Star Trek and the Writers' Legacy

I saw the new Star Trek movie the other day. In a word--fantastic! Plot, characterization, action, even a little romance--it had everything a good story should have.

But it did more than entertain me. It touched me as a storyteller. I thought of Gene Roddenberry who came up with an idea all those years ago; an idea that lives on through generations of fans. What a wonderful achievement, and isn't that the goal of most storytellers? To have our tales live on over time, to be enjoyed by people who are yet to be born.

Shakespeare endures. Twain endures. Orzy endures. Tolkien. Fleming. What storyteller of today will have his or her books read fifty years from now? One hundred years? Four hundred years?

I can only pray that mine entertain now, and feel humbled when they do.

An interesting author and new friend

I've been so busy writing my Examiner column lately that I haven't kept up with my blog. So today I'm posting the link to my latest column in the hopes that some of you will stop by the Examiner and see the kind of articles I've been writing. Cheers!
Teri

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3098-Houston-Romance-Novels-Examiner~y2009m5d24-Travel-through-time-and-Texas-with-Linda-LaRoque

Special Guest - Romance Novelist Fran Lee

Fran Lee is a journalist whose most recent writing assignment is as the Romance Novel Examiner for Salt Lake City. She’s also a writer of her own very sexy romance novels.



Fran, please tell us a little about your writing career.

Sure thing! For about ten years, I traveled around the USA as a photojournalist/reporter for a budding sports karate league, and my action photos and articles were published in the league’s magazine. During that time period, I also had articles published in monthly Martial Arts magazines, dealing with women’s self defense and women’s strengths in the MA. Not very romantic, eh?

Of course, I was writing Romance whenever I could find a few quiet minutes for many years before that, and I had amassed a formidable stack of unpublished novels that I have been submitting over the past six months to Ellora’s Cave and Resplendence Publishing. To date, I have had four novels and short stories accepted under contract for publication, and am waiting to hear back on others.

And, as you mentioned earlier, I have been writing a column daily for Examiner.com, interviewing Romance authors, publishers, editors, and even cover models…yes…those hot guys who grace the covers of our books! I sometimes do book reviews on reads that strike my fancy, and I keep my readers aware of all the wonderful books that will be released soon from various publishing houses!

Oh! Almost forgot! My novel “Out of Her Dreams” will be released June 12, from Ellora’s Cave. Here is the URL to see a blurb and excerpt, as well as the cover: http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-7256-50-out-of-her-dreams.aspx


Sounds like you’re a very busy writer. So what genre of romance is your favorite to read and/or write?

Well, I love reading all genres, but I find that I am most attracted to writing erotic and paranormal Romance. Those are the genres that are (at least to me) the most challenging and I love a challenge!

What are you working on now?

Actually, I’m waiting for final edits on two books that are coming out in June and August, and tweaking a couple more of my books written long ago, to bring them up to snuff for the 21st century.  I wrote most of these books and stories a long time back, and Romance has changed a lot in the past 20 years! But it makes it simple for me when I already have the plot, the characters, and locations on paper, and all I have to do is modernize. That leaves me plenty of time for all the extracurricular activities I have been doing lately. Oh. And my Examiner.com column, which I do on a daily basis.


With all the success you’ve enjoyed lately is there anything you find particularly challenging in your novel writing?

Yes…focusing on the one I’m supposed to be working on. Because I keep having flashes of insight on the others I am waiting to submit, and I end up closing the one I’m working and opening the one that I was thinking about! All of my novels are on flash drives, removable storage devices, and files on my computer’s desktop, where I can access them at a moment’s notice. I must force my attention to remain focused on the current work. The one that’s almost done…oh wait! I need to go fix something on the other one…be right back.


I have the same problem myself. The next book puts out a kind of siren call to tempt us away from our current work. With so many stories springing forth, have you noticed any particular theme in your work—something that carries over from book to book?

Yes. My heroes are all strong alpha types, pushy at times…obnoxious at others…but they have one common thread that ties them together. They are afraid to love. Afraid to show love. Afraid to admit they need another person. And yet at a place and time in their lives where they feel that something is…missing. (How else on earth would a drop-dead gorgeous hunk stay single long enough for my heroine to snag him?)  But plots and secondary characters and heroines with differing backgrounds and personalities sort of wipe out any other similarities between books.

What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?

