December Quinn, Erotic Romance Writer

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Questions?
2008-06-06 19:37:00
Yes, this post is late. And yes, it's rather a sorry excuse for a post, as posts go.But it is kind of important. In a way. Or something. Hey, you know what? Go read some other blog if you don't like it. (Of COURSE I am kidding, because it makes me very sad when I think y'all are cheating on me with other bloggers.)Anyway. Because it is quite warm out again today, and because I am a bit stressed about a few things, and because I went out for a drink last night with some other Moms from Princess's school and was roundly ignored--yes, me ignored!--all night, and because I am gearing up to start my Summer Series in the next few weeks (still figuring on doing agents, unless anyone has any other suggestions)... I am opening up to questions.I'm still a little lonely from last night and want some attention, lol. No, seriously, I thought this might be fun. Maybe we can get some people to delurk? That might be fun, although Friday isn't a great day for that as my hit count falls on Frid...
More About: Questions

Sorry, wrong number
2008-06-04 15:50:00
So as I was sitting here on the couch, wracking my brain to think of a blog topic for the day, the phone rang.It wasn't for me. It was for the people who used to have our number. Two and a half years ago.I can only assume they had it for a long time, because they get more calls, even now, than we do. So many, in fact, that last year I actually spoke to them about it.What happened was, a lady who sounded quite elderly called looking for them. I repeated my usual "They don't have this number anymore" speech, and she seemed very confused. We talked for a minute and she hung up (after saying goodbye and everything, she didn't just slam the phone down.)Several minutes later the phone rang again. It was Mrs. Number . She was so sorry we were still getting her calls, they had no idea, etc. etc.I was nice about it, although I couldn't help thinking that we wouldn't be still getting their calls if they had bothered to tell people what their new number was. Their golf club called once, fo...
More About: Wrong , Wrong Number

Who do you write for? Who reads it?
2008-06-02 12:59:00
First, thanks everyone who sent me well wishes. I am feeling normal again, finally--yesterday I finally woke up and didn't feel fragile anymore, which was great.Something interesting has happened to me, which has never really happened before. My current WIP has gone off in a very odd direction, and I've realized it needs some big fixes back in the middle so I can redirect it.I'm not sure if I should be worried about that. I'm really not--at this point, although I still don't see myself as any great shakes, I'm at least confident in my ability to produce a coherent story. So this is more of an annoyance than anything else. But it is confusing. Because I've never been a plotter, and I've never had a story derail like this. Usually it just comes out, and whatever fixes need to be made--there are always fixes--are small enough that I can go back later and insert the missing facts, or whatever, and it doesn't affect the ending. This one does, or maybe I'm just being too nervous...
More About: Write

Lose Five Pounds in Five Days! The stomach flu way
2008-05-30 14:26:00
Oh, dear.I'm sorry, everyone. I thought I was feeling better on Tuesday; I rallied a bit, and was able to do my League blog post, but I did spend much of the day resting and watching lame daytime tv.Wednesday, though...Wednesday was bad. So bad that when the hubs came home from work he called the doctor, and the doctor actually made a house call to give me some sort of anti-nausea shot which did help somewhat. So bad I couldn't even read. The words just swam on the page and made me feel yucky.I have not eaten anything except a couple of Ritz crackers. I've managed to keep down some Gatorade and some Sprite. And today I even took a shower!!! which was very exciting, if a bit tiring. And yes, I lost just over five pounds (which, okay, I'd be fairly please if that sticks, I admit.)So I'm hoping I'm genuinely on the road to recovery now. Let's hope.Meanwhile, not a lot has been happening. I lost an entire week of work, not good. Well, I did manage to scrape 2k words together on T...
More About: Stomach , Days , Five Days

uhhhh
2008-05-26 14:34:00
No post today. I am too busy having the stomach flu.Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow for my League post, and will be back here Wednesday.

