 'cause, really, I'm not. (Most days.) I know enough good husbands--and was happy enough in my own marriage, while it lasted--to know that there are lots of good men in the world.

No, I mean these poor, sad, men are useless at selling themselves. (Probably the girls aren't much better, but for some reason, these sites don't show me a lot of female profiles.) :)

Maybe it's the years of query training I've been giving myself, but, seriously, why would anyone put this in a profile and think it's going to help attract your soulmate:

A little about me...
Well that is a tough one due to that I really don't talk about myself much. 

Honey, if you're not going to talk about yourself, you need to find some other way to meet girls. Can you imagine if I used that line in a query letter?

Oh, wow, I guess I should tell you about my book now, right? I'm just so bad at talking about my book!

I'm sure that would have the agents just lining up at my door.

Or maybe this:

I am fairly entertaining, but I know when seriousness is required.

Do you wonder what he means by "fairly" entertaining? Me, too. Here's a tip: if you make your profile and/or query entertaining when it's called for, and serious when it's called for, this sentence is unnecessary. If you don't... I won't really believe this sentence, anyway.

That's like saying this in a query:

You will enjoy the subtle humor and edge-of-your-seats suspense of my book.

Show, don't tell, people.

This one drives me bat-crazy:

What I do for fun...
We will have to talk to find out.

Really? I can think of a few reasons for this response: 1) he was too lazy to complete his profile, so he's probably not actually serious about finding someone; 2) he thinks this hint of mystery will entice women to message him, even though it's vastly easier to click through to the next guy who bothered to actually complete his profile; 3) what he likes to do is illegal, kinky, or embarrassing. Either way, it's like me putting this in a query letter:

Agents are going to be lining up for this amazing, future bestselling book! If you want to have a chance to represent it, email me and I'll tell you all about it. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you're too uptight to be my agent, anyway.

Worst?

My Self-Summary
Well, who would have though we would meet like this. Me posting an online profile, and you here reading it. I guess I better make this good since you will probably only spend a few seconds here. They ...

You see what he did, here? He KNEW he only had a few seconds to attract the woman he'd someday marry, and he wasted it on fluff. Just to be fair, I clicked past the first two lines to the full profile--and the whole first paragraph is fluff! Nothing actually about him! Now, he does seem like a very nice man and has some fun information on his profile, but, guys, really--lead with the good stuff! What is unique about you? What will make me want to get to know you better? Can you encapsulate yourself in a sentence?

Just for fun, this is what it would look like in a query:

I'm so excited to be able to meet you, my future agent. I just know we're going to have so much fun with this book of mine and that you're going to love it and I'm going to love you. I don't want to waste your time, so let me get to telling you about my wonderful book, which has truly been a work of love--blood, sweat, and tears for the last few years of my life.... [which is where the agent stops reading]

First impressions matter. Always. They can be overcome, but it's SOOO much better to just get it right the first time.

I'll stop there, lest I come across as a bitter divorcee. 'Cause it would never do to let THAT cat out of the bag, now would it?

Have you noticed any unforeseen negative effects from your own querying? Ever tried online dating? Blind dating? It's fun, right? And exciting and mysterious? I knew it!

Advice from the Pitch Master

Hi, all! Sorry for the silence (again), but I've been busy. Dealing with personal stuff (which you can probably guess), applying for a new job (why, yes, I AM nervous that my potential employers will stop by here and conclude that I'm not sufficiently dignified for the position--thanks for asking), and getting over 70 pitch sessions ready for LTUE.

Busy.

Busy.

Busy.

The good news? Two of those time-eaters are now mostly history, so I should be able to resume my regular blogging schedule. And writing. And reading, please the heavens. (How I've missed it! I had to return BITTERBLUE to the library today and I'm not done yet!)

Anyway, since I didn't get to attend many panels at LTUE--Pitch Master is a time-consuming job, turns out--I thought I'd share my thoughts on pitching agents and editors. I had lots of fun dispensing this advice to the captive, nervous pitchers as they waited for their turn with Michelle Witte and Judith Engracia (my awesome friend Wendy Knight--whose debut FEUDLINGS comes out next month!!--was monitoring the editors' room, so I got to spend ten seconds every ten minutes with two awesome agents. So fun!).

