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You know how Amazon and Netflix have that “based on your choices, we think you’d like this” feature? I know it’s often full of crap, and says things as bizarre as “Based on your interest in Battlestar Galactica, we think you’d really enjoy Party of Five,” but I would totally subscribe to a service that did the same thing for words.
No, not a thesaurus. I want words that are similar to each other in tone, in sound, in etymology, if not in meaning. I want to write a page full of words that derive from oriental societies, like shampoo, tattoo, and taboo. Except not so obvious as the assonance here. I want something like, “based on your interest in words once associated with the life of a Roman gladiator, we thought you’d like this word.”
One of my favorite research sites, Babynamer.com, has a feature kind of like this. When you go to a name, you can click on a list of related names, by sound, country of origin, meaning, popularity, etc. Love it.
Anyway, you’ll note that, because Patrick wanted me to, and Patrick’s wish is my command, this blog has now been updated to the new version. Which means that I shall be playing with labels forever more…
The secret is out! The Secret Society Girl series is now a tetralogy.  Check out the Publisher’s Marketplace announcement:
Author of SECRET SOCIETY GIRL and the upcoming UNDER THE ROSE Diana Peterfreund’s next two books in the series, following an Ivy League senior’s spring break on her society’s private island, and her final challenges in tapping a new class of knights, graduating from college, and maybe even falling in love, again to Kerri Buckley at Bantam Dell, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (NA).
(Please note: the above color scheme is nothing more than a figment of the author’s imagination. Actual covers may not match.)
Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed Secret Society Girl. Your support has meant so much to me.
Happy day!
A week or so ago, someone requested a post on critique partners and someone else requested another entry into the “When Good Advice Goes Bad” series. Being the brilliant blogging mind that I am, I thought to myself: why not combine these ideas and thereby decrease my number of eligible blog topics, thus ensuring another opportunity for me to whine to Sailor Boy about not having anything to write about and for him to say, “I know, write a book and sell it, then you’ll have plenty to blog about,” which is, as we all know, Sailor Boy’s favorite topic. He has it in common with my father. And my agent.
Ahem. So I started writing about critique partners (CPs), and the entry got longer and longer and eventually I realized that I have a lot to say on the topic. Therefore, instead of one GAGB post on the subject, we’ll have several CP posts, only one of which will take the form of a GAGB. Ready? Here we go:
Critique partners: what? A CP is a person who reads your work for you before you submit it to agents/editors/what-have-you. Sometimes, they take the form of a group, whereby the word “partner” becomes “group.” Aliases include: beta readers, first readers, workshoppers. Aliases do not include “my mom” unless your mom is a writer/editor/literary critic/otherwise capable of intelligent critique.
Critique partners: why? I’ve read a lot of discussions on this topic, in blogs, on lists, and in the comment trails of pretty much every agent or industry blog I’ve seen. Some people think that critique partners can do nothing but stymie your writing, give it a “too many cooks in the kitchen” flavor, or at worst, be the blind leading the blind. I have seen this happen. But this is not an example of “critique partnering,” it’s an example of BAD critique partnering.
A good critique partner:
* Ensures you are saying what you think you are saying.
* Points out parts where you can say it better.
* Helps you figure out how to say it better.
Note: This is not anything like a complete list.
And, if you’re really lucky, like me:
* Acts as a career counselor, shoulder to cry on, cheerleader, idea bouncer, and marketing expert.
I hear you say, Diana, I can understand newbies needing CPs. They don’t have pros paid to tell them what’s wrong. But don’t you have an agent and an editor already? Don’t they read your work? What do you need another reader for? Good question. I do, in fact, have both an agent and an editor (hi, ladies!). They’re the best, and give me excellent advice on improving my work.
But in order to get the work to a stage where I am ready to show it to the pros, it needs to go through a few drafts. And though at least one of my CPs has told me I’m the harshest judge of my own work (and to her I say, um, have you seen some of those Amazon reviews?), it’s not always the easiest thing for a writer to figure out where she’s not saying what she thinks she is. Justine has an awesome blog entry, or perhaps musing, on this subject, but I can’t find the link. (J, any hints?) Sometimes we’ve used the wrong word, or forgot to inform the reader of an important fact, or accidentally made our heroine seem like a slut and our hero like a stalker (doing it on purpose is different). A CP can spot these problems before we embarrass ourselves in front of our editors and agents.
