Contemporary Romance / NOVELLA
Published: July 31, 2014
No shirt, no shoes, no … problems?
Hemi Ranapia isn’t looking for love. Fun, yes. Love,
not so much. But a summer fishing holiday to laid-back Russell could turn out
to be more adventure than this good-time boy ever bargained for.
Reka Harata hasn't forgotten the disastrously sexy
rugby star she met a year ago, no matter how much she wishes she could. Too bad
Hemi keeps refusing to be left in her past.
Sometimes, especially in New Zealand’s Maori
Northland, it really does take a village. And sometimes it just takes a little
faith.
NOTE: This 36,000-word (120-page) novella begins
about six years before the events of Just This Once, and yes, it gets a little
steamy at times, because Reka and Hemi are just that way. It can be read as a
stand-alone book, even if this is your first escape to New Zealand.
BUY
LINKS:
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LWGZCSG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0RPSW4SF1EPA7X40ASZP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846
Excerpt:
She’d noticed him even while she’d been walking down the
aisle in the wharenui, wearing the stupid strapless dress of blood-red satin
that Victoria had chosen, a dress she was definitely not going to be wearing
again, a dress that had “bridesmaid” written all over it. She’d been supposed
to be paying attention to her pace, and instead she’d been looking at the man
sitting at the end of the row, up there to her right. A man who was looking
right back at her. A mate of the groom’s, she knew, because Victoria had told
them all he was coming.
Hemi Ranapia, the starting No. 10 for the Auckland Blues,
one of the year’s new caps for the All Blacks, and about the finest specimen of
Maori manhood she’d ever seen. His dark, wavy hair cut short and neat, his
brown eyes alive with interest as he watched her. A physique to die for, too,
his shoulders broad in the black suit, his waistline trim, the size of his arms
and thighs making it clear that the suit hadn’t come off any rack, because that
had taken some extra material.
She’d stood in her neat row to one side of the bride
throughout the service, had done her best to keep her attention on the event,
and had felt his gaze on her as surely as if he’d been touching her. She’d had
to will herself not to shiver, and the look he sent her way, unsmiling and
intent, when she walked back up the aisle again told her she hadn’t been
imagining his interest.
She’d still had what felt like hours of photo-taking to
come. Standing around endlessly, smiling in the sunshine, arranging and
rearranging herself according to the photographer’s instructions, being flirted
with by one of the groomsmen, with Hemi in and out of her view all the while.
His suit coat off now, his tie loosened, white shirt stretching across chest
and shoulders. A beer in his hand and a smile on his face, having a chat with
the other boys, being approached, at first shyly and then with enthusiasm, by
the kids.
And by the girls, she saw with a twinge of jealousy that made
no sense at all, as one after another of them smiled for him, touched her hair,
touched his arm. It looked to her like every unattached woman at the wedding,
and more than one of the partnered ones as well, was going out of her way to
chat him up. And he wasn’t exactly resisting. But he was looking at her all the
same. Every now and then, she glanced across and his gaze caught hers, and she
saw an expression on his face, an intensity and a heat that were making her
burn.
By the time the photography was done and she was released at
last, the wedding party moving into the wharekai so the eating and drinking and
dancing could begin, she was well and truly warmed up, and tingling more than a
little in every single place she could imagine him touching with those clever
hands, the hands she somehow knew would handle a woman as deftly as they
handled a rugby ball.
The band began to play, the bride and groom stepped into
their first dance, and she saw him edging his way around an animated group towards
her, a glass in each hand. He reached her side, handed her the flute of
champagne with the flash of a smile.
“Think you earned this,” he told her.
She took it, and he touched his glass to hers.
“Cheers,” he said with another white smile, the heat in his
gaze unmistakable at this range. He tipped his brown throat back and drank, and
she mirrored his action, felt golden bubbles popping against her tongue, the
cool liquid sliding down her own throat. Drinking together like that somehow
felt as intimate as kissing him, and the tongues of flame were licking every
secret spot now.
“Took your time, didn’t you?” she asked him with a cool she
wasn’t even close to feeling.
