My New Home!

Hi everyone!

My new website/blog is official up and running. Please come check it out and be sure to update your links with my new info! I will not be posting to this site anymore, so please stop by my new home! Thanks!!

http://heatherthurmeier.com/

I’ve Been MIA!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last little while! It’s not that I don’t love you all or that I’ve been too busy. No, it’s that I’ve been working on getting a new and improved site going! Since I know new and improved is on the way, I’ve been reluctant to post anything new here. But I didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long without hearing from me. So here’s my official update!

I’m working hard designing a new home for this blog. And by *I’m working hard* I actually mean that I’ve hired someone to help me design a new site! I basically just tell her what I like, find a few images, and generally hem and haw while I try and figure out my new look. Thankfully, she is very patient! Very soon, I’ll be back with details on where to find me and who made it all possible. So stay tuned!

I’m also waiting on my first round of edits. I have a call with my new editor tomorrow night which I’m very excited (and nervous) about. I think that means I’ll be starting work on those edits shortly. Woot!

Finally, I’ve started a new novella. In Love and Lattes you’ll be meeting our heroine’s best friend Tali. Now it’s Tali’s turn to find love. I’m about 5000 words in so far and while Tali has met the love of her life, she still thinks he’s a total pain in the a$$. While their romance takes off with a little turbulence, Gavin and Tali fall in love despite the obstacles keeping them apart—namely their own giant egos. This new WIP is tentatively called Love on Landing.

That’s it. My whole update in a nutshell. I’ll be back soon with more info on all of the above ASAP. Until then, happy writing!

Author Taglines

Do authors need to have a tagline?

Taglines—I’m talking about those little messages that sometimes are found on author websites, business cards, blogs etc. A little one sentence, sometimes only a few words, that tells you what an author writes. Maybe it’s “Sexy, sassy, suspenseful Sally X” who writes romantic suspense. Or maybe it’s “Take a bite out of love with Sally X” who writes paranormal romance. *I made those up, can you tell?! ;)

I’m toying with the idea of a tagline, but I’m not sure if I really want one or not. So I thought I’d do what I always do when faced with a decision and I’m just not sure of, ask my fellow authors/writers/readers. Does it make a difference to you if an author has a tagline on their website or business card? Does it make them more memorable? Do you think it’s silly?

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

And the Story Goes On–Update

So, if you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I recently contracted with Silver Publishing for my novella Love and Lattes. Well, that’s what it’s currently called and since I’ve heard no word about the title changing, I’m assuming it’s staying the same.

I’ve dreamed about what it would be like to finally get a contract for some time now. I didn’t really know what to expect. I see writers on twitter always talking about art sheets and edits and editors etc, but having those things happen to me is very surreal. I feel like I’ve used that word a lot lately, LOL!

Since signing my contract, I’ve filled out the cover details sheet. That was fun! It was questions about the main characters, their descriptions, main settings in the book, and even colors I like. It was a thrill to fill out my first ever cover sheet!! I’m excited to see what kind of cover they make for my book. I think that’s the point this will feel very real—like I am actually going to have a real book.

Also since signing, I’ve done a pass through my manuscript of pre-edits. This was fun too, but more nerve-wracking because I wanted to make sure I did a good job since these were going to my *editor*. Squee! I have an editor! They took me a few days and I feel like I did a good job on them. Oh well, I *felt* like I’d done a good job on them until the second I hit send. Then I panicked that maybe I should have read through the pages again, maybe I should have made a few more changes, maybe, maybe, maybe. Ugh. It will probably never feel perfect, will it?

Now that those two things are done, there’s nothing left for me to do but sit and wait for my first set of real edits. So until then, I’ve started a new project. I don’t think there’s any better way to pass the time than by writing something new. Off to get my word count before my day gets too busy.

Happy writing!

Six Sentence Sunday 3/27

Ah, Sunday… I love Sunday. Lazing around the house in my jammies, leisurely drinking coffee, reading SSS posts for a couple of hours. Good way to end my weekend! If you want to check out any of the other awesome authors involved with SSS, click here!

As some of you may have read either here or on twitter earlier this week, I made my first sale!! If you didn’t know that, scroll down the page and read all about it! Since it will be released sometime in the upcoming months, I’m going to wait a little while to share new snippets. Today I bring you something from my full length novel which is currently doing its thing. Good vibes would be awesome!

In this scene, Nate and Amelia are *finally* getting together after days of sexual tension and close calls. Enjoy!

“Take me to bed, Nate,” she whispered into his mouth.

“With pleasure.”

He scooped her into his arms without pause, carried her through the French doors to the adjoining bedroom, and deposited her onto the bed. He hovered over her, his eyes hungry, and a thrill of excitement raced through her almost as if she were his prey—but in a good way. She couldn’t wait to be caught. She wanted to be devoured by him.

Ask an Author: Shoshanna Evers-How She Balances it All

Hi everyone! *Waves* Welcome to my first ever Ask an Author. Woot! Hopefully I’ll convince a few more writer friends to come and share their wisdom here with all of us in the upcoming months. Until then, you are welcome to submit questions to me either in the comment section or by emailing me at hthurmeier@gmail.com. Maybe I’ll use one of your questions in my next Ask an Author interview!

