J.T. Bock Rocks Our Socks, er, Fins

Interview, Kerri Carpenter, ,

You’ll never believe this! A scary, ugly sea monster jumped into our lagoon while we were all away having a festive Mermaid party and STOLE our words! Sigh. Well, that happens sometimes. But never fear, I, Kerri-Mermaid, grabbed my cloak of awesomeness and fought the dreaded beast until he gave me this interview with J.T. Bock back. So, without further ado, please welcome (or re-welcome) J.T. Bock to the Mermaid Lagoon.

I am thrilled beyond belief to have recently published author J.T. Bock join us in the lagoon. In fact, I’m so excited that I’m throwing the typical bio out the window. So here goes…

This lady rocks my socks! Not only is her debut novel, A Surefire Way, AMAZING, but she is a fellow Joss Whedon fan, she’s been to Comic-Con, she self-published her book and she is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met! Okay, I won’t make you wait any longer.

In her debut Waterworld Mermaid appearance, please welcome J.T. Bock. Continue reading →

Celebrating Spring in the Pond with a Two-Book Giveaway!

Denny S. Bryce, Giveaway, , , ,

by Denny S. Bryce

Denny's MermaidsI recently returned from a city in the Midwest, which will go unnamed (Minneapolis) where there was six inches of snow on the ground from a recent storm the night before. I used to live in the Midwest (Chicago). In fact I was born in the Midwest (Cleveland), so you could say I know a lot about snow, and aside from Christmas week – I HATE SNOW. Sorry skiers, ice skaters (except I used to ice skate and love it), snow boarders, whatever, the time of year that makes me most happy is SPRING! And as I look out my window this morning, I decided the Friday giveaway here at Waterworld Mermaid land is all about celebrating Spring – so tell me about your favorite romance novel that made you smile because there was spring and there was love in the air and if you don’t have a story — make one up!

And oh, last weekend was BRILLIANT because I attended the wonderful WRW In the Company of Writers Retreat. So to share some of the joy (that felt like springtime with a thunder storm mixed in:) today’s Waterworld Mermaid GIVEAWAY features books by NYTimes Best Selling authors Emily March and Darynda Jones (whom I got to meet last weekend – and she was wonderful and her books are wonderful:)! So comment below for your chance at receiving a copy of First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones and Reflection Point by Emily March.

 

1284510198first_grave_4003dReflectionpointflatforwebsite

The Waiting Game

Agents and Editors, Dana Rodgers, mermaids, Writing,
The line outside National Stadium

The line outside National Stadium

I’m frustrated. There it is, I’ve said it.

At the beginning of March my thirteen-year-old daughter, Brenna, was one of the lucky few selected to audition to sing the National Anthem before one of the Washington National’s baseball games this season. Let me tell you, auditioning is not a walk in the park. First, we got the e-mail on a Wednesday afternoon that she was one of fifty people who would be auditioning that Saturday morning. After chanting, “Oh crap, oh crap. Yay, this is so exciting! Oh crap, oh crap,” a few hundred times I rearranged everyone’s Saturday schedule so my husband and I could take Brenna to her audition. Brenna was incredibly excited and spent the next couple of days practicing with the Nationals audition guidelines in mind… You must perform a cappella and you only have ninety seconds, which is not a lot of time for that song.

We arrived bright and early at National Stadium on Saturday morning where we stood in line, freezing our butts off, for an hour and a half because auditions are first come, first served. But not to worry, the sky was a brilliant blue and we met a ton of nice people. The performers came from all walks of life. Some performed regularly, others only experience was singing in their church choir, but they were all incredibly talented and beyond brave to be there in the first place. The excitement was palpable by the time the gates opened at nine o’clock. After signing in, everyone was seated in the stadium—talk about an intimidating venue—where the performers are given instructions and told to expect an answer one way or another by close of business Monday.

