Guest Blogger: Author Emily Bryan

Please give a big, hearty welcome to my guest author today, Emily Bryan. She has a great article for us that all writers should read, IMHO. First, however, is my interview with Emily. At the end is an exciting excerpt from her latest novel.

How much time do you spend writing versus promoting?

It depends. Right now, with my 50day/50 blog marathon AND a looming deadline for my next project, I’m dividing my time pretty evenly. Each morning I start by checking my previous day’s blog, having my DH randomly pick the winner, and then I begin spreading the news about the current day’s blog. Once I’ve done all I can to make the blogtour work, I turn to my current WIP (my Christmas novella—It’s part of an anthology with USA Today Best Seller Jennifer Ashley and Alissa Johnson). I spend a couple hours in Writerland, doing all I can to thwart my hero and heroine before I reward them with love everlasting. If I’ve hit my target page count for my WIP, I spend some time writing ahead for the next week of blogposts, trying very hard not to repeat myself. I have some very loyal blog “touristas” and I don’t want to bore them.

While I’m walking my dogs, I kick around ideas for the next proposal. I run dialogue in my head while I fold the laundry. By the time, my DH calls to say he’s on his way home, I’m ready to leave Writerland and lounge around with him in the real world.

What part of the world is your favorite?

I have two and I can’t choose between them. One is the village of Hana on the windward side of Maui. It’s only accessible by a narrow road that snakes through miles of tropical rainforest, past bamboo thickets and waterfalls and views of the Pacific that are postcard perfect on each turn. I go to Hana in my mind almost every day. My other favorite is an isolated valley in the shadow of the Bear Tooth Range in Montana just outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. A creek riots down the mountainside and then wanders through the lowland, backed up with beaver dams into quiet pools. Wildflowers bloom in profusion, Indian paintbrush and Shasta daisies nodding in the tall grass. It’s the only place I’ve ever been that’s more beautiful than I remembered it each time I return.

Where would you like to visit that you haven’t yet? I’d love to go to Rome. The music, the art, the food and my daughter assures me the most handsome men in the world live there!

What is your most dearly held fantasy?

I would love to circumnavigate the globe. I fantasize about taking a world cruise with my DH, visiting exotic ports of call and making love in every time zone.

What would people be surprised to know about you that most are unaware of?

I have ridden an elephant. Is that surprising enough? Not a recommended mode of travel. They have very bony spines.

Where can we find you during the next year? 2009 is going to be a busy one for me. I have 2 releases—Vexing the Viscount on February 24^th and the holiday anthology at the end of October. Check http://www.emilybryan.com/Events.htm for updates on my blog tour and signings. I’ll be speaking at several conferences all over the country. Hope to see you along the way!

What is your best advice for pre-published and newly published writers? Almost everyone says they’d like to write a book. If you’ve finished a manuscript, you are light-years ahead of the writer wanna-be’s. Be proud of yourself. But at the same time, be teachable. Writing is an ocean. I’m still just dabbling my toes in the shallow end. There is always more to learn. Don’t give up.

For newly published writers, I’ll pass on the advice NY Times BestSeller Bobbi Smith gave me.

“Stay published.”

Writers are expected to be prolific. Be prepared to produce. If you let too long lapse between titles you run the risk of losing your readership. Work toward at least one title a year, more if you can manage it without sacrificing quality. Good luck!

Thanks for hosting me today, Ashley! I’d like to give away a copy of Vexing the Viscount to one commenter today, so be sure to leave your questions. My DH will draw the winner first thing tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see if you’re the lucky one!

And now for an excellent article from Emily with advice to heed.

Emily Bryan’s Fool-proof System for Avoiding Publication

Anyone can give you ideas to help you get published. Here's a few helpful hints to make sure you never have to worry about getting The Call.

1. Never finish a manuscript. Surely just your premise scrawled quickly onto the back of a napkin ought to be enough. It's the idea that counts.

2. Don't accept critique from others. It's your story. You should be able to tell it from the heroine’s dog’s points of view if you want. And be sure to ignore the publisher's guidelines. They want your manuscript double-spaced in Courier New 12 pt? Well, isn't that silly? You can fit twice as many words if you single-space. And if you use Ariel 8 pt., I bet you can cram even more on each page.

