Bunco Babes Tell All for 1.99

My first book, Bunco Babes Tell All, is still on summer clearance at B&N for just $1.99! It's been selling really well, but quantities are limited. So if you haven't tried out my funny, sexy, Bunco romance then now is a perfect time for to give it a whirl. Click on the link.


Here's the scoop:

Meet the Bunco Babes of Whispering Bay. Every Thursday night they roll dice, drink frozen margaritas, and catch up on all the gossip in their small north Florida town. Kitty Burke is the only Bunco Babe who is still single—which is okay—but she’s thirty-five and may need to face that her image of Mr. Right is all wrong.

Take Steve. Very sexy—but on paper, with three failed marriages and a shady career, maybe not great husband material. And yes, his ring tone is “Freebird.” Certainly fellow Babes Shea Masterson and Pilar Diaz-Rothman vote thumbs down. But maybe there’s more to Steve than meets the eye? Is it time for Kitty to take a chance and hope that she can be as lucky in love as she is in Bunco?

Happy Memorial Day

Yay! I can blog again. Whatever was ailing my blogger/gmail account has miraculously been cured without any help from either me or Mike Geraci. Maybe the best way to fix a problem is to do nada.

By the way, B&N is offering my first book Bunco Babes Tell All at a clearance price now of $2.99! Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I think a good thing if it means more people will read it. Here is the link:

Calling Dr. Evil

Writing Goddess extraordinaire Jennifer Cruise put up a fantastic blog the other day about story structure. If you're a writer, go there now (then come back here!) As usual, her blog got me thinking about the structure of my own stories and about the characters in my stories. If there's any secret to writing a good book I'd have to say it's, revision, revision, revision. Can't stress that enough. The first draft is always crap. At least mine are, and I would suspect that holds true for the majority of writers. Even though I preplot in a bare bones minimal style, it's not until I actually finish the first draft that I have any idea what the story is really about. That's when the fun and the really hard work comes in and you have to look at your story structure.

As you know, every story is about a central character (the protagonist) who wants something. It doesn't matter what they want, it just has to be important to them. You make this character likable or sympathetic or empathetic or whatever you want to call it, and this in turn, makes their goal important to the reader. But there's always someone in the story who gets in their way. This is the really fun character. The antagonist. The nemesis. The "villain." The Dr. Evil of your novel. As elemental as this concept is to storytelling, I have to tell you, I always struggle when it comes to discovering who my Dr. Evil is. Dr. Evil doesn't always operate out in the open. He/she works in sneaky and mysterious ways. He doesn't always wear black and tote a gun or make plans to destroy the world with his super powerful new laser machine. Sometimes, at least in my books, Dr. Evil is actually a really nice person.

In my first novel, Bunco Babes Tell All, I thought my land developer Ted Ferguson was Kitty's (my protagonist's) nemesis. He was slimy, greedy and he wanted to build high rise condos on the beach. Boo! But in truth, Ted was actually an ally of Kitty's. Kitty's true nemesis was her own mother. Kitty's goal throughout the story was to buy her grandmother's old house. Her mother wanted to sell it for mega bucks (and not to Kitty). Hence, she was the character most in opposition to my protagonist's goal. Slimy Ted was actually aiding Kitty in her goal. It wasn't until I realized this (on a second or third revision) that I was able to flesh that out in the novel. BUT... then I got to about 3/4's of the book and Kitty's goal changed. Although yes, she still wanted to buy her grandmother's house, she wanted to save the Whispering Bay Senior Center even more. Kitty's new story goal was much more altruistic than her original one, and voila! Ted Ferguson, evil land developer, now becomes Kitty's nemesis.