I'm a Winner!
2008-05-23 16:01:00
Hee! My lovely CP Anna J Evans and I decided to enter the Smart Bitches' "Silver Anus Purple Prose Contest", because we're sick, twisted girls who get our kicks that way, baby. Our entry was #1, Taint Bottomwell, and we won!!This is so awesome, because it has always been my secret, most fondly-held wish to be the possessor of a Smart Bitches Title. So I am very proud to announce you may all now refer to me as:You may call me "Lady Manholleton" or simply "Your Grace". Either is correct. (Of course if you're a regular here I give you permission to refer to me as "December Manholleton".)This tops of an awesome day. I had planned to rant today but I simply cannot dredge a rant from anywhere in my being.Last night the hubs and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, win! We loved it. Not as good as Raiders, of course. And some of the CGI was kind of bleh. But it was fun, really, really fun. So go see it.The hubs had yesterday and today off, and Monday because it's a long weekend h...
More About: Winner

Tomorrow's Post--Today
2008-05-20 22:38:00
(A little note first: Personal Demons is now available in ebook format from Fictionwise! And it's on sale this week.)Because I'm still a little freaked out, and wanted to blog about it, but didn't want to wait until tomorrow.So the hubs was upstairs putting the girls to bed, and I was standing down here in the living room grumbling because our buddy three doors down decided to mow his lawn at 8:30 at night again. (BTW, if you haven't already seen my post at the League blog, go check it out. It's about neighbors from hell, with particular emphasis on noise, with extra particular emphasis on my neighbors and their new karaoke machine and their excrable musical tastes.)So I'm grumbling, and I hear someone screaming outside on the street in front of the house. And I'm thinking, WTF is it now, because we always have people screaming on our street, or singing drunkenly, or gossiping outside our window, or whatevs.But the screaming doesn't stop. So I head for the window and look ou...
More About: Post , Today

What's erotic?
2008-05-19 17:22:00
Okay, first, a couple of newsy bits.First, tomorrow the 20th is the Miss Snark Tribute over at Pat Wood's blog. Our Pat is the Orange Prize nominated author of Lottery, a great gal, and a loyal Snarkling, and I think this is an awesome idea. We haven't all stayed in touch since Miss S left us, so I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone there. (And, shit, what is wrong with me, because I'm tearing up again. What a wimp I am, sheesh! Embarrassing.)Second, I got a great new review for Black Dragon from Enchanting Reviews. The review itself won't be up until next month, but I'm so pleased about it I wanted to share it right away:"I wish sometimes I could give a book a higher rating, 5 is as high as we go, but this story was fabulous. Ms. Quinn beautifully wove romance, heartbreak, pain, happiness, and intrigue into a beautiful tapestry of a phenomenal story. I totally loved this story. I was glued from the beginning to the end, and I loved the epilogue! This is a must read, ...
More About: Erotic

Oh, grow UP
2008-05-16 18:09:00
So something good has happened. Lori Drew has been indicted.For anyone here who doesn't know, Lori Drew is the sick, twisted excuse for a human being who drove a thirteen-year-old girl to suicide by posing as a teenaged boy of MySpace, befriending the girl, spreading her secrets, then cruelly making fun of her.Apparently drew told police she "didn't feel as guilty" as she might have, once she found out the girl had attempted suicide once before. Which makes perfect sense, really, because all feeling people let themselves off the hook when they discover the child they were manipulating was fragile to begin with, rather than simply driven to fragility by their own acts.What the fuck is the matter with this woman? What the fuck is the matter with parents like Roseana Scaduto, who not only drove her own daughter to a fistfight, but participated? When did parents start totally abdicating their responsibilities, and start behaving as though they themselves are the same age as their chil...
More About: Grow

Some random stuff
2008-05-14 17:34:00
I was going to say something very serious. I actually started a serious post. And then I deleted it. Suffice it to say, something has been bothering me for about a month now, and it's cost me some enthusiasm for blogging and the internet in general. Because I'm tired of how vicious people can be for no reason, over an imagined slight or simply because someone has the gall to see things differently than they do. I'm a very opinionated person and I always have been. But I have never to my knowledge attacked someone else for their opinion, or told them they didn't have a right to that opinion or that their thoughts and feelings on any given subject aren't valid.Not everyone is the same way. For a long time I thought they were. Realizing they aren't has actually really affected me, to the point where a few times I've found myself ready to give up blogging because I feel like I can't say what I'd like to say, no matter how innocuous the topic may be, that it's not okay for me t...
More About: Random , Stuff

