Ham and travel.

Say what?
This pix of sooooo many hams?
The Boqueria off Las Ramblas in central Barcelona!
Jamon, anyone? Iberico ham, cured to a melt-in-your mouth savory delight.
Expensive? As you can see from the signs, ABsolutely!
One of the many delights of travel is getting to taste the delicacies of other countries.
And since I like to eat....
What did I partake of in happy, hot Barcelona?
Anchovies. Fresh. NOT like those we get in the bottle or can. Sweet, crisp, large and used in everything.
Clams. You could tell these tiny shell-dwellers had come from the sea just hundreds of feet away that morning.
Lobster! Succulent.
Paella. Savory broth with prawns and clams and sausage, then done to a fine point.
CHOCOLATE! So many chocolatierias in Barcelona mean you could re-name the city! The finest I tasted were right around the corner from the Picasso Museum, where a 5" diameter and 1/2" thick disk (NOT kidding!) of luscious stuff cost 2 Euro. oh. be. still. my. heart. And it came in white, dark and milk chocolate, with or without almonds, walnuts, chocolate chips. I salivate to tell you.
And for 2.4 Euro you had a similar selection of truffles, filled with alternative chocolate creams.
Just as yummy were the luscious caramels made by the monks atop Mount Serrat. Making candy, aside from their publishing business, is how the Benedictine monks support their more than 1000-year-old monastery compound. Pictures of those to come!
And in the meantime, if you look for a new goody to read, do try my latest, LADY STARLING'S STOCKINGS, 99 Cents in Kindle http://tinyurl.com/3orc36e , Smashwords

and AllRomanceebooks.com at http://tinyurl.com/3h2b4b3 

EPIC Awards Finalist

Woman on Fire

is one of the finalists for Contemporary Romance!

It is wonderful to be a finalist in this competition...was one last year, but didn't win...so many fabulous books were entered!  At least this year I am not up against any of my friend in this category, but the competition is gonna be tough.  

On another note, I will be flying to Akron Ohio for the third annual Romanticon convention. I Plan to party til I drop and enjoy every single minute!  If you are coming to Romanticon, look me up.  We can get together for lunch or gather in a pal's room and have a blast.

I'm taking my laptop with me, so I will be taking loads of photos and uploading them to my website. 

Have a wonderful end of September!

Hugs!

Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com

Musings

Lots of interesting goings on in the Brice household.

DH and I attended the Erotic Authors Association’s first annual convention in Sin City (Las Vegas, NV). Met lots of other erotic authors and hooked up with Tina Haveman, Publisher of eXtasy Books (EB) and Kelli Collins, Editor-in-Chief at Ellora’s Cave (EC. Passed out trading cards to a lot of people, including three young women celebrating one’s upcoming wedding and another group who were attending a belly dancing convention. Fun people!

On the not so much fun side (although I didn’t experience it myself) other EAA attendees heard the usual derogatory remarks from people who neither read nor appreciate our efforts. Too bad these folks can’t take our mothers’ advice: If you can’t say something nice, keep your damn trap shut!

On a happier note, I have an EB novel—Her Virtual Ecstasy—that will release on October 1, 2011. Another EB novel—Her Virtual Frenzy—is under construction and the Muse is behaving like an angel (If I’m mixing my deities, sorry.) so I’m on target to make the December 15, 2011 release date. This one has a touch of holiday cheer I hope you’ll enjoy, Irisa, my heroine, is definitely enjoying all three lovers. His Virtual Gift is also under construction—targeted for release on Valentine’s Day, 2012.

And then I wrote—well, I have two other novels at EC. It Takes a Thief (formerly titled Emerald) is awaiting edits. Temptress of Time (once titled That Other Diane) needs massive rewrites, but Kelli’s busy with other authors, so I can get my other commitments out of the way before I tackle ToT. Whew!