I had to scratch my head over this one because the story structure of one goal/one central nemesis didn't fit my manuscript anymore. Eventually, I had to let go of that kind of thinking. Story structure/acts/turning points- all that stuff is great, and I believe if you're writing genre fiction you have to have these familiar elements to make the story flow, but you also can't be married to them either. There have to be allowances for things in your story that don't seem to "fit". Then I watched the movie Star Wars again and thought, hey! Star Wars is kind of like Bunco Babes Tell All (stay with me here). Like Kitty, Luke doesn't have just one goal in the story. Initially, his goal is to rescue Leia. He sees the video of Leia asking for help and gets motivated by lust and the chance for adventure and goes off with Obi Wan Kanobi to save the princess. But... once he's "saved" her, his goal changes (also to a higher, more altruistic one) to defeat the Death Star. His nemesis remains the same (Darth Vadar) but his goal gets "upped" in the story.


With The Boyfriend of the Month Club, it took me forever (call me dense) to figure out who Grace's nemesis was. Grace's goal is to turn her book club into a boyfriend club where women can discuss the men they've dated. She's motivated by the fact that she's hit rock bottom in the dating world and she wants to help other women avoid the loser dating pool she's been swimming in. She's aided by the other members of her book club, who also happen to be her best friends. But two of the members (Sarah and Penny) are initially opposed to the idea of the boyfriend club.

“Seriously? I just don’t know about this whole boyfriend club,” Sarah said. “It smacks of disgruntlement.”


But Ellen, the fourth member of the group, is totally on Grace's side. She helps Grace convince Sarah and Penny to go along with the agenda.

"So we're really going through with this?" Sarah said.

“Of course we are,” Grace said. “It’s going to empower us!”


So imagine my surprise (light bulb above the head moment) when I finally figured out that Ellen was Grace's nemesis. Yes, she's totally on board the boyfriend club wagon, but she has her own agenda. Ellen, who teaches English Composition and Poetry Appreciation 101, wants to use the data they collect at the boyfriend club meetings to expand her masters thesis, Undressing the Romantic Hero in Popular Literature (isn't that a great title for a thesis?) into a book. Slowly but surely, she and Grace start butting heads and Ellen becomes Grace's greatest opposition to achieving her goal. The thing is, Ellen is a totally likable and sympathetic character in her own right, which I think makes her a really interesting nemesis.

But about 3/4's of the way through the book, Ellen is defeated and Grace wins. So the conflict should be over. But not really. Because with Ellen's defeat, a new and much stronger nemesis rises from Ellen's ashes. His name is Speedway Gonzalez and he's Daytona Beach's hottest DJ and a Tucker Max wannabe. Speedway uses the information from Grace's boyfriend club as daily fodder for his radio show, humiliating not just the members of the club, but the men they've "critiqued." Now Grace's goal changes. She has to shut down the boyfriend club and try to make everyone in Daytona Beach forget it ever happened. But Speedway isn't just going to roll over and die.

“Hey, Speedsters! This is Speedway Gonzalez, taking you round and round Day-to-na Beach. Guess who’s decided to come out and play this morning? It’s none other than the head honch-ess of the boyfriend club, herself, Grace O’Bryan. So, Gracie, first things first. Are you fat?”

“Yes, I am. I tip the scales at four hundred pounds. Thanks for asking.”

Speedway chuckled. “It’s not that going to be that easy, babe.”

And Dr. Evil (I mean, Speedway) is right. The final conflict between protagonist and nemesis should be a fight to the death. I have to admit, of all the antagonists I've written, Speedway is by far my favorite. He's not really bad you know, he just wants to make a living.

Book club fun

Dang it. This picture is way too dark and that's what I get for forgetting my camera. (There's only so much my trusty iPhone can do). But this was taken last night at Bonefish Grill where I met the nicest group of ladies. Their book club read Bunco Babes Tell All and they invited me to their meeting, where a fabulous time was had by all.

One of the members of the group, Beth (a total sweetheart), had contacted me shortly after reading BBTA last year and we've kept in contact. She's also a member of a Bunco group and helped put together the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Bunco fundraiser I attended back in the winter. I absolutely love how these ladies cherish their girl time. Whether it's Bunco, book clubs, or just a few friends getting together for dinner or drinks, it's so important that we take the time from our busy lives to kick back and enjoy our female friendships. Oh, and it was fun talking about writing too. Nothing is better than hearing other people tell you how much they enjoy your books! Thanks again, ladies!