League Stuff!
2008-05-12 18:00:00
That's right! It's Demon Week at the League ! Remember all the fun we had with zombie week? This will be even more fun. So make sure you keep checking in!Also! This week the League Book Club is discussing Personal Demons (eep!) This is your chance to say anonymously all the snotty things you've never had the guts to say here. And I just might give away some of those prize-type things, you never know. Mark's running the discussion, so you know it's going to be fun!And speaking of contests...Mark will be announcing the winner of the "Which League Baby Picture is Missing" contest. And, as my way of announcing whether or not *I* was the missing one, may I present...My family, circa 1975/6 (I'm not sure quite which)....and that's it. It's hot here. And of course there's no a/c so I'm sitting in the living room with all the curtains drawn to keep those basted rays of sun out. Remind me to never ever again live in a home where the sun shines directly into the living room and kitch...
More About: Stuff

Chat with me today!
2008-05-09 14:44:00
I'm over at Chris Eldin's blog today until 9 PM EDT! The whole shebang starts shortly, but I will only be there sporadically until about 11 am EDT, as I have the kids to pick up from school etc. etc.I'm editing, editing, editing, working on Unholy Ghosts. Fun, but tiring. I love editing just a little more than I hate it--I love tinkering and making things stronger, but I hate the fear that I'm leaving some sort of weird plot hole, or that what I'm adding isn't as good as the other stuff, or whatever. It's kind of like getting dressed up to go out. You have beautiful earrings on, but is the necklace that goes with it too much or just right?I was going to do a longer post today but as I will be devoting most of my day to chatting, I'm going to keep it brief. So head on over there if you like and say hi! I'm giving away a book and everything!
More About: Chat , Today

Those pesky words and punctuation
2008-05-07 13:07:00
I'm always amazed when I see this argument:If my story is good, nobody's going to care how it's written.And really, I see it a lot more often than is to be believed.Grammar and punctuation are important. They are the most basic tools a writer has. Through correct grammar and punctuation we make ourselves understood; what is so difficult to get about that? (And why am I suddenly finding dozens of typos? I think my keyboard is getting old and worn down, actually.)Vocabulary is important, yes. Incredibly so. Especially since without decent vocabularies we make stupid homonym erros, like site for sight (which drives me batty) or bear for bare or peek for pique or peak (another batty one.) But you don't need a huge vocabulary; I find sometimes the most basic words work the best, conveying as they do not only their intended meaning but the very purity of their basicness. Case in point (for me at least): I wrote a sentence the other night in which I mentioned a character's big chest. ...
More About: Words

The New League!
2008-05-05 16:57:00
Yes, yes, yes. The Big News is up at the League now! We have new members! It's so exciting, although I'm sad that Ilona and Jill left us. It's cool to have Jaye, Jackie and Caitlin now, though. We have Fresh Fish at the League. Anton, Mark and I are placing bets on which one will break first. Heh heh heh. We've got a couple of packs of smokes riding on it, so...Also, Mark is doing a nifty contest over there, so go check it out if you haven't already. It involves the awesome new header Mark made. Am I on there? I don't know. You'll have to guess.Let's see, what else is happening? The hubs is away for his step-grandma's funeral, so it's just me and my girlies for the next couple of days. What sucks is, Princess was home sick most of last week (ear infection) so I can't keep her home from school tomorrow, which I would be totally inclined to do otherwise so I could sleep in a bit (what? C'mon, like you've never ever kept your kids home from school for no reason.) (Oh, ther...

