Your Own Autographed Copy!

By Kirsten (Inara) Scott

I know, I've already spent a whole blog talking about my cover and now I've got to blab all about something new -- my first experience signing books!

It happened last week at BEA. For those who haven’t heard of it, BEA is short for BookExpo America -- an enormous, fabulous conference dedicated to all things book-related. Though the conference always includes big headline acts (Barbara Streisand! Jon Stewart!) and conference sessions, the best part is I’ve found is simply walking the floor, where thousands of square feet are dedicated to publisher exhibits with books from their summer and fall catalogs, book trinkets, ARCs (advance reader copies) and lots and lots of authors signing books.

And yes, this year one of those authors was ME! For thirty minutes (which FLEW by -- I think I was probably in a time-space warp) I sat behind a table and wrote my name in books for people who said they were excited to read Delcroix Academy.


Excited. To read my book.

I grinned like a fool the whole time.

After I was done signing, I got to turn around and meet the guy in the booth next to me. You may have heard of him (if you have a 4th grade boy, you've definitely heard of him!): Rick Riordin. Then I did my own fan girl thing. I fawned, I squeed, and I generally made a fool of myself. This is what we do when we meet an author we really like. We make fools of ourselves.

So tell me -- when's the last time you waited in line to meet an author? What did you do when you met them? Ever embarrassed yourself in front of your hero? (I almost did -- turned out I've been pronouncing Rick's last name wrong all this time -- thank goodness my editor caught that one before I met him!).

And you writers -- tell us about your first book signing. Did you grin like a fool? Float on air for hours afterwards? Are you still a little amazed that there are people out there who will wait in line to meet YOU? Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/kirsten%20scott
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Pitch Perfect

by Christine Wells

Many of us in Romanceland are eagerly anticipating the national conference of Romance Writers of America® in Washington D.C. next week. A large number of our Bandita Buddies are aspiring writers, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about pitching your manuscript.

There are all kinds of pitches, from the short elevator pitch (useful for cocktail parties or casual encounters with publishing professionals) to the longer, blurb-style pitch you might use in a scheduled meeting. Which you use depends on the circumstances, but two things must be present: conflict and what I call ‘sexy’ words—specific details from your story that have that ‘wow’ factor. These are the kinds of words that imply high stakes, immediacy, humor, quirkiness, mystery, intrigue or yes, sometimes, plain old sex. We’re all interested in those things, right? Specifics will set your book apart from the herd.

Taking a well-known concept and giving it a twist can be an effective way of pitching a story. The high concept pitch Anna Campbell used for her debut novel CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, which sold to Avon at auction, was Pretty Woman by candlelight. Everyone has seen the movie Pretty Woman or at least knows the premise. The twist is setting the story in the Regency period (the candlelight reference), when a courtesan was wholly in her keeper’s power.

When Kirsten Scott sold her young adult novel, DELCROIX ACADEMY: THE CHOICE in a ‘good’ deal to Hyperion, her agent called it X-Men for girls. That succinct, three word pitch speaks volumes, doesn’t it? It gives you the tone, the subgenre, the type of conflict and the fresh twist.

My pitch for WICKED LITTLE GAME was Indecent Proposal with a Regency twist.

Of course, the movie world is where the high concept pitch was born. The movie ALIEN was pitched as Jaws in space. If you want to find more examples of high concept pitches for movies, you can search IMDB by keyword.

But the movie with a twist won’t work for every story, and can be risky unless you refer to a blockbuster or a classic. Even then, if the editor or agent hated the movie or didn’t see it or just doesn’t get the significance of the twist, you’ve lost her. So, let’s move on to the slightly longer logline.

Anna Sugden, whose fabulous Panic-Free Pitching workshop handout is on her website, has a perfect logline for LOVE BY BEQUEST: A Texas cowboy inherits an English sheep farm. Now, the conflict is obvious, isn’t it? A classic fish out of water story. For the logline, you don’t even need to know who the heroine of this romance is. That comes later in the blurb-style paragraph in your query. Don’t try to tell the whole story in this short, one line pitch.

For her recent release, THE EDUCATION OF MRS. BRIMLEY, Donna MacMeans used this logline: A Victorian strip-tease. Yep, that’s it. Intrigued? Go buy the book!