Happy Anniversary to Me

One year ago today my debut novel Bunco Babes Tell All hit the shelves. It's been a whirlwind year, full of ups and downs and lots of in-betweens. As cliched as it sounds, I wish I knew then what I know now. Ah, well. If I could go back in time I would tell myself the following things:

1. The sales numbers at Amazon.com change hourly. And daily (somewhere around 6:30 am) for Barnes and Noble (although the sales number at B&N do occasionally fluctuate through out the day- not sure why it does this sometimes). No amount of mental telepathy can lower your figures. Trust me, The Great Maria has tried this and failed.

2. Learn to take compliments well and ignore the snide remarks. You have no idea how hard it is for me to take a compliment but I'm learning.

Reader/fan/friend: "I loved your book!"
Old Maria of a year ago (and of course you know I don't mean old literally): "Really? I think the scene on page 242 could have been a little tighter, though. Don't you think?"
Reader/fan/friend: Blank stare.
New and Improved Maria: "Thank you! I love my book too!"

Reader/fan/"friend": "Wow, there sure is a lot of sex in your book!"
Old Maria: cringe
New and Improved Maria: "I know, isn't it great?"

3. Don't sweat the small stuff (I didn't make this one up). I repeat: Don't sweat the small stuff.

And there you have it. I can only hope this time next year I'll be even smarter.

Dude, you are not my target audience

I've been wanting to write this blog for a long time now. Several things have stopped me. One, the subject matter revolves around something negative. And two, I don't want to write a sour grapes post. Yet, as I approach my one year anniversary (May 5!) as a published author I feel that I've learned so much about this business, about myself and my writing, and about other people, that I have a legitimate reason to post about the subject matter. Plus, the blog is called Writing Romance in the Closet and it's my blog and I can write what I want:)

One recent cold night in January, I came home from a party, happy with the world and ready to write. I figured I could squeeze in at least 2 hours before it was time to fall asleep. As my usual habit, I opened up my computer and checked my email first and found that there was a new review for Bunco Babes Tell All on Amazon (I have a Google alert for such things). It was my first one star review. Bummer. But the shocker part was that the review was from the Sacramento Book Review and the reviewer had given Bunco Babes Tell All a really good review when the book came out so this new review made no sense. Until I figured out it was for the wrong book. The review was clearly meant for Bunco Babes Gone Wild. The reviewer compared my book to Judith Weiner's Best Friends Forever (they meant to say Jennifer Weiner) called my book trashy, etc... Something didn't add up, so I set out to investigate. I looked up the review on the Sacramento Book Review site and found out that indeed there had been an error. The review was meant for Bunco Babes Gone Wild and to my relief, the reviewer was not the same women who reviewed Bunco Babes Tell All, but someone completely different- a man.

Still... it bothered me. Should I bring this up to someone at Sacramento Book Reviews attention? I'll take the one star for Bunco Babes Gone Wild, but I hated that it was listed in the wrong place. After some deliberation and whining to writing friends (Mel and Louisa) I decided to let it go, but I'll admit, for a time, it paralyzed me. All I could think of when I sat down to write was that review. Then a few days later, the review (now with Jennifer Weiner's name spelled correctly) started popping up all over the place. The reviewer posted it on his own review site with the blog title : Shameless. Then a couple of days later, another Google alert popped up on my email. This one with the title "What's the worst book you've ever read?" Um, yeah, you guessed it. Dude jumped in with Bunco Babes Gone Wild (he's gotten the title right now too.) Of course, I have to say my Bunco Babes were in good company. Twilight and The Great Gatsby and a mirage of wildly popular books were also listed under worst books ever read.

So while this wasn't exactly the place I wanted any book of mine listed, it was the push that made me think that as a writer, I've made it! I have written something that another person on the planet truly hated. But I've also written something that other people have written to tell me they loved. I once heard Jennifer Crusie say that she despised 3 star reviews. She'd rather have a one star because it meant that someone was really moved by your work. In a negative way, yes, but you made someone feel something and that's what art is all about. Evoking emotion. Good or bad, it's so much better than indifference.

