Author Archive
Bye-bye, Borders
By Dame Toni:
So it’s going to be ninety-something today in Connecticut. And I don’t have air conditioning, in my home, or in my car.
This is not as horrible as it sounds – I live about eight feet from a lovely spring-fed lake that, even though it is summer warm, is still in the 70’s and very refreshing. The problem is, although I have a number of wonderful examples of modern technology surrounding me, none of them works underwater (although I have been known to put my AlphaSmart in a big Ziploc baggie and take it kayaking).
Luckily, we only get a few days of the “Triple-H” (hot, hazy, and humid) weather each summer, but they always seem to fall on days when I am running behind on a deadline. I could go somewhere cool and write, I suppose. To get there I will have to get into the sauna on wheels that is my Toyota Corolla. But, it might be worth it, even if I do have to stand in front of an air conditioning vent for twenty minutes after arriving at my destination before getting down to business.
So, I took a look online to see what one of my local writers’ groups is up to today. This particular group is about 75% women who have teenagers at home, still young enough to entirely disrupt Mom’s attempts at writing, but old enough to be left without supervision. They get together at various bookstores and coffee shops, plug in their laptops and iPads, and work as a group. I’ve found this to be productive in the past, so I thought I’d see where they are working today.
Alas, they are looking for a home. Because normally, they would be at their regular table at Borders. And it’s closing. Today. (The café staff offered to help them steal the table on their last visit.)
What does this mean for writers? Will print runs get smaller? Will less people buy books? Is this a herald of the apocalypse?
My plan to move into a Borders store after the apocalypse may require some revision.
A lot of people who know a whole lot more about the industry than I do have chimed in on this. Some forecast gloom and doom, while others predict the resuscitation of the indie bookstore, since some people will always prefer to browse the shelves.
I don’t know which predictions will turn out to be right, but I know I’m sad to see Borders go. I remember when the first Borders opened near my home in California. It was an easy detour on my way home from work, and I made that detour a lot, as my credit card bills from that era will attest.
Then, when I was living in Miami, a huge chunk of my first novel was written in the café at the South Miami Borders near my office, where I spent most lunch hours pounding away at my keyboard.
My first book signing was at Borders.
I think I’ll just find a shady spot and work on my iPad between swims. Maybe tomorrow (supposedly even hotter) I’ll go somewhere else to write. But today, it just doesn’t feel respectful.
If you have a Borders memory you’d like to share, leave a comment. I’d love to see how other people feel about this event.
How Do You Like Me Now?
By Dame Toni
I’m in New York City, writing from my hotel room on the nineteenth floor of the Mariott Marquis at Times Square. It’s the last day of the Romance Writers of America annual conference, and my schedule is absolutely packed. I’m teaching a two-hour workshop this afternoon, and I just found out that an old friend from Miami is flying in today.
Confession time: As a writer, I have had a long unproductive patch. Over the winter, I wrote far too little. I told myself it would be better in the spring. And, yet, when the snow finally melted, I found myself deleting almost as many pages as I produced.
And now it’s summer and, although I am able to force myself to write, it hasn’t really been flowing. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve felt panic looming on the edges of my consciousness.
The Outfits have changed, but not much else
An ugly little voice was whispering in my ear. I tried not to listen, but sometimes the words got through. “You’ve lost it,” it said, somehow managing to insert a snide tone into a whisper, which isn’t easy to do. “You were just fooling yourself, thinking your writing career was going to go anywhere. Go get a real job, and stop being delusional. You were always destined to fail.”
I told you the voice was ugly.
So, when I saw that Robin D. Owens was giving a workshop entitled “Kill Your Inner Critic,” I figured it was a sign.
During the workshop, we did an exercise that required us to visualize our inner critic. One woman described her mother, who told her that, by becoming a writer, she was neglecting her husband and children. Another talked about the third grade teacher who chastised her from raising her hand when she didn’t really have the answer.
I had a hard time finding a face and form that went with my nasty inner voice. After all, it only whispered, and you can’t even tell gender from a whisper.
Then, suddenly, it came to me. It was the leader of the “mean girls” from Junior High School. Her name was Mary Anne (last name withheld) and she informed her minions–yes, she had actual minions–that I was to be the object of all of the scorn and abuse that a group of thirteen-year-olds can produce. Which, some of you will recall, is plenty.
I was stunned. I think of myself as a confident woman. I honestly don’t modify my behavior based on whether or not people will like me. I spend absolutely zero time concerning myself with being “popular.” I thought I had left all the insecurity behind years ago.
And yet, as soon as I raised the spectre of that early-blooming, first-girl-in-the-class-with-breasts-and-a-Farrah-Fawcett-haircut Mary Anne from whatever mental crypt she was inhabiting, I knew I was right. Somehow, the insecure girl who felt awkward, dorky, and hopelessly uncool under the scrutiny of the cool kids was still lurking somewhere in the back of my consciousness. I thought she’d departed when my acne cleared and my braces came off but, apparently, she’d just been hibernating.
