Go Aries!

Musings from Ahirah NubianGraphics.com


Today is a writing and critique day and I don't have a lot of time to blog so I thought I'd give a shout out to all the ARIES!


Even though my birthday has come and gone. The next holiday on the calendar is my 6th Wedding Anniversary.
I still can't believe I've been married for 6 years.
Wow!

Anyway...back to Aries, which is the best sign by the way. I was looking around on the web and came across this. Lets see if I fit the mold.

Adventures are Us!- ya that's me.

Love fast food- dang that is so me.

Never boring-like I'd admit to that.

Make a great pioneer-Don't think so.

Oh! That Temper- Just ask my husband.

Always want to be first in Line-of course! Someone has to be first, why not ME.

Leap before looking-remember I'm adventurous.

Passionate! Passionate! Passionate!-why in the heck do you think I write erotic romances.

Well 9 out of 10 ain't bad. It's official...

I'm An Aries!

I know I'm crazy but I was in a fun mood today. Stay tuned. Soon you'll get to meet and learn more about the new erotic romance author, Bekki Lynn.

Queen of Sensual Multicultural Romance

Musings from Ahirah:
Lately I've had the great pleasure of conversing with some well known authors of erotic romance as well as newbie authors, who have published their first book.
This week and a good part of next week I'll be talking to them and getting all the details on why they write what they write. I know you'll enjoy hearing what they have to say.
The first author I interviewed is Samara King. She an author of Sensual Multicultural Romance. Currently she writes for Cobblestone Press, Changeling press and Loose-id.

This is one author that is on the fast track of sucess.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING? I’ve been writing since 8th grade. I grew up on Silhouette Desire and haven’t stopped loving romance novels since!

WHAT MAKES YOU WRITE? The need to create characters with vices and quirks is one of the best parts of the creative process to me. I love mixing and meshing and watching the chaos that unfolds as a result of my mechanisms. LOL. Really, I don’t think of myself as an “erotic romance author” more of a sensualist and I like to explore that in my writing with my characters.

WHAT GENRE OF ROMANCE DO YOU WRITE? Multicultural, Interracial and African-American romance.

WHO IS YOUR PUBLISHER AND THE NAME OF YOUR BOOK? My latest release is Wild Impulses, available now through Cobblestone Press. I also write for Changeling Press and Loose-Id.

PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR FIRST NOVEL(s)?
Well, actually, Wild Impulses is my first novel. I wrote it in 2 and an half months and it was recently republished by Cobblestone Press. Here is a blurb:
One night of pleasure was all it was suppose to be between Cosmetic heiress, Blu Evans and the mysterious man she’d met in a Paris hotel named “J” She never suspected that she’d slept with the enemy!
Jaden Graeham is a man who knows what he wants and he wants Blu Evans. He loves a challenge and life won’t be complete until he has her back in his bed, but when a troubling piece to his past comes back to take out revenge and unmask a dark secret, will Jaden be able to survive the greatest risk of all: watching the woman he loves walk away?

WHAT ARE YOUR WRITING GOALS? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH? Well, currently I’m working on branching out from the e-book market, which I will never fully leave, it has been a great source of creativity and growth for me and I’m addicted.

HOW MANY REJECTIONS DID YOU GET BEFORE GETTING PUBLISHED? Hundreds. Rejections are daunting, but you quickly learn that they are all part of the writing process.

HOW HARD WAS IT TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ESPECIALLY SINCE NO ONE KNEW ABOUT YOU? It was overwhelming at first, but the more you socialize and network with other authors you gain a whole new insight to what works and what doesn’t.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON CRITIQUE GROUPS? I’m not a fan of critique groups, but they work for other authors. It really depends on the author’s style. For me, I like having more of a one-on-one relationship with my critique partner.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON TAKING ONLINE WORKSHOP CLASSES? Taking workshop classes is an awesome outlet for knowledge for writers. I encourage them.

BESIDES WRITING ROMANCE IS THERE ANOTHER GENRE OF FICTION WRITING YOU WOULD LIKE TO TACKLE ONE DAY? Young-adult and possibly women’s fiction.