When I first met my editor last summer she casually let drop that one of the things she liked about my writing was my raunchy sense of humor. I must have looked surprised because she quickly added, "that's a good thing." I'll be honest, I like my raunchy sense of humor too. And if as a reader, you don't, then that's okay. My target audience is largely women, like me, who enjoy a fast paced, contemporary book with a little sex and a few laughs. A book that focuses on things that are important to women- like friendship and family and love.

So after some time has passed I've learned to put the whole thing in perspective. I'm grateful that a book review site like Sacramento Book Reviews took the time to read both my books and post a review, so thank you for that. Without people reading and reviewing your books, you're dead in this business. But I can't let a bad review guide me in my writing. I have to write to my target audience. Which is me.

Contest!

Want to have lots of reading ahead in the New Year?

You could be the winner of a $50 gift certificate to Borders PLUS a bag full of some of my favorite books. If you've read Bunco Babes Tell All or Bunco Babes Gone Wild, write a review and post it online. It doesn't have to be long or overly flattering- (I want your honest opinion!) Post your review on a website like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, etc. You'll get 1 contest entry for each review. For example, if you write a review for Bunco Babes Tell All on Amazon.com, that's 1 entry. If you write a review for Bunco Babes Tell All on Amazon and Goodreads, and a review for Bunco Babes Gone Wild at Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Noble, that's 5 entries! And a better chance of winning.

If you've already written a review for one of my books, perfect. Just let me know where it is and that you're interested in entering the contest.

To enter, send me an email at mariageraci1@gmail.com with the word "Contest Entry" in the subject line. Tell me where the reviews are, and it's that simple. Contest ends December 20.

Good Luck!

Book signing!

Saturday I did a book signing event at The Bookshelf in nearby Thomasville, Georgia. Located on Broad St in the downtown area, it's everything you'd want a bookstore to be- personable and quaint with great service.

Saturday was cool and overcast, a perfect day to walk around the shops, browse, and buy (books, of course!)

I got a kick out of this sign. Apparently, The Bookshelf was originally a bowling alley. Fun, huh?

I have to say, of all the book signings I've done so far, sitting in this chair was my absolute favorite. Comfy leather with a pillow for my back!

Book Club Fun

Tuesday night I attended my friend Debbie's book club meeting. Debbie's the blonde standing next to me wearing the glasses. She's also the friend who took the author photo that's in the back of my books.

Her group read my debut novel Bunco Babes Tell All. What a nice group of ladies! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them, drinking wine, eating good food, and talking up my favorite subject- books! Besides my own book, we discussed books they'd read and books my own book club had tackled (like The Time Traveler's Wife). The Help has been on my TBR pile for a while now and after hearing how much this group loved it, is going to the top (after I turn in the manuscript due in January, that is.)

At the end of the evening, I surprised them by giving them all copies of Bunco Babes Gone Wild and Debbie's hubby took this very nice pic of us.

Four...

Days till Bunco Babes Gone Wild comes out! I know, I know, you're sick of hearing about it. Sorry, excitement is hard to contain. Especially if it's mine:)

Today is Sneak Peak Friday.

That means I'm going to let you in on a few things.

First, my Which Bunco Babe are you? contest is almost at a close. There's only 2 more days to enter, so hurry. You can take the quiz right here and directions to enter are at the end. I haven't done an official count yet, but right now by glancing at the entries I'll tell you that so far, the number of Kittys and Sheas are pretty close. Pilars of the world, where are you?? Remember contest ends November 1.

Which brings me to my November contest. Write a review for Bunco Babes Tell All and/or Bunco Babes Gone Wild and post it either on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble or Goodreads or any other place you can review a book, and earn one entry per review (yes, this means you'll have a chance to enter multiple times! And no, the review doesn't have to be a 5 star- I want you to be honest!) The prize will be another $50 gift certificate to Borders plus a gigantic bag of books. The books are going to be a collection of my favorites, which means they are all going to be fantastic, which means one lucky winner is going to have a lot of hours of great reading! Believe me, this is one contest you aren't going to want to miss! I'll have more details up on my website and on the side bar of the blog. Contest will start on November 3 and end December 1.