A Few Friday Things
2008-05-02 15:22:00
First, a little announcement. WATCH THE LEAGUE OF RELUCTANT ADULTS NEXT WEEK! We have some Things ! Happening! That you won't want to miss!Second, some fun promo-type stuff: Author's Week will be held on Chris Eldin's blog from May 3 through May 9: www.abenchpress.blogspot.com. Festivities will kick off on Saturday May 3 with an Oldies but Goodies Contest. I will have funny questions about the following authors who have supported my promotions in the past (cool prizes also!!) Elaine Alexander DEATH AT DEACON PONDMary Cunningham CURSE OF THE BAYOUEvil Editor NOVEL DEVIATIONSEdna Cabcabin Moran THE SLEEPIG GIANTJohn Elder Robison LOOK ME IN THE EYEPatricia Wood LOTTERY May 5 - May 9 will feature the following authors giving away books and making appearances on my blog. Come chat, make jokes, win prizes!!!Monday, May 5: Charles Allen Gramlich ?Swords of Talera? Tuesday, May 6: Holly Kennedy "The Silver Compass"Wednesday, May 7: Daniel Tomasulo "Confessions of a Former ...
More About: Friday

Playing Tag
2008-04-30 16:19:00
Okay. Look.It's not that I don't love you all, each and every one of you. My readers, my fellow writers, all of you. Because I do.And it's not that I don't appreciate you thinking of me when these things come up. Really. Because the idea that someone out there finds me interesting enough to want to know what I had for breakfast (I never eat breakfast), or what my ten favorite songs are, or how many pairs of socks I own, or my deepest secrets, or whatever you want to think of, is immensely flattering. I swear it is.It's not even that I don't sometimes appreciate the ideas for stuff to blog about, because I do run out of things sometimes. Especially times like now, when Big Things are happening in the WIP and I am totally creatively empty everywhere else. So it's nice to think, Oh, I'll just do x meme, and that won't take long.Except that it usually does. Because honestly, if you've been reading here for more than a few months, you already know so much about me that to expos...

Bored.
2008-04-28 15:30:00
I am bored. Bored bored bored. I'm bored.And I'm stuck on blog topics, because everything I think of seems boring too. I do have some good news though. I managed to write 10k words this weekend, bringing the Unholy Ghosts sequel up to just over 46k. Yay me! It was actually just Friday and yesterday, really, as saturday we were doing family things. By which I mean sitting on the couch watching tv.Watched The Devil Wears Prada. Disliked the book, disliked the movie. Blah.I've been searching through my archives, because I know I did a post about terms of endearment at one point, in which I discovered how many women disliked heroes who calltheir heroines "baby". "Baby" as a keyword didn't bring it up; "endearment" didn't either, and neither did "term". So, I do't know where it is.But once again I find myself stuck. I need an endearment.See, for me these things are A Big Deal. What the hero calls the heroine matters. It tells us something about him, about their relationship. (At le...

The world makes me hate me
2008-04-25 11:05:00
I don't know why it seems I always get the ideas for my deep thinking posts on Fridays, which is my lowest traffic day (seems to be the case everywhere on the internet, actually.) But I have a few thoughts today. Let's see if I can make a coherent post out of them.Oh, but first, the Romantic Times review of Personal Demons is out! FOUR STARS! Here's what they said (apparently, as RT is unavailable here, but Anna J. typed it in an email for me):"Kane's clever story is packed with supernatural action and unique characters. The heroine has made some powerful enemies in the past, and they return with a vengeance. She also has a nice love interest going, and it zings with sexual tension. Surprises throughout keep tension and high and the pages turning as it all comes to a satisfying conclusion."So here's what I'm thinking. This post at Karen Scott's almost inspired me to comment, but as my comment would have been so convoluted and long-winded I decided to do it over here instead.I...
More About: World , Hate , The World

Happy Anniversary Evil Editor! (and mea culpa)
2008-04-23 14:58:00
I had a post planned for today, but as it was something that can easily wait until Friday, I decided to just do a quickie today.Okay, actually, I decided to do a quickie today so I can get back to the party. Which is happening right now, right here.Several of EE's Minions got together to do a special blog dedicated to the man (who is my fiance, if you recall), and I was invited to help. Which I did, to the best of my scatterbrained ability, and contributed a signed copy of Personal Demons as a prize. So head on over, hang, enter the contest--there's LOTS of prizes, and have fun.And speaking of prizes...Um. I am so sorry. I haven't sent out any of the March Demonstravaganza prizes yet. I will, I swear, and I am so, so sorry. April has been a much busier, colder, wetter, more miserable, and above all financially tight month than I'd expected. I promise they will go out soon--if not in the last two days of this week, then in the last two days of next week (it's much easier to navi...
More About: Anniversary , Happy , Evil , Editor , Happy Anniversary

