Book signing!

I'm off to visit my parents for a couple of days, then it's back to Tally for the weekend. This Saturday, June 18, my fabulous friend and fellow author, Leigh Duncan will be doing a one hour work shop at the Florida Panhandle Romance Writers of America meeting. The presentation will be on "Deep Dish Critique" and will start at ten am. We meet at Julie's Restaurant on Monroe street, so if you live in the north Florida area and thinking of joining the chapter, please stop by!

Later, Leigh and I will head off to Books-A-Million on Thomasville Rd to sign books from 12 noon-2 pm. Leigh will be signing her newest release, The Daddy Catch, and I'll be signing The Boyfriend of the Month Club (and anything else you'd like me to sign!)

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.

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.

Snowman Band!

I absolutely love this little snowman band! I have Guitar Freddy and Saxophone Joe and I just need 2 more little men to make my collection complete. The coolest thing about this band? You hit the button on one of the snowmen, and all them start to chime in with their individual instruments! The lady at my local Hallmark store got a kick of watching me hit the button over and over again. Addicting! Plus, the sound quality is awesome.

Holiday Movie of the Day and Quote:

Little Women (1994 version starring Susan Sarandan and Winona Ryder
(and before you tell me that Little Women isn't a holiday movie, it's listed as one in the On Demand section of my cable!)

Okay, I have so many favorite quotes from this movie it's hard to pick just one. But I'll pick two.

Quote #1
Friedrich (to Jo) "Jo. Such a little name... for such a person." (note: I totally ripped this line off and made it into a chapter title for The Boyfriend of the Month Club!)

Quote #2
Friedrich (to Jo) "But I have nothing to give you. My hands are empty."
Jo entwines her hands with his. "Not empty now."

Sigh... such a simple gesture, but so romantic!

Have a great weekend everyone!

More reviews!

Yay! I got another nice review for The Boyfriend of the Month Club. This is one is from Chicklit Club, which is a great site (in case you've never been there).

Thirty-year-old Grace O'Bryan works at her parents' tourist shop in Daytona Beach. She has waited two months for Daytona's most eligible bachelor, Brandon Farrell, to ask her out. When he finally does, the date is a disaster and ends with Grace knocking over a pitcher of beer into Brandon's lap. Frustrated by her date, Grace and her girlfriends transform their boring book club into a boyfriend of the month club, where women come and review the men of Daytona Beach. Just as the boyfriend club takes off in popularity, Grace finds herself in the unfamiliar position of being pursued by two successful men. Brandon, her former date from hell, turns out to be a very nice guy who wants a second chance. And a fluke incident, that results in Grace having a chipped front tooth, lands her in the chair of sexy dentist Joe Rosenblum. Joe is perfect but Grace wonders if something is missing from their relationship. This is a hysterical novel about a woman trying to find the perfect man. Grace's close-knit family and friends serve as great secondary characters that add so much humour and love to this novel. (AO) 8/10.

An Arc Giveaway!

I have exactly one ARC left. That's an advanced reader copy of my soon to be released novel The Boyfriend of the Month Club. My publicist at Berkley suggested I hold on to the last ARC just in case someone really special requested it. But Oprah hasn't called, so the heck with her. It's up for grabs! All you have to do is go here to my Facebook fan page (you'll have to like me of course, if you don't already) and leave a comment by next Monday morning. That's it!

Page 99

Recently, I stumbled across a website called the Page99test. The idea behind it is that if you open a novel to page 99 (versus like page 1), you'll get a good idea if you want to read the book. I think it's an interesting hypothesis and I plan to start using it when I go a-browsing at bookstores.

It also got me thinking of my own page 99s. So I went to said page on my upcoming novel to see what was what. Kind of interesting. So without any set up other than the blurb on the back of my book, I decided to post page 99 of The Boyfriend of the Month Club. It's a short page because it's actually the beginning of a chapter.

So if you went to the bookstore and picked up my book and flipped it to the back, this is what you'd read:

At thirty, Grace O’Bryan has dated every loser that Daytona Beach has to offer. After the ultimate date-from-hell, Grace decides to take matters into her own hands and turns her dwindling book club into a Boyfriend of the Month Club, where women can come together to discuss the eligible men in their community. Where are the real live twenty-first century versions of literary heroes such as Heathcliff and Mr. Darcy?

