How to Tame a Modern Rogue on TV!

Sorry I'm late posting this blog, but I was busy with my television debut. Ho-hum. No big deal....

HA! Who am I kidding? It was the most fun I've had in ages. Well, maybe not fun, exactly. Let's just say, I'm relieved it's over. Here's what happened...

I arrived at the local Philadelphia NBC station at the appointed time. (Okay, I was 20 minutes early and had to sit in the car a bit. Hey, I was anxious.)

I was properly attired. (Except that they told me not to put on make-up. When I got there, another "guest" was in FULL make-up. She said, "Oh, I'd NEVER let anyone else do my make-up. And sometimes they run late, and they can't make you up at all." Oooops...)

I was calm and collected. (...while I frantically tried to look cool slathering myself with make-up in a tiny mirror in the "green room.)

Soon, it was my turn to go on. (OH MY GOD SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!)

I had an thrilling and informative interview with the host. ( I don't remember a single thing I said. Please, God, tell me I didn't curse.)

I went home to watch myself with my lovely, supportive family. (My son pointed out that my bra strap had been showing the whole time.)

Have you ever been on TV? Do you ever buy books because you've seen authors on TV? Can you bring me a tall, stiff drink? Here's the show:

Sexiest Man Alive 2008: The Poll

Oops.

What would you do it you found out your book had almost the exact same title as another book?






You’d do what me and debut author Julie James did: have a contest!

The announcement of People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive 2008 issue is just days away. To get you in the mood, we’re teaming up to give away free books. Check out our websites (http://dianaholquist.com and http://juliejamesbooks.com) for info on how to enter.

But before you go, vote in the poll. Who do you think should be People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive 2008?

sma poll

When Your Characters Come to Life. Literally. By Diana Holquist

Imagine my surprise when I got a letter a few weeks ago from Josh Toby. For those of you who've read Sexiest Man Alive, you know that Josh Toby is, well, the sexiest man alive. (See towel man on left.)

He's a character in my book. I made him up.

Or did I?

Seems there's another Josh Toby, a doctor in Texas, a real Josh Toby. Here's part of the letter he sent me:

"Dear Ms. Holquist: I feel compelled to contact you after it has come to my attention that your recent work, Sexiest Man Alive, has been based on my life."

Indeed.

He included proof of his claim, including a picture of himself, a copy of his drivers license, and other documents that show he has the same name, is the same age, and matches the general description of the Josh Toby in the book. Although, as he says, "I would have chosen to include more action sequences/love scenes."

Luckily, he said he'd forego any legal action in exchange for a signed copy of the book and first rights of refusal to "play Josh Toby in the motion picture or Broadway production."

You got it, Josh.

I'd post his picture here, as he is indeed quite adorable. But he is, after all, a doctor, and I don't want to get him in any trouble for moonlighting as a fictional character in my book.

Now, with Hungry for More hitting the shelves this week, I wonder, will a James LaChance appear out of the woodwork? And will he be able to cook? And will he find me, and demand restitution?

I sure do hope so. I'd love to meet him, too.

Have you ever had a "character" contact you? Have you ever been a character in someone's book? I think it would freak me out to read about a Diana Holquist. But maybe not....if she were as young and thin and breathtaking as me. (Cough, cough...)

Have a great week, everyone!

--Diana

Hungry for More, in stores now!

Visit my website to win free chocolate in my Happy Endings contest.

The Making of the RITA trash talking video: FAQ

I've been getting lots of e-mails about the RITA trash talking video, so I thought I'd answer some of questions here. But first, the video:



Q: What sick mind came up with this warped and twisted video?

A: The instant I heard that Sexiest Man Alive was a finalist in the Single Title Contemporary category of the RITAs, my first thought was, how can I milk this baby for everything it's worth? Because I'm a huge Jennifer Greene/Rachel Gibson/Susan Andersen fangirl, I knew that if I didn't exploit this opportunity to work with these women, I'd never forgive myself. The video was just a flimsy excuse to contact them and then ride their coattails. Now that the process is done, I'm a huge fangirl of all these women.

Q: What did it cost to make this? Besides, of course, your self-respect?

A: Nada. The amazing Lindsey Faber and I had decided a while ago that we needed to make a video together for our workshop at RWA National (n.b., shameless plug for our workshop--come!), so Lindsey edited it for us. Everyone shot their own footage on whatever cameras they had. I think Higgins spent $1.25 on the fake puppy. The sword, I believe, Leslie stole from one of her victims.

Q: How did you guys organize such a huge project?

