Plot Monkeys

What’s the toughest book you’ve ever written?

JEL: That’s actually a hard question because every book is tough while I’m writing it. I don’t realize how easy one is until after I’m done and I think, “wow, that one just flew by!” But I have to say that the toughest book to date was DIRTY LITTLE LIES. Not only was I dealing with writing my first ever second-in-a-series book with the same characters, but life was being a particular b*tch during that time and well, that affects writers. We are, by our nature, emotional creatures. If our emotions are in a jumble, then the writing is harder. I knew about half way through the book that things weren’t working, but I was on a tight deadline and I thought I could write through it and revise later. When I got to the end, I realized I hadn’t told the story I wanted to tell. So, I rewrote the entire book during the revision stage. I didn’t fix…I cut and rewrote. Cut about 3/4 of what had been written and completely redid it. The second time around, the book moved. Words flew! I really enjoyed the process (even if the pace nearly killed me physically) and I’m very, very proud of the final project! Of course, my Plotmonkeys helped me decide how to tear the book apart and put it back together again…I never could have done it without them!

LK: You know, this one is EASY for me. I mean, like Julie, every book is tough while I’m writing it…but there’s ONE that almost killed me and put me in the hospital right after I finished it. That was my “Forrester Square” continuity book, called THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, that was released to subscribers only in the fall of 2002. I HATED every minute of that book. Mainly because it was just not something I’d ever choose to write. Get this: A beautiful, perfect model heroine who has ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION because she wanted to be a mom, so now she’s raising this precocious, bratty kid. (I was given this, remember…my heroines are never beautiful, perfect models longing for motherhood! They’re normal women, longing for good sex!) Now, add: A male-biological-clock-is-ticking hero who wants to adopt a child (oh, God, SO NOT ME! My heroes are playboys and wicked bad boys!) Add a hospital day care center (lots more kids…oy…my only kid book ever!) and a mystery involving a bunch of other characters who do not have anything to do with my story, but whose plot I have to continue in my book.

Believe me, I have worked with other writers on “overlapping” or “continuing” stories…but they’ve always been stories I came up with or developed with the other writers. This, however, wasn’t like that…I was given the general plot and the characters and had to write it. And I just hated every minute of it. It was the first and last continuity I ever did…and I think it sold about 200 copies in the whole world! Anyway, I had such a hard time writing this so-not-me story, that I chained myself to a desk for hours a day, for many many weeks, and by the time it was done, I’d put myself in such a bad state that I ended up in the hospital with such severe back problems I had to have emergency back surgery.

So THAT was my worst book experience evah!! :biteme:

CP: EVERY BOOK I AM CURRENTLY WRITING IS THE HARDEST BOOK I EVER WROTE. Today that would be HOT PROPERTY. :biteme: (And if my real life … family, children, others’ health, my health, would cooperate, MAYBE things would get better). SIGH. I’d better in case anybody mentioned here reads this blog, which seems to be happening lately. Can we say “children” anybody?

JD: Like Leslie, the hardest/toughest book I had to write was a continuity book called NICK OF TIME. I received a call one day from my editor, Brenda Chin, and she told me that they were in a huge bind and needed an author to write this continuity book for them since the original author had to drop out of the series due to family/health issues. Being new and very green at the time, of course I said I’d do it. Never mind that I only had 6 weeks to write the book (280 pages), or that I had to write a book that someone else had already started (I had three of their chapters), or that, like Leslie, I was GIVEN the characters, story, and plot and had to basically write a book that wasn’t mine. So, after saying yes, I got started, and realized that I COULDN’T write the other person’s story, that I really did have to make it MINE. So, I had to scratch everything I had and start over . . . . which gave me about 4 weeks to write the book by this time. The book was a killer to write (and nearly killed me because I had to revise, revise, and revise some more) but somewhere along the way the characters and story DID come together, and by the time the book was done (the day before I was to leave on a one week vacation with my family! ), I knew I’d done the best I could. However, being that this was the toughest/hardest book I’ve ever written, it also is one of my absolute favorites. When I came back from my vacation and read my galleys with a fresh eye (and rested mind!), I realized that somehow, someway, I’d written a really good book with strong characters and conflict. Though the book was only available through mail-order only (such a bummer!), NICK OF TIME went on to winner quite a few awards, including the NATIONAL READERS CHOICE AWARD. So, even though books are hard and tough to write during the process of writing them, some of them do end up being gems.