Where's the gossip?
2008-04-21 17:18:00
We had a lovely day yesterday, the hubs and me. TCM was showing Gone With the Wind--we only caught the last half (from Scarlett's "As God is my witness" speech to the end) but it was nice to sit and watch it together. (He took me to see it when it had its 60th anniversary rerelease in the theatres, too, but we really haven't watched it since. That, btw, was the Day I Saw Dan Marino At The Movies.)After the movie they had a documentary on the making of Gone With the Wind: The Musical, which looks truly excreble (we're temped to go see it--actually, I'm tempted to invite my MIL but I have a feeling she might actually enjoy it which would ruin the fun of laughing at it), and then, a biography on Bette Davis. Who I love.They showed an interview with Bette in which she called one of her costars "a horrendous bitch". Or words to that effect. And it reminded us of her famous feud with Joan Crawford (I believe the quote, when she heard of Crawford's death, was something like: "You shou...
More About: Gossip , The Gossip

See, I can't stay away
2008-04-16 17:07:00
But this is a very short one.First, we've started doing the dialogue crits over at the League blog, so come on over and comment!Second, Amazon US is now shipping Personal Demons, and apparently it's starting to find its way onto bookstore shelves too. So yay!
More About: Stay

I'll be at the League the rest of the week...
2008-04-15 21:43:00
Jaye Wells and I are doing dialogue critiques at the League blog for the rest of the week, so I will be there and not here.To find out how to submit your dialogue for critique, go there. And keep going there, because we're going to have some fun!See you back here on Monday, probably, unless I decide I have something to say before then.
More About: Week , Rest

Edits edits everywhere!
2008-04-14 17:35:00
So, I had quite a little weekend! Mr. Agent Man is in town for the London Book Fair (okay, that's not MY town, but it's the same country, which is nice) so I hopped on a train yesterday and went up there to meet him for a drink. Which was pretty cool. We talked about edits for Unholy Ghosts--and, thanks to the bff, I have had a total brainstorm on those and I can't wait to get working--and career stuff, and book stuff, and lots of fun good things. It was very odd, though, to be sitting drinking bourbon with a man who kept talking about how much he loves working with creative people, and realizing he meant me. Speaking of which, I got a really cool review for Day of the Dead. Or rather, it was a decent review--the reviewer had some minor (justified, I think, DOH!) story issues--but check this out:"This was worth it for the author?s prose. She really does know her way around her words."Seriously, that's the kind of review that makes silly little writers like me tear up. You can re...

Links and thoughts...
2008-04-11 11:52:00
First, I have a minor update on the Personal Demons release. We're still hoping the Amazon listing will be updated soon--presumably the books are in their warehouse, just not yet unpacked, which is leading to the delay. We're also expecting it in bookstores shortly. I will post more updates as I get them.Second, I'm showing up all over the internets, baby. Shannon reviews the book at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread here.Mark Henry licks my boots like the man-whore he is here.Fantasy Debut talks the book up hereAnd I'll be doing some interviews in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for them (I'll link them when they go up, of course)--at Fangs Fur & Fey, at Alchemuse on livejournal, at Jill Myles' blog. CORRECTION: There will be an interview with me tomorrow, along with a contest, at Urban Fantasy Land, not alchemuse's livejournal. Sorry!I'm also doing a couple of promo-y things next month, which I'll have more news on as the time gets closer.And, wow, I'm legitimate ...
More About: Links , Thoughts

Made for each other
2008-04-09 17:08:00
Sunday night I had occasion to watch the two first episodes of The Two Coreys the other night. Hey it was late, I was up...why not? I enjoyed their movies, mostly. And especially after the first season of The Surreal Life turned Feldman into the Man We Love to Hate (seriously, hating him made that show so much fun. Especially the recaps on Television Without Pity. I still giggle when I think of their deathless line, after they called Corey a "dicklicker": "I apologize, dicklickers of the world. I didn't mean to lump you in with Corey Feldman." Which is totally appropriate as an apology.So I had somewhat high hopes for The Two Coreys, especially since that best friend o mine in the States enjoyed the show and our tastes are pretty similar. (It's her fault, for example, that I lost way too much sleep obsessively watching Nip/Tuck on DVD, although they've started showing the LA episodes out here now and I am NOT impressed.)What I liked most about the show--aside from actually thinki...
More About: Made

