SquawkRadio

Get out your party hats because Kitty Kuttlestone has the frozen margarita mix in the blender for the big SQUAWK FAREWELL BASH CHAT being held tonight at 9 eastern, 8 central, 7 mountain and 6 pacific over at Writerspace.  We hope you can join Lisa, Teresa, Liz, Eloisa, Connie and Christina for one final Squawk fling! 

To join the chat, go to http://writerspace.com/chat/readers/ and register, then sign in and join the party! 

(And feel free to pop into the Comments of this invitation later tonight to give us your impressions of the party for those who couldn’t attend.  But don’t forget--what happens between you and Kitty Kuttlestone STAYS between you and Kitty Kuttlestone!)

We all know what books are, don’t we?  They’re 400 or so pages, bound together with a shiny cover on the front.  Sometimes a mass market book will last for years.  Some of my most beloved romances, the ones I keep in the attic, have pages of an odd yellow color, and an even odder smell, like a closet that got rained on.  Some of those books, if I open them too wide, spray their pages at my feet like rain itself.  These books (Laura London’s The Windflower, a whole set of Georgette Heyers, even a Barbara Cartland or two) were written by authors who might have been writing in their own attics.  They wrote without much input, except perhaps from a spouse or an editor.

My father is a poet.  All the time I was growing up, his readers wrote him snail mail, as we would call it.  Loads and loads of snail mail.  He had a bathtub full of it, and every once in a while he would pull out a letter and answer it.  In my experience of helping him answer mail (one of the primary ways I earned cash as a teen), most people who write poets are would-be poets themselves.  It isn’t an interaction with readers, even if he had tackled the whole bathtub.

Here’s my feeling:  Squawk Radio, and places like it, have changed books.  Forever.  Writers don’t sit in an attic, writing our books in isolation anymore.  We log onto the internet in the morning instead.  Readers are everywhere, telling us what they like and what they don’t like.  In my last series of books, beginning with Much Ado About You, readers changed the stories irrevokably. 

Readers liked the Earl of Mayne, from Your Wicked Ways—so I picked up a throw-away character and brought him over to a new series.  I’d never done that before!  They adored Josie, my plump littlest sister, for the challenges she faced; so I thought hard about what it meant for her to have a curvy figure in the Regency, and wove that into her story. 

Not coincidentally, Squawk Radio started while I was writing this series, and I began to feel as if the fabric of books themselves were changing.  Growing.  As I came up with blogs about writing and life, it forced me to think about what I was doing, to philosophize a character, or a story.  That was invaluable.  It helped me—forced me!—to grow as a writer.

For my last two books, The Taming of the Duke and Pleasure for Pleasure, I’ve written an extra chapter and posted it on my website —a chapter that readers wished they had seen in the book. 

If you’re reading Desperate Duchesses, stop by the bulletin board and add your idea to the question about Extra Chapters.  In about a month, I’ll post a new chapter for Desperate Duchesses on my website—a chapter that didn’t exist before readers asked for it.  Frankly, I’m hugely curious.  Will they want to see my heroine, Roberta, ten years later?  Will they want one more scene in bed?  Is there something they want explained, a character they particularly loved?

And I have a new feature on my website—beautiful little Easter Eggs.  If you click on one, it opens a “window to Eloisa’s study”—gives you a bit of background information about one of my books.  I’m going to add Easter Eggs for each new book—and guess what readers want more of in future Easter Eggs?  How many children a given character had.  Did this brother/sister/aunt ever get married—and to whom? 

See how books are changing?  I feel as if they’re porous now: more open to the wishes and dreams of their readers, more of a collaborative product.  They are not just a collection of yellowing pages, but a joint project, a collaboration.

This is my farewell blog for Squawk Radio, and it’s not one of regret, but celebration.  I think this community has had a huge effect on shaping the way we read and write books—AND THAT’S NO SMALL ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!

So for my final question… how has the way you read/write/analyse/enjoy books changed in the last five years?  Do you buy books for different reasons?  Do you read books you never would have?  What’s changed for you?

Don’t forget that you’re all invited to the SQUAWK FAREWELL BASH CHAT this Thursday, May 31st, at 9 eastern, 8 central, 7 mountain and 6 pacific over at Writerspace.  Lisa, Teresa, Liz, Eloisa, Connie and Christina will reminisce about the great times at Squawk Radio, discuss what’s up next, answer all questions except those concerning age and weight, and of course, squabble and argue even as they close up shop.

