So, somewhere (sorry, my brain is full - it’s one of the zillion and three message boards or yahoo groups or something that I read) there’s a conversation about “real men” in romance novels.

Just the other day my husband said that romance novels give women unfair expectations as to what to expect from a man. Because, you know, rather than men giving women what they want, they just tell us we’re wrong to want it.

So, are real men portrayed in romance novels. My answer is a resounding HELL NO. But, I’m surprised at the number of people who think they are.

Men don’t have feelings like women do (like some romance novel men do). The Hubster’s (who loves that nickname by the way) favorite line from Harry Potter Book 5 (NO SPOILERS HERE) is when Harry and Ron and Hermione are talking about Cho Chang and Hermione is explaining what Cho really felt about things.

Ron replies: “No one could actually feel that much. They’d explode!”

Let’s face it. Men do the things they do for one reason and one reason only. To get the chicks.

I’m going to share another story. Before The Hubster was the hubster, we were friends in college. I used to hang out with he and his roommate all the time. One year we came back from Christmas and he had a new calendar with cuddly little baby animals on it.

His roommate and I proceeded to laugh and compare him to a thirteen year old girl.

He said, “it may make me look silly, but just watch…it’ll get the chicks.”

A few hours later a girl came in the room (this girl is another story all together, but no kidding, she got dumped by just every guy I knew in college - no joke, every one of them).

She walked over to the calendar and said “oh, how cute, look at the baby animals, you’re so sweet.”

I tried not to puke. (But who got the last laugh when she got dumped a few weeks later.)

So, what was I rambling about? Oh yeah.

What do you think about “real men” in romance novels? Do I just know the wrong guys?

OK, so over the past few days I’ve probably gotten about 50 hits on my blog from people searching HurricAIne Emily. Yes, people who can’t spell get sent here!

If you’re using MSN to search, I’m the first hit for misspelling hurricane!

Anyway, I’ve been hearing about this interview (the ONE) JK Rowling gave for the HP release. She says she’s been writing these books for 15 years and she figures she’ll start writing book seven round about the end of the year?

WTF?

7 (actually only 6) books in 15 years and she’s a freaking bazillionaire?!?!?!

I’m aiming for 7 books in one year and maybe I’ll make a living at it.

I hope there aren’t little kids out there saying “Ooh, I wanna be a writer just like JK Rowling when I grow up.”

The thing is, I don’t think even she gets it. Yes, I know she was a single mother on the dole writing on napkins at the corner cafe or whatever, but I feel like she’s forgotten that part of being a writer.

And why in the hell has she been writing these damn books for 15 years yet I have to wait 7 more before it ends? Oooh, I just figured this out… by the time HP 7 comes out, she’ll have been writing these books for more than half my life.

Interesting, no?

Ah, well, I better go write one of my 7 books…

We got anniversary presents from my in-laws yesterday. Basically they just raided our Amazon wishlists (which I haven’t updated in FOREVER) but I got 45 Master Characters, 20 Master Plots (both Writers Digest Books) and The Complete Writers guide to Heroes and Heroines.

So I’ll have reading material on my flights.

I wrote a synopsis yesterday for my next werewolf book. I’ve already written about 70ish pages of the book so I know where I’m starting kind of, but the rest was a blur. Now it’s not. This was the first time I’ve written a synopsis before finishing the book.

I think I like it. I think I get a clearer picture of the IC that way. Because I have no idea what will happen, I can’t really add that, but if I know my character has to get from point A to point Q, then I can at least detail the emotional journey even if it’s only “something happens to turn her from a flaming bitch into a nice person.” Lots of wiggle room there.

Plus, for me, it flowed much better when I was just telling the story, not figureing out what pertinent info to put into the synopsis.

If you’re going to Reno and have an agent/editor appt, there’s a form your supposed to fill out and send back to the RWA office (form can be found on RWA website) and it lists room for 3 books to pitch.

