By JT Ellison

I have such a treat for y’all today. If you haven’t heard the name Jenny Milchman, prepare yourself. She’s going to be the next Laura Lippman, and you heard it here first. When I read COVER OF SNOW, I was blown away – how could this be a debut? I wasn’t the only one, Jenny was nominated for a slew of awards, and has had an amazing amount of success for a new author. If you haven’t read it, get a copy now, and while you’re at it, snag yourself her new book, RUIN FALLS. Here’s Jenny!

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Set your music to shuffle and hit play. What’s the first song that comes up?

It’d be something country. Maybe Sugarland or Lady A. That’s because we’re on the road, 4 months and 20,000 miles on the world’s longest book tour now that my second novel has come out. My kids are in the backseat—we “car-school” them—and my husband works from the front. And there’s something about the road that calls for country.

Now that we’ve set the mood, what are you working on today?

Absolutely nothing! Well, I’m filling out this delightful set of questions, of course. And Tweeting, FB-ing, answering email. But I just turned in edits for my 2015 release, As Night Falls, and I’m in a lull period prior to starting my next novel, and finalizing this one.

What’s your latest book about?

Ruin Falls is about a woman whose children go missing at the start of a long awaited family vacation. But this is not a child-in-jeopardy novel, don’t worry. The kids are safe all along, and the mom and you as reader both know that. The suspense in the story comes from whether Liz Daniels can become the kind of person who can get her children back.

Where do you write, and what tools do you use?

I’m pretty much a word processing kind of girl. In fact, until recently when we rented out our house for the world’s longest book tour, I wrote on a machine that had no USB port, was running Windows 98…and backed up on floppy disks. (This led to all sorts of fun encounters at Staples or Office Max where the clerk looked at me like I was Encino Man). Now I use a real, internet-enabled netbook, but I still won’t go on the web or do email or social media while I am writing in the mornings. Instead, I stare out at a mountain, and a creek, and use the screen only as a portal into my story.

What was your favorite book as a child?

Anything by Stephen King.

What’s your favorite bit of writing advice?

Find the joy. I know the whole, Writing is easy; you just sit down and open up a vein school of thought. And maybe it’s true for some writers and some books. But I think that when we are just itching to get to that computer or pad of paper every day, travel into the world of our story, then our readers will be just as excited to keep turning the page.

What do you do if the words aren’t flowing?

Knock on wood because so far at least this hasn’t happened, at least not during a first draft. Revising is like boxing my way out of a concrete cell, though. I weep, I pull hair out. Not even necessarily my own hair. But a first draft is more like a river that pulls me along.

What would you like to be remembered for?

A bookseller in Olympia, WA told me that after reading one of my books, she feels a little stronger as a person herself. I would love to be remembered for giving people that.

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Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from the Hudson Valley of New York State, who lived for seven months on the road with her family on what Shelf Awareness called “the world’s longest book tour.”

Jenny’s debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for best suspense novel of 2013, and has been nominated for the Macavity and Barry Awards.

RUIN FALLS, Jenny’s second novel, was published in 2014 to starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal, and chosen as an Indie Next Pick.

Jenny is Vice President of Author Programming for International Thriller Writers, and the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated by over 700 bookstores in all 50 states and four foreign countries in 2013.

Tour

Jenny is currently on a second World’s Longest Book Tour, from 4/22/2014 until 9/3/2014 (with some additional Fall and Winter dates), covering 40 states, 20,000 miles and almost 200 bookstores, libraries, book clubs, and other events. See http://jennymilchman.com/tour/over-the-falls-2014 for a full tour schedule and map. Jenny would love to meet you on the road!

About Ruin Falls, released 4/22/2014

Liz Daniels has just set off on vacation, but when the family stops for the night, she wakes to find a terrifying reality. Her children are missing, and the hours tick by without anyone finding a trace of them. But in a sudden, gut-wrenching instant, Liz realizes that no stranger invaded their hotel. Instead, someone she trusted completely has betrayed her. Now Liz will stop at nothing to get her children back. From her guarded in-laws’ farmhouse to the woods of her hometown, Liz follows the threads of a terrible secret to uncover a hidden world created from dreams and haunted by nightmares.

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

Writing used to be a solitary endeavor. I’ve only been in the game for ten years, and when I started, it was a solitary endeavor. I wrote in a vacuum, not knowing any other authors, unaware of writers’ organizations, agents, editors, sales channels and marketing plans. I wrote for me, and when I finished my first book, my husband read it, and thought it was pretty good. A friend who knew I was writing a novel offered to read it. He too liked it. The next thing I knew, I was at the library checking out a copy of the Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents, and had an editor reading my pages for continuity and grammar.