Well, as you know if you’ve been around the Plotmonkeys for a while, Fridays are our giveaway day. We each take one Friday a month….but this month, there are five Fridays! So we’re offering a quadruply (is that a word? lol!) cool prize.

First, a book from each of us.

Leslie’s offering a copy of HER LAST TEMPTATION…which, if you were a Temptation reader, you probably know was THE last Temptation ever published. (I still miss the line so much…loved writing those books! This is also one of the most glorious covers I ever had!)

If you already have it, she’ll swap out for another Temptation title as long as it’s available.

From Julie: Her best-selling Temptation title…GOOD GIRLS DO…with its beautiful reprint cover rather than the waiter & waitress who were on the original!

From Janelle: A copy of her last full-length WILDE title…TOO WILDE TO TAME! (Just in time to get ready for the next Wilde novel coming in September!)

And from Carly: Winner’s choice of any paperback book from her backlist…depending on availability. Woo-hoo!

PLUS the winner will also get a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com or BN.com…to indulge that book obsession we all talked about yesterday!

Just post a comment and you’re entered…(U.S. & Canada entries only please.)
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NOTE! Carly is guestblogging today at The Goddess Blogs! Come visit …

Today in my inbox, I found a message from Borders that promised me a first look at the new cover for the 7th Harry Potter book, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. If you haven’t seen it…now you have!

To be honest, I was underwhelmed. I immediately jogged over to my favorite Harry Potter website, mugglenet.com, so I could see the picture close up. And, as I suspected, there wasn’t anything to see! I want clues! I want hints! I want some snippet of visual information to satiate my thirst for all things Harry Potter until July 21st when the book is officially out.

It’s sort of crazy. I mean, it’s a kid’s book, right?

Ah, who am I to care about such things?

For better photos, see the UK edition covers. I like them MUCH better.

But it did get me thinking…(a dangerous thing in and of itself)…

What do YOU get excited about?

After nearly a year of this blog, I think most of you know that I’m a HUGE Star Wars fan. I have been my whole life, so I can tell very interesting stories about how I managed to see the first movie over 100 times in the theater, how I skipped school to see the very first showing of Return of the Jedi and how I managed to get a kiss from Luke Skywalker when I was in college. (Okay, it was Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, but let’s not get into semantics.)

I’ve spent a good portion of my life getting excited about this series, reading all the interviews with George Lucas, watching television specials and remembering that I was watching one of the Star Wars movies win either a Golden Globe or a People’s Choice Award the night my grandmother died. I have 10th anniversary t-shirts and hats.

So in addition to Harry Potter, I’m a Star Wars fanatic. I’m starting to get the same way about HEROES.

I also have a really weird thing about tulips. I love love love tulips and their window of opportunity is darned small. This year, I decided that in addition to going to Chicago the first weekend of May so that I can see all the bulbs in bloom (although with this mild winter, we might miss them), I’ve bought myself one bouquet a week for the last two weeks and I will continue to do so until I can’t find them in the stores anymore.

So there you have it–I get excited about Harry Potter, Star Wars and tulips. Fanatical, even.

What gets you all fanatical?

I mean…besides the Plotmonkeys books, LOL!

