Kate Pearce

Here in sunny Northern California, the air is starting to get a little nip to it. It’s time to abandon the bare feet, get the socks out and face the annual humiliating ritual of trying to find a pair of boots to fit me. I’m a fairly average American size ten. I have long arms and tiny skinny wrists, like my father’s side of the family. From my mother I inherited the dreaded ‘cankles’

As Mr. Kate occasionally points out to me in a helpful way,(as if I hadn’t noticed),I have no ankle. I just have a sturdy lower leg and a foot. Imagine, if you must, an upturned 2 litre bottle of soda-that’s what the bottom half of my leg looks like. So every year I dream about finding a pair of boots that will stretch over my cankles and leave me looking cool, sophisticated and dashing in an Emma Peel, Avengers kind of way.

I don’t go into shops anymore and actually try on boots-oh no-I gave that up a few years ago when being red-faced and lying on the floor trying to pull the blasted things up lost its appeal. Mr Kate got a bit tired of the tears and depression on the journey home afterwards which was understandable.

I tried mail order-extra wide, guaranteed to fit cankles. Not mine. I currently have yet another pair sitting in my closet waiting to be sent back. I can’t even count how many times I’ve had to do that.

But I have found something that fits. The rumor that I took up Western horseriding just so I had a legitimate excuse to wear cowboy boots is not true-but hey-it’s a bonus. I love my wide roomy cowboy boots. Now my English riding zip up ankle boots worn with black breeches make me look like Max Wall-not a pretty sight.

Every year all my sisters call my mother and complain about our cankles , even the skinny ones. She just sighs and mutters about genetics and that we all got good skin from her or something equally unhelpful.

Hope dawns on the horizon-my sister sent me a catalogue for a company called DUO in the UK who offer Italian boots-get this-you measure the widest part of your cankle/calf and send it to them and they send you the boots to fit! I bet the genuis who thought that up has cankles or very thin legs which I understand can also cause a problem for the bootally challenged. The only problem is the exchange rate, the cost of postage and other mundane facts of real life.

I’m hoping I can persuade Mr Kate that buying me a pair of said boots would save him money in the long run, considering all that return postage, as well as stopping the yearly tears, and making me look absolutely fabulous!

Still writing and editing like mad-honest!

OK_since a few people have asked me-here’s the URL for the boots! www.duoboots.com

I promised to answer my own question from the previous blog about Georgette Heyer and her wonderful books. There is a link to a great site all about her on my website-(on the links page suprisingly enough). She wrote her first book at the age of nineteen and just kept going. I love her stories, her heroes are to die for, her heroine’s are witty, beautiful and enterprising and her feel for the Regency time period is unmatched.

Am I gushing? Not really. If there hadn’t have been a Georgette Heyer there wouldn’t be a recognizable romance sub-genre called “Regency”. She was the first person to write it and her books are still in print thirty years after her death and more than half a century since she wrote the first one.

My favorites have varied depending on how old I was when I read them. I prefer her slightly later books with older heroines and less typical situations. I spent all week trying to work out my favorite three books and I still keep changing my mind-but here goes:

1. “Venetia”-Damarel is my favorite hero. He’s cynical, tainted by scandal but immensely careful in his dealings with the heroine. Veentia’s sense of humor and pure goodness make her lovable too.
2. “These Old Shades”-again an older hero who’s seen it all. a young heroine who sees through his coldness and loves him anyway.
3. “Friday’s Child”-because the hero has to grow up when he makes an impetuous marriage.

Coming in a close fourth; “The Nonesuch” An Infamous Army” “Frederica” and “The Grand Sophy”

Favorite heroes? Damarel, The Duke of Avon and Alverstoke.
Favorite heroines? Venetia, Barbara Childe and Hero Wantage

Now I’m going to be plagued by all those I’ve missed out, but if you’ve read any of her books or intend to, this might be a good place to start!

Now on to writerly stuff. I’ve written my prologue for the new new version of BRANDED-I hope it’s ok, although it ended up long enough to become a new chapter. I’ll send it off this week-so fingers crossed.
I got my release date for Eden’s Pleasure (March 9th 2006) and an ISBN number-ok I’m a dork enough to be excited by having an ISBN number…
My CP’s seem to be enjoying my much revised medieval novel which takes some of the more traditional medieval cliche’s and turns them around. It was fun to write something so raunchy and straight forward after the Regencies. I’ve edited 20,000 words out of it already so it’s cleaner and meaner.
I’m in the final stages of another erotic romance and I’m pleased with it so far.