Donna’s next novel for Berkley, THE TROUBLE WITH MOONLIGHT, was about a Victorian heroine who turns invisible in moonlight. Just her, not her clothes. Donna says: ‘Did I mention she's a bit of a thief? If you want her to get something for you, she'll do it for a price but it's always during a full moon and, of course, she must be...’ You fill in the blank! A nekked invisible heroine thieving in Victorian England? Now that’s something I want to read. This pitch juxtaposes paranormal and historical romance in a fresh and intriguing way.

For her manuscript REFUGE, Suzanne Welsh’s more detailed pitch uses specific language to convey high-stakes action and conflict. After witnessing a senator's assassination, a spinster-librarian flees into the west as a mail-order bride to escape the clutches of the murderer.

Look at how many specific, ‘sexy’ words Suzanne uses to really enhance the punch of her pitch: senator (high profile implies high stakes) assassination (again, high stakes) spinster librarian (rightly or wrongly, we assume someone intelligent, sheltered and quiet, someone who must struggle to face the challenges ahead of her) the west (again, fish out of water scenario here) mail-order bride (hints at romance and an interesting conflict for someone labeled ‘spinster’) escape a murderer (high stakes, suspense).

I pitched my Berkley historical romance, THE DANGEROUS DUKE like this: A duke accidentally steals a lady’s erotic diary. Can you see this is going to be a sexy story about stolen secrets? Are you already wondering what will happen when my hero reads that diary and whether he’ll be caught out? I hope so!

Notice that none of these pitches goes into detail about the story. They focus on piquing the reader’s interest, that’s all. Usually, in a query letter or formal pitch session you need more detail than that, but it’s a great tactic to have the logline front and centre, before you move on to the longer blurb. A real sock-it-to-’em sentence that makes an agent or editor give the rest of your query their full attention. The ‘what if’ question can work well for this purpose, too.

For more examples of pitches that work, read through the deals on Karen Fox's wonderful website.

Now, not every book lends itself to a logline. My advice—write a book that does. That’s not as flippant as it might appear. Think about it—if a book lends itself to a dynamic, interesting hook, isn’t it more likely to be a dynamic, interesting book? Plus, writing a logline for your story before you begin gives you a sharpened focus, a touchstone to keep your story on track.

However, if you are submitting and you just can’t get that snappy one-liner, don’t despair. For my first novel, SCANDAL’S DAUGHTER, I wrote a standard one paragraph pitch and it had a 100% success rate. Which is not to say that every editor or agent offered representation or a contract, but everyone I queried asked for more.

That’s all a pitch can do for you. In the end, the proof is in the pages.

If you're a reader, do you find the 'high concept' attracts you to a story if you haven't read an author before? Can you think of any intriguing ways just one line about a story or a movie has captured your attention? I'd love to know your thoughts.

If you're a writer, pitch us your logline (and yes, published and unpublished writers are welcome to do this). Or share your own tips for writing great pitches. We have it on good authority that some editors and agents read our blog, so if you're an unpubbed, give it your best shot!

For those attending National, if you would like to win a one hour session with me at National to work on your pitch or even just chat about writing in general, please state it in your comment. I'll post the winner before I leave for D.C. on Monday and we can arrange a mutually convenient time.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/kirsten%20scott
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Home Sweet Home

By Kirsten Scott

So, does it look familiar? The houseboat, I mean. I think this particular houseboat probably caused a rush on houseboats unlike any the industry had seen. It's the one used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, inhabited by Tom Hanks' character, and among other things, it played a prominent role in me falling in love with him. After all, who wouldn't love a man who loved a house like that? The lights on the water, the view of the boats and downtown Seattle...and of course it was gorgeous inside. Furnished like a dream. Furnished like no man would ever furnish a house.

During the holiday season we do a lot of visiting and go to a lot of parties, and I am always struck by how different peoples' houses are, and how each house tells a story about the person who lives there -- sometimes a very different story than the one I would expect. Someone I expect to have drab, by the book decorations has a house filled with art and color; someone I expect to be neat turns out to be a packrat; someone I expect to be simple has a taste for the ostentatious.

