Overused Words

Every writer probably has a group of words they tend to overuse in their writing. And that group could be large or small. Me? I seem to use God and f$%k a lot in each of my first drafts. Yeah, interesting combination, right? And then I have what I call "local" overused words, or words that are overused only for a particular book. I blame my characters for it. Totally. When I write, the characters become very real, actually they are real to me. As such, they have specific mannerisms, ways of thinking, moving and talking. I tend to write the book so a phrase or words that are very character specific end up being used a lot. My current manuscript? Nix. I seem to be using that a lot. "he nixed that idea" or "nix that". LOL. It fits with the tough, aggressive, in-your-face feel of my hero, but it's something to watch out for.

I'm always surprised to read a published book and pick up on them because I spend a great deal of time during the editing process to ensure readers wouldn't be aware of this issue. I recently read a book where the heroine's eye color was mentioned so often, it pulled me completely out of the story. The hero was always gazing into her "violet hued eyes". It kinda ruined the mood for me in several scenes.

As a reader, have you ever noticed a book that had overused words or perhaps a phrase? What were they? If you're a writer, what words do you have to watch yourself with :)?

And the winner is...

Wow! I had such great posts for Valentines Day memories. I hope everyone had a fabulous day and enjoyed doing whatever you wanted to do. I loved reading all the comments, especially considering I don't celebrate it. That is, my hubby doesn't celebrate it. But that's fine. Really. He doesn't need a special day. He does just great for the entire year...but don't tell him I said that :).

And now, the winner of my giveaway (chosen by random number generator) was LISA wolphcall(at)bellsouth(dot)net. Lisa, I'll be contacting you shortly to coordinate your gift card and to figure out which of my books you'd like!!

With Love Valentines Day Blog Hop AKA...Win Stuff!

Welcome to the With Love Valentines Day Blog Hop! This is a wonderful event with a bunch of author's participating and so MANY great prizes up for grabs. Thanks to the wonderful Drea for organizing it :). For those of you who might land here and don't know me, I write hot and steamy romance, contemporary as well as paranormal/urban fantasy real soon. My stories have tough alpha heroes who might be a little rough and rugged around the edges, but when they fall for the heroine? Man, they fall hard. They'd do anything, endure anything, sacrifice anything. For her. Sigh...

So what am I giving away? I'm giving away a $25 dollar gift card to an online book store (winner's choice) AND a copy of any 1 book from my ebook backlist! Not bad, right?

How can you win? Follow me, friend me or follow this blog and leave a comment here through the 14th telling me the most unusual, special, funny, touching thing you ever got or did for Valentines Day! I'll select a random commenter from this post as the winner!

Ready to go hopping and see what else is up for grabs? Click on the badge below and check out the other great participants!! Good luck and have a wonderful Valentines Day!!

And in other news...

I've been sitting on this news for awhile. Sometimes it feels like an eternity, but my agent (man, I will NEVER get tired of being able to say THAT) gave me the go ahead to spill the beans. Besides, it was posted on Publisher's Marketplace this week, so here goes... My new paranormal/urban fantasy romance series will be published by Carina Press (Harlequin) starting around Septemberish of this year! There are currently 5 books planned in the series and not a vampire or shifter in sight :). It's about an ancient, secret race of humans on the brink of extinction. There's bad guys, good guys and HOT guys LOL. Each book will feature a 'fated pair' as they struggle to learn who and what they are and join the fight to save their race. Although this is a different sub-genre to my contemporary stories, the books still feature hot, alpha heroes, relateable, strong heroines and a deep, emotional love story above everything else.

I can't tell you how excited I am about these books. I've fallen way deep in love with these heroes. Yeah, I know. I say that about all my books. Of course, if I don't fall in love with the hero I'm writing, I don't know how the heroine (or the readers) could :).

I'm super excited on a number of fronts. This will be my first series and I had such fun putting together a broader story arc through the multiple books, in addition to the individual book's story. Also, this is a genre I love to read in. It so liberating and empowering to be able to create your own world, make up all the rules, construct the boundaries. You world build to a certain degree in contemporary, but this gave me much more freedom and allowed my imagination to run wild! Not always a good thing, but I think it turned out well in this case :).

And by the way...I love contemporary too much to give that up, so stay tuned for future books on that front as well! I'm hard at work on a couple of books there.

This year is off to an awesome start!

So where the HECK have I been?

Well, I have been around, just not here. And of course, I've been writing. A lot. I pop into Facebook and Twitter if you ever want to keep up with what I'm doing, but I have big news. BIG! I signed with a literary agent!! Roberta Brown of Brown Literary Agency is my agent and I'm so very excited. I'm even on her web site and everything! Check it out here. I know, I'll try and restrain myself, but it's hard. At least I'm no longer running around my house singing "I have an agent. I have an agent." LOL. Well, not every day at least.


Landing an agent is one of those major author milestone thingys. At least in my book it is. Some even say it's more difficult than getting the attention of an editor. Having someone knowledgeable in the industry, someone experienced and seasoned when it comes to authors and publishing interested in your work? Interested in you and your potential? Someone who believes in you? THAT is absolutely priceless.

I have more exciting news to share once it's all signed, sealed, delivered and OFFICIAL, but for right now, I'm super psyched with the direction I'm going. Stay tuned :).