Could it be successful and handsome Brandon Farrell, who is willing to overlook his disastrous first date with Grace and offers financial help for her parents’ failing Florida gift shop? Or maybe sexy dentist Joe Rosenblum, who’s great with a smile but not so great at commitment? Unfortunately, just like books, men cannot always be judged by their covers…

Page 99 of The Boyfriend of the Month Club

Grace turned to find Rosie Dimples aka Dr. Joe leaning against his shopping cart. He wore above-the-knee nylon basketball shorts and a T-shirt. Maybe he’d just come from the gym. Grace squelched the urge to reach out and smooth an errant lock of hair off his forehead.

“There’s no chocolate in pistachio ice cream,” she said.

“What is it with women and chocolate?”

It’s the universal substitute for sex, dummy.

She wondered what Dr. Joe would say to that. He’d probably volunteer to fill in for the ice cream.

“It’s one of our daily food groups,” she said instead.

He smiled. “How’s the tooth holding up, Grace?”

So he remembered her name. Had he read her patient satisfaction survey? Melanie claimed he personally read each one. Tomorrow it would be a week since she’d been to his office. Surely he’d read it by now. Which reminded her, she really did need to investigate where Tanya had gone to work so she could find a new dentist. She’d planned to do it right away, but with all the roof drama going on at the store, she’d forgotten. Technically, she supposed, she was still Dr. Joe’s patient.

“The tooth is holding up great. Thanks for asking, Dr. Joe.”

My Chicklit Club interview!

Recently, I was interviewed by the very lovely Annmarie over at Chicklit Club. She asked some awesome questions. Like who my ideal literary hero is (and it's not Mr. Darcy!) You can check out the interview here.

ARC give away!

It's Monday! And you know how much I love Mondays (no, really, I do, I'm one of those people).

Today I'm over at Girlfriends Book Club, talking about writing romance in the closet. I'm also excited to be giving away an ARC for my December release, The Boyfriend of the Month Club, so go on over and leave a comment right here. I really love this book so much and I can't wait to hear what people think of it!

Real Life versus my closet life

My closet life for those of you who aren't aware, is the the metaphor I've given to that part of my life that involves my writing. In other words, the made up part of my life. The one where the people don't really exist. Lately, I haven't been spending too much time there.

Part of the reason is because, to tell you the truth, I'm simply worn out. Writing my last book took a huge toll on me. A few days ago over at Girlfriends Book Club we discussed how long it takes to write a book. The consensus was somewhere between a few months but less than nine years (heh).

I've written a book in six months and it's a struggle. Not because I can't finish a book in that time. But because I really need time between my drafts to let my words marinate. Someone asked me once what I thought of finally reading my book in print. The answer was, "I don't read my books in print." Once I send off the last draft I never read the book again. I simply can't. If I can't edit it, then I can't read it. Because I'll always find something that can be improved. I think a lot of writers feel the same way.

So... last night (after I got back from Bunco!) I sat down to open up my latest manuscript (tentatively titled Girlfriends are Forever) in which I've been struggling heartily because I haven't found the right opening. Well, I'm happy to say that I think I found the right beginning. Which means, it's back to my closet life and I think I'm happy about that.

The Boyfriend of the Month Club book trailer

I did it! For those of you who aren't aware, I'm about the most techno-challenged person on the planet (I also don't read directions). So for me to actually make a book trailer is more than just a feat. It's a miracle. And then for me to upload it to YouTube. Well, let's just say, I'm smiling pretty big right now! I would have had this up yesterday, but I got bit by some kind of stomach flu that had me in bed for almost 24 hours. Yuck.

Happy Labor Day! And happy viewing!

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.

On Florida Charlie's and setting and starting over

It's time to start a new book. Something that both excites and terrifies me.

