How did I come to write about a drummer and a deaf girl?

My stories usually start with a “What if…?” question and a few prompts from real life. So several things came together for “Fascinating Rhythm.” It’s a weird process but on this, "Fascinating Rhythm"’s release day, I thought I’d give you an idea of my creative process.

An old “Law and Order: SVU” program about a murder at a school for the deaf

Reading about the new operation Swedish scientists are working on to restore the hearing of some people

Reading about the deaf separatist movement around the world.

Evelyn Glennie, the world renowned classical percussionist, who is profoundly deaf.

A conflict – how does a man whose world is centred in music cope with a deaf mother? And how does being brought up in a deaf household affect him?

The C factor – that creative spark that brings everything together and creates characters from concepts and conflicts from disparate elements.

Plan C is the bit that makes me a writer. So what if a man whose whole life is music falls in love with a deaf woman?

My first reaction was, why not? But what would that mean to her? She loves this man, and part of his world is closed to her. Of course, since he’s a percussionist, she can share in some of it, with her residual hearing and her sense of touch. She can feel the vibrations, and follow the rhythm. But she can’t hear the band he belongs to, and she can’t understand why the music seduces him as much as she does.

Then she gets the opportunity to restore her hearing.

The game-changer is vital in a romance, and the posing of questions and choices. But in this, I had to do a lot of research. It helps to be married to someone who is involved in the special needs field, but that doesn’t give me all the answers. I adore putting myself into other people’s heads, and the only way I can do that without being creepy is to make them up and follow their fates.

It was a delight getting to know Hunter and Sabina, and like all my characters, they’ll remain with me forever. 

 

You can buy "Fascinating Rhythm" here at a special reduced price, and it will be at Amazon, the Ibookstore and other outlets very soon! 

There's an excerpt from the book here.

August news!

First a special offer, and only for you, the readers of my newsletter. If you’d like to review “Counterfeit Countess,” on Goodreads or Amazon, drop me an email. I have a limited number of ARCs up for grabs! (what you say in the review is of course up to you!) Write to me with the subject, “Counterfeit Countess ARC.”

I went to the RNA Conference at Sheffield University this month. So enjoyable to find out what’s happening in the British market. I sometimes get so bound up in the US market, that I forget to check! Publishers came and told us what they were up to, and I was so enthused by the women from Harper Impulse that I did an impromptu pitch to them! I haven’t done a pitch for a long time, and I remembered why—they make me very nervous! After you’ve poured out your heart and soul in a book, to tell someone what it’s about in ten minutes or less and get them as enthusiastic as you are is quite the task and I admire anybody who can do it successfully.

We’re having a heatwave, and the conference was full of people in beautiful clothes and even more stunning shoes (What is it with authors and shoes?) It’s lovely to hear everyone’s good news, and as elsewhere in the industry, the conference was buzzing with self-publishing news. Author Freda Lightfoot announced that she’s making six figures totally from her self-published work, and said that being dropped by her saga publisher was the best thing that ever happened to her.
I’ve gone into self-publishing in a small way, putting up backlist books, but I’ve loved getting their new covers done, and revising books that have done so well for me already. The last (for now) Symbiotics book came out in July. This book is close to my heart, because it relates something that actually happened to me. I was taken ill at home, so suddenly that a swollen knee became critical and they called an ambulance to collect me from the doctor’s surgery to take me to hospital. Within an hour of my doctor’s appointment, I was in an isolation room, stripped of my belongings and hooked up to a panoply of machinery.

As it turned out, I didn’t have septic arthritis, a bacterial infection that can lead to loss of limbs, or even death, but a severe flare-up of an arthritic condition I already had. But my, it was scary! So I wrote that into the first part of the book, and added a healthy dose of “what if…?” What if the patient next door was gorgeous and bored? What if he was rich enough to have a phone delivered to her room, and what if her condition was no accident?

The story blossomed from there, as I set about answering those questions. I’ve put an except below. Do check it out.

I’m working on a new book, the last of the Nightstar series, a book I never planned to write, but a lot of people, plus my editor, asked me if I was going to tell his story. So Chick Fontaine stepped up to the block and got his story. I still don’t know what to make of it. Half way through the book, I discovered something profoundly disturbing about Chick’s childhood, and the story took an unexpected turn. I had to stop and really think. Yes, it explained why he was a shambles personally, but almost manically organised in his career. The story is one of the longest I’ve ever written, and once I review it and edit it, I’ll know what to do. It’s the story of two people with father problems, but their problems are very different, and they need each other to help to come to terms with it.

