Thursday, November 07, 2013

Saying No to NaNoWriMo

Excuses.

I've got a lot of them.

But at no other time of the year do they become as important as November, when it feels as though the entire world is getting their crap together and participating in NaNoWriMo.

This year, I am not doing NaNoWriMo.  And, of course, I have many reasons not to, not least of which is that I was successful in "winning" at NaNoWriMo last year.  Really.  I even have the badge to prove it.

So here are my excuses, in no particular order (feel free to use any of these when you need a handy, all-purpose excuse):
  • I'm too busy with work
  • I'm too busy with school (I'm currently doing my Masters on a part-time basis)
  • the weather is lousy (I live in Canada, which is not part of the excuse but more of an explanation of the weather)
  • I can't pick just one writing project to concentrate on
  • I've already started writing all the projects I want to for now (NaNoWriMo requires all the writing to be done from scratch, outlining is okay but not prior writing)
  • the stories I'm writing (and publishing) are shorter than the 50,000 word target needed to "win" at NaNoWriMo
  • I already keep track of how much I write and I write a decent amount
  • I'm too tired/ lazy/ bored/ hungry
You get the picture.  Nature may abhor a vacuum but I can fill it with as many excuses as you could possibly want.

Bottom line: I just didn't want to do it this year.  Granted, I did make a belated attempt to start on November 5th but when I realized that it was already November 5th, for Pete's sake, I correctly gave up.  One of my tips from last year's successful NaNoWriMo attempt was to start off strong, a piece of advice that actually arose from my failure to do this the last time.

I'm still working on my novel started during last year's NaNoWriMo.  This year, during November, I am hoping to edit another novel manuscript that I shelved many months ago.  As you may notice, I don't suffer from a lack of productivity.  I just don't do very well with self-edits, queries and the rest of the process.  I'm working on it.  I promise.

So this year, I'm sitting out NaNoWriMo while the rest of you creative your Great Canadian Novels.  Don't worry, I'll be back next year.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Sexy Halloween Treat - New Erotic Romance

Just in time for Halloween, my new erotic romance with a witchy theme.

Buy Sudden Storm by Nan Comargue from the Totally Bound website:

Camilla Ferrar is a witch with the power to control the weather, but she's completely unprepared for the storm her new boss, Damien Barthe, unleashes in her life…and on her senses.


Camilla 'Cam' Ferrar has the power to control the weather, but she's all alone in the world. She's tried all her life to connect to her witch heritage by attending groups and studying the history of witchcraft. Her new boss, Damien Barthe, shows signs of being her opposite—a witch hunter. But when she confronts him, she finds out that he's actually a witch himself, and on a mission to seek out and neutralise those who are using Wiccan powers for evil purposes.

Damien's mission has brought him to Cam's workplace and she knows that once he's done his job, he will be on his way, but that doesn't stop her from falling for her sexy new boss. Tensions are ratcheted when she's forced to lay off employees due to the recent merger with Damien's company. When one man takes it particular poorly, he starts stalking her…leaving Damien to come to the rescue just as Cam begins to manipulate the weather in her own defence.

In the aftermath of the confrontation, Cam and Damien head back to her place and finish what they had started but never completed before—a night of wild witchery and sex.

With his mission over, will Damien walk out of her life the next morning, or will their explosive connection finally conquer the storm?

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Totally Bound Publisher Website Revamp

 
My current e-book erotic romance publisher, Total-E-Bound, has recently rebranded with a new name (Totally Bound) and a new website.

(Note: I say current erotic romance publisher because I am published in contemporary romance with Crimson Romance and I have recently signed a contract for publication of a new erotic romance story with another publisher, which I am very excited about...but more on that later).

I checked out the website for Totally Bound and was pleasantly surprised by the look and layout, which are smart and clean.  As you can probably tell from this blog, I appreciate the uncluttered look...or try to.

Check out the new Totally Bound website and maybe buy a book or two.  I promise they will be hot!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Friday, August 30, 2013

Today's Release: At Your Service - In Print

Do you crave the tactile connection of a beautiful physical book? I have to admit that, although I primarily publish my erotic romances in e-book form, I do enjoy a good real-life physical book.

If you're like me, then check out today's new release from Total-e-Bound: the At Your Service, domestic servant-themed erotic romance anthology, now in print!

Go ahead, curl up in the tub with a book you don't have to worry about dropping in the bubble bath. And what else you do in the tub is strictly your business ;)

Monday, August 12, 2013

Interviews with Female First and Sexy Excerpt

Lately, I've been lucky enough to give interviews to Lucy Walsh from Female First, a great U.K. general interest women's website.