And I felt much better. Because I know a couple of things about that girl. Dorkiness aside, she was smarter than the mean girls. She was a late bloomer but, once she blossomed, she really, really blossomed. She didn’t get married and divorced three times before she was forty (like, I learned at my twenty-fifth high school reunion, Mary Anne did). She went places. She lived on both coasts, drank in bars with celebrities, and had some terrific adventures.
Oh, and she wrote (and sold) seven novels.
This morning, I tried to listen for that nasty, evil little voice. You know what? I can’t hear a thing.
With a Good Book, Who Needs Anything Else?
By Dame Toni
I haven’t been as productive as I should have been lately. I blame George R.R. Martin.
A little background–A month or so ago, the basic cable channels were running ads for a new HBO series called Game of Thrones. I don’t have HBO, but a friend of mine recorded the first few episodes for me.
I was enthralled.
I learned that the series was based on a book of the same name, the first in a series called A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I found myself sitting next to the editor of the book series at a recent writers’ conference, and asked her how she liked the HBO series. She told me that both she and the author were very pleased with it, especially the casting.
Book Five is coming out next month!
The next day I put the entire series on hold at my library. I was able to download the books as pdf files, which meant I could read them on my iPad.
The books are long, complicated, have a ridiculous number of character, title and place names to learn. They constantly refer to backstory that goes back thousands of years, and have so many simultaneous plot lines that you might think that I, a critical and impatient reader, would end up throwing them across the room. (Not that I would risk damaging my iPad.)
Instead I found myself more caught up than and I have been in any book for years. I stayed up late. I read at the dinner table. I neglected my yard work. I neglected EVERYTHING until I finished Book One.
I went back to the library website and make sure that I got the audio version of the next book so that I could listen while I mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, ran errands and exercised. Otherwise I probably would NOT have mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, run errands or exercised until I finished the rest of the series!
Experiences like this are why I was always a reader, and what made me want to be a writer. As some of you have heard me say, I want to write the book that makes you NOT notice when the phone rings. I want you to the skip class, overstay your lunch hour, and neglect your laundry to finish my book.
What is it about George Martin’s series that makes me feel this way? Well, the story is exciting, with lots of intrigue and adventure. The scary stuff is terrifying, and the battle scenes are easy to picture. The point of view is extremely strong–even when I am in the head of the villain, I am totally invested in him or her. When a character I like dies, I am seriously upset.
Books that make me feel these things are a gift, and not just because of the pleasure they provide. They make me want to stretch as a writer, and to capture someone else way I have. They make me aspire to be better.
The power at my house has been out for a day, due to a big storm. Last night, I sat in a rocking chair on my darkened porch and looked out at the few lights twinkling from the few houses on the other side of the lake that had generators running, listening to my book. I didn’t care a fig that I had no television or internet or lights. In fact, it helped me feel more in touch with a world where light came from candles and oil lamps, entertainment came from jesters and storytellers, and messages were carried by ravens.
The power company has advised us that we may be in for a multi-day outage. I have a borrowed generator, just big enough to power my refrigerator and a power strip that I’m using to charge up an assortment of electronic devices.
Like my iPod.
You see, I’m halfway through Book Three in the series, and there’s no way I’m letting a little thing like lack of electricity slow me down.
I don’t have running water, but I can buy bottled to drink. I can use paper plates, plastic cups and utensils to eat food that I cook on the barbecue. Once my refrigerator is cold enough, I can temporarily unplug it to run the coffee maker. I can bathe in the lake, as I often do in the summer (although I usually wait until the water has warmed up a bit more before I start). I can haul water in a bucket to flush the toilet.
I can wear my hair unstyled.
As long as I have my books, I’m good.
What are some of the books that have inspired you, as a writer and in other ways?
ANNOUNCEMENT – I know I have a couple of contest winners to announce, but it’s tricky going back through old posts to find them from my iPad. As soon as I get power, I’ll get my regular computer up and running, and update this message. Check back!
Kady Cross is Dame for a Day!
By Dame Toni
I’ve been hearing buzz about The Girl in the Steel Corset for at least a year, and have been dying to get my hands on my own copy! It’s the first book in the much anticipated Steampunk Chronicles, a new young adult series. The lucky readers who have been able to get an advance copy are going absolutely wild for it.
I had the great pleasure of hearing Kady speak at Connecticut Fiction Fest last weekend. Her workshop was entitled Steampunk: What it is and Why it’s Hot. Now I REALLY can’t wait to read it. I’ll have to buy my copy but one very lucky commenter will receive a signed copy of the hardcover release from Kady.
*********
What a beautiful cover!
Release Day: Or, Your Book’s First Day of School
I’ve heard authors compare their books to children many times over the years. It’s not that we really think of them way — I would hope no one swears at their kids the way I do at my books! — but the process is strangely maternal. You fuss, you fret, and then you have to stand back and let the book find it’s own place in the world.
On May 31st, my YA Steampunk novel, The Girl in the Steel Corset will be released. I think of Release Day as the first day of school for books. You get it all dressed up, make sure it has everything it needs. You’ve prepared it, done everything that needs to be done, and now you have to let it go. Meanwhile, you stand at the window all day watching for the flashing lights of the Amazon bus, you stomach in knots. You might turn to your book and ask, “How was it, honey? Did you have fun?” And in response the book would shrug and say, “It was all right. What do we have to eat?”