Quickie update
2008-04-08 14:03:00
Personal Demons' page on Amazon has gone live, so apparently they have received the books and are getting ready to ship...but for some reason they're listing them as "Usually ships within 1-2 MONTHS". I have no idea what that's about. I can only assume it will update within the next day or so. Meantime, I seriously doubt you will be waiting 1-2 months before the book ships.Now what are you doing here? Head over to the League!
More About: Update

Lace me up!
2008-04-07 16:03:00
I decided to try something today. Back in the dark days of last year (which would be summer, which technically wasn't dark but as darker for me, for reasons I'm about to explain) I had gained so much weight that my corset no longer fit. My jeans really didn't fit--putting them on and buttoning them was akin to tightly belting the Stay-Puft marshmallow man--and big t-shirts were my only friend.But...I have lost 22 pounds since then. I weigh almost as little I did when the hubs and I got together, almost as little as I did on our wedding day. Of course, thanks to having two babies the topography of that fat has moved--less up top, more in the middle, as it were--but still. I look in the mirror and am fairly pleased.(Oooh, I am especially pleased since, remember that new moisturizer I bought a few weeks back? The, ah, anti-aging one? No more dry skin!!! My forehead is smooth again. It's a delight to behold.)So I decided to get out my corset, the one that didn't fit anymore back in...
More About: Lace

You want to know what I think? I'll tell you what I think!
2008-04-04 18:06:00
Yes, it's time again for My Opinions on Publishing.I saw this article on Gawker this morning, and of course rushed right over to Galley cat to see their take on it. (In a nutshell, there's a new sherriff in town at HarperCollins, and he's planning a new imprint. This imprint will "will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified, with the aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking full advantage of the internet for sales, marketing and distribution. Authors will be compensated through a profit sharing model as opposed to a traditional royalty, and books will be promoted utilizing on-line publicity, advertising and marketing."In other words, there will be no advances. The author will get a much larger percentage of royalties (this article at the NYT suggests 50%) instead, and Miller is hoping to do away with returns.The idea of no advances seems to have set a lot of tongu...

Excerptstravaganza! The Final Chapter & new contest!
2008-04-02 14:58:00
Ah, it's finally here, the last excerpt day! And the book itself should be shipping and in stores within the next week. Sorry about the delay there. :-(Let's do the 'cerpt, and then we'll get to the contest.Brian glanced over his shoulder to make sure Dante wasn?t lurking behind him. ?Why didn?t you tell me, Megan???What do you mean???I know you aren?t crazy about this whole interview thing. But I?m a good journalist, and something like this was sure to come out. You should have told me.??Told you what?? Her eyes shifted towards the living room.Brian followed her gaze, then looked back at her. ?I got a email this evening, from an address I didn?t recognize. Normally I?d delete it as spam, but the subject line was your name, so I opened it.??And??He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two folded sheets of paper. Opening them, he handed her one.Dear Mr. Stone,I know you are writting about Megan Chase. Megan is a murderor. She don?t deserve your story.A Concerned Friend?Oh ...
More About: Contest , Final , Chapter

Winnahs!
2008-03-31 19:50:00
Lookie!!! Books!!!Okay! I have the list of winners here, chosen by my six-year old. (She got to stick her hand in the bowl and pick out the slips of paper.) So without further ado:Two winners of signed books:Barbara FernandezBernard DeLeoOne winner of a box of cocktail demons:Todd ThomasSix magnet winners (PLEASE NOTE, these have been delayed in arriving to me, but I will get them out to you asap):Nicole HulstKaren StraughanSkarrahStacy CooperKimikoVirginia HendricksWinners! Please email your addresses to me, Staciakane AT gmail, so I can get your prizes out to you!Thanks everyone for playing, and if you didn't win, don't fret. Wednesday is our last Excerptstravaganza day, and I'll be announcing a new contest!