Brenna waiting to sing

Brenna waiting to sing

I was practically having heart palpitations by the time Brenna walked out onto the field. She approached the microphone with purpose and—outwardly undaunted by the camera four feet from her face, the three radio stations recording her, the size of the stadium or the audience watching—she opened her mouth and began to sing. An interview with Brenna was featured on WTOP most of that day so I’ll let you be the judge on how she did. When you listen to the one-minute clip that is my baby girl singing in the background! 😉

Brenna WTOP Interview

If I had a nickel for every text I got from Brenna that Monday I would be a very rich woman. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear on Monday. Or Tuesday or Wednesday. In fact, it has now been more than six weeks since Brenna auditioned and we still haven’t heard anything from the Nationals. I have emailed twice but still no answer. I can only assume that no news means she wasn’t selected but I hate not knowing.

Not hearing is frustrating because there is no closure, but it is also a part of life. I can’t help but compare the experience to submitting a manuscript. You plot, you plan, you write, write, write. And then—when you think your baby is ready—you pitch it at a conference or send out query letters to editors or agents you think may be interested in the story you have to offer. Then you wait…

National Stadium

National Stadium

Most agents and editors will tell you to expect a six to eight week turn around, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I have heard horror stories of manuscripts being submitted, and then not receiving a response for six or eight months. At the Washington Romance Writers Retreat this past weekend I asked agents and editors their thoughts on following up on your submissions, because who hasn’t agonized over the do-I-follow-up-or-leave-things-alone-and-continue-to-wait dilemma.

Every editor or agent I talked to gave the same advice: If the guidelines say a six to eight week turnaround, wait at least three months and then if you haven’t heard anything… follow up. Just send a polite e-mail reminding them of your submission titled “A Great Story You Know You Want To Buy” (or whatever your title may be) sent in on such and such date, and ask what the status of your submission is.

Generally speaking agents and editors are not monsters hell bent on driving you to the crazy house. They are real people with real lives and a job to do, but life happens and sometimes they fall behind schedule or your manuscript gets lost in the shuffle. So if you find yourself in this predicament don’t agonize, wait at least three months and then follow up. 🙂

 

YA Mystery Author Amanda Brice Swims With the Mermaids! (Reposting)

Carlene Love Flores, Interview, ,

The mysterious aqua powers that be gobbled up many of our March posts, including this one!  Well, you can’t keep a good YA Mystery Author down so take that Mr. March Mermaid Post Gobbler!  Please enjoy this reposting of our interview with Amanda Brice.

AmandaWelcome, Amanda! We’re happy to have you swimming with us in the Mermaid lagoon today & super stoked that you’ll be talking about Pas de Death!  

 

I’m happy to be here! It’s been rather chilly here in the DC area (as I’m sure all the Mermaids know!), so the thought of a “lagoon” conjures up the exotic – a lovely little grotto somewhere tropical. I’d love to be there right now! Especially if there are cabana boys. There are cabana boys, right?

 

What kind of lagoon would it be if there weren’t? Well, I guess it would be a normal lagoon, but this is no normal lagoon. 🙂  So, Amanda, how did you get your start writing?

 

You mean other than carrying around a little notebook and a purple pen all day when I was a little girl? My opus back then was “Nancy Flew and the Mystery of the Lady Ghost.” It was highly acclaimed by the very toughest of literary critics – my 4th grade teacher. (Thanks, Mrs. Koochagian!)

 

But my dad convinced me to “do something practical” so I went to law school instead. Eventually drafting legal materials was a little too dry to keep my attention and I needed an outlet. I remember the day clearly – I’d just finished reading Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (brilliant book, btw, if you haven’t read it) and was supposed to be writing a patent on the patentability of indigenous medicinal methods (yawn!), but I decided that writing a chick lit novel would be a lot more fun. So I whipped off the first 88 pages of a book that shall never see the light of day and asked my professor for an extension of time on the law paper.