To put it bluntly, I think that agents and editors, being people who enter your life when your writing has reached a professional level, deserve to receive professional-quality work. That’s not a first draft. But you do need outside eyes on that first draft. A CP is your lab partner, the person who sees you boil over your beaker and snarf your pipette. They aren’t the one grading you, deciding whether the project is worth shopping or printing.
And sometimes, they see things that our pros do not. And sometimes, they help us realize that our pros were so right, damn it, in the following manner: Writer gets crit back from CP, who is troubled by X. Writer decides CP just doesn’t get it, and sends to CP2 without changes. CP2 loves Writer’s brilliance but has a problem with X. Writer decides that CP2, like CP, has no taste, and sends to editor. Editor says X has to go. Whereas Writer may have died on that hill had she been surprised by it, the overwhelming arguments from both CPs and editor make her realize how wrong she is about X and axes it.
And that’s just the beginning.
The best CPs don’t just fix what’s wrong with your story, they point out ways to take it to that next level. I recently read a book for a CP and it was unbelievably “clean.” Better than most of what’s on the shelves, in fact. But why stop there? Cleanliness is not, in this case, next to godliness. I want my CP’s book to be as good as possible. I have an obligation to make suggestions that will help it get there. (She does not need to take them.)* And for this reason, though a writer may outgrow a CP, they do not outgrow the need for them.
Okay, now that I’ve talked you into getting a CP, the next step is finding one. Where do you do that? Stay tuned…
Oh, and for this week’s giveaway, we have the following books: 
 
DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE is the second romance novella collection by Renee Luke. Check it out. It’s a very romance-and-food themed week here at Diana’s blog.
Enter as usual. Leave a comment in this post. Winner chosen on Friday.
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* And if you are one of those people who think that writers should sabotage other writers, and that any assistance towards other writers is “helping the competition,” and shouldn’t be done, feel free to leave this blog and never come back. I doubt I know anything that will be of assistance to you.
As some of you know, Sailor Boy and I spent six months in Australia and New Zealand in late 2003/early 2004. I fell in love with New Zealand while we were there. I love the country, the people, the culture, the atmosphere. SB tells me that before I pack my bags for good, I should remember how far south it is and think about what the weather is like in the winter.
Which is a good point, since, growing up in Florida, I never developed much of a tolerance for cold weather. For instance, I haven’t been outside in weeks.
But we were in New Zealand right about this time, at the height of their summer. I can hardly believe it was three years ago. Once we showed up in this tiny town beach town on the west coast of the south island and checked into one of their little hostels. It was a charming place, all organic gardens and vines-on-trellises and house cats. I’ve heard absolute horror stories about the hostel situations in big cities in Europe, but I found, almost without exception, that the places in Australia and New Zealand to be charming, safe, well-appointed, well run, and kind. Then again, we always chose the little indie joints over the big corporate backpackers. (We stayed in one place in Brisbane that scared the crap out of me, but it was an emergency situation).
“You’re in room 3,” said the young clerk in the charming hostel in the little town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
I held out my hand, and he looked at it curiously.
“Key?” I said.
“Key?” He cocked his head. “Oh, you mean locks. Yeah, we don’t have those here.”
“Then how do we keep our stuff safe?”
“Safe?” More head cocking. “Ohhhh, you mean crime. Yeah, we don’t have that here, either.”
Another thing they didn’t have was soda machines. Instead they had giant coolers, which they called eskies (short for eskimo), filled with ice and soda, and a little bowl on top with a taped message: SODA: 50 CENTS. I kid you not.
One of our guidebooks extolled the virtues of the caves a short hike from the village, so SB and I decided to borrow the hostel’s bikes and go on a little tour. The beach wasn’t too far away and we packed lunches to make a day of it. Unfortunately, the guidebook had been a bit vague on how to find this cave, so we decided to ask at the front desk.
The guy was as perplexed by our request for directions to the cave as he was by our request for a key. “We don’t have any caves near here.”
SB brightens, because though he thinks nothing of hanging out under 60 cubic feet of water surrounded by sharks, jellyfish, and deadly-nerve-poison-dart shooting seashells for as long as his dive charts and oxygen tank will allow, is a bit wonky about chilling inside a tunnel of rock.
I, on the other hand, love caves, and was not to be deterred. “But the guidebook says…” (I have since learned that a lot of guidebooks are written by guys sitting in rooms in New York City, who have never been to the country they are writing about, let alone the cave.)
The nice clerk pulls out a tourist map of the area. “I’ve never heard of it.”
I point on the map to a small set of squiggly lines with a dark semicircle inside one. “This looks like a cave symbol.”
