My sister likes my novella, and that's gotta mean something
I call my sister The Queen of Eh, It’s Okay I Guess – she’s brutally honest and not easily impressed. She doesn’t gush, and she won’t blow smoke up your skirt. She loves me muchly, but I think she’s thought the whole romance writing thing was kind of weird or silly.
So few days ago I submitted a 30K word novella to Samhaim Publishing for their “I’m Too Sexy for My Shape” open submissions call – it’s going to be an anthology of shapeshifter stories. I’m currently working on a werewolf story that’s kind of stalled. I set the novella in the same world as my (hopefully temporarily) stalled WIP, and I enjoyed writing it. I even submitted the first ten pages to a contest because if it’s not accepted for the anthology I’m going to turn it into a full length. I showed the contest entry to the sister, and she seemed to like it.
I sent her the full novella after I submitted it. She doesn’t read paranormal romance, but she’d expressed a (mild) interest in reading my stuff. I was more than a little nervous about letting her read it.
She called me at work last week to tell me she was “love, love, loving” it, and she didn’t want it to end so she was reading it slowly, and she loves the hero, and wants to read more about the characters, and now she wants to read some paranormal romance.
I was surprised at how much her praise meant to me. She doesn’t say she loves something unless she loves it, and she wouldn’t say it just to make me feel good. It was a huge boost to my writerly self-esteem.
I was trying to think of werewolf romances to recommend to her, and I couldn’t come up with any offhand. I love Eileen Wilks’ Lupi series and Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, but those are urban fantasy with romantic elements.
I think I’m going to send her over to Samhain. Introduce her to werewolves and e-books at the same time. And keep my fingers crossed that if Deadpan Girl likes my story, Angela James will too.
If you have any furry romance titles to recommend, leave them in the comments.
Filed under: Writing
Hi,
Nice website you have here.
I’m reading a pretty good werewolf novel right now (hard back), it’s called Long time listener first time werewolf. Its about a woman named Kitty (that’s right) who’s a werewolf. She’s a DJ and after a boring night she desides to opens the phone lines to anyone with fangs, and calls it the midnight hour. It’s an instant hit, but not with her Alpha and not with the local head vampire.
The fist three to five of LKH’s Anita Blake novels are pretty good, and they have all the fanged community in them. Then their Jim Butcher’s Dresden novels, their all good but not all about the furry.
Janice~
If your sister is hard to impress…it’s gotta mean something that she loved your story.
Keep going with it. I won’t be surprised you land the contract judging by your sister’s reaction. My fingers are crossed for you! Nice blog.
Thanks! I read the first Kitty book and I meant to read more. I need to do it – I enjoyed the first one. I read Anita Blake for a long time but just lost interest – it got a little too dark, a little too out there for me. I LOVE the Dresden series and read every book as it comes out. I’m trying to find werewolf stories that are heavier on the romance, not just the urban fantasy part.
thank you!
I’m hard to please too, especially since I started my new job. But, I’ve read your excerpts on the loops; and I must say that I find you a very talented author. You have a way of bringing the reader into the story without them knowing it. That’s a good thing. Plus, you create beautiful, realistic characters. I’d most likely agree with your sister had I seen it.
Glad you finally have a blog I can find. I’ll be a regular, if that’s ok?
Thank you so much! That means a lot to me. I’ve love to see you around here.
I need to figure out if I can set this thing for unmoderated comments. Right now I have to approve them before they appear, and I can’t check personal email from work, so comments can’t show up till I get home and check in. Hm.