This Blog is Closed

Or at least, I won't be posting here in the future except for major announcements. I'm currently posting on my blog on my website. Come over and see whats' going on with me. http://www.maddybarone.com/

Update

I received and completed the Cover Art Request Form from Liquid Silver and am now waiting for an editor to contact me concerning revisions etc. It's just about time for the National Conference (RWA) so it might not happen until after that. Meanwhile I've been writing Glory and Wolf Shadow's story. Poor Glory. She thinks this guy is really hot. Totally smoking. And she's more than willing to have a one night stand with him. But in the morning she needs to find a phone and get back to the real world. She was on her way to the final interview for her dream job when the plane went down, and even a gorgeous stud muffin like Wolf Shadow can't keep her from reaching for her dreams.

I Have Signed A Contract!

As of July 7, 2010 Sleeping With the Wolf is under contract with Liquid Silver Books! I am very excited to be with them. Over the past few years I have read many of their novels and novellas, and I know they put out a quality product. That's why they were top on my list of whom to submit to. I'm sure they will have me hopping doing some edits and revising in the next several months, so I should get as much writing done as possible on Glory's story before I get hit with the edits. The thing is, I'm totally wrapped up in Tracker's story. And between work, weddings, SCA stuff and fiber arts guild demos I have almost no time for the next two months. So little time, so much writing to do. I'll have to cut back on demos if necessary. My writing is my job, now, so that has to come first. Good thing I like writing.  :D

A Website for me?

I have been thinking that in order to be a successful e-published author I will need to have a website. So today I purchased a domain name and contacted a website designer with whom I am e-acquainted. That is, she is active on Romance Divas and I have corresponded briefly with her. Several other divas gave her designing talents high praise. So I'm hoping she will be able to set up a beautiful site for me. Since I tend to write paranormal/fantasy romances I like the idea of something ethereal and elegant. But then again, I love bold vivid jewel tones. I guess I'll need to see 1.) if she has time to design for me and 2.) what she comes up with.

Moorish Tavern-the Siege of Tunis

As I've mentioned before, I'm in the SCA, a historical re-creation organization that focuses on the Middle Ages and Renaissance. One of the things we do is hold wars and battles. This weekend I went to a mini war in northwestern Northshield called Moorish Tavern. It is an annual event, aways held at the same campground near the Canadian border. There are battles, and feasting, and singing. And there is often rain, as was the case this year. The was a brief but furious downpour, with 40 mile an hour winds. Some tents were tested, and some were swamped, but none fell.

In addition to the usual fighting in armor with swords and shields, there was also a rapier tournament to determine who would have the honor of wearing the Princess' Sleeve. The level of swords(wo)manship was outstanding. Sadly, in the final bout an accident occurred, resulting in Lord Marcus being rushed to the hospital with a dislocated knee. It must have been unbelievably painful, but he returned in a few hours on crutches and showed such high spirits and chivalry that the Princess named both he and Dona Margolit (his opponent during the final bout) as co-holders of the sleeve. She carefully cut it down the middle and gave half to each.

I was very excited to see Sir Yngvar, recently returned from Iraq.

Also, there is a lady whom I love as a dear sister and friend, the honroable lady Eabblean of Castel Rouge. She is generous to a fault, always making garb and giving gifts to her friends. So about a dozen of us got together and planned to make her some garb she has always wanted: an Elizabethan loose gown over a kirtle with all the appropriate jewelry, foot wear and head gear. She cried.

It was a wonderful weekend. I applied bug juice religiously, but it must have been wiped off mys feet by wet grass, because my feet look like smallpox victims. Yikes! Still, I had a great time!

Full Manuscript Requested

About two weeks ago I sent a query with a synopsis and the first 3 chapters of Sleeping With the Wolf to an epublisher whose books I have enjoyed in the past. On June 2 I received a nice email saying thanks, they had received it, it had been added to the queue and I should hear something in 4-6 weeks. Cool. So I began playing with some of the other books in the series, writing some scenes, developing some outlines and character sketches and generally taking a little break from Sleeping. It was finished, but I wanted to review the middle for any improvements I could make after I'd had a chance to get away from it. After all, I had at least a month before they would ask for it, if they ever asked for it. I figured there was a good chance they would tell me thanks, but no thanks.

And when I got to work and checked my Maddy email what did I see? An email from the epublisher. Oh, no, I thought. It's been only two weeks, and I'd heard that a quick answer was usually an R, a rejection. So I heaved a sigh and opened the email.

