NOTE: This blog has moved to http://www.EricaRidley.com/Blog
Author Erica Ridley's blog: Erica Writes Romance
I entered the "name-your-h/h" Rose by Any Other Name contest over on the Goddess Blogs and got Runner Up Heroine with my entry: "Amanda Dew".
My other entries were:
Anita Stallion
Bea Knotty
Tommy Tripod
Peter Cummings
and
Clarissa Sweetcheeks
(wink wink nudge nudge say no more! g*)
Whoo! I'm done with both character interviews and whipped up a blurb for the second Nether-Netherland book. (And, in the interest of procrastination, created a fake book cover like the others.)
For my first few stories, I tried to write my hooks once the novels were complete. This was a mistake.
Knowing 100,000 words about the plot, there was no way I could condense the whole thing into fewer than 250 words. This was a problem.
I needed a concise hook if I wanted to be able to pitch and query successfully. (Or at least competently.)
And then I heard about the concept of the "controlling idea", which is that first initial thought/scene/premise that compelled you to write your 400 page masterpiece in the first place.
The theory is, that's your hook. It's what your story is about, even if it's not what every scene/chapter is about.
EX: What if live dinosaurs got loose at a theme park? What if a mute mermaid had two weeks to make a human fall in love with her? What if an archaeologist uncovers a partial skeleton and the tooth fairy flies off with parts? (That last one was my initial idea for TATTF, if you couldn't guess.)
The Dorinda and the Demon hook weighs in at 257 words. That's 7 words over 250, but I can't figure out where to trim without killing the bits I like. If you have an opinion (on word count or in general) please share in the comments!
Without further ado:
DORINDA AND THE DEMON
Dorinda Lockhart, perhaps America's first honest politician, needs to win the impending mayoral election so she can prevent the incumbent from ruining her home town with his anti-feminist attitude and ridiculous ordinances. Unfortunately, her longtime campaign manager collided with a bus, and now Dorinda's on her own against a rival with age, gender, and a devilish case of good fortune on his side.
Gabe Benning, an upwardly mobile demon, hates being a mere Hades contractor and is after a promotion with better perks, such as a few lackeys of his own to control. He just has to head up to Earth's surface and corrupt some do-gooder female politician so the Devil's pick--a megalomaniac who bartered his soul--stays in office.
As soon as the prim politician's soul tips far enough out of balance, demonkind will be able to knock her out of the race... permanently. Gabe's never met anyone so passionate about being a "good" person, but he can show her one hell of a good time and tempt the curvy candidate to sample his wicked ways.
When the media campaign against her gains both fury and followers, Dorinda turns to her new campaign manager for advice--but ends up with hot sex. He makes her feel so free, so reckless, so wild. So what if she cuts loose a little behind closed doors and indulges a depraved fantasy or two. It's not a fall from grace if her sexy advisor is the only one who knows about the bad girl lurking inside... Right?
Your turn: Do you write blurbs for your stories? If so, do you write them before/during/after you write the story itself? How are (or aren't) your blurbs useful to you?
Don't! It's not personal... and I can prove it!
First, let me give a couple examples of rejection. So as not to call out any of my CPs (although they are welcome to post supporting documentation in the comments! g*) I'll give a few from personal experience.
Rejection From Pitching
My very first conference pitch for my very first completed novel resulted in a request for a partial. I sent in the partial, which resulted in a very nice No Thank You letter. I was unsurprised, yet devastated. Now, many books later, I look back at that first novel and wonder how the agent made through any of it without setting fire to the damn thing. She wasn't rejecting me. She was rejecting the hideous pile of double-spaced crap I'd foisted upon her.
Rejection During Pitching
Recently (as you may know if you read my Feb blog post,) I got a Please God Don't Send Me That reaction during the pitch itself. As soon as I said the word "funny", the agent grimaced and said, "I don't like funny books. You can send it if you want, but I probably won't like it." Once again, she wasn't rejecting me, she was rejecting humor. It had nothing to do with my mechanics or prose or voice or anything like that--she just didn't do funny.
