by Laura K. Curtis | Jul 21, 2014 | Books, Romance |
Westerly, RI — typical small New England beach town.
I love romance of all types, but I must admit a certain fondness for the small town contemporary. However, I occasionally find myself wondering whether the authors of these romances have ever lived in a small town, or whether their definitions of “small town” are just that different from mine.
I grew up in a truly tiny town. We had no addresses. We had no mail delivery. That was primarily a fishing and farming town, at least until they built a big highway to take people there at which point it acquired a vibrant tourist economy. It stayed tiny for 9 months a year, but suddenly became jam-packed every summer.
Now I live in what I would call a medium-sized suburb. The official population of our town is about 11,000, but we have a fair number of undocumented folk living here, so it’s probably a bit higher. We also have a religious community that I am not at all sure how is counted. The town just south of us has 17k people, but far fewer businesses. Likewise the town just north of us, which has 18k people. Despite being the least populated and physically (mileage-wise) smallest, we have the biggest “downtown.” We also have the only area hospital. We have no veterinarian, however–you have to go to the next town north or the next town south for that. But you can do that because, like many small towns, we are surrounded by other small towns that have what we don’t.
The other thing about most small towns in America is that their fire departments are volunteer. Like ours. And that’s where the gossip gets passed. You grow up in town, you join the fire department. Not always, it’s true, but an awful lot of folks do. And if they work for the town, the railroad, or the utility companies, or any kind of blue-collar work that keeps them local, it’s almost inevitable that they belong to the fire department.
People who have lived in my current town all their lives all know each other. They’ve dated each other, married each other, divorced each other. They’ve been in school together and worked in each others’ businesses. They belong to the fire department, and their wives and sisters belong to the women’s auxiliary. But a large part of this population moved here later on in life, and most of them know nothing about the inner workings of the town. A few of them join the FD, but not many. Although my husband and I are relatively recent additions to the town (we moved here 10 years ago), my husband is in the fire department and I am in the auxiliary, so we tend to know what’s up.
The other recently-arrived belong, for the most part, to the “bedroom community” part of the town and have issues getting home improvements approved (unless they hire entirely locally). They have no idea what businesses are going in or going out or why. Which companies haven’t paid their taxes. Which ones are being investigated. I don’t mean this as a slight—it’s simply the reality of life in my 11k-person-town: the newcomers know the parents of the kids in their kids’ class at school and the parents of the dogs at the dog park. Their focus isn’t here in town, it’s down in “the city”—NYC, that is—where most of them work.
When I wrote Toying With His Affections, my first contemporary romance, I knew that it would read like a lot of other small town contemporaries. I don’t mind that. I enjoy these books or I wouldn’t have written one. But there are aspects I wanted to differently, and one of those was the “everyone’s in your business” aspect. So I gave my protagonist an aunt who’s part of the town’s Ladies’ Auxiliary. I hope you enjoy reading my iteration of that particular type of group!
by Laura K. Curtis | Jul 19, 2014 | Books, Writing |
I love conferences. Love them. But every year, I hear about someone who is no longer speaking to someone else because person 2 insulted person 1—or possibly insulted person 3 who is a friend of person 1—or because person 2 felt as if person 1 ignored them in favor of a more “important” author or editor.
“She looked right at me, and pretended she didn’t know me,” said one of my friends of another.
Well, yeah, that’s possible. It’s equally possible my other friend was simply on conference overload with a buzzing head and tired eyes, thinking about how much her feet hurt.
And then there are the room-mate dilemmas. “OMG,” one of my friends bemoaned in an instant message, “so-and-so asked me if I have a room-mate for RT and I don’t, but I sure as hell don’t want to room with her. What am I supposed to say?”
Well, under normal circumstances, honesty is the best policy. But there are also appropriate times for the polite lie, and this is one of them.
“You tell her you yes, you already have one,” I advised.
“And what if she finds out I don’t?”
Well, if so-and-so finds out at the conference that you don’t have a room-mate and confronts you, you have two choices. First, say your roomie fell through (which happens all the time) or you can tell her the truth. Chances are, however, that even if she does find out, she won’t say anything to you. Most people aren’t that confrontational.
