(what follows isn’t any official type of review of the movie, but more a mish-mash of my thoughts as they relate to both the movie and the books.)

I probably wouldn’t have gone to see this in the theatre, but Groupon ran a deal last week for tickets for $6. Since I knew I had a 4-day weekend (because of all the recent travel) this weekend, I decided to buy a $6 ticket and take myself to see it. I went today and I’m sure you can imagine the theatre wasn’t too busy, but I was surprised that there were still at least 20 other people in the theatre with me on a Monday afternoon.

Before I get into talking about the movie, I have to say a few things about the trailers before the movie. First, the DisneyNature trailer for Chimpanzee made me absolutely sniffly. This looks like a movie Brianna might like, because she adores these animal movies. Second, watching the trailer for the new Nicholas Sparks’ movie The Lucky One, I had a few thoughts: primarily that there’s no way in hell I’ll watch it because we all know how EVERY Sparks’ movie/book ends (someone dies). Apparently, Sparks has something against people being happy for more than temporarily. But I couldn’t help but ogle the lead actor in the movie, because they show him in a pretty sexual light in this trailer, and there’s a lot of sexy times hinted at. And then. And then they put up the actors’ names and I realized…I was ogling Zac Efron. Zac Efron, people. Isn’t he like twelve? I officially feel like a dirty old woman.

Two more trailers caught my attention. Hunger Games, a book I did read and while I thought it was good, I didn’t LOVE it and never felt compelled to read the other two in the trilogy. But the trailer was actually pretty amazing. I think I might like to see that movie (probably not in the theatre, but all the same, the fact that I might want to see a movie of a book I just liked impressed me). The last trailer was for Cabin in the Woods. A horror/thriller type movie that normally might not be my thing, but the trailer showcased some kind of awesome tongue-in-cheek snark. And the movie is produced by Joss Whedon who kind of excels at tongue-in-cheek snark so maybe his brand of awesome is imprinted on the movie. I’ll look for it to rent.

Now, on to One for the Money. I went into it a bit skeptical. I should note that I don’t consider myself a FAN of the books, though I’ve read the whole series twice. I can still remember the summer, at least 12 years ago, that I discovered the series. I think only 6 were out. I was on a vacation with my ex-husband (well, he was my husband then), in a cabin on the shores of Lake Michigan. He spent his whole time fishing on a boat in Lake Michigan, and I get horrible (horrible) water sickness, so I spent my vacation on the beach. Reading Janet Evanovich (frankly, reading on a beach is my perfect vacation). I’d checked out books 1-5 in hardcover from the library, and carted them (and a suitcase of other books) on vacation with me. Yes, I love having a digital library of books to cart with me now. Much lighter!  I tore through the first five and didn’t have the sixth, but knew it had been released. We were staying near small town Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin, and I looked in both the small local bookstore and the Walmart. Neither had Book Six because the series (and Evanovich) hadn’t quite hit it big yet (there’s a lesson here about the longtail of series, books and publishing). But oh man, they were the perfect beach reads. I continued to faithfully buy each book every June when it released for probably 6 years and then I got a bit weary and jaded. Nothing ever changed, no one ever grew, Stephanie never chose between Morelli and Ranger (I believe Evanovich has since done an interview where she said she never intends for Stephanie to choose. Yes, never. How…depressing).

Anyway. Last year I did a back-to-back re-read of the JD Robb In Death series and I thought it would be interesting to then do a back-to-back reread of the Stephanie Plum series, and see how the two compared in terms of character growth, story ARC, plot, etc over the course of extended series. Though there’s twice as many In Death books as there are Plum books. So I’ve read most of the Plum books twice, with the exception of the most recent, which I haven’t read (with the exception of the Amazon reviewes, which are quite scathing). So I went into the movie with more than a conversant knowledge of the books and characters, but no rabid love, and some rather mixed-bag emotions on the books overall.

