First Offenders

Big, Big, Big News

Normally, when I post videos it's filler. (Karen talked about it yesterday.)

But not today.

Today's video is celebratory.

Please watch.
Jeff

When in doubt...

Karen here —

I knew this day would come. The day that I would not be able to figure out a damn thing to write on the blog. So, as all bloggers are wont to do when faced with this brain freeze, I have plucked a couple of YouTube videos for your viewing pleasure.

The crooner:

The bath:

And these guys look vaguely familiar:

Today is FOBSP day!

By Alison

Tired of all the complaining about blatant self promotion?  I am -- and I've complained about it myself! BSP wise, blogs (such as ours) are sort of like the apple in the Garden of Eden. Here we are, dangling on the web -- a ripe, delicious looking, juicy opportunity to flog your fab new book/short story/public access TV show appearance for people who read our blog and presumably read mysteries ... and yet, if you take that bite you risk opening up a world of pain on yourself as readers roll their eyes and say, "Sheesh! Can you believe the blatant self promotion?!"

It's not just blogs, either. I lurk on DorothyL, a listserve of thousands of mystery readers, but where BSP is severely frowned on. There they are, all these wonderful readers laid out for you like your seemingly willing prom date, but the minute you whip out your upcoming release... they go completely cold, throw the corsage in your face and ask you to drive them home, no kiss goodnight. I get that, though. DorothyL was created by readers to truthfully discuss the books they love, and once we authors start poking around in there, hyping and flogging and bragging, it starts to look more like an informercial.

I also blog on amazon. Now, you'd think that would be the ideal place to flog your book -- it's a damn bookstore! But in the instructions for amazon connect, they specifically try to steer you away from blatant hype, suggesting, instead, conversational-type tour diaries and messages to readers. Because -- and this is AMAZON talking -- hard-sell turns readers off.

The way I see it, there has to be somewhere -- a safe haven free of eye-rolling, where you can sell it as hard as you want to, and people will  simply read and smile and take note. Since true reform begins at home, I'm declaring November 27, 2007 Blatant Self Promotion Day at First Offenders! Use the comment section to tell us all about your new book, series, screenplay-you-want-to-sell-after-the-writers-strike-ends... or, if you don't write, feel free to brag here about your kids, recent weight loss (or gain. We aren't shape-ist here.) promotion at work. ANYTHING.

I, for one, am all ears. (That would be me, Alison Gaylin, who has a short story in the fab new anthology A HELL OF A WOMAN, out in December on Busted Flush Press and edited by Megan Abbott with an intro from Val McDermid. A whole bunch of other authors and I will be at Partners and Crime in Greenwich Village on December 6 at 7 PM, so check it out!!!)

If Newsweek Interviewed Me...

Lori here~

Newsweek has this "5 Books" sidebar they run every once in a while with authors, which lists the 'must read, defining books' in the author's life. I always pour over it, mostly to torture myself because chances are good I haven't read (or sometimes even heard of) any of the books.  I've done a plethora of interviews in the last month, and I'm always asked who my favorite authors/books are. Mr. LGA optimistically asked me if I was ever interviewed by Newsweek, what 'defining' books I'd choose. Since that ain't ever happening with a genre fiction writer from Western South Dakota, I'm subjecting you FOFO's to my choices. Oh, and since this is my gig, I changed it from books, to authors who've influenced me:

1) Laura Ingalls Wilder - showed I could write about where I live

2) Stephen King -  proved killer characterization doesn't have genre boundaries

3) Sue Grafton - created a tough, smart woman with complexities

4) Dennis Lehane - wowed me with literary stylings (also told me at a conference when I was a newbie to just "Write the fuckin' book, Lori")

5) JD Robb (Nora Roberts) plot, character growth, story arc, a great, believable romance can all be linked together book after book after book (In Death series...26 and counting) without the characters getting stale.

Who's on your list?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the FOFOs out there.

I am thankful for many things, far too numerous to list, but I did want to make special mention of one thing.

As you may have read last week, noted prolific author Emerson LaSalle passed away. I read many of his novels, but there is one in particular that I am thankful to have read. Venom of the Virgins was originally published in 1970 - the year I was born. The print run on this novel was less than one hundred copies after LaSalle entered into a nasty dispute with the publisher over the cover (they put women who were not virgins on the cover, he wanted REAL virgins) and production was stopped almost as soon as it began. I found the novel on the table of a street vendor in Tijuana one night in high school when I was wandering back across the border after a night of carousing. Normally, we ignored the street vendors when we crossed back to the U.S. but the cover (buxom young coeds brandishing weapons) caught my eye. I began reading the book in the back of my buddy's Ford Bronco as we headed back to San Diego and I stayed up the rest of the night finishing it. The tale was about three young women who exact revenge against the three young men who attempt to deflower them. It sounds simple, but the way LaSalle unveiled each young woman's plan, along with the depth that he provided each character, just blew me away. The climax, where the women celebrate their lives by going to the brand new Disneyland was icing on the cake. This novel is also believed to be LaSalle's only foray into YA and when I think about wanting to write a YA novel, it's Venom of the Virgins that I think of. I am incredibly thankful to have read this book and thankful to LaSalle for what he gave the book world.