He laughed. “Didn’t want to seem too eager. Doing my best to
be smooth here, but it’s hard going.”
Another long drink, another long look as Victoria and Mason
finished their dance and the band began another number, a fast one, and couples
started filling the floor.
“Think I can get a dance?” he asked.
“Mmm, I think you could,” she said. “Maybe so.”
Rosalind
James
Guest Posts
Dear New Zealand:
Here’s What I Love About You
I originally wrote
this post for the Romance Writers of New Zealand’s March 2013 newsletter.
1. The Tall Poppy
thing. Where I grew up (hint: rural!), bragging about yourself was
considered obnoxious. But U.S. popular culture is increasingly full of that.
Randy Moss announced before a recent Super Bowl that he was the greatest wide
receiver ever to play the game. Yes, that remark was met with derision (he
isn’t), but the fact that he’d even say it is illustrative. An All Black would
NEVER call himself the “greatest ever.” They go out of their way NOT to say
that.
2. Behaving well.
Especially amazing to us: the high standard of behavior to which NZ sportsmen
and sportswomen are held, and the outrage when they behave badly. U.S. athletes
will tell you that they aren’t role models—and with some exceptions, they
aren’t! I’ve found the least attractive quality I can show in New Zealand is
arrogance, the attitude that “I’ve got a problem, and it’s your job to fix it
RIGHT NOW.” You’re polite! We love that!
3. Safety and
quality of life. Yes, I know that there’s more crime and social unrest in
New Zealand than is evident in my books. Still, it always makes me chuckle to
hear Kiwis (or Aussies) complain about things like public transit, crime,
litter, etc. It is just so much NICER where you live. In the U.S., public
toilets are virtually nonexistent. That might seem like a frivolous
issue--until you need one.
4. Being
responsible for yourself. The simple fact that you can’t sue for personal
injury changes everything. The first time I swam at Mission Bay, I kept looking
around for the markers that would show me where I could go. It took me the
whole swim to realize that there weren’t any! It was up to me to keep myself
safe.
5. The “she’ll be
right” thing. A B&B operator was talking to me about Americans. She
described them coming into the main house all worried, saying, “There are no
forks! What should I do?” And her bemused response, “Well, you can ask me, and
I’ll give you one.”
6. Work/Life
balance. We don’t have it and you do. When I was working at a, you know,
JOB, I expected to put in a good 60 hours a week. My husband still does.
Everyone has such a good time when they come to Australia or New Zealand to
work! The idea that you can take the weekend off—believe me, that’s novel.
7. Maori culture
is cool.
8. It’s pretty.
And the All Blacks are good-looking, and wear tight jerseys and short shorts.
What can I say. It’s true.
Why I Don’t Get
Writer’s Block
The longer answer is that the techniques I developed to
keep myself on track while writing about Building Your Classroom Library or Our
Salon Services have continued to serve me well in writing fiction. Here they
are:
1.
Take
a walk. Or a run, or a bike ride, or a swim. We’re not just giant
disembodied brains. Something about moving my body makes the left brain/right
brain combination work. I don’t try to force my story to come to me, just let
my mind wander. For the first ten minutes or so, it DOES wander. Then somehow,
without any direction, it comes back to the book. Often, the scene that appears
isn’t even the one I thought I was working on. I’ve learned to trust the
process, and go home and write the scene that came to me. Maybe that other
scene will appear next time—or maybe it wasn’t right after all.
2.
Try a
different spot. I often take a notebook to the coffee shop in the morning.
The walk up there gets my mind working (see #1), and the change from my normal
writing place shakes up my mind a bit. The difficulty arises when I’m
scribbling a particularly steamy scene in longhand, hoping devoutly that nobody
can look over my shoulder and read what I’ve written—or that they’ll guess why
I’m concentrating so hard!
3.
Just
write. Don’t worry about getting it perfect at first. Your words may start
out stilted, but the act of writing will make the ideas start to flow, and you
can go back and edit later. I often don’t start at the “beginning” of a scene,
as that bogs me down. I start with the “fun” part, the part that presents
itself most insistently. Afterwards, I’ll come back and write the graceful introduction.