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Here are the winners (randomly drawned) from yesterday’s giveaway for the BAD BOYS WITH RED ROSES Advanced Reading Copy. Be sure to contact Janelle at janelledenison@sbcglobal.net with your mailing address:

Stacy #2
Vicki #11
Claudia #35
Patricia #42
Rosie G. #80

Yes, the book is done, done, done! Yeah! It’s always such an euphoric feeling to finish a book and send it off, yet I know when that happens I have about a week of stuff to do that was neglected while I was spending every spare moment writing. The laundry pile is HUGE, and there are probably enough dog and cat hairballs rolling around on the floor to make a pillow out of. I’m sure there are gross things growing in my refrigerator that needs to be cleaned out, and the dust has to be an inch thick on all my furniture. Oh, and I’m surprised that my electricity and phone haven’t been shut off, because somewhere I know there are a few unpaid utility bills just waiting to surprise me when I start cleaning and going through stuff.

I think the absolute worst thing is my office. (Yes, that picture is what I call “my office on deadline”. Pretty horrific, huh? I mean, my cat could be buried beneath all that and I’d never know!) Anyway, my office seems to be the “catch-all” during deadline, and everything gets dumped on my desk, credenza, floor – well, you get the picture. There are piles and piles of stuff all around my desk, and only my keyboard and monitor are visible. That’s all I need to write, so who cares about the rest of the space! But now I’m starting that cleaning process that for me, comes after finishing a book. In fact, I can’t start the next book until everything is clean and organized again, though I know over the course of weeks and months that I’m writing it’ll all pile up again. It’s a vicious cycle, but one I’ve grown used to. And, thank God, my husband has come to expect this, as well – and accepts it as part of the writing process.

Now, the good part is, while cleaning my office, I came across five ARC’s of BAD BOYS WITH RED ROSES, my May 2007 Brava anthology. For those of you who don’t know what an ARC is, it’s an “Advanced Reading Copy”, that is sent to booksellers and reviewers for advanced reading and reviewing. It’s a plain covered book, with uncorrected page proofs inside – meaning, any mistakes I might have made, or the editor might have made, haven’t been corrected yet. But, they do this months ahead of the book being released, before any changes can be made to the manuscript, to start a “buzz” about the book.

Anyway, like I said, I have FIVE of them, and I’d like to give them away here, to our loyal blog readers. The book won’t be in stores for another month, so this is your chance to get a sneak peek of my story before anyone else gets the chance to read it! The only thing is, like I said, the cover is plain, and the pages inside are uncorrected and there might be a few mistakes here and there. (In the picture, you will receive the book on the right – without a hunky cover) But hey, it’s a FREE book, so who cares? Well, if you do care, then you don’t have to enter this giveaway and you can wait for the actual book to hit the stores, LOL!

All you have to do to be eligible to win is post anything today and I will draw five winners late tonight. The winners will then be posted at the END of Julie’s blog tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see if you’ve won!

Leslie’s post last week about Grey’s Anatomy reminded me of another Grey’s inspired topic. For those of you who don’t watch, I’ll sum it up: Cristina got engaged to Burke but she wanted it kept quiet from everyone until she (Cristina) told Meredith, her best friend. Burke slipped and told Chief. And he told two friends, and so on and so on … Cristina was furious and ran around the hospital looking for Meredith. Because the engagement wasn’t officially real to her until she told Meredith. Burke didn’t get it. Cristina explained (forgive me for paraphrasing here): Meredith was her person. If Cristina killed someone, the first person she’d call would be Meredith who would help her drag the body across the kitchen floor and get rid of it. Meredith was her person.

I got it immediately. I have my person. I also realized this is probably a female thing. But then an interesting discussion came up while we were waiting in Newark Airport hoping to finally get on the plane to Aruba. Someone (a female) asked if we’d seen Grey’s. And they asked about the person. Did I get it? Yes. Do I have one? Yes. Although my friend understood the point, my friend said she did not have a person. The funny thing was that I understood and expected that she wouldn’t have a person based on her personality and thoughts about people and life. Totally got it – for her.

Another friend came into the conversation. (Yes, half my town was on this flight). She said she had a person – and proceeded to name her sister and two friends. Uh-uh. You can not have more than one person. Another friend said she had more than one person because one of those persons lives too far away. I had to think on this for awhile. Again, a big uh-uh.

