Release Date News--Driven

Driven, the second book in my YA series The Warrior, is releasing May 13th!!

Decadent Publishing Puts Out Call For Military Romance

It can be so hard to know which publishers are looking for which kinds of stories. So, I thought I would let everyone know that I heard this morning that Decadent Publishing, one of my publishers, has put out an open call for military romances for a new series they are going to start putting out.

Here are the details:

Military Romance Series-To Be Named

short or novella length
Active military in peace time or war time
Any time period (present day, War of 1812, Spanish/American, WW1, Greek/Spartan, Napoleonic, etc.)
One or both of the H/H must be in the military service, any branch, including Coast Guard.
CAN BE FOREIGN military (Aussie, Brit, etc.)
Should feature a strong alpha male character
No sci-fi/fantasy for this particular series (but we always welcome them outside of it)
should have HFN or HEA
Can have menage, BDSM, etc. as long as it fits within our guidelines
Send submissions, indicating 'Military Romance Series' in the email, to submissions@decadentpublishing.com

AHHHH

So, last night out of nowhere all of our plumbing--the toilets, tubs, and sinks--started randomly overflowing with black, stinky, disgusting water. It turns out there was some kind of blockage between us and the street that caused the problem. Inside the house, the backup caused several vents (I thought they were pipes but it turns out they were vents) leaked and will have to be replaced. Into the late hours--my husband, his massage therapist who had the bad luck to be here when it happened (Needless to say last night's massage did not make his back feel better), the emergency plumbers, the Inspector for the water company, and myself worked hard to try to stop and then clean up the mess.

It is, according to the water company, our problem that the blockage existed and not there's. Fine. But, I'm going to have to change several plumbing things we have in the house. I have to call the plumber and get this taken care of.

What else am I doing today? Well, the tree people are coming (made the appointment last week) to take down two dead branches threatening my roof and to fertilize two trees on the side of our property that are potentially in trouble because of the house construction going on the property next door to us.

Also, the cable company is coming. For the fifth time. Because, guess what?, the fact that I spent a lot of money yesterday having the electricians change all of the cable wiring in the house to take all copper out that the Cable company insisted would fix the problem DIDN'T WORK. Its officially been two weeks since my husband and I could watch network (ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS) in our house. Also, the phone and internet--both from the cable company--go in and out.

In addition to all of this, I have to serve lunch at my 3 year old's school today. Remind me next year when I fill out the paperwork for their schools to write 'no' when they ask if I'm available to help. The way the school is set up, if a parent is not there to help the teachers don't get to eat lunch. So, its not like I can just cancel.

I'm tired. I'm cranky. I'm at a place in my Work In Progress where I just want to write and write. AHHHHHHHHH.

Sorry for the rant. I need a hug. And a nap. And a large drink.

I am being Featured...

Hey everyone,

My series "The Westervelt Wolves" is being featured this week at the Guilty Indulgence Blog. They are talking about one of the books a day. Come and visit here.

Rebecca Royce

Central Casting Called

So, I thought I was going to a new dentist and guess what? He's the brother-in-law of my old dentist. I couldn't stop laughing. It was like I had gotten stuck in some kind of Central Casting Joke.

I realize this is a random story. But it reminded me of my favorite kinds of books: Series. Everyone is related to everyone else. If you meet a character, it is likely he is going to know someone else somehow. And I have to tell you...I love it.

Paranormal lends itself to series better than anything else, I think. Because why shouldn't the two hundred year old vampire know the one hundred year old Werewolf from fifty years ago in Romania?

Do you have a favorite series and if so what is it? Do you find the Central Casting office brings the characters back to be related to each other over and over?

Letting My Characters Show Me The Way

I have been writing the sequel to my book Eye Contact for some time now. Its not unexpected that it would take some time for me to write this one. Eye Contact is a long book, over 90,000 words, and Embraced is shaping up to long as well.

But, recently, I stumbled with it. I reached a place and I thought, hmmm, I have no idea where to go from here. A lot of you writers out there are what they refer to as 'plotters,' meaning that you work out all of your plot kinks before you ever write word one on the page. I am not. I am what is referred to as a 'pantser' meaning I write by the seat of my pants. LOL. When I stumbled this time, I actually considered sitting down and making an outline for this book.

