Lynn Raye Harris

Today’s post should be over at I Heart Presents. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and be entered in the drawing for a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card!!!

(If the post isn’t there first thing, keep checking. It’s supposed to go live today.)

UPDATE: The IHP blog is behind due to server maintenance last week. Not sure when The Call story will go up now. But click over to read about one of the runners-up in the Feel the Heat contest!

UPDATE AGAIN: The Call blog is live!! Go check it out!

Every year, the Heart of Dixie RWA has a retreat. This is my second year going, and I am so looking forward to it! As you read this, I’ll be meandering my happy way into the Tennessee mountains, chatting with a friend, and looking forward to the massage waiting for me this afternoon.

After the massage, I’ll shower and get dressed (casually, very casually) for a fun evening of talking, dancing, drinking some concoction or other, and general whooping it up by the giant fireplace in the Inn.

Saturday is general laziness, along with massages (not me since mine is today) and a plotting party. It was at the retreat last year that I mentioned my desire to write for Harlequin Presents — and Kelley St. John told me to go for it. She also sent me the contest announcement about a month later.

Saturday evening is our Murder Mystery party. Last year, we dressed like 1920s gangsters and it was a blast. This year, we’re going for more casual — a spa retreat, which means we get to wear our pajamas and all be girls (I was Rhett Bumbler last year — the fedora and fake cigarette was fun, but I’m glad to be a girl this time).

Monday morning, I’ll be back at the computer, hopefully refreshed and ready to work. Hope your weekend is a blast too!

I’m working on a new book (because I HAVE to; no more writing when I want because I want) and the one thing that always stumps me is beginnings. I can imagine so many of them. And I often rewrite them two or three times (sometimes more, sometimes less). In SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE, the first chapter has changed from the winning entry that appeared on the IHP blog, but much is the same as that first set up.

But I can and have chucked entire opening scenes and redone them. I’m on the third incarnation of the latest book’s opening. This one will stick, but it’s a matter of getting those motivations clear and moving forward from there. I also have trouble with POV. Not with staying in it or making switches clear (noo, had that beat out of me years ago), but with choosing when to switch. Because switching reveals things about the other character. Do I want to reveal it just yet? Or do I want to hold on for a while and keep it a mystery?

Still, it’s fun to start a new story. The possibilities are so wide open as you head into the opening scene. I always start with conflict (it’d be boring otherwise) but I can think of so many settings for that conflict. You could start in a palace, a prison, on a yacht, in a cafe — so many choices. So long as there’s conflict. That is the one irreplaceable ingredient to your opening.

What kind of beginnings do you like? Dramatic? Action packed? Quieter, character-in-crisis moments? Sheikhs swooping in on horses to kidnap unsuspecting heroines? (Ahem, never mind, that was yesterday….)

I found this site last night and had to share: Sheikhs and Desert Love. This site specifically catalogues all romance novels featuring sheikhs, desert princes, etc.

Yes, yes, I know that the reality of the modern Middle East isn’t all that appealing, and that desert chieftains aren’t exactly Omar Sharif or Oded Fehr (pic) lookalikes in caftans. But I love sheikh romances. Always have since that first Harlequin Presents fix I got as a pre-teen. There are most certainly deeper mythological connotations to the dark desert prince/sheikh romances, and as an English major I could certainly go into boring and copious detail about the fantasy aspect–

But no, not happening. I just love these stories for the sheer exoticism of them, and I hope to write one of my own someday. I’ve read TE Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom twice — the reality of the desert is harsh, but the text is also romantic in its own way. Lawrence was certainly inspired by the life he found out there (and changed by it, no doubt).

So how do you feel about the sheikh romances? Total turn off? Or can you suspend disbelief enough to get lost in the world of camels, desert palaces, and golden dunes?

The Call story is coming soon over at I Heart Presents! (UPDATE: Oct 20 is the date for THE CALL story) And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and be eligible for that $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card. Who wouldn’t want free books?!

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It’s been one week since The Call. What exciting things have I done? Um, started work on another book. I have a deadline. A real one. OMG…..

You can still sign up for my newsletter and enter yourself for a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card!