 

Can you tell us what is the last great book you read?

 

Indeed I can. Just last night, in fact, I finished Bluebood, which is book #2 in Matthew Iden’s Marty Singer Mystery Series. I’ll be quite honest and say that I started reading this series because I know Matt personally and I wanted to support him, but just a couple of pages into the first book (A Reason to Live), I was quite literally blown away. It’s THAT good. Kinda like James Patterson in the early days, but much better. The series follows a retired DC homicide detective who left the force because he’s battling cancer, but he can’t seem to run away from the ghosts of his past – they keep popping up in the form of cases left unsolved and he must now find the answers. The writing is gripping and he keeps you on the edge of your seat. And his descriptions of Northern Virginia just highly amuse me. I read the first one a couple of months back, but then got sidetracked finishing up my own book, so didn’t have time to dive into the second one until just now. And I can’t wait to start the third one (One Right Thing) tonight!

 

What can you tell us about your daily routine?

 

Ha, routine? You clearly don’t know me well. I don’t exactly have what you’d call a routine. Between balancing a full-time job as an attorney, managing a busy RWA chapter as president, and being mommy to two high-energy toddlers, writing is rarely at the top of my priority list, unfortunately. Except for when I’m on deadline. Then my family knows not to bother me and that we’ll be eating a lot of frozen pizza. But I really am a spurter. I’ll go months without writing much of anything, and then there will a couple-month stretch there that I live-and-breathe writing. I need to get better about that.

 

What was your inspiration for Pas De Death?PasDeDeath-210x300

 

This is the third book in my YA mystery series set at a performing arts boarding school. The first book featured a sabotage and the second one featured a kidnapping. And while there were definitely some suspenseful and dangerous parts of those investigations, I knew I needed to step up my game a little bit. Throughout the first two books, my heroines is always trying to pass herself off as 15, even though she’s still just 14. Well, she celebrated her birthday during the short story that takes place between Books 2 and 3, so now that she’s 15, she thinks of herself as more grown up and edgy, so a murder mystery seemed like the right move.

 

Last spring I offered up naming rights to the murder victim during the Brenda Novak auction. I assumed that someone would buy it to take out a little “literary revenge,” so imagine my surprise when I discovered that the winner was a book blogger who’d met me at the Turn the Page signing last year and who wanted me to use her name! LOL. So that started the wheels turning, and I eventually made my murder victim be a dance critic rather than a book reviewer.

 

Do you have a favorite scene in the book?

 

Hmmm…good question! Actually, there’s a scene where my heroine and her movie-star-slash-on-again-off-again boyfriend are locked in a closet hiding from the police. They’re “off again” during this part of the saga, so it was fun to write that little bit of tension.

 

Sounds fun! Can you tell us a little bit about your new release?

 

Here’s the blurb:

 

pas de deux (NOUN: pl. pas de deux)
1. A dance for two, especially a dance in ballet consisting of an entrée and adagio, a variation for each dancer, and a coda.
2. A close relationship between two people or things, as during an activity.

pas de death (NOUN: yeah … totally made up)
1. A dance of death.
2. When Dani Spevak stumbles over a dead body and gets into another crazy situation.

Aspiring ballerina Dani Spevak is back home for the summer, recovering from an injury. What was supposed to be a simple day trip into New York City to visit her friends at the Manhattan Ballet Conservatory turns deadly when Dani discovers that the world of professional ballet can be cutthroat – literally.

Check out Amanda’s Book Trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw7xvIGhlSg

And Catch Up With Amanda Here!

A BAGEL, ANY KIND, TOASTED AND BUTTERED – JUST AS LONG AS IT GETS THE JOB DONE

Draft, mermaids, Revision, Susan Andrews, Writing

from mermaid Susan Andrews:  SusanMermaid

There’s a problem I’ve experienced as a writer sometimes that just knocks me on my back.  Mind you, I can plot, draft, write and create.  I carve out time to write.  I’ve created a little space for my books and my papers.  I’ve learned to draft manuscripts on the train, to use my phone for making notes and jotting down ideas.  I have a nifty new keyboard for my iPad.  I’ve even discovered the charm of the Yonkers Will Public Library for its blissfully silent study tables.

