Getting That Email

Okay, you’ve subbed a story and are waiting for that email coming back to you saying if it was accepted, rejected or offered a rewrite/resubmit. The first email you get usually just lets you know that the editor received the story. You open it with your heart in your throat even knowing that there is no way they actually read the story yet, but you still hope against hope that they want to give you a contract. So, you open it and of course all it says is they received your story. Ok, you can breathe a little again and you do the polite thing emailing them back telling them thank you for letting you know they received it. And then the wait begins again. Anytime you see an email response from that editor you will hesitate to open it because you’ll be afraid of a rejection.

I’m fairly new, but I can say that the feeling does not go away. I subbed two stories around the same time when I started. The first one I subbed off a pitch I did at the Lori Foster Event. I sent it in and waited. Then I saw a call for a sweet story for an anthology and thought, what the heck. I subbed something to them as well. A few weeks later I heard back from the sweet and was told to revise and resubmit. I was a little discouraged, but it wasn’t a no. I fixed my story, sent it in and waited again. I go away with my family and happen to check my email. It was on a Sunday and I almost didn’t want to look when I saw the email afraid it would be a no, but it was accepted. I was so excited that my first story was accepted. Of course it was my short for the anthology and I still had to wait on my full. The next day I see the email for me full. I’m having a panic attack. Could I get two yes’ in a matter of days? No, I wasn’t that lucky! lol The editor turned it down, BUT she offered me a lot of great suggestions.

Talk about your highs and lows in a matter of days. I put my full aside and focused on my anthology which is out and already getting great reviews. It is number 3 at Freya’s Bower for their anthology section. I’m very pleased with how my first story is being received.
Now I’m waiting to have my very own story out and watching my emails carefully. Is it possible to become addicted to that feeling you get right before you open an email that will tell you if you were accepted or not? It must be because we all keep doing it!

Have a great Tuesday everyone and good luck to those waiting to hear if their story was accepted.

Hello A.P. Miller!

Over the next several weeks I’ll be giving you a peek into who the authors on this blog are. I asked them some quirky questions and got plenty of interesting answers! Today we start off with the writing team A.P. Miller.
Welcome AP Miller!
AP Miller writes for the following publisher(s): Extasy Books, Devine Destinies, Noble Romance, Red Rose and BDSM Books.Patti’s favorite color is green, Andrew’s is blue, both like chocolate ice cream and both are dog and cat people. When it comes to having pets Patti once owned a skunk and a snake. They prefer sunny and warm weather, but if they could live anywhere in the universe, they’d live in NYC because as they put it, “it's the greatest city in the world.” Patti is a night owl and Andrew is a morning person and their favorite day of the week is Saturday. When asked if athletic shoes are sneakers or tennies and if a soft drink is called soda or pop, they responded: Sneakers & Soda
Here’s a scenario posed to the author: “You’re at a conference and an agent comes up to you and says, “I’ve seen your name on the web. I’m interested in taking you on as a client. You have a couple of minutes to wow me to convince me that I should.” You can only plug one book in this short amount of time. What book would you plug to land this contract and why?” APMiller’s response: Title of book Lone Huntress ~ Tag line: Heroines aren't born...they are made. Lisa Huntress was forever left with a memory she will never forget. ~ Blurb: Lisa Huntress is a legendary bounty hunter in the distant future, whose armored visage and legendary "gunhand" strike terror into the hearts of the pirates and hostile aliens she fights. Yet behind the armor is an incredibly beautiful body, but one she has been deluded into believing to be ugly, for not conforming to narrow standards of beauty defined by others. Born on the planet Gaia, and raised in a civilization kept at a hunter-gatherer level by conscious choice, she finds herself torn from happiness and thrust into nightmare, when pirates destroy her Tribe and victimize her, until her rescue by the crude yet caring bounty hunter, Brock Masterson. Brock trains her to avenge her slaughtered kinfolk, but nothing he does can assuage the heartache of a girl torn from her homeworld, thrust from verdant rain forest into a lifestyle in high tech cities, and the infinite depths of lonely, cold space. With her old life gone and vengeance a bitter and unsatisfactory remedy, Lisa has no choice but to grow on her own, or else she will never know true love or happiness. ~ A perk: This is a series slated for animondays on the scifi channel.
Thanks for the information AP Miller!
~ Feel free to share if you have something in common with them ~

Writing Goals

With the New Year upon us, I have been spending the past week setting up my writing goals. Not only do I have new releases coming out at eXtasy Books, but I have decided it is time to get an agent. Well actually, I have been told by many well-intentioned writer friends it is time and, after much reflecting, I have to agree with them.

So I have vowed I will start working on my “Agent Book”. Not matter how busy I become with my other projects, I will set aside time each day to labor on that. Then the hunt will begin as I try to find an agent willing to take me on. My husband has already promised me the tax return, so I will be able to go the RWA National Convention this year. There I will stand in line with countless other authors to give my pitch to whatever agent is willing to listen. This is going to be my first time ever going to Nationals and I am so excited that I will finally be able to enjoy the experience. I have been told by others it is overwhelming, fun and life changing. I can’t wait to participate in some of the workshops and attend the many events there as well. I have always felt you can never learn too much about the craft.

In the meantime, I am happy to announce that eXtasy is going to continue releasing both my Archangel and Drone Vampire series. The fun starts January 15th with, Angelic Redemption, Book Six of the Archangel Series. Then on February 15th, Blood Fever, A Drone Vampire Chronicle will be released. I have many surprises in store for both series and I hope my readers will continue to enjoy them.