4.
Give
it a day. I start each day by going back over what I wrote the day before.
I can always improve it. It also jump-starts that day’s work by getting me back
into the book.
5.
If
you’re stuck, move! This goes back to #1. If I’m blanking out, I get up and
make a cup of tea, empty the dishwasher, anything to shake myself up. The right
idea always comes once I stop trying to force it.
There you go. I hope my tips help. And happy writing!
I Hated This Book!
Or, Coping With Negative Reviews
To be honest, I thought this one would be easier. I
should be able to dismiss the ones I’ve received as outliers, or shrug and say,
“can’t please everyone,” right? Alas, it’s not so easy. It’s like somebody
telling you your baby is ugly. It still hurts. Here’s what I’ve found:
1. People love it or hate it for the same
reasons. For example, “Just for Now” is a tender, funny story about family,
without a lot of external drama. It is many readers’ favorite of my books. But other
readers haven’t been crazy about it, for the same reason. Too much family, too
much about the kids, not enough excitement. It’s personal taste.
2. An
apropos quote. Bill Cosby said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the
key to failure is trying to please everybody.” It’s one thing to examine your
negative reviews, or negative comments within positive reviews, for anything
that is truly HELPFUL. Was the ending rushed? Do you have grammatical errors
that need to be fixed? That’s helpful. That your book didn’t appeal to
someone’s personal taste—not helpful.
3. Your mileage may vary. I’ve written ten
books, and just in my little critique circle, I think there are eight different
favorites! My readers share the same diversity of opinion. When I think about
my own favorite authors, I don’t love all their books equally. Some of them I
don’t even care for very much. I’ve never been a huge fan of “Mansfield Park,”
because Fanny Price is kind of a drip, isn’t she? And she and Edmund seem set
to have a mighty virtuous and boring life. And yet I’ve read it at least three
times, because Jane Austen writes so well.
4. It goes double for sex. Think people’s
opinions differ about your heroine? Get reviewers going about the sex in your
book! I’ve had people say, about the SAME BOOK:
“I loved … that the sex scenes
weren’t so intense.”
“I found the sex scenes to be a
little kinky for my taste.”
“Too much explicit sex.”
“Plenty of hot steamy sex.”
Bottom line (so to speak), there
is a huge variation in steam levels in contemporary romance. When your books
are just getting known, people are finding out if they like the way you write,
and in particular, the way you write sex. You are finding your audience. And
that ain’t everybody.
5. The acid test. I realized, after
wrestling with the “ping-pong ball” effect, where I’d think: “It’s good!” “No,
wait, it’s bad!” “No, it’s good!” after every review, that the REAL questions
were, “Did I write the book I wanted to write? Did I do my best?” And in all
ten cases, I answered, “Yes, I did.” That is all I can do. And it’s all that
matters. On to Book Eleven.
Why I Don’t Respond to Reviews
You wouldn’t think that “should I respond to a reader
review?” would be a topic for discussion anymore, but there seems to be a
movement now among some authors to go ahead and respond to readers’ comments on
Amazon, Goodreads, etc., whether positively (“Thanks for the awesome review!”)
or negatively (“If you don’t like books with sex in them, maybe you should choose
your books more carefully.”) (OK, that last one I’ve thought about
saying.) Here’s why I don’t respond:
1. From a marketing standpoint: My author persona
is my brand. I write feel-good books about decent people (well, mostly). Books
that, I hope, make the world feel like a nicer place, leave readers with a
happy little glow. Acting in any way that isn’t in line with that, whether it’s
a Facebook post, responding to reviews, whatever, diminishes my brand.
Sure, we can all point to big-name authors who’ve done
it, and got away with it. Hard to damage a well-established career. But I’ve
been at this two years. I’ve been lucky enough to have been discovered by a few
readers who are very active in the romance-reading community, and who talk
about my books on various forums and provide that invaluable commodity, word of
mouth. Those people tend to have book blogs and belong to lots of groups. And
they also tend to be pretty passionate about what they see as badly behaving
authors. If, instead of promoting me, they were slamming me? Well, it sure
wouldn’t help me. And if I didn’t have those people, if I were at Ground Zero
in terms of getting myself known? I wouldn’t want the first thing potential
readers saw about me to be a negative interaction with somebody else, no matter
how merited.