Things took off quickly after that. A year later, I had a agent, and a year after that, a three-book deal. I’d joined a critique group, started blogging, first for my own blog, then on Murderati. I put up a Facebook page, began the race to accumulate “friends.” Shortly thereafter, Twitter joined the mix.

I was no longer alone.

Fast forward ten years. I’ve just turned in my 15th novel. Pinterest, Instagram and Goodreads have all become a daily ritual like Facebook and Twitter. I send monthly newsletters to a lot of people. I do chats, and blog, and create clever contests.

I am living out loud.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with sharing myself online. From the very beginning, I was incredibly careful what I put out there. I’m an introvert, and I like my privacy. I like sharing JT the author with people, but I also wanted to keep me separate from all of that. It was a learning curve. Whenever I let a piece of me into the mix, I felt raw and vulnerable, oddly exposed, like I’d walked into a cocktail party without my clothes, and everyone was staring.

Keeping the two parts separate was a nice ideal. It couldn’t sustain.

Years ago there was a successful writer whose blog I followed. She was a funny, quirky blogger, full of interesting tips about the writing process and publishing in general. And she talked about when writing was hard.

-Gasp-

She talked a lot about it. So much so that some other nameless authors tried to run her off for being overly dramatic and whiny. So much so that even I read a few posts cringing.

How could you put yourself out there like that? People will think you’re weak. People will think you’re lazy. People will think …

I was new. Bright, shiny. Brimming with ideas and exuberance. Unstoppable. The idea of writer’s block was a joke. That it would be anything but easy to sit down and write a book? Bosh. And that you might actually admit out loud to strangers reading your blog that you were struggling? Heresy.

I know now I was running on a sort of extended adrenaline those first few years. Life does get in the way. Sometimes, writing is hard. Really freaking hard. It cuts you open just to watch you bleed, and laughs at you as you struggle on hands and knees to cross the room to your desk. And let’s not get into the parts that are out of your control: bad laydows, terrible art decisions, marketing plans that disappear, accounts dropped, promises broken.

This is a fucking heartbreaking industry, in so many ways, yet we soldier on in silence, for the most part, because there is an old adage that reads: Never let them see you sweat.

I’ve always tried to stick to that advice, simply because of that open, honest blog I used to read. It seemed so voyeuristic, to see inside another writer’s heart. To watch her bleed to death, slowly, in public, while others cast aspersions from their ivory towers.

I’m not sure when I crossed the first line myself. But over the years, I’ve shared more and more. The lines between me and that JT girl blurred, becoming nonexistent. The day I too was stuck and thinking about giving up, I reminded myself of the blog I’d read with such disdain as a child author, realizing that what she was doing was her therapy, and wrote about it myself. It helped. God in heaven, it helped.

I’ve never been good with weakness, from myself or from others. My BFFs know if you come to me with a problem, you first need to tell me if you simply need to blow off steam, because if not, I will find a path for you to fix whatever issue is nagging at you. It’s a character flaw, I think, but I’ve learned to live with it.

Sometimes, though, I need to be weak. I need to vent. I need to cry. I need.

Writing WHAT LIES BEHIND was one of those times. It was by far the hardest book I’ve ever written. Storylines wouldn’t work. Characters weren’t behaving. I was stuck, blocked, for weeks, trying machination after machination to get the story to work. Five months of head banging frustrations, slipping into despair more than once, thinking about shelving the whole thing and giving up.

And I blogged about it. I talked about it on Facebook. And on Twitter. I wined and complained and lived out loud.

And you came to my rescue.

You held me up. You encouraged me. You offered ideas, paths to cross over to different switchbacks. You sent prayers and namastes and care packages. You saw that I was weak, and needed help, and you rose to the occasion without a moment’s hesitation.

Social media gets a bad rap sometimes. Yes, it’s a distraction. Yes, it takes time away from our creative endeavors. But when you build a community of incredible people who will lift you up when you’re falling? It is worth every second.

You got me through this book. Knowing I wasn’t alone kept me going, day after day. And it is with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat that I give you my most humble thanks. I couldn’t have done it without you. When I turned the book in Saturday, I breathed a sigh of relief so huge I think I started a tropical storm in the Gulf.

Walk a mile in another man’s shoes, right?

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

Welcome my good friend Brett Battles to the blog today! Brett was one of the very first people I met in publishing. We were in the same debut class, talking online about how we were going to make a roar with our debut novels, and ended up co-founding (with Jason Pinter and Sandra Ruttan) a marketing group called Killer Year, which has now morphed into the ITW Debut Authors program. He was also long-time member of Murderati. He makes me feel like quite a slacker, as he’s written 20 novels to my 15, and he’s become one of the most successful indie published authors out there. His Jonathan Quinn series is one of my favorites, and I’m so excited to have him here today. Without further ado….

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Set your music to shuffle and hit play. What’s the first song that comes up?

“La Soledad” performed by Pink Martini

Now that we’ve set the mood, what are you working on today?

Relaxing! It’s Sunday…tomorrow I dive back into the next book in my Project Eden series.

What’s your latest book about?

REWINDER concerns the consequences of one’s actions, and the choices one makes in a reality where time travel is possible.

Where do you write, and what tools do you use?

Believe it or not I write in my kitchen (which is not large), on my iMac which sits on a rolling, butcher block topped cabinet. I wheel it into the center, sit on a stool, and work. This way I have views out both the kitchen windows and those in the living room.

What was your favorite book as a child?

Hmmm….I had many. I remember loving A WRINKLE IN TIME. I also couldn’t get enough of the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigator series. Wait, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov was also a huge favorite, and…okay, I’ll stop.

What’s your favorite bit of writing advice?

If you wait for inspiration to strike before you write, you’ll never get anything done.

What do you do if the words aren’t flowing?

Keep trying until I can’t go on, then give myself the rest of the day off. Sometimes you just need a day away.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Being a good dad and friend.

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More About REWINDER (Available Now)

You will never read Denny Younger’s name in any history book, will never know what he’s done.

But even if you did, you’d never believe it.

The world as you know it wouldn’t be the same without him.

Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes abruptly change when the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruits him to be a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. The job at first sounds like it involves researching old books and records, but Denny soon learns it’s far from it.

A Rewinder’s job is to observe history.

In person.

Embracing his new life with enthusiasm, Denny witnesses things he could never even imagine before. But as exciting a life as this is, there are dangers, too. For even the smallest error can have consequences.

Life-altering consequences.

Time, after all, is merely a reference point.

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Brett Battles is a Barry Award-winning author of over twenty novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series, the Logan Harper series, and the Project Eden series. He’s also the coauthor, with Robert Gregory Browne, of the Alexandra Poe series. You can learn more at his website: brettbattles.com

Buy REWINDER:

Kindle: http://amzn.to/1sU1zfK / Trade Paperback: http://amzn.to/1q6ZEnO

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

I’m sitting here, wet and chilly, after hitting balls in the rain to prepare to play golf in the morning with my dad and his pals, a terrifying prospect because the last time I played, I did so horribly I made all kinds of assurances and promises that I would be a better partner this time, and I haven’t played a single day this summer.

Shite.

The ball striking was good, but I’m rather distracted, because I’m finally making strides with the book. The Big Blow Up of 2014 worked – I think – and I’ve revised the 36 chapters I had already written, adding 7 in the process. I’m over 85K now, and the end isn’t in sight, but there might be a glimmer of hope ahead. So.

My Dad turns 80 Saturday. We will be feting him in various ways, and I’ll be happily tied up with family business this weekend. So it’s back to work Monday and by damn, there will be a draft by next Friday. There. I said it. So it will happen, right?

Who made the pear sorbet from this month’s newsletter? How was it?

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

My journal entry yesterday begins with this rather alarming phrase: “Sometimes, you just have to blow up a book.”

I’m nearly to the end of the book — that is, the word count says I’m nearly to my end goal. I personally am nowhere near the end, and need to get there, STAT.

I’ve been writing a book that I started in late April that’s plot line began to play out on the nightly news three weeks ago, and it has gotten so topical I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. This is the writer’s worst fear — that something they come up with will happen, and then it seems the book was written as a response to the news, rather than being a precursor. It happens more often than you’d think, which is why our government has a few authors in from time to time to brainstorm “worst case scenarios.” Our creativity has prevented many terrible issues, I’m sure.

But there are times when the story just ain’t gonna fly. Saturday, tired of struggling with this, I decided I needed to make some rather large changes. I stayed up very late writing down “fixes,” ten of them in all, then Sunday morning, went back to Page 1 and started over.

Page 1 rewrites are terror inducing, but sometimes necessary. I’ve only done it twice before, and never this far into the writing, but both books ended up much stronger for the last-minute alterations. And I‘m feeling better about the story. Ninety percent of what’s there stays, it’s just being reworked to be simpler, less topical, and more personal to Sam.

I’ve already rewritten the first 20 chapters, and am hoping to have a draft done by next week.

In the meantime, in the moments I’m not writing, I am desperately trying to refill the well. Which means watching movies, which led me to Armageddon last night. There is a scene in particular that blows me away every time, and after I watched it, covered in goosebumps, I starting thinking about my top movie scenes ever. So here’s the list:

Armageddon:
The twin shuttle launches, both snaking into the twilight sky

Gladiator:
Maximus in the Coliseum. He jumps on a horse and is thrown a sword, which he catches and twirls into a lethal grip.

G.I. Jane:
Jordan [bleeding]: “Master Chief?”
Master Chief: “Lieutenant, seek life elsewhere.”
Jordan [screams, to the delight of her team] “Suck my dick.”

Star Trek (2009):
When Sulu brings the Enterprise up out of the cloud vapor to save the day. And the score… perfection.

Star Wars:
The immediate opening, the crash of the music as the words begin scrolling backward into the universe.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two):
The Courtyard Battle Scene. The score makes this incredible moment truly magnificent.

French Kiss:
At the very end, just before the credits, when Kevin Kline kisses Meg Ryan on the hillside above their vineyard, picking her up in a passionate embrace neither of them could have imagined when they first met. *sighs*

Do you have a favorite movie moment?

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

I have the distinct honor of having one of the coolest chicks in crime fiction on the blog today. Meg Gardiner has written twelve exceptional crime novels, and her latest, PHANTOM INSTINCT, simply blew me away The opening scene literally left me with my mouth hanging open, and the premise (against the backdrop of Fregoli Syndrome) is awesome. Her writing is sharp and intense and wildly descriptive, elements that are hard to find in a single title. Plus, she’s smart, funny, gorgeous, and great company on panels, and now has Nashville ties, so we get to catch up. If you’re not reading her, you need to rectify that immediately.

I give you the divine Meg Gardiner!

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Set your music to shuffle and hit play. What’s the first song that comes up?

“The Heart of the Matter,” Don Henley. Oh, man, is this a great song to come up. It’s world-wise, heartbroken, and hopeful. “Baby, I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter… and I think it’s about forgiveness… forgiveness…” When I was writing the ending of China Lake, I would put this on repeat, unleash an emotional typhoon, and let it all pour onto the page.

Now that we’ve set the mood, what are you working on today?

I’m trying to come up with a nickname for a villain. Something sharp, memorable, and portentous. So, probably not Fluffy the Slayer.

What’s your latest book about?

Phantom Instinct is about two survivors of a catastrophic shootout who work together to stop a killer. They have to, because nobody else believes he exists.

Harper Flynn is tending bar at an L.A. club when gunman invade and open fire, killing her boyfriend. Aiden Garrison is the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. detective on the scene. He takes down two shooters before being severely injured. A third shooter escapes in the chaos—but only Harper and Aiden see him. The problem? Harper is an ex-thief, and the cops don’t trust her word. Worse, Aiden has suffered a traumatic brain injury that leaves him with Fregoli syndrome. This is a kind of face blindness that can cause him to think the person he’s looking at is actually somebody else in disguise. He can think his worst enemy is coming at him, camouflaged as a friend, family, or bystander. He can’t trust his own eyes.

But the killer is back, and stalking survivors. The more Harper and Aiden learn about the shootout, the more dangerous things get. The more they’re drawn to each other. And the more each of them fears that the other might betray them. They have to choose whether to trust their hearts and their instincts. Because the killer is closing in, and wants to put Harper and Aiden—and those they love—in the line of fire.

Where do you write, and what tools do you use?

In an office looking out at live oaks and a southwestern sky. I use my MacBook Pro, with MS Word for Mac. And when I need to flesh out and connect fragmentary ideas, I write by hand on white typing paper. Using a Rollerball Fine Point pen, of which I have many. Many, many. My precious.

What was your favorite book as a child?

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle.

What’s your favorite bit of writing advice?

