It’s been a little over forty-eight hours since the announcement that Harlequin has joined in a self-publishing venture with Author Solutions, a vanity press. I don’t want to quibble over definitions, so for the purpose of this article I use “self-publishing” and “vanity press” as meaning any book that an author pays to produce. Call it what you will, but the money is flowing FROM the author to a printer (I hesitate to say “publisher” because that’s insulting to the reputable publishers.) There are legitimate reasons to self-publish a book. A family history, for example. Many schools use self-publishing as… Read More

Most of the regular readers of this blog know about how a book becomes a book: a writer writes it and revises it in her own way. Then she submits it to her editor and often (or, in cases like me, every time) does a round of editor revisions. Then the book goes to the editor for line edits, then production for copy edits, then back to the author to review and make changes, then to production for galleys/proofs, then back to the author for a final read/minor changes, then back to production for printing. For more on the process,… Read More

First, the winners from two weeks ago . . . Shanae, Deb C. and Sabrina!!! If you’d like a copy of FEAR NO EVIL, email me (allison @ allisonbrennan.com) your mailing address. If you have a copy, and want to send one to a friend, send me their name and mailing address and I’ll send it to them and give you credit! Okay, this is a quickie. Sorry! I’m off to New Jersey in the wee hours of Thursday morning to speak to the New Jersey Romance Writers conference. I’m very excited about this conference because I’ve heard fabulous things… Read More

My first Lucy Kincaid book will be released in October of 2010 and I turned in the proposal three weeks ago. Lucy Kincaid is a character from my NO EVIL series. In FEAR NO EVIL, she was kidnapped before her high school graduation by a man she met on the Internet. She’d met him through a group she believed was only Georgetown students and prospective students as she prepared for college, thinking he was a freshman. He gave her a false name and false picture. She gave him a real name and real picture. Hence, he had no problem snatching… Read More

I’m in the middle of completely redesigning my website. Okay, I’m not the one doing the design–I hired someone for that–but I am working on content. I’ve been going through my website and deciding what should stay and what should go. The first thing I’ve doing is dumping my personal blog. I never really had anything to say there, and rarely post. I post here and at Murderati bi-weekly, and at Romancing the Blog bi-monthly, and that’s enough for me. Probably too much–but right now it’s manageable most of the time. I’m adding a connecting characters chart or page of… Read More

I know a lot of people who pick up the bible, open it to a random page, put their finger down, and read the verse. Then they contemplate what the verse means to them and their life, or pray, or maybe they try again because they didn’t like the first one! Last year my son wanted to learn new words so he would open the dictionary and randomly pick a word and memorize the definition. This lasted, um, maybe a week. Or less. But he’s a smart kid. He has study hall for one hour on practice days where he’s… Read More

I have tried to teach my kids that if they work hard enough, if they are committed, if they are willing to make mistakes and learn from them and get back up and try again and again and again, that if they have a passion for something and want it bad enough that they are willing to sacrifice for it, they will achieve their goals. But that’s a lie and we all know that. If it was only about the level of personal commitment, dedication and hard work, we would meet each goal we set. We would write the ten… Read More

I’m late posting today because I’m on vacation–of sorts. We took the kids to Lake Tahoe in the cabin I won through Brenda Novak’s auction. It’s a perfect place for kids. Though we ate out at least once a day, it’s fantastic to have a kitchen for breakfast and dinner when we’re worn out; the cabin is five-bedroom, two-bath house that sleeps everyone in my family–including my mom!–and it’s close enough to the beaches and casinos and main road that we can get anywhere we want pretty quick. We didn’t stress about planning stuff 24/7. One day was a boat… Read More

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. That’s right: role play with SWAT. Sure, I know, it’s a day away from writing, a day away from the kids, a day away from email, but somebody has to make the sacrifice, and because I wouldn’t want to force this on anyone else, I stepped up to the plate. I volunteered to be a victim. Yes this is my foot. This was my second role playing adventure. About five weeks ago, I participated in a tactical training as a “bad guy”–or, more accurately, as the white trash wife of… Read More

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. That’s right: role play with SWAT. Sure, I know, it’s a day away from writing, a day away from the kids, a day away from email, but somebody has to make the sacrifice, and because I wouldn’t want to force this on anyone else, I stepped up to the plate. I volunteered to be a victim. Yes this is my foot. This was my second role playing adventure. About five weeks ago, I participated in a tactical training as a “bad guy”–or, more accurately, as the white trash wife of… Read More