Celebrating the release of The Wager

Meet Damian Andrews:

Damian's interview

Tell us something about yourself:
I am a second son and love the freedom. I can go where I want and do what I want to do. I like to right wrongs done by the world to those less fortunate.

Is that why you smuggle?
Yes, it is much easier to play a foolish dandy with too much money when you are committing crimes against the government. The authorities don't look in your direction too often. They don't believe you could possibly do anything with your time save gamble your fathers money and play with your paramour.

Are we talking about French brandy?
No.

Oh…
I thought you knew I smuggle political and religious refugees from other countries. They come across the English Channel to the Dover shores. The brandy is merely a ruse.

Why did you wager with your friends?
They weren't really my friends, and I had to keep my cover in tact.

Tell the whole truth.
It was love at first sight. And I don't believe in love--period.

Tell us a little about the wager.
I don't think so. Perhaps you should read the book.

Who won? You or Amorica?
I guess you could say we both won. Although at one point it didn't appear either of us would win.

Why are there white roses on the cover of your book?
White roses are Amorica's favorite flowers. And once I had to scale a thorny trellis of said flowers.

How did you meet Christine?
Amorica introduced us. Actually Christine's daughter created all of us. I think Christine has ten more books to write. I wonder if she will ever finish all the stories. Amorica has three younger sisters and eight cousins. Aidan's the littlest and she is a spitfire--fancies herself in love with a rogue named Blade.

Are there characters in Christine's head besides the ones you mentioned above?
Many, I share the spotlight with Allura and Hunter. There story came before mine. Hunter is a bastard son of an English Earl. And Allura is the oldest daughter of the McCllean clan.

Anything else you want to add?
I think Christine should hurry up on the retirement plan and get busy writing their stories. I'm eager to read them and she's not writing fast enough.

Is she writing at all?
A little, I think. I've heard via the gossip mills in court that she has the third book A Marriage of Inconvenience, almost written.

Anything else you want to add?
Buy my book and I assure you will enjoy the tale of adventure, love and intrigue.

Thank you so much, Damian.
You are very welcome.

Buy now at Awestruck

http://www.awe-struck.net/books/the_wager.html

The Wager

Horray, horray, it has been released. Almost a year after the fact, but no one here is complaining.

Interviews to follow

The Wager: Celebration

The Wager finally has a "firm" release date in October. Almost a year after the origional pub date, I might see the second book in the Allura series for sale. I am excited but also a bit apprehensive. I guess I will believe it when I see it. When this one is released, I will start edits for the third book A Marriage of Inconvenience.

So am I celebrating? Absolutely! But I won't pop any corks on champagne yet.

Friday: Goal setting day

I've made Fridays my day to set a goal for the week. I did reach my goal this week. I read my anthology and I wrote the scene. I also wrote two pages. So I'm very proud of my efforts.
My goal for this week is to write two pages again. It doesn't sound like much but I know that every little bit inches me forward. I would like to have this novella written by the end of the school year. June. Yeah.

National Wear Red Day

Please feel free to share others... We're hoping that some of you will commit to joining us on Feb 5th for National Wear Red day. The sign-up process is easy and we'll be plugging authors who commit to participate in our newsletter. Our newsletter schedule for the month of February will be M/W/F instead of the routine Tu/F. Each Wildfire will feature some of our 28 Days of Heart Novella's, those author's backlists, some new releases, and a variety of "heart healthy" content.
We are interested in featuring some authors in our newsletter who did not write for the series, but whose life has been touched by heart disease. Short testimonials attesting as to why supporting increased awareness, education, etc., is important. Have you recently made a commitment to lose weight, exercise more, decrease your cholesterol, or wear red on February 5th (read on for details)? Maybe you want to encourage others to join our National Wear Red Day team by sharing a personal story or offering a prize as an incentive? There are many ways you can help. Pitches should be sent to Julie Cummings at julie.cummings@allromanceebooks.com by January 31st. Content should be approximately 250-500 words. An accompanying headshot would be a plus.
All Romance eBooks Has Heart...
During the month of love, when everyone's attention is focused on matters of the heart, All Romance eBooks (ARe) is helping to fight the number one killer of women, heart disease, with their 28 Days of Heart campaign. You can help by supporting the effort. How?

Spread the word!Post, blog, email, tweet, even smoke signals are welcome! Looking for an easy way to pass information along? Use the share or forward feature at the bottom of our Wildfire newsletter to share information about our efforts and heart healthy tips with your friends.Need to sign up for the Wildfire yourself? You can do so by checking the newsletter box on your profile page at AllRomance.com or OmniLit.com. Help us get the word out so more can contribute to and benefit from our efforts.