But, every once in a while, right in the middle of things, I get stuck.  That one word, the one fact I was so sure I knew, escapes me.  It’s right there, ready to be typed and, at the same time, out of sight.

I’m frozen.  Stuck.  My dream of being A Productive Writer is smashed at my feet, at least for the moment.  And, frankly, I’m a little pissed.

However, I’m blessed to know (and be married to) a very clever writer, who makes his living writing.  And has met deadlines for nearly thirty years.  Who also has his moments of grasping for a word, a phrase, or an idea.

He tells me, “Susan, you need a bagel.”  Damn, that man has good ideas.  RaisinCinnBagel

Here’s the idea:  You type along, thinking good thoughts, getting into the groove of your writing, and suddenly you’re not sure what the next word is supposed to be.  Peter (aka Word God for this post) types “bagel” and continues writing.  Since his non-fiction work is science writing, and bagels have never figured in any of his published science articles, “bagel” is his preferred word for “silly me, not able to think of that just now.”  When he’s ready to revise, he also cleans up the “bagels” and gives himself the time to think of the proper word or phrase.

I’ve started using it myself in my work, and it’s marvelously freeing.  “Bagel” allows me to keep working.  It’s a funny, cute, small way to acknowledge that a draft isn’t intended to be perfect right out of the box.  I’m able to forgive myself for not knowing the word and move on.

Just this past week, I used it when I saw a hole in my plot.  “Bagel”, I typed.  “Insert sex scene here.”

Dang, that’s a lot of bagels.

Peter Andrews writes the How to Write Fast blog at www.howtowritefast.blogspot.com.  He has a hundred tips like this one for the WannaBeProductive writer and will be featured on April 29 in a Waterworld Mermaid Guy Day interview.

bagel

One Writer’s Addiction

mermaids

 

Dana's Birthday!

Dana’s Birthday!

Hi. My name is Dana and I’m an addict. No worries, nothing as nefarious as drugs or booze, but something just as addictive… Writing conferences! 😉

I just returned from the Washington Romance Writers 2013 Retreat, and just WOW! What a fun, supportive group! For me this year’s retreat was extra special because it was my birthday. My fantabulous mermaid sisters went over the top making me feel special. First, I arrived to find that my roommate, Kerri Carpenter, had decorated our room and brought me a birthday balloon and wine. Then later, my other mermaid sisters surprised me with an impromptu surprise party complete with chocolate cake and champagne! What more could a girl ask for? I know, right?

Avery Flynn, Kerri Carpenter, Susan Andrews, Denny S. Bryce, Dana Rodgers and Robin Covington

Mermaids – Avery, Kerri, Susan, Denny, Dana and Robin

Writing is such a solitary endeavor, just you and your computer, and in my case yoga pants, diet coke and a fifteen-pound cat who thinks taking a nap on my keyboard is the perfect way to get my attention. When you’re in the zone it’s easy to get caught up in a world that feels as real as this one and forget there’s an actual outside, or real people who want to be fed. I thought I was the only freak who did things like this until I attended my first writing conference a few years ago and discovered there are other, mostly sane, people who find holding conversations with fictional characters normal. Thank God, I was no longer alone!

Kerri Carpenter and Dana Rodgers

Kerri Carpenter and Dana Rodgers

Since that first conference I have been addicted. Writers are some of the kindest, most considerate, supportive people you’ll ever meet. They understand how important a kind word of encouragement can be for a new writer, or how someone who has been writing for years may be going through a rough patch with a current work in progress. Writers, by and large, are happy to offer support and advice to all those around them. To sympathize over that rejection letter or celebrate your latest release, to share what promotional tools have worked best for them or lament over painful rewrites and edits.