I’m going to ask around, but I figure I might as well use the time to pitch all three. After all, the characters appear in the other books so while they’re completely stand alone story wise, the chars do some intermingling.

I was kind of down about my pitch yesterday, people were telling me my story had too much romance for SPICE, but then I remembered that I’ve probably done more research on the line than others so I’m going to go for it. After all, several of the writers they suggest reading on the SPICE guidelines write Erotic Romance.

And if they don’t want it - fine, they’ll just go somewhere else.

But now I’ve gotta come up with titles….Any ideas? I’ve got 2 werewolves and a vamp? Should they have something in common or be completely different?

However, I apologize in advance to all those affected by Tropical storm (or what will no doubt become Hurricaine) Emily. But it’s still kind of cool to have weather named after you.

As most people probably know by now, I’m really Emily, not Emma, though everyone always just calls me Em.

I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out who I’m supposed to be. Some places I’m still Emily, some places I’ve become Emma. Should I just be both? I’m always confuzzled when I’m commenting on blogs because I don’t know who I should be. Maybe Emma S since another Emma visits a lot of the same blogs as I do.

I’ve figured for Reno, I’ll have both Emily and Emma on my name tag and hopefully a watermelon sticker (since not only is it my blog template, it’s also my avatar at a few places).

So, now that you know how to find me in Reno, how will I find you? (This is my roundabout way of asking who’s going to Nationals).

…another list of things to do.

Unfortunately, none of the things I had on my list last week actually got done so this weeks list is even longer. :???:

Am I the only one that freezes when I have too many things to do? There’s so much, it’s all important, I don’t know what to do first. I think I’ll go watch VH1.

First on the list of things is a crit for Kim’s full which she wants to sub TOMORROW. Nothing like quick notice. :wink:

I also started one of my synopses but quickly froze as I realized I don’t know if there’s going to be enough substance to sustain close to 100,000 words. I did it with the last one but that’s because there’s a really strong subplot. Maybe I need to create a subplot for this one, too. Which also means I’ll need a third subplot for the third book.

But if SPICE doesn’t want this first one, then I won’t bother subbing the other 2 there which means I’ll have a whole different set of guidlines and maybe I won’t need to get those 100,000 words.

Ugh! See I’m getting pretty close to that “I don’t know what to do” freezing point.

Like writing isn’t hard enough but now I’m trying to figure out what editors are going to think. Because trying to be a mind reader makes things so much easier.

*sigh* Some days I really wish I would’ve never figured out that I wanted to be a writer…

I’ve been waking up on the cranky side of the bed the past few days. No particular reason, I’ve just been blah. I’m trying to snap out of it, but well, I’m just blah.

Yesterday I went through the MS and made notes of where I should add things. I didn’t do any actual writing but now that I know where things are going to go, I should have a pretty significant page count today. Yay!

My concern now, thought, is that it’s turning into one big sex fest.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. :wink:

It’s erotic romance so I know the sex is supposed to have a point, and further the relationship, blah, blah, and it does, but well, I’m starting to wonder if they’ve got anything outta the sack.

Yes. They do. They talk a lot. It just happens to be post coitally (is that a word).

Excuse me for a second while my blog turns into a conversation with myself.

I think the thing that’s throwing me is that I have a strong secondary relationship that’s just about the sex, so every time they have the sex and it’s mostly about their seperate emotions, I have to show the main characters and their emotions growing together.

So, at the moment I’ve got H&h doing the nasty after he almost dies. Switch to the last time the secondary chars have the sex (they know it’s going to be the last time but it’s all about trust) and then I’m switching right back to H&h having sex again.

Oooh, but if I move the hero’s shower scene (which commenters inspired yesterday - Thanks) to before the H&h do it for the second time that night then it’s even more about trust (and maybe he accepts the love thing in the shower) because he’s going to have just come off of thinking about his ex-fiance (the bitch - I think).