In my mind, the big moment comes: you kill someone and can only tell ONE person – I don’t care if other people live closer or are more convenient – there is just one person you trust enough to handle this with you and be there for you. You sell a book. You get engaged. You fulfill a lifelong dream. YOU CAN ONLY CALL ONE PERSON FIRST, THEREFORE YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE PERSON. IMO only, of course. But it’s my blog. I can say what I want. You get your turn later.

There’s one more part to this equation. Assuming this having a person theory applies to women only, I think your person has to be female. I think we’re talking about a friend who fills a spot in your life that family does not. Ask Cristina. She’d understand. Meredith is her person.

I know someone (and they know who they are ) who will say her person is her husband and to me, this is like me saying my person is my mother. My mom and I are that close. If you know me, you know how many times I talk to my mom a day and how important she is in my life. If I get that one phone call for certain things, I’d probably call mom first. Hubby knows this and understands it because for other things, I’d call him first. It by no means diminishes his importance in my life. This isn’t your PERSON. There are certain OTHER things that you only want to tell your person first. So when I think about having a person, I think family (sisters and husbands included) have to be filtered out. This isn’t a judgment about those other people in your life (hubbies, moms, friends etc.) But either you have A PERSON or you don’t.

Your spouse can be your very best friend. You can have other friends who you adore and would do anything for and with. You can have other best friends. BUT YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE PERSON.

For me, this was a really fascinating conversation that opened up with a lot of people after that episode of Grey’s. So I have to ask: HOW MANY OF YOU AGREE WITH MY THEORY THAT YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE PERSON? AND THAT FOR WOMEN, THAT PERSON IS FEMALE? Inquiring minds want to know …

I am writing this blog from aboard a charter bus, somewhere in New Jersey, on Sunday evening. This weekend, I had great fun chaperoning my 10th grader’s field trip to NYC with her drama club. My older daughter got to come, too, and we’ve had a fabulous (though exhausting) time!

Those of you who are regulars know I’m a big Broadway fan. Well, my girls are, too, so we were really excited about making this trip. The entire group had tickets to two shows–two very new, very exciting, very talked-about shows.

Our day started off yesterday trying to unload tickets for one of those shows.

The drama teacher had purchased a bulk amount of tickets, but where weren’t enough kids who signed up to attend, so she was stuck with about a dozen extras for each performance. So she and I stood on a street corner hawking our wares. Fortunately, she’s a good friend of mine from many years ago, and we had a great time prostituting ourselves…I mean, our tickets, to anyone who’d walk by.

Well, until the cop came.

I’d gone into a store, so I missed her being hauled up the street, but believe me, the kids filled me in as soon as I came back. Apparently there’s some law in NYC that you can’t scalp tickets right outside a venue, you have to be at least 1000 feet away. Who knew? Anyway, the NYPD officer kindly let her off with a warning, and we were able to get rid of all Saturday’s tickets for half the cover price each, so the drama club recovered over $500 of the money they thought they’d lose.

What did we see, you’re wondering?

First up, Saturday, was “The Pirate Queen” which is a brand new musical by the composers of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. Those are two of my all-time favorite musicals…and I actually slept in the “real” pirate queen’s (Grace O’Malley’s) castle, which is now a B&B in Ireland. So believe you me, I was prepared to ADORE this show.

I didn’t.

I hate saying that…but I just didn’t. It was okay. It might have even been good. But I was expecting so much more and I walked out of there struggling to remember a single strong number, and laughing with my 18 year old over how awful and cheesy a lot of the lyrics were. There was no brilliant “Bring Him Home” like from Les Miz or “I Swear I’d Give My Life For You” from Miss Saigon (though one song in Pirate Queen blatantly ripped off a line from that one.) The staging was great, special effects great, costumes amazing, performances top rate…I just didn’t like the music, itself.

What a disappointment.

