Hi, everyone! Yes, I’m getting better (pain pills are nearly 12 hours apart now, LOL!) but I’m still bringing in some spectacular guest bloggers to fill my spot until I’m feeling 100% (or at least 90%). Today’s guest is Stephanie Bond and I’m a HUGE FANGIRL of her work, especially her Bodymovers series for MIRA. I’m also lucky enough to also be her friend, so I’m doubly pleased to have her here in the jungle!
She provided a blog that’s aimed at writers (and seems to be specifically aimed at me because although I’m still recovering from my surgery, I’m also on a very tight deadline for the third Phantom book…so thanks, Steph!) but I thought…really, this advice is apropos of any deadline and Lord knows we all have them. So although today is aimed at our writer/readers, I know everyone will appreciate her dedication to her craft. By the way, the third Bodymover book doesn’t come out until the end of the month, so that gives you PLENTY of time to read the first two until then, especially since both are now available in mass market paperback and they are FABULOUS.
Welcome, Stephanie!
—————–
Accumulating Pages
I write every day…mostly out of fear! Fear that a thought or a phrase that forms in my head today will never be there again, so if I don’t get it down, it will be gone forever. In fact, there have been many times that I’ve read something I’ve written and thought, “Wow, I’m glad I don’t have to think of that today—I’m not sure I could!”
Even though I write every day, however, I tend to finish my manuscripts in spurts. As the momentum of the book begins to build (hopefully), so does my writing pace. And writing fast is actually conducive to my style—I love rapid-fire dialogue, for example. Writing dialogue quickly allows me to capture the essence of a zippy exchange. And as the story moves toward its climax (and my deadline looms), my brain and hands just naturally move faster. In fact, I have a saying, “The longer it takes me to finish a book, the longer it takes me to finish a book.” Meaning, the longer you allow a project to drag on, the slower it drags on.
BUT there are some days when I need a little kickstart, so here are some tips for accumulating pages when you can’t seem to get inspired:
· Put yourself under the gun. Set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes and see how much you can write before the alarm sounds
· Talk your way out of the scene. Speak the words as you type them. Sometimes just hearing your own voice will awaken your brain.
· Remind yourself that your characters deserve better. Imagine that you’ve left your characters hanging in mid-sentence or mid-scene, like a frozen frame in a movie. They’ll be that way until you get them moving again!
· Let your characters challenge you. I imagine my main character from my Body Movers series, Carlotta Wren, sitting in my guest chair with her legs crossed, foot swinging. She’s filing her nails and saying, “Find something interesting for me to do, Bond. Don’t bore me.”
· Pretend as if the project is already finished. Write the cover letter that will go on your finished manuscript and talk about the things in the manuscript that you’re most proud of.
Happy writing (and reading)! Thanks to the Plotmonkeys for having me!
__________________________
Stephanie Bond writes a sexy mystery series for Mira Books called Body Movers. The third book in the series, 3 Men and a Body, will be available Tuesday, July 29. Stephanie also writes for Harlequin Blaze. Look for the Sex for Beginners trilogy in October, November, and December 2008!
__________________________
Quick note from Carly:
Blogging at: Riding with the Top Down today! Giveaway too!
Interview about Hot Property/Giveaway at: Much Cheaper than Therapy
__________________________
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
Destiny
Dirty Little Secrets
Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
Subscribe to Posts 
Comment
Welcome Stephanie! I love your website – very clean and easy to navigate. Does your mystery series have a lot of romantic elements, or are they more focused on the mystery? I don’t mind if there’s no HEA in every book, but I do hope to find one by the end of the series. How long do your series normally last (how many books)?
Comment
I have the first book “Bodymovers” in my TBR pile! Guess I better move it to the top of the heap…two more in the series to buy!! Love your earlier books!
Comment
Welcome Ms. Bond to the jungle. Thanks for being here today and for the great advice. At the moment I can really use the kick-start!
Great web site by the way. I think it really reflects what you write.
Do you have someone you brainstorm ideas with or do you go it alone? If you do go it alone, how do you do that?
Have a wonderful day all,
Cher
Comment
One more question…have you ever been rejected?
Cher
Comment
YEAH!! A new Body Movers!!
Comment
WELCOME, STEPHANIE!
It’s so great to have you visit us here in the jungle!
Comment
Welcome Stephanie! Your tips not only help writer but also help out a comic artist who’s trying to get a monthly strip up! Thank you!!
Comment
I have alread eard the first two body movers book and enjoyed them so much.
I look forward to your next installment. :flower4you:
Oh and The tips are great. In anything I am doing if I knowI have limited time I always move a it faster. :dog1:
Comment
Thank you so much for coming and sharing. I was recently encouraged to begin writing a story idea that i had, and as a first timer that is all wonderful advice. I will certainly be checking out your website and books.