But I stopped myself.

Why?

Because after all of this time, my muse and I are quite familiar with each other. The second I have worked out all of the plot twists and turns of a book, my muse moves on to other things. If I work out the plot before I have written it, I almost never write the book. It's just not that interesting to my creative side anymore.

So what did I do? Well, I decided to start writing the next chapter just to see what would happen. I pushed through and the most unexpected thing happened: the plot altered a great deal from what I had expected and the book changed into something so different than it had been and so much better.

My characters told me what was supposed to happen in their story.

Now it is like I can't write fast enough. My hands are moving a mile a minute and my head wont shut down. I am thrilled.

Happy Monday everyone. I wish you a wonderful week of writing and reading!

Six Sentence Sunday

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for coming by. This is from my work-in-progress tentatively called Embraced. It is the second book in my Conditioned series. WARNING--Hot scene.

His finger pressed deeper into her underpants and she gasped. No one ever touched her there, not even herself. There was no privacy in Crescent. They slept on beds that were about ten inches from each other. It didn’t lend itself to a lot of self-exploration.

“I’m going to take your panties off now.”

A Lack of A Blog...

I sometimes think of Daphne DuMarurier. If you don't know her, she wrote my favorite book entitled Rebecca. This book is a really fun read filled with intrigue, murder, and yes...romance. Its brilliant and I reread it all the time!!

Somehow, Ms. Du Maurier managed to write this book--sell this book--and attract millions of readers without the use of a blog.

But, this is 2011 and writers need to blog. I actually like doing it. Let it never be said that I am unwilling to talk about myself.

Sometimes, however, I try to imagine what Ms. Du Maurier would have blogged about and I can't come up with a single thing.

Lets Talk About Westervelt

The Westervelt Wolves is the story of the Royal Kane brothers--wolf shifters--who are in a fight that has been brewing for thirty years against their father Kendrick Kane.

What began with Tristan's story in Her Wolf will ultimately end in Gabriel's story. Thirty years earlier, Kendrick's evil plans nearly destroyed the pack.
Each book positions the brothers to both meet their mate and to play their role--with their mate's help--to help improve the pack's odds against beating an enemy that has longer to prepare and is seemingly more powerful than they are.
Westervelt is a limited story. It can't go on forever, much as I might like it to. It will end with Gabriel's story and right now I have two more to write.
I will miss it when it's over. I've always thought, and I hope the reader thinks, of each brother as puzzle pieces--each one bringing their unique talents to the war. They don't know how important they are until they are faced with their personal task. This is absolutely true with the book that is coming out next--Angel's Wolf.
Thank you so much for going on this journey with me and the Westervelt Wolves. I hope you enjoy their battle against Kendrick as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Casting!

I am over at the Decadent Publishing Blog today casting my books. Come say hello!

I Have To Call The Cable Company Today...

Is there ever anything you have to do on regular basis that just drives you crazy? For me, it looks like I will spend part of today on the phone with the Cable Company. GRRR. Why? Because right now we've lost all of our network programming. We have other channels but not NBC, ABC, CBS, or FOX.

This is just nutty and I really don't have the time for it. But apparently it will be part of my day today whether I like it or not.

What is on tap for all of you?

Six Sentence Sunday

Thank you all so much for coming to check out this weeks Six Sentence Sunday. These six sentences come from the chapter I am writing in my Work in Progress called Embraced. It is the second book in a series called The Conditioned.

Here is this weeks six:

“I know that I want you in a way I have never wanted anyone else. Sex was kind of…blah…for me.” She shrugged and he watched transfixed as her pale shoulders went up and down in the dark. Seven had a way of saying things that was so unique to her. He doubted he’d ever hear anyone else ever describe it that way again.

“Well, we’ll endeavor to do better than blah.”

Living up to my promises

One day into my self-proclaimed promise to make myself add even more heat to my novels, I just wrote the smuttiest words I've ever typed. Woo Hoo. Continuing on...

Heat

I have decided that this year my stories are going to be hotter. Except for my YAs, obviously. So watch out. Rebecca Royce is doing more heat! That is all!

Rebecca

Amazing

I find it amazing to read some of my fellow authors' work. The amount of sheer imagination that staggers me and makes me lose myself in incredible worlds for a little while is incredible. I just wanted to paused for a moment to express how much I love reading and how I much I love other people's work!

