This is where I draw the line

Do not laugh, but when I was in the 2nd grade I actually did a book report on "Are You my Mother?" I also did one on "Hop on Pop." I'm sure I still have it somewhere. It was basically the who, what, where and when style of report, but I used some of my favorite pictures from the book and jazzed it up with some crayon depictions of my own. I distinctly remember getting an A on this report. Good times.

Now, I see that these fantastic children's picture books are being converted for ereaders. Don't get me wrong. I love my Kindle. I would love my Nook too if I had one. But we have to draw the line somewhere. I'm sure the picture quality of the Kids Nook is fantastic. Almost as good as maybe seeing the pictures on a computer or a TV. But picture books were meant to be savored in print. Just like art is meant to viewed in person. I've seen countless pictures of the Mona Lisa in magazines and online, but I've never seen it with my own eyes the way it was meant to be seen. Hopefully one day I will have the pleasure of experiencing it.

I'm all for electronic readers. But this is too much.

Chick Lit Plus Interview

Check out my new interview over at Chick Lit Plus. Fun Questions!

I'm back

And not just back from Atlanta. I'm back physically. And by that I mean I'm almost 100% better now. This flu I had lasted almost 2 weeks. Yup. 2 weeks! I still have a lingering cough, but that's almost gone too. So now that I'm better I have loads to catch up on. Which means I'll be writing my butt off today (if only) to catch up with blog posts and interviews I'm behind on. No one ever tells you (or maybe they did but I didn't pay attention) that writing a book is only about 50% of the work. The rest of the 50% is spent promoting the book. Which means answering emails, responding to requests for interviews and blog posts, keeping up with social media, etc ...

I love doing all these things, but when your head is full of snot (sorry, I had to go there) it's no fun.






We got back from Atlanta last night (Thank God Mike Geraci came because I cannot drive on ice!). Remember, I live in Florida and snow is like some strange aberration that paralyzes me. Atlanta hadn't seen snow in something like 15 years and the city was under siege. Schools were closed all week and reports down here (down here being Tallahassee) was that the city was in chaos. Coming in on the tail end of the chaos I can say that Atlanta was very much open, although we saw dozens and dozens of stranded cars on the highways and were told by natives that the past week has been horrendous. Schools and lots of businesses closed and everyone had major cases of hermititis (sick of being home all week) and were anxious to get going again.


Megan (my youngest) went for her first college audition (BFA Musical Theatre and Acting) for Emerson College (in Boston, but doing regional auditions in Atlanta) and the whole thing went very smoothly. Having been a performer since the age of 7, she's such a pro! She won't know if she got accepted until late March and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. She's applied to 6 different schools and it's all such a crap shoot. Kind of like submitting your manuscript to a publisher. You can be good, but then everyone is good and you never know what they are looking for.


Things to do today:

Give Charlie (my 100 lb mutt a bath)- don't worry, Mike Geraci will be helping me with this one.

Catch up on emails.

Watch Downton Abbey!

Oh, and make Baked Potato soup. Yummy!

Hotlanta no more

It's no secret that if the temperatures dip below 40 degrees down here (and by down here I mean Florida) we start freakin' out. The blankets come out on the patios (to protect the plants) and everyone starts digging into their closets to try to find a pair of mittens (if you have any, that is). So when the temps start getting consistently in the 20s at night and in the 40s and 50s during the day it becomes a serious matter. Honestly. I don't even own a winter coat. The only coat I own I bought back when I lived in Huntsville, Alabama and that was 15 years ago, so yeah, it doesn't fit any more.

And when our neighbor to the north (that would be Georgia's) governor declares the state in an emergency due to all the ice and snow they've been getting, things are serious. Especially since I was supposed to drive to Atlanta tonight to take my youngest to her first college audition. I have been told I'm crazy by more than enough people to make me believe it, so I'm making Mike Geraci drive us. No way am I driving on ice. Especially in Atlanta. Especially at night. Hotlanta is now Icelanta and I've been told it's not pretty. I cannot believe that 285 is still closed down, although that is what I'm hearing.

Story to come on Monday.

On Downton Abbey and Pound cake

Okay, so yeah, I failed miserably in my word count for the week. But as you can see per the post below I spent most of it in a drug induced haze.