A: I wrote a very basic storyboard of the idea, and sent it off to all the finalists, begging, er, asking, them to participate. I expected most of them to ignore me. But instead, because they are romance novelists (i.e., madwomen), they all said, "Hell yeah!" Man, these women are nuts.

Q: What about Jennifer Greene and Sarah Strohmeyer?

A: Hey, ask Leslie. She's the one with the sword. I swear, I didn't touch them. But seriously, not everyone had time to participate. I was amazed we got everyone we did.

Q: So you wrote this?

A: Nope. These women were all over it. I wrote the basic idea and the most basic of quickie scripts, but everyone took their part and ran with it. When Susan Andersen e-mailed me her "running with the big dogs, puppies yapping" dialogue, I knew that I just had to sit back and let everyone write their own parts and do their own thing. That's what's so great about the video--how everyone's personality comes through so clearly. It was amazing working with these women. Everyone brought something to the show. Next time, we're installing metal detectors.

Q: Are you going to make more trash talk videos?

A: I've got this pesky manuscript due, so I'm going underground for a while. But I will post the blooper video as soon as I get all the footage. I keep hoping someone will post a video response, but they're probably all terrified. I get that. Hey, I'd be frightened to rumble with Higgins, too.

What is the Sexiest Career for Men? by Diana Holquist

"Cooking, like making love, is best done right or not at all."

This is the opening statement of James, the chef hero of my new book, Hungry for More.

I tried to use this line on my family last night, hoping to get out of making dinner, and all I got were blank stares and few, "oooh, yucks!" from my kids.

This is just one difference between the real world and romance novels.

But in the romance novel world, as in real life, there are definitely sexier job choices for men: ex-Navy SEAL, COP, sheik, billionaire. So what about a chef? Is it sexy enough for hero status?

When I think about all this, I think about the man I married, who is the love of my life. And yet, he cannot boil water. He also is not an ex-Navy SEAL sheik billionaire. And yet, at this stage in my life, I'd give up that for a man who could cook.

Oh, and fix the car.

Nah, I guess I'll just stick with my professor. We can always walk to the pizza joint.

What's your idea of the sexiest career?

--Diana
Visit my website!

Who is Sexier, a man in a tux or a man in a towel?

Of all the huge questions great literature asks, surely this is the most important and timely.  

Watch the video, then you decide...who is sexier, a man in a tux or a man in a towel? 

By the way, buy Ellen Hartman's new book.  It is truly excellent.  Even if the dude is in clothes. Go buy it today! It just hit the stores. This is definitely a writer to watch. 

Rachel Gibson's Tangled Up in You: #3 of My Single Title Contemporary Rita Read-a-Thon

I've never read Rachel Gibson, but I'm apparently the only one. In fact, it took me a while to read this book because people kept stealing it from my house. I have a pile of all the Rita Single Title Contemporary Finalist books scattered around the house, and this was the only one that kept getting stolen. So I did a poll of the low-life thieves (my relatives, my friends, my neighbors). Why steal this book and not any of the others?

1) "I love Gibson. I'll read anything by her." (Follow-up question: why?) "They're really, really hot."

2) "I love that cover. Love her red coat." (Follow-up question: did you like it?) "It was really, really hot."

3) "It looked really hot." (Follow-up question: was it?) "Oh, yeah."

After finally beating off the gonifs (Yiddish word for thief--yes, my Bubbe stole the darn book, too, and thought it was "hot"), I got a chance to read Tangled Up In You.

I think Gibson gets a bad rap. Sure, the book was hot. But it was funny, too.

And it really shouldn't be. Tangled Up in You is the story of a woman who is writing a book about the murder of her mother by, you guessed it, the hero's mother. Sounds funny and sexy, huh? But it manages to transcend the plot (you all know how I don't read murder/blood/crime books) to be a funny and yes, hot, story about two humans.

I didn't dig the murder plot; I didn't dig the gorgeous/fearless/tough-as-nails hero/heroine; I didn't dig the cute cat character tags. (But all that is really more about me than about this book.) But I still dug this book. I get why Gibson is an auto-buy for so many readers. Aw, hell, add me to the list. This book is a real contender.

And, yeah, it was hot.

How to Break All the Rules and Still Write a Great Romance Novel: Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins

Damn you, Kristan Higgins.

Don’t you just hate it when a writer breaks all the genre rules, and still ends up with a great genre book?

I say hate, but what I really mean is don’t you wish you had the guts to write it yourself?

After reading Catch of the Day, you’ll look at the limits you (and by you, of course, I certainly don’t mean me…) put on your own writing and think, “Hey, Kristan Higgins is one brave soul.”

