All posts by Kerri Carpenter

Congratulations!!!

Kerri Carpenter, , , , ,

The Waterworld Mermaids are flipping our fins, pouring some delicious cocktails and getting the party started in our magical lagoon today. We have a lot to celebrate!

We want to congratulate 3 (yes 3!) of our very amazing, talented, beautiful Mermaids for being finalists in this year’s Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® contest. Congrats to all – well done!

Denny S. Bryce – “Chasing Damn” in Romantic Suspense

Kimberly MacCarron – “Chasing Fireworks” and “To Feel or Not to Feel” in Young Adult Romance

Pintip Dunn – “Carlie in Crisis” in Young Adult Romance and “Fit to Die” in Paranormal Romance

We’ll all be cheering you on this July when they announce the winners!!!

Expectations Reduce Joy

Kerri Carpenter, , , , , , ,

This is Month 3 of my completely made-up diet called The Sparkle Plan. Check out Month 1 here and Month 2 here. The Sparkle Plan consists of big and small goals. The big goals are to keep you motivated throughout the year and the small goals are your monthly objectives.

My BFF went on a trip around the world (literally) and came back with this little nugget she likes to throw in my face when I’m being particularly annoying and/or hard on myself, “Expectations Reduce Joy.” The Diva Kerr-ina

I expected to be down about 7-8 pounds by this point. Guess what? I’m not. Naturally, I got all angsty and agitated about this and was ready to berate myself. A hard task, when I gave up criticizing myself for Lent. So let’s take a positive look at this situation.

I haven’t gained any weight, I’m still recovering from an injury that turned out to be a lot worse than I thought and I have finally started running again. Sounds awesome to me!

Let’s take a look at how I did with last month’s small goals and set some new ones for the coming month.

Small Goals – Month 2

  1. No eating after 9pm and eat M&Ms only one day a week at work.
  2. Walk three times a week for at least 40 minutes – either outside or on the treadmill at the gym.
  3. Do 10 pushups (yes, of the girl variety) a day, as well as arm circles.
  4. Do 50 crunches (in various forms) a day.

I did really well with these goals. In all honesty, I think there were only a couple nights I ate after 9pm. I stayed away from the M&Ms. Happily, I got my walk on! Not only did this give me more physical energy, but I just felt better mentally. And toward the end of the month, I finally started running again. Short distances – 1 mile – but I’m really proud of myself. I did the arm circles, pushups and crunches ALMOST every day.

Tip of the Month:

This comes courtesy of Mary Ann – one of my roommates from college. She suggested that you either flex your hands or form fists while doing arm circles. This works different muscles. I did this, as well as regular arm circles and definitely felt the difference! Thanks, Mary Ann!

Small Goals – Month 3

Every year, I have an incredibly busy March and April, due to my day job. This year, I will be doing A LOT of traveling in addition to a very heavy work and writing schedule. So my goals for this month are to continue with my small goals from months 1 & 2 and to give myself a bit of a break. Here is my one goal:

  1. Throughout all of my conferences, travel, etc., I vow to get at least 8,000 steps per day.

Your turn – I want to know how you did! If you made a goal last month, share in the comments your challenges and successes. If you’re new to The Sparkle Plan, feel free to let us know what your goal is now. Or just give us all a supportive box of marshmallow peeps and Cadbury eggs. Wait, no! I meant give us an internet hug. 😉

*I am not a doctor or anything close to a doctor. In fact, I wouldn’t even be able to play a doctor on TV – too many technical words and I don’t look cute in scrubs. Always consult your own physician before embarking on any fitness or eating plan.