“So it does.”
And off we went, Sailor Boy putting on his bravest face and me grinning wider than a cave mouth. According to the map, the trail up to the cave began inside a local dairy farm. So we parked our bikes outside the gate and walked down the dirt road towards the trail. SB had a really weird, Stepford Cow encounter that I actually caught on film (there’s nothing odder than two-hundred calves staring at you with big brown eyes) but I’m banned from showing it on the blog due to SB’s “no picture” mandate. Curses.
Eventually, we found the trail, and started walking. And walking. And walking. And the whole time, SB kept saying that maybe the clerk was right and the guidebook dude was screwing with our heads, and were we sure this was even a trail? After all, he argued, as we struggled up a particularly steep and overgrown-with-tangled-underbrush bit of trail, if there was a spectacular cave in the area, wouldn’t the local tourist industry employees be aware of its existence?
As he said this, I tripped over a log and through a bit of brambles, and into a clearing outside of the most spectacular cave either of us had ever seen. It was a cave from a children’s book illustration, all enormous arcing opening and giant stalactites dripping down like fangs from a ravenous maw. This is what it looked like:
(Yes, that’s SB behind the blue bubble.)
We were stunned. Speechless. Once, in Australia, we’d driven eight hours into the outback to see a set of highly-lauded caves, and they weren’t half so interesting as this gorgeous geological formation halfway up a mountain from a dairy farm. The cave opening was about fifty feet across, and stretched back and down into the heart of the mountain for longer than that. Here I  am standing inside:
Note the long blonde hair, tan complexion and toned physique. None of these things are the case at the moment. Man, if only I had the chance to be an itinerant backpacker in the middle of the summer for a few months right before the wedding. I’d be slammin’.
I’m standing at the farthest point in the cave that we could reach without ropes and other climbing equipment. Behind me, there’s a cliff that leads into a darker and more tunnel-like section fo the cave, a section SB and I were not stupid enough to go into without a map of said cave. (While we were in NZ, we heard news stories every week about idiot hikers getting lost in unmapped caves and almost dying before they escaped. Lucky for them, all the terrifying underground monsters live in caves in Virginia, according to Hollywood.) Sailor Boy was happy in the main cavern, since it was as spacious as a cathedral and about as bright.
We ate lunch in the cool shade, then hiked back out, still marveling that such a glorious place could be completely unknown to the folks at our hostel. In America, they’d be selling tickets. In Australia, we’d have driven half-way to Alice Springs to see it. In New Zealand, it was just a tiny mark on a tourist map outside a dairy farm. We edged past the cows, who ignored us this time (phew!) and spent the rest of the afternoon biking around, sampling the fruits on the “take as many plums as you want for a dollar” table (which was about 65 cents) outside of everyone’s front lawn, and going up to the shore for some ice cream (Hokey Pokey, of course, which is the best ice cream flavor EVER) and looking at the penguins that lived on the beach.
Late that evening, we returned to the hostel, and showed the pictures of the cave to the clerk. He was duly impressed, and promised that he’d point the place out as a decent attraction to future visitors.
Oh yeah, I’d totally write a New Zealand guidebook. But neither SB nor me can now remember what town we were in. 
 I am thrilled to death today for three reasons:
1. Gena Showalter has hit the New York Times Extended bestseller List (#32) with her book, The Nymph King!!!!!!!!!!!! Go congratulate her.
 2. My dear friend, standing RWA roommie and critique partner, C.L. Wilson, sent me a picture of her signing her first book contract. Her romantic fantasy series TAIREN SOUL was bought at auction a few months ago and will be released in two back-to-back editions of achingly lyrical prose, thrilling adventure, exquisite world-building and heart-pounding romance at the end of the year. (And you can bet I’ll be promoting it something fierce when it comes out, because I adore this story.) That is the stuffed-animal equivalent of a Tairen there in the pic with her. The real Tairen is both fiercer and sexier, but no less cuddly.
3. [redacted] secrets, secrets…
What’s YOUR wonderful news?
(No, the irony that a post about getting to the point is a multi-parter is not lost on me.)
Carrie, in her post about putting down books, talks at length about pacing in terms of getting to the point. If your book has a particular hook, she says, you shouldn’t wait to get us to that point in the story.
On Monday we discussed this in general terms. Getting to the story question, avoiding extraneous backstory, sprinkling characterization in, etc. Note: I’m a big believer that you have to care about a character before you can care what happens to her. How the reader goes about caring doesn’t much matter. He can feel sympathy for her, or like her, or identify with her — any number of things. And depending on how this is approached, it can be done very quickly. It can be done in a line, in the midst of an action sequence, you name it. But however you choose to do it, it should not be done at the expense of the story.
