Monday, May 12, 2008

Apologies



I have an excuse for not posting-I really do. I had a book to finish and so I did that instead of blogging or talking to anyone or going out to enjoy myself. On Mother's Day, I actually asked my family if they could leave me alone for 4 hours so that I could finish the book-I insisted that was the best gift they could give me. Of course, it went down very well with my teenage sons who are notoriously tight with their money :)

Oldest son did buy me a lovely box of chocolates and 2 bags of Bare Naked granola. The granola was because he 'liberated' the whole bag last week on his way out to college making me think I was going crazy when I couldn't find it to have my breakfast :) The chocolates were because he knows me and his girlfriend took him shopping.

The picture above is of me at the Romantic Times book fair and was taken by Sasha White. It was so much fun to meet up with some of the Crumpets, especially Sharon Page-and I got to listen to Collette on her panel-fascinating stuff!

The book I was finishing isn't even a historical-it's a cowboy contemporary entitled "Riding the Line' which in my usual fashion is nothing like the synopsis I handed in 6 months ago. I hope to God my editor still likes it. I'm hoping he'll be too busy to notice how bad it is and merely publish it anyway.

The NEXT book, which is due August 15th is an erotic historical "Simply Shameless" which is all about Madame Helene. Now, although time is tight, I enjoy writing the historicals a lot more, I think they are more suited to my natural voice. In no way am I an American cowboy :) Hopefully this one will flow more easily.

Wish me luck!

And here's my thought for the day: Readers love it when authors deliver books faster in a series but is there point when they can be too fast? Is there a sense that quality might suffer?

5 comments:

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

JR Ward and I spoke briefly at RT of this too fast issue. We both agree that it's going to be a problem sooner rather than later.

Lil said...

Must say as a reader, I far prefer that an author take what time is needed to put forth a quality book than rush to get the next installment out. That said, I am aware that there is pressure to get the next book out for various reasons.

brownone said...

Yeah, I'd prefer a great quality book because sometimes when reading, I can just tell when the author was rushed to slap a story together. That being said, I really don't want to have to wait years for the next book in a series, especially when the last one left a big cliffhanger!

Pam Rosenthal said...

Well, I'm glad that there are readers who are willing to wait. Because I'm simply slow. I've learned to my sorrow what happens when I try to push my pace, and it's not pretty. I do have one coming out in November, tho ;-}

But then, who knows?

Thanks for bringing up this subject, Kate, and congrats on finishing!

Unknown said...

I usually write about 3 and a half books a year but the strain on me if anything goes wrong in my real life-and I have 4 kids so it usually does :) can make me feel a bit rushed. I'm at the point of wondering whether I should cut back and slow down or keep going at this pace. 2 and a half might suit me better :)