Hitting the Refresh Key

Well, Good Morning. Here I am once again, as you all probably knew that I would be. I know, I know, I say I'm going to quit blogging, and then I always come back. I love you guys too much to stay away.

I can't say it was a relaxing month, I still worked. I formatted and uploaded my last two books into paperback. I wrote up a boatload of blog posts. I spring cleaned my house. Ugh! Windows, carpets, got a shiny new Bot-Spot to shampoo my favorite chair and the love seat. I also started chopping down the trees in my backyard for the fence I'm going to build. Yup, I don't know what it is with me and fences, but I just gotta build them.

I've also finished THE LADY'S MASQUERADE. I had to make a lot of changes to it, so it will work with the last book in the series. It's in the hands of my fabulous critique partners now. However, I'm not rushing it. I'm not putting myself in that stressful environment again. When it looks good, I'll publish it.

I've also been toodling around with KATE, another romantic women's fiction. I love this book. It's kind of like REMEMBERING YOU, but not. You know. A lot of stuff happens to Kate and she needs to find herself before she can figure out what she wants. I do have the title, but sorry, I'm not sharing. Let me just say branding has become my middle name.

Anyway, what I've decided for the next several months is to start posting again M-W-F. Like I said, I've written up a load of posts, some I've reworked from previous posts, and I've also brought back my Friday's at the Piedmont Grille series. I have some fantastic authors to spotlight with new books, and interviews, so I hope you'll all stick around for those.

I also wanted to let you know, that this is the tentative schedule until around Memorial Day. I promised Monster a long time ago, I would only "work" when she was in school. When she's on vacation, then I'm on vacation. But I kind of think this is a good schedule. I can see the end of the tunnel as far as blogging goes -- a couple of months on, a couple of months off -- and I like it. Maybe I won't burn myself out.

So, that's all I've got. Oh, well, one more thing... about commenting. I believe that's where my trouble with burned out blogging started. I couldn't get around to all the blogs to comment. I like to reciprocate when you guys stop by here. But when I don't, I feel guilty, and it eats at me. So, I'm going to tell you now, when you comment on my blog, I will comment back here. I can't promise you I'll show up with any regularity on your blogs, but I will try. I'm not particularly fond of those bloggers who post and then never comment anywhere. I think it's rude. But if you comment on this blog, I will answer you. And rest assured, I will read your blogs as time permits. I like to keep my nose in everybody's business and Google Reader and I have become friends once again.

It's good to be back.

Tell me -- What have you been up to? Get an Agent? Requests? Published? Any shiny new ideas?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2013

I'm Back! Did You Miss Me?

Well, good morning. I'm finally back to Blogger and they changed the format around. How many of you are hating this new system besides me? I can't find anything, don't know where to look, afraid to touch a button for fear the whole thing will crash. ARGH!!! Why can't they just leave things alone? Rant done.

Anyway, thanks for all your support while I was away. It really means the world to me. My dad is doing better. I don't think he'll ever change his curmudgeonly ways, but then he wouldn't be my dad if he did.

We're still waiting to close on the new house. Lawyers and banks and home inspections, oh my. You know how it goes. I just can't wait to start moving. You should see the dining room. Filled with boxes and crap and yard sale stuff. The only nice thing about this move is that I can just take stuff 'as is' and bring it to the new house in the car. I don't need a moving truck -- yet.

As for being back, I'm hoping to go back to my old format of M-W-F posts. I'm really hoping you'll all stop by again. Thanks so much to all my new followers. It's so nice to have you here.

And I hope you spent yesterday doing something good for Mother Earth, for her birthday. Oops, for Earth Day. It was actually my birthday. The Big 50. Where did the time go? Anyway, I hope you did something fun and picked up some trash somewhere. Or recycled something. We all have to do our part.

Now, tell me true, did you miss me? What have you been up to? What did I miss since I've been gone, beside Blogger changing?

Pen Name Revisited

Well, if you were here on Monday, you saw that I'm thinking about a pen name for my women's fiction books.  Robynne Rand was the clear winner, with all the rest coming in a close second. I didn't realize Ann Coulter was who she was, so that name is definitely out of the running. (Although I wonder who would get more publicity out of that kind of book??)

Anyhoo, Anne R. Allen brought up a really interesting point -- about how I've already spent so much time building up my author name as my brand, and with my covers, and how long it's taken me to do this, then why would I want to start again from the bottom. And she's right.

However, here's my itch -- I know how I felt when I found out Lisa Kleypas (of Regency romance fame) wrote a contemporary romance, and used her own name. I wigged out. Yeah, I did. I don't know why, but I did. I did read her contemporary stuff, and truth to tell, I didn't like it all that much. It was a good book, I guess, (It was a long time ago, I really don't remember it all that well.) but I know it definitely wasn't her finest hour. I don't know if I was expecting something else, if it had to do with the publisher, the editor, or what, but I didn't like it. The sad thing is, I haven't read anything else by her.

Which isn't fair, but that's how I feel.

The same thing happened with Susan Wiggs. I loved her historicals. I hated her contemporaries.