In her post, Carrie discusses getting to the point and avoiding teasing the reader about a surprise she knows is coming, in terms of my debut:
I think a perfect example of this is Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl. The whole book is about the main character getting tapped into the elite, previously all male secret society. We know this from the blurb. Of course Diana can’t just have that be the very first page (actually, I’m sure she could have, but she chose not to). Instead, the character thinks she’s being tapped for another society.
Aww, thanks. I’m glad it worked for you!
I was very conscious of this during writing, especially since I knew that a large portion of the book would concern itself with the juicy minutiae of secret society life — Amy getting interviewed, Amy getting tapped, Amy getting initiated, etc.* So I do make a point of saying that on the first page. The prologue, where Amy speaks directly to the reader, foreshadows the event on which my hook is based, dispels the suspense, and gives us a glimpse into the heroine’s “ordinary world.” I think the misdirection works better if you give them a little something to tide them over first first, as I did in the prologue.**
A great example of this is the first Men in Black movie. The opening scene shows the MIB killing an alien, so in the first scene with Will Smith, where he is chasing what he thinks is an ordinary criminal, we aren’t bored. We know he will eventually figure out it’s an alien, but we’re having a lot of fun while we wait and see how. I’m working a similar situation in SSG. We know, if not from the blurb, then from the prologue, that Amy is going to be tapped into Rose & Grave. She doesn’t, but it’s amusing to watch her figure it out.
At the same time, this can’t go on too long, or the character will begin to look stupid. The first chapters of the book also covered several details that I find most fascinating about society life: the fact that societies interview you without revealing who they are, and the campus culture at schools where there organizations are high profile. What is happening to her goes against everything she understands about her college. In this light, the confusion makes more sense and highlights one of the themes of the series: how Amy’s life in the society intersects and conflicts with her barbarian life.
If this was all the first few chapters were about I would have been chomping at the bit. I’d have wanted to hit Amy over the head and say “yo, figure it out!” Instead Diana made these scenes pull double and triple duty – introducing us to Amy: her world, her goals, her reality – really letting us get to know Amy so that we understand what it means when she finally figures out what’s up. So those first chapters aren’t just us wondering what society Amy’s been tapped into, it’s about Amy’s life as a whole. In the same way the book isn’t only about the society, but choices that Amy has to make about her life. As readers, we weren’t just sitting around waiting for Amy to figure out what we already knew.
I’m really glad Carrie noticed this. It goes back to the “ordinary world” scene I was talking about earlier. I knew that Amy’s life, once she met the dynamic society members, was going to be a whirlwind. I had to make sure that her barbarian friends, Lydia and Brandon, were emphasized as early as possible. Readers care about whoever they meet first. If they are already caring about George, they won’t believe me when I say that Amy cares about Brandon more. They don’t know Brandon more, and it will ring false that we’re supposed to care about him.
In Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld, the main character, Tally, talks to her best friend Peris right in the beginning. It was essential that she do this before she and her new best friend, the also-ugly Shay, really bonded. Otherwise, we may not believe later that Peris can talk Tally into betraying her new friend so she can be with him again.*****
But it’s tricky to get all this information across — characters, worldbuilding, etc. and not bore the reader to death before you get to the point. I was watching the DVD extras for The Notebook, and I have to say, it’s made me a bit of a fan of Nicholas Sparks. He talks in the commentary about having this whole chapter where Noah is in the war and explaining what happens to him and then, as he was revising, he thought to himself that, though interesting, it said nothing about the core focus of the story, which was the romance, so he cut it down from 9 pages to 6, and then from 6 to one, and so on, until he was left with one sentence about having a book of poetry that “once took a bullet for him in the war.” That was a great piece of advice, about really concentrating on the story, and trying to make anything that informs the character do as much work as possible in as little space. Noah: Whitman fan and WWII vet.
It’s hard to do what Sparks did — to cut out ten pages of your book at a go. Whenever I cut a scene out of a book, I miss it like a limb. I can feel its ghost every time I read the place where the scene went. I have trouble remembering that it’s not there anymore. But figuring out a way to get the information across in the shortest, easiest way and not belabor your points is essential to commercial fiction.
On Monday, I said: No, I’m not going to tell you when is too long. It’s entirely dependent on the story. But ASAP is my own personal rule. I’ve been known to rewrite books so things happen sooner, sooner sooner.