And yes, in my opinion responding is simply
unprofessional. It makes you look like someone who spends her time checking
reviews instead of writing books. I would like to project the image (even if
it’s aspirational!) of somebody who is secure in her success and isn’t
anxiously looking at what everyone said about her today.
On the other hand, interacting on Facebook, Twitter, my
blog, via email, etc.? You betcha! I do that big-time. Those readers have
literally signed up to interact with me, whereas a reviewer is giving her
opinion to other readers. (If I choose to take something from that as
well—or not—that’s up to me.)
2. From a logical standpoint. My negative reviews
aren’t “abusive.” They’re just responses from people who don’t like the way I
write, at all, or didn’t like this book, at all, and want to tell other people
so. They have a right to that opinion. And, much as I cringe at them, a few
one-star reviews can legitimize your 5-stars, or let people know that there’s
some controversy about a character, or “too much sex,” or whatever–things that
can actually help sell your book.
3. From a personal standpoint. Some people enjoy
combat, find it stimulating. I don’t. It hurts. And while I can use negative
feelings in my work, I find that my supply of painful life experiences is adequate
to fuel anything I’ll ever write. So for a sensitive plant like me, yes, the
negative reviews hurt more and make me want to engage even more than for people
with a thicker skin who can shrug off criticism. But engaging just prolongs the
agony. Better for me to feel the pain of it, then let it go.
The goal for the next year of my publishing career? Look
at reviews once a week. My success rate so far? Umm … Improving!
Don’t Let Rejection Get You Down (Yeah,
Right)
“Dear Author: Thank you for your submission.
Unfortunately . . .” And your heart sinks again.
You tell yourself that Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times. That over a hundred
publishers turned down Meg Cabot’s The
Princess Diaries. That Tom Clancy, after everyone else had said no, finally
found a publisher for The Hunt for Red
October—the Naval Institute Press.
But still, what you’re hearing is that your book stinks.
And that nobody, anywhere, will ever love it. So how do you keep from getting
discouraged? Here are some thoughts that may help.
1.
Publishers
are risk-averse. Also agents. I worked in the publishing industry for 20
years, and have been on the other end of this one many times. If a publisher
thinks a book has a 40% chance of making $100,000, he will take that bet over a
5% chance of making $2 million. What does this mean? More of the same! They
want more of what’s been selling lately (BDSM romance, anyone?), because it’s
too hard to predict what will sell tomorrow.
2.
Success
stories. I decided to self-publish on the day a major agent told me that
she enjoyed my book very much, but “New Zealand rugby” would be too tough of a
hook in the U.S. market. Avon’s new ebook line turned me down on the day I
offered that same book for free on KDP Select and gave away over 14,000 copies.
I sold 2,000 books in my first month, and 20,000 books in my fifth. And I’m not
the only one. Being turned down by agents and publishers doesn’t mean your book
isn’t good, or that the public (as opposed to the publishers) won’t buy it. You
can choose either to keep trying, keep polishing your query and your
manuscript, sending out a few queries at a time until you land that fish, or …
3.
Consider
self-publishing. We are living in a unique moment when the barriers to
entry have come crashing down. Yes, this means some books are being published
that probably shouldn’t be. But it also means that authors whose books sat
rejected for years are putting them out there, and guess what? People want to
read them!
4.
The
downside: What downside? If your book succeeds, the publishers may come to
you. (It happened to me!) Maybe you’ll finance a little bit more writing time. And
if it doesn’t sell much, what have you lost? Some time and the money for (I
hope) a professionally designed book cover and professional editing. So make
sure your book is the very best you can make it, do your research on producing
and marketing your work, and give it a try.
5.
