Towns guide on how to handle rejection for dummies

Musings from Towns What is rejection really? Ahirah and myself just received another rejection letter for a short story that we'd entered to an E publisher. Ahirah didn’t take it very well at first. She did what comes natural to most of us. She became very discouraged. I on the other hand saw the bright side of it all. I've been rejected in many facets of my life. Finding out I didn’t make it into the college of my dreams or that my high school crush didn’t even know I existed. Through it all I’ve always bounced back. Just because someone rejects you doesn’t always mean that there is something wrong with you. Sometimes you are just not right for them at that time. But despite all of that not even published authors are perfect. I can’t tell you how many times I read a novel and found simple spelling errors. We all have to strive to be better whether we're at the top of our game or just beginning. We all must learn to find the good in everything, because every dog has its day and DAMN IT… Ahirah Towns will be published one day!!!

Rejection, Hate It!

Musings from Ahirah: Well received our first rejection email from Red Sage. I sent in the first three chapters along with the last chapter on March 11. The rejection came 6 days later. That sure was quick! Here a short blurb about the story: Virgin Territory (novella)-Futuristic Leaving a local nightclub, Chantille Mills wishes her life was different. Tonight will be a night of firsts for the thirty-three year old virgin as she’s suddenly accosted by two studs, which scuttle her on an intergalactic space ship headed for the Planet Subta as a sex trainer in The Pleasure Temple... A twist of fate forces Chantille to be the unwitting trainer of Prince Jarood G’araccia, a strong willed young prince next in line to rule the throne. Soon two unlikely lovers who are worlds apart discover that life never turns out the way you expect especially when you explore virgin territory… Sounds hot and spicy doesn’t it. I’m going to review it for errors and send back to our critique group. I really like the plot and the characters. I’m thinking of adding more to it, maybe one or two scenes to help flush out the characters and give more description of the planet.

Do you write to be happy?

Musings from Towns: I'm "Towns" the second half of the dynamic duo that comprises Ahirah Towns. Ahirah and I met three years ago both working in corporate America and hating every minute of it. However one thing we both shared was a love of reading. After a while we both admitted that we'd always wanted to write a book. We decided to take the plunge and try our hand at writing. What kind of book you ask-romance of course! What could it hurt. Haven’t you heard two minds are better than one? So Ahirah Towns was born. I’m the sensual one while Ahirah loves the erotic side of romance. It’s a nice melting of the minds. Regardless, Ahirah Towns is the hidden writer in both of us. As a little girl, reading transported me to another world were ghost and goblins were real and anything was possible. Growing up I learned in history class about civilizations that had risen and fallen only to become immortalized through stories telling. I write now because I want my stories and ideas to be passed down to others so they too can be shifted from the everyday hustle and bustle of the real world and see a different world through my writing. Musings from Ahirah: I was so happy to see “Towns” post on the blog. She’s new to this so give her some time. I was just about to work on our newest WIP, The Warriors of the Elementals: Precious Metal. As I was opening up the first chapter I started thinking about why I write. Do I write to be happy? Or do I write for the glory of becoming a published writer? I think the answer is both. I love writing. I wrote a young adult romance back in high school with a good friend of mine. We typed it up and even had our English teacher proofread it for us. We were supposed to get it copyrighted and then send it out to publisher but alias we never did. Chalk it up to youth and not being confident. Well I’m older now and have more confident in myself. Now don’t get me wrong some days that confident level goes down when I go back and reread what I just wrote. That’s when I stop and think: What in the world am I doing? I need to stick to my day job. I’m married and have a great career so why do I come home from a busy work day and jump on the computer writing about different worlds and the alpha men that rule in them? It’s simple…I love it! I enjoy plotting out exciting new worlds and discovering new characters that scream at me to get their story told. My dream is to be published and have others read something that I’ve written. So in this regard, I write to be happy and in the process free up my soul with all these different plots running through my mind.

