Ask me anything!

Hi Maureen, welcome to community....so I get to ask the first burning question. What do you personally get out of writing romance?

Jayne

Ok, I DARE you to tell us about your first sale!  Or is that truth...I was never good at this game, LOL

Jayne

I don't get it either! LOL.....

First sale...It was a historical romance (western) and it spent a solid year being rejected all over New York. On it's second go round, it was bought by Berkley, the first house to reject it a year before!

So there's just no telling....What you need is the right day, the right time, the right editor. Once you've got your storytelling abilities down pat, then you need the luck factor.

Maureen

Hi Maureen!

Did you do anything special to celebrate publishing your 100th title?

From a personal stand point when you used a pseudonym was it at the beginning of your career? Did you use a certain pseudonym for diferent genres?

BTW I really liked Bargaining for King's Baby. Who's the next King Travis or Jackson?

Maureen, I write reviews so I don't have the time to write crappy and go back and fix it when I'm in a better frame of mind. LOL writers block is a real thing for me. There are days when I just don't feel like it. I was never good at writing in school and it still shocks me at times that I write reviews.  Thank goodness for programs that check my grammar and spelling!

On the other hand, my 9 yo DD loves to write and she has written several stories that I think are worth publishing. I never want her to lose the desire to write.

As for another round of questions, with so many books written, do you have trouble coming up with new character names? Do you use baby name books to help you? And, I know this one will be hard, do you have a favorite character? How about one you ended up hating by the end of the book?

Hey Christa.

Yep, the pseudonym thing started out at the VERY beginning of my career. I sold my first book, a western, to Berkley.

A couple months later, my editor there told me they were starting up a new line and would I be interested? You BETCHA.....That was the Wildflower line--and because it would be out fairly soon after my first book, they wanted me to use a pseudonym. That freaked me a little at first, until I realized, this could mean I could make more sales....So I went with Ann Carberry. My middle and maiden name. 

THEN, Berkley opened another line--heartwarming stories, Americana--and would I be interested? Oh yes! Yet another pseudonym. This time, Kathleen Kane, my great grandmother's name.......

The only time it got truly confusing was at booksignings. I always had to sign the title page to make sure I knew which name went where.

Maureen 

Hi again Kim......

Oh, do everything you can to keep your DD writing. I was just like her when I was a kid! I still have tablets filled with just awful poetry!

For character's names.......I do use a baby name book, but that gets old and clunky feeling to me after awhile. So I did out the phone book. I read the credits at the end of movies or tv shows...=)  Always a great place for names. I mean, come on. ONe of the producers on Angel was named Skip Schoolnik....now who could make up that name? 

I"ve had LOTS of favorite characters! LOL...in my paranormal called THIS TIME FOR KEEPS, the heroine, Tracy Hill, dies in a freak bowling accident. Tracy was a hoot.

In my paranormal MORE THAN FIENDS, Cassidy Burke is the heroine and she's such a smart ass and so much like me, I just want to hang with her.

I've never really hated a charcter by the end of the book...but I have been pretty sick and tired of spending time with 'em!

Maureen

Hi Jen.....

My favorite type I think, is Marriage of Convenience. It's a classic, LOL! And it's always fun to bring two people together unwillingly and make them take the plunge.

Thanks for the awe, too! LOL........that's always nice!

Maiuireen

Hey Bren!

I'm both impressed and a little worried.  Hmmm.

MOC stories have been around for freaking ever, but that's because they work. Readers LOVE them almost as much as I do.

Trying to make that storyline feel fresh is a little tough. For me, it works if the H/H are so diametrically opposed to each other that nearly every conversation is a fight or an argument. Sure there's a reason they had to get married, but that doesn't mean it's going to be smooth sailing.

In BARGAINING FOR KING'S BABY, the moc was the heroine's idea. She wants a baby and she's willing to make a deal to get one. 

If you can give your characters STRONG motivation for what they do, your readers will follow along!

Maureen/Moe

I DARE you to come with a writing challenge and JUDGE it.

Not much of a dare but it was all I could come up with this morning. I know judging can be really difficult but coming up with an interesting short challenge can be fun.

Do you do any long hand-writing on paper when first starting a book or do you start right on the computer?

Hi Maureen!

How is your day going?

Have you planned any writing goals for 2008?

Are you attending RWA in July?

Hi Maureen! I loved Scorned by the Boss, btw!

Okay, so I now know that L.A. is okay for a location, but actors not so good. So now my question is, what if my characters are in The Buz, such as my hero is an Executive Producer, my Heroine as a PA, and of course there will be that Hollywood setting going on around them. You think it's too risky? Should I just get out of Hollywood and stick with L.A.? I have a lot of exprience in that environment, but maybe I need to save it for another project? Evenstill, It seems difficult for me to have an Executive in L.A. whose not connected to Hollywood in some regard. But maybe that's just cause I come from that. Thanks so much! Man it's nice to get some questions answered!!