That said, what I didn’t really go into the movie with was strong feelings about the actors/actresses chosen for the roles. I know a lot of people went apeshit WTF when Katherine Heigl was cast as Stephanie Plum (which makes sense to me since she freakin’ produced the movie) but I don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy and I don’t recall any other movie I’ve ever seen her in (I’m not much of a TV or movie watcher. I like books) so I didn’t have any negative OMG NOOOO connotations associated with her. Likewise the rest of the casting. I think the strongest emotion I had was of Debbie Reynolds cast as Grandma Mazur. I picture Grandma Mazur as super old, super tiny and kind of decrepit and wrinkly. Debbie Reynolds is just a bit too…robust for me to really buy into her as Grandma Mazur. Both when I saw she’d been cast and now that I’ve seen the movie.

What I liked about the casting: I love love loved the casting of Connie and Vinnie. The actress and actor chosen for these roles were absolutely perfect. I wish they’d have been in the movie even more, though their appearances were about commiserate with their appearance in the book. Ditto Lula. The actress who played her pulled her off very well. It’s really a shame Lula’s role isn’t a major one until later books. I also liked John Leguizamo cast as Benito Ramirez’s scummy “manager” Jimmy Alpha. But honestly, has Leguizamo ever not been good in a role?

But what about the main characters? I actually thought Heigl did a pretty decent Stephanie Plum, with one small exception. She came across as quite charming (though a bit skinnier than I’ve always pictured Stephanie, as I’ve always thought of her as having a bit of a muffin top, possibly) and spunky. I did think Stephanie in the movie came across as even more too stupid to live than Stephanie in the books, but I think this had more to do with the translation of her idiocy to the big screen, rather than Heigl’s acting. Honestly, I think Heigl did a much better job with the role than all of the hystrionics suggested she would. I’ll get to the small exception in a bit…

Morelli and Ranger. I was…meh on the casting. I mean, I think both guys are hot, though maybe the actor who played Ranger, Daniel Sunjata has lips that are bit too full and made him look a little more feminine than I think of RangerBut I’m not honestly sure who the actor is that would personify the Ranger in my head. The actor who played Morelli, Jason O’Mara, wasn’t quite…Italian? Dark-haired/dark-eyed? enough for my mental picture, but he was plenty hot. My problem with the movie here comes with the fact that both of these characters came off as not at all charming. Not even a little. They instead come across, both of them, as arrogant and at times a bit alpha-holish (TM @jane_l). I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about either character, really, in a hero-type role. And here’s where my small exception of Heigl’s portrayal of Stephanie Plum comes in–she had absolutely no sexual chemistry or sexual tension with either actor. None. Not a bit. Nothing. And if you’ve read the first few books in this series, you’ll know that one thing Evanovich, despite any quibbles I might have with the books, does well is the sexual tension between Stephanie and Morelli and Stephanie and Ranger. Evanovich leads you to really imagine the sizzle and steam between these characters and none of that was translated on screen. And I think that’s the movie’s main downfall: there’s no chemistry.

The other thing I noticed didn’t translate as well to the screen was the undertones of humor that are one of the keystones of Evanovich’s writing. I purposely stayed cognizant of whether people were laughing during the movie and the answer was…not so much. There were only 3 main points were the audience really laughed, and one of those was when Grandma Mazur shot the turkey (a scene in the book that nearly had me peeing my pants but on screen only garnered a few seconds of laughter). But I guess I’m not really that surprised, as humor can be difficult to translate from one medium to another.

Overall, the movie was a fun diversion. I think it’s interesting to note that in both One for the Money the book and the movie, we do see character growth in Stephanie. While she remains somewhat idiotic and too stupid too live, she does carry her gun…and learn how to shoot it. When I re-read the books back-t0-back last year, what stood out most starkly to me in that reading was that Stephanie actually regresses from book one to book two…as in she unlearns skills (like shooting a gun) and general self-defense that she shows in book one (and in the movie). So in the movie, we do get the satisfaction, especially at the action climax of the movie, but also in other scenes, of seeing Stephanie do things that show her growth/learning. In the series, for some reason the author seems determined to make Stephanie Plum progressively dumber and I don’t see movie audiences being appreciative of this (if future movies ever get the chance to be made) so this might be a case where we often see books and movies parting ways and being different in script than manuscript.