By signing up, you agree that you will receive emails from me on occasion. I promise not to share your address with anyone.

I’ll draw for a winner on Tuesday, October 28th. I’ll announce it on the blog and send you an email. You will have 48 hours to get in touch with me and give me your snail mail addy before I redraw.

Click to join lynnrayeharrisnews

What did I realize? I’m ineligible for the Golden Heart! Being a finalist last year was amazing, but now I’ll never have a chance to win. Ah well. I’ll cheer my friends instead!

Hey, I’m celebrating my two-book sale with my friends over at The Writing Playground today! Come on over and say hello!

I’m also having my first official contest!!

Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card.

By signing up, you agree that you will receive emails from me on occasion. I promise not to share your address with anyone.

I’ll draw for a winner on Tuesday, October 28th. I’ll announce it on the blog and send you an email. You will have 48 hours to get in touch with me and give me your snail mail addy before I redraw.

Click to join lynnrayeharrisnews

Sign up and then come on over and party!

Yesterday, I met several friends for lunch at a local restaurant. Little did that lunch crowd, mostly comprised of engineers and assorted military types, realize that five creative women sat at a table in their midst talking about books, contracts, agents, and due dates that had nothing to do with babies.

The best of all possible worlds is when a writer has writer friends. The things we talk about! There was a discussion of sex toys that started when we discussed a particular author and her use of odd things in her books. One of our number had never heard of this particular implement, so we had to whisper it, and describe it, which turned hilarious when we glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

At least we didn’t discuss how to hide the body, which sometimes happens. Or whether to simply kidnap someone instead of kill them. But this wasn’t a gathering of suspense writers, so we didn’t really go there.

I needed that time away from the computer, and I cherish it. It was a great lunch — we laughed and talked a lot. Two ladies had to go back to work, but three of us stayed for another 2.5 hours. We originally got together to celebrate my sale, and I’m so happy they wanted to do that. But really, sale or not, it’s just fun to get together with people who think like I do — who get lost in their heads, who think it’s perfectly acceptable to talk about characters like they are real people, and who are serious about what they do. It helps keep me sane, I swear.

Do you have writer friends you love to get together with? Do you talk about crazy things? Do you need that connection from time to time? If you don’t have writer friends close by, what do you do to decompress? And if you aren’t a writer, what do you and your friends talk about when you get together? What is the one big thing you have in common?

SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE will be an August 09 release in the UK. The North American release is still to be determined. But I will let you know as soon as I do!

This is truly, truly a dream come true. I know I have a lot of lurkers, a lot of unpublished writers who, like me, are working hard and want the dream. Well, it can happen. You just have to keep writing and keep believing. It won’t always be easy. Some days you’ll need to back away from the computer and eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s (ice cream for my international readers who may not have this luscious brand of sin in their grocery freezers). You simply must believe in yourself. And that is not always an easy task.

Trust me, I know. You will second guess yourself. You will decide to quit. It’s okay, so long as you come back to it. I’ve quit. And I’ve come back, determined not to quit again.

Yes, I got the Call, but there is always another hill to climb. My published friends tell me so and I believe them. But I will not quit! And neither should you, wherever you are in the journey. You’re gonna write some awful stuff, probably. But don’t quit. And learn to grow your craft. If you do that, you’ll get there. Good luck, and I’ll let you know when the Call story appears at the IHP blog!

Thanks to everyone who stopped to congratulate me on my news about The Call!!!! I am so thrilled and still amazed that I got that magical phone call. It’s definitely a dream come true. I read Harlequin Presents novels behind my textbooks in school. I read them on my very first job as a receptionist at a real estate office (and earned the distinction of being “the reading-est thang”), and I read them in my bedroom at night. I subscribed to the Harlequin reader service where they sent you all the Presents every month, even though I was a teenager and money was tight. *g*

And now to think I am a Presents author! My book will be on those shelves someday next year, and it’s so incredible and awesome for me. Who knew? Entering the Presents contest was definitely the best choice I ever made for my writing!

So, this isn’t the Call Story, is it? Well, I’ve promised to write that up for the I Heart Presents blog and it will appear next week. So until then, I’ll just pop up from time to time and say how stunned I still am. It’s true; I am.