The exciting part is obvious. At this point, although I still have copy edits and final proofs that will have to be done on Boyfriend of the Month, I'm sick of 'em all. I've lived, breathed, slept Grace, Joe, Brandon, Charlie, Sarah, Abuela and the rest of the gang for almost a year now and it's time to move on. Kind of like a relationship gone stale. I want the excitement of fresh characters. People who I don't know yet, but am interested in knowing. Not that I won't miss the gang from BOTM. I love those people! I made them up, after all. But I can't do anything more with them. Their story is over. Kaput. Finis. I gave everyone who deserved it a HEA, and everyone who didn't deserve a HEA, well, I gave them the potential of one, because after all, I do write fun, romantic women's fiction (After 3 books and much soul searching, that's the tagline I've decided on).

So back to the new book. The idea for the story started long before I ever actually wrote the first chapter ( I have 10 pages, yay!) It started just like Boyfriend and the Bunco books did, with the idea of a place, a community. Which is interesting, because I think I write character driven novels. But setting is character too. It lives and breathes with a life of its own. Even though Whispering Bay (the town I set my Bunco novels in) is imaginary, when I close my eyes, I can see it. It has real streets and real shops and the people who live there have a very distinctive mindset about them. Kind of like when you ask someone where they're from and they say, "New York city" or "Two Egg, Florida" (yes, there is a town called Two-Egg- it's not too far from Tallahassee). Whether right or not, I already have an idea about that person, because where you're from and where you've been raised has as much influence over the kind of person you become as anything else, I think.

Before I ever thought of the concept of Boyfriend of the Month (or even thought of the title) the idea of Florida Charlie's (the tourist shop where a lot of the action in the book takes place) had already come to me. It had been germinating like a seed in the recesses of my mind and had taken root. Although BOTM is set in Daytona Beach, a real town, the novel's true "location" is Florida Charlie's. A tourist shop still stuck in the 1960s. A place that gave away free samples of orange juice and shipped citrus, and sold old fashioned gifts and had a corny mascot. A place that was a bit of a Florida icon in its day but had been brushed aside by the big tourism machine (you know who I'm talking about here- the little guy with the ears). I think the one character I'll truly miss the most when I completely leave Boyfriend is that shop. Funny, but true.

Which gets me back to the new novel. Tentatively titled Girlfriends are Forever (but that could easily change). The seed for this book started with the Race for the Rock. A high tech scavenger hunt that took place back in May in Bainbridge, Ga (just about 30 minutes north of Tallahassee). The prize? A $10,000 engagement ring, hidden somewhere in the city. The idea of it is so brilliant, it gave me shivers. And immediately got me thinking about this new imaginary place. A town somewhere south of St. Augustine. A town that claims that Ponce de Leon actually discovered the fountain of youth in their neck of the woods. A town that's kind of dyin' and needs something big to revive it. And revive the people who live there. And voila... Exploration, Florida was born. Not sure if I'm crazy about that name but I'm already in love with the town. And the people who live there. And I think that's good.

The way to a man's heart is through flan

In my upcoming novel, The Boyfriend of the Month Club, my main character, Grace, needs to apologize to Joe, her sexy new dentist for jumping to an erroneous conclusion about him. Knowing that a simple "sorry" won't cut it, she goes to her abuela for advice.

“Flan,” Abuela blurted. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. When your abuelo Pedro was courting me my mother used to make him flan. He couldn’t resist it. Make him a flan and he’ll throw himself at your feet.”

I had so much fun writing this chapter! The recipe Grace uses belongs to my mother and is also featured in the back of the book, but since you're reading my blog you get first dibs at it. So here it is, Pioneer Woman style:

Carmen Palacios' Flan de queso

Grace had seen her mother make countless flans in her lifetime. But she’d never actually made one herself.
“You know what’s funny, Abuela?”
Before Grace could finish, Abuela’s gaze went back to the television screen. “Eggs, sugar, evaporated milk…” When Grace didn’t do anything, Abuela shooed her with her hand. “You know what goes inside!”

Okay, so Grace has an unfair advantage because as you've just read, she's seen her mother make countless flans. But I'll tell you exactly what goes inside. Here it is:

5 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 8 ounce cream cheese, softened
dash of salt

Put all the ingredients in a blender. And mix.

Grace placed the remaining ingredients into a blender and whirled them together. She took a second to sniff the frothy liquid. The smell of vanilla wafted up enveloping her in familiar comfort.

Put the blender aside and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure out 2 additional cups of sugar and place in a skillet over med/high heat. This will make the caramel for the flan.