Last month, I was talking about The Gamble, my sexy billionaire release with lots of hot Las Vegas action.

This month, I was exploring my focus on ménage themed erotic romance and A Lady for Two, my first erotic historical, now available from my publisher Total-E-Bound.

Oh, and did I mention the steaming hot excerpt that's up on their website? Check it out now. Strictly adult and strictly NSFW.

Enjoy!

Thursday, August 01, 2013

New Historical Erotic Romance Now Out! - A Lady for Two

My newest erotic romance story is available now from Total-E-Bound publishing!  A Lady for Two is a historical ménage story.  And I think the cover is one of the loveliest I've ever seen...


Aristocratic couple, Charles and Lise Hessell, enjoy bringing other men into their sexual play, but their marriage is hollow until handsome Luke Holden arrives in the village. After three years of marriage to Charles Hessell, the last son of an old aristocratic family, Lise thought she knew everything about him. But when Luke Holden walks into their lives, and into her home, she realises that Charles has been hiding a past that included this sexy stranger. Although the two men now hate each other, Charles is forced to employ Luke as his overseer when his former property manager absconds. The situation offers intriguing possibilities. Lise has dallied with servants before, with her husband’s blessing, but this new arrangement would mean an emotional commitment that she does not know if she could contemplate. With Lise’s sly interventions, the two men are able to make up their own quarrel and when Lise catches them kissing passionately, she realises that she has fallen in love with both men. But is there room in their pairing for her?

Buy A Lady for Two now!

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

New Erotic Romance: The Gamble

My new erotic romance The Gamble was just released by my publisher, Total-E-Bound! Check out the cover and blurb from their website:



Cara and her billionaire husband Reeve Turner learn about each other—and love—when they bring his reporter friend Logan into their bed for a steamy ménage. Buy erotic romance The Gamble now!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Celebrate with Crimson Romance Kindle Fire HD Contest

My publisher for my contemporary romance novel, Power Play, is celebrating their one year anniversary and giving away a Kindle Fire HD preloaded with every book from their first year of publications!

Yes, every single title for a year.  That should keep some lucky romance reader very busy.

Enter on the Crimson Romance website for a chance to win!

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Celebrate Erotic Romance with a Spa Day Draw!

To celebrate the release of the At Your Service Anthology, my publisher Total-E-Bound is giving you the chance to enter their fabulous prize draw.  Spend $20/£20 or more and you will be automatically entered into a draw to win a Spa day voucher!


Here is the link to the page giving more information: http://www.total-e-bound.com/ays.asp

Monday, May 06, 2013

Pre-Order My New Erotic Romance and Save!

My newest erotic romance story, A Lady for Two, is debuting soon in the At Your Service anthology, published by Total-E-Bound.


Here's the blurb from the website:

'A Lady for Two' by Nan Comargue

Aristocratic couple, Charles and Lise Hessell, enjoy bringing other men into their sexual play, but their marriage is hollow until handsome Luke Holden arrives in the village.

After three years of marriage to Charles Hessell, the last son of an old aristocratic family, Lise thought she knew everything about him. But when Luke Holden walks into their lives, and into her home, she realises that Charles has been hiding a past that included this sexy stranger.

Although the two men now hate each other, Charles is forced to employ Luke as his overseer when his former property manager absconds. The situation offers intriguing possibilities. Lise has dallied with servants before, with her husband’s blessing, but this new arrangement would mean an emotional commitment that she does not know if she could contemplate. With Lise’s sly interventions, the two men are able to make up their own quarrel and when Lise catches them kissing passionately, she realises that she has fallen in love with both men. But is there room in their pairing for her?

Pre-order your copy on the Total-E-Bound website now and save 15%.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Erotic Romance Calls for Submission - Spring Edition

This week, I broke out my spring dresses for the first time in the year.  It was still a little chilly up here but it felt great to wear a dress again, even if it was with tights.

Bring on the warm weather!

Of course, with spring comes thoughts of love (and sex), so here are a few erotic romance publishers who are looking for your stories.

Loose Id is looking for hot stories about the new boss, whether that's in an office setting or the "new Dom at the club" -- wow.  Submissions should be novella-length, so 20,000 or more words.  Deadline for writers who aren't already working with this publisher is May 25th so get writing!

Entangled wants stories with moderate to high heat levels set in exotic locales.  Story lengths can range from 10,000 to 40,000 words.  Not sure about the deadline for these but the call went out earlier this month so get those pens working.

Ellora's Cave has two calls for submission for 2013: Boys Will Do Boys (deadline: May 1st) and sweet Regencies for a Christmas collection (deadline: May 15th if you don't already write for them).