And squealed loud enough for people three aisles over to poke their heads up to see what was up with me. I waved my hands frantically at my buddy Jill and ordered her to get over to my desk tout suite and read this email. She did, and squealed and gave me a hug. We told everyone within earshot that the publisher I had submitted a partial story to had requested the full manuscript. Someone in the third aisle was disappointed to find out that I hadn't won the lottery. But I feel like I did. I know that this is by no means an indication that the publisher will accept and publish my book. But I had been prepared to receive my first R and it was a thrill to see the full manuscript request instead. Not much work got done by yours truly today.

I may well open my email in another couple weeks and find the thanks, but no thanks message. But at least I've gotten this far. Not too shabby for someone who didn't take her writing seriously until a couple months ago. And if it is rejected maybe the publisher will give me some reasons why and suggestions for improving.

That's the news from Maddy-land today. Off to plunge back into Eddie's Prize.

After the Crash

That's the name for the series I am currently working on. Over on Romance Divas I posed the question "What should I name my futuristic/post apocalyptic romance series? It's about how five women from the year 2014 find their true loves when their plane crashes in 2064." And of the suggestions I got I liked "After the Crash" best.

The first story is Sleeping With the Wolf. Carla Z, a rising country music star who is won in a Bride Fight by the alpha of a local Wolf Pack has to find a way to accept the fact that her world is gone and that she can't go home. In a way this is the hardest story to write. I have to set up this new world and try to get it to make sense. Taye knows Carla is his mate; the wolf who lives within him told him so. He fell in love the first time he scented her. Will Carla ever accept him? 40,000 words. Submitted.

The second story is tentatively named Eddie's Prize. Lisa Anton, a well known model, is won by Eddie Madison, the son of the mayor of Kearney. Eddie is handsome and young and hot tempered, and, of course, a virgin. He has fallen deeply in love with his bride. Lisa is a little older and far more experienced. Eddie is thrilled by her lovemaking, but expects her to behave modestly outside the bedroom. According to the standards she lived by in 2014, Lisa is behaving like a puritan, but Eddie is jealous of her ease with other men, particularly rancher Dane Overdahl. This book takes place at the same time as Sleeping with the Wolf. Aprox 18,000 words. Outline complete, mostly written. This one doesn't quite fit with the other stories, which are all connected to the Pack and Clan, and it is shorter than the others are planned to be.

The third story is Courted By the Wolf. Loud mouthed goth Gloria Peterson stumbles on the Clan while looking for help for the plane crash survivors. The chief of the Clan, Wolf's Shadow, knows she is his mate. Glory is perfectly happy take a roll in the hay with him while she's waiting for transportation back to civilization, but when she finds out she's stuck living in a tent on the prairie in 2064 her attitude changes fast. Her idea of camping involves a luxury RV and a microwave. Shadow is the chief of his Clan. He can't leave them to follow his mate to live in a town. And he won't let her live there without him. He is left having to court her. Will she ever love him enough to accept life in a Tipi? Takes place at the same time as books 1 & 2, and a few months longer. First two chapters written.

The fourth story is Tracked By the Wolf. Mountain guide Tami was taken by a half dozen men to be their wife. After two weeks of abuse she manages to escape and use her survivalist skills to hide from them. They hire The Tracker, a silent loner from the Clan with a knack for retrieving lost items, to find her and bring her back. Behind his stone cold face lies a tender heart yearning for a wife of his own, but what woman could live as he does, constantly roaming the prairie without a house to live in? Tracker and Tami engage in a game of hide and seek: she to hide from him and he to find her. Her skills rouse his admiration. When he catches her can he bear to take her back to her husbands? Chapter 1-3 are written. Begins one month after books 1 & 2

The fifth story is Captured by the Wolf. Fifteen year old Rose Turner is taken with the other plane crash survivors to the Clan. Once there a man claims her as his wife. But seventeen year old Sky insists his wolf has chosen her as his mate and carries her off to the Pack by Kearney. After Carla refuses to allow him to consummate his mating, Sky leaves Rose under the Pack's protection and heads east to take work with the man trying to rebuild the railroad. Six years later he returns to claim his mate... who has formed an attachment to a Kearney boy. What's a wolf to do but capture his rebellious mate and take her home to teach her to love him? He just didn't expect to learn any new lessons himself. Takes place approx 6 years after the others.

I Did It!

I have submitted a story for the very first time. That's a scary thing. I feel kinda light headed. I think I need some chocolate...