She set the stove for medium heat, then dumped two cups of sugar into a skillet.
“The secret to a good flan is to make enough syrup so that the custard doesn’t stick. Did you put in sufficient sugar?” Abuela asked.

Eventually, the sugar will start to dissolve. This is the part where you must have patience. The whole process only takes about 10-15 minutes but it always seems longer to me. Every once in a while, give the skillet a little shake. It's probably not really necessary, but it gives you something to do.

Grace gave the skillet a jiggle. Watching the sugar melt was her favorite part. The transformation from solid to liquid as the white crystals morphed into a lovely brown liquid caramel, all gooey and hot. As a child the temptation to stick her finger in the syrup had always gotten her a whack on the bottom. But it had been worth it each time.

He began walking her backward, his kisses turning her from a solid into a warm liquid caramel, all bubbly and hot and easy to slide around, just like the sugar in her flan.

Woops! That's from a much later chapter. But you get my drift...

So, back to the recipe. Place the melted caramel mixture into a Bundt pan or other pan with a hole in the center, making sure you coat as much of the pan with the caramel as you can. Be careful, the pan will get hot!

Let the caramel set for a couple of minutes, then gently pour the liquid egg mixture into the pan.

She got out the pan her mother used to bake the flan, set it on the counter and frowned. Something was missing…
“You need to make a bano de Maria. So that the flan doesn’t stick to the pan,” Abuela said.

A bano de maria is basically a larger pan filled with an inch of so of water. Place the Bundt pan inside the larger pan with the water. This helps the custard to "set." PS: the n in bano needs a squiggle over it but I can't figure out how to do it.

Place the entire set up in the oven at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until flan is brownish and firm. Test with a toothpick to make sure it's done. If the toothpick is still wet, it needs longer cooking time.


Take the flan out of the bano de maria and let cool to room temp, then refrigerate. When you are ready to serve the flan, set it at room temp for about 30 minutes, then flip it. This is what you get if your flan isn't cooked well enough or you try to flip it when it's still warm. Not pretty.

Voila! Here is your perfectly cooked, perfectly flipped flan. Since the flan has been refrigerated, there will be 'stuck' syrup in the bottom of your Bundt pan. Let it warm up to room temp some more, then drizzle as much of the syrup as you can over the flan. Decorate if you desire with fruit on the side. Refrigerate leftovers. If you have any.

There! That wasn’t so hard.
“Don’t forget to cool it well before placing it in the refrigerator,” Abuela said. “But when you’re ready to flip it, make sure it’s been at room temperature first. Do you have a plate to serve it in?”

Grace nodded. “Thanks, Abuela.”

“For what? You already knew how to make a flan.”

Making the Book Trailer

This has been so much fun, I tell you. Not that I'm any kind of expert with Windows Movie Maker, but it's almost Maria proof (which means even a child could do it). If you follow my blog, you know that I'm making my first book trailer for my upcoming novel The Boyfriend of the Month Club. Goal was to have it finished by the end of summer, only because I had no idea how long it was going to take me to do it and I was going to work on it in my spare time, etc...

The first thing I did was story board my idea, which I have to give Mike Geraci a lot of credit for. I don't want to give it all away because part of the fun of the trailer are the "surprise" actors but he can really be brilliant sometimes, even if he forgets it almost immediately (Typical Electrical Engineer- kind of like the absent-minded professor).

So once I had a feel for my story and had acquainted myself with the Movie Maker program, I had to select some music. Music is so important in a book trailer. Not only does it serve as backdrop, it sets the entire mood for the clip. Since I'm making this trailer on air (not spending any money) I wanted to use royalty free music. This is the site I used. After listening to music for a couple of days, I narrowed it down to 2 tunes. Plain Loafer and Radio Martini. While I loved the name Radio Martini, I ended up going with Plain Loafer. It's funky, but not too funky, but mostly upbeat and happy sounding, which is exactly what I'm going for.

I'm a getting a reader's guide!

Or rather, The Boyfriend of the Month Club is. Yay!

