Shelley Munro Blog

I’m a fan of Grey’s Anatomy and was looking forward to the new season. It’s been going for about four weeks in New Zealand, and I have to say I’m disappointed. Firstly, Izzie and George? What were the writers thinking? It’s just plain wrong trying to have them as lovers and came out of the blue last season. Not enough motivation people. There’s not much motivation this season either. I’m not convinced.

Meredith has turned into a whiner. I’m totally on Lexie’s side. It’s going to be interesting to see what the writers have in store for these characters. I only hope I can make it through more of Meredith’s angsting. Sad but true. I’m not quite as much a fan this season.

I’ve decided to stop with the Sven challenge. I’m doing okay, but my right arm and elbow are telling me it’s time to ease back and take a rest. I know from experience if I ignore the warnings I’ll pay! As a rule I don’t have trouble with motivation and write a steady 2000 words most days. I’d decided to push a bit harder even though I didn’t really need to. A few easy days should do the trick and I’ll be back in business. Meantime I’m going to do some plotting and planning and probably catch up on some reading while my arm takes a rest.

Although edits have taken a couple of my writing days, I’ve still managed to write just over 20,000 words on my latest Middlemarch project since the 70 Days of Sweat challenge started. Happily, I’ve also had a brainwave about what to do with vet Gavin and Leticia, characters who readers met in Stray Cat Strut. I love it when things come together!! I’m very happy with my progress so far.

I’m also working on a super secret project I’m not going to talk about. It’s one that I’m very excited about. I’ve written a blurb so far. This is not the normal way I do things - blurbs are the last thing I write and even then it’s like pulling out teeth. Everything came to me while I was walking so I wrote it down as soon as I arrived home.

I have an author spotlight over at Dark Ice Goddess’ Musings and also one at Selena Illyria’s blog.

Angela James, Nice Mommy Evil Editor has a post about submissions to Samhain that some of you will find interesting.

Christina Phillips has links to a Q & A with Spice editor, Susan Pezzack, which is very informative.

And finally, have you discovered the Edittorrent blog yet? It’s full of excellent advice and not to be missed.

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It’s no secret to my hubby that I love gadgets. When I say gadgets I mean little and big things that make life easier. They’re not necessities but rather luxuries. Recently we purchased an Ipod. It’s not an expensive one, but I’ve had a lot of fun working out how to use it. My favorite gadgets are my PDA, the Ipod, my alphasmart and my laptop. The jury is out on the PC at the moment since it’s misbehaving big time.

Recently my sister gave me this little gadget thingie that fits on the edge of a desk or table and you hang your handbag off it. Perfect for the conference. I’ll have to bring it to San Francisco with me.

Funnily enough, I don’t like gadgets in the kitchen, although I know you can get some great things these days. When it comes to cooking I prefer a hands-on approach and like to do things manually.

Are you a gadget person? What are your favorite type of gadgets?

My 70 Days of Sweat came to a halt late last week since I needed to do some edits. I think I’m at about 11,000 words to date. I’m not pushing too hard because I know from experience I WILL burnout if I don’t pace myself. Hubby keeps telling me to take things easy. Can anyone say grumpy when not writing??? Hubby has firsthand experience of this, hence his warning to chill. Anyway, I sent the edits off this afternoon and hopefully I can get back to Sven and the sweating thing tomorrow.

Lauren Dane, one of my Dynamic Trio buddies has sold another book to Berkley Heat. Isn’t that great? Hop over to her blog and congratulate her, and while you’re there check out the cover for Undercover. It’s beautiful and very sensual.

Yesterday I, along with countless other writers, started on the 70 Days of Sweat challenge. This is my first time and so far I’m doing all right and have written more words than I normally would. Here’s hoping I can keep it up because I know I have some edits on the way. Is anyone else doing the challenge? Let me know if you are. I like to know my fellow sweaters.

On Friday I fell off my bike. My left knee looks like I’ve attacked it with a grater while my right leg is sporting four fist-sized bruises. Yep, looking pretty colorful today. On Saturday my knee was painfully sore but today I’m feeling much better and walking normally again. It’s fine as long as I don’t make any sudden moves. My bike tire caught the lip of the footpath after I’d passed an elderly gentleman and over I went. The man asked me if I was okay and picked up my bike for me before hurrying off. I think he thought I might cry. I didn’t but I said, “Bugger” twice - the extent of my swearing. So, my lesson learned - watch out for lips on pavements. Unfortunately, all the new footpaths have a few inches drop down to the grass and it’s not always easy to avoid them.