Comment
Hi Stephanie!!! Thanks so much for being here! What perfectly timed advice. I’ve definitely got to kickstart myself on this latest wip.
Comment
Hi Stephanie….I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED “3 Guys You’ll Never date” (With Rhonda Nelson and Jennifer LaBrecque…..).I keep meaning to email you!
We’re off to California Adventure today….we’ve had one meltdown (two nights ago with oldest), but I am hopeful that that is behind us….keep us in your thoughts…..disneyland is challenging with a boy with autism!
Comment
STACY—My BODY MOVERS series is billed as a “sexy mystery series.” It’s heavy in mystery, but chock full of romance. There is a main character, Carlotta, and she has 3 potential love interests—her former fiancé, a sexy cop, and her brother’s boss, a hunky body mover. There will absolutely be a Happily Ever After—my love for romance novels and background in writing for Harlequin absolutely demands it! As far as how long the series will last, all I know is that it will be more than 6 books. (Books 4, 5, and 6 will be released next year back to back in April, May, and June.) I hope the series lasts much longer, but that’s up to readers. If readers keep reading, I’ll keep writing!
LAURIE—thank you for the kind words about my books!
CHER asked “Do you have someone you brainstorm ideas with or do you go it alone? If you do go it alone, how do you do that?”
I come up with my own ideas, usually while taking long walks or riding in a car. But I have an amazing critique partner, Rita Herron, who writes for Harlequin Intrigue and for Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner). Rita and I have been critiquing for 14 years—since before we were both published. We talk almost every day and still meet every Tuesday night to exchange work. It’s so great to have someone else to bounce ideas off of, especially someone who is so familiar with your writing style. AND my readers are wonderful about sending suggestions! I received a long email only yesterday from a bookseller detailing how she thought my BODY MOVERS series should unfold—and end! (I’m glad you like my website, by the way—thanks.)
CHER also asked if I’ve ever been rejected. YES! I’ve kept all my rejection letters and read them occasionally, when I’m cleaning out my files. The funny thing is that none of the editors who rejected me are even still in the business. (My strategy was simply to outlast everyone.) Rejection is part of the business. Wear it like a badge of honor. And the letters make great fodder for banquet speeches when you reach your goals!
RANE—Glad the tips were helpful for getting up your comic strip—I have to confess that I use a kitchen timer for just about anything that I’m not particularly looking forward to doing, including exercising and cleaning house!
Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome! I came into the business about the same time as Leslie, Julie, Janelle, and Carly. These four ladies represent all the good things about this business. I don’t get to see any of them as often as I’d like, but when we get together, we can pick up right where we left off! Class acts, all of these women.
Comment
The Plotmonkeys are definitely CLASS personified! I totally agree!!
Thank you for answering all my questions. I saved my rejection letters for years until they were approaching the 100 mark. Then each time I opened my file cabinet my eyes kept going straight for the rejeciton file. I decided it was time to get rid of them. So I had a shredding party!
The funniest rejection I ever received was this one from an agent, “Slow and talky and does not inspire page turning.” Now whenever my husband and I are in a restaurant trying to decide what to order I look at him and say, “You know, this menu is slow and talky and does not inspire page turning.” :giggle:
Cher
Comment
KATIE–thanks for the nice words about the anthology 3 GUYS YOU’LL NEVER DATE I wrote with Jennifer LaBrecque and Rhonda Nelson. I remember being so excited to see the cover because I’d written a big, hunky construction worker, and was thinking he’d make a GREAT cover, right? So when I asked my editor if she’d seen the artwork yet, all I heard in the background was crickets.
“Brenda,” I said. “Have you seen the cover?”
“It’s fish,” she mumbled.
“Fish?” I said, laughing. “Where did they come up with fish?”
“I think it had something to do with trying to catch a man.”
ANYWAY the cover of that book does indeed show cartoon fish with a hook. But when co-author Jen LaBrecque saw it, she said, “They put my name on the fat fish–what does that say?” And I said, “Well, they put my name on the carp–what does THAT say?” And Rhonda just smiled and said, “I got a pearl.” (They put her name on an oyster.)
Comment
CHER–I collect those kinds of sayings and put them on T-shirts! I remember seeing an online auction of one of my books and the person described me as “a great but relatively unknown author.” I laughed and laughed. Now I have a T-shirt that says,
GREAT, BUT RELATIVELY UNKNOWN
Comment
What a great saying!! I love it!
Wonderful story about Brenda and the book cover. I’ll have to ask her about it sometime.
Cher
Comment
I won a book of yours a while back and was instantly hooked. I have now read four and LOVE them. I have passed them on and told everyone I know how great they are. :wave:
Comment
Welcome to the jungle Stephanie!
I’m not a writer but I am a very avid reader and I love your books Stephanie.! I’ve been a big fan for a long time and I always have your books on my “must-buy” list. I also want to say that I’m really enjoying the Body Movers series and cannot wait for the 3rd book to come out!