Do I regret spending a few hours in the theatre watching it? Not at all. I’ve seen movies where I bemoan the time I’ll never get back. With this movie, I was glad for a few hours away from the computer, to keep me from doing work-type things on my day off. I enjoyed the movie enough to be diverted for a few hours. However, I will say that I’m glad I only paid $6 for it, rather than full movie prices. $6 was the perfect price as an excuse to sit in the theatre and inhale buttered-popcorn calories. A

Would I recommend it? Um…gah. The answer isn’t yes, it’s not no. I guess if I were rating it, I’d give it a 5 of 10 (which somehow sounds nicer than 2.5 out of 5, doesn’t it?) Incidentally, this is the same rating it gets on IMDB and I think “in the middle” is a good rating for this. I can’t say how people who have absolutely no association with the books will feel about it. If you’re an extreme fan of the books, yes, by all means, you should definitely go see it. If you’re a casual fan of the books, wait for video. If you hate Katherine Heigl, well, you probably won’t enjoy it no matter how you feel about the books. As I said earlier, I think she did a pretty good job pulling off Stephanie Plum.

All in all, this is not, by far, the worst book-to-movie translation I’ve ever seen and I’d actually like to see a second movie made, if only to see if they can improve on the sexual chemistry, move Morelli and Ranger to the roles of charming, likeable hero material, and to see Lula, Connie and Vinnie get more screen time. They were just that well cast.

Haven’t read the book? Buy it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

I decided I needed to bake today, because I haven’t done much baking these past few months, even over the holidays. On Twitter, someone suggested I bake oatmeal cookies w/cranberries and lemon zest added. I took this idea a few steps farther. I couldn’t find a recipe, so I adapted an oatmeal raisin recipe and made it my own. They smelled amazing while baking and turned out ridiculously delicious. I didn’t expect them to taste so good, but man, these are going in my regular cookie rotation!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In stand mixer (or using hand mixer), cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla, lemon zest and lemon extract.*

Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into the butter mixture.

Stir in the oats, cranberries and white chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approximately 4 dozen

*You could also make these cranberry orange cookies and substitute orange zest and orange extract for the lemon.

I used lemon zest and lemon oil from King Arthur flour. I highly recommend their products, but you could use fresh lemon zest, and lemon extract purchased at your local store. Also, if you use the lemon oil from KA, theoretically you could use a bit more and use no lemon zest (on the KA website, it says it’s meant to be a substitute for zest). Hey, if you bought the set of oils, you’d have orange as well, and you could try these as cranberry orange instead!

I’ve been thinking a lot about reviews, as have many of us, thanks to all the debate that’s been raging between authors, readers, bloggers, etc. I’ve edited over 300 books, trust me, I’ve had some bad reviews directed specifically at me, the editor. Sometimes they sting. Sometimes they make me angry. But I have to admit… through it all, through years of being online & years before that of reading RT Magazine…I love reviews. Love them.  Not just of things I’ve worked on, but of books I’ve read, books I want to read, and books I have no intention of ever reading. And I love being able to review and share my opinion. Because of what I do, I try to be careful about sharing my opinion, but, you know, if you know me you’re rolling on the floor at the thought of me never sharing my opinion.

For me, the last decade of being on the internet and getting to experience this amazing sharing of the reading experience has made my love of books so much more fun. I adore reading other people’s opinions on what they’re reading. I love that people are reading. I love that they care enough about what they read to share their thoughts. I love the exchange of ideas and information and passion about books. Seriously effing adore it. I’m not trying to sound all Pollyanna or goody two shoes here, it’s just honestly how I feel. I can’t imagine my reading life without book talk on blogs, twitter, Goodreads, my moms’ board, and in my email. It would be weird. And kind of sad. And not quite as much fun, I’m guessing. Because I think books are meant to be shared, and how can you share a book without telling someone what you think about it? And isn’t part of the fun then comparing notes later?