Still Sparkling

Kerri Carpenter, , , , ,

Last month I introduced you to my completely made-up diet called The Sparkle Plan. Check it out here. The Sparkle Plan consists of big and small goals. The big goals are to keep you motivated throughout the year and the small goals are your monthly objectives. Here are mine:

Big Goals

  1. I would like to lose 25 pounds by the end of 2014.
  2. Run a 5K.

Small Goals – Month 1

  1. Since my back is still getting better I can’t do too much in terms of exercise (which is killing me!). But once I get the green light from the doctor, I’m going to start small. I would like to do 30 minutes of exercise 6 days a week. It doesn’t even have to be 30 straight minutes. Just purposeful movement for 30 minutes. Dog walks not included.
  2. No eating after 9pm.
  3. We are on M&M overload in my office. I don’t want to deny myself completely. So I will allow myself one day to have some M&Ms. The other 4 days I’m at work = no chocolately goodness for moi.
The Diva Kerr-ina

If only I looked like her!

I know you’re all dying to find out how I did. Big, deep breath… here goes.

The bad news is that I didn’t lose any weight this month. The good news is that I stayed at the same weight. What in the hell am I talking about? Well, turns out that straining one’s back takes longer to heal than I would have liked. So exercise was not easy to do without reinjuring myself. (And apparently I shouldn’t try shoveling my car out of the snow either.) In the exercise/eat healthy balance, I’ve always been better on the exercise front. That means if I didn’t gain weight and I wasn’t working out that I did much better eating. Yay me!

Eating after 9pm – for the most part, I rocked this goal. There were a couple nights I derailed – a couple birthdays, one night involving the movies and wine afterwards and one night when I seriously forgot to look at the clock. Silly Kerri! But overall, I’m happy with this one.

M&Ms – same here. I rocked it. Giving myself one day to have them helped me not see my goal as a challenge or a threat. I could have M&Ms one day, so the other four days weren’t hard to get through.

Now, it’s time for the Month 2 Goals.

Small Goals – Month 2

  1. Continue the no eating after 9pm and M&Ms only one day a week.
  2. Walking doesn’t seem to hurt my back and my doctor cleared me for it, so I’m vowing to walk three times a week for at least 40 minutes – either outside or on the treadmill at the gym.
  3. My arms are beginning to resemble large balloons filled with pudding. So I’m going to do 10 pushups (yes, of the girl variety) a day, as well as arm circles.
  4. You don’t even want to know what my mid-section looks like. Seriously! I’m going to do 50 crunches (in various forms) a day.

I watch a lot of television. Proudly! Goals #3 & 4 are designed to do on commercial breaks. We’ll see how it goes.

Your turn – I want to know how you did! If you made a goal last month, share in the comments your challenges and successes. If you’re new to The Sparkle Plan, feel free to let us know what your goal is now. Or just give us all a supportive box of chocolate. Wait, no! I meant give us an internet hug. 😉

*I am not a doctor or anything close to a doctor. In fact, I wouldn’t even be able to play a doctor on TV – too many technical words. Always consult your own physician before embarking on any fitness or eating plan.

Why We Write Romance

Alethea Kontis, Dana Rodgers, Denny S. Bryce, Diana Belchase, Kerri Carpenter, Kimberly MacCarron, Masha Levinson, mermaids, Pintip Dunn, Susan Jeffery, , , ,

Valentines-day-valentines-day-22236757-2560-1600-300x187Happy Valentine’s Day from the Waterworld Mermaids!!!

We love Valentine’s Day so much that we are celebrating all week long. Ever curious about why the Mermaids write romance novels? Today we decided to share our answers to the question: What made you start writing romance?

Come back tomorrow when we turn the tables on industry professionals with their very own question. Our celebration will wrap on Thursday with a gift card giveaway. Leave a comment today and tomorrow for extra chances to be entered in the giveaway on Thursday.

Enjoy and smoochies!

What made you start writing romance?

Alethea

This should come as no surprise to anyone: Fairy Tales are the reason I started writing romance. Fairy tales are full of fantasy, adventure, magic, mystery, blood, and death…but the tales I always found most interesting were the ones that involved true love. This love might end tragically (The Little Mermaid) or wonderfully (Rapunzel) or coincidentally (Briar Rose) or with a heaping spoonful of vengeance (Snow White/The Goose Girl), but the meeting of two soul mates in these unlikely settings gave me hope that I was not destined to be alone in this lonely world.