One of my friends came back from a trip to the UK and brought me a huge bag of Galaxy chocolate (thanks Lorraine) I’m in chocolate heaven …
I’m off to the UK on NOv 24th to celebrate one of my sister’s 25th wedding anniversary. It will be fun to go BY MYSELF (I have 4 kids) and great to see everyone gathered in one place which makes my trip so much easier.

I’m thinking about new books to write at the moment. I can’t decide between the futuristic one, the third in a Regency trilogy or something completly different! Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

I can’t believe it’s a week since I last sat down to write my blog. The older I get, the quicker time seems to fly by. I’m so busy getting through the days that when I look up, it’s the weekend again and I’ve achieved…nothing.

When I’m writing, I usually get to the last quarter of the book and finally ‘know’-what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen and exactly how the story will end. Plotters will scream at the very thought, but as a true Panster, that’s how I do it folks! Anyway, at this exhilarating point, I want ‘real’ life to stop so I can go and write the story 24/7 until I’m done. Unfortunately, with 4 kids I just can’t. It makes me grumpy and frustrated, but I have to remind myself that ‘real’ life is actually the important part and that I should participate in it-albeit reluctantly.

I’ve always had a deep inner life. I can happily day dream my way through anything. I used to think that everyone had characters inside their heads shouting out their stories-apparently they don’t. Only other writers understand that the paper people become real once you let them out onto the paper.

I have a gazillion stories waiting to be written. I only have 24 hours in a day. Sometimes I worry that I’ll never get them all written. Sometimes I worry that I’m missing out on ‘real’ life pursuing a dream. What to do?

In the real world-after deciding that caution and ‘thinking things through’ was the way to approach the whole financial mess of getting another house thing, Mr Kate and I saw a fantastic property today which managed to encompass all our dreams-(apart from the price which was more in the realm of nightmares). Now we’re busy justifying why we might just have to have this place…

Last thought-any Georgette Heyer fans out there? Favorite book? Favorite hero/heroine? I’ll give you mine next blog

As you might have guessed, I’m not really a Californian. I was born and bred in Britain where cookies are biscuits, biscuits are scones and panties are knickers. I try very hard to live up to the homemaker homebaker image most of my American friends carry off with ease but I reckon I don’t have the cookie gene.

Everytime I make cookies, brownies or pie something goes wrong. My kids used to dread my brownies. They either come out like bricks or goo. I’m not even talking complicated stuff here, I’m talking out of a box brownies. I’ve even stood over my friends taking notes and still managed to destroy something.

Today I made pumpkin pies-pre-baked pie cases, of course and pumpkin out of a can. To my surprise, they came out OK, apart from the burned to a cinder edge. After seven years here, perhaps I’m finally getting it.

The other American tradition I’ve fallen in love with is bull-riding on OLN. Not a lot of this in the UK! I can just about ride a horse so watching some crazy guy stay on the back of a bull for eight seconds makes me feel even more inadequate. Mr Kate and I even went to Las Vegas last year to watch one evening of the finals. I’ve never seen so many cowboys before in my life. It was quite a thrill for this writer, purely for research purposes of course…

Finally l really should get back to writing. I’ve completed my second set of edits, found an excerpt and written a blurb with a lot of instant help from my online crit team at rocking RWAOnline-thank you guys. Hopefully all will be acceptable to the publishing gods. I’m also starting the KIA challenge which is a contest for page count during the month of October-Go Historical Hotties!!

Firstly, some of my favorite people in the world have finalled in the ‘Romantic Times, American Title II” contest. It’s not quite the FOX version-no one has to sing-thank goodness. It’s a contest to find the best unpublished historical romance writer and offer them a book contract with Dorchester publishing. It’s kind of based on the same idea as the singing thing: 3 judges who make sarcastic, helpful, insightful, useless comments on selected parts of the manuscript and then we-that is, the public get to vote on the one we like best. Each week, the lowest scoring manuscript gets kicked out.

So I’ve got three writing buddies to cheer for: Gina Black, Maria Geraci and Debra Parmley. I’ll let you know how everyone is doing and encourage you to go and check out their entries in RT or RT online.

Last time I blogged I was twiddling my thumbs-in a writerly sense. and musing about chocolate. Now I have spent the week doing real edits for my real editor. It was quite a weird feeling. But best of all, I got to delete all the extra “and, but, still and that’s” that were cluttering up my prose. I really have a thing for long complex sentences. (you might have noticed that already…)

I’ve finished the edits now-I know I’ve reached the point where I want to twiddle with it too much. Hopefully, I’ll get over this obsession before I ruin the book.