Release Day is harder on the writer than the book, just like the first day of school is harder for the mom left waiting at home, and the lead up to it is almost as bad. All that anxiety and hopefulness builds to a fevered pitch only to smack the wall in a terribly anti-climatic finish. Because NOTHING happens on Release Day. Your book will not come home with a ribbon proclaiming it best new student, nor will it come home with a bloody nose because it got into a fight with another book. Your Amazon numbers will change on the hour, and you’ll obsess, but that’s it. Fortunately, you also don’t have to worry about a book saying, “I hate that place and you can’t make me go back!”
In celebration of Release Day, I’m going to give away a signed copy of The Girl in the Steel Corset to one lucky commenter. Tell me about a first day of school. It can be yours, or one of your children’s. I don’t care if it’s kindergarten, middle school, high school, or college. It can be funny, sad, scary… whatever. My first day of kindergarten started off with a purple jacket with the hood tied too tight, a box of crayons spilling on the bus, and calling my teacher ‘Mom’. I hated my bus too. Fortunately, the route was changed and I ended up on a better one. Oh, and I made a friend.
I hope The Girl in the Steel Corset makes friends too.
Happily Ever After
by Dame Toni
Yesterday a male friend informed me that he had set his alarm for 4:00 A.M. so that he could get up and watch the royal wedding, and suggested that I do the same so that we could text one another a running commentary.
I was surprised. My friend is over fifty, heterosexual, extremely macho (he’s Sicilian), listens to NPR and, on the few occasions that I have used a recent pop culture reference in his presence, usually responds with a blank look.
I informed him that I had no intention of watching the wedding and that, furthermore, at the time that the ceremony would be going on, would likely be taking my morning walk around Crystal Lake (3 ½ miles), followed by my customary morning yard work (I am a dismal gardener and therefore have to make it a daily routine to avoid jungle syndrome).
He expressed disappointment, saying that he had been looking forward to my take on the whole thing. I told him I had not expected him to be interested, and he replied, “I love pageantry! Any escape from the usual life that doesn’t involve war or natural disasters…is good for me.”
Last night on the news, I heard that a third of the world’s population was expected to watch the event.
Hat choice #1. I like this one, but I was worried about the feathers being crushed during the flight.
So, this morning, when I woke up at 5:40 (sunrise is quite early in Connecticut this time of year), instead of turning on NPR as I usually do, I turned on the television and, as I got dressed to exercise, watched (along with an estimated 2 and a quarter billion people) for a first glimpse of the wedding dress. In my running shoes and windbreaker, I perched on the edge of the sofa and sipped coffee and got the sniffles when William turned to look at Catherine for the first time.
I got a bit bored with the ceremony and hymns and all that, and took off on my walk before the wedding party paraded out of Westminster Abbey (but I will no doubt watch the highlights later).
Hat #2: Love this, but I'm already 5'10", without the high heels. People standing behind me might have complained.
Now, my twitter followers may know that I am not as indifferent to the wedding as I pretend. I am, in fact, the groom’s maternal grandmother’s eighth cousin, although I did not get an invitation to the event. Ah, well, this saved me the trouble of narrowing down my hat choices – I could not decide between my final three.
Hat #3: It's a good thing I didn't wear this one--the shape is too similar to the Queen's hat. Awkward!
And, on my walk, I thought a bit about what my friend said about loving pageantry, and wondered if that was the reason that the imagination of so many has been captured by this event. Maybe.
But I think that it’s because the world loves what romance writers call “the H.E.A.” – the “Happily Ever After.”
So, this seems like the right day to make an announcement. It may not enrapture over two billion people, but it makes me happy.
I get a lot of email asking when a new Toni Andrews book will be out. I don’t have a release date for my next full-length novel, but I do have a quick fix that may hold you for a while.
My (rather long) short story, Nativitas, was written for The Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance, an anthology that will be out later this year. You don’t have to wait, however, to read my story – it’s available for 99 cents on Amazon as a Kindle download. By the way, you don’t need to own a Kindle to read a Kindle book – you can download a free application for your PC or Mac from Amazon’s site.
99 Cents at the Amazon Kindle Store
It’s a post-apocalyptic dystopian romance (yes, it makes me giggle a bit to write that). Soldiers from opposite sides of a war between Magi meet on a corpse-strewn abandoned battlefield. Getting from there to the H.E.A. was a bit of a challenge, which could explain why it’s a long short story.
I am completely prepared to bribe you to read Nativitas! So, if you read the book and then leave a comment about the story here on this site, you will be in the running to win THREE SIGNED PARANORMAL ROMANCES. These are Secret Life of a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks, Wicked Enchantment by Anya Bast, and Obsession Untamed by Pamela Palmer. Vampires, fey folk and shapeshifters…what could be better?
Leave a comment about NATIVITAS and win all three books!
Have an H.E.A. kind of day….
Dame Toni