Still, it’s not cut and dry. That’s where the “AP” part of ASAP comes in. Sometimes, drawing it out a little bit makes the story stronger. Pacing isn’t only about going faster. Sometimes, it’s about going more slowly. How many times have you read a book and thought it felt rushed?
So, I have a character who, according to the hook of my book, which is stated clearly in both the cover copy and the first page, joins the most powerful society on campus. I name this society on the seventh page of text (which is page 11). I cast doubt on Amy’s assumptions about another society six pages later, and reveal it’s Rose & Grave who taps her about halfway through chapter two, on page 31. By the end of chapter two, she’s been tapped.
But what else has happened in those two chapters? As Carrie pointed out, we are learning about Amy’s character, her goals and internal conflicts (i.e., Brandon), and we’re also learning about the world in which she lives, and the society that she’s a part of… but we’re also setting the stage for her future intrigue. Though neither Amy nor the reader knows it at the time, they’re also being introduced to two other central characters in the story, and gaining insight into their relationship and very different personalities.
Being a storyteller is about making all of these choices, and balancing them so as to create the desired effects, and one size will not fit all. Pacing is a tool in the writer’s arsenal.
When I critique, or revise, or read, and find myself thinking about pacing problem, I most often think that the pace at the beginning should speed up, and at the end should slow down. I’m not sure why this is. I think because at the beginning I’m waiting for stuff to happen, I want to find a reason to get lost in the story, and at the end, I care so much, I want to savor every bit, I want the fun to never end. What do you think?
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*That’s part of the hook as well: it’s an insight into this secret world.
**Some people are militantly anti-prologue. This is because there are a whole lotta prologues out there that are excruciatingly unnecessary. Sometimes, new writers think that books have to have a prologue, and so call what should be chapter one a prologue. Other people use a prologue to dump all kinds of backstory. I’m not anti-prologue, but I think they should be used sparingly and wisely.
***But it was not essential for us to see how friendly she and Peris once were. That’s too far back in the story. Start at the moment of change. For Tally, it was being alone after her other friends had gone pretty, and meeting Shay, who never wanted to be pretty.
Carrie blogged about putting down unread books (or not) the other day, and she’s so smart and with it* that I think everyone should go read what she wrote right now. She talks about what she’s learned about her own writing based on analyzing what has made her put down a book.
One of the reasons she spoke about is about teasing the reader with a plot development they know is coming because it’s part of the hook. She writes:
…if the reader knows the hook is coming don’t make like it’s some big surprise to the reader. [bolding Diana's] And don’t make that the only thing we’re reading for either…::snip::… (this is my personal back cover blurb rule: if the reader will know something by reading the back cover blurb, don’t drag it out in the book – or at least don’t make that be the only reason the reader is turning pages cause there will be no payoff).
Which is excellent advice, but pretty much impossible to follow. By the time most authors get their back cover blurb, the story is in galley stage and they have no control over rewriting the story. I know more than one author who has despaired about the fact that entire plot twists are neatly summarized on the back cover copy of their books. Sometimes they are successful in getting it changed to a non-spoiler blurb, and sometimes they live with people complaining that they wait until the end of the book to admit that the nice-looking, quiet boy running the hotel is actually both himself AND his murderous mother.**
Often, the people writing back cover blurbs haven’t even read the book, just the synopsis, so they don’t know how important or surprising certain plot elements are supposed to be (yet another reason why synopses are so very important). So maybe the advice should be: back cover blurbs shouldn’t talk about stuff that happens at the end of the book.
Bad back cover blurbs are like those movie previews that show every good line from the film. As a reader, I think the perfect back cover blurb won’t reveal (though it may hint at) anything that happens after the midway point in a book. (As a writer, I think this goes back to structure and the idea that what happens in the second two acts of your story should be a result of what you’ve set up in the first two acts.)
I also think that whatever happens in the beginning of said back cover blurb needs to happen as close to the start of the story as you can make it. (In keeping with Carrie’s words that I bolded above.) If you’ve got a hook for your story, say, the book is about a girl who is turned into a vampire, you can’t wait for 100 pages to have the vampires show up. This isn’t about the blurb, it’s about reader expectations.
This is why so many romance writers talk about the “rule” of having the characters meet in the first chapter. No, it’s not a rule, and you don’t have to do it, but the people picked up the book for a romance, so they don’t want to wait too long to see some sparks flying.***
Carrie goes on to talk about this issue in regards to my debut, and we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Meanwhile, what do you think about reader expectations, hooks, and back cover blurbs?