Fortunately, Sunday went MUCH better. We went to see a new musical called “Spring Awakenings” which is taking Broadway by storm. I honestly had expected to dislike this one…or at least be uncomfortable seeing it with a bunch of teenagers. Because the show is a very dark story of a bunch of teenagers suffering with puberty-inspired insanity. There’s graphic masturbation, sex, partial nudity, suicide, sexual abuse, abortion…sounds pleasant, huh?

But oh, my God, it was amazing. Just had me bouncing in my seat, laughing, crying my face off, and leaping to my feet when it was over. Think Rent with teenagers…but much more poignant. Anyone who ever went through puberty or raised a teenager can relate to this song. And when the hero is caught red-handed and confronted by his schoolmaster about something he’d done, and he and the cast break into a huge number called “You’re F***ed”, the whole house erupted, including the elderly couple sitting right in front of me!

After the show, we were supposed to go meet up at the bus, but because the show didn’t run too long, I stuck around with my two daughters by the stage door. The rest of the group & teacher went off to shop before the deadline, but the three of us stuck it out and were greatly rewarded. We met cast member after cast member, and the huge payoff came at the very end when the two male leads (both adorably hot young guys not much older than my teenage girls) came out, autographed, chatted, and posed for pictures.

As you can imagine, my daughters are still walking on clouds. This moment was, for them, what meeting Hugh Jackman after Boy From Oz, was for me.

Here’s the proof:

And I am the hero Mom of the year.

So, that was my big Broadway weekend. It was loads of fun, it was exciting and exhausting. I love just talking around Manhattan, soaking in the flavor of one of my favorite cities in the world and capping it off by seeing–and meeting–the original cast of the musical I here-and-now predict will win this year’s Tony Award was absolutely the icing on the cake.

Now, I know Julie is a musical nut like me (read above for my recommendations on Pirate Queen, Jules…lol) and Janelle likes them and Carly loathes them…how about everybody else? Anybody interested in them? Anybody see any shows that truly wowed them…or didn’t?

Please tell me I’m not the only one around here who lives my life as a Broadway musical. (lol…you might remember my blog from that name from last year!)

The winner of Janelle’s Jungle Madness Contest is:

Debbie (Comment #15)

Congratulations, Debbie! Be sure to email me with your full name and mailing address at: janelledenison@sbcglobal.net so I can mail you your prize. Oh, and let me know which book of mine you’d like to receive!

And now, a Sunday funny:

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices as a beautiful blonde woman waves at him and says hello.

He’s rather taken aback, because he can’t place where he knows her from.

So he says, “Do you know me?”

To which she replies, “I think you’re the father of one of my kids.”

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and he says, “My God! Are you the stripper from my bachelor party that I had sex with on the pool table with all my buddies watching, while your partner whipped my ass with wet celery???”

She looks into his eyes and calmly says, “No, I’m your son’s teacher.”

Have a great weekend everyone!

Donna McClure asks:
Why do series usually have 3 books as a Trilogy, why do 3 seem to work so well?

CP: I loved this question. Unfortunately I don’t have a good answer! And now that I have two new paperbacks out a year, each 3 months apart, I’m wondering if 3 won’t work. I have two schools of logic.
a) two new books a year that are related in a series; next year another two; or
b) a trilogy which means two books one year; one book the following year that finishes the trilogy and then the next new book starts a new series and you have to weight eight months or so for the next.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

And maybe my plotmonkey pals have a real answer on why series work well!

LK: What a great question, Donna. But like Carly, I just don’t know the answer…lol! It does seem to be an industry norm, doesn’t it? Even a non-industry norm…I mean, look at the great movies in our pop culture. Three seems to be the magic number. Just this summer we’re getting Shrek 3, Spiderman 3 and Pirates 3. The original Star Wars came in 3 and so did the prequel package. Ditto with Indiana Jones and Die Hard (though, I know they’re both coming out with sequels…I kinda wish they’d just left them at 3!) Lethal Weapon should have stopped at 3. The original Superman movies. The X-Men movies. Back To The Future. Wow, there really are a lot of trilogies out there!