When I asked my editor at Berkley about the possibility of getting a reader's guide for my upcoming novel, she said she'd look into it. She thought it was a terrific idea, but warned me that marketing doesn't usually select lighter, more romantic reads for reader's guides. Before she told me this I really had no idea that a reader's guide was a marketing decision and that someone else actually writes the discussion questions. In my lack of publishing sophistication, I really thought that the author came up with those questions herself (although I guess it could be different depending on each publishing house).

So anyhoo, I found out yesterday that yes, Boyfriend will get a reader's guide and I couldn't be happier. I honestly think it will be a terrific read (not that I'm prejudiced or anything) for book clubs and I'm excited to see what kind of themes someone else will pull out of my story.

My summer project: I'm going to make a Book Trailer

Never mind that my techno knowledge borders on the ridiculously inept. Hey, 8 years ago while driving in my car I decided I was going to write a book. It wasn't easy, and my first attempts were awful. I mean really really awful (Just ask my first crit partners). But I had an intense drive and once I found my niche and my voice, got really lucky and got an agent, everything fell into place. So if I can write a book and get published I can make a 60 second book trailer. Right? I am woman. Hear me roar.

What made me decide to do a trailer? First off, I'm an extremely visual person. There's nothing like actually seeing something with your own two eyes to drive home a point, which makes book trailers a great marketing tool to hook someone like me. I've bought books that I never thought I'd be interested in after watching a trailer. Plus, I had a trailer for my first book Bunco Babes Tell All and I think it helped generate some good buzz. Thank you Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe!

Now, since my marketing budget is extremely tight, I'll be making this little gem on a shoestring budget. Like as close to free as possible. And since I have no idea where to start I'll be surfing the Internet for help trying to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. Check out Whitney Moore's blog Book Trailers Love or Hate? I agree with what she says. A book trailer should not be a movie trailer. It shouldn't strip the reader of their imagination.

Stay tuned as I fumble my way through the creation and production of what I hope will be an awesome trailer that will have readers salivating to read my upcoming December release, The Boyfriend of the Month Club.

And in case you missed it, here's the trailer for my first book.

Still Revising...

I know it's hard to see but here's my story in a nutshell. Or rather, on a poster board.

I've been revising The Boyfriend of the Month Club for some time now. Mel has given up asking me if I'm done because she knows she'll just get a snicker over the phone. Done? Not yet. Although I am getting so very close. I think I'll be done by Sunday, which means I'll be turning it in on Monday to my very patient editor at Berkley.

I'll be popping champagne corks, that's for sure. This book has almost kicked my butt! And while my butt can certainly use some serious kicking, I'm pretty much exhausted. But exhilarated at the same time. This book has 4 major subplots to the overall plot and all of them have to sync together perfectly. Back to writing for now...

Note to self: Avoid cliches

Still working on revisions for The Boyfriend of the Month Club, which I plan to have finished within a few days. Hopefully. Yes. I will (this is me talking to myself, pumping me up). I still have to change up a few scenes, then take one final look at the manuscript, sweep out the repetitive words, cliches, and unnecessary passages. In other words, put my manuscript on a diet and have it come out a lean, mean, fighting machine. Hmmm.. that sounds suspiciously like a cliche.

Meanwhile, I had a really nice weekend. Busy, but nice. Oh, and I read my first Marian Keyes novel a couple of weeks ago! Won't be my last, though. I absolutely have a new author to add to my list of favorites.

Casting call

Tall blond and handsome (I blogged about this once). It's one of the most popular hits on my blog. Don't know if that's good or bad, because I'd really like the hits to be all about me and my books, but beggars can't be choosers, so what the hell. I'll take it.

Speaking of which... revisions for The Boyfriend of the Month Club are coming along. Changing up a secondary character, even one that's only in the book a few times really does mess up the flow and I'm finding that the book has taken on a slightly different flavor. It's still the same story, but with an altered spice. I like it. I think my editor was really on target here.

As I tweak the story again (and again) I find myself thinking (daydreaming) who would play the major roles if it was ever made into a movie. When I first thought of the character of Joe (my sexy, but commitment phobic dentist) I thought of Curtis Stone. But when I actually started writing Joe, Curtis didn't really fill the part anymore and Joe suddenly became Chris Evans (Harvard Hottie). Chris is slightly younger than Joe's character, but only by a few years, so by the time the movie is made he'll be perfect for the role. Hollywood, are you listening?