Redeeming Characters is Best in Romance for 2011!!!

Redeeming Characters has been chosen as one of Joyfully Reviewed's Best of 2011 in Romance. Titles were picked by the reviewers choosing the best reads from their Recommended Reads for the year 2011!!!
Special Thank You to my reviewer, G Loch for her excellent review!
Yay for Drue and Dakota!
I'm heading to Chicago this week folks, off to the Romantic Times Convention. It's my first year and I can't wait to see my friend Kim Adams from SOS Aloha and anyone else who will be there.

Goals

It's all well and good to be a goal oriented person, I do very well performing under pressure, although there is typically a freak out or two along the way. Part of the problem with self publishing is that I have to set my own goals and stick to them. It's tougher than I thought it would be. Take Country Fried City Girl. It's been almost three years since I've released a mystery. I started it over a year ago with the intent that this would be the big one, the book that would sell mass market paperback and really launch my career.

In short, it wasn't. Hell, I haven't even finished the sucker yet! my heroine is too snarky, too angry, and when I try to make her less so, she quits talking to me. Uppity tart.

Setting up expectations for my writing is dangerous. Maybe not for everyone but once I start planning I have a hard time unpicking that plan. It takes a lot of down time, sometimes I even have to focus on a new project for awhile.

So here's the current goal: Country Fried City Girl will be up on KDP, ARe and Nook by June 15th. Why June 15th? Well, after I finish writing it, I need my editorial team to go over it with a fine tooth comb and fix my MANY mistakes. I think I have the cover picked out, it's a little different than my standard covers so I'm panicking over that.

I'll still get a book out in less than a year (Who Needs A Hero? was July 10 2011) I still have the goal of making it into mass market paperback at one of the big New York houses but as much as it pains me to say it this book isn't the one. It's a little too different but that doesn't mean I should hide it under the bed. So you're getting Angry Andy who I love and her whole cesspool of crazy antics.

I've set my goal and hopefully telling all of you will help me keep it. How about you, any goals coming up? Do you work well under pressure?

One For the Money: The Movie

Grade B+
So I just got back from the all new One For The Money movie, staring Katherine Heigl, as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, bail enforcement agent with Jersey girl attitude. As a die hard fan of these books I was initially upset with the casting choices, you just don't look at Katherine Heigl and think Jersey Girl. But the movie took so long to come out that I had time to adjust to the idea. Heigl's big screen movies have been mediocre at best, lacking substance but I thought she was an excellent addition to both Roswell and Grey's Anatomy, so I went with few expectations other than to have a day date with the husband.

Overall the movie was enjoyable, surprisingly so. The story in One For The Money followed along very closely with the book, with only a few scenes added, like Stephanie and Ranger at the shooting range. Ranger was probably the biggest disappointment in the movie, there was no chemistry no magnetism and he seemed like filler, not the great force for justice that made the heart speed up when he said babe.

On the other hand Jason O'Mara portraying Joe Morelli really grew on me throughout the movie. Obviously this guy is not the Italian Stallion the book Morelli was, and I've always been more of a Babe than a Cupcake but after seeing those intense blue eyes and his bad boy smile, I might have to rethink my position. O'Mara and Heigl had excellent chemistry, sparing and lusting and waring and one-uping each other.

Debbie Reynolds played her role perfectly as Stephanie's Grandma Mazur. Vincent Plum was also a win, Patrick Fischler had that creepy ferret guy thing down to an almost freaky degree.

Misses included the way the movie was toned down, making it a little softer. Lulu was beaten but not raped, not quiet so much stalking with Benito Ramirez and the climax was a jumbled up mess complete with the villain's unasked for soliloquy as to how and why. No Joe or Stephanie putting the pieces together, solving the mystery.

These were the books that inspired me to write mystery, character driven mystery not just the same old whodunits. And after seeing the book come to life, I'd say that if I were Janet Evanovich, I'd have been proud of the result.

New Year's Resolution and ebooks

With the chaos that is Christmas at my house safely behind me, it's time to move on to the upcoming new year. 2012, can you believe it? I'm starting to understand how my grandmother felt looking down the barrel of another new year, incredulous, grateful and full of hope.

Normally at this time of year I make a resolution in regards to my writing. This year I'm aiming for something different. As any reader is well aware, the landscape of publishing is changing at an alarming rate. Ebooks are taking over, ereaders are everywhere and I have to say the trend has been a boon for my career. I got a best seller out of the book no one wanted Who Needs A Hero? and have received reviews to the tune of "Jennifer L. Hart, where have you been hiding all these years?" and other such ego inflating words of praise.

Yes, ebooks are taking over and I actually need to take time off from thinking about my career and just write. So to honor the ebook here's my resolution.

In 2012, I will not buy any new print books!

That's right, no more Amazon Prime for me! Other than one or two preorders I was gifted and whatever I bring home for free from conferences, it's ebooks all the way! My tired, sagging bookshelves will thank me. And what better way to reward a writing goal achieved than an instant download onto my kindle of a brand new ebook?

So tell me, what have you been reading lately? What's on your TBR pile? How about resolutions? I'll giveaway one PDF of Who Needs A Hero? to one random commenter. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you!

Borrow Stellar and Laundry Hag1 Free on Kindle

Are you an Amazon Prime customer? If so, you can borrow either Stellar Timing or The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag: Skeletons in the Closet for free for your kindle reading device! Do you like the snazzy new cover I did up for Stellar? Yeah, it was time so I got up at 5:30 this morning to do it up right. Spread the word to all of your friends and family because I'd like a few new readers for Christmas!

Another New Cover for the Hag

Ah cover design. A year ago I knew nothing about it beyond that a book needs one and ugly covers don't sell worth beans. I've had my share of ugly covers and the hits just keep on coming. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Easier said than done. Photoshop and I are NOT friends. I have come to the conclusion that I am just too stubborn and forgetful to use that program. Then my fabulous friend and co-blogger on Writers Gone Wild, Maree Anderson, introduced me to the wonders of Gimp. From there I was able to design the cover for Who Needs A Hero? And the rest is history.

Obviously I'm no savant when it comes to cover design. But I know what feel I want my books to have. Well, usually. The rerelease of Laundry Hag 1 gave me headaches. I mean, the book is good old fashioned screwball fun, with a few deep moments tossed in. The cover I settled for in July gave that feel, you know the one I'm talking about, the aqua with the fishnets. Maggie was snickering about the fishnets nonstop. What do you take me for, the Laundry Ho?

So I kept plugging away at it, searching out the right model and behold, the fruits of my labors. It's campy as all get-out, but Something about it makes me smile. And at the end of the day, I think that's what a good cover design should do, allude to the read within.

What are your thoughts on cover design? Does a cover make or break a book?

Creating the perfect playlist

Not all of my books have playlists beforehand. I don't usually listen to music while writing, I'm an only child who grew up in a rural area, quiet is my preferred working enviornment. But every now and then a story screams at me to make a playlist, and this one demanded it, no substitutions, exchanges or refunds. It is a snazzy playlist, if I do say so myself. Piper, my new mystery heroine is absolutely thrilled, because her song choices are in there along with Mama Rosetti's and Nona's. Being third generation Italian babalicious pasta shop owner is kind of like being wallpaper, she's present but is oftentimes overlooked in favor of the more colorful scenery.

I'm not above bribery to get her to talk to me.