Another editing question came up on a different ms for a different publisher. This ms, Branded, is a very sexy contemporary I originally wrote for a particular Harlequin line. Of course, it didn’t ‘quite fit their needs’ so my agent sent it off to someone else. They liked it but asked me for a major overhaul of my main female character. It took me three months but I did it, only to find that said editor had left…now the new new editor wants me to change it a little more.

I’ll do it, because, this book can still get better and the suggestions so far have been helpful. If I thought the input would destroy the story I wouldn’t. (At some point you have to decide whether it’s still going to be the story you wanted to tell). In this case, I think the suggestions might make it even better- and I’ve learned when editor’s take the time to call, it’s generally worth listening to what they have to say. This is a very tough market to get into.

Lastly, we spent the day in the Gold Country looking at possible properties for our potential ranch set up. I love it out there. Eventually, we’d like to move somewhere quieter and more open where we can keep our horses and ride them regularly. Still a dream at the moment but we’re working on it!

I’m in that circling pattern that plagues most writers from time to time. My agent’s sending out my work, I’m editing other stuff and writing new stories. Nothing very exciting to blog about really. Although, I have finally got a grasp on my latest plot. I can see the end, I finally know what my character’s are thinking and there’s only a quarter of the first draft left to write. That’s always a good feeling.
So I thought, now that we’re getting comfortable on this blog I’d mention a couple of things I truly love.
1. Chocolate-OK, everyone loves chocolate. But I’m a Brit. Every so often I have to make a pilgrimage to the British grocer’s seven miles away and buy good British chocolate. I also buy Heinz baked beans which apparently are the shop’s biggest seller, apart from the chocolate. Why buy these beans when Safeway has 200 different kinds? I can’t explain-it just has to be the Brit version on my toast.
Let me get back to the chocolate-a fellow blogger (thank you Wendy) mentioned Galaxy chocolate in one of her blogs. I’ve been craving that particular kind all week. So today I got a Galaxy ripple and ate it on the way back in the car-heaven! Hershey’s make a version of Cadbury’s here but it’s not as good-I can detect the difference in a blind testing (sad but true).
I so love Cadbury’s that I even decorate my Christmas tree in its honour-imagine purple (for the wrapping) and gold (for the gold paper within) and you’ve got the general idea.

2. Handbags-OK, everyone has a purse but I’m a purse addict. Some might say my addiction leads me to peculiar behavior. I don’t really like to use my nice purses. I’d rather keep them wrapped up in their little soft cloth bags and keep them in the box they came in. My favorites? Louis Vuitton, Gucci and top of the tree, Lulu Guinness.
I don’t get the shoe thing-I suppose I should being a baglady but I don’t care about my feet. I’d rather not wear any shoes at all. I’ve told everyone that I want my favorite red LV bag to go in the coffin with me when I die-is that good forward planning or just plain morbid?

I also love cricket, Tetris, rugby and football (the European kind). I’ll wait for a lull and bore you with those another day.

I realized recently, that on my other blog, (the one that stays within a small loop of writers and allows me to gripe a lot), I’ve been getting a bit grim. I suppose I’ve got to the point in my writing career where I realized that it’s just me against the odds. I have a bad feeling that anyone reading my posts over there must be thinking getting published isn’t quite the joyful, liberating experience they thought it might be.
Well it is. (honestly!)
But-I find I have a tendency to grit my teeth and get all ‘driven’ when I get a partial or a full manuscript rejected or a contest entry trashed. I’ve been there so many times-but I’ve finally realized that it’s just not worth agonizing over these things. Now I just write.. In the last year as well as getting published by Ellora’s Cave, I’ve finalled and won some RWA contests, had three fulls rejected and at least ten partials.
You have to make a choice. Give up or keep going. That’s a decision only the individual writer can make. After the dejection of rejection, you have to make up your mind. How much do you want it? How much is it worth to you? Of course, it’s probably easier for me to make these lofty statements now that I’ve had some validation.(g) But I want more. I want to have lots of books published in different sub-genres.
I think it’s my Irish fatalistic streak showing, mixed with some English grit. All I can do is write. I love to write, It’s as important to me as breathing. The rest is out of my hands.
Have I depressed everyone on this blog now?
Let me end on a happy note.
I’ve survived a whole day with 4 kids on my own while Mr Kate heads off to China!