Rejection From Querying
So what if you've never met the agent? You query. Now, I have only queried 3 agents in my life, so I'm not the world's foremost expert on this, but one did send me a rejection. In less than 24 hours of receiving the query. Yowza! I didn't even expect them to get the email in that amount of time, much less decide they hated something about it.
I'll never know what it was that caused the rejection, but since I feel confident in both my ability to craft unique stories and my facility with the English language and its grammar, I'm led to assume it was something about the story itself that just didn't work for them.
Maybe it was another case of not doing funny. Or maybe they don't like my style of humor. (EX: Some people love Monty Python movies. Some people hate them.) Or maybe they just took on something in the same vein as my story. Or maybe they have no clue where they would submit a story like mine. Or maybe they hated the story premise itself. The world will never know.
Rejection from Slush
While at the recent Miami conference, agents read the first 2 pages of several manuscripts aloud and commented on whether they'd request or reject. They didn't get to my story (curses! I so wanted to hear their reactions!) but one of the stories they all said they'd reject based on the title alone.
Shock and horror flooded the audience of aspiring writers. The crowd muttered things like, "How could they!" "How evil!" "How unutterably unfair!" "Shouldn't they have read the partial to give the poor writer a chance?"
And my answer to all this is: No. As callous as it sounds to an aspiring writer, people can and do reject based on mere titles and this should not surprise you. Which brings me to my point:
Proof Rejections are not Personal
Every time I browse an aisle in a bookstore and come away with nothing, I'm essentially rejecting all the books on those shelves, sometimes on no more than a title/cover.
I know what I like to read, so I'm in the section of the right genre(s), but I don't read the back of every single book on the shelves. Sometimes I do read the backs, and I think, "God, that's stupid" or "Please, that old plot again?" and set the book back down. Sometimes the back cover copy is intriguing enough that I flip to the first page. Sometimes my eyes glaze over on that first page and I put the book back down. Sometimes I leave the aisle empty-handed. Before I leave the store, I glance at the table near the doorway with all their "featured" books. If a cover/title combo intrigues me enough, I might go pick it up and look at it. Otherwise, I shrug, chalk it up to a "nothing enthused me" day at the book store, and go home.
On the one hand, it's terrible, because as an author I know what little control we have over those things like story titles and cover art. But as a reader/buyer, you've got to narrow the selection somehow. Bookstores have thousands of books. I can't read every book on every shelf and THEN decide which one to buy. It would be ridiculous to expect anyone to.
So, I think it's the same for an agent. (Be prepared: here comes a metaphor.)
Their slush pile, their inbox, their pitching table at the conference, all those things are their "bookstore". Assuming you did your homework and are pitching/querying someone who represents what you write, this is the equivalent of the agent being in the right (genre) section of the store.
If you show up with a Kool-Aid mustache or send them signature confirmation envelopes filled with heart-shaped glitter, you've just presented them with the "bad cover/title combo" and they'll pass.
Next comes your pitch or query letter, aka the "back cover copy/blurb". If it sucks, they'll move on. "What?" you scream. "How am I supposed to condense a 100,000 word masterpiece into an edgy, conflict-filled two paragraph hook?" Hey, that's not their problem, in the same way that it's not your problem when you're browsing for books at your local bookstore.
If the back cover copy sounds boring/stupid/ridiculous, you're not going to read all 100,000 words just to see if whoever wrote the blurb was a moron who didn't do the story justice. No way. You're going to set that book down and pick up the next one and hope its back cover blurb is more promising. This is what people do. And agents are people, too. We've all got a finite amount of available time and have to make the best judgments we can.
So the next time you or someone you know gets a rejection, go ahead and indulge in a little pity party, but then get over it. Because it's not personal. It's subjective. I have friends who love books and authors I despise, and vice versa. This means that's there's an agent out there who would love whatever it is you're writing. So keep writing, and keep querying. All it takes is one Yes!