I have always had a marvelously active and fertile imagination. I can now feel totally free to turn that imagination on high and let ‘er rip. I can love what I’m doing and have fun doing it! Oh, writing is real work…but it is simply wonderful to be able to work at something you love, and still get paid for it. 


With so many stories do you find that you can focus on one story at a time or do you juggle?

As I mentioned in an earlier answer, I do tend to juggle a bit, but only when I get a sudden inspiration that belongs in some other novel, and can’t wait to be put on paper. Like I said, most of these novels were written long ago, and all that remains is a tweak here and there. I am not tied into a writing schedule to meet a deadline. The edits and necessary re-writing of things to conform to my editor’s desires are what I can’t afford not to focus on, so those get done without any juggling.


In your books what comes first—characters or plot?

Oddly enough, they develop together. I seriously have never started a novel that I had firmly in mind at the beginning. I think about a character, and what I want him or her to do and be. I sit down and hammer out a few sentences, and then my muse takes over, and I can’t stop writing until I fall asleep over my keyboard.

I have come to firmly believe that I don’t write books…I channel them! I have seriously written books that I now go back and read, and I cannot believe I wrote that! Maybe I pick up the after-life vibes from would-be-novelists who died before their time came, and they want me to put it on paper. Um…anybody hearing the Twilight Zone theme wafting through the background yet?


Now that’s an interesting idea for a story in itself.

Is there anything of you in the characters you create?

No. The heroines are far prettier. Just kidding. I do think I tend to pull out my own personality and feelings and all the insecurities I had early in my life when writing my heroines. And my heroes are all the kinds of men I wished I had found and fallen in love with but was never smart enough or lucky enough to manage to find.

I admire strength of character, but I allow my characters to have “failings” because they wouldn’t be real if they were utterly perfect. I am the woman who will walk after someone who just dropped a $100 bill in a parking lot to give it back to them, so my characters must have the same sense of ethics and honesty. I can write a nasty, mean, rotten antagonist into my stories, but that jerk will never win in the end. Nope. Hmmm…have I gotten terribly far off the subject?


No, I think you’re just going with the flow and it’s fun. In that vein, here’s a fun question: if you could have dinner with any modern writer, who would it be?

Honestly? Just one? Because that would be impossible. I have met so very many wonderful and talented writers, I would have to have dinner at a trestle table that would manage to seat a whole passel of ‘em! I could name off at least thirty right now, and I would be totally unable to choose between them. (But…if YOU wanted to buy me dinner, I would be there with bells on. You are one of my thirty faves.)


What a great compliment—I’ll make the reservations if you promise to wear those bells. Now, here’s a tough one. Please describe your typical writing day.

I have no ‘typical’ days of any sort. *chuckle* If I could manage to get one day to work the way it should, I could give you a wonderful answer…but recently my days sort of go like this:
• Crawl out of bed with my alarm at 6:15
• Wake up two young grandchildren, dress them, feed them, and drive them 15 miles across town to school
• Go home to read the usual 150-400 e-mails in my inbox
• Solicit interviews for my Examiner.com column
• Read as much of the advance-review anthology or book sent to me by publishers to do reviews on
• Get my yogurt with cereal and nuts
• Do a load of laundry
• Go pick up the kids
• Feed kids, shower kids, turn them over to their daddy when he gets home from work so I can get some writing done
• Spend the entire evening from 6 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. writing, editing, working on my column, and uploading said column right after midnight.
• Fall into bed and start over


I’ve lost my breath just reading that schedule. You didn’t mention lunch, dinner or chocolate in there.

In your Examiner column, you ask writers what the coolest, wackiest, most risk-taking thing was that they’d ever done. So dish, girl—what’s your story?

Oh, you WOULD ask me that, you sneaky woman! :P Well, I guess I would have to say taking up Martial Arts at age 45, getting my black belt five years later, and going in for total hip replacement surgery the week after getting my black belt. Then competing in a national tournament less than three months after surgery. Well…that’s more stupid than cool. But it was totally cool to achieve my black belt when nobody expected a woman my age to get beyond beginner status. 

I want to thank you for inviting me over, Teri! It’s not only a novelty to be the subject of someone else’s interview, but also an honor to have the opportunity to be here with you! You are the greatest!