Join us for National Wear Red Day!Too many women die each year because they don't know that heart disease is their No. 1 killer. Help raise awareness. Wear red on Friday, February 5, 2010 for National Wear Red Day and encourage your friends to wear red too. Together we can make a difference. Join our team. No donation or pledge is necessary, all you have to do is pledge to dress in red. Then, if you really want to get into the act, upload a picture of yourself dressed in red to our Facebook fan page. We'll be selecting a winner at random on Monday, February 8, 2010. The prize? A complete set of our 28 Days of Heart novellas.

Enjoy any or all of our 28 Days of Heart Novellas!Beginning February 1, 2010, we'll be releasing one new novella per day for twenty-eight consecutive days. All proceeds from the sale of these shorts, which will be offered exclusively on AllRomance.com and OmniLit.com as individual eBooks, will be donated to the American Heart Association. The stories cover all the genres, from Gay to Interracial, Paranormal to Historical, Contemporary to Sci Fi. They were generously donated by both best selling and up-and-coming authors from some of your favorite publishers including Kensington, Berkley, Pocket, St. Martin's Press, Ellora's Cave, Cerridwen, Samhain, Total E Bound, Loose Id, Phaze, Liquid Silver, Torquere Press, Siren, Amber Quill and more! The stories range between 10,000 and 20,000 words, so they are a perfect sweet (or more accurately spicy) Valentine treat. Each includes a foreword by author Charlaine Harris (of True Blood fame) as a show of support for the charity the stories will benefit. Indulge yourself this year for Valentines Day—enjoy one of each, and know you are helping a worthy cause at the same time.

Friday: Goal setting day

I have my notes out and I'm ready to start writing on the St.Paty's day anthology. I am reminding myself to give this novella a name. I am increasingly tired of calling it SPDA. After I write this, I am going to find it. (somewhere in September) and read the story from the beginning to the end. That is not really very far. As January fades, and swim season begins to come to a close, I am taking a good long look at what I hope to accomplish in 2010. One major goal is to get back to my writing. I have to stop procrastinating, stop playing solitare on line and write. Excuses can go only so far and then accountability has to set in. If I want to accomplish something I can't just sit back and wait for it to happen. I have my math students write a goal every week. (the goal must be classroom and math oriented). I am trying to teach them how to write goals and that they have to be short term, one week in length. They have to be measurable and realistic. Some of the students have caught on. Others just write that they want to get their grade higher. Or they want an A. They don't seem to understand that if you have a 65%, you won't be able to change your math grade to an A in one week.

Friday will be my goal day: This week I will read my SPDA and I will fill out my scene chart for the following scene.

Getting caught up.

Just give me one extra day and I can catch up. Yesterday was so wonderful. I had time to finish editing a manuscript, corresondence and designing a cover. But darn it, I still didn't have time to write. But when I have enough time to start thinking about writing, things must be looking up. I'm thinking, and planning, and my mind is going back to stories I started several years ago. So, I suppose that is good. It's finals week at Stayton High, and I will have a little extra time. I love scan tron. A 100 problem final can be graded in 5 minutes. :) The kids hate them though. Sigh...
Back to writing. I think I have to get more organized. If I set aside time every day or even Thursday through Friday for myself, I might make some headway. So that's the plan. I will set aside an hour on those days and write. Work on my own writing for a change. Well, we'll see. I suppose I have to have more confidence in myself and making myself sit down in front of the computer. I know other people do. Once upon a time I was no for how much I wrote and it was a lot. Not so anymore. Now, I just want to make headway, a couple of pages a day. Enough so that I stay in my characters heads and know what they are still thinking. Mine write now are probably getting into all kinds of trouble.

Repetition is a Sin.

Not only is repetition a sin but it's evil...evil...evil! (kind of like water, as my walking partner would say, when we are going to ww to weigh in.)
When I first started writing my heroine and hero sighed so often I'm surprised they didn't faint from lack of air. I also overused adverds. I loved to say "very" every other sentence. Now, when I edit, I try to rid my manuscript of all repeated words. Cleaning up a manuscript is not really that time consuming and the finished product is always worth the effort.

I can no longer read without being super critical. I think most authors go through this revelation in their careers. Many times in published books I read things like he/she sighed over and over again. He/she shrugged. He/she nodded. Can't we just say "yes, or OK" then move on? Or he/she shook his head. Again, we could just say "no."

Make a list of things your characters can do and keep it next to your key board. They can drum their fingers, slap thier thigh with gloves, rub their temples, frown or grimace, lean over, point in the direction, look at the ceiling or the sky...and so many other choices--perhaps an infinite number of choices--and so much more interesting.

Maybe I'm ultra picky, and of course if the story is great and fast moving perhaps a reader will overlook the repetion.

What are your picky repeated words/or phrases? And what are favorite lines--which of course are never repeated in your manuscript.

New Cover

I have my new cover for The Wager. What do you think? First one or second one? Still don't know the release date. Not much information forthcoming.