Now all I have to do is come up with the story of the bitch (I think) fiance and I should be set.

Thanks guys! You’re really smart!

Yep, as the title of this post suggests (okay, it doesn’t suggest, it outright says) I am completely, totally, out of the zone.

I’m am buried so far deep in the editing cave that I’m starting to feel like I’ll never make my way out. I managed 3 pages yesterday in my quest for 20 more (and a page of that was adding extra spaces at the beginning of each chapter)!

The problem is that I managed to cross off about half my list in those 20 pages. Assuming the rest of the list takes that much I’ll still be 14 pages short of the 360 I need!

CRAP!!!

But if you’ve made it through the complaining, I do have a question. I’m going to use my WIP as an example, but I know this happens in a lot of books (I just can’t think that much).

My H had a fiance. She left him when she found out his “secret.” Her desertion has an effect on him, obviously, but through the course of the story, he gets over it and realizes she was a bitch.

Now, as a reader, would you prefer for the H&h to hash things out in the open, or do you mind that the H comes to conclusions through Inner Monolougue (so that the reader learns the whole story of the disappearing fiance)?

This is something that stops me when I’m reading and I had the same problem in my last ms. Let me know what you think.

So, yesterday I promised an introspective post, and after doing the blog rounds this morning, it becomes even more relevant.

First, go read Kacey’s post on Writing as a Career (go on, I’ll wait, just make sure you come back).

I consider myself having been writing seriously for about a year and a half. I use my “serious writing” barometer as when I joined eHQ, and that was about Jan 2004. I’d been writing before that, but I was a hobby writer.

Now, I’m a professional writer. I’ve been writing full time for 6 months now. In that time I’ve written 2 300+ pages ms (revising now), revised a 200 pg ms, written 1 novella and 1 short story. I’ve sold the revised ms and the novella. The short story is out. One of the ms will go off to the Blaze contest (hopefully before Nationals) and the other will be pitched at Nationals.

I need to have something out at all times or I get really nervous.

But here’s my thing. I don’t know how to relate to people who aren’t as serious as I am anymore.

I used to love to read the Introduce Yourself thread over at eHQ. Over the past little while I’ve found myself not knowing what to say to people.

Questions like: I want to be a writer, but I don’t know how to start, can someone help?

Huh? Well, you start by sitting down and writing.

Or: I’m stuck. How do I get unstuck?

Well, you just do.

Also: I don’t have time to write because of my kids.

Do you think you’re the only writer with kids? Didn’t Nora start writing because she was stuck inside with her kids? Suzanne McMinn has kids, doesn’t stop her from writing. Jill Shalvis has kids, plus a broken leg and a bear problem - she still writes!

I’m losing my newbie sensitivity and it kind of bugs me. I want to be the kind of writer who helps new people, but all I can think of to say is “Stop complaining and start writing” and I’m not sure how inspirational that is.

It’s not easy, but the only way you’re going to be a writer is if you write.

I broke my N. Obviously it still works, but rather than there being a nice button to hit, instead there’s a little nobby thing where the N key is supposed to sit, while the actual key sits next to my computer mocking me. So, if anyone has any ideas where to find a replacement N key for an ibook, please let me know (I tried ebay, and while they had just about every other laptop key availabe, no mac’s).

But really, I was going to talk about writing!! Yes, writing!

I’m stealing this from a discussion we’re having on one of my online chapters. And the question is 2 fold.

1. Do you have to be interesting to be a writer?
2. Is there something of you in all of your characters?

I maintain that no, you don’t necessarily have to be interesting (although for interesting writers, ya gotta check out Jill’s blog). I think I’m interesting in that I know a lot of useless knowledge, but to other people, I probably just come off as really weird. I live much more in my head than I do in real life.

And I don’t necessarily think my characters are like me. I think there’s something of what I want to be in all of them, but that’s different.

So let me know what you think….and remember, summer goodies are still up for grabs!