Yes, this is week two of my Read All the Single Title Contemporary Rita Finalists marathon and today we feature the remarkable newcomer, Kristan Higgins.

Here are just some of the romance writing rules Higgins broke in Catch of the Day and why it was still a great read.

Rule #1: Never write in first person.
I cringed when I realized on page one that Catch of the Day was written in first person. I don’t like first person for all the usual reasons, but the biggest reason I don’t like it is laziness. So many first person books are just the author’s voice, saying what the author would say if the author were that very character that she’s putting on the page. Plus, the author is too lazy to try to figure out what the other characters are thinking and doing. If there’s not a damn good reason for first person, I get fed up fast.

In Catch of the Day, there is a good reason for the first person treatment: the hero. I don’t want to say too much about him because I don't want to spoil this very fun book for you, but getting into his POV (point-of-view) would ruin the fun. In this book, the first person works. It's not lazy, it's just how it had to be.

Damn that Kristan Higgins.

Rule #2: Make Sure the hero and heroine are likable
What’s better than falling in love instantly with a likeble hero? How about falling in love, slowly, over the course of a book, with a not-necessarily-likeable hero, whose layers (and I don’t mean his clothes) are pulled off bit by bit to expose his soul. Very nice.

Damn that Kristan Higgins!

Rule #3: Don't put puppies on the covers of books for grown-ups.
Okay, so this is just my own personal rule. I hate puppies on covers. I know authors have almost no control whatsoever over their covers, especially a newbie like Higgins. So, I’ll give Higgins the cute puppy cover. This once. I know it’s not her fault. Wait, there are puppies on all Higgins's covers. Well, okay. I'll forgive her twice. She's that good.

Rule #3 Really: The more sex the better.
There’s no sex scenes in Catch of the Day. I loved this. Sure, the characters have sex. But Higgins discretely closes the door once the characters start to sigh and moan. (I guess to lock the puppy out.) Thank you, Kristan. This was very refreshing.

The moral of this story? You can write a great first person book with no sex and a very untraditional hero and still be a finalist in the Single Title Contemporary category of the Ritas. So don't listen to the rules! Follow your heart....

Damn that Kristan Higgins!

The First of the 2008 Rita Single Title Contemporary Finalists: Jennifer Greene's Blame It on Cupid

I promised I'd read all seven of the Contemporary Single Title Rita finalist's books (besides mine, of course, which I can't bear to open) before the Romance Writers of America National Conference in San Fransisco and blog about them.

This was, obviously, insane. Not like I have a killer July 1st deadline to turn in a 400-page manuscript or anything. Or a family to feed. Or a cold that's making me sound and look like Yoda. Or three half-days of school for the kids this week for teacher-parent conferences just shoot me now...

But the main reason it was insane was, what if I hate these books? What was I gonna do? Lie and say I lurved them smiley-face smiley-face?

No way.

But if I said anything not so nice, how could I then drink with these women at National?

See the dilemma?

Luckily, I started with Blame It on Cupid by Jennifer Greene, and...drumroll please...I did love this book.

I've never read anything by Jennifer Greene before and I was nervous, what with the heart-shaped dart board on the cover. If you know me, I'm not into cute. And that cover definitely smacked of cute.

But Greene delivers. Here are my three favorite things about this book:

1) The heroine isn't kick-ass.

It takes guts to write a heroine these days who doesn't carry a gun and run a multi-national corporation while deterring art thieves in five-inch heels. It takes a very special kind of guts to write a heroine who is....hold onto your hats, everyone...ditzy. Yes, Merry Olson is a ditz. She can't work the coffee maker; she runs out of gas on the highway; she has to run to the hero when the lights go out 'cause she doesn't even know what a circuit breaker is well bless my soul. To tackle a heroine like this and make her likable takes a great deal of skill and balance and in this book it works. Why? Because Greene held to the one important rule of writing flaky characters: make sure they're very, very funny. We like funny people, even if they drive us nuts. Don't we all know someone like Merry? Don't we wish the best for them?

But Greene takes Merry's character trait a little further to make it into a metaphor in a very subtle, sophisticated, effective way: when the hero falls in love, he becomes a ditz, too. A manly, adorable ditz, of course. Greene is saying with this subtle, funny twist to the story: hell, if living life to the fullest makes us lose our minds a bit, then give me love! Being ditzy becomes not a character flaw, but a sign of the heroic ability to love.

Says Merry: "Romantic was a man who came apart at the seams for you." Amen.