I love going to conferences because they are a great way to meet people who understand the challenges of balancing writing, family, and that stupid day job many of us depend on to pay the bills. They offer a wide range of workshops on craft, promotion and trends in the industry during the day, followed by an opportunity to cut loose with friends, old and new, at socials, mixers and parties in the evenings.

Pintip Dunn, Dana Rodgers, Alethea Kontis, Robin Covington, Kimberly Kincaid, Avery Flynn and Kimberly MacCarron

Pintip Dunn, Dana Rodgers, Alethea Kontis, Robin Covington, Kimberly Kincaid, Avery Flynn and Kimberly MacCarron

Conferences allow you to network, promote your latest release and can be a great way to get in front of agents and editors. It’s refreshing to discover that the editor of a major New York publishing house may have a wicked sense of humor, that the agent of your dreams is really approachable and more than willing to answer your questions, or that the multi-published author you adore is a real person who has the same motivational struggles you do.

Whether it’s discovering you’re not the only one who spent her youth making up entire plot lines and acting them out with Barbie and GI Joe (sorry, I thought Ken was a wimp) or getting a request for your current WIP, conferences are fun and rewarding. Every time I come home exhausted, but I feel refreshed and revitalized, ready to put my butt in the chair and inspired to put words on the page.

How about you? What do you love about writing conferences?

Twenty Minutes

mermaids, Writing

I participated in the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood’s Winter Writing Festival this year, and it was great fun. I loved the support, the encouragement, and the motivation. But the best part? The chat roompintip sprints.

Here’s how it worked: you showed up at the chat room at a designated time, where a Ruby sister was moderating. After a few minutes of chatting, the moderator announced the beginning of a sprint (usually twenty or twenty-five minutes). Everyone worked furiously. At the end of the sprint, the moderator called time. More chatting. Rinse and repeat.

It was amazing how much work I could accomplish when I knew other people were doing the same thing. Moreover, writing can feel like a lonely, solitary endeavor… but the Ruby chat room sprints made me feel like the other writers and I were part of the same team. Like we were doing something together.

Sadly, the WWF is over now, but it’s taught me a very important writing tool that I can use the rest of the year: the twenty-minute sprint.

This tool is especially useful when I’m battling writer’s block. I set my timer and give myself a pep talk. It’s just twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is nothing. You can do almost anything for twenty minutes. Just write for twenty minutes, and then you can take a break/check your email/make some tea. Go!

It works every time. (Well, almost every time.) Although that first session may not be particularly productive, I usually feel more amenable to another session when the alarm beeps. And then another. And another.

Before I know it, I’ve made considerable progress on the scene, which makes me even more motivated to continue.

For me, writing can be a vicious or a rewarding cycle. The more I write, the more I want to write. The more time that has passed since I’ve written, the harder it is to get started. The key, then, is simply starting. The twenty-minute sprint helps me get past that hump. It forces me to write that first word or first sentence or first paragraph.

So thank you, Rubies, for teaching me this valuable trick!

What about you? What tools or tricks do you have for busting writer’s block? I’d love to hear your techniques. Let’s face it: I need all the help I can get. 😉

Robin Covington Gets Lucky in the Waterworld Mermaid Lagoon

Avery Flynn, Interview, mermaids, Robin Covington, ,

Friends, mermaids, romance readers, I have cornered the always fun Robin Covington in the lagoon to get the goods on all the really gossipy stuff about her latest release, His Southern Temptation, including how often she checks her sales numbers, how she manages to write so much and if she’s ever dated her own Lucky.

Avery Flynn

You ready to rock the lagoon?


Robin Covington

You bet!

OK, we just left a Savvy Author chat about getting it done. So give us the secret to making writing work in your life.