While I was traveling this past weekend, I was reading an interview in Entertainment Weekly with Steven Spielberg. At the very end of the article, the interviewer is telling Steven Spielberg about one of his own experiences with one of Steven’s movies and then goes on to say “You must hear these things a lot.” In reply, Spielberg says:

“I hear amazing stories. The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences. Now, through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time. But you can’t get everybody to interpret the result in the same way. And that’s thrilling to know–that everybody will see it differently.”

Right on, Mr. Spielberg.

A few weeks ago I was looking for a bread recipe to make in my bread machine. I turned, as I so often do, to Twitter, and as a result, ended up with this completely awesome dinner roll recipe, compliments of Bree, one half of the Moira Rogers writing duo. Normally, when I make rolls or bread, my family doesn’t eat more than once piece or roll. So I made this full recipe and then followed the directions in the comments for freezing a portion. I baked only 6 rolls. Umm, big mistake. These rolls were a huge hit with my family. So much so that I’ve made them two batches, and the second batch I made, I doubled, so I could freeze even more.

I didn’t adapt the actual recipe itself from the recipe on AllRecipes, but I did make smaller rolls, and I also didn’t bake them all at once, but froze some for easy baking on weeknights. So I’m including all of those directions.

So Carina Press keeps me pretty busy on the admin (and travel, omg, the travel!) side of things and it doesn’t leave me a lot of time for editing. I still do some editing, but it’s generally not much more than one or two novels a year, and then the holiday novella collections. I almost never acquire from slush anymore but…

I’m looking to acquire a few things for my own schedule for Fall 2012.

Here’s what I’m specifically looking for:

A contemporary romance trilogy or series. I love editing Shannon Stacey’s books and I want to edit more contemporary romance, so I’m looking to acquire an author who has a contemporary romance trilogy or series planned. Any heat level considered! I’m specifically looking for contemporary romance novels (over 70k) but will consider a novella series (for novellas, even better if they’re erotic, but not necessary)

A new paranormal romance (or urban fantasy w/romantic elements) series. The good news for you is that I’ll consider all manner of paranormal, including vampires, shifters, etc. I’m not wore out on paranormal, so hit me with your A-game, even if it’s a vampire series! Again, any heat level considered.

A very, very hot erotic romance series. Smokin’ hot. Any subgenre, any length. Can be BDSM or m/m. Just looking for smokin’ hot erotic romance (not erotica, please).

So the trend here is that I’m looking for an author/authors I can build within a series in these particular genres. I’m not looking for standalone novels or novellas for this particular submissions call for myself (though Carina Press is always willing to and does acquire standalones).

If you have something now, or in the coming weeks/months that fits the bill, please follow the submissions guidelines here, and send to the submissions address. However, please note in the body of your query letter that you’re responding to my specific call for submissions (many subs come in addressed to me, so I won’t know, just based on that, that you’re responding to this call).

Edit: I’ve had some questions about subbing an idea or partial. Carina Press submission guidelines require a full manuscript and so do I, unless we’ve worked together before, or you have an established history of publishing quality work, and you have an established author brand, in which case, I’d consider a proposal/partial w/thorough synopsis.

Note: I originally posted this recipe nearly 2 years ago in 2009. It’s probably the single most popular post on this website, and I still get people asking me about this recipe, sharing the link and talking about making the cracker candy. It’s just that easy to make and just that good. So I decided to pull it back to the top for all of you who never saw it the first time. In the comments are discussions for variations, and I’ve tried them all, including the club crackers, adding crushed candy canes, etc. Honestly, my favorite cracker candy is still the kind that’s just the saltines and chocolate, not even any nuts on top. But this is a forgiving recipe, so experiment and find your own favorite way!