Maybe it’s just that old superstition–good things come in 3’s. (So do deaths, but we’ll leave that out of it.)

I have not set out to do a lot of miniseries, I just tend to fall in love with characters & places and want to keep writing about them if I can. It doesn’t always equal three. My Joyful, GA stories only had 2. My Derryville story spanned over, like, 4 books in one way or another. The Santoris are going to fill 5-6. And while there are 3 brothers who are the heroes of my “big” Trouble books, there are at least 2 other stories that go with the series. So I’m not limiting myself to anything. But I will say that my new romantic suspense idea is a trilogy…it just seemed to me that I needed to tell the stories of 3 different types of h/H pairings in that case.

Again, great question–wish I could have actually answered it!

(PS: My hubby just informed me that three is a sacred number in ancient geometry that turns up again and again throughout history. I dunno…maybe we’re all just a superstitious lot like Janelle’s post showed?)

JD: Wow, I don’t think I can answer this question any better than Leslie just did! It’s something I’ve really never thought about before — but it does seem that series do come in threes! Or at least they start out that way! I know with my Wilde series it was originally supposed to be only 3 books that told the stories of the Wilde brothers. But then the Wilde cousins were introduced throughout those three books and readers asked for THOSE stories, too! So far, it’s a series that has spanned 7 books!

JEL: I think the significance of the number three is simply ingrained in our psyches and manifests in ways from the spiritual to the commercial. Also, three implies a beginning, a middle and an end. If you analyze the first (and only IMO) Star Wars movies, Empire Strikes Back is clearly a transition between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. When I was planning my upcoming paranormal series, which will (God willing) be six books, I definitely planned the story arcs in threes, with one overall storyline to tie all six books together.

As most everyone knows by now (though I know there are a few new posters out there!), Fridays are reserved for our Jungle Madness Giveaway Contest. Whoo-Hoo!

Have you ever wondered what writers go through with writer’s block? Well, now you can have your own “Writer’s Block”! Really. This week, Janelle is giving away A Lady Jayne “Writer’s Block”, which includes a floral base that holds a 600 sheet block of paper, along with a pretty floral pen. To celebrate SPRING, you’ll also receive an assortment of See’s “Spring” eggs, in Chocolate Butter Cream, Vanilla Chip, and Bordeaux Cream (My favorite!). Winner will also receive their choice of autographed book from Janelle’s backlist.

All you have to do to enter is post on today’s blog! That’s it. Then check back on Sunday to see if you’re the lucky winner!

There are so many of you that stop by and post on a regular basis, and I thought it would be fun to get to know you all a little better. So, I’ll answer first, then all you have to do is “copy and paste” the questions, and replace my answers with your answers.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Janelle Denison (Last name optional)
WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION: Writer, mother, wife
HOW TALL ARE YOU: 5 foot, 9 inches
WHAT STATE DO YOU LIVE IN: California
IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE: Fuchia
PETS: 1 dog, 2 cats, all strays we adopted
FAVORITE FOOD: Lobster
FAVORITE CANDY: Anything chocolate (but NO coconut!)
FAVORITE DRINK: Starbucks Non-fat, sugar-free Cinnamon Dolce Latte
YOUR WORST HABIT: Biting the skin around my nails
FAVORITE FAST FOOD: In ‘n Out Burger
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON: Summer
WHAT’S ON THE FLOOR OF YOUR CLOSET: Shoes, storage, and dust bunnies!
WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT: America’s Next Top Model
WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW: You Don’t Know Jack by Erin McCarthy
WHAT ARE YOU THE MOST AFRAID OF: Drowning
FAVORITE SMELL: My husband’s cologne - Kenneth Cole Black
THE KIND OF CAR YOU DRIVE: Black Chevy Tahoe
FAVORITE MUST SEE TV SHOW(s): Grey’s anatomy, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives
NAUGHTY OR NICE: Nice
MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT PERSON: Morning Person (after coffee)
FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: A cruise to anywhere!

Okay, your turn! Tells us about yourself and have fun with your answers!