The good part? I did add about 200 plus words to the manuscript and I figured out where the first chapter was going so all that's good. Now I just need to add some wordage. There's no way I can make up the missing 6000 words from last week but I'm still going to keep adding missing words to the totals every week so that I can try to keep up with the April 30 self-induced deadline.

The other good part of the week: I made this awesome pound cake yesterday. I'm a big fan of Mary Kay Andrew's books and her recipes. I've made her greens and grits casserole and now her utterly sinful pound cake. It's a bit of work, but absolutely worth it. Mike Geraci ate a slice of it last night with a glass of cold milk. Said it was the best cake he'd ever tasted :)

Another good part of the week? Downton Abbey did not disappoint. I've been waiting eagerly for this miniseries for a bit now and despite some of the bruhaha created by the press last week, the show was utterly awesome (is anyone else out there in love with Brendan Coyle's character?) Add this to a roaring fire and a slice of that awesome pound cake and I was in heaven last night.

I know what I'm getting my mother for her birthday next month.

Writing when you're sick

Despite having taken the flu shot last October, I got the flu this week. But hopefully I'm on the mend. Monday night was truly awful. I thought I was going to die. Every muscle in my body felt like jelly and I was running a fever so I was alternately hot and cold. Went to bed around 9pm and slept till 10 Tuesday morning. Thank you, Nyquil! Tuesday night was a little bit better and then Wednesday afternoon I began running a fever again. I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions and you should have seen their faces when I handed over my credit card. No one wanted to touch it. Not kidding. I was hacking, my eyes were running and my hair was literally sticking out on end. I guess I don't blame them, but honestly? I needed my drugs, people! Plus that is what anti-bacterial soap is for.

The only good part of being sick is that I have an excuse to hang out in my jammies and watch TV. So I did an Office marathon. I could watch the show with Jim and Pam's wedding over and over. Which I did...

So back to my writing. All this means that I did little to no writing this week. Although I did think about my new novel a lot. And thinking inspires ideas and from that come more ideas. And all of that is good. I will tell you that I've struggled with the beginning of this story. And I think it's because I don't have a firm grasp on the main character. I know her name (it's Emma) but I can't picture her yet.

When I came up with the idea for The Ugly Girlfriend I wrote up a synopsis to send to my agent. The original blurb went something like this: The Ugly Girlfriend is a romantic comedy about an ex-Homecoming queen who accidentally discovers she's now the "ugly friend" in her group of big city night clubbing girlfriends and decides to go back to her small hometown to reclaim her "mojo."

I wrote up the synopsis. And let me just say that I really hate writing up a synopsis on a story that isn't written. But it's a necessity for some of us in the business. Your agent wants to know what the story is about. So does an editor. But the story isn't sold yet (and may never be on the proposal I wrote) so this gives me a lot of creative slack to basically do what I want.

My agent liked the synopsis but I wanted some feedback from readers. So the next thing I did was show the synopsis to people I trust. Now... this is just what I like to do. It might not be what you like to do, but let me tell you why I think this is really important. The way people respond to an idea or to a storyline will give you an idea of how marketable that story is. You want people to be excited about your story. I got a lot of excitement with the title, but the synopsis fell a little flat with my beta readers. None of them liked the idea that my main character was an ex Homecoming Queen. "How can she be the ugly friend if she's "pretty?"

I had to think long and hard about this one. My original idea was that my protagonist, Emma, was pretty, but that she'd let herself "go." Plus, pretty is extremely subjective. You can be "pretty" and still be the ugly friend. However, after some thought, I finally agreed with my beta readers. If I'm going to write a story about an ugly friend, then I have to go all the way. This will completely change a lot of the story outlined in the synopsis. But that's okay. I love starting a story not quite sure where it will take me.

Starting the New Year Write

In my interview over at A Cozy Readers Corner, I was asked about my New Year's Resolutions (for simplicity's sake from now on this will be referred to as NYRs). First, let me say that I firmly believe in NYRs. I believe in goals. I believe that in order to succeed at anything you have to aim high. Really really high. And you have to work hard in order to make those goals a reality. My NYRs for 2011 were to lose weight and get more organized. I also said these were works in progress. I don't believe that I will ever be thin enough or organized enough to suit me, hence, these are life long goals that I will struggle with forever.