What are you thankful for?
Jeff

Like a boat without a paddle

I am in a lull.

This is the first time in two years that I am not writing something that’s due under contract. My fourth Annie Seymour book is with the copy editor, I finished the proposal for the fifth while on Xanax on the plane last week (but I have no idea if this will ever become a book), and I’m being lazy. Okay, I’ve got almost 50 pages of another project done, but I haven't written a word on that in the last four weeks.

I’m nothing without a deadline.

I need deadlines; I crave them.  They are what make me sane.  When a book contract was still not even a glimmer in my eye, I gave myself deadlines: Before Christmas, I’ll have the first draft done. By June, I’ll have the manuscript with my writers’ group.

It seems I’m at that point again.  But since I’ve now had real deadlines, it’s harder for the fake ones to work.

Okay, I’ve got Lori and Alison hating me right now. Both of them are under deadline crunch, frantically typing sentences that they hope are making sense as their eyes glaze over.  We’ve all been there, and Alison’s got that Smoked Coke to look forward to when she’s done.

I guess I should just enjoy this, but after 15 years of writing pretty consistently, it’s a rather odd feeling.  Instead of writing, I’m reading THE HOBBIT with my daughter for her November book report (have to love the dwarves!) and playing air hockey.

I guess I’ll just coast through the holidays, take my time. Maybe I can finish something before I leave for Left Coast Crime in March. Five pages a day; it could be done. Ah! A deadline…

Do you need a deadline to force yourself to get to work on a book?

Karen

Why can't I be as smart as Tillman?

By Alison

Since I'm still in the center of the lowest pit in hell that is my deadline, I decided, for today, that I'd just stick a YouTube video in this post and be done with it. I found the perfect YouTube video, too -- Tillman the Skateboarding Dog. Have you seen it? Seriously, this dog is beyond the outer limits of amazing. I want to be reborn as Tillman. A friend sent me the video, and I watched it and laughed out loud and started it again and laughed some more, and I swear, it just made my whole day. I LOVE THIS DOG. So, anyway, I saw the little code for embedding, and I copied and pasted it, thinking, "Oh, this is gonna be so good..." But when I previewed the blog, there was no skateboarding dog video. Just a bunch of gibberish codespeak.

Which leads me to my re-jiggered (and technology free) blog topic: I don't get how to do a lot of stuff. You know, I like to learn, but it seems like every time I get some new, 21st century skill under my belt, there are about 50 more I'm completely in the dark about. At Bouchercon 2006, Lori taught me how to text message, which made me feel pretty damn cool. And then, like a year later, I finally got my myspace up an running. (Of course, I can't figure out how to link it to my web page, or get blurbs for my books on it so they're legible, and I don't have a cool background or a slide show, but we won't talk about any of that...) Then, just  few weeks ago, my friend James forced me onto Facebook which I don't understand at all. I have people friending me on it, and dedicating songs to me and writing on my graffiti wall, I haven't the vaguest idea of how to do anything back. It's like going to a party where everyone speaks Swahili, but learning Facebook takes time, especially for a techno-dork like me, and time is the one thing I don't have any of.

Then there are BlackBerrys. I love the idea of a handheld communication device that can do that much for you, but come on. I just learned how to text message. Now I've got to learn how to type entire emails with my thumbs while waiting in line at the ATM? Even MP3 players intimidate me, much as I love the concept.

So I can fully understand and appreciate whatever this thing is that Jeff keeps talking about -- this amazing technological advance that's going to astound and amaze us -- but he can't seem to get up and running. Hey, at least Jeff knows how to embed a damn YouTube video.

Are you guys with me on this technology thing, or am I just too old?

UPDATE:

Think Sex Doesn't Sell? Think Again, Baby~

Lori here~

I found this interesting tidbit when blog surfing one of my favorite sites : Dear Author

According to the Business of Consumer Publishing 2006, the net revenue from retail sources in the U.S. accounted for $6.31 billion in 2006. Romance sales accounted for $1.37 billion or 21% of the overall sales just behind religious/inspirational sales which accounted for $1.68 billion. According to the Assocation of American Publishers, religious/inspirational sales includes the sale of Bibles.

Other genre sales figures include: (after the cut)

• Science fiction/fantasy $495 million
• Classic literary fiction $448 million
• Mystery $422 million
• Graphic novels $128 million

Other mile markers for romance books include the dominance on the bestseller lists. There were 288 titles on the list (some represented twice because of the different formats for a total of 304 books) and 161 romance authors making the lists.

The romance genre is the same size as the next three smallest combined.

Thoughts? Bear in mind FOFO's, I also write erotic romance, so keep the snark to a minimum!

Page 69

Marshal Zeringue's got a great blog: The Page 69 Test. He asks authors to look at page 69 of their books and comment on them. He asked me to submit something for DEAD OF THE DAY, and it's up now at his site here. Check it out!

Karen

Sons Of Spade Interview

A really awesome website - Sons Of Spade - interviewed me and here's the results:

Sons Of Spade Website

Now only if I can convince Jochem Van Der Steen to put up a Daughters of Spade sidebar...oh, I see he did! Yay for the tough chicks!