Hmmm. I have a husband who likes to have attention now and then and two small kids (10&8) and a full-time job as attorney for the Navy. So, my writing fits in around soccer, school, work etc. My only secret is learning to write anywhere with any snippet of time I can steal.

I love the e-mails I get from you about how you write in the car outside of the kids’ activities. Have you ever gotten any strange looks from the other parents?

Oh yeah. They all think I’m a little weird (and they are right) but I live in a small town and most know that I am writing one of “those” books and they just laugh.

LOL. Speaking of “those” books congrats on His Southern Temptation booking it up the charts. Tell the truth, how often do you check the numbers?

I have no shame – hourly. My iPhone makes my mania easy to maintain.

God, you make me laugh. OK, I’m biased when it comes to Lucky, your hero in His Southern Temptation. Did he start out as a spark of an idea or burst to life in living color?

I loooove Lucky. He burst to life in full, annoying, pesky color. He badgered me to write him first – I mean, why wouldn’t I? Right? But, Jackson (of the four men) spoke to me as the one to set the tone for the series and to give the perfect backdrop to bring all these guys back together. So, Lucky had to wait . . . and even when I wrote him, he surprised me with some of the twists.

I think just about every woman dated a Lucky at one point. Did you?

Oh yes – and I married him.

And no . . . Lucky is NOT my hubby. But I would kill to have Taylor’s bod.

He’s looking over your shoulder right now isn’t he? *waves* Hi Mr. Covington.

Ha! No – he’s watching MMA fights.

Speaking of Taylor (who I would also consider going Buffalo Bill for that body), she is a woman who is really dealing head on with the craziness of her life. She’s ballsy as hell. I saw a poll recently of readers and most said they wanted to see more strong heroines in contemporary romance. Do you think that’s true?

Yes, I do. When we take workshops or read about the craft of writing romance – we are told that we need to write women characters that our reader can relate to. The hero should be someone you could fall in love with and you should want to be the heroine. I think that women today are strong and brave and so talented in every way. They are also juggling so much stuff – so a heroine like that is what resonates. It might take the entire story for her to get there – but that is a ride they want to take.

So what makes Taylor relatable?

Oh – she is like so many of the women I grew up with in the rural South. We were good girls – not too good- but we did what was acceptable. I know that I and so many of them really found our own voice when we left home. Taylor did that and followed her own dreams – maybe to the extreme – but she found her way to be her true self.

That’s awesome. OK, I’m wrapping it up with the most important question I’ve ever asked you. You ready?

Ummmm . . .

Matt Bomer or Joe M?

Ha! Ummm . . . I don’t get the Bomer thing at all . . . and Joe is my boyfriend so . . . totally Joe!

Don’t get Bomer? That gives me a sad. OK, let’s toast to your poor decision making. There has to be a bartender hiding somewhere in this lagoon.

Pabst Blue Ribbon please! ; )

Now that really is sad.

His-Southern-Temptation-900px-e1363619689936
His Southern Temptation by Robin Covington
Some women are bad. Some women are a bad idea. The best ones are both…

As a Black Ops assassin, “Lucky” Landon has had more than his fair share of close calls. Now he’s turned in his sniper rifle for the simple life of his small hometown. So the last thing he ever expected was to end up at gunpoint. Or that the woman holding the gun would be his best friend’s little sister and Lucky’s on-again/off-again lover.
Taylor Elliott is Trouble, and she likes it that way. And seeing Lucky again? Well, he’s been her dirty little secret for the past few years and everyone knows that secrets in a small town are almost impossible to keep. But Taylor has bigger problems on her plate. Like the local mob boss who wants her dead.
And right now the only thing standing between Trouble and disaster is a hottie named Lucky…

ROMANCE? What if the Hero is Married and in Love with Another Woman (the Heroine)…

Denny S. Bryce, mermaids, Motivation, Writing, , , ,

by Denny S. Bryce

Denny's MermaidsI got up this morning to the sound of chirping birds, geese doing shout outs to other geese, and sunshine bouncing over my lake (okay, it’s the community’s lake, but since I live here now, it’s mine!), but my thoughts kept drifting to SCANDAL.