Since writing that Q&A column, I have set another goal. And that's to finish a new book in 6 months. For those of you who write, you know how daunting it is to complete a novel. 6 months doesn't seem like nearly enough time. Yet in order to churn out a book a year, that's about the time frame you have to work with. So in order to make the goal seem less daunting, I've broken it down.

First rough draft goal is April 30. Which means I need to write roughly 6000 words (or 24 pages) a week). I think this is pretty doable.

The month of May is slotted for revisions. After which, I'll let some of my beta readers read the manuscript. These are the fabulous Guinea pigs who read my stuff and tell me what they think. Then, I'll take what they tell me (plus, I've been editing on my own during this time frame), put it all together and hopefully deliver a polished manuscript to my agent by July 1.

In order to keep me honest, I'm going to chart my progress here on my Writing Romance in the Closet blog. Every Monday, I'll fess up as to how much I've written and how the novel is progressing. I'm also going to be blogging about it in between Mondays (as well as other things) so if you've ever wondered how a book gets written (at least how a book gets written my me) just tune in.

So, first things first. I start with a title. Mel (my fabulous crit partner) thinks up the best titles. She never begins writing a novel without a title and I happen to agree with her. A title gets you in the right frame of mind for writing the book. Now... sometimes your title will get changed. The original title of Bunco Babes Tell All was The Church of Bunco. I loved that title. But the people at Berkley? Not so much. However, it doesn't matter that the title was changed because the fact of the matter is that the attitude of that book came from the original title. A title should be catchy and if possible, high concept. I thought up the title of my new novel after watching an episode of Real Housewives (can't remember which city!) which goes to show that you never know where you might get your inspiration.

The title of my new novel is The Ugly Girlfriend.

More on that later...

Happy New Year and a give away!

2011! So far, my New Year is starting out perfect. The Noles won their bowl game last night and I'm over at A Cozy Reader's Corner! Come on over and comment to win an autographed copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club!

Good stuff to watch

I love westerns. Probably a lot more than the average woman. Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven is one of my favorite movies. And so is True Grit, starring John Wayne. When I heard the Coen brothers were doing a remake of the 1969 classic, I got really excited. Last night I went to see it and I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed. Not in the least (okay, I still prefer the original cinematic ending of John Wayne on his horse jumping the fence, but I won't quibble). Jeff Bridges did a very stand up job as Rooster Cogburn and Matt Damon was passable as LaBouef. Barry Pepper plays Lucky Ned Pepper (name coincidence?) with a very creepy realism. But the stand out actor in this movie was Hailee Steinfeld as the scrappy Mattie Ross. If you love westerns, or if you loved the original, or if you just love good movies, go see this!

Good stuff to read

Okay, so I'm back from my mini-break vacation which was utterly fabulous. We spent 4 days in Orlando, doing Christmas with the family and visiting friends. We saw ICE (utterly fabulous and if you live in the Orlando area, don't miss it). We also went to Harry Potter World, which might have been utterly fabulous but because of the frigid weather and humongous crowds turned out to be semi-miserable. However, I do want a butter beer kit. So if you see one, please send along. We also went to Tampa for a couple days, saw more family and that was fabulous as well.

Now I'm back to my house (which needs cleaning) and a few dozen emails that need answering. And a special thank you to everyone who has texted or emailed me to tell you how much you've enjoyed/loved/adored The Boyfriend of the Month Club. You've all made my day!

Here is some really good stuff to read today. I promise. It's fabulous. First, there's Marilyn Brant's blog which kind of choked me up. If you're a writer, then run to read this. She makes so much sense. I love Marilyn!

Then there's Lisa and Liz over at Chick Lit is Not Dead. I love this site and they're offering up free books. All you have to do is comment and tell them which post of 2010 is your favorite. They give you 5 fabulous posts to pick from.

Happy Reading!

PS And yes, fabulous was the word the day:)

Blog tour and book giveaway

Today I'm over at Get Lost in a Story, a fabulous new blog that connects readers with writers (in reality, I'll be at Harry Potter World freezing my arse off, but I'll be at the blog in spirit and hopefully will be able to check in and make comments!)