Lastly, Entranced Publishing is seeking novel length winter and holiday-themed romance fiction.  Deadline is May 1st so this is perfect for any of you who already have a manuscript gathering dust (like me).  Get editing, folks!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

It's Never Too Late

It's never too late to be who you might have been - George Eliot

Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss are two of my favourite classic works of literature.  And Mary Anne Evans was brilliant in other ways as well.

Her quote above is constantly inspiring me.

You see, I've been writing for a long time.  Seriously, for most of that time.  I've only just started getting published in the past couple of years.  My goals are simple: every year, I publish more.

Will I ever become a great writer, like Ms. Evans?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  But I keep trying.  That's the only way to become who I might be.

Monday, April 08, 2013

How to Make Bookmarks Work for You

I have a problem: I'm a multi-tasker.

Back when I was in my twenties, this was a great thing to be.  You, presumably, got a lot more done by being adaptable and able to switch frequently from reading, to emailing, to letter writing (yes, we still did that in my twenties), and so on.

Now, in my thirties, they tell me that being a multi-tasker doesn't work.  But, of course, I'd already learned that.

Multi-tasking doesn't work for me for no other reason than it has significantly shortened my attention span.  As a kid, I could spend an entire day reading.  As a post-secondary student with a part-time job, I learned to snatch bits of text book readings during my fifteen minute breaks.  Later, as a professional, I often had to break up a block of researching or drafting documents with interviews, phone calls and correspondence.  My day-long attention span was suddenly down to minutes-long or even seconds.

Even that solitary activity I enjoy best of all (get your mind out of the gutter!)--writing--no longer engages my attention for long hours at a time.  I can write for maybe fifteen or thirty minutes at a time before my mind starts wandering.  Usually, when this happens, I jump on the internet to do some "research" and I end up clicking through a dozen or more links until I'm playing an online game or reading about some celebrity I've never even heard of.  (I guess that should be "celebrity".)  An hour later, when I finally come back to my writing, it's usually time to do something else, like make dinner.

Recently, though, I've come up with a way of blending my shortened attention span with my overflowing email inbox.  When I have a fifteen minute time slot on hand (sometimes, I'll admit, during boring conference calls), I'll skim through my inbox, concentrating on the emails I get about writing.  I mean to read these eventually, it's just that I never get around to it.  So, instead of letting these emails languish in my inbox, I sort out the articles that look interesting, file them away in my Bookmarks folder under Writing and I come back to them as soon as my interest in actual writing starts to wane.

Now, when I take a break from writing, I read interesting writing articles that inevitably get me back into my own work-in-progress.  Since the articles are short, I can usually finish one in a few minutes, delete the bookmark, and get back into my work without getting up from my desk.  If it's a long article, I just leave it in my bookmarks until the next time my attention wanders.  Now I no longer feel guilty about not reading those emails I subscribe to and I spend less time procrastinating from my actual writing.  Try it out.  I'll bet it works for you.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Calls for Erotic Romance and Getting Published


Last year, I released my first erotic romance stories, Captive Angel and Country Hearts with Total-E-Bound publishing.  Total-E-Bound produces incredible erotic (and other) romance e-books in a myriad of subgenres.  They have been a real pleasure to work with and, partly for that reason, I have two more erotic romances coming out this year.

Previously, I've posted about Total-E-Bound's calls for submission.

I thought, since I have benefited from these same calls, I would show my work by letting you know that I've used those very same postings to review the guidelines for stories, to submit and, ultimately, to be published.  Yes, really.

In August, 2012, for instance, I posted the following:

Total-E-Bound accepts erotic romance manuscripts between 10,000 and 100,000+ words and has specific calls for submissions going on right now. These include - At Your Service (short stories about domestic staff) deadline: November 1, 2012, Whip It Up (BDSM, obviously) deadline: March 1, 2013, and my favourite, Wanton Witches (Halloween themed for next year's season) deadline: April 1, 2013.

I submitted a story called "A Lady for Two" for the At Your Service anthology since I've had good sales with the other anthology piece I submitted to them.  I sent in my historical piece the day before the deadline, on October 31, 2012, and I received an acceptance about seven weeks later on December 11, 2012.  Pre-ordering starts later this month and general release is scheduled for June 10th.

That means, all together, it's taken about a year to write, submit, edit and otherwise get my story ready for publication.  Total-E-Bound staff has made this a smooth process but, don't get me wrong, the creative process can also be fraught with difficulty.

The message: it's hard work to be a writer.  Keep on top of general calls for submission and try out my publisher.  If you don't send your stories out there, you will never be published.