I love it. It's a window into the soul.

We authors are always on the lookout for windows into the soul, so we use houses a lot to develop our characters. What better way to show a person's true character than to describe their house? The man with a wounded soul lives on a cliff away from town; the woman who never broke free from her mother still lives in her mother's house, surrounded by her mother's belongings. We can show someone's unexpected depth by giving them a hidden art collection, or a beautiful garden.

As for me, I live in a boxy 1950s ranch that we renovated so it's open and light. In the living room we've got furniture covered with sheets (dog hair, don't you know), two old red arm chairs I inherited when my grandfather passed away, a fairly new sofa-couch from IKEA, and a couple of fabulous Oriental rugs I ordered from Ebay about eight years ago that are fraying around the edges. I want my house to be tidy, comfortable, and above all, a place where kids and dogs can play and have fun.

(Here's one of Grandpa's chairs. Isn't it cool?)

So I'm wondering...what does your house reveal about you? Are you a city dweller in a tiny apartment? A suburban mama? Do you collect original art, or maybe photographs? Is your house straight out of an IKEA catalog, or more of the shabby chic variety? 


And perhaps most importantly -- would you have married Tom Hanks just to live in that houseboat?! :-) Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/kirsten%20scott
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Your Fantasy Christmas

by Kirsten Scott

I was reading a great Harlequin Desire the other day (The CEO's Christmas Proposition, by Merline Lovelace) and it was filled with fabulous descriptions of Christmas in Salzburg. You could see the homemade wooden toys, taste the buttery breads, and hear the children's choirs singing in the background of a wintery wonderland. (Here's a picture of Salzburg in the winter -- incredible, isn't it?)

Of course, if you're going to be stranded somewhere at Christmas time, it helps to be stranded with a gorgeous millionaire. But that's beside the point.

The point is, I am now adding "Spend Christmas in Salzburg" to my Bucket List. 


Not long after, I was at a holiday party and a friend of mine was complaining about her dysfunctional family and how Christmas brings nothing but angst and fighting. Some year, she vowed, she would be on a beach for Christmas, far away from everyone but her sweetie.

Hmm...Christmas in Oahu? I hadn't really considered it, but once she said it, the idea started to grow on me. Sure, I'd miss the kids and all, but putting that aside, wouldn't it be great to take that dreary, cold, wet time and spend it covered with suntan lotion, sipping a fruity beverage with my husband at my side?

Which leads me to the subject of today's blog: Your Fantasy Christmas.

Where would you go, if you could go anywhere in the world? I suspect most of us want to be exactly where we are, surrounded by family and friends, close to our church and all the people we love. But work with me here -- we're romance readers. No one does fantasy better than us. If you have to, you can imagine you've been stranded by cancelled flights or some other Act of God, and simply CAN'T get home (thereby absolving all Christmas-related guilt).


So what would it be, and who would you bring? A warm beach with your sweetie? A trip to Sweden's Ice Hotel with your best friend? How about New York City, with all the hustle and bustle, the ice skating in Central Park, and the giant Christmas tree?

Remember, we're still counting down the 12 Bandita Days of Christmas! One lucky commenter wins a prize! So let yourself go. Close your eyes and start fantasizing! Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/kirsten%20scott
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Party in San Fran!

By Kirsten "I'm tired already!" Scott

Day Two of the Conference and I'm already pooped! Too many parties, too little time, right my little chook? Er...chook? Chook? WHERE IS THAT DAMN ROOSTER NOW?! What? Jeanne has him? And Cassondra? At the same time?

Well, you'll have to see if you can find him, ladies. I think he's somewhere in San Francisco. Let me know if you spot him, okay?


While I'm off trying to find our beloved cock (a-doodle-do), here are some pictures of our Banditas and buddies from RWA nationals.

Here's Banditas Donna and Beth signing at the Readers for Life Literacy Event, and Joan welcoming all the readers to come visit our signing Banditas!













Can you recognize these Bandita Buddies?
















And as promised, some random incriminating shots of Banditas at play:

Cassondra the balloon fairy:
















Susan, slow down! Leave some for the rest of us!






















So, are you enjoying your week! Any stories to report thus far? Any chook sightings?

Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/kirsten%20scott
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