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON HOW SOME AUTHORS CHOOSE TO PUBLISH WITH DIFFERENT E-PUBS? I think variety is the spice of life and again, it is up to the author and their personal goals for their writing career. Each publishing house has something different to offer and sometimes it takes awhile to find the right one.
HOW DOES YOUR FAMILY FEEL ABOUT YOU WRITING EROTIC ROMANCES? LOL. Well, I won’t tell you what my mother says, but they are supportive of my writing as a whole and know that it is a big part of my life. My son’s encouragement is awesome.

LIST 5 OF YOUR FAVORITE EROTIC ROMANCE WRITERS AND THEIR NOVELS. Anything by Lena Matthews, Kimberly Kaye Terry, Deanna Lee, Jamie Denton and Brenda Jackson, I love so many authors

CAN YOU GIVE THREE REASONS WHY READERS SHOULD BUY YOUR BOOK(S)? Variety, since I write Interracial, Multicultural and African-American (some genres that don’t often have enough of a spotlight). Sassy heroines who stand up for what they want. My heroes are HOT! My thought is if I wouldn’t want them a reader wouldn’t either, so I make it my duty to make them as sizzling as possible.

PLEASE LIST THREE THINGS THAT READERS WOULDN’T TYPICALLY KNOW ABOUT YOU.

• I’m an Aquarius


• I have a love affair going with chocolate and popcorn (but not together…lol)
• I love people watching.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE NEWBIE WRITERS?

Develop your own unique voice and let it shine, your work will be enriched for it!

Next we'll hear from the newest member of Siren Publishing, Eclectic Romance Author, Bekki Lynn.

Interviewing Authors

Musings from Ahirah: One more day to my birthday. YEAH! I have great news. Later this week, I plan on discussing some interviews I was able to conduct with some great authors. Some have been published for years while others just released their first novel. Just to name a few- Samara King, Kate Douglas, Bekki Lynn, Koko Brown, D.N. Lyons, Tabitha Shay, Elizabeth Amber, Jane Leopold Quinn and many more. Keep checking back to see what these great writers have to say about writing romances.

B-day coming soon!

Musings from Ahirah: In a couple of days and I will turn 33 years old. On April 17th to be exact. I can't believe it. When I look in the mirror I see someone still in college, senior year that is. I don't know what hubby or friends have in plan for me. I do know, I wish I could take off from work but because of a state given test I must be present the entire day. So that mean no taking off early. Oh well, can't win everything. Not sure if I will celebrate on Thursday or wait till the weekend. Will keep you posted and let you know what great gifts I get. "Towns" wanted to take me to dinner but instead I asked if I could go shopping for clothes. She agreed and gave me a limit of $100. Isn't she awesome! That's why I love her. Now you know why I write with her.

Obsessions

Musings by Ahirah We all have them right? I was surfing and trying to come up with a blog entry today. I checked out some comments from my readers and responsed back to Unwritten© and checked out her blog. Can we first say, I love the music. Please go and check it out and get your jam on. One of her entries talked about obsessions. I found it so funny and strange to find out someone else out there has the same obsession of buying journals or notebooks for no other reason but to have them. I know call me crazy but its something about the beautiful design of the cover or perhaps the crisp clean paper inside. I typically buy them to use as journals and will try and write in it each day but to no avail. After 4 days I forget and never pick the dang thing up again. Lately, I've been notebooks so I can carry them around with so when the fever strikes me to write I'm not writing things on napkins or heavens forbid my hand. Just like Unwritten, I also have a complex concerning my handwriting. Whenever I write in the dang things, I hate how my style of writing looks. Sometimes I have been known to rip the page out if it doesn’t look good. Say it with me...CRAZY!!! I also have another obsession. PENS! I love writing with different kinds of pens, all shapes and colors. I really like the gel kind. Something about the gliding effort…I don’t know…just call me crazy Ahirah-THE OBSESSED WRITER OF PAPER AND PENS. What’s your obsession?

Where do we come up with these ideas?

