It's finally here!

I've spoken before about the deliveryman's tendency to lean too heavily on the buzzer, thus when that happened this morning, I had an inkling of what to expect. Yes, I was still in my pyjamas but I told the guy I was "having a day off". I think that sounds better than, "I'm still in my PJs because I was in bed with my laptop and I just got an idea for a really good scene and I had no idea that most of the morning was already gone."

This is the box he handed me:

It's a little bit dusty, as you can see, but it was perfectly intact and took very good care of its precious cargo all the way from New York (according to the mailing label). Once again, I carefully opened the tape and peeled back the cardboard flaps...

Ooh, it's so exciting!

I'm really excited for this book. You can't have a favourite with your books (it's like trying to chose a favourite child) but perhaps, secretly, in your heart-of-hearts, you have a soft spot for one special little one. Just For Today is my special little one. (Well, until the next one comes along, I guess!)

I had the best time writing Just For Today, and I desperately want everyone to love Jess and Sean as much as I do. I had a heap of fun doing research for this book. To help me understand more about Sean's life writing horror genre fiction and graphic novels, I went to a couple of comic/fan conventions, including one for the TV show Supernatural, at which I got a little over-excited.

(I know you're all wondering why I didn't go to a Dr Who convention, seeing as I love that so much, but it was literally a matter of timing -- I just went to whatever was available in Melbourne that month, so Supernatural it was. But if Matt Smith (or David Tennant *swoon*) ever makes his way to Melbourne he'd better be on his guard...)

So! Now I have a boxful of exciting copies of Just For Today. It will be on the shelves in North America AND Australia in June, so you've still got a while to wait before you can get your pretty little hands on this one.

That is, UNLESS you win the giveaway I have just now decided to have, and answer my very tricky question! My question is:

Who is your favourite Doctor? 

There. That'll sort you out. I'll chose an answer at random from anyone who comments on this post in the next couple of days and I'll be in touch to send you your very own ADVANCE copy of Just For Today, so you can fall in love with Jess and Sean, just like I did!

Receiving a box of your own books is seriously one of
the most amazing experiences in the universe.

Romance Writers of Australia - conference day three wrap up

The shoes! 

So, how long can Emmie live on too much wine and not enough sleep? Three days, apparently. The red wine this evening, although the exact same wine as I've been merrily gobbling up for the past few nights, just didn't taste quite right. But that's okay, because there was so much going on that made being a little more alert and alive worthwhile.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, the question everyone on Facebook wanted to know -- would I be brave enough to wear the leopard-print platform heels I'd bought a few weeks back?? And the answer was YES! But only up to lunchtime, then I had to swap to ballet flats. They were actually surprisingly more comfortable (and stable) than I'd thought. Although I did feel VERY tall in them.

Fuzzy pic of
Eloisa James

The keynote speaker this morning was Eloisa James. She gave a terrific keynote full of touching moments and personal anecdotes about her personal journey to writing success. She had the entire room swallowing back tears as she told the story of her mother and her own journey into motherhood. Her key messages were about using the emotions and moments of your own life to build your stories -- "best sellers are born of strong emotion," she said.

Fun fact I learned from the Harlequin presentation this morning: 1 in every 6 mass market books sold in North America is a Harlequin. Whoa.

The lovely Paula Roe took
this photo of me at lunch
with my virgin pina colada!

After this, I have to admit, my conference coverage is woefully inadequate for a while. I had a couple of people to meet, and then Birgit Davis-Todd from the Toronto office of Harlequin took me and a few of the other authors from the Toronto-based lines out for lunch and to catch up. Yes, you heard it right -- I had to go have lunch with my publisher (still so exciting to say that). :)

So the next session I attended was titled New York, New Directions, and it was a panel made up of literary agent Helen Breitwieser, editor from St. Martin's Press Monique Patterson, authors Alexandra Sokoloff and Eloisa James and Harlequin editor Birgit Davis-Todd.

I wrote quite a few notes from this session because I thought there were some interesting things discussed. The two questions that were asked that provoked the most interesting answers were:

What will publishing look like in two years?

• people will continue to be reading more than ever
• we will need to find new ways to reach readers who are no longer browsing for books in bookstores -- options like "gamification" and using online algorithms to find them will become important, as readers want to become immersed in the world of their authors (I'm really interested in exploring this topic further!) 
• there will be more overlap between books, TV, movies and games
• e-readers continue to provide a more immediate and intimate connection between authors and readers -- and so does social media
• authors need to be aware of their on-line brand (their franchise, Eloisa James called it) and reputation and of the intimacy of relationships with readers now -- readers think they know you
• marketing, distribution, etc, might change, but at heart readers will still always want a good story
• writers shouldn't worry too much about trends -- your book might be the one that starts the next trend! 

