Pulling the Plug

“This one so completely sucked toads, I was ashamed even to be seen burning it.” – Jane Austen, speaking of the manuscript for her never-published book, Pride and Sensibility. (as far as you know.)

We all come to that pass, where nothing works to save an aspiring book. We hate to let them go. We try everything we can think of—change the plot lines, switch narrative perspectives, add sparkly vampire characters. Sadly, it just doesn’t measure up. You’ve poured your heart and soul and many hours of mouse-breaking labor into it, but it eventually becomes clear this one just won’t make it.

We hate when it happens. We blame ourselves. We tell ourselves a better writer could have saved it. Forgive yourself. Say a few words over it and move on.

Laurie Boris wrote the best eulogy for a manuscript I’ve ever seen. Click on over and pay your respects to the dearly departed. Then come back over here and take our poll.

Have you ever found yourself giving up on a manuscript?

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Sneak Peek: Culloo

Today we have a sneak peek from author Muirelle Cyr’s middle-grade children’s book, Culloo.

Tala can’t answer the door. The welfare officer is knocking and her father isn’t home again. She needs to find him before her and her young brother get placed in foster care. Their quest brings them to secluded woods where they discover bear poachers are responsible for their father’s disappearance.

Their adventures bring them in contact with the legendary woodland characters: the pipe-smoking frog-like people and the giant, ferocious black bird. Will they be able to survive the night alone with hungry bears and angry poachers and find their father before the hunters do?

Culloo is available through Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

Here is an excerpt from CullooContinue reading “Sneak Peek: Culloo”

Video Trailer: Scents and Sensuality

Amanda needs a man. Desperately! She’ll do anything to get a date for her snooty cousin’s wedding. When a matchmaking mom proposes her son for a wedding date, Amanda agrees. What choice does she have? Men aren’t exactly falling at her feet and beseeching her for the pleasure of her company.

Harrison has had it with his mom’s matchmaking! Desperate to put an end to her meddling, he decides to teach her a lesson as well as get out of the date she’s “guilted” him into.

Two desperate people – each determined to achieve their goals. Desperation makes interesting bedfellows.

Scents and Sensuality, the contemporary romance by Joan Reeves, is available through Amazon.com, Barnes & NobleAmazon UK, and other online retailers.

Don’t forget, you can cast your vote for trailer of the month on April 27, 2013 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.


Book Brief: She Belongs to Me

She Belongs to Me
by Carmen DeSousa
Genre: Romantic-Suspense
Word count: 105,000

After secrets and a mysterious background leave a wife’s life hanging by a thread, a husband must look for answers in the only place he knows—the past.

When wealthy construction company owner and Charlotte detective, Jordan Monroe, meets Jaynee for the first time he is awestruck and determines to make her his wife. Jaynee, however, has a history she cannot easily overcome and is fearful to submit to love. Jordan succeeds in making her his wife, but five years into their marriage, he realizes she is keeping secrets. Before he can decipher her duplicity, he discovers her unconscious in their home from a gunshot wound only hours after giving her an ultimatum concerning their relationship.

With Jaynee’s life hanging in the balance, the mystery of her past drives Jordan to investigate. But what appears to be an attempted suicide turns out to be something far darker. Is someone from her past stalking her? Or worse, is someone close to Jordan trying to kill them both? As Jordan edges closer to the truth, it may be deadlier than he could ever have imagined.

This book is available from Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: She Belongs to Me”