Carlene

So the story goes that it was 2008 and I was knee deep into my brand new fascination with Sherrilyn Kenyon and the romance genre. I think it was around her thirteenth or fourteenth Dark Hunter book I’d read when I realized no matter how horrifying or dark the stories became, the couples always clawed their way back out to a happy ending. The stories were so compelling that it honestly took me that many reads to finally figure out that they would all end on a happy note. It also struck a deep chord with me that many of her characters needed redemption and how their path to that came by way of new-found responsibilities toward the person they now loved. I thought about several real-life people I knew and cared about, people with good hearts but who had missed out on that perfect happy ending. I figured out that I could give them that through my stories. I love reading and writing romance! Wishing you all the best on this Valentine’s Day! Fishy Kisses, Carlene Mermaid

Dana

Once upon a time, I was on a preschool board and I became friends with another board member, Anita Clenney. Anita is one of the nicest people on the planet and we kept in contact for years after our preschool days were over. One day we were talking and she said something along the lines of, “Oh I have so much to do. I really need to get back to my manuscript.” Intrigued, I asked loads of questions about her manuscript and discovered that Anita was an up and coming romance writer. As an avid reader with an eye for detail, I was thrilled when she asked me to be a beta reader. What she got back was way more than what I think she was expecting – actually closer to line edits than your typical overall impressions.

I have been working with Anita ever since. I can’t express how excited and proud I was when Anita signed a three book contract later that year. And I couldn’t have been more thrilled for my friend when her first book made the USA Today and New York Times bestseller’s lists.

Being a good friend, it didn’t take long until Anita suggested I put some of my great ideas into a manuscript of my very own. It took several months of her prodding, but now I’m so happy she did. I love the outlet writing gives me and I now understand why I’ve had this constantly running loop of ideas and images floating through my brain all of these years… Writing was what I was meant to do.

Denny

My journey to writing romance started because of a television show. Yep. I fell in love with an old show named Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and no, not Buffy), but the character Spike—but not because of what he was on screen as much as what was missing from Spike’s tortured existence—romance. At the time, I read horror, mostly, and lots of paranormal, but not necessarily romance, except maybe gothic romance and tragic love stories (always liked to sob with my heroines:). But then I discovered fan fiction (which since 50 Shades of Grey, I no longer need to explain:). Fanfiction writers in the Buffy fandom wore obsessive romantics. I read thousands of pages of fan fiction, and wrote 500,000 words of fan fiction myself (and no it wasn’t all one book:). And through fan fiction, I met a writer named Alicia Rasley (I won’t share her Live Journal name here though:), and she introduced me to RWA, and the idea of writing original romantic fiction. That was quite a few years ago, and I had SO much to learn (which I’m still learning), but that’s who and what started my journey in romance. Buffy, Spike, and Alicia Rasley (http://www.aliciarasley.com/).

Diana

I write what I love, and I also write the books I cannot find and would like to see on shelves. The inspiration of strong women who find more than love — they find love with the right guy — proves such men are out there. When they find their happily ever after, it makes me happy. I guess I write because I’d like to spread the happiness around.

Kerri

The summer before my senior year of college, my mom handed me Nora Roberts’ Sea Swept to read. A couple pages in, I was hooked. That summer I read all about the Quinn’s, the Calhoun sisters and the MacGregor’s, and I haven’t stopped reading romance since. I’d always been a writer but I guess I had never found my niche. What really struck me about romance novels was that everyone got a happy ending. For a twenty-one year old about to enter the very scary and unsure “real world,” nothing sounded better than escaping to a place where dreams come true.

Kim

I write young adult romances because I want girls to read about boys who treat them with respect.  I want them to EXPECT that.  To have those high expectations of boys who will grow into men of good character.  To hold out for love.

It’s not that I ever expected my relationships in high school to pan out into a golden anniversary, but those innocent romances helped me discover what I expected from an adult relationship.  And really, when you come to think of it, they’re the same.  I think the only difference is that we become more jaded and insecure as adults, so teen romances are probably the most pure and real ones out there.  When everything is fresh and new and even heartbreakingly real.  I write teen romances because I still remember those feelings quite vividly.  It’s the promise of something special…something magical…something unforgettable.