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*And I’m not just saying that because she managed to praise my book in teh process. Shameless I may be, but not that shameless.
**Actually, I don’t know what the book jacket of that novel said, as I haven’t read it.
I just saw the movie.
***No, I’m not going to tell you when is too long. It’s entirely dependent on the story. But ASAP is my own personal rule. I’ve been known to rewrite books so things happen sooner, sooner sooner.
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This week’s winner of the Book Pimp Giveaway is…
LIS
Sorry, I meant to write this whole entry on the care and feeding of critique partners, as well as how to spot them in the wild, but then I got distracted. You’ll have to wait until later. (Saturday)
Meanwhile… the drawing for this week’s Book Pimp Giveaway will happen this afternoon. Get your entries in on Monday’s post now!
 Dreams and Desires: A Collection of Romance and Erotic Tales
True love, freedom, money, knowledge, revenge… Dreams and desires of the ordinary woman, or man. From best friends who discover love to a bank teller who exacts revenge to a succubus who loves art more than men, this collection of nineteen stories celebrates the attainment of all one can dream or desire. Which one do you secretly yearn for?
By purchasing this collection, you can help turn someone’s nightmare into the pursuit of dreams. Every year, four million women are assaulted by their partners. At Freya’s Bower, we want to do our part to bring this statistic down to zero. To this end, all net proceeds from every Dreams and Desire anthology purchased will go to a battered woman’s shelter. Through education and support, we can make a difference.
Here are the authors and stories included in this collection:
“Forest for the Trees”–Jenna Bayley-Burke (sweet, contemporary)
“Song Without Words”–Faith Bicknell-Brown (sweet, contemporary)
“Love @ First Site”–Amanda Brice (sweet, chick lit)
“The Christmas Prize”–Sela Carsen (sweet, contemporary)
“Romance for One”–Rachelle Chase (spicy, chick lit)
“Confessions of a Bombshell Bandit”–Gemma Halliday (sweet, chick lit)
“The Velvet Mask”–Candace Havens (sweet, contemporary)
“Road of Misgivings”–Zinnia Hope (sweet, contemporary)
“To The Core”–Jackie Kessler (tangy, paranormal)
“Taking the Alleys”–Susan Lyons (sweet, contemporary)
“Brushstrokes”–Richelle Mead (spicy, historical paranormal)
“Red’s Merry Mischief”–Debbie Mumford (tangy, fantasy)
“Baring it All for Mr. Right”–Rhonda Stapleton (sweet, chick lit)
“The Wedding Policy”–Bebe Thomas (sweet, historical)
“Blood and Feathers”–Emily Veinglory (sizzling, paranormal/gay)
“The Mirror”–Sasha White (sizzling, contemporary)
“The Reluctant Bridesmaid”–Lois Winston (sweet, chick lit)
“The Forge: Jezren Dark Sky”–Shaunna Wolf (tangy, sci fi/fantasy)
“Secret Valentines”–Kit Wylde (sweet, contemporary)
Want to read interviews with all the authors? Check out Amanda Brice’s interview marathon series at her blog.
So you can see that there’s a little something for everyone here. The book is also available in a variety of formats, from ebook ($7.99) to paperback ($19.95) to hardcover ($29.95), which sounds steep, but it’s for a good cause.
Here’s what others are saying:
“DREAMS AND DESIRES features terrific short stories ranging from sweet to sizzling and penned by some of the leading lights in today’s romance and erotica genres. Buy it to help a great cause, read it for the great stories!”
~ Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of VERTIGO and HOW NANCY DREW SAVED MY LIFE
“With a story to suit every appetite, Dreams and Desires is a delicious collaboration. Kudos to the authors for taking readers on a delightful journey while promoting a wonderful cause.”
~ Joanne Rock, author of DON’T LOOK BACK and THE KNIGHT’S COURTSHIP
“From the first story to the last, these stories are filled with hope, love, and the promise of the future… I highly recommend Dreams and Desires for those of you who cherish your romances… a fantastic read…”
~ Rose, Reviewer for Romance at Heart
“Anthologies can be risky for a reader – will all of the stories live up to the same high expectations? Will the next story be as good – or better – than the one just finished? With Dreams and Desires , the answer is a resounding yes; I’ll be looking for many of these authors in the future. When you reach the end of Dreams and Desires , you’ll be left craving more of these short reads.”
~ 5 Kisses from Deborah Barone, Romance Divas
I’m off to buy my copy right now.
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