DH has been bitten by the Muse. Has complete one ms he hopes to submit to EC—once he cleans up the punctuation issues I refuse to do for him. Cruel? Yes! But I already have a full plate. He’s also busy working on a second novel.

For my part, I’m glad he has something to keep him out of my hair—er, keep him occupied. In the meantime, I’m working my fingers to the bone and emptying ink pens at an alarming rate.

The above cover is for my October 1, 2011 release. Stop by my website for a blurb and excerpt. Linger for a look at what else is happening.

Dee Brice

Erotic Fantasies Where Nothing is Forbideen

History and the movies?

As a professionally trained historian (with grad degree in the Old Stuff), I love to write historical fiction and read it.

Recently, a professor of American history gave a big slam on prime time TV to the new movie, THE HELP. Her critique was, IMHO, the one of the "More Knowledgeable Academician" telling the lowly world how inaccurate, improper and downright disgraceful the film was to have portrayed that time and place and characters with joy, humor or compassion. Her conclusion was that the film is a gross glossing over of the truth.

Now, first, I must tell you, I read this book months ago. Loved it for its humor, compassion and finely drawn characters. Most of all, I loved it for its portrayal of the times and the milieu. I lived through that time and I remember it well.  And while I lived in a fully integrated city and went to public school in one, I also went to college with women (and men) from the Deep South. I know what my friends thought and how they lived. I listened to them as we watched riots and hosings, the aftermath of the murder of Medgar Evers and Dr. King. I visited the South with my friends, met their parents and siblings. And while I am not a professional historian of slavery in America, I can say all of the following with certitude:

1. No book, non-fiction or fiction, can portray the total truth of a period or a people.

2. One book, non-fiction or fiction, can explore only one angle, hopefully, well.

3. One author, especially a fiction author, does not aspire to write the definitive picture of a person, place or period.  (If she does, she'll never finish that book.)

4. The author's job is to pick one premise, one theme and one or two morals of the story. If she's doing her job well, she's going to use the best of her talents to accomplish that limited goal.

5. This author chose to portray a group of white women and a group of black women whose intertwining relationships were representative of a culture and a period.

I think she accomplished her goal well.

If she didn't accomplish this TV historian's goal well, she didn't have to. 

And clearly, since THE HELP continues to strike a chord in hundreds of thousands of people who have read and continue to read it--and smile and laugh and shake their heads and feel the pain of those characters--the author did her job.

That is the only thing she was supposed to do.

The only job any author of fiction has or should.

Been sooooo lazy...

I have not been keeping my blogs up...

But I have been working...Hard Work, Hot Boss came out in print on August 4, 2011, and Uncertainly Yours is coming soon.  It's been a long, hot dry spell for me over the past year. Health issues and lack of energy are partially to blame, but mostly, I have been too doggoned lazy.  Been under loads and gobs of stress, and got caught by a gnarly case of shingles a couple of months back.  Nobody ever explained that getting rid of the shingles is only half the work...you then have to go through a month or three of "post-herpetic pain" from the damaged nerves. Gah! Wouldn't you know?

Since the meds are far worse than the discomfort and pain, I opted to tough it out. Oooowwwww!

I am going to Romanticon though, so drop me an e-mail if you are going, too, and would enjoy getting together.

Hugs!

Fran Lee

http://www.franleeromance.com

Sex is serious business. It’s enthralling, enthusiastic, invigorating and enervating. In addition to being fun, it’s funny. Which is what makes my erotic romances different from others’. Humor—even in my darkest erotic romance—is my “brand.” My author’s voice.

Some people upon meeting me express surprise that I write erotic romance. My response to that observation is this: I’m not so old I’ve forgotten the joys of making love. Nor am I so young that I’m embarrassed writing about those joys. In very explicit terms!

I’ve written short contemporary, romantic suspense, Regency and Victorian historicals. I never sold. Now I write erotic romances. My sixteenth book—Her Virtual Ecstasy—will release October 1, 2011. I think you can see why I write what I write. I have two more books—It Takes a Thief and Temptress of Time that are contracted, but don’t have release dates yet.