Take a deep breath, write like crazy, and submit your work.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Why I've Received No Writing Rejections This Year

I haven't received a rejection letter in a long time.

Why?

Because I haven't been sending out any writing submissions.

See how that works?

In order to be published, you need to send your work out into the cold harsh world.  If you're good (or talented, or lucky, or connected...whatever adjective describes your world view), you have your work published, it sells thousands of copies and you make a name for yourself (and a little cash too).

If your work is rejected, does it mean that it wasn't good/talented/etc.?  No way.  It could be any host of reasons.  You might be sending the right work to the wrong publisher or agent.  You might be sending it out a day after you finished writing the first draft, with no more than a bare spellcheck to get you through.  (Don't do that, by the way).  It might be okay but needs work.  Or it might be good and needs the right audience.

When you send the work out, you take your chances.  Without sending it out, there is no chance that it will be published.  Got that?  NO CHANCE IT WILL BE PUBLISHED.

That's what I've got right now.  No chance.  No hope of selling those thousands and thousands of copies and getting my name heard.

Yes, I keep writing every day.  But writing is about more than that (if you want to be read by anyone other than your family members).

I have to suck it up and get my work out there.  So should you.  We'll hold each other's hands, I promise.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Day on the Links: Nan in the News

Since the release of my new contemporary hockey romance, Power Play, I've been getting a ton of hits, reviews (mostly good) and exposure.  So I wanted to share some work I've been putting out there.

I recently answered a Q&A about sexy music to listen to while...you know: on my publisher, Crimson Romance's, website.

I also completed a blog post for Crimson Romance about--what else?--writing the athlete romantic hero.

Lastly, I've been working on my author profile on Goodreads, which I'm finding is a great (and nerve wracking) way to get feedback on your published works.

Happy reading and don't forget to check out my new romance about hockey and hot athletes, Power Play, available on Amazon.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Buy My Romance: Power Play!

Today's the day you can finally purchase my hockey-related contemporary romance, Power Play...just in time for the end of the lockout and the return of hockey!

Buy Power Play on Amazon.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Power Play releases on Monday!

My first full length contemporary romance is due for release on Monday, January 14, 2013 with Crimson Romance!

Remember to grab a copy!

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Erotic Romance: Calls for Submission - 2013 Edition

So you want to write erotic romance?  2013 may be your year to finish that sexy manuscript and snag a publisher for it.

As for myself, I had the idea of hitting this new year running but so far I've only been jogging a little.  Certainly not enough to work up a sweat.  I should get down to it.  And so should you!  Come on...we'll do it together.

In the meantime, find some motivation from the erotic romance publishers out there who are eagerly awaiting your masterpieces.  Check them out.

Total-E-Bound: This is my erotic romance publisher and they are lovely to work with.  Plus, they are looking for stories for some fantastic themed anthologies coming up.  How about an all male story about men in uniform?  (Deadline July 1, 2013). Or a cowboy menage story? (Deadline November 1, 2013). That's definitely my kinda thing.

This publisher also has a host of seasonal holiday themed calls for submissions that are tickling my fancy.  Valentine's Day 2014 is all about cougars--and the submission deadline is August 2013, which gives us all time to work on that manuscript to our heart's content.  And, last but not least, pirates!  We have a whole year to come up with a M/F "Jolly Rogered" story.

Ellora's Cave is also looking for stories about big beautiful women (BBW) and M/M erotic romance.

Happy New Year and happy writing!

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year!


Another year over...and a new one just begun - John Lennon

Yes, it is 2013, already.  Yikes!  To show you how unprepared I was for the new year, I spent time on the first morning of the year printing a calendar.  Even though, according to my family, I ought to have known the year was coming.  Let's just say I hadn't completely written off the idea of a Mayan apocalypse.

But, having survived to see a new year, I am left with the task of deciding on my new year's writing resolutions.  Again.

See, last year, I was ambitious.  Some may say, too ambitions.  I set out a series of writing resolutions and I charted my progress throughout the beginning of 2012.

Okay, so I did one progress report on my resolutions last year...and that was in January.  Anecdoctal evidence suggests that I am in the majority.  Most people do seem to forget about their new year's resolutions very early on.

So why I am making new resolutions?  Because I am ambitious.  I want to be the best writer I can be and I want to try to show the world some of my writing.  But more than that, I know myself, and I feel better about me when I write and send out submissions.  If you write, you probably feel the exact same way.

So what are my resolutions for 2013?  Write more.  Blog more.  Send out more submissions.  That's all.

Good luck to you and me!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net