K.C. Burn – Erotic Romance Author

I’m at Loose Ends today, talking a bit about my first ever solo presentation on a writing topic. I presented last weekend, and it was a lot of fun, but scary, too. And it was a quick & easy post, because today is my anniversary, so aside from a bit of writing before heading out to celebrate, I’m trying not to work this weekend. It’s eleven years married, and this summer will be twenty years together with my guy. Hard to remember a time we weren’t together. And in case you missed it, the “expanding my horizons” title has to do with the writing presentation, not the anniversary celebration!

I think it’s time for a retro blog, and I choose this particular one because First Time, Forever is my first audio book and has been released from Audible.com. Audio books have different issues, as I discovered a year ago Thanksgiving when we drove back to Toronto from Florida to visit family & friends.

Whenever we take long road trips, we get books on CD, preferably unabridged.  *Note: we now use Audible.com for traveling.

One of the ones we purchased for this road trip (and I’m not going to divulge title or author, but it wasn’t from any of my wonderful publishers) was a mystery of sorts, but in the style of Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey. I believe it was set (not written) in the seventies, and not just because of the entire chapter devoted to the detective’s acid trip.

Let me digress for a moment to talk about copyright. Getting approval to place song lyrics in books is horrific and expensive. So, when I come across lyrics in a book, I assume the author has made all the lyrics up and then I promptly skip over them without reading. Sorry, but there it is. I just don’t care. Unless it’s a limerick with a clue to a treasure, I’m not interested. The same goes for poetry.

Now, back to our audio book. This particular book had EIGHT full length, presumably original, songs in it. Let me say that again — EIGHT. Not only is it difficult to skip over small bits in an audio book (at least with the car stereo controls), the beleaguered actor who’s doing the reading has to SING THEM… unabridged, remember?

It was excruciating. Partly because I think the poor bastard had to make up a tune to go with each one. So, authors… if your stuff might be going to audio… just think for a moment how it’s all going to sound in the end.

The story in this one was decent, but I will never buy a book from that author again because I’m so scarred. If you really, really must include your song lyrics, take pity on us and make them an appendix, please!

Also, we discovered that plot devices are particularly obvious in audio format. So, author, beware!

Erica Pike and Poppy Dennison both tagged me in this Lucky Seven meme.  Here are the rules:

1. Go to page 77 (or 7th) of your current ms
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines-sentences or paragraphs- and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
4. Tag 7 other authors. No cheating.

It seems like a lot of fun, but before I get into it… I need to lay out a couple of provisos.  First, the only thing I’m really superstitious about is my writing.  This better be a *lucky* thing to do!  Secondly, my current manuscript is in the first draft stage, and because I usually include notes and place holders in the body of my first draft, it’s a complete mess.  So, since I got tagged by 2 authors, I figure I’ll also include lines from a recent submission – that hopefully isn’t a complete mess.  And, of course, I have no guarantee that either of these will end up getting contracted. This might be all you see of them.  But I’m only tagging 7 other authors!

–

First – completely rough, unnamed manuscript.

“We got word that one of the suspected up and comers in ***’s organization has advertised for a roommate.  I want you to get in there and see one – if the connection is real, and two – if you can find some inside information on ***.  If we can’t take him down, we’re going to have more incidents like today.”

Ivan frowned.  “A roommate?  Why on earth would he need a roommate?”

Moffett shrugged.

–

Second – refined submission, working title – Craving

Reason suggested he dial it back, interact like two civil colleagues, but reason was crushed under a rancid tide of anger and regret.  Brandon had done nothing but suppress his feelings since the day he’d been told his hearing would never fully return.  Seeing Oliver again tapped a deep well of bitterness he hadn’t known was festering in his soul, and words spouted from his mouth that his brain tried desperately to abort.

“Can you?  Without getting people hurt or killed?”

Anger added a rosy flush to Oliver’s bronzed cheekbones.  “Injury is a risk.”

–

Gah.  Terrified to post this… so superstitious!

I’m at Flirty Author Bitches today talking about chapters in books.  Are they important to your writing process?  I must admit, I have very specific opinions about chapters, although I may be alone in that.  Stop by if you can!

I have in my hot little hands a contract from Carina Press for the sequel to Spice ‘n’ Solace!  And yes, there is alien nookie At the moment, the book is still nameless and I don’t have a release date, aside from summer 2012.   Jathan and Kaz make brief appearances (before editing, anyway), but the story focuses on new people.  It’s taken a long while getting this one out into the world, for a variety of reasons, but I’m so thrilled.

I’ve been deep in my editing cave, as well as being bogged down by the day job, but I have a few bits of news I thought I’d share.