2) The Sex Scenes

What can I say? Very, very nice. And I've been reading some real clunkers lately. If Jennifer Greene drinks enough at National, I'll try to get her to tell me if she meant for the first love scene to be in a bathroom and her editor made her change it to a laundry room. I'll report back. Ever think that you can't write a great, sexy scene from the hero's POV? Read Greene.

3) Getting the big stakes into a funny novel.

This is hard. Really, really hard. How do you take a book that's mostly light and funny and give it heart? How do you take a book that doesn't have international spy rings and hit men and make it suspenseful? This is a big problem for romantic comedies which often feel a little too light, if you know what I mean. But with Blame It on Cupid, Greene manages to put in a lot of heart.

Okay, on now to Kristan Higgins's Catch of the Day. I hope this one will be lousy...

2008 Rita Finalists Announced: Romance Writers Get Ready for Their "Oscars"

The RITA awards are a pretty big deal in the romance community. Our Oscars. Our Emmys. Our American Association of Slavic Studies Book of the Year Awards. (Hey, those are big deal to the Russian historians, believe me). Every year, there's gobs of dissent and grousing, usually by this writer. But not today. Because Sexiest Man Alive was nominated for Best Single Title Contemporary!

As exciting as this is, I don't want to spend this blog tooting my own horn. Well, I do, but that would be boring. So instead, I have decided to set out on a quest to read all eight of the single title contemporary finalists.

But first a prayer of thanks: Thank you great romance goddess Nora Roberts for entering your books in other categories this year. And thank you also to the goddess of Single Title Contemporary, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, for not being a finalist (most likely, because you did not enter). Goddesses are good. Goddesses are great. We worship at your alters and are so grateful for you not descending to the Rita Single Title Contemporary category this year. Amen.

Okay, on to the finalists. This list makes me woozy with fear. Now I know how my son feels when he has to play West Chester United:

Blame It On Cupid by Jennifer Greene
Harlequin Enterprises, HQN - (0373771770)
Melissa Jeglinski, editor

Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
Harlequin Enterprises, HQN - (0-373-7724-6)
Tracy Farrell and Keyren Gerlach, editors

Coming Undone by Susan Andersen
Harlequin Enterprises, HQN - (0-373-77213-0)
Margo Lipschultz, editor

Sexiest Man Alive by Diana Holquist
Grand Central Publishing, Forever - (0-044-61798-9)
Michele Bidelspach, editor

She's No Angel by Leslie Kelly
Harlequin Enterprises, HQN - (0373772157)
Brenda Chin, editor

Tangled Up In You by Rachel Gibson
HarperCollins Publishers, Avon Books - (978-0-06-117803-0)
Lucia Macro, editor

Tempt Me Tonight by Toni Blake
HarperCollins Publishers, Avon Books, Red - (978-0-06-113609-2)
Lucia Macro, editor

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer
Penguin Group USA, Dutton - (9780525950189)
Julie Doughty, editor

I'll start at the beginning and work my way down, posting the "reviews" here. 17 weeks to the Romance Writer's of America National Convention August 2nd (where and when the winners are announced). 8 books. That's about a book every two weeks. No problem. Okay, small problem, but I'll do it for the team.

Man, I hope they all suck.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Anyone out there read any of these? What do you all think?

Hungry for More...Clothes for that Poor Nekkid Man?

The cover for Hungry for More, the third book in the One True Love trilogy, is here and is it ever hot!

That being said, let's make fun of it anyway...after all, covers are like little brothers, if you can't riff on them, what's the point?

(Note to art director: I love this cover. I really do. It's hot and really beautiful and I love the typeface. But we do have to have fun, right? And after towel-boy--who we all adored madly--we just can't help ourselves.)

So, the issue here seems to be that the two folks in the picture are hungry for more...what?

Here are some thoughts:

1. They're hungry for more of their heads.

2. He's hungry for more wax for that lovely chest of his.

3. She's hungry for more furniture, so she doesn't always have to sit on him for crying out loud....

Thoughts anyone? Oh, I have a bunch more, but I'll let you-all have some fun, too.

A Title for My New Book...

I'm done the first 50 pages of my next book, which is coming together very, very slowly. This is how I write, though, and there's no sense in fighting it. I just can't go on until these pages are perfect. It's an awful process--slow and lots of going back and changing, fixing, shining.

Some might call this masturbation.

Good thing I'm a romance writer and would never be so crude.

Anyway, this is around the time I start thinking about titles. I love titles. A lot. But this book is tricky. It's about.... gah! I can't write what it's about.

Some might call this paranoid.

So besides being stuck on the first 50 pages, I'm completely paranoid. Like someone would steal my premise and write the book themselves. This is absurd, as 1) books are very, very hard to write, even if one steals the idea and 2) the idea probably isn't as good as I think.