And if you’re on the receiving end of “sorry, I already have a room-mate” and then later finding out that person is alone in her room? My advice is to leave it alone and assume her roomie fell through. And if you think someone’s ignoring you in favor of a more popular author or a better agent or bigger editor or whatever…make a decision about how important that is to you. I’ve been ignored numerous times at conferences. I’m a nobody. I basically expect it. I understand that people are there to network and I cannot do anything for them. The ones who want to chat with me because we are actually friends will seek me out. And if my friends are currying favor with someone else for a few minutes, well, they’ll find me later or they won’t.
Let me put this another way: RWA and Sleuthfest (and to a certain extent RT and Bouchercon) are professional conferences. People are there to do business. If you treat it as a business conference, you’re a lot less likely to get hurt than if you treat it as a social gathering. Remember that even while people are drinking and dressing up in costumes, they’re also there trying to get ahead in their careers. You may not approve of the way they do it, and that may mean cutting them out of your life, but don’t assume that just because they look past you in their search for someone at a con that they don’t like you or care about you. They’re simply wearing a business hat and not good at blending the business and social.
by Laura K. Curtis | Jul 16, 2014 | Books, Romance |
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It takes far more to interest me in a self-published work than in a traditionally published one. I know that my own self-pub work, Toying with his Affections, which came out today (woohoo!) will face the same struggle for eyes and for legitimacy. Even authors whose traditionally-published work I enjoy have to start over when they begin self pubbing because I’ve been burned too often by going “Oh, so-and-so has a new book out!” and then finding out it’s poorly edited or has no discernible plot or whatever.
There are gazillions of self-pubbed books out there. Seriously. I couldn’t begin to try them all. And there are a lot of subgenres I don’t read, so for those you’ll have to find another place to recommend books to you. Even books by some of my friends I have bought and have sitting on my Kindle or iPad and have not yet read (so sorry, Lexxi Callahan and Penny Watson, I promise I will get to them before the end of the summer, but things have been madness)!
So first off, I don’t read much historical at all. I know there are some great self-pubbed historical romance authors, but I just don’t read it, so I can’t help you out. Likewise paranormal. But here are some things I have read and do like:
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE:
You know that would be first, right? There are two authors in this genre I think do a great job with their self-pubbed work.
Crane has several books ranging from short stories and novellas to category length fiction to single-title. I am always happy to see a new one…like today!
Rachel Grant’s Concrete Evidence was probably the first romantic suspense self-pub I read strictly on recommendation (that is, I hadn’t read something she traditionally published or met her at a conference or anything). I still think it’s the best of her books, but I’d recommend any of her first three.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Oh, these are beautiful. I wouldn’t glom, because the themes can get a bit repetitive (hero falls first, chases heroine) but the writing is lovely. The Chocolate Kiss is my favorite because of the hint of magical realism, which is always something that tends to draw me in.
[edited to add: Actually, I’d forgotten that The Chocolate Kiss was one of Florand’s books that came from Kensington, a traditional publisher. I mix up her self-pub and traditional books, which is to her credit. So for self-pub, try The Chocolate Temptation instead.]
ODDS AND ENDS
And then there are the books in genres I normally don’t read that I’ve picked up because they were written by people I knew from their traditional publishing careers or because I met them at a conference and liked what they had to say about the world.
I picked up Quinlan’s Wreckless for my niece. People sometimes mistake these books for being NA, but they’re definitely not. They’re YA and totally suitable for my 12-year-old niece to read. I haven’t read her other books, but I did read this one before I gave it to Leyla and it was sweet, well-written, with enough humor to make it good for a kid who’s still figuring stuff out.
