Saturday, February 20, 2010

What I'm Listening To

It's been a while since I shared my play list. Technically, I haven't started writing my new book yet--I'm kind of waiting on something that will probably determine WHICH book I start writing next, but I'm getting in the mood with these great songs:


Mariannas Trench-Beside You (This guy can sure hold a friggin' note, man he's awesome)



Best I Ever Had-State of Shock (The instrumentals on this one are great. The piano in the rain is a bit cheezy, but the whole package is nice and moving)



Wake Up Call-Maroon 5 (OMG, he's so cute, and this song rocks!!)



Deadend Countdown-New Cities (Okay, the video's not stellar and the singer's bulging eyeballs freaks me out, but I like this song to run to, lots of great energy!)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Guest Blogging

I'm very excited to be blogging with the Nine Naughty Novelists today, a fantastic group of naughty authors with a super-cool site. I’m talking today about genres and I’d love to hear from you.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

An Interview of a Different Sort

I'm NOT being interviewed...but the heroine of my story, The Morning After, has gotten together with the heroine of fabulous author Kimber Chin's book, Invisible. Click here to check it out!

Also, thanks to Christine D'Abo for letting me know about another great review for The Morning After at Night Owl Romance Reviews. 5 Stars!!!


Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Begin Again

I'm blogging today at the Vauxhall Vixens about finding the right idea and making it work for you. It takes a special spark to turn an idea into a story. Come tell me what draws you into a new project.

Friday, February 05, 2010

GUEST AUTHOR: Linda Poitevin

JK Coi: My guest today is Linda Poitevin, fellow Canadian writer and author of the book A Fairy Tale for Gwyn. I asked her how she manages her time, and she had this to say:

Time: The Writer’s Dilemma

I started writing seriously – as in aiming to be published – about nine years ago. I sold my first book, A Fairy Tale for Gwyn, to The Wild Rose Press in March 2009. So did it really take me nine years to write the story? No, but it did take me nine years to learn how to make the time to write.

Time, I think, is a writer’s worst enemy. And we’re not just talking about time as it relates to deadlines and revisions and such, we’re talking about time when it comes to writing in the first place. Specifically, making the time to write.

We writers are a bit of a solitary breed. In the writing stage (not the deadline stage – a whole other story!), we don’t have a set timeline, or a boss that we report to, or even an office expecting us to arrive at a certain hour. Writing can be done pretty much anytime, and pretty much anywhere, for that matter. Therein lies the dilemma. Too many aspiring writers fail to make the time for their writing – and that was the trap I fell into nine years ago.

I told myself that I was serious about becoming published, but whenever life got complicated (as it frequently did), my writing was the first thing to be placed on the back burner. It was easy – too easy – to tell myself it was just for a few days/weeks/months, and that I would get back on track as soon as “x” crisis had passed. The trouble with life, however, is that “x” crisis would invariably be replaced by “y” crisis, and then “z” crisis, and then we’d start the alphabet all over again.

So what’s the difference between nine years ago and now? About two years ago, I stopped trying to find the time to write because I realized I could never find what didn’t exist. Instead, I made the time. Faithfully. Determinedly. Stubbornly. I carved out a niche for myself every day of the week and I stuck to it. By some standards, it’s not much – just three hours a day. But it’s mine, and it’s consistent, and it works. Partly because it guarantees me time for writing, and partly because it makes me think of myself as a writer. Stories are no longer something I do when life allows it, they’re my job. A job I work at every day.

And before you roll your eyes, I know what you’re thinking – that life must simply have slowed down in order for me to make this time. But you’re wrong. Life remains incredibly busy, and sometimes terribly complicated. Over the course of this summer and fall alone, I have helped my husband renovate most of the main floor of our house (doing the work ourselves, including laying a hardwood floor!), helped a daughter find two different apartments and then ultimately move home again (long story involving roommates), done hours and hours of research after learning that someone I care about has a serious learning disability, frozen and canned enough fruit and vegetables for my family over the winter, said goodbye to our family dog after eight years (and then acquired a new puppy) – and written a 445-page manuscript from start to finish.

When I think back over the last few months, I think I need to have my head examined for even attempting a story in the midst of all that. But I did it anyway – and I was able to because I made the time. On the days when it would have been easier (and probably smarter) to get an early start on a project (or sleep in after staying up late to finish one), I reminded myself that I was a writer and that I had a job to do. And I did that job and wrote a book.

So what about you? Whether you’re an aspiring writer or not, tell me what’s important in your life that you can never seem to find the time for – and then commit to making the time instead. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain...are you up for the challenge?

JK Coi: Find out more about Linda and her book here, and make sure to comment on this post for your chance to win! Linda will be giving away a pair of artisan-crafted earrings as well as a $10 gift certificate to The Wild Rose Press (a total prize package worth $20) to one lucky commenter from all of the blogs she visits during her tour.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

GUEST AUTHOR: Juliana Stone

JK Coi: Please welcome my guest, debut author Juliana Stone. She has a spicy short story coming out from Samhain TODAY! only to be followed by an amazing new shifter series, the first of which will be released in April, called His Darkest Hunger. She's a fellow member of the Toronto Romance Writers and so I can tell you from personal experience just how wonderful she is. (But I won't tell you, I'll let you find that out for yourself :)

Live the dream folks.

On February 2nd I will officially be able to say I’m a published author. Officially. A. Published. Author. How freaking cool is that?

Two years ago I embarked on this crazy journey and as luck would have it, sold quite quickly. That really isn’t the norm in publishing as everything moves at the pace of a snail. But my agent sold a paranormal romance series to Avon/Harpercollins. The Jaguar Warriors debut in April with His Darkest Hunger.

But it’s a short story with Samhain Publishing that will be my first. The one that proclaims I am published!

I had so much fun writing this short and was more than a little excited when I found a home for it at Samhain. This is the blurb:

Black Opals, Book 1

Frankie Black is a woman in need of a mission. For a Black Opal—a warrior woman who shifts backward or forward through time in order to, well, save the world—the last six months of downtime have left her bored. Restless. And with a feeling that something is about to hit the fan.

Finally, an assignment: save the life of Dekkar James, an infamous rock god living three hundred years in the past. Tattooed, ruggedly handsome and perfectly imperfect, one look at him and it’s as if her sleeping body springs to life.

One minute Dekkar is having the most mind-blowing sex of his life. The next, goons are breaking down his door, and he’s on the run with a woman who turns from lover to warrior in the blink of an eye.

Dealing with the New Order, operatives who manipulate time without regard for the consequences, is nothing new for Frankie. But this time their tactics have a more personal edge—they’ve found a way to seek out the Opals’ predestined mates.

Unless she can save Dekkar’s life, her future will be the first casualty in a battle for the fate of humankind.

Warning: Contains one hot dude with tattoos, a woman who won’t take no for an answer, steamy sex, an ancient Harley and a little bit of time travel.

This book is the first in a time travel romance series. I’ve already completed the second and it’s totally different! Such is the fun of being able to write a story where the setting and time have no boundaries.

In honour of this first release I’ll give away a copy of Black Legacy to a random commentator. I want to know where you would travel to if you had the opportunity. Would you travel into the past? Or blast into the future. Would you stay on earth or choose to travel light years away?

Juliana Stone