Figure out what the chase is, and cut to it. This will help you (a) eliminate flab in your work, (b) yank backstory and infodumps from the start of your story, (c) speed up the pace, and, most important, (d) discover WHERE YOUR STORY STARTS. It should start in the middle of the action, and as close to the ending as possible.

What do you do if the words aren’t flowing?

Read, hike, swim, eat, nap… let me rephrase that: meditate. Shutting out all distractions and closing your eyes in a quiet room allows submerged ideas to swim into focus.

And finally, vitally: sit my butt down at the keyboard and write anyway.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Being a good mom, a good wife, a good friend, and writing stories that stay with readers. Also: being the first person to walk on Mars. Might have to wait for my next life for that one.

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Meg Gardiner is the author of twelve acclaimed thrillers. Her award-winning novels have been bestsellers in the U.S. and internationally and have been translated into more than 20 languages. They’ve been called “nailbiting and moving… intelligent escapism at its best” (Guardian), “simply a fantastic story, told at breakneck speed” (Associated Press), “as fast-paced and nailbiting as a season of 24” (Florida Times-Union), and “riveting… a book you just can’t put down” (Chicago Sun-Times).

The Evan Delaney novels feature a journalist from Santa Barbara, California. Stephen King calls them “simply put, the finest crime-suspense series I’ve come across in the last twenty years.” China Lake, the first novel in the series, won the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.

The Jo Beckett series features a San Francisco forensic psychiatrist. The Dirty Secrets Club was chosen one of Amazon’s Top Ten thrillers of 2008, and won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Procedural Novel of the year. The Nightmare Thief, featuring both Jo Beckett and Evan Delaney, won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense audiobook of the year. The Shadow Tracer was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2013.

Meg’s new stand alone thriller, Phantom Instinct, has been named one of O, The Oprah Magazine’s “Best Books of Summer.”

Meg was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School. Before writing novels, she practiced law Los Angeles and taught writing at the University of California Santa Barbara. She and her husband have three kids. She lives in Austin, Texas.

About Phantom Instinct (out now):

In Edgar Award–winning author Meg Gardiner’s new stand-alone thriller, an injured cop and an ex-thief hunt down a killer nobody else believes exists.

When shots ring out in a crowded L.A. club, bartender Harper Flynn watches helplessly as her boyfriend, Drew, is gunned down in the cross fire. Then somebody throws a Molotov cocktail, and the club is quickly engulfed in flames. L.A. Sheriff Deputy Aiden Garrison sees a gunman in a hoodie and gas mask taking aim at Harper, but before he can help her a wall collapses, bringing the building down and badly injuring him.

A year later, Harper is trying to rebuild her life. She has quit her job and gone back to college. Meanwhile, the investigation into the shoot-out has been closed. The two gunmen were killed when the building collapsed.

Certain that a third gunman escaped and is targeting the survivors, Harper enlists the help of Aiden Garrison, the only person willing to listen. But the traumatic brain injury he suffered has cut his career short and left him with Fregoli syndrome, a rare type of face blindness that causes the delusion that random people are actually a single person changing disguises.

As Harper and Aiden delve into the case, Harper realizes that her presence during the attack was no coincidence—and that her only ally is unstable, mistrustful of her, and seeing the same enemy everywhere he looks.

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

I read a great article this morning by Leo Babuta called “Making Yourself Work.” It’s an excellent piece, and I highly recommend reading it. For the crib notes, Leo makes a point I’m sure you’ve heard before: Showing up is the most important part of getting your work done.

But we’re creatives, you say. We work for ourselves, at our own pace. We have freedom! We decide whether to open our manuscript or go have lunch with friends. Our boss isn’t going to chuck us out the door for not showing up. We’re just creating stories for our readers, or music for an unseen audience, or paintings for future clients. We don’t have to punch a clock. That’s why we got into this racket.

We have such a delicate faith in ourselves. If we build it, you will come. So there’s no need to really push ourselves. We’ll get it done. Someday.

Right?

Wrong. Like in any other profession, if creatives don’t show up for work, we do get fired. And being fired by your Muse is a pretty shitty thing to have happen.

This is why I preach discipline. Creativity is a muscle that gets stronger and more defined the more you work it. You have to touch the manuscript (painting, song, lyric, blog, etc.) you’re working on every day. I think this is the most important part of being a creative.

If you can’t write new words, you need to edit. If you can’t edit, start at the beginning, and read. Renumber your chapters. Change the font. Count the words. Eventually, things will click, and the words will pour onto the page.