I think most of you are going “uh…what?”. I had never heard of cracker candy until about 3 or 4 years ago, when we did our first cookie exchange for our playgroup. My friend Jennifer did this for the exchange and I fell so madly in love with it. It’s probably just about the easiest Christmas cookie you can make (it took me twice as long to write this post as it did to make the actual candy) and super tasty.I have, in the past, made these and sent them to people who think I’m crazy when I talk about them. But the combination of the salty cracker and the butter/sugar that turns into a toffee, with the sweetness of the chocolate is so addictive! Here’s how to do it, complete with (bad) photos.

Spread out your crackers in on a jelly roll/cookie sheet pan. One with edges that you’ve lined completely with foil. Trust me on this, line the pan with foil. I decided to do a mix of soda crackers and club crackers, because I thought the buttery taste of the club crackers might be divine in this recipe.

Melt the butter, add the sugar and bring to a boil for at least three minutes. It may take a bit longer, but you’ll see it thicken and get a bit more gooey. I think there’s an official candy-making term for this. Soft ball stage? I don’t know, I’m totally making crap up now.

Warning!! Do NOT walk away from your pot. You must stand and stir the entire time or you’ll end up with a huge mess on your stove and probably burnt butter and sugar.

Pour the butter mixture over the crackers. All over the crackers. You won’t be able to get them all coated just by pouring, you’re going to have to pour it as evenly as you can (I didn’t do that and made it a little harder on myself) and then go back and spread it out with a spoon.

It should look like this, all cracker surfaces covered with butter goo. Now put the crackers in the oven on 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Set a timer. You’ll be ticked if you leave them in too long and burn them. And that can happen.

While your crackers are in the oven, grab your commercial-size can of cashews–what do you mean you don’t have one? Everyone has one, right? Well, anyway, at this stage, if you’re going to use nuts like pecans, walnuts or cashews, even peanuts, you’re going to want to chop them up.

Like this. I used my handy countertop Black and Decker chopper. You’ll see this featured a lot in my cooking posts. I just chopped the cashews until they were appropriate for topping. I use cashews because I like them best, but you can use whatever you want. A cup of cashews unchopped resulted in enough chopped cashews for the entire pan of cracker candy.

Here’s a shot of the crackers in the oven. This was longer than five minutes because I had to run upstairs and tuck Brianna in.

I pulled them out of the oven, see how they look kind of brown? That’s not bad, but you don’t really want them to get any darker than that. Don’t try to go for any particular color. Just bake them for five minutes and pull them out.

Now sprinkle the chocolate chips over as soon as you pull them from the oven. I also had an industrial size bag of dark chocolate chips (hey, I shop at Sam’s Club) so I had to guess at how many to put on, but it’s hard to have too much chocolate. I use dark because it’s my favorite. The chips will begin to melt immediately, but get them sprinkled on and then worry about spreading. You have lots of time. I spread one side out, the other side looks like they’re still formed but really they’re melted too. Spread the chocolate evenly. I had to move some around because I had a bare spot after I was done.

Look to see if anyone is around.

Lick the spatula. You’re done with it, it’s okay. Now put it in the sink and wipe the chocolate off the corner of your mouth. Be glad no one saw you.

At this point, you can just leave your cracker candy naked. You don’t have to do anything more to it if you don’t want. You can be done now.

I added cashews to only half, because I do like naked cracker candy too. Instead of adding nuts, this year Jennifer added Christmas color candy sprinkles to hers. I almost put some fancy sea salt on one corner of this, because dark chocolate and sea salt? Yum. But I didn’t want to get the salt out (I’m lazy).

Now the hard part. Waiting. Let it cool in the fridge or freezer. Possibly overnight on the counter if it’s cool in your house, but you might need to stash it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up. You don’t want the chocolate to be soft at all. You want it totally set. Now break it apart. You can be anal and break it into the cracker squares, or you can just break it into random pieces. It really doesn’t matter. It all tastes the same. Addictive. Oh, and next time? I’m making them all with club crackers. The extra buttery taste made them insane!

