September News

News

I was busy in August, but a lot of it was ‘busywork.’ I did finish Her Dark Star, part of the Nightstar series, but it came out really long, because one of the characters turned out a lot more complex than I’d ever imagined! It was wonderful to write, but very angsty.

I also finished writing my additions to Tom Jones. Oh, I am so sorry to say goodbye to Tom, Sophia and all their friends! Writing in the style of another author, especially one as great as Henry Fielding, was a great challenge that I hope I completed at least adequately. I had to absorb his vocabulary, his way of expressing himself, and I did a list of the words he preferred to use, to help me when I wrote. One of his favourites was “passion.” Nice! He also used hugely long sentences, so I did a few, but writing them takes a special technique, because you can forget what you’re saying by the time you get to the end!

And I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I took a class on css and using divs instead of tables. I know, I still don’t understand quite why, but the best part of the class for me was how to turn a photoshop design into a website. It makes for a much more flexible design, and doing “slices” means the site is easier to load. One of the hardest things was putting in the scrollbar so the page scrolled internally. I was so proud of what I did that I put the site up. I’d love you to visit and tell me what you think, because the more it’s tested, the better it will be. I’ve checked it on my phone, computer, laptop and tablet, but I don’t have an ithing, so I can’t check it on one of those, although friends have done a bit of checking for me. Most of all I want to show it off. It was a hard course, but I rarely give in, so I kept going through the pain barrier and finally got there! I might get rid of the scrollbar, and make the page a repeating one, but you only get the nice man once. That’s the next stage, but I really needed to get on with writing. I like to rest a book between writing and editing, so the course gave me a good break.

August is my birthday month. It was also the month that we took our family holiday, to Rome. It was fabulous, but very, very hot, and I learned how to cope. Visit the nice, air conditioned museums by day, and then tour the monuments at night.

This is me and my son’s partner, enjoying cocktails!

More writing – I’m currently writing the first of the new series for Loose-Id. It’s back to vampires for me, but with a twist. The stories are set in the world of Department 57, but it’s a different aspect of life for Talents. This is concerned with the Thorndykes, the people who run threatened Talents to safety, in the Talented equivalent of the underground railroad. The hero of this first book was once a Regency rake, and enjoys holding wild parties that remind him of that time. I always wanted to combine my love of history with my love of the paranormal romance, and this is my chance.

Excerpt:

September sees the release of a book I’m very proud of. “Fascinating Rhythm” is a book in the Nightstar series, about the members of a rock band facing global success and finding it’s not all roses.

In this one we learn about the drummer, Hunter Ostrander. I say “we” learn because it’s a learning process for me, too. As I write I learn more about the characters and sometimes I have to stop to find out more. As I did when writing the last in the series, “Her Dark Star,” about the manager of the band. Hunter has a deaf mother who is involved in the deaf separatist movement, and is a politician in Sweden. Her protégée, Sabina, is a Finnish beauty who was rendered deaf after a bacterial infection at age ten. When she has the opportunity of an operation to restore her hearing, it could mean the end of her career, but she wants to hear Hunter. He needs to reconcile with his mother, who refused to take an interest in his career.

Here’s the (gorgeous) cover, back cover description and an excerpt. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a lot of people like this book!

Is change always for the better?

Book 4 in the Nightstar series

Playing drums for Murder City Ravens is Hunter's dream. Then, back in his home country of Sweden, he encounters another dream, one he'd thought he'd lost. Sabina.

Turning deaf as a child opened doors for Icelandic beauty Sabina. Now, given the opportunity of another chance with a man she never stopped loving, and a risky operation that could restore her hearing, she is forced to choose. The deaf community she belongs to won't accept a hearing member, but she wants to hear Murder City Ravens play.

Excerpt:

Sabina stood on the pavement and stared up at the huge front of the Lydmar hotel. It was one of the tall, white buildings, coolly classical, that gave Stockholm so much of its character, situated in the center of the city overlooking the broad expanse of the Norrström River. She’d never been inside. As was true of most local residents, hotels meant little to her.

Sabina didn’t belong here. As she walked through the glass doors and into the main body of the hotel, she wished she did. Someone had designed this place with an eye to style. The foyer didn’t feel soulless, and when Hunter touched her elbow to guide her to the restaurant, she felt almost comfortable, which she rarely did in the presence of luxury and expense. Strange. Perhaps it was because she was with him. No. That wasn’t possible. Just that she was exploring a part of Stockholm that she’d not visited before. On her days off, she sometimes came to this district to visit the museum, so it wasn’t as if she didn’t know it at all.

She hadn’t expected a hotel restaurant to contain a wall of bookshelves, neither had she expected sofas and comfortable chairs framing the tables. The maître d’ took them to their table without delay, a place set to one side of the restaurant, not in the full light. Then she understood. Hunter had become a local celebrity.