Your turn: I'd love to hear your rejection tales, whether they're horror stories, commiserative anecdotes, or your own philosophies on dealing with the reality of rejection in a subjective industry. Sound off!
Made it back to Tampa, safe and sound. (Ahh, blessed high speed Internet!)
Am checking in with almost an entire character interview complete. I had hoped to check in with the whole thing done, but it's 10:30pm and my eyes are swimming at the screen.
Also critted 3 CP scenes today. I've got half a MS left to read for one CP and a rough draft of another MS left to read for a different CP. I'm going to try and make some decent progress on that this week, as well as finish the character interviews for my own novel.
How about you? What are you working on? Are you balancing your own writing time with time spent helping others?
My last two days in Costa Rica were mostly filled with traveling.
On Thursday afternoon, we drove to San Jose (about a 3.5 hour drive) because our flight left the following morning at 7:30 am. 
Beforehand, I visited some of the local area schools.
I'm attaching a lunchroom photo at the local elementary school, and a photo inside one of the pre-school classrooms. 
I also got to fill up on mango cake before the long drive. Mmmmm. (No comments from the peanut gallery about fitting into a wedding dress this fall!)
That night, we ate at a Persian-Mexican restaurant, which was a first for me.
I've had plenty of TexMex in my life, but never Persia-Mex. Tasty, though!
Your turn: How was your weekend? What's the most "different" restaurant experience you've had in recent memory?
My CP and fellow Manuscript Maven Darcy just finaled in the Yellow Rose contest.
Yay! Double-Yay!
This is her first final and boy does she deserve it. She's a great writer and I'm so glad she's finally got confirmation from a non-CP. Now she knows why we love her stories so much! =)
Sorry, didn't have Internet yesterday. Did manage to read more of various CP excerpts which were already downloaded onto my laptop (yay!) and that was fun.
I brought one of my older stories with me thinking I was going to have time to do some revision.
Wrong again. 
Every moment has been packed with something, mostly computer stuff and translation stuff.
BUT, I did manage to go hiking yesterday and horseback riding day before yesterday!
On my hike through the forest, I ran into some cows. Technically, they ran into me.
And sniffed my hair. And licked me.
Your turn. I'd love to know your experiences with squeezing in writing time while not at home and/or your adventures with bumping into animals in the wild.
Today was mostly full of work, so I'll talk some more about yesterday. While still in the house, I squeezed in some time to read some of my CP's partial that she plans to enter into contests.
On our way to the festival, we stopped by the side of the road to get drinks for the kids and the roadside stand was next to a pineapple field.
Besides pineapples (which I had no idea grew from bush-like plants) I also saw several butterflies.
Okay, here's the funniest part, which I can't believe I forgot to tell you about last time. While we were kicking it old school on the dance floor above the bull ring, we saw a twenty-something man wearing a LED screen belt buckle.
Yeah, you heard me. LED screen. Turquoise lights spelled out whole sentences, marquee-ing across the rectangular screen three or four letters at a time. 
By the time we'd pieced together the first word or two, we realized two things. 1) We were staring at his crotch. 2) He had no doubt planned that effect. Aargh!!
Your turn. What's the weirdest or most bizarre fashion statement (or fashion victim) you've come across?
I am snatching a few moments online to check in with all of you. I don't have yesterday's photos downloaded yet but I will give you some from the day before while I fill you in on yesterday's activities.
We went to a fiesta in a city just this side of the Nicaraguan border. (We could see Nicaragua across the water.)
It drizzled throughout, but that didn't stop the party. There were lots of people riding show horses, making them do tricks and dance. At another part, a little girl (maybe age 7) sat on a show horse with a cordless mic and sang... All I can say is WOW. Best set of pipes I ever heard. (Not sure if Blogger can post video or not, but I took a maybe 5 second clip with my digital camera, and I'll upload it if possible.)