Cracker Candy

35-40 Saltines
2 sticks of salted butter -do NOT use margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 bag of milk (or semi or dark) chocolate morsels
Sliced almonds or any other nuts

Line cookie sheet with foil (sides too). Lay saltines side by side in one layer, sides touching. Melt butter, add sugar and boil 3 minutes. Drizzle over crackers, (keep crackers together). Bake 5 minutes @ 400°. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate over baked crackers. They will start to melt – spread over crackers. Sprinkle top with nuts. Refrigerate until cold, even overnight. Break into pieces.

1. When you start your tweet with the @ symbol, your whole tweet stream doesn’t see what you’re tweeting.

Starting with the @ creates a reply. Not a broadcast to your tweetstream. So only the person you “replied” to and those who follow both of you will see it. In other words: starting a promotional tweet with an @ is ineffective and wrong.

@angelajames taught me something new about Twitter today (only I and people following both of us will see this tweet. Sad. I want people to know how awesome I am!)

If you absolutely want to start with that person’s name, you can get around this by simply adding a period at the beginning of the tweet.

Ie: .@angelajames taught me something new about Twitter today.

Nathan Bransford wrote a great blog post about this more in depth.

2. If you have your tweets protected, and you tweet me, and I’m not following you, I do not see you tweeting me.

Here’s the thing: By locking your twitter account, you’ve told Twitter you don’t want people who aren’t following you to see your tweets. Twitter assumes you don’t want ANYONE who doesn’t follow you to see your tweets. Including people you’re trying to talk directly to. So if you follow me, and you see me tweet something you want to talk about with me, and you tweet me? I have no idea you’re tweeting me. I don’t see it. You don’t exist for me on Twitter.

Essentially, by locking your account, you’re creating a very small circle of people you can have a conversation with. If you’re an author, this makes Twitter a lot less effective as a promotional tool. How are you going to get new people to follow you if they can’t see you conversing with others? Also? A large percentage of people don’t want to follow you before they can see what your account is like. Is stopping a few spammers from entering your tweet stream really worth the promo effectiveness you’re giving up by locking your account?Also? A lot of people assume you must really think you’re someone special if you’re locking your account. It can give a negative impression, which is a bit counter-intuitive to the purposes of social media.

3. You should not, really ever, I mean never, query or pitch an editor or agent on Twitter, unless they’ve specifically said: “Please query me on Twitter.” and you have confirmed with them that it’s actually okay to query them on Twitter. 

Do I really need to explain any more about this? Please use each editor or agent’s individual submission guidelines and system to query.

4. Please don’t use Twitter DMs (or Facebook messages) to do business with an editor/agent unless they somehow initiate that with you.

If you want to ask an editor or agent a specific question about a business matter, please tell them that and ask if you could get their email address. People actually do business with me a lot via DMs and messages and, the truth is, I’d much rather have everything like that in my inbox. It allows the editor or agent time to absorb and think about their reply, as well as sort, forward, save the info and otherwise reply with full words and a professionally worded email rather than, “Not sure what U R asking. Can U give me more deets, plz?” because they only have 140 characters in which to reply. It also allows YOU to look more professional! Try not to think of Twitter or Facebook as a substitute for a professional email.

5. Just because the editor/agent is on Twitter at 11pm on a Friday night, it doesn’t mean they want to do work, think about work, or answer questions about work on Twitter at 11pm on a Friday night. Or 8am on a Sunday morning.

Twitter makes remembering there are boundaries more hard. Sometimes we editors and agents also make that hard to remember because we talk about more than just business, and sometimes we talk about business at odd hours of the day and night.

But still, do try not to tweet, message or DM us on the weekend or late at night about work. Of course it’s okay to say “I’m reading a book you edited and I love it!” But that’s a lot different than hearing “Your autoresponder isn’t working, what should I do?” at 5pm on a Saturday.