3. Never be willing to revise. Why mess with perfection? Your mother loves your story just as it is.

4. Agent-schmagent! Who needs another hand in your pocket? Sure, the publisher's guidelines require agented submissions, but that's just for those other less-inspired writers. Besides, if you're a tough negotiator on your advance, that editor will think twice about trying to cross you with pesky revision requests later.

5. Be as nasty as you can to other writers. After all, we're all going for the same finite number of slots. Leave the encouragement and mentoring of other authors to the Mother Theresa's of the writing world.

6. When you pitch, make sure you tell the editor how lucky he/she is to have found the next Nora Roberts. Of course, once she reads your 800,000 word manuscript, she'll realize how brilliant you are. But it never hurts to be cocky . . . er, I mean, confident.

7. Don't join RWA or some other writer's group. If they knew so much, they'd all be published. Besides, one of them might steal your idea for that genre-bending futuristic, erotic, chick-lit western mystery.

8. If you attend a writer's conference, be sure to stalk the editors. They like the attention. If you want to be totally memorable, shove your complete manuscript under the bathroom stall door to them. That'll get your work noticed! And I guarantee they'll remember your name. They might even tell their friends.

9. If you do finish a manuscript, make sure you don't start a second one before the first one sells. Just keep sending the same manuscript out to as many houses as you can, whether they publish your type of story or not. For good measure, if one editor at a publishing house rejects you, make sure you send it to all the other editors at the same house. Won't that first editor feel silly when the fifth editor buys your work? After all, it's not as if they talk to each other or, heaven forbid, consult with each other on their acquisition decisions.

10. Don't give away the ending in your synopsis. What better way to make an editor request the full manuscript than to finish up your outline with a coy, "If you want to know how it all turns out, you have to read the full manuscript!" Besides, they really need to read the whole thing to understand why you decided to kill off the hero on the last page.

If you follow these guidelines, I can virtually guarantee you'll never be bothered by a contract offer. However, if your goal is actually to see your writing in print, you might want to forget these rules or even do the opposite.

Happy Writing! And now an exciting excerpt from Emily's latest book:

Daisy masquerades as a French courtesan, she and Lucian are playing a very naughty card game!

Daisy felt like a plucked string. Her whole body seemed to vibrate in concert with her breasts.

One side of Lucian’s mouth hitched upward as he slowly pulled back his hand.

Daisy bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out for him to continue. Who would have thought a woman’s nipples were so sensitive?

“And now, mademoiselle,” Lucian said, “I believe we have a card game to finish.”

Whether by accident or design, Lucian’s luck soured. Daisy found herself fighting to control the tremble in her hands as she undid his breeches buttons. More than once, her fingers brushed his hardened groin in the process.

What’s he got in there? A lead pipe?

He was still covered by his drawers, but only barely and he’d just turned up the losing hand.

He made a ‘tsking’ noise with his tongue and teeth. “Looks like I can’t draw a winning card to save my soul.”

“Oh, my dear Lucian,” she said. “I greatly fear this game is of no benefit to your soul whatsoever.”

“Maybe not, but the rest of me enjoys it immensely.” Lucian stood, the better to present his remaining buttons.

She willed her hands not to tremble as she unfastened one side of his drop-front fly. The thin cotton fell forward and the tip of him was exposed above the cloth.

She’d seen artistic representations of penises in terra cotta. The little Roman lamp sprang to mind. And a few in granite, most notably the one on the nude statue in Lord Wexford’s grotto in the center of his garden maze. There were even one or two displayed in quiescent form in the classical painting in Aunt Isabella’s boudoir.

But this was the first one Daisy had seen in the flesh. Of course, she could only see the head, the dark skin pulled smooth. Already, she could tell the little Roman lamp hadn’t been anywhere near life-sized. Lucian’s penis leaned toward her of its own accord, straining at its cotton prison.

“Remember,” he said, his tone husky, “in this game, what we can see, we can touch.”

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Vexing-the-Viscount/Emily-Bryan/e/9780843961348/?itm=1 http://www.emilybryan.com Thank you, thank you, Emily for being such an awesome guest today. Please stop by often. Ashley You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)