Today I’m giving away a download of Playing to Win over at The Romance Studio.

And another CONTEST: Win a download of Fancy Free. Read the excerpt on my website and answer the following question. What stopped James and Alice from making love? Email your answer to shelley munro@ gmail.com (no spaces) and I’ll announce the winner on 6 March.

And that’s all the excitement at the Munro house. Oh, apart from the fact I’ve finally purchased an Ipod. It’s only a 1GB one but they were so cheap hubby and decided we might as well buy it. I have my songs loaded up, heavy on the NZ music, and I’m good to go. Life’s good.

What are you up to this week?

Excitement! I’ve sold the fifth Middlemarch book to Ellora’s Cave. I’m not sure of the release date for Cat and Mouse yet but will let you all know as soon as I do. Cat and Mouse features a cowboy hero and a heroine who owns a restaurant in Queenstown. Meantime, I’m hard at work on the sixth Middlemarch book.

I’ve opened a hotel. Yes, it’s true. I now own real estate space at Coffee Time Romance and you’re welcome to visit me at any time. There will be excerpts, inside info and fun discussion, news of contests and upcoming books and I hope to cajole some of my writer friends into posting some of their excerpts and covers in the Presidential Suite. Author friends? Are you there? Please come over to my new hotel, say hello and help me celebrate my opening week by posting an excerpt. To post you need to register but it’s free and only takes a couple of minutes. I hope to see you there. For all you paranormal writers out there, Coffee Time is having a special paranormal day on 27th. The Ellora’s Cave day I attended recently was lots of fun so check this out.

On 1 March I’m starting in the third Sweat for Sven challenge. I want to complete my current work in progress and make inroads on a tiger shifter story I’ve storyboarded. Is anyone else sweating with Sven?

I’ve read some great books recently. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC of Lauren Dane’s Standoff. Here’s the blurb:

Cade Warden has put his Pack first for most of his life and now Warren Pellini and his thugs threaten everything he holds dear. Into that life of intense focus and increasing loneliness walks the woman he’s been waiting for.

Grace Pellini isn’t just Cade’s mate, she’s the sister of his greatest enemy and she’s been putting herself in grave danger to gather information to aid the Nationally Allied Packs. Cade is everything she could have hoped for in a man even if he is overprotective and pushy at times.

Against the backdrop of their increasing passion and deepening bond, they race against time to find a key to stop Pellini’s biological weapon. And then the stakes rise again when Pellini calls an ancient Challenge. It’s up to Grace to stand by and let her mate risk everything for his people. And his life is in her hands.

Standoff completes the series story arc and it’s a great finish. It’s no secret that I love Lauren’s books. True, she’s a writer friend, but check out her reviews. You know there’s a reason she’s selling to New York publishers now. Cascadia Wolves is an excellent series guaranteed to satisfy the paranormal fan with strong alpha heroes and equally tough heroines who don’t take any nonsense from their mates or anyone else. Each successive book is like a visit to friends since we get to see all the family interaction, their bickering and loving and the way they face a challenge. In this book we finally get to see Cade find his mate, and it’s a beautiful thing. Standoff is out from Samhain on 4 March.

Another book I’ve read and enjoyed is Another One Bites the Dust by Jennifer Rardin. It’s paranormal meets James Bond with Jaz Parks as the heroine. There’s vampires, wizards, bellydancing, acrobats and a winter festival. Jaz and her team need to retrieve a special piece of stolen equipement. I’ve mentioned the first book Once Bitten, Twice Shy before and I’m eagerly awaiting a chance to read the third book in the series. Really, this is a great series.

Hubby and I have a new obsession. It’s an animated show called Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep is a character taken from Wallace and Gromitt, who now has his own series. Each program is five minutes. I sit there in front of the TV, absolutely enthralled. I tell you, I’m a big kid at heart. I tape it and hubby and I watch it again later at night, chuckling all the way through. Last night’s involved a baby lamb, a red teddy bear, a farmer, a pesky cat and some Y-front underwear used as a bungee, and of course, Shaun. Fun stuff! Shaun the Sheep has a website here. If you have kids definitely check this out. There are all sorts of fun things for them to do. Hubby and I had fun watching all the clips. I’m going to check for the DVDs next time I go to the mall.

CAN YOU HELP ME?