This busy writer can be found any number of places on the internet. Here are the places she usually hangs out:


http://franleesromanceblog.blogspot.com
http://www.franleeromance.com
http://franleesbookreviews.blogspot.com
http://franleesensuousromance.blogspot.com
http://sixsexysirens.blogspot.com
http://goddessesofstorytelling.blogspot.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-5288-Salt-Lake-City-Romance-Novel-Examiner

Final Words Wins the Eppie!

I'm so excited...can't hardly string a sentence together. My paranormal romance Final Words won the Eppie last night for best fantasy/paranormal of 2008. That's a big deal, friends, among writers and readers in the digital world. I hope it will inspire others to write for epublishers...and will bring in some of you who haven't yet tried an ebook.

A hit-and-run driver kills Emma St. Clair. But the young medical examiner returns to life able to communicate with spirits of the dead who come to her autopsy suite. Using her ability to solve murders, she hides her gift to avoid being labeled emotionally disturbed and removed from her job.
Detective Jason MacKenzie lost a friend to the accident that critically injured Emma. Worse, his sister’s year-old hit-and-run death remains unsolved, so Jason vows to bring this deadly driver to justice. When Emma solves cases with information she shouldn’t know, he focuses on the beautiful coroner and finds his investigation turning into attraction.
Then Emma uncovers a serial killer at work in Clear Harbor and puts her own life at risk to find him. Learning that another detective was one of the killer’s victims, she enlists Jason’s help. But can she keep him from discovering her secret? Or will her ability to talk to ghosts prove deadly…in love and life?

http://www.jasminejade.com/pm-4132-225-final-words.aspx

To the Rescue!

My romantic suspense, To the Rescue is now available in print at Cerridwen Press.
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7102-to-the-rescue.aspx

Blurb: Threats from an escaped murderer send novelist Amy Bartlett into the protective custody—and sexy arms—of Deputy Marshal Jacob Kissman. Seducing a witness is against the rules, but Jacob falls hard for Amy. And he knows she won't be a witness forever. But Amy is wary of being caught up in a female rescue fantasy. Safeguarding her at his secluded family ranch, can Jacob make her his before the killer closes in?

Excerpt:
Amy pushed through the crowd of gyrating twenty-something dancers, desperate to reach the club’s exit. Ford had seen her. He’d followed her inside and he meant to kill her.

But the costumed crowd, the strobe lights and smoke-filled air of the Mardi Gras Boogie Club disoriented her. Where was the damn door?

Suddenly something heavy cloaked her shoulders and a man blocked her path. Startled, she stared up at the stranger. Her heart tripped. Was he a stranger?

Whisky-brown eyes caught the pulsing reflection of a nearby strobe light as he leaned close to her. Fear locked Amy’s throat as he gripped a handful of the jacket he’d settled over her shoulders and tugged her into the shadow of the circular staircase leading up to the balcony lounge.

“My name is Jacob Kissman, Ms. Bartlett,” he said, his voice deep enough, his mouth close enough, to carry over the loud music. His lips curled into a naturally sexy grin as he slapped a floppy feathered hat on her head. “I’m a United States Deputy Marshal and I’m here to protect you.”

Something about this stranger’s handsome face nagged at her memory but Amy couldn’t quite catch it. And his words—

“MacKay is heading toward my position at the staircase.” The man looked beyond her as he spoke into a slender headset hooked over his right ear. “I’ve got Ms. Bartlett. Move in.”

Before Amy’s fear could give way to relief that a lawman had come to her aid, his warm eyes focused on her lips. He gave a little shrug. “All in the line of duty,” he said and then he pressed his mouth to hers.

The throbbing music, the pulsating lights, the taste of sweet coffee and man…sensations overwhelmed her. They smothered the fear that had plagued her since she’d seen her ex-boyfriend, Ford MacKay, murder his accountant two months ago.

It was all too much. Out of a sense of self-preservation, Amy focused on the one thing that could possibly ground her. The kiss.

A New Writing Opportunity

I've been asked to write a daily column for the Houston edition of the online newspaper The Examiner. I'll be writing about the romance writer scene in Houston and would love to have everyone stop by. Here's the link: http://www.examiner.com/Houston-Arts_and_Entertainment.html

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been over a month since I visited my own blog...sorry folks. Let's see...what's happened since the last time I stopped by? Christmas, New Year's, the Presidential Inauguration. Oh, and I found out that one of my books has finaled in the Eppie contest. That's right! Final Words, one of my paranormal romance, has finaled in the fantasy/paranormal category. EPIC will announce the recipients of the awards in March. But I promise to come back before then.