Comment
Those are some great tips, Stephanie. Thanks for sharing them, and your experiences and sayings. I love that you took that saying and made it into a t-shirt. I bet you get some great reactions when you wear it. :wink:
Comment
Welcome Stephanie. Thanks for blogging with us today. I haven’t read any of the Body Movers series but I’m going to check them out. I have read other books of yours.
Julie, I’m glad your recovery is coming along. Keep getting better. :hug2:
Comment
Thanks, everyone, for the nice words about the Body Movers series–I’m finishing book 4 right now, so I need the encouragement!
Other sayings I’ve put on T-shirts:
I THINK GOD APPRECIATES MY SUGGESTIONS
AND SHE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER MAKING 75 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR FOR DOING THE SAME JOB AS A MAN
I MAKE THINGS UP
I CAN LIVE WITH REJECTION, BUT NOT REGRET
It’s such a glorious day here in Atlanta–I’m sitting on my balcony with my laptop trying to finish a chapter. Hope it’s wonderful where you are too.
(Julie, sending healing vibes your way.)
Comment
Hi Stephanie,
I haven’t read the Body Movers series yet, but I really enjoyed “Party Crashers.”
Comment
Hi, Stephanie! I absolutely love the Body Movers series and I am waiting , somewhat impatiently, for the next installment.
Comment
JANE–thanks for the compliments on PARTY CRASHERS. I thought of the idea of my BODY MOVERS series years ago–a woman who was basically a girly-girl by day, but moved bodies from crime scenes by night. But the dilemma I mulled for months and months (and years) was WHY would a woman like that become a body mover? I needed a love interest in the book, so I could’ve made her boyfriend the body mover who gets her involved by association, but I didn’t like the idea of her getting talked into something just to please her boyfriend…so I kept putting the idea on the back burner.
But when I wrote the character of Carlotta Wren in PARTY CRASHERS–she’s the coworker at Neiman Marcus who talks the main character into crashing parties and shows her how not to get caught (almost)–I really had fun with her. And when she mentions her much younger brother who lives with her and it’s revealed that her “shady past” involves fighting off the men whom her brother owes money, a light bulb came on in my head.
I’D FOUND MY BODY MOVING DUO! A woman wouldn’t become a part-time body mover just because her boyfreind wanted her to–that would be pathetic. But if the woman’s BROTHER became a body mover after she threatened to throw him out if he didn’t get a job…and if she’d raised this brother and desperately wanted him to succeed at something, then she would allow herself to be drawn into it out of sisterly (and maternal) love for him.
So BODY MOVERS is really a spinoff of PARTY CRASHERS!
Comment
HiStephanie,
I read your blog this morning and was at the book store at lunch and picked up the first two books in the series. So I am excited to get them started. Right after I read Carlys HOt Properity!
Comment
Thanks for being here and what great advice!! And some of those t-shirts are fantastic. I especially like the one: I can live with rejection but not with regret. I’m typing that up and printing it out and putting it right beside my desk.
Cher – I gotta ask…the agent? Please don’t tell me that’s someone I know!
Comment
Wow another book in the Movers series. I love your humor, Stephanie. Can’t wait to read your new trilogy.
Comment
Thanks for your words, and I love, love, love your books!!!!
Comment
I may never leave this place! Again, thanks to all of you for the hospitalilty and for giving the BODY MOVERS series a try! Because of reader feedback like yours, CAROL, who were “impatient” about the one year spacing between books, my publisher has agreed to put books 4, 5, and 6 out back to back next year in April, May, and June!
And now I have to get them written! Books 4-6 are a serial killer trilogy–still BODY MOVERS with all the same characters, but some new characters and a lot more danger. The books will be published as mass market originals (small paperback). I think the covers are amazing–they feature charm bracelets (charms play a big part in the storyline); I can’t wait until the covers are finalized so I can post them.
Because books 4-6 are being published as a trilogy, I’m writing them as one long book, in parts 1, 2, and 3. It’s a little manic to write them like this (I may have no friends when they’re done because I can’t go out and play), but it’s also nice to be immersed in the books without taking such a long break in between.
In short–if you have a favorite author whose books you love and you’d like to see a spin off (or just more books!), send them an email. Not only will they appreciate your support, but they can use your email as leverage to plead their case with their editor and/or publisher.
We writers exist only because readers exist! Tell us what you want and we’ll do our best to make it happen–and to make you happy!
Back to my pages…have a wonderful week, everyone!
Comment
Love your books Steph, can’t wait to read this series.
Comment
Great Blog about writing. I write down thoughts as they pop into my head, otherwise I forget what I had to say or do. Love you books and especially your Body Movers Series.
Comment
love your books, congrats ont eh great reeview fo r the newbook . good to see u here. come back soon