She waited until the maître d’ left them with their menus before she ventured to speak. She was sitting with her back to the restaurant and most of the sources of light. Frowning, she concentrated on his lips so as not to miss a word. “Did you know I was in Stockholm?” A faint hope, but not one she had any faith in, that he’d come back to see her as well as to visit his mother.

“I didn’t know. Emmelie never mentioned it.” He met her gaze, his own dark from the shadows, and maybe something else? No, she couldn’t think like that. Then his face lightened and he smiled. It was like the sun coming out. “But I’m glad.” He glanced around. “It’s too dark here, isn’t it?”

He beckoned the waiter and had a quiet word with him. Hunter switched from English to Swedish with the ease of someone supremely comfortable in both languages. She wondered if he had an accent of any kind. She’d love to hear it. They always spoke English together, even used ASL or SEE when they signed, dating right back to the days they’d first met.

The waiter took them to another table near a window where the light still filtered in from outside. It was only seven thirty; it wouldn’t get dark for another couple of hours. She could see him much better here. How thoughtful of him to notice and have the table changed. “Thank you,” she said.

He smiled. “I want you to enjoy the meal. Have you decided what you want to eat?”

“Scallops and steak,” she said. She’d barely glanced at the menu. “They’re famous for it here.”

He raised a brow. She remembered those eyebrows, browner than his hair, matching his lashes and the hair on his body. No, not going there. Her mind raced on, as if it had a will of its own, ignoring her commands. Six years ago, he’d had a beautiful body, only a light sprinkling of hair on his chest, his shoulders already strongly developed from playing his percussion instruments. Then, he’d considered a career as a classical percussionist but his mother had shown no interest when he’d told her. “What do I care?” she’d said. “I can’t hear any of it. Choose what you like best to do.”

Nobody except Sabina had seen his hurt, because he’d covered it with insouciance, shrugged and left the room. That was when Sabina had gone to him. Just before he left.

One thing she had to know, had wondered for all this time. “Why didn’t you write to me after you left?”

He blinked, eyes wide, and touched his finger to her lips in a gesture that left her utterly shaken. She sat back out of his reach and stared at him, unwilling to miss a single word.

He signed his answer. “This is a quiet place and you were a little loud there.” Flushing, she closed her eyes before opening them again when she thought she’d regained her composure. He was waiting for her. This time he used his vocal cords, but in English.

“Let’s talk about other things over dinner.”

Was he trying to avoid talking to her about the things that had caused her so much pain? Probably, especially if she’d shouted her question.

She thought her appetite had gone, but the scallops proved her wrong. Every bit as delicately flavored and tender as the reviews had promised. A tiny sliver of black truffle lay over the top and she saved it for last. She glanced up from time to time, her habit in case she was missing his words, but he knew how to communicate with the deaf. He’d touch her hand or tap the table where she could see it if he wanted to speak to her.

He smiled when she glanced up. “You have a lovely accent, you know that?”

She shook her head. “I thought I spoke English clearly.”

“It is clear, but slightly accented.” He stared at her, his eyes unreadable. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking and she’d studied body language closely enough that she could usually tell.

“Are they playing music?”

He smiled. “Quietly. A classical piece. Do you know Chopin’s nocturnes?”

Tears sprang to her eyes and because he was watching her so closely, he saw them. He touched her hand. No more, just that. She took care to keep her voice down, regulating the strength of the vibrations in her throat. “My mother used to play them when I was little. I remember a mood rather than the notes.”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to give you a sense of what’s going on. I should have known better.” He broke visual contact, turning his attention to his food.

He shouldn’t feel bad about saying that. “You were right. How were you to know? The memories are good.”

A smile flickered across his lips, gone as soon as it had arrived, and he looked up again. “Thank you. I didn’t deserve that. It’s just that music means, well, a lot to me. I always notice when it’s playing.”

“Did it always mean so much?”

“Yes.”

A simple but devastating answer. To love music so much and grow up in a silent household—what torture he must have undergone. “When you were a child, you must have felt so alone.”

He shrugged. “I found friends. I went to a hearing school. It was okay.”

He’d clammed up. She’d find out no more from him now, but he’d opened his mind a crack and given her a glimpse of the inner man. The hint only made her hungry for more. She needed a reason for the way he’d hurt her when he’d walked away and she knew the answer couldn’t be simple. Turning his back on their affair after one night was one thing, but he’d also repudiated their friendship and that had been the hardest to bear.

You can read more about the Nightstar series here:

http://www.lynneconnolly.com/Nightstar.html

Fascinating Rhythm is out on September 11^th from Ellora’s Cave: http://www.ellorascave.com/fascinating-rhythm.html

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