Keep
writing! Whichever way you choose to go, don’t stop writing. If people
whose opinions you genuinely trust are telling you your work is good, and you
believe in your heart of hearts that it is, you owe it to yourself to keep going,
and to find a way to put your books out there for the market to judge. Nobody’s
tombstone ever said, “I wish I hadn’t pursued my dream.”
Helen Keller said it best. “Life is either a daring
adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of
men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than
exposure.”
Creating Your
Book Cover
You can judge a
book by its cover—and people do it all the time. Your cover has to convince
YOUR target buyer that this is her type of book, and that it’s a good one. The
tips below, gleaned from ten years in marketing for the publishing industry,
helped me create my own covers. I pass them along in hopes that they help you
too.
1. Hire a professional. It isn’t as
expensive as you may think. Three eBook covers cost me less than $100 per book:
A small investment that has already paid for itself many times over in book
sales.
2. Choose the right professional. I did a
web search to find designers in my genre (Romance), then looked at their
websites and portfolios. Who designs covers that appeal to you and make you
want to buy the book? When you’ve found somebody whose work you like, ask for a
quote.
3. Know your market. Think about authors
whose books resemble yours. Those authors have succeeded in attracting your
market. Look at the covers of their books, and you’ll see trends. (Shirtless
heroes? Flowers? An ornate font, or a simple one? Big, bold block letters on a
red background, for a thriller?) Copy the links to your favorite covers. You’ll
want to share them with your designer.
4. Define the effect you want to achieve. Your
cover is your brand. Even if you only have one book out there now, you’ll want
a “look” that people identify with your style. A good designer excels in
translating “feelings” into art. This is the direction I gave my own designer
(Robin Ludwig): “I want a simple, tasteful, intelligent cover (no half-naked
heroes!) Something that still says ‘romance,’ but not ‘embarrassing.’ The books
are funny, playful, sexy, and occasionally tearjerking. Not completely frothy,
a serious story in there too. I want to convey that--plus ‘exotic New Zealand
locale.’”
I also had three books, with a
fourth to come, so I needed to tie the covers together. The designer achieved
that with the use of color and layout.
5. Research stock art. You’ll get better
results and help your designer if you take the time to find stock imagery that
conveys the look you’re going for. I used Dreamstime.
6. Work the design, and get feedback. After
you get the designer’s first pass, ask people who have read your book for their
reactions, then evaluate the feedback and give ONE response to the designer. If
it isn’t quite right, keep working. (It took me three or four rounds to get it
right.) Don’t give the designer specific direction (“could you put the title
under the picture?”) Instead, try to explain the “feeling” that isn’t quite
right (“It doesn’t look playful enough”).
7. Admire your beautiful book cover! I
hope it sells great!
How to Write a
Romance Blurb
Blurbs scare indie
writers. They can write a whole book, but the blurb—that’s a killer. I wrote
this post in response to requests from my fellow indies.
As some folks know, I spent my misguided youth—all right,
all right, my misguided middle age—as a copywriter. Which means that writing
blurbs for my books was a piece of cake, right? Wrong. I had to learn how to do
it, because writing one type of copy isn’t the same as writing another. But
maybe it was a little easier and less scary to learn. So, OK, here are my tips
for Writing Your Kickass Romance Blurb.
1. Look at other blurbs. (You thought
this was going to be some technical post, huh?) I learned to do it by going to
the library and pulling down books in my genre from the paperback rack.
Somehow, it was much easier to spot trends and pick out blurbs I liked from
physical books. I read and took notes for an hour. I noticed what I hated as
well as what I liked. Which blurbs made ME want to read the book? Because I
write the kinds of books that I like to read. After I did my research, I came
home, and …
2. Practice, practice, practice. Don’t expect
to “write your blurb” and be done. The general rule in copywriting is: the
shorter the copy, the longer it takes to write. Every word has to count. It may
be hard to think the blurb up in your head. Instead, start writing, then
rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. And after that, walk away, come back, and polish.
Rinse and repeat. It usually takes me a week to be completely satisfied with my
blurb, though the total time I spend on it is perhaps four hours. Besides the
time when I think it up, generally on a walk or a run, towards the end of
writing the book.