A few blocks away, a magician performed on a stage. His first tricks were with sheets of newspaper (and even less impressive than it sounds) but he progressed to rope tricks (which were cool) and disappearing/reappearing egg tricks. His finale was to shove the newspaper in a metal pot, set fire to it, slap the lid on top, and then lift the lid to reveal---a rabbit! (clarification: a small, shaking, scared sh*tless, bunny rabbit) 
Next we visited a two-story bullring. The ground floor was the big dirt circle where the bulls ran, and the top floor was a discoteca. We danced a little and then slunk back to the wall when the music changed from general (hispanic) dance music to salsa. I have little-to-no salsa skills (I can follow someone's lead, and that's about it) but the locals were amazing. After we overcame our salsa-envy, we peeked over the side rails at the bulls penned below. (We didn't end up staying for a bull fight.)
Your turn: How was your weekend? Did it rain for you, too? What was the funniest (or weirdest) thing that happened?
Today I hiked from Mata de Canas (the town where the house is) to Nuevo Arenal (the larger, neighboring town). Being Saturday, the bank was not open (yes, there's only one) but I tried to use the ATM outside the bank. After the machine said "transaction canceled" for the second time, I wondered if maybe their network couldn't connect to my U.S. Internet bank. So I tried the "check balance" option. It connected fine, but gave me a balance of zero. Zero! 
Naturally, I was a bit concerned. Had some nefarious shyster stolen my identity and drained my bank account? I went directly to the grocery store and purchased a milk box (like a Hi-C juice box, but with caramel flavored milk). When the cashier rang up my purchase (U.S. equivalent of 40 cents) I handed over my debit card. (I know she was wondering what kind of freak charges a 40 cent purchase, and that answer is me when I'm testing whether or not I've been ruined.) Thankfully, the charge went through just fine, so I'm forced to assume the ATM was out of whack, not my bank account. Whew!
On my way back to the house (where some actual progress was made on the to-do list of reasons we came down) a man on horseback stopped me. He said, (in Spanish) "Would you like me to take your photo?" Realizing I was clutching my camera in a classic tourist pose, I said, "Sure, why not?" He then leapt down from his horse and said, "Go on. Get up!" To which I said something brilliant, like, "Uhhh... get on your horse?" And he said, "Yes, yes, I will photo you riding my horse." 
So I shrugged, said OK, and hopped onto his horse. He took the camera from me, and after some minor technical difficulties (he first looked into the lens side instead of the LCD screen side) he managed to take my photo. He then helped me down from the horse, handed me back my camera, and rode off.
Your turn. I want to know your experiences with ATM cards freaking out (surely I can't be alone in this!) or random conversations with strangers.
Okay, I made it two whole weeks without posting my big news. Why? Because I wanted my writer's blog to be all writerly and not bore you with my personal life.
Alas,* I can't keep it to myself any longer. **
On Saturday, March 3, I got engaged! My boyfriend took me to Cypress Gardens*** on the 7 year anniversary of our first date** and proposed on bended knee beneath the banyan tree. Awwww!!! =)
* I've always wanted to say "alas" with a straight face and can never quite manage.
** Plus, you guys said it was okay to sneak in a bit of personal stuff. So there you go! =)
*** Our first date was not at Cypress Gardens. It was at the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in Cincinnati, OH. Yes, we know that's weird. I like animals. He likes monkeys. Especially spider monkeys, ever since one slapped him across the face when he was a kid. So from here on out, I will refer to fiance as... MonkeyBoy. You'll remember that, right?
Well, that's MY big news. I know other people out there have to have good news to share. Reach "The End"? Get something published? Find an agent? Manage to write every day for a week? Squeeze in time to read a good book? Spread the happy vibes in the comments!
I left for Costa Rica on Friday morning. The layover was in Miami and naturally, this being Florida, a thunderstorm ensued, leaving us stranded on the runway for an hour or so. Customs in San Jose was also a long wait, but believe me--Costa Rica is worth it! I have never been to a prettier place in my life.
