Top Five Writing Quotes

      “Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.”

 John Jakes quotes

    Of all the writing quotes there are, this one is my absolute favorite. First of all, I do love John Jakes and his resplendent Civil War saga, The North and The South. But that's not all. The themes and observations he imparts about human nature, about good, evil and indifference, about courage and despair, are timeless. And this quote for me, encompasses the means he used to get to that end. 

“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”

 Oscar Wilde      TWEET THIS                                                  

Cocky bastard, eh? To have that level of self-confidence is something we can all only wish for. Still, it amuses me when I'm having doubts about my role in the greater scheme of things, to remember I don't have to be a genius if I use my talent for writing.  

      “The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean”

 Robert Louis Stevenson                                                   

 Boy, how many times have I read back over what I've written and said wondered what I meant? Working on it, though. Putting the words together in the right way, to capture every nuance of the image in your head...I agree with him. It is a challenge. 

     “I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.”

 Oscar Wilde      

Uh huh. It's a big club. 

      “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”

 E. L. Doctorow                                                  

 Perfect. Like having a bucket of legos and creating whatever you want. It starts as a house then evolves into a space ship, or a robot, or a whatsit. 

     “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay”

 Mark Twain quotes

                                                            

*Sigh* 

Wise man, Mark. 

Take A Look at the Back List: Donovan's Deal

LOOK

Look! A Writing Challenge!  This is revised from a challenge that was circulating in 2012.

The Rules are simple:

 Find the word LOOK in one of your back list books, and then post the three paragraphs surrounding it. Post your favorite three, the ones that are most intriguing and then tag three other authors who might like to share their back-list. I'm tagging Em Woods, Sara York, and Silvia Violet. 

This excerpt is from Donovan's Deal Truth or Dare #6  

Interesting. "Forgot my wallet. What do you mean you can't afford to support me? I have a very decent salary for the work I do as Dan's assistant, and Donovan and I are doing just fine at supporting ourselves." Of course, they'd do much better at it if Donovan would just use some of the god damn money from the trust for things like Matt's school and soccer fees, house payments and vehicles. No. Not his antiquated fossil. Donovan had strong ideas about his role as the man of the family, about providing for his loved ones. Mischa pulled a wad of hundred dollar bills from the leather wallet and tossed them on the table in front of him. He cast an inquiring glance at Terry to see if he planned to answer the question.

Terry grabbed the wallet back muttering dire insults under his breath. "You're paying that back. And quit looking at me. I'm not in financial difficulties."

Mischa smirked and clicked his piercing loudly. "You'll end up owing it to me in a few hours anyway!" But he noted the lie in Terry's eyes, and made a note to sound out Dex and Trick about what was going on his brother's house.

February Projects

February Projects

Hi everyone!

Come on in and sit a spell. *sips coffee* Ahhh. That's good stuff. I’m working my fingers to the bone this month... well, not really. I'm working at adding another book to my paperback collection: Going to skip over Taking the Dare for now until I can do the whole series...Breathless Press currently holds a paper rights contract on the first three books and I need to explore the options there. The next paperback release will be Mark's Opening Gambit, not sure exactly when as it needs to be re-edited, formatted and cover art designed. Definitely by the end of the month though.

I'm working on a series of regency romances with a friend, we're planning six titles, three M/M, which I'll write, and three mmf, which she will write. We're calling it Behind Closed Doors, The Brigstock Family. The first book, Randall's Romance is nearly complete and I'm really enjoying revisiting the regency setting. (I wrote Less Than All last year and it was my first venture into the realm of Regency England) This is all first draft work, so of course you won't be seeing it until maybe June.

Speaking of regencies, I am adding a new title to my Rake series this month. This one is called Tailored for You, and will feature Gavin's visit to his tailor. *fans face* As you know, these naughty little stories are just for fun pieces. Quick and sexy, Heated Exchanges can take place anywhere, any time, between any characters.

And Story Orgy is working on a new anthology, this one based on prompts provided by readers in the form of song titles form the 50's. I’m basing my story around the song Dream Lover by Bobby Derrin. It's turning out to be a very different sort of story, more than a little surreal. So far I've had call to draw on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the poetry of Robert Frost, Homer, and L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz. Should be fun. I'm enjoying writing it, anyway. Deadline is April first, and I need to add another 3K this month to bring it to the required 10K. Should definitely be doable.

Last but not least- I'll be outlining the third Chances Are story this month. I’m not going to tell you many details, because, well...the second story isn't out yet and I don't want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that it isn't following the outline I planned when I plotted out the five story romance ARC. *chuckles* That's okay. I have ideas for a bit of a fling for one of the other characters... But that will have to wait till later.

I’m limiting myself to three projects a month. The plan is to write 35K a month, 3 stories, one of 20K, one 10K, one 5K. Let's see how that goes for 2013, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by!

Lee

Recent Releases

Chances Are book #1...

Pulp Friction: Where Hardboiled Meets Erotic

The Accident

"Fine never meant fine when Shane said it. Fine meant "Fuck off, asshole.""

The Aristocrat & His Servant

Pulp Friction Heated Exchange: Leaving you satisfied for now

Taking a LOOK at the backlist: Keeping House

LOOK

Look! A Writing Challenge!  This is revised from a challenge that was circulating in 2012.

The Rules are simple:

 Find the word LOOK in one of your back list books, and then post the three paragraphs surrounding it. Post your favorite three, the ones that are most intriguing and then tag three other authors who might like to share their back-list.  I'm tagging Tom Webb, Angel Martinez, and Havan Fellows. 

  

My excerpt is from KEEPING HOUSE, available at

Amazon

All Romance eBooks

Bookstrand

Breathless Press

“Sorry to wake you, Mr. Holloway,” he called, grateful that his voice came out sounding masculine instead of squeaky. Knowing there was nothing he could do to disguise his erection in his tight clothes; he turned quickly back to survey the jumbled interior of the small van.

 He heard Donovan’s approaching footsteps squelching in the soggy leaves and looked down to see the man’s long, elegant feet in flip-flops parked next to his own combat boots. Fuck. He even had sexy feet? There really was no justice in the world. If there were, the man would have some visible flaw to counteract his gorgeousness. Maybe he’s got a tiny cock, and that’s God’s little joke, or he prefers to bottom, too. In which case even if I got him into bed neither of us would know what the fuck to do with the other.

 Coughing, he turned to his friends. “Mr. Holloway, these are my friends, who were kind enough to help me move.” Actually, he’d quite recently discovered that they were his only real friends, but Donovan didn’t need to know that the hundreds of hangers-on who’d been happy to party with him when he was flush had disappeared when the money had gone. He pulled Bella forward from where she tried to hide behind him, “This is Bella, and that’s Dex and Trick.” He waved in the direction of the twins hoping their behavior at the moment was discreet enough not to turn Donovan off the idea of letting them in his house.