Next? Several things. A box set of Hosts to Ghosts, for one. Reissues of more backlist books. A trilogy set in the STORM universe for Ellora’s Cave. A historical romance series with gods but very different from anything you’ll have read before.
Still sexy, though!

Here's the description of "Sixth Sense." And here's where you can buy it.

At first, all they can do is look at each other--then they agree to take a journey together, exploring each sense, one by one...
Jim is a computer genius; Poppy works at a bank. Normally they'd never have met, but a pair of unforeseen disasters pushes them together in desperate circumstances. They torture each other with each sense and when they finally come together, nothing can stop the combustive passion that burns them through the night. A gift of a basket of sex toys only adds to their shared adventure.
A shadow from Poppy's past threatens Poppy's life, and if Jim can't break the ingrained habits of a lifetime, he stands to lose her. If Poppy doesn't reassess her life, Jim could leave it before they learn what they really have.
Sight, sound, scent, touch, taste--so what's the sixth? They won't find out until they get there.

July News

A month that started slow and picked up speed!

Lots of things happening, a new release and some new contracts. You heard it first here!

Personally, at home we’ve had a new shower, and oh boy, is this one good! Of course we still have to put the bathroom to rights, since half of it was ripped up to install the new shower, but it’s so worth it. All that sitting in for workmen and deliveries, and the constant hammer and drill sounds.

My new release is the brand new Regency I told you about. “Counterfeit Countess” is about the widow of an officer in Wellington’s army. Except Faith isn’t a widow, as she discovers when her husband returns home from a prolonged sojourn in Canada. And she isn’t a wife, either, because she was pretending to be his widow. Why she did that, and how she and John reconcile that and counter the threat facing them both is the subject of the book.

I loved writing this one, and it was prompted by the recent success of my recently reissued backlist, including three Regency romances. I do prefer the slightly earlier period, but sometimes there are stories that can only be told properly in the Regency era. This book is set in 1817, around two thirds of the way through the Regency.

It was really enjoyable to revisit old haunts, so to speak, and I even managed to get Wellington into the story! I recently visited Apsley House, otherwise known as Number One, London, Wellington’s London residence. He bought it from his brother in 1817, so I was able to build that into the story. Every year Wellington invited thirty of his officers from Waterloo to a special dinner, and there was great excitement and kudos for the people invited. Wellington greatly expanded the house, and now it’s a positive mansion. The china and porcelain dinner services took my breath away and I spent hours studying the designs. Some depict the places he won battles, some another aspect of the campaign, but giving the Duke of Wellington a dinner service seemed to be the thing to do for quite a while.

I’ve been offered some new contracts, and of course I’m thrilled, not least because they are for projects that are dear to my heart. The first is for the last Nightstar book, about the band’s manager, Chick Fontaine. I never thought I’d be writing about Chick until the series was half over, and then I realised he needed his own story. He was just too interesting to leave alone.

I also have a contract for a new trilogy, set in the STORM universe. It is set in Washington, and while each book can be read as a stand-alone, the series concerns the struggle to get Talents recognised as people, and therefore entitled to the same privileges and rights as people, rather than animals or a separate species. Biologically they are another type of human, not a separate species, but that is only part of the problem they face. This series won’t be out for a while, since there are four more Nightstar books and a stand-alone STORM book in the works first.

The last contract is for a new concept and a new series. It’s something I’ve toyed with before, but it took some tinkering to get it right. What if the Greek Olympiad were reborn in Georgian times? Many of the Georgian aristocracy considered themselves almost godlike, so it seemed like a natural match. The pairing worked really well, and I’m delighted that Samhain have offered me a contract for the first in what I’d like to become a series.

Exciting, eh?

The Hybrid Writer

Sounds like a rose, doesn't it? I love roses, always have, but it wasn't the name that drew me to the publishing model. It's that constant urge to do better, try harder.
So I became a hybrid writer recently, by getting my rights back on a few books and publishing them myself. I never thought I'd do it, but these days, saying "never" is a big mistake. The world of publishing is changing, and fast.
Writing is what I do, it's the core of everything. I love it, and it's what I do best. Marketing, blogging, and now cover design and editing have to come second, so it suits me to continue to publish through other arenas, notably the big digital first publishers.

I was one of the people first in the digital publishing arena, with Richard and Rose, one of my best selling series. First it was NBI, which vanished in a puff of smoke, the owner never to emerge again, then it was Mundania, who sat on the books for a couple of years, but only ever brought one out, and then Samhain, who helped me nurture the series into a best selling, award winning success. With Samhain I get print, digital, and a good cut of the profits. If I was writing purely for love, then I'd give all my books away. And I think Samhain offer the titles at a fair price.
I've recently sold Samhain the first book in a new series. It's an idea I've been fiddling with for some time. I solidified the original idea and kept tweaking it. Recently I showed it to my editor at Samhain, who loved it and offered me a contract. That book will become a series, one way or another, although I only have the one contract from Samhain so far. Would I self-publish? Maybe, but I'm delighted to have the opportunity to continue the writing, and not worry about editing and cover art, and I'm thrilled to have the backing of Samhain's marketing department.
But the backlist and the one new title I've self published are doing really well, too. So I get the best of both worlds.
What about New York, I hear you murmur? One of the Big Five, or even Harlequin? I do have a Harlequin book with Carina Press, but they didn't like the second book in the series (or rather, they did, but the reader panel didn't) so I'm thinking of getting that book edited and publishing it as an original title, the start of a new series. It's a new genre for me, and one that needs a fair bit of research, romantic suspense. I've already done some research into firing a gun (what fun that was!), taking lessons from an accredited instructor in Texas (thanks, Gary!) but it needs a lot more research to take the series forward. Plus, it's blood-soaked and depressing, going as it does into the world of drugs and international smuggling.
So, New York. Yes, I still submit work, but only when I think it's what the publisher wants, and only with selected books. The big five's royalty rates are horrendously bad, but they do offer advances (much reduced of late) and the opportunity to reach new arenas. So why not? The difference is that these days I'd never consider entrusting my whole output to one publisher.

Ellora's Cave is catching fire with my rock star (Pure Wildfire and Nightstar) series, and the STORM paranormal series, but would I send them a mainstream historical? Probably not. It would dilute what I do there, and in any case, EC excels at selling the erotic romance genre. 
I'll choose my publisher or prospective publisher based on what that house already does successfully. What it has a proven track record selling. And more often than not, I'll approach them directly. I can do this with my personal track record, so I know I have an advantage over a newbie, on the other hand, an agent recently told me that she's only interested in debut authors.

Now that's something to think about, isn't it? I wonder why the big publishers and agents are so interested in debuts?

Read Irresistible You for free!

From Wednesday to Friday this week, 3rd to 5th July - read Irresistible You, free from Amazon!

From Wednesday to Friday, Irresistible You is free at Amazon! It’s the story of a chef and a food critic. Is love enough to bridge the divide?

Chef Remy Girard shouldn’t be having a hot and spicy affair with irresistible restaurant critic Elise Mason, but he can’t help himself. She titillates all his senses, including the one he’d never believed in until now; love. However, when Elise writes a bad review of his food, he can’t believe her lies. He does something that could wreck any chance he has at happiness with the woman he loves.
Elise is heartbroken, but she has to tell the truth. The food was terrible. Then firebrand Remy behaves like an ass, and she has to stand by her principles however much she loves him. Any chance at reconciliation and happiness seems hopeless, unless Remy can swallow his pride and Elise can find it in her to forgive him.

http://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-You-ebook/dp/B00BE4QGM2

News for June, 2013

Half way through the year! This has been a turning point year for me, when I’m stopping to take stock. What I see above everything else is the prevalence of the self-publishing phenomenon. I’ve even joined it myself, and I’m seriously considering taking all my historicals self-published. It’s a lot more work, but the rewards are great, both in money terms and in satisfaction.

This month I’ve revamped some of my titles. I’ve split Black Leather, White Lace into its original two novellas, and dropped the price of each one, to see how they do that way. So now Vernon's story is first, followed by Nathaniel's. TheHaunting of Belle Sauvage has a new cover, as has Irresistible You, and I’ve taken one Department 57 book indie, “Treasure Laid Bare,” one of the first ones I wrote. Department 57 has been rather a jewel in my crown, and I’d love to write some more, so depending how “Treasure Laid Bare” does, I can take the series independent. My lovely publishers, Loose-Id, have no objection, and I think they’re waiting to see how it does. I’ve sent them a trilogy that will form the first books in a spin-off series, so I’m waiting to see if they like it. But I might write them anyway! That’s the joy of having the self-publishing option. I can test the market, and see what the people who buy my books like to read, and I can offer the books at a lower price, since I only have myself to feed and clothe! Covers and editing are done as one-off fees. But I can’t see myself abandoning the publishers I’m active with right now.

You can get the Amazon version of the story here - 

www.amazon.com/Treasure-Laid-Bare-Dept-ebook/dp/B00D71ZYQO/

Later on this month, I’ll publish the new Regency, which still doesn’t have a title! It’s about a widow who discovers she’s not a widow when her husband unexpectedly returns. He never knew he had a wife, either. Although he claims amnesia, he’s playing for time, because he knows he doesn’t have a wife. So why is the seemingly respectable Faith posing as his widow? He knows her from when she was the wife of one of the officers in his company (he was a soldier), and he’s wanted her for years, but honour has kept him away.

So, what do you think? “Coming Home To Love”? or “Whatever the Price”? This is proving really hard to title, and it’ll probably be the last thing. Some titles, like “Brutally Beautiful” just appear out of nowhere. I had the title before I started to write the book. Others are stubborn, and take some teasing out.

Last month, May, was amazing. I described my adventures at RT over on my blog and on “The Good, The Bad and The Unread,” but my American adventure was more than that. I finished off my time there by visiting one of my besties, writer Desiree Holt, who is having a wonderful time appearing on TV as “the granny who writes sexy books.” If you know Des, you’ll know there’s a lot more to her than that! Then I stayed with Kathryn Falk, at her ranch in Texas, which is a bit of Paradise. It feels that way, too, very tranquil, and wandering around feeding and playing with the animals is something I will never tire of. Kathryn has a pet deer who follows her everywhere, so I’ve included a photo of Kathryn and Bambi.

Book of the Month - Treasure Laid Bare 

If Sorcerer Garon Rothwell has sex, he loses his powers--and also the rigid control he has over his life. But when he meets bookstore owner and ex-army intelligence officer Tara Carlisle, he desperately wants to give in to the passion she evokes in him. But he's stopped by his own fears and a woman four hundred years dead.

Tara wants Garon, too, but until they catch the evil stalking her little town, she can't give in to the desire she knows they both feel. The frustration is killing her...

But Erzsébet Báthory murdered over six hundred women the last time she walked the earth. Now Tara has inadvertently brought her back, and if they don't stop her, she might just beat that record.

Buy the book here

RT Booklovers' Convention 2013

At the International Reception with Kathryn Falk and Sherry Botelho

So much to talk about – so little time!
To this year’s RT Booklovers’ Convention at Kansas City. It was, as always, fun. It was also one of the smoothest and most enjoyable I’ve attended. Very few cross words anywhere.
I taught on the boot camp, which is the two days before RT. I was involved in teaching GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and Dialogue, or Dialog as it said on the program. The students were a great bunch, and they concentrated, as well as having a lot of fun in class. It would be nice to think we taught them something they’ll remember and that will help them in their burgeoning careers.

Heather Graham and her elevator doors!

After that, to the International Reception, a new event with Kathryn Falk (owner of RT) our patroness. It went well, and it was really good to see how many countries of the world were represented. We had people from Brazil, Thailand and Azerbaijan, as well as Canada, Britain and Europe, and Australia. Here’s a picture, from left to right of Kathryn Falk, Sherry Botelho (Canada) and me (Britain, as if you hadn’t guessed!). it was nice to see Britain even better represented than usual, with the future chair of the RNA, Sue Moorcroft, and her future vice, Christina Courtenay. I nearly took Mary Balogh’s ear out by yelling, “You’re Mary Balogh!” at the poor woman, once I realised who I was talking to. She took it in stride, and made me wonder how many other people had the social grace to scream something at her that she already knew perfectly well.
Since I was largely responsible for this event, it was with a happy sigh of relief that I set out for the Aussie dinner, which took place afterwards. I shared a table with Jennifer Blake, a perfect lady and huge fun. Lucky me!
Also lucky there weren’t any photos.

Holly Bush, Marianne Strand, Kimberly Rocha, yours truly, Beth Williamson and Valerie Cozart

 

My luck couldn’t hold forever, and later in the conference, I was caught holding the goods, so to speak, with a group of ladies who were smart, good fun and some of whom I’ve known for a shockingly long time. We’ve all come a long way, baby, since the first conference we all attended. My first was in 2007, in Houston. It seems a long time since then, and in other ways, no time at all.

Enjoying the ball with Charles Paz

Unfortunately, Bertrice Small couldn’t attend, so I couldn’t gush to her again about The Kadin and Skye O’Malley, but I did talk to her on the phone after the conference, and she sounded fine, if disappointed she couldn’t attend. But I did get to talk to Laura Kinsale, who is another of my idols. Really. Her wonderful books fired me to try for myself. After I read Dorothy Dunnett, I couldn’t imagine writing, because nobody wrote like her or with as much fire, but Kinsale wrote about unusual situations and excellently researched history. While I don’t compare my poor efforts with her books, it made me believe that the different could sell, and I went ahead and did it my way.
Her new audiobook of “Prince of Midnight” is wonderful. She let me listen to a section, and while I don’t usually do audiobooks, I’ll probably do this one.
She also told me what she was working on, which sounds superb, but I don’t know if she wants to keep it confidential, so I’ll restrain myself, and just tell you that I want to read it like, yesterday.
It’s so great to meet like-minded people who feel as passionate about reading and writing romance as I do. Roll on next year!