What are you buying?

• yes, stuff like 50 Shades of Gray -- it is big right now, but it could die quickly too
• stories with strong elements of home and community and comfort -- given how much people travel these days and live away from extended family, they like to feel they are "going home" when they read fiction
• war themes are not very popular right now -- too close to difficult realities esp, in the US
• highlander romances

It was a very good panel session and all the speakers provided great information.

And so the Awards night begins! 

Pretty jewelled table decorations at the dinner
- plus plenty of Baci chocolates too! 

This evening, of course, was the fabulous RWA Awards dinner. This time last year, I was on the high of my first sale, I won the Emerald, and I was emcee for the dinner as well. It's been quite a year! I have to say, it was lovely to sit back and relax and enjoy the evening and applaud for all the worthy winners. Anne Gracie's traditional "stand up" closing was as energising and awe-inspiring as usual.

Me and my room-mate for the conference, the amazing
Ebony McKenna. Despite the dim lighting, I'm sure my
bloodshot eyes are detectable.. ;)

Definitely time for me to hit "publish" and then hit the hay! Another big day tomorrow!

Romance Writers of Australia - conference day one wrap up

This is me at tonight's
Harlequin author dinner
with a couple of the cute
sexy gifts from the tables!

Hi everyone! Here I am on the Gold Coast -- and it's warm, and sunny and there's blue sky! Feels like forever since I've seen any of those things! Mind you there hasn't been much time to enjoy it since I got here -- the schedule has been jam-packed full of stuff to listen to, take in and talk about, not to mention all the wonderful people to meet.

I wanted to provide a quick run-down of Day One -- my first Author's Day (known in the inner circle as "A Day"). So here I go. Forgive me if you find any typos or weird sentence constructions -- it's been a big day, it's late, and I've just got back from the Harlequin authors "Naughty or Nice" dinner. But more on that later!

A few of the gorgeous LoveCats ladies (L-R): Helen Lacey,
Annie West, Michelle Douglas and Sue Mackay.

First off, I got to say hello to a few of the gorgeous LoveCats who I'm lucky enough to blog with regularly. It was great to finally put faces to names to some of those I hadn't met before. We've put together an awesome LoveCats gift hamper for the charity auction, which includes a couple of my books!

This is only my second full conference (I went to a workshop in 2010 at Coogee) and I have to say I've already felt much more comfortable this year. There are just more people wandering around that I know and I feel a little more confident about walking up to people and introducing myself.

In terms of the sessions today, to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. But there was a good, interesting mix of content. The self-publishing panel was a fascinating insight into how some authors are making self-publishing work for them. What I appreciated most was the level of detail that they discussed about the various platforms, their pros and cons, and how to get the most out of each. The presenters were incredibly generous about sharing their personal information about sales figures and dollars -- which made the session very valuable. Key learnings for me (may not have been the same for everyone):

• use a professional formatting service because you don't need that drama
• ensure your cover reflects your genre and works well as a thumbnail (and a good cover is one thing to invest in!)
• "discoverability" is key
• you need to learn Amazon and how to make its system work for you. 

I can usually resist table mints. But
Fantales? Who can resist Fantales??

We then had a session from Google+ which, I figured would just be a giant advertisement for Google+. And . . . it was a giant advertisement for Google+. And YouTube. (Which Google owns). But that doesn't mean it wasn't useful. They are doing some really amazing things for the romance community and the word "community" was used a lot. I really liked that they had looked at what users found least likable about other social media platforms and deliberately set out to fix those things.

As a result, I now have a Google+ account. Except right now I can't work out how to provide you with a link to my profile and/or page. Luckily, the Google people are around for the conference, so I'll ask them tomorrow and get back to you on that.

In the afternoon we had a brilliant session from Kate Cuthbert on how to organise (and handle) reviews. I found this very useful as a relative newbie, although I think I've been reasonably good at sticking to Kate's advice. (Still it was nice to know I was doing the right thing!) Her key message was "Don't take it online!". If a reviewer, or a reader, says something you disagree with, call your friends, your mum, someone, and complain, but don't ever, ever, go into battle online. Good advice.

After Kate's session we separated into groups and I spent the rest of the afternoon with the lovey group of ladies that made up the Aussie contingent of Harlequin authors. I managed to get them to all pose for me in a photo:

Too many super-stars for me to name them all here. 