Anyway, way back Sarah McKerrigan wrote this great post in the GrandCentralCafe cafe blog (you can read it here) about titles and how hard they are. This was her idea for a title, which makes me laugh whenever I think of it, which is often:

I think I'll steal Sarah's idea and call my book that, too. I don't think readers will get too mixed up, as my book will have naked folks in towels on the cover, not fair ladies and knights.

Unless I happened to write a time travel...

Or at least, the first 50 pages of a time travel...

But I'm NOT TELLING!

(Whew, back to mastur....er...back to work!)

--Diana
Check out the website for reviews of Sexiest Man Alive and More!

Pirating books: Please Don't Steal My Book

I got this e-mail from a reader. She had asked someone on a book-pirate website to please post Sexiest Man Alive. This site is kinda like Napster, but for books. Someone posted Sexiest Man Alive as an e-book, and over 200 people downloaded it. When I asked this woman in an e-mail to please not steal from me again this was her reply:

please do understand i never wanted to steal from you besides i requested the book from someone i'm sorry if it hurt your sentiments.please be assured it won't happen again i am extremely sorry. i can't help but mention it i loved your book.i am from india so i could not find it in bookstores so i thought i'll request it.i apologize.

Oh dear. I truly believe that she is earnest. I don't think she has any idea she did anything wrong. After all, she trades paperbacks. Why not trade e-books? If a "friend" (a stranger on the Internet) offers her the book, isn't it just like trading paperbacks?

NO!!!! Over 200 people downloaded my book on this one site alone. These sites are everywhere. The numbers are limitless: sell one e-book for real; have tens of thousands traded for free. Really. I was reading an e-mail exchange over at SmartBitchesTrashyBooks that Norah Roberts got involved in and she figured out she was losing at least $10,000 in royalties from one book on one pirate site alone.

Don't feel sorry for Norah? Well, okay. But feel sorry for yourself if you're her "fan," stealing her books. If people keep stealing her books, why would she write new ones? For "fans" to steal?

For me, it's not the money so much, but the need to boost my sales. If Sexiest Man Alive sells even a few hundred more copies than Make Me a Match, my publisher is happy. If it sells a few hundred less, I'm toast. Like my books? Too bad, there might not be any more. It's simple math for the publishers: sell more or perish. Readers of illegally downloaded e-books don't get this. Even the sweet woman who wrote me the e-mail above. She could buy my book on-line, even from India. She chose to steal it. It was her choice and it affects me greatly.

To make this even more complicated, romance authors on SmartBitches and on my Grand Central Publishing private e-mail loop were chiming in to say that maybe people posting a book free for anyone to download is more like publicity. Anyway, the argument goes, why fight it as it can't be stopped?

Their logic is that it's like the music business: friends (and Internet "friends") post free music for anyone to illegally download; people steal it; hear it; like it; and then buy "clean" copies or whole albums or go to shows and buy t-shirts.

Thing is, the music business is different. You listen to songs over and over. Most books, you only read once. Plus, there's no single/album formula with a book. There's the book and they've stolen it already, so they're done. Plus, musicians are finding that even if their sales numbers on singles is up, CD sales are way, way down. Even for the huge guys. These artists are so desperate to make up the money, that even music companies are trying to get a cut of touring money, since that's the only place to truly make money anymore.

I don't think my tour is gonna pull in the big bucks. Even if I sing. Okay, especially if I sing.

A little education for readers who don't understand: it's illegal to download an e-book someone else has bought and posted to give away, because when you download my book, you are copying it. The original copy on-line doesn't go away like it would if you were borrowing a paperback from a friend. Copying my book is ILLEGAL. That's what copyright means: You can't copy it. You can't download a copy of my book unless you pay my publisher.

But to readers who don't care about breaking the law, I'd like to say this: Please don't steal from me. I am not rich. I have a day job. I am struggling to make it as a writer. I'm not even close to making enough money to make writing anything more than a low-paying hobby. If you like my books, you have to buy them. Because soon, if you keep stealing them, they will be gone.

What the Coke Superbowl Ad Taught Me About Writing Romance Novels

Have you seen the Coke Superbowl ad? It was just about the only ad on the superbowl that didn't use sex to sell a product, or sexist jokes, or grossness. Geez, even the baby ad just had to end with the kid barfing.

But not Coke, baby. They kept it pure, with a great original storyline, excellent conflict, and a happy ending. All romance novels should be so good. Bravo!

Here it is in case you missed it--The Coca-Cola Superbowl Ad: