Guest: Maree Anderson + Book Giveaway!

The One Where Maree Eats Humble Pie

By Maree Anderson

Thanks heaps for having me as your guest on Fierce Romance, Nicole. I had a ball last time I was here (and I’m thrilled that I was well-behaved enough for you to ask me back *g*)

I used to believe I was incapable of writing an outline and pre-plotting an entire book before I sat down to do the fun stuff – yanno, the writing-and-wondering-what’s-gonna-happen-next-bit. *VBG* I was a seat-of-the-pants writer. Period. But last year, because I’m, like, a total sucker for punishment, I decided that I was going to give this plotting business my best shot. After all, loads of other writers do it. And if I’m ever in the position of selling books to editors based on outlines, I needed to know how to do it, right?

Right.

So how did it go?

I shudder at the memory. Kidding! Kinda….

It took about three or four days before I was totally happy with the outline. (And perhaps I shouldn’t mention it was like pulling teeth with a pair of fricking pliers. And that I did A LOT of wandering round the house muttering to myself and finding excuses to procrastinate. Like doing housework. You know there’s something up when you’d rather vacuum the house than write an outline.) But it was worth it in the end, because then I got to reward myself with the fun stuff.*cue me rubbing my hands together with glee*

Then b*gger me (as we say in New Zealand - and not in a rude way) as soon I started writing, one of my main characters went neener neener neener! and decided to change professions. So there went a somewhat crucial aspect of my carefully planned goal, motivation and conflict between the hero and heroine. Nooooo!

“Oh, come on!” I whined to my muse (who by this stage was snickering in a most unladylike fashion). “Don't do this to me! What’s the point of plotting if my characters aren’t gonna stick to the darn plot?” No answer from Ms Muse. She was too busy having fun at my expense - evil beyotch.

Mutter mutter growl growl. Okay. Okay. It's not the end of the world. Just go with it, Maree.

I went with it.

And about five thousand words into the story I got smacked upside the head with another curve ball. My editor emailed me to ask if I had a novella ready to submit. Like, now. Because the publisher had a gap that needed filling. And it’d be a chance to submit a novella for the next Red Sage Secrets anthology. Which meant I’d finally achieve my dream of being in print.

Since the “Are you freaking kidding me?" response that sprang to my fingers didn’t seem appropriate (*g*), I told her I had something in the works. Only trouble was that it’d been planned as a novel-length non-erotic romance. But hey, since it was already fully plotted (there's that heinous word again) I could have a go at scaling it back to a novella and get it to her by, say, the end of the month?

Three weeks. Gulp. (I tried really hard not to think about that whole three weeks thing for fear I’d get writers block.)

“What the heck,” she said. “Go for it, and see how quickly you can get it to me.”

So I went for it.

And despite some plot tweaks – like, having to get the hero and heroine er, “together” really early on (*cough* erotic romance *cough*), and secondary characters who had far too much to say for themselves, I had a ball writing the story. And an incredibly short time later, I typed The End on the last page of a 30,000 word novella, Kat On A Hot Tin Roof. I’d written 25,000 words, and rewritten the first 5000, in three weeks.

Better still, my editor gave me the best feedback I could ever ask for when she emailed me with: "I absolutely loved it. Made a bad day go by fast! And to me, the ultimate recommendation for a story is that it gets the reader through a bad day."

She also said my story was howlingly funny, deliciously tender and super-hot - not that I’m blowing my own trumpet or anything. Aw, what the heck. Toot! Toot! *grins and buffs fingernails on the front of her pjs* (Mind you, I suspect the howlingly funny part might be a nod to my heroine’s Grandma Louise, who lives in a retirement home and refuses to age gracefully. She’s a terrible flirt and she constantly gives the staff conniptions with some of her antics. Moon-hopper races, anyone?)

So, there you go. This pantser is eating a big slice of humble pie, because I truly believe that without plotting and outlining Kat On A Hot Tin Roof before I started, I would not have been able write it so quickly, and I’d have lost my opportunity to have a novella published in a print anthology - my first ever story to go to print. SQUEEEEEE! Mmm. Maybe this plotting business has some merit, after all ;-)

BTW, that slice of humble pie I'm eating? It's apple. With a large scoop of hokey-pokey ice-cream. My favorite!

And if you’d like to read an excerpt from KAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, please click here.
 (Warning, readers must be 18 years or over. *cough* erotic romance *cough*)

Time for a giveaway!