So, the first thing we did was get in the car to drive to the house. Not a short trip, since we were at the San Jose airport instead of Liberia, which is the closer (but in this case, more expensive) airport.
On our drive up, we met with the infamous Costa Rican pot holes, as well as an entire herd of piscote. When we arrived at the house, we sat outside with a bottle of Imperial (the national beer) and watched the sunset. (Ah, bliss)
I do have more photos, but at these upload speeds.... Please forgive me!
Your turn. I want to know your travel horror stories! Give me your best (worst) airport experience, sauna-sized pot holes, whatever.
Today I leave for Costa Rica. I'll be back next Friday. Since I do business wherever my laptop happens to be, the plan is to keep posting all next week while I'm gone. (Provided that there's no snafus with Internet access, of course.)
I'm super-excited because a) I love to travel, and b) Costa Rica remains the prettiest place I've ever been in my life. (And I've been to quite a few places!)
So, while I'm gone, would you like me to post about:
I entered a contest over at Jacqueline Barbour's blog and won the entry fee to the contest of my choice!
I'm going to enter TATTF in the TARA Contest. (Don't forget to bug me if it looks like I might slack off and not enter!)
Thanks for being patient while I went through all my notes! As mentioned, Christine Feehan spoke at my chapter meeting about promotions.
Besides writing books people love, Christine is nice, funny, friendly, intelligent, and helpful. (Matter of fact, without even knowing it, she's helping me help you via this blog post. g*)
Here's a sample of some of the points she mentioned (many of which came to me in ah-ha! moments):
I know, I know, I promised my Christine Feehan comments for today, but you'll just have to wait 'til tomorrow, because something hysterical has come up. I learned about this trick from Tessa Dare.
Here's the fun part: Microsoft Word has an Auto-Summarize feature. It is HI-larious. I have no idea how it works (in other words, it doesn't work, which is what's so funny about it) but you have to go try it. Go to Tools --> Auto Summarize, New Document, 100 words.
Right now. Seriously. Right now.
Word summarized the first 3 chapters of TATTF as follows:
“Trevor, it’s me, Daisy!” “Trevor!” Daisy gasped. Daisy shrugged. Daisy shouted. Daisy shouted. Daisy swallowed. “Trevor.” “Trevor.” Daisy sighed. Trevor? Daisy blinked. Daisy repeated. Daisy repeated. “Trevor.” Daisy nudged Katrina. “Daisy?” Daisy sighed. Daisy paused. “Trevor.”
Who knew so much gasping and swallowing and repeating was going on. Sounds like erotica!
Let's try it on the entire 102,391-word story, shall we?
Daisy grimaced. “Trevor!” Daisy gasped. Daisy shrugged. Daisy shouted. Daisy swallowed. “Trevor.” “Trevor.” Daisy sighed. Trevor? Daisy blinked. Daisy repeated. Daisy repeated. “Trevor.” “Daisy?” Daisy sighed. Daisy paused. “Trevor. “Daisy!” Daisy admitted. “Daisy.” Daisy frowned. Trevor. “Daisy.” Daisy blinked. Daisy paused. Daisy frowned. “Daisy…” Daisy grinned. Daisy blinked. “Trevor?” “Daisy’s?” Daisy blinked. “Trevor—” Trevor! Daisy frowned. Daisy grinned. Daisy grinned. “Daisy.” Daisy nodded. “Daisy—” “Daisy.” Daisy swallowed. Daisy gasped. Daisy grimaced. Daisy blinked. Daisy frowned. Daisy sighed. Daisy grimaced. Daisy nodded. Daisy swallowed. Daisy frowned. Daisy snapped. Daisy snorted. Daisy blushed. Daisy swallowed. Daisy nodded. Trevor. Daisy. Daisy?
Wow. If only MS Word existed back when I had to do book reports for school.
Please run this on your own WIPs and post the results in the comments section! Open MS Word, click on Tools --> Auto-Summarize and choose New Document, plus either 20 Sentences or 100 words. 