Romance Divas

In my journey to becoming a published romance author I have joined several online groups as well as sent a membership form with a check for my dues to Romance Writers of America (RWA). One of the sites I've discovered is http://www.romancesdivas.com/. What a great bunch of people over there. They are friendly and extremely generous with their time and advice. I posted a couple questions and I have gotten some very nice and helpful answers. There's no way I can know everything before I start submitting my stories to publishers, but by reading the forums and asking questions I can at least have some idea of what to do and expect.

So now I have a game plan of where I will submit. I had originally intended to submit to a writing contest held by an epublisher. But their heat content is hotter than what I write, and the word limit is 28,000, and even after I did my best to prune my story it is 38,000 words. So instead I will just submit it as a regular submission. Just waiting on the proof readers to get back to me with their suggestions and corrections. I'm getting really antsy! Meanwhile I'm working a little bit on the second book in the series. It is outlined, and major scenes have been drafted and partially written. I like this one a lot because the hero is extremely alpha, ridiculously jealous, but a bit naive in the bedroom, whereas the heroine is experienced and demanding in the bedroom but very laid back and willing to let others lead in other areas. She doesn't mind him being over protective and she can handle his alpha tendencies, but is his jealousy a deal breaker for her?

I am a writer

I handed the copies of the story over to the proofers last Saturday. I sorta apologized as I did so and one of them looked me in the eye and asked, "Are you a writer?" I hemmed and hawed a bit, doing my usual down on myself routine of well-I'm-not-really-good-but-I-write-because-I-enjoy-it and she interupted me and said, "That's not what I asked. Are you a writer?"

It was an epiphany for me. The real answer to that question is: Yes, I'm a writer. I don't have anything published yet, (in fact, I haven't even submitted anything yet) but I am a writer. I haven't received anything back from my proofers yet, so last night I glanced over the story again. And I concluded that I am a writer, and a good one. I'm sure an editor could find a dozen things to improve the story. And that's okay. In fact, if an editor rejects my submission but points out things that could be improved, that's good. It gives me some direction to go. I think I might actually be looking forward to my first rejection. Then I will really feel like I'm a writer. :)

Crown Tourney

I spent Wednesday and Thursday reviewing what I had written, trying to catch errors and smoothing the rough edges. Today I printed off a couple copies of Sleeping With the Wolf to hand off to the proof readers at Crown. Even as I was making the copies I saw a few errors in spacing. Darn! Well, I'm not going to change anything now. I'll let the proof readers get back to me with the errors they see. Tomorrow I'm off to the Northshield Crown Tourney. With the icy rain and snow (hello, spring in North Dakota!) I'm afraid the roads will be bad. A friend and I are leaving at 6:30am to hopefully be there by 10am for morning court.

What is a morning court and a Crown Tourney? I'm so glad you asked!  I'm in a historical re-creation group called the SCA. The SCA is an international organization that studies and recreates the Middles Ages and Renaissance just for fun. There are members all over the USA and Canada, and Europe, Japan, even Israel. The SCA has divided up the areas where members live and play into Kingdoms. I am in the region called the Kingdom of Northshield. Twice a year an armored tournament is held to determine the next King and Queen. We call that the Crown Tourney. The fighters are paired up and the winner of each bout advances to the next level until only two fighters are left. The winner of the last fight is the Crown Prince or Princess. Yes, women can fight and enter the Tourney to win the Crown. Not everyone in the SCA is a fighter. I am not a fighter. Many people do other cool things like brewing mead, making armor, sewing historical clothing, embroidery, woodworking, singing, jewelry making, blacksmithing weaving, cooking, spinning, book binding and illuminating books by hand... Just about anything that was done in period is done by someone in the SCA now. I myself am involved in various fiber arts like knitting, spinning and embroidering. I also make my own costumes. If I write that a character is wearing a Viking Apron Dress or a 16th century Florentine gown, you can believe I have a pretty good idea what that is like, because I've researched it, sewn it and worn it. See? Here's an example of each:

For more info on the SCA go to my Kingdom's homepage http://www.northshield.org/  or the Corporate homepage at http://www.sca.org/.

Last Scene Done!!

Last night around 11:30 I finished writing the last scene in Sleeping With the Wolf!!


I'm taking a couple days away from the book to clear my palate. Then on Tuesday night I have to go back and re-read the whole thing start to finish and make notes about what needs to go and what needs to be expanded. It is at approximately 33,000 words, and the contest limit is 28,000, so I'll need to be ruthless. I want to get it cleaned up by next weekend, when I'm meeting with friends who have generously offered to do some proofreading and make basic editing suggestions. One is a high school english teacher who also proofs for a mystery author, and the others are avid readers. I think they will be kind but honest.