Why do I write what I write?

· Freedom of language: To ensure I avoid redundancy, I have an American Dictionary of Slang where I find lots of synonyms for sex parts. I also have a Dictionary of Euphemisms, which I don’t use much if at all.

· Freedom to fantasize: I remember being really angry at Erica Jung for revealing so many female fantasies in her novel Fear of Flying. Now I appreciate the freedom to imagine anything—and to write about it.

· Luck: In 2005 I ran in to Lynn LaFleur at the RWA conference in Reno, NV. She suggested I attend the “spotlight” on Ellora’s Cave Publishing. I won an anthology, loved every story in it, and wondered if I could write a story as funny and HOT as Charlotte Boyett Compo’s The Windsday Club. Inspired as I hadn’t been in a long time, I came home and wrote Passion’s Four Towers, which became my first sale ever.

· Freedom to explore new (for me) subgenres: I write Historical Fantasy because I can play fast and loose with historical details—except for certain words and making sure they were in use at the time. I really admire all you wonderful authors who write historically accurate and creative stories as well. I do try to stay accurate with clothes and weaponry, but the rest is out of my own imagination. I started writing Futuristic Fantasy because I needed something to occupy my time while I waited to hear about my historical fantasy. Both genres are a lot of fun to write. I probably will never write a paranormal, even though I read them a lot.

Since I first wrote this, I have written and sold a paranormal: Chosen. It’s available from eXtasy Books.

· Challenges: I love compound/complex sentences. Most e-publishers do not. Even commas are frowned on.

· Naming Creativity: I live with my Character Naming Sourcebook from The Writer’s Digest. I don’t even start writing until I’ve named all my major and most of my secondary characters. Naming is fun. For example, Passion’s Four Towers three brothers’ names are variations on the word “spear.”

Pesky little issues of self-publishing: Q & A

While I dip my toe in the waters of self-publishing (and I write about them on my blog beginning 7.17.11 at http://cerisedeland.blogpsot.com ), I thought I would quickly list of few issues that occur to me as vital within the industry to note:
1. Like any other venture, have a GOAL. For this book, for this venture, which is going to cost you a lot of time and money, hope and aspiration, do have an idea of what you wish to accomplish.

Is it to increase your readership, assuming you are already published and have books out which new readers may now buy?
Is it to launch yourself into a new venture and learn a new business model?
Is it to establish yourself in a new medium with a low price point?

Only by having a clear goal can you have a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that your time and effort were well spent.
2. Understand that your sales may not come to you all at once within a few months of publication.
WHY?
Because digital life is long. Eternal, it would seem. PRINT life, as an author friend of mine often says, has the shelf life of celery.
Be patient. If you build it, readers will come.
3. How many will come?
Ah. That depends. On your promotion, your visibility and of course, on the quality of the work.
The visibility and promo, to some extent, you can control.
The quality and how it is received by others? Not so much.
WHY?
Because everyone has an opinion and they are entitled to it, and reviewers abound. The good. The Bad. The ugly. The unprincipled.  What for one is a 5 star, is for another a 3 star. How can that be, you ask?
As a multi-pubbed author in print and in e-book, I can only repeat: everyone has an opinion. Those opinions can be as varied as flakes of snow.
You just have to put your big girl or boy pants on and live with it.
4. Promo!
Oh, boy. My only thought on this...at the moment...is do not spend yourself blind. Choose a few good places to promote and advertise and get the heck out of Dodge!
You can go nuts AND BROKE.
amen.
Want more of my journey and a blow-by-blow of what to do, how, when and how much to spend?
Go to my blog (addy above) and begin with post for 7.17.11 and all posted with "self-pub" in the blog labels.
Want to see how I did with this book? Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DA0200/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cerdel-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005DA0200
Ciao! Happy new ventures!