Maureen McGowan (one of the nicest and most talented writers around) interviewed me and the questions were fun. Find out how I like my hamburger and leave a comment here telling me which fictional heroine you'd like to be to win an autographed copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club!

Dear Santa,

or Baby Jesus, or Mike Geraci (whichever of you is in charge of granting world peace and presents),

This is Maria (again). Remember me? I'm the one who firmly believed in you until my younger sister Carmen tried to tell me you didn't exist. In retaliation, I cut off all the hair on her Tippy Toes doll. However, I don't think you should hold that against me as that was over 40 years ago. This is what I would like this year for Christmas:


Louis Vuitton Neverfull GM

I have lusted after this bag for awhile now. I mean, who wouldn't? It's gorgeous. Plus it's red inside and red is my signature color.

In the event that world economic issues make this an unfeasible gift, I will happily take a very good knock off. (PS. I have already ordered the knock off from a purse party I went to a couple of weeks ago. If that makes things any easier for you).

Guilty. By Gucci.

Go smell it. It's fabulous.

Oh, and if Chris Evans, world peace, lower taxes, and a cure for cancer and all the other horrible diseases out there, were under the tree, I wouldn't complain either.

Have a Digital Merry Christmas!

Okay, all I have to say is that whoever did this is a creative genius. I love it. You will too. Merry Christmas, and oh, avoid Romans (hee)

Blog-o-Mania

Yep, I'm still doing the blog tour thing. Today, I'm supposed to be over at Coffee Time Romance. I love that place! It's the first site I ever received a review from. I'll always remember the excitement of that email (Feb 12, 2009) telling me they'd reviewed Bunco Babes Tell All. It was a great review and I'll always be grateful to them (can you imagine your first review being a stinky one?) *shudder* We authors are much more delicate than you can imagine.

So... as you can see I'm supposed to be over at the Coffee Time Romance Blog. I was supposed to post the blog myself and was given directions, but being the procrastinator that I am I waited till the wee hours of the morning to post the blog. Yep, should have done it yesterday, but nope. Didn't. So yep, something went screwy and I can't post it and am waiting for help from the Coffee Time Romance crew. Hopefully, the blog will go live sometime today.

NOTE: Yay! I am now live at Coffee Time Romance. Check out my blog right here.
PLUS, Coffee Time Romance is giving away a copy of my book, THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB and a copy of HUNGRY FOR YOU, by Lynsay Sands. If you'd like to be entered for the giveaway, go to their home page and sign up for Feeding My Addiction.

In the meantime, I'm still giving away books! Leave a comment and maybe you'll be picked to win an autographed copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club!

Night Owl Blog- Where does Inspiration come from? ends December 17
Chick Lit Central- Celebrating the Winter Holidays ends December 19

Knight Agency Holiday Party!

HO HO HO! It's the most wonderful time of the year, and that means it's time for The Knight Agency’s annual online holiday party! Join our agents, authors and TKA Santa for an hour of non-stop giveaways. This is our most fun, relaxed chat of the year. No worries about what to ask a guest author or waiting your turn to speak -- it's literally a free for all!

This year Gena Showalter, Nalini Singh, Maria Geraci, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Shannon K. Butcher, Linda Gerber, Michelle Celmer, Louisa Edwards, Lydia Dare, Joey W. Hill, Jessica Andersen, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Chris Marie Green and Shirley Jump are all giving away signed copies of their releases. Plus we're raiding our book closets and giving out titles by Rachel Caine, Marley Gibson and Cecil Murphey, among others. Oh yeah, and there's a Christmas stocking prize stuffed with books and holiday treats. Don't forget to mark your calendars!

WHAT: Knight Agency Annual Holiday Lunchbox Chat

WHEN: Thursday, December 16th @ 12:30pm ET

WHERE: The Knight Agency Chat Room -- http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=115545

HOW TO CHAT: Enter any combination of username and password. Login. Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

Blog tour and giveaway

Today I'm over at Chick Lit Central talking about my favorite winter holiday rituals and memories. And of course I'm giving away a copy of The Boyfriend of the Month Club, so come on over and comment!

And if you love chick lit as much as I do, check out their Facebook page here. There's always lots of great info on your favorite books :)

More free books!