To join the chat, go to http://writerspace.com/chat/readers/ and register, then sign in and join the party! That’s tomorrow night--Thursday, May 31. Mark your calendars! 

For my last full blog for Squawk Radio, I couldn’t decide whether I should make it one of farewell, or of reminiscing, or of business-as-usual, this-is-what-I’m-thinking-about-today. Finally, I decided to go with that last, with the hope that what I’m thinking about today will include the other sentiments, as well. Because what I’m thinking about today is: What Should a Woman Strive to Be in Contemporary Culture?

Answer? Laila Ali.

Yep, that’s who we should all aspire to be. Something else I learned watching “Dancing with the Stars” (see blog of March 27) is that Laila Ali is strong, smart, talented, beautiful and proud, and she is unapologetic about being all those things. She likes herself. She likes her life. She is close to her family and is very much in love. More important, she respects herself. Maybe it’s a cliché--R-E-S-P-E-C-T and all that--but it’s true. We women need to stop beating ourselves up for all the things we’re not and start being proud of all the things we are.

We are strong.  Emotionally, without question, thanks to putting up with all the crap we’ve had to put up with for generations.  And if we’re not working to make ourselves physically strong, too, we damned well should be. Strap on some one-pound wrist and ankle weights and put a Richard Simmons video on. I guarantee you’ll see some muscles, and you’ll feel better, too.

We are smart. Being women in a man’s world, we’ve had to learn to live by our wits. We should never, ever, stop learning new things. Take a language course or pick up a musical instrument you’ve never played. Read outside your comfort zone. Rent some documentaries. Become smarter still.

We are talented. Immensely so.  We have gifts both individual and universal that men can only dream about. We can multitask.  We can communicate. We can share. We can create. We can nurture life, not just from out bodies, but in our families and communities. Go forth and share your talents and gifts--and yourself--with others.

We are beautiful. No matter who we are or where we come from or what we look like, we have immeasurable beauty within us.  And when we reach inside ourselves to tap it, we absolutely glow. When we feel beautiful, we ARE beautiful.  We should feel beautiful everyday and never let anyone make us feel like we’re not. 

And we should be PROUD of being all those things. In-your-face, unapologetic proud, like Laila Ali. So that’s my final message piping out from Squawk Radio. Go be strong, everyone. Be smart. Be talented. Be beautiful.

Now tell me all the ways you guys are strong and smart and talented and beautiful. Brag and boast about who and what you are. What is it about yourself that you’re most proud of?

DESPERATE DUCHESSES PUBS TODAY!

I’m so excited I can’t think very clearly.  Finally you all will be able to read the book that I dreamed up, slaved over, adored, edited, re-edited… You get the picture.  There are so many parts that go into writing a book: what do you want to bring the reader?  What kind of experience are you offering?  A treat for the imagination, like paranormals?  A thrilling fear and adrenaline roller-coaster, like suspenses?  The reader’s experience is at the core of a novel, and in my opinion, if a writer isn’t very clear about what they’re trying to capture—a book won’t work.

So what experience was I hoping to give readers with Desperate Duchesses?

One crucial part of this book has to do with the definition of a hero.  This book is dedicated to my dad (scroll down to last week’s blog if you want to hear more about that).  In a lot of ways, my father is my hero, as is true for many little girls.  But as teenagers we naturally start seeing the things we don’t like about our parents too.  For example, I grew up in a small town in Minnesota.  Emphasis on SMALL My father embraced the Sixties with great sartorial flair—he stopped wearing shirts and ties, like the rest of the guys in town.  Instead, he grew his hair and wore an American Indian sarape (basically, a big poncho with woven designs).  Can we spell EMBARRASSMENT?

This book is about Roberta, who adores her father—and can’t bear to be embarrassed anymore. 

The experience I wanted to give the reader was that of a choice of heroes.  Both of them delicious, in their own way.  Both of them dangerous, intelligent, moneyed.  Neither of them perfect.  To Roberta, the perfect yardstick by which to measure them is their potential to embarrass her.

The Duke of Villiers is exquisitely dressed, articulate to a fault, witty, brilliant, a chess master.  He will never embarrass her.  He is the opposite of her father—who loathes him on the spot.  And the emotion is heartily returned.  Villiers is a wildly sought-after catch, the top of the ton—and he asks Roberta to marry him.