But if you write one day, then walk away, the muscles atrophy. And it gets harder and harder to call the Muse down on your terms. When you start working to hers? You’re screwed, because she can be very flirty.

At least, mine can. I too need this reminder. The new Sam book is starting to shape up, and I have been working hard on it. I’m in the last big stretch, the last 25K, and I hit a stumbling block today.

I started a scene at 11:30. At 12:30, I broke for lunch, having only written 100 words. At 1:30, I had 200, and was lost. I didn’t know why in the hell the scene was here. But something told me it was important. I’ve been doing this long enough to trust my Muse when she starts something.

All afternoon, it went like this. Me staring at the page. Not knowing what I was doing. I went back a few chapters, editing forward. Still nothing. Had a chat with my agent. Still nothing. Decided to call it a day with 300 words, very disappointed. And as I was closing the manuscript, boom. It hit me. I looked back over those meager 300 words, and saw where my subconscious was going. It is a HUGE golden thread that allows me to answer an entire subplot’s critical question, and might just be the last puzzle piece I’ve been looking for.

If I hadn’t read Leo’s blog this morning, I might have given up earlier this afternoon, when I wasn’t feeling it. But I kept after it, and something magical happened. I finished with only 1000 words, but what would have happened if I’d given up?

Showing up is 9/10th of the battle. I love proving it to myself. Prove it to yourself, too.

Write hard, my friends.

While I was struggling this morning, I added a new page to my website with some live interviews and podcast links. Check it out!

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

Via: JT Ellison

By JT Ellison

Home from RWA (and a brief two-day birthday interlude for Randy,) and I feel like I’ve been gone for weeks. The cats were happy to see us, the house was still standing, and I have to get back to work on the book, which is now expected in Toronto on September 1, its original submission date.

I met my editor in San Antonio. I’ve been working with her for a while now, but we’d never had a chance to meet face-to-face, and it was an absolute joy. In addition to all the personal anecdotes and cat picture sharing, we spent some time on the story. I’ve mentioned before I’ve never shared a book that wasn’t the best I could make it with an editor before, and this has been hard for me, to let her see the warts and wrinkles. But she’s a pro, and she asked some great questions, especially of one component of the book, which is going to allow the next book in the series to be a full-on sequel to this one.

Were those groans I heard? A sequel? Well, yes. There’s a storyline in this book, a small thread, that is going to explode into its very own novel. I’ve never written two books back to back that were tied together, and I’m actually quite excited about playing with the structure and the story. It’s a delicate balance — no matter what, the books need to stand alone, but similar to my books in the Taylor series 14 and SO CLOSE THE HAND OF DEATH, the stories will have a sequential component.

And there will be more surprises in that next book as well that will make everyone very very happy, so … trust me.

Back to RWA – a very optimistic conference, full of new writers and established ones. I counted four generations of writers in attendance. From the Catherine Coulter and Nora Roberts generation to the Heather Graham and Erica Spindler generation to me and Allison Brennan’s cohort and then the newbies just coming in. There’s probably seven, really, if you segment out by numbers of books — the 100+ers to the 70s to the 50s to the 30s to the 20s to the 10s to the debuts — but I’m more comfortable looking at influencers. It was amazing to sit at the literacy signing next to these literary romance giants, and to rub shoulders with the new kids on the block. It was so fun to be a little more established and to see the excitement and nerves of the new generation. I still get major nerves at these events — can I just tell you, I touched Nora Roberts! — so it was nice to see people more nervous than I felt.

My favorite newbie was L.R. Nicolello, whose first novel DEAD DON’T LIE comes out in September. I love finding members of my tribe, and she and I totally clicked. She’s going to be a big rock star. So check her out.

Spent some real quality time with besties Erica Spindler and Allison Brennan, plus a bunch of other great friends. We ate everything – from TexMex to French fusion to Italian (heavy on the Italian) and walked the River Walk daily. Even in the heat, it was a nice retreat.

And people, I danced. I never dance. I always hang back and watch everyone throwing themselves around and enjoy the show, but Friday night at the Harlequin party, someone (I think her name was Catherine) drew me onto the dance floor, and the next thing I knew, we danced all night. It was one of the most fun evenings I’ve had at a conference, ever. Harlequin knows how to throw a party, and despite the fact I was dancing in front of my bosses, I threw caution to the wind and let it fly. And it was so fun! And wow, why haven’t I done that before?

I’m off to score some more words for today. But tell me – when’s the last time you danced???

Via: JT Ellison