Musings from Ahirah: One of the newest members of Siren Publishing, Bekki Lynn who just so happens to belong to the same great critique group as I do suggested that I talk about our latest WIP (work in progress). What’s to say? I love this story. I actually came up with the idea of it because of my love of kung fu movies. I’ll have to do a total separate blog and give you all the fun facts. Basically I grew up watching them in NYC, where I’m from, with my father every Saturday morning. There’s always been something attracting about marital arts to me. I don’t know if it’s the lifestyle of the Buddhist monks or perhaps the stringent training they have to go through to be the best. Perhaps it’s the different forms used. In Japanese, katas are detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pair. In Chinese marital arts, forms are known as taolu.

My all time favorite kung fu movie is Five Deadly Venoms. It’s a classic and please run out and rent it QUICK!

Towns and I have been reading a lot of paranormal stories lately. Our favorite by far is by J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood Series series. Towns didn’t care for the first book but once she read the second book she was hooked line and sinker. We thought about having our heros be vampires but quickly changed our mind. There are so many different series that feature vampires as their lead characters. We wanted to break the mold and change the game so to speak. Anyway, in Chinese philosophy there is a lot of talk about the elements-metal, water, wood, fire and earth. In Japan, the philosphy includes heaven as the sixth element. Not to give too much away but our heros are "brothers" not by blood but by fate. Their powers, so to speak, manifested early on in life, always when there was a natural disaster. All of the “5 brothers” come from different ethnic backgrounds. One is mixed-Native American and Asian, another is full Asian while another is Arab. Towns and I love to write about multicultural characters, especially ones not typically portrayed in romance novels. Our heroine is African American. Being creative and developing strange and exciting worlds is half the fun when writing a novel. The other half is finishing it!

Critique Groups: Are they needed?

Musing from Ahirah Recently someone asked about our experiences with critique groups especially being a new writer. In my humble opinion critique groups are necessary. It’s a great way to interact, either in person or via internet, with other writers. Yahoo seems to be the breeding location for such critique groups. I have belonged to a lot of groups. Sometimes the groups were so large I felt overwhelmed. I did “lurk” and learned a lot about the writing craft. There are two critique groups that I feel have been very helpful for me. The first one is Eclectic Writers of Romance. It is a restricted group meaning. It has a limited number of members and new members has to be approved by the entire group. Some members are published with Ellora’s Cave and Siren Publishing. The second group, PRC2 Paranormal Writers Critique Group has more members but that doesn’t stop them from truly getting to know one another and making new members feel welcomed. Most of the members are published with different E-publishers such as Freya’s Bower, Eternal Press and Loose Id, to name a few. These two groups have given me the bias eyes that each and every writer needs (even published ones). As a new writer I think it’s very important to have others read your stories and give their opinions on it. Remember that its just opinions on what is right or wrong with the story. I have met outstanding women who know their grammar. Without them I don’t know what I would do. As you write you tend to think of your writing as your baby. You nurture it and protect it and feel that nothing is wrong with it. Joining a critique group allows you to WAKE UP and realize that your’re a horrible speller (I know I spelled it wrong), need to learn more about POV switches, stop using words such as “was”, “felt”, “that” all the dang time and learn how to write in such a way that you SHOW a story instead of TELL it. Personally I have nothing bad to say about critique groups. Just know that none of the people giving critiques are professional nor are they agents or editors. The advice and suggestions they give you, may still cause you not to be picked up by an agent or editor. Other writers can find plot issues and conflict issues with your story that you didn't even know existed. Perhaps they noticed that your characters say something that totally goes against how they acted in chapter one. Take the suggestions with a grain of salt. As one critiquer tells me: Use what you can and throw out the rest. I think that’s sound advice. Only you know your story and what you want your readers to experience when they are reading. When you join a group be prepared to return the favor and do critiques for others. This is a great way to take a step back from your writing and concentrate on someone else’s. I love doing this because it helps me notice things that I take for granted. Like POV (point of view). I personally don’t have a problem staying in one POV during a scene. But some writers do. I also love doing critiques because I notice things about my own writing. By looking at others works you can learn how to describe something like the weather or a flower by the words others use. You notice the style of their writing and how easy the words flow together. So I ask everyone: What’s your opinion on joining critique groups?