Heather: Today I’d like to welcome the very talented Shoshanna Evers to my blog! Shoshanna is a multi-published author with three books currently available at Ellora’s Cave and a few more already scheduled to be released later this year with The Wild Rose Press and Berkley. Not to mention, in her real life she’s also a wife, mother and nurse. Yikes! She’s a busy girl.

Where do you find your ideas and inspiration?

Shoshanna: I’m not sure. All I know is I’ll be doing something mundane, like the dishes, or taking a shower, or drifting off to sleep, and I’ll suddenly think “I have *got* to write this idea down before I forget it!”

Heather: Hmm, I think the only ideas that come to me while washing dishes is trying to figure out how I can possibly get out of having to wash dishes. They don’t usually involve hunky movie stars like your Mark Cannon. Maybe I should try your dish soap?

How much ‘research’ do you have to do before writing one of your novels? ;)

Shoshanna: Oh tons. I’m exhausted. LOL! Seriously though I just have a really active imagination. A dirty, dirty imagination.

Heather: Your readers thank you for that dirty, dirty imagination of yours! Seriously. Thank you.

How do you balance all the difference pieces involved in writing? It seems like often times authors are caught between editing one project for an editor while promoting another and still trying to find time to write something new. Oh, and real life too! How do you balance it all?

Shoshanna: I do promo like blogging, website updates, Yahoo loops, Facebook and Twitter during the day while I take care of my son. Mornings are filled with appointments and playdates, that sort of thing. Then I do the actual work at night when he goes to sleep. If I have edits I focus on those because I have a hard time writing something new and editing something old at the same time. If I’m in-between edits I write something new. Sometimes I get distracted, put a story away half-finished, and start something different. Even still I manage to write quite a bit and complete quite a bit.

Heather: You must be very busy!

What quality do you love most about your hero and heroine?

Shoshanna: Well, in Hollywood Spank, Andrea is very ambitious, but she also lets herself be vulnerable with Mark Cannon, the Hero. I love his vulnerability too. And the fact that he’s a spanko ;)

Heather: Spanko, huh? That sounds hot.

The most important question of them all—what’s your go-to snack while writing?

Shoshanna: I never eat while I’m actually writing since I type with both hands, but I reward myself with breaks where I drink coffee and eat cookies. I call it cookie o’clock. Nom nom nom.

Heather: I need to get one of your snack clocks! Yum.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, Shoshanna! Congratulations on your newest release.

To read the blurb for Hollywood Spank, click here.

To read the sizzling hot excerpt, click here.

Thanks for having me on your blog, Heather! I’ll check back for comments, so say hi! :)

Sexily *Evers* After…

www.shoshannaevers.com

twitter.com/ShoshannaEvers

www.facebook.com

www.thewriterschallenge.com

www.jasminejade.com/m-660-shoshanna-evers.aspx

SOLD! I Finally Got “The Call”

I can barely believe that I’m even writing this post! But it’s true…I got “The Call” last Sat night. Well, in actuality (and lots of you out there already know this first hand) the call is really “The Email.”

So, DH and I were waiting for our table at P.F. Chang’s after having been shopping on our date night. The bar was packed too, so there was no choice but to sit and wait around in the lobby. We were pretty content to sit and wait since shopping was successful, but tiring and sometimes it’s just nice to sit and relax without worrying about which child is trying to hurt themselves by doing something stupid. Ah, child-free moments… As we’re sitting and patiently waiting, albeit starving, I check my email to see if there’s anything interesting in my inbox. I’ll admit, since starting this whole writing and submitting thing, I’ve become a bit of a email addict. I have to check it. A lot. Often. All right, all the time! So I checked my email and found “The Email.” It went a little something like this.

Inbox: So and so on Twitter is now following you

Inbox: So and so on Facebook commented on something you posted

Heather: Blah, blah, blah…Oh. Wait a minute. What’s this?

Inbox: Submission: Love and Lattes

Heather: *sigh* Great—rejection on date night. Awesomeness.

Inbox: Thank you for sending your wonderful book “Love and Lattes.” We would love to publish it at Silver Publishing!

Heather: “publish it at Silver Publishing!….blah, blurry words, blah, more blurry words, blurry phone.”

Heather: *mouth drops open, tears spring to eyes, holds phone out and points desperately at the screen for DH to read, starts shaking, and laughing, and wiping tears.*

Seriously, the people around us in the *very busy* practically shoulder-to-shoulder lobby must have really wondered what I’d just read on my phone. There’s just nothing quite like being lost in a moment. Then we spent the rest of the night enjoying dinner and drinks, going to a movie and generally gushing over my email and my new status as published author!

I took a couple of days to let all the excitement settle and to read the contract. But last night I sat down and signed it! Took me a while to figure out how to digitally sign a contract. I said I could write, I never said I was tech savvy! Thank goodness for my awesome, tech-savvy DH.

This morning I found a new little nugget of awesomeness in my inbox: Welcome to the Silver Publishing family!

*smile*