We actually already work pretty long hours, especially since most work reading and a lot of editing is done outside of normal work hours. And if you ask us a question when we’re obviously on Twitter, we’ll feel obligated to answer it so we don’t look like a douche. But it’s forcing us back into work mode during off-hours and we’d think you were awesome if you tried not to do that.

Remember, we might be “us” as editors and agents on Twitter, but we’re also just as often “us” as everyday people there too, and we use it for fun, so just because you see us there, don’t automatically think we should be available for work questions.

6. When we say you should “engage” on Twitter, we mean you should move outside your own tweetstream.

This one has a few parts. First, this means replying to the people who reply to you. Okay, not every tweet, but a good percentage of them. The more followers you have, the harder this will be. (trust me, I know this). Use your common sense about what you should respond to!

This also means moving outside your own tweets replies, and replying to others. Engaging people is a great way to get more followers. And it also makes you seem more interesting!

(as an aside: if you have a Facebook profile or page, you should be monitoring it. Don’t assume no one is posting there. Monitor and reply to reasonable things!)

7. You should be talking about other people’s books. Or other publishers’ books.

To be honest, I think there are a lot of people who can take this advice, not just authors. Editors and agents are guilty of only talking about their own stuff as well. But talking about other people’s work makes you look like more than just a promotional machine, it makes you look like a reader. You know, the people who make the industry go round? You appear more engaged with and interested in books when you talk about other people’s work, not just the stuff you have a direct connection to.

So don’t be afraid to talk about other people’s books, RT other authors’/publishers’ contests or info. You’ll look engaged with what’s going on with others in the industry and you’ll also spread goodwill!

8. And while we’re on the subject of promotion, you shouldn’t be going into someone’s tweetstream to promote to spam them.

Your promo should be done in your own stream, where people choose to follow you and read it. You shouldn’t be doing this:

@angelajames, My book, Circles of Hell, released to day. I KNOW you’ll love it. Buy it here:

Think of Twitter a bit like an email inbox: if someone didn’t invite you to send them a newsletter or promotional email, you shouldn’t be sending it (there are actually laws against this). Twitter isn’t regulated by law, but it should still be regulated by common courtesy: don’t go into someone else’s stream, where they don’t get to choose to read your tweets, and promote to them. Just. Don’t. Do it. You might find yourself in trouble with Twitter, for one thing, because if a lot of people block you and report you for spam (I do this if you promote to me uninvited) and your tweetstream shows a clear pattern of @’ing people with promotional messages, you can get your account shut down.

9. It’s a good idea to be mindful of what you’re tweeting.

If your bad days are the the norm, rather than the exception, you might want to disengage from talking about your personal life, or what’s going on with you, and keep your tweets related more to hobbies, reading, writing, etc.

If you tend to be sarcastic, or passive-aggressive, or find yourself being coy while complaining about something someone did, without naming names, try to keep in mind that this can create an overall negative impression of you if you do it often.

Have an opinion about politics, religion, the news, something having in the publishing industry but don’t be surprised if someone takes exception to it!

And if you feel really, really, really emotionally charged about something, type the tweet in a separate document, like Word or Notepad, and let it rest for a half hour, hour or half a day. If you still think it’s a good idea to post it after that, then go. Just remember, the internet is forever.

10. Twitter should be fun.

If it’s not fun for you, don’t do it. Find another social media or promotional vehicle. If you feel like you’re being forced to be on Twitter, and it’s sucking the life out of you, you’re likely not going to be effective at it. Go ahead and find a different thing that suits you better.

Here’s the thing: editors and agents know you’re really proud of the book you completed during NaNoWriMo. We think you SHOULD be proud of it. It’s not an easy task to complete a book, and especially not in a month. But please, do us a favor and don’t send it to us…yet. First, set it aside for a few weeks. No really. Distance gives you fresh eyes (and renewed love for the story). Go ahead and start writing the next book while you’re letting this one percolate on the back burner.