Unfortunately I can’t give away a copy of Secrets Volume 30 as I’d planned, but…. Instead, I’d like to offer one commenter (chosen at random) who answers my easy peasy question, their choice of any eBook from my backlist:

Even Demons Get The Blues (Demons, Book 1)
Let Sleeping Demons Lie (Demons, Book 2)
From The Ashes
Scent Of A Man

So if you’d like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment telling me the answer to this question:

What is Jace’s private nick-name for Kat when he first sees her?

Hint 1: the initials are M-K
Hint 2: the first word is “Miss”
Hint 3: Shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but the answer is in the excerpt ;-)
Hint 4: You can always wait for someone else to leave a comment with the answer, and copy their answer... but then you'll miss out on all the fun of reading the excerpt!

Note:
~To enter the giveaway, you must be 18 years or over *cough* erotic romance again! *cough*
~Please indicate your choice of prize with your comment.

Cheers,

Maree Anderson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Maree:

Maree always knew she had a reeeeally warped imagination. The trouble was finding a socially acceptable outlet... which is why she became an author.

The other great thing about being an author is having a valid reason to read loads of books -- all in the name of research, of course. When she's not 'researching', Maree's writing romance of the paranormal persuasion. She's a Kiwi, a New Zealander, and she's addicted to chocolate -- the darker the better. Not to mention coffee and excellent NZ wine. She's not quite so addicted to her local gym but she's working on it ;-)

Maree’s Website
Facebook author page
Twitter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SECRETS VOLUME 30: DESIRES UNLEASHED

COX CLUB ~ Alice Gaines
At the urging of her best friend, Andi Crawford visits an exclusive club in order to find some sexual satisfaction after her divorce. The last person she expects to find at a place like Club Cox is her overbearing ex-husband, Blake. But, he’s there and as tempting as ever. Can she maintain her independence, or will she surrender to the intense physical pleasure only he can give her?

KAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF ~ Maree Anderson
Workaholic architect, Jace Burton, inadvertently flashes Kat Meyer, who later turns up at a crucial meeting…and seduces him in the bathroom. She’s one of the designers vying to impress him. And boy, is he impressed to discover her prowling his house—naked. Kat has no clue what’s causing her nocturnal wanderings. And when Jace discovers she’s the victim of a zodiac curse, will he fight to keep her, or run for the hills?

KELLEN’S CONQUEST ~ Anne Kane
As an Alph-Elite warrior, Kellen is used to getting what he wants, and what he wants is the sexy data thief, Mia. Problem is she won’t admit she wants him or that someone is trying to kill her. It takes all of Kellen’s mutant strength and Mia’s streetwise smarts to keep her alive long enough to unravel a vicious plot for revenge.

SCOUNDREL IN A KILT ~ Nicole North
Brodie, Chieftain of Clan McCain, is a dark, sensual Scottish scoundrel, who likes nothing more than being a selkie shape-shifter, even if he has been cursed by a witch of the dark arts. Stunning, modern day supermodel, Erin Schultz, blazes into his 1621 world like a falling star. Though he’s certain she will shatter life as he knows it by breaking his curse, he can’t resist her tantalizing seduction.

Secrets Volume 30: Desires Unleashed available now from Red Sage Publishing, and coming soon to good bookstores 

Guest - Maree Anderson: Inspiration

Today our special guest is Maree Anderson. Welcome, Maree!

Inspiration: just another word for a bloody good idea!
By Maree Anderson

My first effort at writing a manuscript was tragic! I was on a bit of a chick-lit reading bender at the time, and having been told I was a relatively amusing person (okay okay, borderline sarcastic), and having dealt with some pretty awful personal crap over the years, I figured I should be able to write something witty and funny and poignant. Right?

Luckily for acquiring agents and editors everywhere, I never got past the first page. And I believe it didn’t work because there was no true inspiration behind the idea, no compulsion to shriek, “OMG, how awesome would that be to write about?! Crap, why can I never find a pen when I need one? Honey, get off the damn computer ‘coz I need to start writing this or I’ll freaking well explode!”

For me, writing didn’t “work” until an idea smacked me upside the head, complete with an opening and ending scenes, and characters that wouldn’t let me sleep because they were yammering in my head. That first manuscript ended up being a high fantasy about a blind seer -- probably about as far removed from chick-lit as one could get, LOL.

So where do you look for inspiration? How do you coax that capricious, stubborn-ass creature from the hole it’s crawled into?

Here are some sources of inspiration that have worked for me.

My very first manuscript ended up being the first in a fantasy trilogy, and the second story was inspired by a well-known saying:

“Power corrupts. And absolute power, corrupts absolutely.”

