Beaudry's Ghost: Legends, Book 1 Releases in Print Today!

Today's the day!

It's the official release day of the print version of my award-winning paranormal romance, Beaudry's Ghost.

The sequel, Legends, Book 2: A Ghost of a Chance, comes out Dec. 30 in ebook, with print release about this time next year.

Watch the Beaudry trailer

Read an excerpt

Win a FREE download of Beaudry's Ghost!

In honor of the upcoming sequel, A Ghost of a Chance, EroticRomanceWriters.com is giving away a FREE download of my award-winning paranormal Romance, Beaudry's Ghost.

How to win? Click here! Drawing will be held Sept. 22, 2008.

Beaudry's Ghost now available!!

My paranormal romance Beaudry's Ghost is now available FOR SALE! (Oh, sorry, did I just scream that out loud?)

You may ask, "Why is she so excited about this book?" I'll tell you. (Yes, I'm channeling Tevye.)

Beaudry is the book of my heart. "The One" for which I became a writer. It combines everything I love - romance, history, legends, ghost stories, North Carolina, and the sea. Did I mention romance? Writing it was like an out-of-body experience. I remember staying up until the wee hours writing, then re-reading my work the next day and wondering "My god, who wrote that?" (In a good way!)

Back in its original incarnation as a Dreams Unlimited then an LTDBooks release, the book won some pretty nice awards and garnered a 4-star review and Reviewers Choice nomination from Romantic Times. Still, when Samhain picked it up, I leaped at the chance to revisit the story, revise and expand it, make it an even better book based on the skills I've gained over the years.

For me, words are fluid things that can almost always be improved upon. I'm an editor in real life, but that doesn't mean I don't depend on my Samhain editor Lindsey McGurk when it comes to my stories! I freely acknowledge I'm my own worst editor. LOL

I'm normally pretty calm when a book comes out, but Lindsey can attest I was a near basket case at one point during the editing process. Like I said, this is the book of my heart, and I felt acutely that this is my last chance to get it right and do these amazing characters justice.

Their voices in my head aren't keeping me up at night any more, so I hope that means I accomplished my goal! :)

Beaudry's Ghost was born of my deep North Carolina heritage. I mean, who couldn't grow up hearing stories on your grandmother's darkened front porch, immersed in the history, legends and lore of of a place, and not have something come out of it later in life? It either messes with your head, or you become a writer. LOL

I'm off to get pre-surgery bloodwork. Nothing big, just fixing up my left foot a bit. Great timing, eh? Release a book, have surgery! But I figured if I didn't do it now, I won't be in any kind of shape for RT Pittsburgh in April. I saw my friend Rosemary Laurey once navigate an RT on crutches, and it wasn't fun! On the other hand, I could just set up camp in the bar and let everyone come to ME for a change!

Popping the champagne,
Carolan
www.carolanivey.com

Thirteen Random Birthday Thoughts About Writing...

…and life in general. It’s my birthday. I’m allowed! :)

1. There’s no great mystery to being a writer. A writer applies the seat of her pants to the seat of her chair, and writes.

2. First drafts are not the time to be careful. First drafts are designed to let you glop it all out, get the voices out of your head, unleash whatever beast that’s hounding you to get the story down on paper. It’s meant to be messy. Roll in it! Get your hands dirty!

3. Write every day. Even if all you can write is “I don’t know what to write,” do it. Over and over again. Fill pages with it. Eventually your brain will get bored and want to write something else.

4. Waiting for your muse to inspire you, IMHO, is just nuts. You want to be a writer? Siddown and get started. Your muse will just have to eat dust until it catches up with you.

5. Read. Widely and often. Never stop learning.

6. Observe.

7. Listen.

8. Don’t be afraid to try out any story idea. 100 pages that don’t pan out are still 100 pages of learning experience you never would have had if you hadn’t tried.

8a. Don’t be afraid. Period. I mean it. Just stop it right now. :)

9. All reviews are good. Really. So what if a reviewer hated your book. Did they spell your name right? Then it’s a good review.

10. On the other hand, learn to put aside your emotional attachment to your manuscript, and listen to constructive criticism. Your editor is on your side!

11. You’ll never make story perfect. There will always be a typo, a flaw, something accidentally left hanging. It’s possible to revise the life out of a story. Learn to let it go. (This is one I’m still working on—note the claw marks on my manuscripts where my editor had to tear them out of my hands!)

12. You will never please everyone. Write for yourself first, the markets second. Make the market follow YOU.

13. Learn to love your Shadow Self. She is the part of you that makes you—and your stories—fully human.

~Carolan
www.carolanivey.com
Now available: Wildish Things

More Thursday Thirteens!

Feeding My Wild Side

J.C., why are you laughing? [squinting in J.C.'s direction]

I have a wild side. I really do! With two kids, a couple of part-time jobs, and a husband who stresses out if every detail isn't planned down to the millisecond, my wild woman just doesn't get out very often anymore.

Except in my books.

It's actually fun to see the looks on my friends' and loved ones' faces after they've read one of my books. It's that little cock of the head, the raised eyebrow and the hesitation when they comment, "But you were always so quiet, and...um...nice." (Note the past tense.)

And you know, the books of mine they've read so far aren't all that hot. They're dark, bloody, gory, and have maybe one hot sex scene, but nothing drastic.

I'm working on the drastic. Heh heh heh.

My take on it is, when you grow up like I did, with a chronic disease, you find some way to indulge your wild side. You have to. You must.

Or you will go insane. Period.

Dylan Thomas said, "A born writer is born scrofulous. His career is an accident dictated by physical or circumstantial disabilities."

I started out lying awake in bed at night, spinning stories in my head to entertain myself. With little else to do during the day, I read like a demon.

Then, I started to write.

My elementary school teachers would send my essays and artwork home with notes attached to them. Kind, delicately worded notes, but expressing enough concern for my welfare (dare I say, "mental stability?") that I remember at least once or twice getting the proverbial "talking to" from my parents. In high school, I was given an assignment to write an essay from Holden Caulfield's point of view.

Ya think I scored an A on that one? You bet your ass I did.

Although at the time my Mom scolded me for the foul language I used in it, I recently found out that she has kept it carefully stored in her files all these years along with other early samples of my writing.

So yeah, I guess she felt it was her moral duty as a parent to figuratively wash my mouth out with soap, but secretly, Mom and Dad were (and are) proud of me. I can easily picture her closing her bedroom door, filing the paper away, then pumping the air with her fist in a silent "YESSSS!"

Lately I've been restless to go back and find that fearless girl who held nothing back in her writing, who had nothing to lose. After years of marriage and parenting, I can easily see, now, how a woman can lose her sense of self.

With my upcoming novella WILDISH THINGS, I've plunged back in.

Okay, okay. I'm knee deep.

But honey, the water's risin'.

~Carolan

ABHAINN'S KISS, available now from SamhainPublishing.com
Nov. 1: WILDISH THINGS, Love and Lore anthology, SamhainPublishing.com
TBA: BEAUDRY'S GHOST

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Photo: Gordon Thye