Now, off to spend the cool rainy Sunday afternoon knitting.

Ramblings...

So...  there's a writing contest I want to enter. The deadline is May 15. I have one more major scene to write in the story I'm currently actively working on. Then I have to go back and do some major re-writes and trimming. Then I'll have to do some polishing. I have two weeks so that should be plenty of time, right?

Uh... no?

We're on overtime for the next two weeks at work, there's an all day class tomorrow on 16th century fencing I want to attend, I've been asked to do a little speech at church this sunday about a missionary I knew, I have an SCA event to go to next weekend, and my apartment looks (as my mother would say) like a bomb hit it. I don't need perfect cleanliness, but I find I do better in tidy surroundings. What a shame I don't like to clean. I wonder what it would cost to have someone come in and vacuum, dust and sweep my dumpy little apartment? Probably far more than I could afford, so when I got home from work today (after a mere 12.5 hours after leaving home) I cleaned the cat boxes, brushed the kitties, took out the trash, tidied and vaccuumed the livingroom and loaded the dishwasher. Yay for being productive! I would dearly like to sit down and knit while I watch TV. But that deadline is looming. Better go pull up the book and at least get my final scene mapped out.

This is the life of an author. Geez, such glamor overwelms me. And I'm betting it won't change much after I get published. Sigh.

What if?

What if the plane you were on was thrown fifty years into the future, where war and plague had reduced the world to the Wild West? What if the people that survived that catastrophe had supernatural gifts hidden in their genes? Imagine that the plague had eliminated 90% of all females in the world, and the ones that remained were seen as precious commodities to be protected and parceled out to the men who would be most likely to re-populate the world with strong healthy offspring. Suppose you were offered as the prize to a dozen men who would fight for the right to marry you. How would you react to the werewolf who won you?

Those are the questions that Carla Z, a rising country music singer, has to face when the plane taking her to her next show crashes in the middle of what had been the state of Nebraska. Cell phones, lap tops and the plane radio are dead, so the uninjured survivors pair up and walk to find aid for the wounded and dying. It's unbelievable but undeniable that the world she knew in 2014 was gone along with most of its technology. The prairie rolls on forever, empty except for an occassional abandoned farmhouse and broken crumbling towns with no inhabitants. When she and her partner finally find people in a small farming community that doesn't have phones or televisions they are taken by wagon to a nearby town where they are sold to a man who sets up a Bride Fight. Men come from all over town to pay to enter the fight that will decide which man will marry which woman. Carla is won by a man named Taye Wolfe, the leader of a group who lives just north of town. Taye is the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, and he is fascinated by the woman his wolf chose as his mate. Her scent is arousing and comforting at the same time. Now he just has to convince her that he really has fallen in love at first sniff.

Here we go!

A few weeks ago one of my friends at work was complaining about her husband being a dick. We love 'em, but let's face it, they can all be dicks from time to time, right? I mean, after eleven years of marriage, he picks now to tell her he has always hated having a night light on? And the kids were sick. And the new workload at work was kicking our butts. Sound familiar? That's Real Life (TM) Anyway, to cheer her up I began making up a story and sharing it with the gals at work. It wasn't meant to be serious, just a little diversion to help us forget how stupid men can be and how stressful work is. 

I've always written stories in my head, mostly when I should have been paying attention to teachers and other authority figures. I had even filled several spiral bound notebooks in school when I probably should have been taking notes. But I never took my storytelling seriously. But the story for the gals at work grew and branched off into stories centering around other characters and I'd go home from work and spend a couple hours at the computer writing it all down. Then I'd email a copy of the newest pages to them to critique. They were more than generous with their praise and began saying I should get published.

Published? I have never submitted anything to be published, except for a few knitting patterns on http://www.ravelry.com/. It was an exciting, and scary, thought. But wouldn't it be great to have other people enjoy my stories? The e-publishing world has a lot of businesses out there looking for new authors with fun and unusual romance stories. So if one rejects me another may accept me. And maybe a rejection could have some suggestions for improvements. That would be really nice. I'll keep posting here on my progress (or lack thereof), without naming any publisher names. Unless one accepts my story.  I figure I'd be allowed to write about that. :)

So I'm finishing up and polishing my short story. I want it to look its best when I introduce it to publishers.