Pintip

I cannot imagine writing a young adult novel without including some element of romance. I believe first love is integral to the teenage experience. An essential part of understanding who we are is discovering who we can be as a result of another person — a person who brings out the best in us, a person who inspires us to be the best version of ourselves. That, to me, is the definition of true love.

Susan

I’ve loved reading romance since my early teens, when my family made its annual trek to Georgia and visited family. My grandmother lived with two sisters and me-oh-my, they had half a garage PACKED with grocery bags full of Harlequin books from their shared subscription. Unlimited access to these tiny miracles not only kept me quiet, it gave me my early training. Since I never really stopped reading them, I’ve also never stopped wanting to tell my own stories.

 

Your turn. Tell us in the comments why you *read* romance novels?

Back to Basics

Kerri Carpenter, , , , ,

Question. When you end up with a strained back and your doctor puts you on bed rest for a couple days, you have a lot of time to do which of the following:

A)     Watch Friday Night Lights

B)      Eat Cheese Nips and cookies out of boredom

C)      Realize you need to make a change

Trick Question. The answer is D – All of the Above.

A couple years ago, I lost 30 pounds on my own. I didn’t give up any foods or go on any special diets. Instead, I cut down portions and ramped up the intensity of the workouts I was already doing at the gym. It was a very healthy and safe way to lose weight.  Continue reading →

Kerri’s Favorite Things

Kerri Carpenter, , , ,

This post is just like Oprah’s favorite things episode. Except, it’s not on TV. And no one’s getting a car. And there are no people dressed as elves passing out all of my favorite things. And most of my favorite things aren’t really tangible so you kinda couldn’t get them anyway.

But other than that, it’s totally just like Oprah’s favorite things.

I love the holidays and thought I would share some of my most favorite things about it. Of course, there are a lot of aspects I don’t like about the holidays as well. Stress, spending money, stress, the song Christmas Shoes, stress… You get the idea. But that’s a whole other blog post…

In the meantime, please enjoy Kerri’s Favorite Things!  The Diva Kerr-ina Continue reading →

Cheers!

Kerri Carpenter, mermaids, , , ,

Last month, my brother got married in a beautiful ceremony in New York. I gave a toast at the rehearsal dinner and in true Kerri-fashion, I stuck to what I know best – TV, movies and Pearl Jam (well, that was more for my brother). The toast is below and you’re all going to think I’m nuts. But my brother got all the references!

Welcome to the family, Danielle!!!

KevDanKer

Among many things, my brother and I share a very strange unique sense of humor. Possibly because we spent a lot of time together watching movies, TV shows and listening to, of course, Pearl Jam.

A lot of Pearl Jam.

When I thought about what I should say tonight, it seemed pretty clear I needed to talk about his journey. And where better to start than… Continue reading →

Your Cave is My Castle

Kerri Carpenter, ,

For those non-writers reading this, allow me to introduce a common expression among writers: “Off to the writing cave.” This is how we tell people that we are going to work.

Are writers really going into a cave? I sure hope not. But hey, no judging from this corner. If dark, dank caves are your thing, or they help get the writing juju flowing, good for you.

But for me? I am not going into a cave – real or fictional. Yuck – caves are gross! Why would I even want to pretend to go in one?  The Diva Kerr-ina Continue reading →

My Dog Doesn’t Feel Like It

Kerri Carpenter, , ,

Three weeks ago, I got a dog!!!

Now that the initial excitement has subsided (well, somewhat), Harry and I are settling into our routine and getting to know each other. While he’s the most perfect, adorable dog ever, there have been some trying moments.

My name is Harry & I'm the cutest!

My name is Harry & I’m the cutest!

One thing in particular is a real challenge. Sometimes Harry doesn’t always want to walk. We’re outside with all the other dogs, he’s on his leash and I have treats. Doesn’t seem to matter. Harry plops himself down on the ground and just sits. Unmovable. Not budging for anything – even the bacon treats I bought and know he likes. Continue reading →