And finally, I have a new release coming from Ellora’s Cave on March 7 called Fancy Free. It’s a story about a girl who inherits a condom company. I’ve been trying a few different things with promo this year and for Fancy Free I’m going to ask both writers and readers who have blogs or newsletters to help me spread the word.

I have several short posts (supposedly taken from the diary of Fancy Free’s founder) which I’m going to ask people to post on their blogs, at MySpace, in newsletters or wherever else they can. As an incentive, I’m offering a prize to one participant - a NZ beanie, some NZ soaps, an autographed copy of either The Second Seduction or The Shadow, one of my special good luck charms and a couple of other things. The winner will also receive a download of Fancy Free.

All you need to do is email me for the diary entries and the press release and you can choose which you’d like to post and how many you’d like to post. Each time you post one from 25 Feb - 6 Mar you get an entry into the contest. Just email me to let me know where you’ve posted the diary entry and you’re in the draw. I’ll pick a winner on 7 March.

Meantime, if you have any questions or you’d be willing to help me out email me here. Please pass the word around. If any of your friends are interested, just get them to email me as well.

Firstly, my ISP is currently driving me nuts working at below dial-up speed because I’ve used up all my available allowance. I’ve finally caved and signed up for the next level, but I have to wait a couple of days for it to kick in. Meantime, I’m doing minimum Internet visits and instead I have to write. So sad, but what’s a girl to do if she can’t procrastinate!

I’m participating in Christine d’Abo’s writing challenge and have almost made my target for this week with two days to go. I might even cheat and do some more planning on my Urban Fantasy and also my storyboard. Christine said I’m meant to concentrate on one project but no one will tell on me, right?

This week has been one of rejection. I’ve received two, and while I’m disappointed, I’ve already moved on, submitting one project to another pub and reading/editing/cutting the other project to make it under 15,000 words. I’m thinking I might submit this to Spice or EC. I’m going to ponder this for a bit longer. The lesson to all you unpublished/aspiring writers out there is that rejections never go away. I’ve been published since 2004 and I still get rejections. Even though they’re disappointing and some plain hurt, dammit, a rejection isn’t personal. It just means that the project didn’t work for that particular editor or agent. Run with any feedback and send that sucker out again. That is my advice for the day.

I’m running a new contest on my website in conjunction with the wonderful and talented Jory Strong. The details will be up on my contest page this weekend so do pop back and check it out. I really love Jory’s books and the contest is going to be a lot of fun.

Reading: I’ve started reading my RITA books, which I can’t tell you about, but I did sneak in Midnight Awakening by Lara Adrian. I’ve been enjoying Ms. Adrian’s series and her take on vampires. I’ll admit I thought the first book was only okay, but I picked up the second book and loved it. I think her series is getting better with each book and will definitely snap up the fourth in the series. In this, the third book, the hero Tegan is strong and feared by others but he has a softer side that he shows to Elise, the heroine. I liked Elise, too. She’s grown strong after losing her son and finds new depths along with love. Really, if you like vampire stories this is a great read.

I also picked up a few of Ellora’s Cave Exotica line. The only ones I’ve read to date are by Red Garnier. Today I read a short Quickie by Ciana Stone called Riding Ranger. I really liked this story. While I usually prefer a happy ending this story really worked for me.

How has your week been? What are you up to for the weekend? What are you reading at the moment?

Playing to Win came out with Cerridwen Press yesterday, which I’m very excited about. Will Kate and Lane get past the danger and the problems between them to find love? Read the book to find out

On the writing front, I’ve added a few thousand words to my current Middlemarch story. I hadn’t looked at it for a while and needed to reread what I’d written to date. I edited as I went and think things are coming along nicely.

My storyboard is starting to look very pretty. I need to ponder the plot a little more, play around with some of my post-its and then I should be able to start writing. I’m actually pretty excited about the plotting part of this. My muse wasn’t so sure but we had a talk and I think we’re both on the same page now. We’d better be or else I’m trading him in for a new muse. I threatened, so we’ll see how this truce goes.

I sent a story off to Spice Briefs today. I’ve been wanting to send a story to Spice for a while since I’ve really enjoyed all the ones I’ve read to date. The confirmation email I received back says to expect a wait of 3 - 6 months. Sigh. I’ve decided I hate waiting. I intend to keep busy to stop thinking about the subs I have out. It might work…

Hubby and I have booked our flights to San Francisco for the RWA conference. We’re intending to make the conference our first stop and to spend about five weeks traveling around after this. I can’t wait.

And finally, I’ve had a really good reading week. I’ve read Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin. It’s an Urban Fantasy - a sort of a James Bond meets Buffy. Jaz Parks is an assistant to a vampire assassin and they have some cool gadgets. She’s tough but there’s a vulnerability there as well. There are two more stories in the series, which I’m looking forward to.

Before Christmas I read a suspense called Most Wanted by Michele Martinez. This week I read the second story in the series about Melanie Vargas, a Federal Prosecutor, called The Finishing School. There’s a very sexy FBI agent called Dan and he and Melanie dance around each other but the romance is secondary. I’ll be grabbing the next story in this series as soon as I finish reading my books for the RITA. They arrived yesterday, and of course, I can’t discuss them.

How has your week been? What are you up to for the weekend?

Today our news in New Zealand is full of Sir Edmund Hillary, an ordinary man who was extraordinary. He died today from a heart attack at the age of 88. Sir Ed was brought up in Tuakau, the small town where I lived for part of my life and went to high school. In a coincidence, the story I’ve just sent off to Samhain is set in Tuakau. Sir Ed climbed Mt Everest years before I was born, but I, like many New Zealanders, really admire his achievements. He will be given a state funeral.

In writing news I finished my story targeted to Samhain for the Red-Hot Summer anthology and sent it off. Submissions closed yesterday and successful authors are notified at the beginning of February. Luckily it’s not long to wait. I’m getting very impatient in my old age.

This morning I pulled out the Middlemarch story I started in December and reread the 10,000 words I’d completed, editing as I went. I’m actually really pleased with it and will continue with it next week. During the afternoons I’ve been working on a tiger shifter story and putting my storyboard lessons into practice. While storyboarding is good in theory, I’m finding it much harder in practice. This method of plotting has, however, highlighted some conflict difficulties and I’m pondering about whether to change my contemporary idea into a fantasy. I haven’t written fantasy before but I think my initial idea lends itself better to this genre than contemporary. If I set it in the present day I think readers would need to suspend disbelief a bit too much and I’d lose them. I shall continue to ponder and fill out my storyboard. If you’re puzzled by storyboarding here’s a link.

And this week I’ve read some wonderful books. I read Lauren Dane’s Wolf Unbound, which I highly recommend. I loved it. I’ve read Lora Leigh’s Hidden Agendas. I really liked this book, much better than the previous one in the series (Dangerous Games) because the hero appeals to me more. He seems more sympathetic than the hero of Dangerous Games. I thought Lora Leigh did a great job with the character emotions. And at the moment, I’m reading Dangerous Grounds by Shelli Stevens. So far this is great, and I like both the suspense plot, with the man who is holding up coffee stores, and the two main characters.

I hope everyone has a fun weekend. Hubby is going fishing so I’ll be able to get some work done on my Middlemarch story, and hopefully fill in the dreaded storyboard a little more. What are you up to for the weekend?

Things have happened slowly this week but today, I’m definitely in the groove with the words coming well. I guess you’d call it feeling my way into the new year. I’m working on a short contemporary erotic romance targeted to Samhain Publishing. I’m on the home stretch and quite happy with my story, although it will need a little coloring to bring in the setting and a tweak or two with the character emotions. I have to finish and submit this story by 10 January so I’m on the time clock here.

Once this story is completed and away, I intend to work on three other projects. Two are feline shifter stories, which are started and need completing. They’re targeted to Ellora’s Cave. I also have an Urban Fantasy speeding around inside my brain and I want to write some notes and flesh out the main characters.

My object for January is to get hope in the mail - in other words I want to get some submissions out. If a rejection arrives I will send something else out almost immediately so I always have hope in the mail/email. I have a paranormal romance of 100,000 words to submit to editors/agents plus a couple of shorts. Wish me luck!

I have a new release coming from Cerridwen Press on 17 January. Playing to Win is a romantic suspense. This month I have an interview at The Romance Studio featuring Playing to Win. Check it out here.

And finally, I’m reading Charlene Teglia’s Wild, Wild West. I’ve read the first story and I’m enjoying it very much. Charlene has a smooth, very readable style and as I’ve mentioned before I’m having a Western and cowboys love-fest at the moment. Wild, Wild West fits the occasion perfectly

What are you up to for the weekend? What are you reading? Writing?