Write it, mess with it, print it out, look at it,
scribble on your paper, go back to the computer and mess some more. Experiment
with changing Paragraph 2. Leave both versions there. Print it out again. Etc.
3. General rules. In romance, my formula is
Kicky tagline. (Some people don’t like this; I think it
sells books. I put mine in bold.)
Heroine or hero’s situation.
Hero or heroine’s situation.
(Possibly) summation.
Also: Paragraphs! White space! Don’t make people look at
a big block of text. Short sentences–heck, sentence fragments–are your friend.
(Well, fragments are always my friend. Sue me.)
4. Example. From Nothing Personal (The Kincaids, Book
Two)
When you wish upon a star …
Alec Kincaid has never met the obstacle he couldn’t
overcome–or the woman who could resist him. And it’s not going to happen now,
not with his star shining more brightly than ever in the high-stakes arena of
San Francisco’s software industry.
Desiree Harlin doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and she
doesn’t waste time wishing. She’s learned the hard way that dreams don’t come
true. And with her reputation and hard-won security on the line, succumbing to
temptation isn’t an option.
But things aren’t always what they seem. And even stars
sometimes fall.
5. Deconstruction
When you wish upon
a star …: Disney movie; hopefully makes you think of the song and of
wishing for dreams to come true. It has a twist, which all my books and titles
have—they are all ironic. See second paragraph of blurb for the twist: our
heroine doesn’t believe in fairy tales. She doesn’t believe in Prince Charming
or happily ever after. But guess what? She’s going to get both of those things
anyway. You know it. Hey, it’s a romance novel.
First paragraph:
Do I tell you he’s a player and a millionaire CEO? No, but you get it, and that
the story takes place in San Francisco, and that it’s about the tech industry.
You get that he’s cocky and on top of the world, and you get the feeling that
he’s about to meet his match and get taken DOWN, and hopefully you’re already
rooting for Desiree to do it.
Second paragraph:
Again, it’s not going to work out the way she thought. And do I tell you she’s
a workaholic who’s come up the hard way, has zero stars in her eyes? Nope, but
you get it. Just like with writing the book, you want to show rather than tell.
Also: using the words “succumbing to temptation,” ONE HOPES, will alert
sex-in-books-averse ladies that there is sex in this book. (To be on the safe
side, I also include a “steam warning,” which I try to make fairly mild and
humorous, as I’m not really that far up the steam-ometer. The steamier the book
is, the more “cues” I try to put in the blurb. I still get shocked readers, but
it’s not for lack of trying to warn them off.)
Third paragraph:
What does it mean? Does it mean Alec falls? Or that something mysterious goes
wrong? Both, sort of. This book has some suspense, though it’s primarily a
romance, and I wanted to imply that without, again, hitting you over the head
with it. “But mysterious forces are at work. Forces that will threaten both
Alec and Desiree, as well as their growing relationship …” Ick. No. I wanted to
find a way to tie it in to the tagline, and to intrigue the potential reader.
Speaking of which …
6. The goal of the blurb. Not to give away
the story. Not to explain that this is a “fast-moving tale that will keep you
turning the pages and make you laugh and cry.” Again, don’t tell them, show
them. Write it in YOUR voice, the same voice in which the book is written. (If
you look at my books, you can tell from the blurbs, I hope, that some books
will be funnier than others.) I try to give my blurbs a “funny, smart, sexy,
tender” vibe, because I think (I hope) that matches the books. You want to give
readers the sense of what they can expect from the book. The goal is to intrigue
them enough to either a) Look inside the book; or b) BUY the book.
That’s it! Those are the tips. Best of luck!
About
the author:
Rosalind James, the bestselling author of the Escape
to New Zealand and Kincaids series, is a former marketing executive who
discovered her muse after several years of living and working in paradise--also
known as Australia and New Zealand. Now, she spends her days writing about
delicious rugby players, reality shows, corporate intrigue, and all sorts of
other wonderful things, and having more fun doing it than should be legal.
Rosalind’s website: http://www.rosalindjames.com
On Facebook: rosalindjamesbooks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/RosalindJames5
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