News for May, 2013

I know it’s unconscionably late, but I’ve been doing exciting things. I’ve been at the RT Convention in Kansas City and before that I was in Washington, researching for a new trilogy I’m planning. More vampires!
Before I went to the States, I went to St. Hilda's College, Oxford, to talk about writing for the US market. I know, Oxford University! They put me up for the night in a tutor's room with a view over the meadows to Trinity College.
Then I attended the London Book Fair, very interesting, and all new to me, before I went home for three days to repack for my American adventure.
RT was great, but the gossip was fairly low-key or quiet. There are some publishers to avoid, some up and coming, and the turmoil surrounding epub, self-publishing and traditional publishing was more or less non-controversial here. Maybe that’s because RT has always taken a tolerant attitude to epublishing and has had an epublishing strand since my first year, 2007. I know, the Dark Ages!
For me, the convention started with the Boot Camp, where I taught Goal, Motivation, Conflict with Linnea Sinclair and Stacey Kade and then Dialogue with the equally awesome Kathy Lyons (Jade Lee). I really enjoyed my teaching, and I think the students enjoyed the boot camp, too. that evening I co-hosted a new event, a reception for the international visitors. Yes, for those of you who asked, even Canada! It was a really great opportunity to meet the visitors from overseas and over-border, and to connect for the first time this convention. I’m afraid a lovely lady walked through the door and said, when I asked, “I’m from Canada but I was originally from Wales.” At which point I yelled, “You’re Mary Balogh!” Yes, Mary Balogh came to my party! She even talked to me later, too, so I didn’t completely take her ears out when I told her something she knew already.
We went on to the equally awesome Aussie dinner, and I sat at the same table as Jennifer Blake, though I managed to keep my fangirling to a minimum there. The legends of romance, especially historical romance, were all over RT this year. I even managed to meet Laura Kinsale, one of my inspirations.
The Ellora’s Cave party, being Disco themed was right up my street. The Cavemen were awesome, even the Poor Baby at the end who had difficulty keeping his steps in time! The dance floor after the routine was packed. There might be some pictures of me online, but you can ignore them, they were a wicked imposter!
I did the virgins this year. More particularly, I did the class that oriented the newcomers to RT. They were a terrific bunch this year. I had a great RT. The atmosphere and the attendees were terrific, and everybody had smiles on their faces.
I am now staying at the house of the amazing Desiree Holt, who couldn’t attend RT this year, but she is fine and thriving and writing, writing, writing.
Okay, now to other news, about my new release this month.

Nice ‘n’ Easy is the new release in the Nightstar series. I had such a blast writing these books that I’ve agreed to write another, about the manager, Chick Fontaine. But that’s in the future. We now have the story of Donovan Harvey, the British bass player for Murder City Ravens, currently on the Nightstar tour, but he has a secret – he’s also the author of a popular graphic novel.

Nightstar, Book 3
Heart-stoppingly sexy Donovan Harvey, bassist for Murder City Ravens, is also a writer. At his first fantasy convention, he wants to launch his new book, not find the love of his life. He gets both.
Allie, unabashed fan and book editor, can’t believe she’s locking lips with the bassist for the hottest band, but sometime during their first searingly hot encounter she discovers Donovan the man, not the rock musician, and she’s even more smitten.
They can’t get enough of each other. In the shower, against the wall, even in bed, Donovan talks during sex, leading Allie through fantasies she’d never imagined before, presenting her with scenarios she can’t resist, setting her alight with steamy stories he’ll never share with anyone else. She inspires him. He gives her ideas.
But Murder City Ravens is on a world tour, and Allie needs to stay in New York if she’s to make a success of her career. When her company asks her to poach Donovan from his current publisher, Allie hesitates, but her boss makes it impossible for her to refuse without losing her job.

ISBN 9781419939921
Buy from Ellora’s Cave: http://www.ellorascave.com/nice-n-easy.html 
Buy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Easy-Nightstar-ebook/dp/B00CJFY79E
Extract and details: http://www.lynneconnolly.com/NicenEasy.html