No, nothing about my personal life here (sadly) – I’m talking about a TV show. Yes, some of you may know my obsession with the ABC series (SCANDAL) from the mind of Sondra Rhimes starring Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn (yes, the actor who killed Patrick Swayze in Ghost).

Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that Sondra Rhimes reads romance novels. Hot, spicy, romance novels, but she reads them and then she twists them into decadent juicy unbelievable (but totally believable) melodrama. And yes, it’s over the top and if you enjoy situations that just don’t fit in the realm of reason but then kind of do, then the show is for you!

In a TV show about many relationships, SCANDAL’s primary one (Olivia and Fritz) is the most problematic – morality wise. The heroine’s lover and soul mate is MARRIED, and his wife although a dark and twisty child herself, is NOT the villain of the story.

So as a writer (or reader of romance) – what are your thoughts about a contemporary romance that pushes this particular envelope? I’m sure there have been fabulous romances written with infidelity as a storyline that work as a romance – tell me about them? Would you read it? Would you write it?

I know. How’d I get from SCANDAL to contemporary romance? Blame the chirping birds and the geese. Anyway, here goes my SCANDAL photo blitz (the real reason I wrote this post:). Because good romance and true love can be SCANDALOUS, and dark and twisty and pull at the strings of your heart, right?

tumblr_mkx5zpdznN1r7v69jo2_500 tumblr_mkxdiz2yQR1qkxjhbo1_500

tumblr_mjvcwakPuy1qd8t1xo1_250 AR-303129979 images 1254-EW-COVER-400x533 220px-Kerry_Washington_2_Met_Opera_2010_Shankbone

Author Lynne Silver Swims with the Mermaids: Momma Always Said…

Carlene Love Flores, Guest Post, Writing, , ,

 

Please join the Mermaids in welcoming Romance Author Lynne Silver!  Take it away, Lynne…

Lynne Silver

We all know the adage if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. And generally that’s a good thing. What about when it comes to book reviews on Amazon or Goodreads? Should authors give their honest opinion about books written by fellow authors?

As much as I am a published author, I might be more of a reader. I’m addicted to romance novels and read 2-3 per week. I often want to discuss them, possibly in a public forum, but the day I was published was the day I stopped giving my public opinion about a book if I think it’s anything less than stellar.

I retweet and Facebook share tons of links to good reviews and any promo for fellow writer friends, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had a good discussion about a book. Do I write Amazon reviews? Yes, for members of my RWA chapter, and when I can honestly recommend the book.

I’m not alone in this practice. It’s the dirty little secret that romance authors are stacking review sites and Twitter feeds with promo for their friends. But we rarely go negative.

Why? Because it feels unprofessional to criticize a fellow author in a public forum.

Maybe we should. If I’ve written a sucky book, I’d want to know. Who better to tell me the whys of it then a fellow romance author? I’m still scared though. It feels as though I’d be opening myself up as the terrible person who criticized a colleague on the internet.

What do you think? If you’re an author do you write negative honest reviews? Why or why not? Would you think less of an author who did?

Thank you for hosting me!

Lynne

It was our pleasure, Lynne, and you raised some great questions!  Thank you so much for being our guest today.  

 

Check out the latest release in Lynne’s Coded for Love series with Ellora’s Cave, False Match:falsematch_9781419944956_msr

Genetically enhanced soldier Chase Stanton has two jobs in life. One, he must kick ass on all missions for the Program and, two, breed with his DNA breed mate, whoever and wherever she may be. Two problems. Chase learns he isn’t genetically enhanced after all and Doctor Samara Jones, the woman he craves beyond all reason, is likely an enemy of his team and not his true match. Too bad they can’t keep their hands off each other.