I tease you no longer! Today I'll tell you all about my experience with Shannon Aviles. I'll do Christine Feehan next. (Both were speakers at Saturday's TARA chapter meeting.) Shannon's topic was literary Viral Marketing.
Since I plan to answer any questions you ask me in the comments, I'm going to set up the post in Q&A format so you can easily find the topics most relevant to you.
Who is Shannon Aviles?
She's fun, she's funny, she's intelligent. Her initial career path--well, her initial career path is varied, so let's skip forward to the bit you'll like best. Before Shannon started doing her thing for romance authors, she did it for Disney. Disney! Shannon knows her stuff.
What does Shannon Aviles do?
Although she is most known for being a publicist, she considers herself a multi-media specialist. Meaning, she does more tricks and wears more hats than your average publicist. She promotes your book(s), she promotes your brand, and she promotes you. Shannon has a team of people to help her research, implement, and test advertising campaigns and best practices. She has years of marketing experience. Anyone you hire to help should have these qualities, too.
Can I do this myself?
Yes and no. I day-job as a web developer, right? Well, anybody can make a web site (in the same way that anybody can write a book) but NOT everybody will be good at it or do a professional job. Same goes for promotion. Yes, you can and should do self-promotion. But when it comes time to rocket your career forward, if you don't have the real-world skills/experience, consider hiring a professional.
Does hiring a publicist cost money?
Um, yes. Remember, writing is a business. That means you are a businessperson. And business people have to (let's say the cliche together because it's true) spend money to make money. What brand of shoes are you wearing? What brand of computer are you using? Chances are good that advertising is why you even know these things exist. Same goes for you. Reader can't buy your book if reader's never heard of your book--or you.
When should I hire someone like Shannon?
You do not need a publicist until you have a product (ie: book) for her to promote. You may even wish to have several under your belt before you take that leap. That said, hiring a publicist (or multi-media specialist) can nudge you from unknown to known, from known to mid-list, from mid-list to best-selling, from best-selling to rock star.
If I hire a publicist, will I be a NYT #1 best-selling author?
Maybe so, maybe never. Nobody can guarantee that. Many variables come into play, such as publishing house support, author involvement, and market reaction to the quality, genre, and subject matter of the book itself. Author involvement is up to you, and you (or your agent) may be able to negotiate publishing house support in your contract. Although you do determine the genre, subject matter, and quality of writing, market reaction is that X factor that we all wish we could predict/control.
Any general points I shouldn't overlook?
Being a small business owner who designs graphics, creates web sites, develops internet solutions such as shopping carts and interactive, database-driven applications, I've been around the block when it comes to promoting yourself online. Below are some topics Shannon talked about that relate to my day job. If you have questions about any of these, you may get my professional opinion in addition to what Shannon said.
My local chapter meets the second Saturday of every month. This week's workshop presenters were author Christine Feehan and multi-media specialist Shannon Aviles, both speaking on promotion.
I had so many ah-ha moments this weekend that my pen almost ran out of ink. Stay tuned 'cause I'll share them with you either later today or tomorrow. (Got "real" work to take care of first. Yuck.)
How about you? Do you belong to any writers' groups? If so, dish. How/where/when do you meet? Is there any you would recommend?
So, based on my full-speed-ahead method of going from story idea to first draft, my local chapter has dubbed me the Goal Goddess, or Gigi for short. (Karen's idea.)
Personally, I think this nickname is pretty bad-ass, and might force me to actually come up with some writer business cards*. I never had any to hand out before because as an unpub I didn't really have anything cool to put on them except my name and maybe email. But now they can say Gigi the Goal Goddess, which is a helluva cool title IMHO. =)
Shall I go with something like this?
While we're on the topic...
What is your opinion about writer business cards? Useful? Useless? Does it depend whether or not the author is published? Have you received any? Do you keep/use any of them? Do you have some of your own?
* Fairy image cribbed from Michelle Hoefener
Or, How and why I keep track of my progress the way I do.