As you might have noticed, if you look at the first page of my website, (and if you haven’t-go take a look now, we’ll wait for you) I’ve received the cover art for “Eden’s Pleasure”. I was a bit worried about how it would look. I went to a workshop in Reno RWA called “When bad covers happen to good writers”, it was meant to be funny but one author did mention that a particularly bad cover once set her back thousands of sold copies resulting in less orders for her next book etc etc.

One evening last week, my editor sent me an email with the cover attached. For some reason, the cover hadn’t actually attached itself. I spent the whole night worrying about it. Of course, when it finally arrived the next morning I was so excited. It had all the elements I’d requested, sexy, subtle, elegant and dark. It’s the kind of cover I would pick up for another look if I was in a book store (and to be honest, I spend way too much time and money in bookstores already!).

I think I’ve emailed it to almost everyone I’ve ever met on this planet. It’s so weird to see my name-on a BOOK-surreal, in fact. It’s been my dream for so long and here it is. I printed off a copy to put on my desk so that I can stare at it and marvel at how big my name is. (Childish but true). It’s a great feeling.

In other news-my delightful children-well , three of them, returned to school this week leaving me to the tender mercies of my 3 year old who wants me to ‘play’ dollies with her. All her games end up with me being a baddie who captures all the princesses and ties them up. She also insists that Princess Beona should marry Prince Charming rather than Shrek. I’m not sure why-but it’s amazing that a 3 year old with 3 big brothers still wants to play at falling in love and being rescued. I’ll have to lay off the Disney dvd’s.

I also got a new car after trading in my gas guzzler. It’s odd being down close to the ground again but a joy being able to park without a man following me around with a flag and a measuring tape. The new car has so many gadgets in it that I’ll need to ask my kids to explain them to me. Meanwhile, I’m still locking them out of the car and failing to press the start button then wondering why the engine won’t work. I’ll get there eventually.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion in the romance writing community about the definition of romance. What exactly is a romance? The most common definition would be a story in which the hero and heroine fall in love and live ‘happily ever after’, or at least have the potential to do so.

The romance industry is always evolving and changing. Sub-genres today include stories set on other worlds and in fantasy, paranormal and futuristic settings. Heroes might be shape shifters, vampires or aliens. Heroines can be assassins or androids from the future. Does this mean these books don’t fit the definition of romance?

I think they do. Readers seem to enjoy these new sub-genres. Heroes and heroines don’t have to be human to be in love. Two opposite ends of the market which seem to be growing are inspirational romances and erotic romances. I’ve read a few inspirationals. I admire any writer who can plot a story with the no sex in it. I can learn a lot about developing sexual tension when I read these books.

The opposite end of the spectrum, erotic romance, seems to evoke a far different response from many romance writers. They don’t think ‘those type of books’ should be included in the romance section. They don’t think it qualifies for the golden rule of ‘happy ever after’.

Why?

If my own writing community don’t understand what I write, how am I ever going to sell a book to a reader? (Although, to be fair, the huge increase in sales of erotic romance seems to indicate there is a definite need out there) I don’t write porn. I don’t write erotica. I write erotic romance. I shall quote from award-winning author ANGELA KNIGHT who sums up the difference between these three things perfectly:

“There’s porn-tab A in slot B. Emotions are irrelevant. People moan, but that’s it. In erotica, the focus is on emotions and sensation, and there’s characterization, but the relationships usually don’t last. But in erotic romance, the focus is on the romance more than the sex. The sex is an expression of the romance.”

‘The sex is an expression of the romance.’ Thank you, Angela. That’s what I write. Very sexy love stories about people who intend to live happily ever after.

check out Angela’s website at www.angelasknights.com

I’ve heard many a famous writer laugh when they are described as being an overnight success. Of course, it does happen, but most writers I know have played the ‘publication dance’ for many years before they actually achieve that exclusive label.
The publishing world is relatively small. People change jobs, leaving authors not knowing if the new editor will like their style or even want to keep publishing their type of book. Agents leave agencies. Writers change publishing houses.
And for a new author, add the pressure of getting someone to even look at your stuff. Agents have become the gatekeepers to publishers. Finding a good agent who is prepared to take a newbie author on is increasingly difficult. I’m not complaining about this. It’s all part of the process. If you want to be a writer you have to learn to deal with the constant rejections, maneuvering and politicking.
I’ve learned one thing over the past five years. Keep writing the good book. Keep learning your craft and exploring new territory. Keep taking risks with your writing. Ultimately, that’s what agents and editors are looking for: that unique voice, that fantastic story. That’s the piece of the picture you can control. The rest is in the lap of the gods.