1. Trompe L’oeil is available at Amazon!  I’m assuming ARe and Barnes & Noble will follow shortly (fingers crossed).

2. I have a title and approximate release date for my new Carina Press novella.  It will be called First Time, Forever and should be out sometime in March 2012, assuming all goes well. No official blurb, but it’s a contemporary about two married guys trying to reconnect after their son goes to university.

3. I have an author page at Dreamspinner Press!  Very cool, although I’m hoping I’ll have cover art to share soon.  Still no exact release date for Cop Out.

I have some gorgeous cover art for Trompe L’oeil, from the talented April Martinez.  I just love it!  It pulls in so many facets of the story (yes, even the towel is part of it), but the bits I’m happiest about are the brushstroke effects to mimic the appearance of the painting, and a fabulous image of the Toronto skyline.  Just awesome!

This here is my first retro-blog.  I chose this blog to republish partly because it references Blood Relations, which just became available at Barnes & Noble, and partly because I drew inspiration from this same apartment in my upcoming release, Trompe L’oeil, which is on the coming soon page at Loose Id – YAY!
My first apartment was a hole, for various and sundry reasons.  But I’m a writer… which means it also gave me a lot of inspiration (when I wasn’t cowering in the corner thinking I should call the cops or wondering just how many cockroaches qualified as a public health hazard).

The apartment was in a old, large house that had been cut up into small, separate living spaces.  As such, my kitchen and bedroom were on the ground level, but I had to go down a flight of stairs into the basement to get to my bathroom.  My bathroom wasn’t shared… exactly.  But it did house the only entrance to the fuse boxes and meters for all eight apartments.  Yep, every time someone needed to read the meter or change a fuse, I had to let them into my bathroom.  Nice, eh?

The guy in one of the basement apartments greeted everyone with a hearty “Hey, Neighbour!”  He had long hair, thinning on top, and always wore a bandana and a black rock band t-shirt.  He looked like the quintessential aging biker.  To add to his “allure”, the ledge by the stairwell leading into his apartment was lined with empty Jack Daniels bottles, ALL of his windows were boarded up and he had a security camera over the front door.  Which he either had hooked up to an alarm or he monitored obsessively — as I discovered when the landlord (in my bathroom) accidentally removed the wrong fuse.  Mere seconds passed before “Hey, Neighbour!” guy was pounding on my door, demanding to know why his camera was out.

If that wasn’t enough to get the creative juices flowing, the two guys in suits who came to my door asking about him sure did.  I suppose they could have been Jehovah’s Witnesses trying to save him, but let’s say I’m skeptical.  Speculation did, however, run rampant through my brain after that.

If we go with Occam’s razor and assume the simplest explanation is the truth, “Hey, Neighbour!” guy probably had a small home grow-op.  My husband (then boyfriend) was convinced he was a draft dodger, as well.  Could be.  It was Canada, and he was the right age.  Or maybe he was just a harmless, eccentric and/or paranoid older man whose appearance made people (like me) jump to conclusions.

But that’s the beauty of writing fiction.  I could easily take “Hey, Neighbour!” guy and make him a serial killer, or make his apartment  the entrance to a secret lab for spies or a detention center for werewolves or vampires.

I’ve incorporated memories of that apartment into many of my stories, in a few subtle ways.  Adam’s apartment in Wolfsbane and Frazer’s apartment in Blood Relations carry echoes of my first apartment.  If I write a horror story, I’ll be sure to include the cockroaches — all I’m going to say here is that I now know what a cockroach infestation SMELLS like.  Eeeeeewwwww!

What I liked best about that apartment?  There was so much creative mileage I was able to get from it.  “Hey Neighbour” guy had other incidents…  the old guy who lived in the other basement apartment… the landlord… the cougar… it’s like the gift that keeps on giving (but thankfully sans bugs).

So thrilled!  I recently signed a contract with Dreamspinner Press for my first contemporary novel.  It’s a lot harder (for me) to write a story that doesn’t have a vampire, werewolf or alien in it somewhere, so I was really pleased with the way this one turned out.  It’s called Cop Out and it’s — surprise — the story of a cop coming out.  It should be out before the end of the year, and I’ll post a blurb soon!

Back at the beginning of the year, I posted my writing goals for the year.  As a quick summary, I intended to write at least 215K words while completing (and hopefully submitting) 6 manuscripts.  Well, I’m pleased to say I hit 171K words this week.  There’s still half the year left; I’m definitely on target with word count.  YAY!  As for completed manuscripts, I have four done and one in progress.  What do you think?  Looking good?  I think so!  As for submissions, only two them are on submission so far, but I think — for the first year EVER — I came up with goals for the year that I could attain! Fingers-crossed for no catastrophes