Some Inspiration...

All I Want for Christmas...

...is the Toshiba Portégé R500 notebook.

Just joking!

Well, not really. I do want one of those notebooks. C'mon, people. It's a 12.1" notebook that's an inch thick and weighs only 2.2 lbs! My current one is the same dimensions, but it's closer to 4 lbs. And the R500 has an LED screen! *sigh* The geek in me so wants to upgrade.

Moving onto the real list now...

To These 13 Authors: Please Come Back...I'll Buy Your Romance Books A list compiled by Ann Bruce Laura Kinsale. It's over three years since the last release...can I expect something in 2008? Suzanne Robinson. No one does Elizabethan historicals like she did. Meagan McKinney. Michelle Martin. Theresa Weir. Jan Freed. Karyn Monk. Unfortunately, her website says she's busy with her young children. Who knows when she'll turn on her computer again? Iris Johansen. Her thrillers just aren't nearly as satisfying (in fact, some are downright awful) as her romances, both category and historical. Julie Garwood. She's going back to historicals in 2008. There is a God! Tami Hoag. I love the mainstream thrillers, but I loved the romantic suspense so much, much more. Teresa Medeiros. After two paranormals, it's time to go back to straight historicals. PLEASE. Linda Francis Lee. Why, oh, why did she have to go to chick lit? Christina Skye. Hasn't the Navy Seals series dragged on long enough?

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Coming Tomorrow

I'm thrilled to announce my first new release in a long, long time. My novella, "A Vampire's Christmas Carol" is included in the anthology, BENEATH A CHRISTMAS MOON, which will releases from Cerridwen Press tomorrow.

Blurb for "A Vampire's Christmas Carol"
Can Christmas Eve get any more fun? On her way to her family's home, Carol Prescott’s car slides into a ditch in a deserted area with no cell phone signal. The only available shelter is already occupied…by a vampire. To Michael Carpenter, Carol is the bait of a trap. In an effort to hold onto his soul, Michael has resisted the urge to drink human blood for almost a century. Now he hovers between human and vampire. If he doesn’t drink from a human before the night ends, he’ll die. He’s desperately thirsty, but Michael has seen the soulless monsters vampires are and he prefers death. Carol is pure temptation to him, the Christmas present from hell…or is it from heaven?

BENEATH A CHRISTMAS MOON includes two other terrific stories by the very talented Ariana Dupre and Eden Robins.

This book is also the occasion for my first every book trailer. Rather than embed it here, I invite you to visit my web site at http://www.kmccullough.com/ and take a look.

If you view the trailer or read the book, please let me know what you think!

-- Karen McCullough

Books for the Holidays

I had my Christmas list whittled to a fine point. My dad was getting new shoes (or rather multiple relatives are each buying a share of his shoes, which he selected and purchased...I just have to pay him back and wrap them); my brother was getting a gift card to a home improvement store (he's restoring a Victorian town house...the home improvement store is like a second home to him); my brother's girlfriend was getting foodie gifts of marinades since she loves cooking; and my mom was getting Crabtree & Evelyn hand creme that she'd tried and loved while we were on a shopping trip to Manchester.

There was just one problem with this list. None of those gifts are books.

The first to succumb was the gift to my mom. She has a cherished cookbook that has been so well-used that it needs to be kept in a plastic bag wrapped with rubber bands, to keep the bits of broken pages from falling out and getting lost. About half the index has fallen to the ravages of time. But she refuses to get a replacement, since she declares the recipes were changed for the worse when the cookbook was revised in the '50s. I managed to find a copy of the 1949 edition in almost-new condition, complete with dustcover! I never even knew it originally had a dustcover. :-) It was surprisingly affordable for an antique cookbook in such good shape. Oh, well, the hand creme was bought on sale... and I know she'll *love* this.

Then I saw a book written by my dad's favorite financial pundit. With coupons, the price came down to $10. I'll just adjust everyone else's gifts up by the same amount, to keep things fair.

Hey, with that extra $10, I can get a literary food book for my brother's girlfriend. Wow. An awful lot of people have written about their adventures in cooking and eating. Still, she was saying at Thanksgiving how this is one of the only types of books she reads. She'll love it.

And now I see that there's a new novel out in a series that my brother got hooked on from the PBS miniseries. I'll just wait for the next coupon to take effect, and that'll be down to around $10, too.

Every year, this happens. Every year, people tell me, "I don't want a book." Every year, I start out with the best of intentions, trying to find the perfect non-book gift for them. ... And every year, I end up breaking down, and buying books for everyone.

And every year, I'm thrilled to find a package beneath the tree with my name on it, that contains a new book for me to read.

Winter's Daughter is Now Available!

BUY ME!

To say that I'm excited...would be a HUGE understatment. I am stupidly thrilled that WD is now available that I'm almost beyond words. (Note the 'almost') And now for some review quotes...

"This is an incredibly engrossing tale and I did not put it down for more than five minutes once I started it." The Romance Studio, 4.5 hearts

"The first Coven tale is an exciting paranormal thriller with whodunit and romantic elements to enhance the tense drama." Harriet Klausner

"Murder, mayhem and magic will send chills down your spine in this haunting first in The Coven series." RT Magazine, 4 stars

Jessamyn's Christmas Gift

If you're looking for a break from the holiday madness in the malls, check out my Christmas Quickie from Ellora’s Cave Publishing , Jessamyn's Christmas Gift.

It's sure to heat up your cold winter night and leave you smiling.

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!