~Kelli

Hi Kelli!

To be honest, I think you'd be sort of shooting yourself in one foot to use the Hollywood angle. There are exceptions to every rule, of course--(I can practically hear people typing now, saying I did it, it's fine!) And its true. Sometimes you can do the Hollywood thing and have no problem at all.

But why risk it on your first attempt? I do know that there's going to be a continuity coming soon that's set in Hollywood--but that doesn't mean the editors will want to see movie industry set books.

You could try having one of your characters be in the industry--a PA like you said. But don't have the book be about the business.....It's a fine line to walk, but I'm of the opinion that to make your first sale, you should write what the editors want to see. Later on, you could push the envelope a little, you know?

Maureen

Yvonne.......forgot to answer this one....anything special I do to keep myself grounded into what I'm working on at the time?

When I'm writing comedies, I tend to read comedies. When I'm writing a Nocturne, I like reading dark paranormal........It sort of helps me keep the tone, to stay into that kind of world........make sense?

m

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your Holiday Nocturne. I read your story last night and couldn't put the book down.

I hope you're feeling better soon. These plagues...you'd think in our so-called 'modern' world the pesky blighters wouldn't wreak so much havoc in our lives.

Thanks for your answers to my questions.

Yvonne

Maureen

Hope you get to feling better soon.

How much do you feel an authors writing style has had to change with the changes with the new guidelines to Desire?

....for answering my question Maureen!  I truly hope you're feeling better soon! 

Hey Maureen! You give me an inch.... Okay so I have more questions, what can I say!

I'd like to know how you stagger your projects to where you are able to work on different genres at a time? Does it take awhile to achieve that in terms of scheduling deadlines with publishing in a way that you can work on one project at a time and stay in one vein at at time?

Also, how long did you write for Desire before you started also writing for Nocturnal?

 Your Desire novels are the first of this line that I'd ever read when I indoctrinated myself into reading this genre a few months back. Big fan of your writing style, loved Scorned by the Boss and the dialogues between the girlfriends as backdrop and sounding board to the love conflict.

THANKS.

~Kelli

Step away with the cow, Bren!  =)  Hey, I DID say ask me anything, didn't I?

Income varies year to year, depending on how many books I'm writing but it's a solid six figures.........

Moe

Hey Kelli.....

I work on one project at a time. I once tried shifting back and forth between a historical and a contemporary (one in the morning, the other in the afternoon) and it felt way too schizoid even for me!

So...I stagger my deadlines. I work out in advance how long it will take me to complete one book, then stagger the deadline for the one to follow after that.

Right now, I"m finishing up a Desire then will be jumping into a paranormal and then back into a Desire again. I like switching between genres. Keeps things interesting and keeps me on my toes!

I'd actually written for Desire for six years when Nocturne opened up. I heard that the line was coming, so I sent a proposal I had to MJ and she loved it--sent it over to Nocturne and voila!

Desire is still my first and best love. I adore writing for that line and I'll never quit. They'll have to chase me away with sticks to get me to leave.......

Maureen

Hey KJean....

My writing schedule??  Well, some people write for so many hours a day, I write to a page count. When I first started, I just normally wrote 20 pages a day. I didn't know that was a lot, it's just what I did!  Over the years, I've pretty much kept that schedule, though I will say that these days, I shoot for 20, I"m happy with 15 and sometimes, if it's coming harder than usual, I'll settle for 10!

Key to getting faster though is simply to WRITE. Every day. Force yourself to stay in the chair. Write three pages and take a ten minute break. Write three more and give yourself fifteen minutes off. Then go back for three more....and after a few weeks of this, write in 5 page segments. Pretty soon, you'll be getting a lot more done than you would have thought possible.

One of my best friends, Susan Mallery, did a workshop for RWA one year called WRITING MORE AND WRITING BETTER. If you can get your hands on that CD, you should do it!  =)  She's amazing.

So...funnest book??? There've been a lot of them that I completely enjoyed writing!  One was a historical paranormal called THIS TIME FOR KEEPS, which I just thought was soooo much fun! (Finaled in the Ritas, too, but Karen Marie Moning beat me out! LOL)  Then there was the third King brother Desire that will be out this May, FALLING FOR KING'S FORTUNE. I loved Jackson King! What a sweetie!  And then there was a first person paranormal I did last year for NAL called MORE THAN FIENDS.....That book absolutely cracked me up! And the heroine was so much like me, all of my friends laughed themselves silly!

Maureen

Hi Christa

Yep, Travis is up next and he was fun, too!! It's just that Jackson really got to me somehow.

Maureen