But then there’s Lord Gryffyn, sweeter, perhaps feckless, with a bevy of scandals and an illegitimate son in his wake whom he’s raising.  He won’t even powder his hair (the color of brandy).  He offers kisses and more with a wicked grin.  He’s more than embarrassing—he’s scandalous!

I want my readers to have the delicious pleasure of choosing between two desirous and desirable men.

But choice, in itself, isn’t enough.  What if Roberta makes that choice—and then finds she’s made a terrible mistake?  That the most precious person in the world to her is at risk because of her actions?

And here’s really the core of the experience:  can she, for love, do the one thing that she most abhors in the whole world? Which would be?

Can she humiliate herself to save the man she loves?

Let’s talk about core experiences… I know you haven’t read Desperate Duchesses (because it only arrives in stores today..HINT HINT).  What about the core experience in a favorite romance?  Can you boil it down into one or two sentences?

I spent a good deal of time wondering what my last blog as a Squawker should be about. I think it should be about you. And me. And the rest of the Squawkers.
Over the last two years, there has been nothing I have wanted to blog about that I haven’t. Sometimes I wished I had had something more important to say, or more compelling—just like sometimes I wish I could be a size six. But then I realized that it isn’t CNN subjects and editorial page topics that produce the strongest threads in the fabric of our relationships. Its the small bits: a similar experience trying on a bathing suit, the echoed sentiment about what pain in the ass caring for a husband with a cold is, the recognition of a favorite line from a favorite book or movie, or hearing a new piece of music and realizing you think its transcendental, too.

Because even when we don’t share the same views on how things ought be, we always share experiences of how they have been. I know this because you told me every time one of the Squawkers blogged, in the comments, or in emails, or in person, or in polls. You told us in a thousand ways for seven hundred days the many ways we are the same. The countless ways we connect.

We listened. I listened. Took note. Paid attention. Because that’s what a story is about. Not them, the heroes and heroines, not at its heart. Its about us. You and me and the things we know.

And because of all of you I am a better writer.

Thank you.

That’s you! This Thursday, May 31, at 9 eastern, 8 central, 7 mountain and 6 pacific, Lisa Kleypas, Teresa Medeiros, Elizabeth Bevarly, Eloisa James, Connie Brockway and Christina Dodd will reminisce about the great times at Squawk Radio, discuss what’s up next, answer all questions except those concerning age and weight, and of course, squabble and argue even as they close up shop. To join the chat, go to http://writerspace.com/chat/readers/ and register, then sign in and join the party! That’s Thursday, May 31. Mark your calendars!

This week, Christina found out that her February book, TONGUE IN CHIC, was # 5 on the May 20th Paperback fiction list of the Dallas Morning News. It was thrilling, of course, and yet it was weird, sort of like having an orgasm after you’re out of bed and fixing breakfast. And don’t forget, Christina is running a contest on her website, and you can win one of three advanced reading copies of SCENT OF DARKNESS. You have until May 31 to enter. Then on June 1, the contest changes and you can win one of three advanced reading copies of TOUCH OF DARKNESS. Enter at Christina’s website!

Can anyone guess what Teresa was shopping for this week?  That’s right--she went to visit these adorable kittens just yesterday in the hopes of giving one of them a new home.  They won’t be ready for two weeks but she’s trending toward the precious little Calico on the far right.  But wait--can’t she have them ALL???  Don’t forget to visit TERESA’S WEBSITE this week for your last chance to enter her May Contest.  Rather appropriately, the Grand Prize is a complete set of the six most recent paperback releases by Teresa and her fellow Squawkers.  Second prize is an autographed copy of THE VAMPIRE WHO LOVED ME and third prize is an autographed copy of AFTER MIDNIGHT.  Good luck!!! 

Eloisa’s Desperate Duchesses publishes on Tuesday!  Wonderful things are happening on her website that day:  Gorgeous little Easter Eggs are going to pop up all over the site! Just click on one (like Alice’s bottles that said Drink Me), and a window opens up into Eloisa’s Study.  Did you ever wonder which actor she was thinking of when she created Draven Maitland (Imogen’s short-lived husband in Much Ado About You)?  Or whether Pippa from Potent Pleasures ever married Henri, from Midnight Pleasures?  There’s loads of these little eggs, with all kinds of inside information.  But watch out!  These are crafty eggs—sometimes they may be there, the next time not - or there might be an entirely different egg in the same spot.  The Easter Eggs hatch on Tuesday—I hope you enjoy Desperate Duchesses—and the Eggs!!