Once a few weeks–or even a month, maybe after the distraction of the holidays?–have passed, then it’s time for a step that’s just as important as the writing of the book–the self-editing and polishing. No editor, agent or reader should be seeing your book just after it’s written. It doesn’t do justice to your hard work, and it doesn’t show a respect for the reader, editor or agent’s time.

Yesterday I did a round of #editreport on Twitter, and if you’re wondering about that, you can read them on Storify. Essentially, this shows what an editor is thinking as they read the slush pile. The things we see and reject for are so very often things the author could catch in edits. Many of the reports I see from the editors say “this author needs to learn to self-edit.” Yes, story is more important than good writing, but to get either a reader or an editor/agent to read that great story, your writing still needs to be above average. A great story won’t overcome a manuscript full of errors, awkward sentences and bad grammar. It will only overcome a small portion of that!

So now that you’ve completed your NaNo book, no editor or agent should have seen it in their slush pile yet (or even worse, if it was a book you wrote to fulfill a contract obligation, don’t send that to your editor or agent either!) First, you have to self-edit.It shouldn’t be an optional step.

To support this, I’m offering all #nanowrimo participants a discount on my Before You Hit Send self-editing online workshop, which starts in January. For the month of December only, use code NANO on checkout and receive $9 (18%) off the workshop price.

Thanks to everyone who entered to win the holiday contest and helped promote the holiday novella releases. I hope you also had a chance to pick them up and start reading!

Here’s a list of the winners from the contest. Please email me at angelajameseditor AT gmail.com to claim your prize as soon as possible!

(1) $28 gift vouchers to the Funky Monkey Metalwork Etsy store: Susan Saxx

(1) $21 gift voucher to Rebecca’s Whims: MGSunshine

(2) $37 gift vouchers to the Simply Willow Etsy store: Kare_bear83 and Eleanor_Anders

(1) $15 gift voucher to an online book etailer of your choice: brandy

Print copy: Holiday Kisses: FatLipGloss

Print copy: A Clockwork Christmas: antinmitchfield

Print copy: Men Under the Mistletoe: what_ever_for

Thanks again for participating!

I was supposed to post this recipe over a month ago, but as we can all tell, I haven’t been blogging much! I’ve made this s’mores brownie recipe twice now, and these brownies are amazing. I took them to the Toronto Harlequin office recently and they didn’t last more than a day. They sound really rich, and while they kind of are (I serve them in smaller than normal brownie pieces) they’re not any more rich than your average s’more or gooey brownie. And they’re just…so good There are a lot of s’mores brownie recipes out there. I took mine from Picky Palate (she has a lot of pictures of the process) but I changed it ever so slightly.

Ingredients:

1 box of brownie mix, prepared according to directions on box. I use Duncan Hines dark brownie mix because I’m a fan of dark chocolate.

1 sleeve plain graham crackers (this is not the time to get fancy with the cinnamon ones). It will take about 5 whole crackers.

4 plain full-size chocolate bars or 2 of the baking size bars. Again, I use dark chocolate.

Bag of large marshmallows, You’ll need around 10 or so, and I cut mine in half to make the marshmallow layer more manageable.

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F while you’re preparing the brownie mix according to the box directions.

2. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with foil (the nonstick kind is good here). Line the entire pan and spray whole inside of pan, bottom and sides, with cooking spray.

3. Pour half the brownie batter into pan.

4. Layer graham crackers over brownie mix. Break them up only when you need to fill in small spaces.

5. Next layer chocolate on top of graham crackers.  Break chocolate up only when you need to fill in small spaces.

6. Last, put cut marshmallows (really, you can use whole if you want) on top of chocolate.

7.  Pour other half of brownie batter over marshmallows.

8. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Toothpick should be mostly clean (minus the gooey marshmallow) from center.

9. Remove from oven and cool completely.  No really, completely. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

10. Using edges of foil, lift foil and brownies from pan.

11. Peel foil from away from edges and cut brownies into small squares.