So here's the short list of what I told them:

• You bought the time: use it! Don't [do what I did when I pitched last year and] get all excited when you get a request and leave early. Especially if you haven't asked any of your carefully prepared questions. These folks are experts in their field, so ask your questions!
• Don't ask questions designed to figure out if the two of you are compatible enough to work well together. That's the sort of thing you ask when they offer representation. Which, let's face it, probably won't happen. (See below.)
• The odds of THIS agent being the agent who will love YOUR book are only slightly higher than they would be if you were cold-querying through the slush pile. Your whole career isn't riding on the next ten minutes. Your personality--though fantastic--can't make an agent like your lyrical-sci-fi-romance-adventure when she prefers comedic-sci-fi-romance-thrillers. So chill out.
• Since this agent COULD be the agent who loves your book, make sure you pitch it well! Follow the advice Howard Tayler gave about teasers this year (in one of the few presentations I made it to): You need an inciting incident, character action, conflict, and a hook. A hook is that moment when the reader starts to imagine your book themselves--to wonder what might happen and get excited to find out. (Howard usually blows my mind at cons. He's THAT amazing--and he actually remembered me this time! :) )

And that's about it for advice from me.

Two more things, but this is just general con-advice: 1) always have an updated business card to hand out. If you're wondering if you even need such a thing, ask yourself if there's a chance you'll meet someone nice, who you'll want to talk to again. If the answer is yes, you need a card. It just takes too long to write down your email on a napkin--and then they'll just lose the thing or forget who the heck gave it to them. Photo, email, blog, twitter, etc. Trust me. Get it before you think you need it. You can design them yourself with free templates on Word and print them cheap at your local copy shop.

2) Save the elastic necklace things off your con-name-tags in case the next one wants you to wear a pin instead. Necklaces are sooo much better, IMO. Also, your business cards are stored INSIDE the plastic name tag holder, right behind your name tag. That's where they live. Then, when you meet the aforementioned really nice person, you don't have to go hunting. You don't have to wonder where you left your bag. You just dig into your name tag and voila! Easy.

So who has pitched before? Any advice you want to add? Any general con advice? Who was at LTUE?

Pitching at LTUE

What is LTUE, you ask? Only one of the coolest, most cost-efficient SFF symposiums EVER. Just check out my LTUE label for all the coolness of the past two years.

THIS year, LTUE gets even cooler. First, yours truly is officially on the Writing Track Committee! Thank you, thank you. Hold your applause. My main role on the committee? Setting up our first ever Pitch Sessions! (Now you can applaud.)

We have an awesome line up of editors and an amazing agent who will be at the symposium and who will sit down with you (for the small fee of $20) for ten minutes to listen to your pitch on your book. Then they can decide if they want to read more. Which, of course, will inevitably lead to an offer, followed quickly by fame and fortune.* Cool, huh?

I'll update this link when I can, but go check out the LTUE site starting Friday morning to see who is taking pitches and to register for the symposium (only $30 for three days of awesome). Then, starting 9:00 am MDT on Saturday, January 19, you can register for your own pitch session!

I fully expect the best slots to go fast, so you might want to clear your schedule for Saturday morning. Just saying.





*Results may vary

Well, Hello, New Blog

Turns out, fixing my blog name problem was easier than I thought it would be. I just imported all my posts from the old blog (which need not be named) to this one!

I'm still needing to redesign this lovely new space with its cool new name, but I'm happy.

All the posts below here are from before. I'm still not sure if I'll be doing any weeding or if I'll just keep 'em all. Any advice?

The Soundtrack of My Name Change

Sorry for the blog silence. Real life around here has been... intense. Rather than explain, why don't you just enjoy the songs that have been running through my head?

This was my theme song for the week after New Year's. I learned it in college voice lessons to teach me how to belt. I've always thought it was beautiful, but never before was it at all applicable:


I fought this next one for a long time, but, well. Truth is truth, even when it's hard:


This is my favorite fight song--many of the lyrics are wishful thinking (at least at present), but quite a few of the story details are... accurate.


Of course, there are days (getting fewer and fewer) when this song applies best (well, with a gender reversal):


These next two are songs I've shared with my three sons. I can't express how grateful I am for how wonderful my children are. They are such a support to me right now.




And, of course, this all leads to the sad conclusion: I'm going through the Big D (and don't mean Dallas.) (That song only applies in title, but it's kind of catchy.)

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with this blog yet--it has the wrong name on it. I'm reverting to my maiden name: Robin Ambrose--which I've been assured is an awesome writer name. Also, yes, I'm very VERY grateful that I haven't published yet. Thanks for asking. :)

Please stay posted. Real life is still taking all my spare time, but I'm taking steps to set up a new blog with the right name and will do whatever I need to do to make sure you all find your way over to the new one.

Please also know that I'm going to be fine. I've been overflowing with love over the last few weeks--I have so many friends both in real life and online who have gone out of their way to prop me up, let me rant, and give me concrete advice on how to come out on the other side of this in one piece. You guys all rock!