E-publishers vs. NY publishers

Musings from Ahirah: When I read everyone's comments on my last post Hot Topics! I had to stop and smile. It feels good to know I’m not alone in my thinking. I agree with Angela Knight. I agree that RWA’s magazine-RWR-has only printed letters that bash the genre of erotic romance. If RWA as an organization doesn’t feel that erotic romances should fall under their guidelines why do they allow us to join? Why don’t they just admit that they don’t like erotic romances? Do they feel it corrupts the genre of romance as a whole? Perhaps they feel that sex is not a part of romance? Could it be they want our membership dues? Makes me wonder that's for sure! It seems where ever I log on to this topic is hot on the minds of romance writers. Because of certain guidelines a writer of erotic romance who publishes with an E-publisher instead of a NY publisher by RWA standards may actually not be an AUTHOR. Sure that person developed the characters. Outlined the plot. Typed up the words. Revised it. Edited it. Created a synopsis. Submitted it. Waited with their fingers crossed. Got the acceptance email. Smiled as their readers commented on their website and blog. Jumped for joy when they got that very first review of their book. Imagine if you will to their dismay, their writing organization which they pay $75 to join, now tell them that even though they did the same amount of work as an writer who got a contract with a well known NY publishing house, they are NOT A PUBLISHED AUTHOR because their smaller E-publisher doesn’t give out advances. If you’re reading this with me, let’s say it together…THAT’S A BUNCH OF CRAP!!! If E-pub authors are putting in the same time developing a story, marketing and everything else it takes to get published and gain a reader fan base, who has the right to say that person is not an author? There is a difference from being a writer and being a author. Anyone can write. Kids are writers. But once someone takes the time to read what you wrote and decide that the rest of the world needs to read what you wrote you are officially an author. It shouldn’t matter if the only way a reader can get your book is by downloading your book instead of wasting gas going to the bookstore. Yes, I know they can buy it online from places like Amazon.com but don’t forget about the shipping charges. Erotic romance writers need to unite and perhaps think about creating their own separate organization where the only goal will be to make sure all their members, no matter the types of words used in their story or final word count of the story, become published authors in whatever format the author wants-PDF file or paper.

Hot Topics!

Musings from Ahirah: Right now in the world of erotic romances there is a hot debate going on between writers. The Romance Writers of American association has published numerous letters in their monthly publication RWR (Romance Writers of America) about writers who write erotic romances. Now mind you these letters are not coming from anyone associated with RWA rather authors who want to voice their concerns or opinions about how they see the world of romance writing changing for so-called worst. As a fellow writer said: “I’m convinced they are conducting a thinly veiled witch hunt against authors who write erotic fiction. "-Koko Brown

Take a look at another author venting her frustration back in October 2007 -Victoria Dahl Where do I stand on the issue.

I totally agree with EVERYTHING the ladies had to say.

Erotic Romance is just that romance that is erotic. What does erotic mean you ask? 1: arousing or satisfying sexual desire

2: of, pertaining to, or treating of sexual love; amatory

3: subject to or marked by strong sexual desire.

What does romance mean? a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.

I wonder if the women writing these scathing letters, about how upset they are about the “trash that is printed”…I wonder if these women have sex. Sex is not wrong especially if done in a committed relationship. Most readers of romance novels are women. The purpose of reading romance novels is for fantasy. No woman I know ever read a romance and then divorced her husband or dropped her boyfriend like a hot potato. Reading any genre of fiction is to escape for a couple of minutes. Hours. Days from the hustle and bustle of everyday living.

What on earth is wrong with that? Romance of any kind is about passion, emotion, feelings. Sex is all that and then some. Novels are based somewhat on real life or the illusion of real life. Do men cuss? Hell yeah! Do women cuss? Damn straight! Do men and women have messy rough sex? I hope like hell they do! Can words turn on a person? Better believe it! For all of us married women out there, what is wrong with reading a hot steamy novel and attacking your husband when he gets home from work? I’ll tell you…NOTHING AT ALL. I think there should be a law that women all over the world read an erotic romance novel once a week. Two things would happen. First, men would buy more Barnes and Noble/Borders gift cards. Second, the world’s population would increase greatly.

Ahirah has spoken!

Writer’s Block

Musings from Ahirah: Yes!!! The dreaded word that every writer hates to admit to. I don’t know about my better half “Towns” but it has snuck up on me. We’ve decided to put down “Criminal Passions” for a minute and work on something else. What you ask? Good question. We hope by this weekend to figure out what new hot and exciting story we’ll work on. We actually have a couple to choose from. 1: erotic paranormal with multi-cultural characters-full length novel 2: erotic paranormal-novelle-written for Del Fantasma series. 3: erotic futuristic-full length novel So many choices.