I am excited to see what the coming year will bring, not only me, but for all my writer friends at eXtasy and the Many Shades blog. I have a feeling this next chapter in our lives will be intense.

-Stephani

The Sexual Revolution

I thought I would talk about sex through the ages today. I am following the History Channel which is airing this subject all week long. Irony? It seems our ancients were just as willing and promiscuous as our present society is today.

Back in the days of Pompeii they had prostitutes. They were singled out by the way they coiffed their hair. The top would be neatly placed while the back would be displayed down along their backs. The Romans were openly sexual. They would display lust within the public eye without shame. Strange I see couples doing that very same thing today...

Society as a whole expects us to have morals and respect for the opposite sex, but there are many different kinds of relationships. Back in Rome they did have gay, and lesbian relationships. It was huge in Roman royalty just as adultry and incest was.

Society expects us to behave in public and behind closed doors yet they can't conceive the idea and the nature of what our ancestors did throughout the years.

Take the Regency period, there was more open sex then there is today. The roaring 30's brought in the Flappers, cigarettes, and sex...the 60's brought in flower power, Woodstock, drugs, heavy metal music, free love and SEX!

So what's so different about today's society? "Prudes." The part of society who would love to re-write the bible and make it law. The old farts who will continuously remind us all that sex is a bad thing, that it's a sin to lust for another person other then for the simple act of procreation.

Give me a break! Sex is what it is. It isn't something taboo or dirty. It is a normal physical act that was embedded in our brains for the sake of showing love for each other. And heck let's face it...it's fun!

So the next time your feeling lust for your special someone think back to what was done centuries ago...we are no different today then they were...

Happy New Year,

AP Miller

The Set-Up

By A.J. Llewellyn

I have well-meaning friends, I really do. I know they love me and they want me to be happy. They don't always believe I am happy being in a long-distance relationship and so they frequently try setting me up. Unfortunately, my lengthy journalism background has given me a nose for...trouble. I can smell when there's a set-up in the air. They can lie, they can bend the truth but I always know.
I have never ever been on a successful blind date. Mind you I have not hated them all because they all become fodder. My top favorite all-time worst dates however could not rival the one I had yesterday.
Seriously! And I've had some doozies. Let's see...there was the guy in London: an opera-singing taxi driver who picked me up in his taxi, the Vacant sign still on, oblivious to people trying to flag him down. Dinner was superb until he realized he wasn't going to get lucky so he took me home, picking up fares on the way because "Somebody has to pick up the tab."

He drove like a lunatic, punishing the crowded taxi as he molested Celeste Aida at the top of his voice.

Then there was the guy who was a convicted dognapper.
Oh yeah, then there was the guy who claimed to be an IRA assassin and to have spent time in the Irish Maze Prison, but knew nothing about Ireland when I asked a few general questions.
Then there was the guy who ordered a mountain of food, ate everything, even my food, then excused himself and drove away, leaving me with the check.
Oh yeah...my friends have a whole lotta 'splaining to do.
My friends decided I just had to meet their friend...let's call him Brut, because the overwhelming scent of his cologne is still on my clothes - just from sitting next to him! I can still smell it as I write this and the clothes are in the laundry hamper...
But I digress.
So the lunch date was set up at my friends' house. I dutifully dropped by Nata's Pastries and picked up a box of yummies and didn't eat a single one. I arrived at my friends' house and there he was.
He was very attractive...if you like trolls.
I stared at him. Geez...he was missing his front teeth! I almost dropped the pastry box. He was wearing shorts and work boots and a crisp white sweater. He's a building contractor and I was shocked to see a combination of muscular arms and legs and a huge beer gut. He crushed me into a painful hug.
Why oh why did my friends think I'd like him? Do I send out signals that I cherish hobos?
"Well, you're both gay," was the reply I got. Oh.
Brut told me a long and complicated story regarding the loss of his teeth. Seems his brother punched his face in after a long night of drinking.
"You'll ove him," he suddenly said and I saw my friends exchanging the uh-oh look.
"I have falsies," Brut said, producing a handsome set of choppers from his pocket. The teeth were enormous. I couldn't speak when he said the teeth hurt to wear because they were the wrong size. I'll say. The looked like horse teeth.
He asked if he could bring his dog in from the truck and my friends, eager to make everyone happy told him he could.
The dog, a big rambling beast of a thing smelled like three pigs farting and ran right through the house to the back yard where the family's pet guinea pig was apparently slumbering in her cage in a sunny spot.
I heard a scream and a squeak. We all rushed outside. There sat the dog, a look of innocence on his face, a tiny speck of brown fur in the corner of his mouth and there was the guinea pig on her back, eyes open, her cage trashed....
It was horrible but I had to keep the smile from my face. I knew this transgression meant that Brut the Troll would soon be leaving, another set-up would be mercifully over...and I could use this story as an example the next time these same friends thought to set me up with some other loon again.
"Should I leave?" Brut whispered in me ear.
"I think so," I said, one brow arched as the family's children wept for the loss of their pet.
"He was just trying to play," Brut kept saying. His protests fell on deaf ears. He did all the right things, offering to handle the guinea pig's funeral and offered to replace her.
"You can't replace Peaches," the girls sobbed.
Brut found an old lunch box in his truck and took Peaches away, his dog sedately walking beside him. Brut came back and asked for my number.
"I'll email you," I said. He will never have my number.
But he will always have that swell aftershave.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Aloha oe,

A.J.