Decadent Publishing Opening For 2 Days

Hey everyone,

As some of you know, one of my publishers, Decadent Publishing, has been only accepting in-house or agented submissions for a little while now. I have it from a good source that they will open for 2 days only for general submissions. They're specifically looking for Western Rom, sci-fi, fantasy, military, historical and some others. Go check out their page later today for more details. But remember..just 2 days!

RR

Its Tuesday...

So please find me at Paranormal Romantics.

Setting My Goals...And Meeting Them

Yesterday, I posted on Twitter that I had finally met my word count for the day. I was hugely relieved. I realized, as I posted the news, that perhaps I should explain. I have daily word count goals that I have set for myself.

Now, I publish in the e-publishing world. For the most part, that means I am not given dates by which the publisher wants my work done. No, any 'deadlines' that I'm making are deadlines I've set for myself.

Why, you might ask, do I set deadlines and insist on making them if I don't have them pressing on me by an outside source? Well, I would answer, because if I don't push myself every day to write at least 3000 words than I am not preforming at my maximum capacity. The more books that I can write (and write well, I do self edit and have a critique partner and Beta readers) the more books I have available to any readers who might be interested in buying them.

If I have a series--lets say the Conditioned--and Eye Contact is published, I don't want to leave the readers without the second book just because I can't reach my own word count goals. So, I'll continue to push myself to write 3000 good words a day and delete the words that don't work as I go along.

How about you? In your own life do you set goals and meet them?

Six Sentence Sunday

Hi everyone. Thanks so much everyone for stopping by every week!! I thought I would pick six sentences from my current Work In Progress called Embraced. For those of you who haven't heard me discuss this before, it's the second in a series that I'm writing called The Conditioned. The first book called Eye Contact. It's available now with Decadent Publishing. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

But this weeks six sentences are from Embraced. It will be number 2 in the series

“You’re human.”

Everything about her was human and very, very female. His libido was keenly aware of just how feminine she actually was. It was all he could do not to slam her against the wall and be a much more aggressive lover than he’d ever been in his life.

“Don’t let them take her. They’ll make her me.”

Best,

RR

5 Pieces Of Advice I Would Give New Writers

I've been trying to think about some advice I might give to new writers just starting out. Really, you don't need to hear me talk about writing tips, editing, or finding a good publisher. There are tons, and I mean tons, of good articles online that deal with this.

What I would prefer to do is to give some advice about navigating the pitfalls of the social networking world.

This is what I would say:

1. Be careful what you say on Twitter. If you talk about another person, writer, publisher, agent--there is every chance they are going to see it. This goes doubly when talking about reviews. The reviewer is going to see it and so are all the other writers and readers. Its possible no one would see the review if you didn't mention it.

2. Not everyone is who they say they are online. This may seem obvious. (Or maybe not, I'm not that good at this even in Real Life.) Just because a person claims to be something, does not mean they are actually that. Go watch the movie Catfish. The woman in that movie pretended to be hundreds of people. In my case, I know someone pretending to be at least four other people. It's not pretty. Protect yourself and your work from the crazies.

3. Watch out for the Egos. In general, I find that NYT bestselling authors are gracious, nice, kind, and generous. It's the people who have done NOTHING to speak of that love to talk about how fabulous both they and their writing are. A good friend suggested that the best way to handle Twitter, Facebook, etc is to act like the people you admire and not get stuck down in the mud with the mass that is complaining or behaving badly.

4. Find some good people--in a critique group or a forum--and hold onto them. We all need friends out there and I do believe you can find really good friends online. I have. But if you find someone who a lot of people seem to un-friend in one capacity or another, run away. I've had this happen a lot. See comment number 2. Not everyone is who they say they are. And some people have a lot of screen names or pseudonyms. Anyone can create a website. Check track records. Ask people you trust. It is how people behave when no one is watching that counts. (I believe this to be true in REAL life too.)

I do believe it is possible to actually cool off with another person and not to say another bad word about them. Relationships come and go. Good people don't take to Twitter to trash one another.

5. Attend conferences. You learn SO much.

Thats all. Best to all of you. For the record, I spoke in vague terms on purpose. If you don't know who the person is who is pretending to be four other people, I am not going to illuminate it. I don't want to gossip. I just want to encourage everyone to be CAREFUL out there.