First, I write in scenes rather than minutes/hours/pages/etc. So, theoretically, every day that I have time to write, I end up one scene closer. And I keep a text file with the date, today's scene number, and running word count. That's just for my own info so I can see if something's taking forever because I fell off the writing wagon for three weeks. (Or so I can say, "Whoo! 3 scenes in one day!" or whatever)
Except for the scene count (which is math in the sense that every time I write a new one it goes up +1) everything else comes straight from MS Word. I just go to File --> Properties and click on Statistics. It breaks it down by pages, paragraphs, lines, words, characters--you name it.
(And then the % is out of 100k, so that's easy math, too.)
The thing I like the best about keeping track via a running total is that as long as I've written something--anything!--the numbers go up, which shows progress, which boosts my morale, which makes me write more.
When I kept track by number of minutes or number of pages, I'd get all neurotic if today's was less than yesterday's, or this week's was half of last week's. But this way I'm not competing with myself at all--I'm only moving forward.
It's generic psychology, and you'd think it wouldn't work on me since I *know* that's what I'm doing, but somehow it helps.
Do you keep track of your progress? How and why? Any tips to share?
I was tagged by Carrie a couple weeks ago, and being the slacker I am, I'm just now getting there. Oh, okay, so maybe I wasn't exactly slacking, since I did finish off a 100k story. =)
The meme is as follows: give us a general breakdown of your bookshelf, by number of authors, genre, series, anything you want.
So here's my big confession: I have books in every room of the house. Therefore, I'll do breakdown by rooms!
Guest Room
This room is travel themed, and therefore contains all my Lonely Planet travel books, as well as all my language books, which include books on learning various foreign languages as well as books written IN those various foreign languages. I [heart] the travel room!
Bathrooms
Don't lie to me and say you don't have reading material in the bathroom. I won't be tricked! =) The main bathroom is tiki themed, and has a basket filled with Uncle John Bathroom Readers. If you've never flipped through one, they're kind of like irreverent Readers Digests, in that they're full of random articles, jokes, quotes, factoids, etc, etc. The butterfly bathroom, on the other hand, is only accessible through the master bedroom, so it has writing craft books from the local library, which I always forget to read.
Bedroom
This room is... not themed. It's blue, if that counts for anything. But it does have 3 big bookshelves filled with all my (English-language) FICTION books, alpha by author, with a row of autographed across the top. (Some of my autographed books are in the main section, if I have multiple by the same author.) TBR takes up the shelf on the bottom right.
Office
The office has 2 bookshelves because the office is dual purpose. One bookshelf contains maybe 60 IT-related books, covering topics like programming, design, databases, networking, etc, etc. The other bookshelf has my writing volumes, which includes a shelf and a half of Regency research books as well as an equal amount of books on craft.
Kitchen
The bookshelf in this room is comprised mostly of cookbooks (duh), primarily the store-bought variety but some that are scrapbooked, such as with recipe swaps and the like.
Living Room
The shelves in this room are primarily filled with scrapbooks! While that may not be traditional reading material for most people, around here we love flipping back through the years to re-read the stories and see all the pictures.
Now you know. (And knowing is half the battle.) I hereby tag Lacey, Jacqueline and YOU. What books can be found at your house? Are they arranged any specific way?
TATTF weighs in as follows:
Scenes: 73
Pages: 332
Words: 99,936
Status: 100%!!!
DONE, baby, YEAH!!!
So, I was checking my StatCounter for my web site and hit the keywords to see if I was showing up for random crap like "platypus sandwich" or whatever, as is usually the case.
Oddly enough, the recent visitor came from a Google search of "Erica Writer". My first thought was, how many pages did this person have to go through to get ME, right? There's a million published Ericas out there, and I figured I'm pretty much a schmoe writer since I'm still unpubbed and all.
So, I went to Google, typed in Erica and Writer and clicked enter.
OMG, I'm number one!!!!
Let's be friends!
Email me @:
erica [at] ericaridley.com
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