2. K.M. Jackson‘s Bounce: Women’s Fiction
I don’t read women’s fiction. I especially don’t read women’s fiction with infidelity. It’s a giant line in the sand for me having less to do with how well stories are written than with my own personal history. But reading is an intensely personal experience, so everyone has lines in different places and no one will like everything. I admit that I did not read Bounce too carefully for precisely these reasons—I did not want to get overly involved with the characters. But I know Kwana, so I skimmed through it and I liked what I read. It got excellent reviews, so I feel certain that if those are no your particular issues, you’ll enjoy it!
And, finally, two westerns, one historical and one contemporary, both of which I bought because I like the authors’ traditionally published work:
I am absolutely sure I have left people out, but you have to start somewhere! So what about you? Do you have favorites in the indie publishing world?
by Laura K. Curtis | Jul 14, 2014 | Books, Freebies & Giveaways, Romance, Stuff! |
In Toying With His Affections, the heroine, Evie, sells sex toys for a living. She works for a fictional company called Goody’s Goodies that has both retail outlets and a home party arm. Now, before I started writing this book, I knew very little about sex toys. I knew the basics, but not how wide a variety there were, nor that home parties for such a thing even existed.
So, naturally, once I’d decided to write a sex toy story, I had to do research. Which meant hosting a party of my own and conning my friends into inviting my friends to attend. We had a great time. I highly recommend the Passion Parties folks to give you a bunch of good laughs, even if you think sex toys aren’t your thing.
Anyway, I bought several things at the party, some just for me and some to give away as promotional items. Today, I am giving away “31 Sexual Favors for Him.” It’s a set of cards that you can give to someone (or several someones, if that’s what you are into) like little coupons to brighten his day.
As usual with Rafflecopter raffles, don’t forget to CLICK THE BUTTON showing that you’re a member of the mailing list or that you’ve left a comment, or the entry won’t count!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Jun 23, 2014 | Books |
by Laura K. Curtis | Jun 17, 2014 | Books, Romance, Writing |
Many of you know I will be publishing my first contemporary romance this summer. This is my cover. Isn’t it pretty? And here’s the cover copy:
Good girl gone bad…
Evie Bell couldn’t wait to get out of the small town that had labeled her a goodie two-shoes growing up so she could let out her more daring side. Selling sex toys might not have been the career she envisioned when she left Fairview, TN, for Las Vegas to become a showgirl, but she’s proud of her hard-earned success. Now, forced to return to the town she’d hoped never to see again to care for her ailing aunt, she will need every bit of that pride to get along with those who disapprove of her way of life.
Bad boy gone good…
Griffin Barstow was given a choice at eighteen: jail or the military. He chose the military. Now he’s come home to Fairview to run for sheriff. But small towns have long memories and the last thing he needs while trying to convince voters he’s turned his life around is an attraction to a completely inappropriate woman.
Evie would like to avoid Griffin entirely, but her aunt’s store is in trouble only the law can help her solve. And when sparks begin to fly, both will have to decide whether a future together is possible given the issues of the past.
The thing about self-pub is that you get to experiment with a wide variety of things like pricing, sales outlets, advertising…you get the idea. One of the things I want to do with Toying with his Affections is to try some different ways of selling it. Yes, it will be available in all the standard places and in all the standard formats. Yes, you’ll be able to get it in paperback as well as e. Yes, I hope to be able to get it into library systems so that you’ll be able to get it free.
But it will also be available on my Storenvy store, which gives me the ability to send coupons. So my intention is to send out a coupon to everyone who signs up for my newsletter which will allow them to buy the book in the format of their choice for half off the cover price ($3.99 in either epub or mobi, $11.99 in print) for the first two weeks the book is on sale. The only way to get the coupon is to sign up for my newsletter, which I ONLY send out when I have books coming out, big news, or freebies I think my readers would like.
So sign up today, and be the first to get the new book…and get it at half price!
When I wrote Toying With His Affections, my first contemporary romance, I knew that it would read like a lot of other small town contemporaries. I don’t mind that. I enjoy these books or I wouldn’t have written one. But there are aspects I wanted to differently, and one of those was the “everyone’s in your business” aspect. So I gave my protagonist an aunt who’s part of the town’s Ladies’ Auxiliary. I hope you enjoy reading my iteration of that particular type of group!