Oh, and don't forget, you can win a copy of Bunco Babes Tell All by leaving a comment right here at Book Junkie. You have till November 3 to enter.

Five...

More days till Bunco Babes Gone Wild comes out. Just in case you're wondering or anything...

To celebrate I'm over at Book Junkie where the lovely Brande has posted a review of Bunco Babes Tell All and a Q&A with yours truly. I giving away an autographed book, so go on over and comment and enter to win.

Yesterday I recieved a lovely surprise (although I guess you can't really call it a surprise since I was expecting it, but you know what I mean). I opened my door to find a package from Harper Collins. And now, I haven't switched publishers. Inside my HC package was my copy of Pioneer Woman's Cookbook! I won it on Goodreads. The book is absolutely gorgeous, filled with lots of beautiful pictures, and I can't wait to start digging into the recipes!

Blog Tour, Giveaway, and Target!

Today I'm over at Novel Thoughts talking about my soon-to-be-released book Bunco Babes Gone Wild. Hop on over and say hello, and you might win an autographed copy of Bunco Babes Tell All. Although if you read my blog, then you should already have a copy, right? But come on over and say hi anyway, it will make me feel good!

There's also a tiny sneak peak into my next, next book, The Boyfriend of the Month Club. And for now, that's all I'm giving away:)

So you're probably wondering why the word Target is in my blog title. I've always joked around that I'll know I've made it when I see my books at Target. Well guess what? Yep. I'm at Target! Not physically, mind you, but hey, that's a technicality right now, because last night while I was accidentally googling myself, I found Bunco Babes Gone Wild on sale online at Target! Check it out right here. Pretty cool, huh?

Are you a Kitty, a Shea, or a Pilar?

It's official. Thanks to the lovely and talented Jax, my website has undergone some updates! Look for an additional page titled quiz, where you can find out which Bunco Babe you most resemble. To celebrate my upcoming November release of Bunco Babes Gone Wild, I'm holding a contest. Take the quiz, and follow the directions at the bottom of the page to earn a chance for an autographed copy of Bunco Babes Tell All and a $50 gift certificate to Borders. You know you're dying to find out whether you're a Kitty, a Shea or a Pilar. So go ahead and enter!

Which Bunco Babe are you?

Are you a Kitty, a Shea or maybe even a Pilar? (And if you don't know who I'm talking about, then shame on you, it means you haven't read my book!) Kitty, Shea and Pilar are the heart and soul of my fictional Bunco Babes and pretty soon, you'll be able to take a quiz on my website and find out which Bunco Babe you're most like.

I'm had so much fun devising this quiz and testing it out on my friends. So far, I think the results have been pretty spot on.! So stay tuned and find out the real truth. Are you the nice one? The hot one? or the sharp one?

Bunco Babes Tell All is a Fresh Pick!

I was completely tickled and thrilled to find out that Bunco Babes Tell All was selected by Fresh Fiction Staff as their Fresh Pick of the day. Yep, that's today, Sept. 14. Yay! And thanks!

Kitty and her Florida girlfriends have been getting together to play Bunco every Thursday night for years. It's a girls' night out ritual that is sacred to the so called "Bunco Babes." They have shared dating horrors, marriage proposals and babies. This tight-knit group is held together by Kitty, Shea and Pilar: the reigning queens of Bunco.

This particular story revolves around Kitty. She's celebrating her 35th birthday and lamenting her non- existent sex life and dwindling bank account. She's certainly needing a little male companionship and some money. She is a real estate broker who's fallen on hard times as a new cookie-cutter neighborhood has cropped up in town and is represented by another broker.

The "Bunco Babes" try to make Kitty's birthday special by hiring an exotic dancer. While she's being detained by Officer Bob, Kitty's thoughts go to Steve the Plumber, the hot repair man who shows up to fix her broken toilet just as Bunco is getting underway at her house. After everyone leaves for the night, there is a knock at the door and Steve has returned because he left a plumbing tool at her house. Basically, Kitty's toilet is not the only thing that gets fixed by Steve the Plumber on this particular night!