Hey, I thought, what if my seer’s daughter hasn’t inherited her mother’s powers? What if she craves power so much that when she gets everything she wished for it’s a curse, not a blessing?

The final story in the trilogy was inspired by this phrase I stumbled on while surfing the Net:

“From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being.”

That triggered the whole concept of “soul-mates” and a hero who travels between worlds to find the love of his life, and then is forced to give her up and erase all her memories of him.

An interest in crystals spawned another series of manuscripts. Some of the crystals had such raw, masculine-sounding names—wulfenite, kyanite, malachite—that they triggered stories about Crystal Warriors, men cursed and imprisoned in their namesake crystals.

A travel article about slick-rock bike tours, and Utah having the second highest incidence of lightning strikes in America, inspired me to write When Lightning Strikes. It’s a tale about lightning-riding aliens, who prolong their lives by healing the bodies of people who’ve just died in a lightning strike, and merging with their departing souls.

I spotted a magazine photo with a woman cuddled up to a guy, blissed out on his scent. I’ve still got the clipping and the article is about men’s fragrances. Here’s its by-line:

“In a world of equal opportunities, men are smelling as good as women—well, nearly”.

From that clipping, I ended up with Scent Of A Man, a manuscript about an innocent young man who exudes pheromones that make him irresistible to women.

When a friend of mine acquired an old dance card, she brought it to our RWNZ chapter meeting. The final dance on the card had the name scratched out, and you should have heard the incredibly varied ideas people came up with to explain that crossed out name! The ideas spanned multiple genres, too.

My office notice-board is covered with sayings, phrases, poems and notes. Here’s a good one from a Nora Roberts book: “The sulky stink of death”. There’re even a couple of quotes from The Economist -- not exactly my regular reading material ;-) I don’t try to figure out why they caught my eye, I just know that one day they might inspire a story.

Even Demons Get The Blues, was inspired by the TV series Saving Grace. Grace is a cop whose coping mechanisms are booze, cigarettes and sex…with her married partner. She inspired me to write a heroine who’s not at all a “nice” girl, one who has committed a terrible crime, lost everyone who mattered to her, and fills the gaping hole in her soul with booze and sleazy one-night-stands. Her hero needed to be someone with a dark soul of his own, someone who wouldn’t be put off by the things she’s done. Hmmm. Perhaps a demon? Yeah!

Leisa and Rez’s story became my first publishing credit after Even Demons Get The Blues finaled in the 2009 Red Sage Alpha Male Novella contest.

My second Demons novella, LET SLEEPING DEMONS LIE, was a May 1st Red Sage Presents release. And to celebrate that release, I’m offering one commenter (chosen at random) a chance to win an electronic copy.

Since we’re talking inspiration, here’s how this story came to be.

Naamah, a minor character from Even Demons Get The Blues, was so vivid and mouthy and “real” that it broke my heart to cut back her scenes. Hell hath no fury like a felinoid demon scorned, and knowing Naamah, I suspected she might just haunt me forever. So I expanded on a deleted scene in which Asmodeus, the Demon King, punishes her, and voilà! Naamah got her own story.

Because Naamah’s a cat-demon, I couldn’t resist pairing her with Brennan, a leonine shifter. LET SLEEPING DEMONS LIE is essentially cat-demon vs lion shifter, with some truly heinous were-hyenas thrown in to spice things up. Kick back and watch the fur fly, baby! *evil laughter*

(If you’d like to check out the reviews, or read the prologue and an excerpt from Let Sleeping Demons Lie, please visit my website and click on the links in the My Books page:
http://www.mareeanderson.com/books/let-sleeping-demons-lie)

So I challenge you to keep an open mind, and go forth and be inspired. You just never know when a bloody good idea for a story—or anything else, for that matter!—is gonna slap you upside the head.

So who’s brave enough to share something that inspired them? Doesn’t have to be writing-related, either BTW. My mom’s an artist, and we’re always swapping stories. C’mon, curious minds would like to know! (But if you’re too shy, then feel free to ask me a question instead -- I love answering questions, LOL!)

I’d like to thank my lovely hostess, Nicole, for inviting me to guest blog on Fierce Romance -- it’s been an honor!

Hugs,

Maree Anderson
http://www.mareeanderson.com/
http://www.writersgonewild.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/mareeanderson
http://twitter.com/MareeAnderson

To buy a copy of Let Sleeping Demons Lie, please visit Red Sage Publishing: http://eredsage.com/store/Let_Sleeping_Demons_Lie__Maree_Anderson.html