Now these are just two authors that I know of. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing to want to branch out, hey, I'm all for it. It's just that once you brand yourself to a particular genre, you should keep the name that made you famous, and if you want to write something else, then you should change your name. I mean, what if Stephen King wrote romances under Stephen King? He'd probably get laughed at by some people. And other people wouldn't read it. Because it's not what he's known for. But I bet if he wrote under Stephanie Kingston, then nobody would know or even care.

Because I don't know about you, but I just read an authors' name and don't even wonder who they really are. I had absolutely no idea that Nora Roberts and J.D.Robb were the same person. Honest. That goes for a half dozen other authors too.  They brand themselves and as far as I'm concerned, that's what they write under that particular name.

Which is where I'm waffling. I've made a successful branding of my name, Anne Gallagher, to my Regency romances, right? And for however many fans I have, that's what they expect of me. Regency romances that are exceedingly sweet, and predictable, with just enough twists and turns to make you really wonder if the hero and heroine are actually going to make it to their happily ever after.

Now suppose, I released a book about a rape victim, incest survivor, and a wife-beater? Do you think I'd lose some of my Regency fans? Especially if there were f-bombs and gruesome beatings, and full on rape scenes? (I mean, not that I am going to release that kind of book, I don't have it in me to even THINK about writing something like that.) But I mean, can you get my drift here?

So my question to you is -- Do you think that authors who brand themselves in one genre, should rebrand themselves in another? Or do you think it's possible to keep your same name and be successful in both?

Pence for Your Thoughts

Good-morning gentle readers, Happy Monday. It's a holiday so I'm hoping you are doing something relaxing.

I got the chance last week to talk to an agent (yes, one of those who has my partial -- although not about the partial). He maintained that my web-presence needed to be more than what it is, that I needed to be more in tune with my genre and the other writers who are writing Regency/romance, instead of just blogging around and ranting and writing about how I can't write because the Monster Baby is driving me up the wall. And I agree.

So I will now be including things like -- how I write -- helpful hints and tips --stuff from the Regency era -- excerpts - with (hopefully) more of a formal fashion. I've begun taking notes and accumulating links. I think it will be kind of fun, you can see what writing "Austen-ian prose" is like, dearest.

And if you know any other Regency/romance writers, send them over, or tell me who they are so I can scope them out . I feel like I'm the only one writing this, amidst all you YA, paranormal, literary types and I'm lonely. For my own kind. That's not a slur on any of you, I LOVE you guys. You TOTALLY ROCK.

Any-hoo on to Query Tally Stats. As of today, February 15 -- 16 out, 2 form rejections, 2 partial requests. 2 we'll get back to you when we do. It is somewhat daunting to know I might have to wait months for anything else to come back however, now I can work on Richard & Amanda's story.

Speaking of which, as I worked on it last week, I noticed I was going further afield than I wanted to with the plot line. It's a great plot, lots of twists, but I found as I was researching, this was taking over the whole book. So I had to put a stop to it. So I stopped writing. And thought, and thought, and thought. I had a semi-aha moment where I could bring it back around, but I have to work out all the details. Don't you hate that? Getting bogged down in details. UGH! (More on this to come Tuesday. I finally figured out how to schedule a post and so spent all day Sunday writing them while cruising around checking out the blogfest entries. Great fun.)

I've also posted three sights on my sidebar that should be helpful if you find yourself in need of critiques -- no pressure. Rick Daley's The Public Query Slushpile, which is an excellent place to get help for the much needed query letter. (Rick's sight takes a lot less time and is a lot less brutal than the other two sights for queries I've seen and tried to use which I won't mention by name because I don't trash anyone on my blog). The people at TPQSP are very nice and always respectful and they have quite a few people whose advice I respect. Rick also has a critique exchange blog started for those of you who are looking for a critique partner for chapters or whole books -- any genre. critxchange. And our own Kristi Faith has a critique exchange program Critter Corner for those of you who need help -- although I think hers is for YA -- Kristi, want to jump in here. So go take a look.

I also did find out, this IS the year of the Tiger. Of which I am. A Tiger I mean, according to the Chinese Calendar. As this only comes around once every twelve years, I am very pleased it is FINALLY happening. I have had the most dreadful last twelve years, (with the exception of my daughter) although I'm sure this also has to do with Saturn who has been in misalignment, or realignment or whatever it is he does to mess up my life. So now, Saturn is leaving whichever house of mine he's been screwing with (for the last 5 or 6 years), and I'm finally having my year. Hopefully this will mean what I think it does, but not wanting to jinx myself, I'm not saying what you know I want to say. Starts with a C ends with a T, 8 letters, legal term....

So gentle readers, now that I've blogged long enough about nothing, let me ask you these questions: Do you think your blog should follow a formalized writing schedule with your genre as its main focus, or should it be fun until you publish your first book? Do you think you should publish excerpts of your current works in progress on your blog -- or do you think that takes away from the work itself? How many of you have beta readers and how many readers do you have? How many do you think are necessary?