Tundra 37 released, blogfests and such

Aubrie Dionne's newest science-fiction romance novel, Tundra 37 is now available. It's the second book in the New Dawn series. The first one was spectacular. I can't wait to read this on my Nook! You can buy it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'll be having an interview with Aubrie on the 25th. Please come join us.

There's a bunch of great blogfests going on right now:
I'll tumble 4 ya blogfest is this Friday. Tell us who you have a crush on in the '80's!
The Origins blogfest is this coming Monday. How did you become a writer?
The Critique Partner blogfest starts this Friday and goes through to Monday. If you're looking for a critique partner or beta readers, this is the place for you.
The Hook, Line & Sinker blogfest is this Monday too. Post a 500 - 1000 word hook to be critiqued and critique other participants' entries.

Don't forget the Fourth Writers' Platform Building Campaign has begun. Click now to sign up! It's an amazing experience. I did it last fall and I'll do it again this fall.

I finished the first draft of my Steampunk Cthulhu short story. I'm letting it sit a few days before I edit it. It's with my CP's already and then it will go to my writers' group to be critiqued. My short stories are really getting a workout this year.

Wicked Wednesday - paranormal romance cliches

Paranormal romance is a genre with infinite possibilities. Yet we seem to see the same situations and ideas played over and over again. I've heard a lot that the market is over-saturated, but it is still doing good business. Publishers are looking for original ideas. If you're writing a new book, here's a few tips on what to avoid.

1. Predestined soulmates. We want to be loved for our intelligence, charm, and personality. Do we honestly want love to be based on some supernatural and irresistible compulsion? Apparently many people do. This is one of the most popular cliches in paranormal romance. I'm guilty of using this one on a few occasions.

2. I hate you/I love you! Yes, the extreme emotional conflict. The protagonist hates everything about that arrogant man, yet falls in love with him at the same time. It might have to do with the aforementioned compulsion, or maybe with the fact that some of the women don't seem to know their own minds. There has to be something for the protagonist to fall in love with, something for the reader to sympathize with, or else it's silly supernatural nonsense.

3. The hot man that makes the heroine speechless. It seems that too many otherwise strong women are made into drooling schoolgirls in the presence of a gorgeous guy. You would think that all the paranormal romance worlds are filled with such awe-inspiring men.

4. Vampires, werewolves, and angels/demons, oh my! There are other paranormal creatures out there. I'm a sucker for this cliche, though. Overdone as they might be, I still love a good story with any of these creatures.

5. The virgin or the whore. We usually see one extreme or the other with the protagonists. What's wrong with a woman who's had a few boyfriends over the years? She's experienced enough, but not slutty by any means.

What cliches do you hate in paranormal romance? Which ones do you love?

Teaser Tuesday with The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin is another of those great YA books that had a lot of hype. With the last two big YA titles I've read, one has been a hit and the other a miss. So here's hoping that this one will leave me in awe as it has so many other readers.

Here's your teaser:
The dog needed a vet. I had no money. My parents weren't animal people. I'd stolen something from a crime scene. (page 87)

Good start to February

February is starting off well. I'm nearly done my Steampunk Cthulhu story. It's a little longer than I anticipated, but I'm not surprised. I usually end up writing more than I plan. That's okay. I have a character named Zedock who pilots an airship and he has a wicked handlebar mustache. Just the image of him in my head is worth the extra words.

I have all my Tuesday and Wednesday blog posts done for the month.

I wrote up my posts for the two great blogfests I'm participating in: I'll tumble 4 ya and Origins.

I'll have an interview with sci-fi romance author Aubrie Dionne on the 25th and the Catch Fire event for Alex J. Cavanaugh's new book, CassaFire on the 28th.

I've done my first four posts for the A to Z Challenge and I'm having so much fun with it. It's distracting me from my other writing.

I made an appointment for my son's first dentist visit on the 21st. He has another new tooth. Finally a molar!

I haven't done any more revisions on my WIP, but I'm okay with that. It's only the beginning of the month. With everything else done, I'll be able to concentrate on it alone after my short story is finished.

Time for an ice cream reward. Mm-mmm!

How's your February going so far?

Saturday Snapshot for February 4th

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books

Last weekend, we went to the local lake to see the bald eagles who flock there every year

as they're migrating. We didn't see any eagles, but my son had a lot of fun throwing rocks into

the water. It will be much more fun in the summer where there's no chilly winds!

New anthologies looking for submissions

To help inspire me for this month's short story, I went to Ralan.com and collected some links to anthologies that are looking for submissions. I hope a couple might interest you too. The first one really popped out at me!

STEAMPUNK CTHULHU - 1-time print (Chaosium); any genre (fic). Pay: 3¢/word +3 copies & discounts. Words: 2k-8k. RT: after DL. Reprints: no. E-subs: ONLY. Brian M Sammons, Editor or, Glynn Owen Barrass, Editor. Deadline: July 31, 2012.

HORROR LIBRARY, VOL. 5 - annual print (Cutting Block Press); h (fic). Pay: from 1½¢/word to pro rates for established authors (negotiated). Words: <6k (prefers 3-4k). RT: 4-6 months. Reprints: no. E-subs: ONLY. R.J. Cavender, Editor. Deadline: when filled.

FADING LIGHT: An Anthology of the Monstrous - 1-time POD/eAntho (Damnation Books); h/df (fic). Pay: shared 25%/40% royalty. Words: 3k-5k. RT: 3-5 weeks. Reprints: no. E-subs: ONLY. Tim Marquitz, Editor. Deadline: May 15, 2012.

THE GRUFF VARIATIONS - 1-time eAntho (Writing for Charity), all proceeds go to charity; most genres (no erotica) (fic). Pay: exposure. Words: <7½k. RT: by 17Mar12. Reprints: yes. E-subs: ONLY. Eric James Stone, Editor. Deadline: February 19, 2012.

10 REASONS TO CROSS THE MOAT - 1-time print (Sam's Dot Publishing); sf/f (fic/poem). Pay: fic=$20; poem=$5. Words: fic=2k-9k; poem=<100 lines. RT: reject/holdover=1-2 months; final=after DL. Reprints: no. E-subs: ONLY. Katie Hartlove & Sylvan Bree Baker, Editors. Deadline: May 1, 2012. 

Wicked Wednesday - emotional conflict

There's no doubt that one of the key aspects of a paranormal romance is emotional conflict. A story can't be built around that alone, but without it, there would be no love story. Emotional conflict arises from something within a person which sometimes seems irrational and utterly insane. Okay, maybe not sometimes, but most of the time!

To create emotional conflict for the protagonist and their love interest, it must arise out of something apart from the plot. It must be something inside of each of them that would create the same conflict no matter where or how they met. Of course, it is intensified by the situation and the only way to resolve it is by working together.

Do not confuse emotional conflict with intellectual conflict. Intellectual conflict always starts in the mind. It's a conflict of ideas. A character might try to reason out their emotional conflict and make it intellectual, but it doesn't make it so. An intellectual conflict can be argued and the character can be persuaded to change their mind. Emotions aren't so reasonable. They simply are. There's no logic to them. Remember in a paranormal romance, the goal is to win the heart of one's love not the mind.

Do not confuse emotional conflict with external conflict. External conflicts arises outside of the character through plot and circumstance. Emotions make up internal conflicts and they arise within the characters themselves. Where emotional conflict make-up the heart of the novel, external conflict drives the plot. You can't have one without the other.

The key to writing a great paranormal romance is to meld the intense emotional conflict with an equally as exciting external one. If either aspect is lacking, the story will flop.

Who are your favorite authors in terms of emotional conflict?