And then, with barely a moment's pause it was on to the Penguin event for the launch of their new Destiny romance line.

There were readings from their first release books and, most importantly, champagne cocktails -- by this time it had already been a long day, and a drink was sorely required. As well as hearing all about the new Destiny line, it was a lovely time to catch up with everyone who'd flown in during the day and say hello before I whisked myself off for the next, and final, event of the day.

The Harlequin authors' dinner was a highlight for me last year, because I was presented with the "new chick" gift. It was lovely to watch someone else receive that this year. There were a number of presentations, including the famous "Woman Fuzzies Awards". There were also four 25-book pins to present. That's 100 books in total from four authors!!

One of the winners of the stunning 25-book ruby pins was the amazing Sarah Mayberry, a fellow SuperRomance author and all-round cool gal. There was much cheering and applause and then there was a standing ovation for a special presentation to legendary NZ author Helen Bianchin.

Sarah and I with her gorgeous pin! 

And, that, my dear readers, is that. Day One done! I'm really, really tired. But in a good way. I'm hoping I might be able to bring you a similar wrap up for Day Two, but it really depends on how much fun I have at the cocktail party and whether or not I'm in any shape to blog. :)

For now, good night!

Oh, Harlequin, you tease!

So I got very excited yesterday when a UPS guy turned up on my doorstep with a box. I don't often get UPS deliveries and the last time I did, it turned out to be pretty special. So with that in mind, I was a little confused when the box turned out to be much smaller than last time. Hmm. Maybe, I thought, my publisher has sent me a present?

As it turns out they had:

The box only held three copies -- my copies of the "larger print" versions of In His Eyes (the standard version is still to come). Although it's not quite the same as opening a large box filled with dozens of copies it's still a magical moment seeing my book in reality.

The same questions as last time struck me. Did I really do this? Is this real? Am I really a published author with Harlequin?

The larger print did nothing to clarify things. :)

I wonder if the wonder ever wears off?

Cassie Photo Bomb Comp!

As a newbie author, I'm still pretty excited about the idea of people out there in the world actually reading my book! So I've come up with a little competition. Send me a photo of yourself reading my book somewhere exotic, glamorous, groovy or unexpected. I'll publish them on my blog and the best will win a $100 Amazon voucher!

I may give additional spot prizes for particularly interesting or exciting photos, so go get creative!

Bradley Cooper goes in the running for a $100 Amazon voucher
just for submitting this photo of him reading my book!*

Submit your photo to emmie @ emmiedark.com without the spaces (you know how it works).

We don't need to see your face, so it's the perfect photo-comp if you're camera shy. Just need you, your copy of my book and some fabulous surroundings. Don't worry if you have an e-reader version, just hold up your e-reader screen-forward and pump up the font size so that I can read Cassie or Ronan's name on it. Easy!

The small print: by sending me your photo, you give me permission to reproduce it here on my blog. And the judge's (my) decision is final! Competition is open now and closes on 15 April 2012.

*NB - Bradley Cooper probably didn't submit that photo. But you get the idea.

Friday Favorites - another milestone moment

So a delivery man leant very heavily on my door buzzer a few minutes ago. It's a very loud buzzer, so you don't really need to hold it down for longer than a second. But that's not important. The delivery is what was important.

A box. An ordinary cardboard box. A kind of heavy box. I signed, and brought into my office. The checkered logo on the side gave a hint...

I knew this was a moment I needed to capture for posterity. So I photographed the very first reveal, after the packing tape had been carefully sliced, one side of the cardboard peeled back...

And then I styled the next one, just so...

Goodness there are a lot of books in that one little box.

The mailing label says the box came from New York originally. I don't know what all the barcodes mean, but they're quite impressive.

Title: Cassie's Grand Plan

Author: Dark, Emmie

Publisher: Harlequin Books

Product line: Harlequin Superromance

And now I'm remembering that ages ago, I meant to record some of the witty things I wanted to write in the front pages of copies I'm going to give to the people who've been part of my journey. I've forgotten them all now.

Just going to sit and look at my box for a while.

Writing satisfying endings

Wanda Ottewell is blogging today over on the SuperRomance Authors Blog about writing satisfying endings. Quite timely given right now I'm struggling with the final chapters of my WIP! She's also answering some of the questions posed by commenters. If that wasn't enough to entice you to head on over and leave some love, one lucky poster will win all six of this month's new release SuperRomance books. Run, don't walk!