It's Amazing

How my three boys all face the day so differently. My oldest (5) he would really like to lay in bed and cuddle with us as long as there are cartoons on television. The three year old wants to be fed. Right Away. Not even a few minute delay. If he's forced to endure lots of cuddles, then he waits, impatiently for the presentation of food. And the baby does not want to cuddle. At 18 months old, he wants to be taken downstairs and given a drink so he can go play right away.

Their mommy? She'd like ten more minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

To All My Friends at RT#11

I'm totally jealous to not be there with you. Just so you know. Hope you are all having a TON of fun and I want a ton of stories when you get back!!

A Random Blog Post

As was just suggested to me on Twitter (thank you RJ), since I can't come up with a decent blog topic, I'm going to write something random today and hope its not too dumb.

Yesterday, I finished reading Lora Leigh's latest Breed book. It was really good, as all of her books are, and it occurred to me about 3/4 of the way through that this is her twenty-fourth book in that series. 24!! How does she manage it? How does Christine Feehan? She must always be working to continue the series, to progress the stories, to keep it interesting. I give her massive amounts of credit. I mean--twenty-four? How many new characters has she had to slip into earlier books so she can write their stories at some point? Sigh. I'm very impressed.

Then I started to think about my own series--The Westervelt Wolves--which made my brain go into Westervelt mode--and I dreamt of Rex's story last night, which is the next one for me to write. The only problem? I'm not writing it for at least two more books. So he's going to have to be patient.

Although I have no patience right now because it feels like my kids have been sick for a month!!

I guess that is for today, a little random thoughts from me on this Wednesday morning. Hope you are all well.

RR

It's Tuesday....

Please join me at my other shared blog called Paranormal Romantics. I'm talking about angry travelers.

Because this made me laugh...

From the New Yorker Magazine

Ugh

I arrived home yesterday after having a wonderful time in Louisiana with my husband at a wedding to find that my children were not feeling well. Three weeks ago, my middle son caught--again--strep throat at his nursery school. It promptly made its way around the house with my oldest and youngest sons catching the dreaded infection. Then again last week, he caught it again. So, of course, now it looks like they've both caught it again. We have a nine-thirty AM doctors appointment to determine if they have strep so I'll let you know.

Nothing in the world like getting off an airplane to a house full of fever and strep throat. Hope your Monday is better than mine.

Six Sentence Sunday

For this weeks Six Sentence Sunday, I thought I would give you six sentences from the Mermaid Short Story I've just sold to Decadent Publishing. I think that Dara England did a beautiful job on the cover. Anyway, some of you have seen some of this before. Hope you are all well!!

If she’d hoped for any decorum based on the fact that they were outside and in front of others, she’d been sadly mistaken. Sylarus shouted like she’d never heard him do before. Not even on the day she’d been caught plotting against his father’s rule. He always stayed cool and mostly collected. The fact that he even raised his voice meant he had really lost it with the news she’d given him.

She jerked her head up to stare him in the eyes. Just because he screamed didn’t mean she had to cower.

Greetings from the Big Easy

Hello everyone~ I am currently in New Orleans attending a wedding of some dear friends of ours. It has been a month of weddings for us, which is wonderful because after our recent loss it is nice to remember that life has lots of happy times too. For those of you who don't know, I actually met my hubby in New Orleans so the town always has a bit of romance for me.

Right now, I am sitting outside in a courtyard in a spot I have located that has really good wireless signal. Our rooms are supposed to have it, and they sort of do, but it is spotty at best. My husband is off doing 'groomsmen' things and as I have walked around the French Quarter, bought myself a pretty sun dress just 'because,' and managed to throw off my Pat O'Brien's hangover from the night before, I couldn't think of anything nicer to do than just relax in the court yard of my hotel.

There are children swimming in the hotel pool, which is a constant reminder of my children who are home, and likely cold thanks to the terrible weather, with my parents. Of course, they're probably inside so the cold might be unlikely as well. Thanks Mom and Dad if you are reading this. We really appreciate the babysitting and we know it is not easy!!

I hope you are all well wherever you are and enjoying yourselves as much as I am!

Rebecca