BUNCO BABES TELL ALL is a very lighthearted read. If you just don't have time to schedule regular girls' nights out with your friends, pick up this book and you just might get your girlfriend fix. The gossip, food and drinks are always flowing. Maria Geraci has created a storyline that will be easy to follow-up on in future novels.

Back to Bunco Night

Look familiar? These gorgeous little aqua flip flops have become like my writer's totem. The wine glass of course, needs no explanation. But I don't think you can tell by my picture that the little ceramic flip flops with the pink flower is actually a wine cork. So cute!

Wednesday night was my Bunco group's "Back to Bunco night." Because it's so hard with summer vacation to get us all together, years ago we decided to play only throughout the school year (Sept-May). Our first foray into the year always involves our organizational meeting, in which we make up our schedule, pay our "dues" and generally sit around and discuss what when on during the summer. This year's biggest topic is getting kids off to college. Sigh. When we get that old????

So back to that adorable wine glass. My good friend and fellow Bunco Broad Cheryl saw the wine glass while out and about this summer and "had to have" it for me. I absolutely adore it!

Bite me!

No, I'm not being cheeky. Although I do LOVE Cheeky Reads review of Bunco Babes Tell All. She gave it a 5 heart review! You can read about it right here.

I've been such a sorry blogger lately. My only excuse is that after coming back from the RWA National conference, I had to finish the final first passes for Bunco Babes Gone Wild. I have to say, I really love this book! As an author, you get so wrapped up in your writing that you sometimes can't see the forest for the trees but reading it again after a six month hiatus I was able to see it with fresh eyes and I'm happy to say that I really love Georgia and Dave's story. Maybe almost as much as Kitty and Steve's! Although I have to admit, that I really, really hope that I get to write another book that completely finishes Kitty and Steve's story. Something tells me that their happily-ever-after wasn't quite finished in the first book;) I'm also happy to say that I've sold a third Bunco Babe book and I'm hard at work trying to write that one with a November deadline. Yay!

Okay, so enough about me. Back to Bite Me! That's the title of my fabulous cp/bff Mel's, book which debuts tomorrow. She's running a contest over at the Ficitionistas site. Trust me, you don't want to miss it! Or her awesome website, Have you been bitten?

Home!

I got in late last night from DC. The RWA conference was fantastic! It was my first conference as a published author and although at times I felt a little overwhelmed, it was truly a blast. I met up with old friends, met new friends, and got to spend a bit of time with my editor. More on DC to follow...

Today, I'm going to push through my first passes on Bunco Babes Gone Wild. They're due in 2 days, so I have to kick a little self-editorial butt here.

On another note, I'm the featured author over at Number One Novels this week. Go check it out here because there's also a chance to win an autographed copy of my book:)

DC!

Am headed off for DC this morning to attend the RWA National Conference. Can't wait! My only wish is that I could get a direct flight out of Tallahassee. But an hour lay over in Memphis both ways isn't so bad. I don't think I've ever been to the Memphis airport. Usually all flights revolve around Atlanta (hence the old joke you can't get to heaven (or hell) without first stopping in Atlanta).

If you'll be attending, please stop by my table at the Literacy signing. I'll be the one smiling at all the passerbys who will be looking at me and going, "who is Marcia Garcia and what the hell is Bunco?"

I'll also be part of a workshop panel on Friday morning (9:45-10:45) titled, "I sold to NY, now what?" We'll give you the 411 on what happens after you've sold. Off now to do some last minute packing.

Hopefully, I'll have lots of pictures to share!

Melbourne Barnes and Noble is the best!

Pardon the glare but this is the best pic of the bunch. Last month, I went back to my hometown of Melbourne and did a book signing at Barnes & Noble. Kaori (the community rep for the store) did a fabulous job of setting the whole thing up. She and Kandy (another B&N employee) were simply awesome.

Imagine my surprise when I got this wonderful commemorative frame of the event in the mail this week. I know it's probably too small to see, but the top pic is of me, Kaori and Kandy, and the bottom pic shows me signing books. I love the whole scrap booking feel of it, which actually matches my website design perfectly!