Thanks to my buddy Susan McBride, author of the fabulously funny The Cougar Club, I'm over at The Stiletto Gang blog today talking about books that end with the word "club". Yeah, there are a lot of those! Come on over and visit me there and then go here to my Facebook page and tell me what you're doing this weekend for a chance to win an autographed copy of both The Boyfriend of the Month Club AND The Cougar Club.

If you've already bought my book, an autographed copy makes a great holiday gift and The Cougar Club is a fantastic read. Sure to chase away all your holiday stress!

Also, there's more places to find my book, completely free. There's an interview of me over at Romantic Crush Junkies. Two lucky commenters will win a copy of my book! Deadline is Dec. 12.

I'm also still at Book Binge. Give away also ends on Dec. 12.
Night Owl Reviews. Give away ends Dec. 17.

It's tomorrow!

Or the day after my yesterday, which means, well, as you can see I've not gotten a whole lot of sleep, because I'm not sure I'm making much sense to anyone except myself! Except to say that I'm relieved/happy/sad/worried that my 3rd baby is out in the world (that would be The Boyfriend of the Month Club) not my real baby (she's still in class or rather, she better be.)

The relieved and happy part are probably obvious emotions. The sad/worried maybe not so much. Sad? Only because I almost wish I was writing it again, I loved that part so much. Worried because I hope people get it. My editor mentioned in passing to me during lunch this summer that she thought there was a lot of me in this book. And she's absolutely right. Me as in I think I let go more in this book than in my previous other two books. And that's both exhilarating and a bit frightening. Writing a book is like walking naked down the street (okay, in my case that would be extremely frightening) but you get what I mean.

I received a really lovely review today from Julie at What Women Write. "Stylewise, think Dorothea Benton Frank meets My Big Fat Greek ... er, Cuban Wedding."

I really loved that she said that! You can read the whole review right here.

So, I'm still hopping the blogosphere. You can still find me at Book Binge, Night Owl Reviews Blog and Chick Lit is Not Dead. And I'm also being featured on the Romantic Times Book Reviews Mainstream Spotlight!

Plus, my fabulous friend Louisa Edwards is giving away a copy of my book on her Facebook Fan page. Right here. All you have to do is tell her the name of your first boyfriend:)

It's Today!

So today is the day that The Boyfriend of the Month Club comes out. Yay! I want to thank my editor, Wendy McCurdy, the fabulous Erin Galloway (my publicist), my agent Deidre Knight, and all of you who have emailed me to congratulate me. Thank you! Writing a book might be a solitary endeavor, but getting one published takes a village.

What am I going to do to celebrate? Clean the house, of course! While listening to Christmas music and running to my computer every few minutes to interact on the many blogs I have out there today. I will NOT be googling my name, my book, or checking my stats on any sites. No sirree, I will not. Repeat and repeat and again.

This is where you can find me today:

The Romance Dish
Girlfriends Book Club
and I'm still at the fabulous Chick Lit is Not Dead (will be there till Thursday)
I'm also going to be at Book Binge and Night Owl Reviews blog
Whew! I'm also supposed to make cookies today (the Neimen Marcus ones) but I don't see that happening. Do you?

Release week!

It's finally here! The Boyfriend of the Month Club is out everywhere tomorrow (and in some places today) so go out and get a copy and write a review. Word of mouth and reviews are the best promo an author can't buy. So if you like my books, tell your friends and tell them to tell their friends and so on. Before you know it, you'll be my connector, or maven, or whatever Malcolm Gladwell calls it (if you don't know what I'm talking about read his fabulous book The Tipping Point). Help make my book an epidemic! (in a good way, of course)

This week, I'll be all over the blogosphere. Today I'll be at the fabulous Chick Lit is Not Dead blog in which my bucket list will be revealed. Warning: I was a bit punchy when I sent in the list!

And if you purchase or have purchased my book, don't forget to get credit for it! Enter my contest and you might win a grand prize of a $100 Amazon gift card plus a wonderful assortment of women's fiction novels signed by the authors themselves. There will also be 5 runner up prizes of a $20 Amazon gift card and a special Boyfriend of the Month Club desk top calendar. To enter, email me at mariageraci1@gmail.com with the word "contest" in the subject line. Tell me where you purchased the book or send me your online confirmation. Contest ends December 12. Winners will be announced on December 13.