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MyRomanceStory's New Line of Paperbacks Since 2005, readers have enjoyed MyRomanceStory's graphic novels exclusively online. As we celebrate our fourth anniversary there is a new way to enjoy these stories: graphic romance paperbacks. Long the leader in online romance graphic novels, MyRomanceStory has launched a new line of paperbacks now available for purchase at MyRomanceStory.com and Amazon.com and slated to be in select stores soon. MyRomanceStory’s graphic novels combine the storytelling of romance fiction—a fiction category that generated $1.375 billion in sales in 2007 according to Romance Writers of America—with the visual format of graphic novels—a category that grew by 5% in 2008 according to a recent CBR News report. We listen to our readers! They tell us they want to enjoy our stories everywhere—at the beach…on the bus…on the subway…in bed. Since our launch we have strived to meet their needs by expanding the formats in which our stories are offered. Even with the growing demand for electronic formats, we find that many readers still enjoy curling up with a good book. Arrow has released the first two volumes in English and Spanish each containing two novels. The paperbacks feature stories illustrated by such top Latin illustrators as Italo Ahumada and Enzo Pertile, and popular MyRomanceStory authors such as Maryan Gibson. Along with his comic and graphic novel work, Pertile does drawings for editorial pages, and cartoons for the Última Hora newspaper in Asunción, Paraguay. For the past four years, Chilean architect Ahumada has worked exclusively as an illustrator in the comic and graphic novel field. Gibson’s graphic novel writing includes Whitewater Rapture, Good Husband Material and Substitute Wife. In addition to her work as a writer, Gibson worked for many years as an editor for Harlequin Enterprises Limited. The first releases are Surprised By Love featuring Whitewater Rapture and Wildfire (Sorprendida por el Amor in Spanish) and Will I Ever Find Love? featuring Love Match and Widow or Wife? (¿Alguna vez encontraré el amor? in Spanish). See the New Releases section of this newsletter for more information on these titles. T. N. King
Patrick Sanchez is the bestselling author of such Chick-Lit favorites as Girlfriends and Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown. Carolly Erickson is an acclaimed author of historical fiction and non-fiction offers including her latest, The Tsarina’s Daughter. Patrick Sanchez: His Accidental Plan to Success
After graduating from George Mason University in Northern Virginia with a “totally worthless degree in psychology” he landed a job in the customer service call center for a health insurance company. Sanchez soon tired of handling angry phone calls from patients and doctors and applied for a promotion within the company as a proposal writer. Read the full interview below. Carolly Erickson: Trusting the Muse
For Erickson, creativity has flowed in such historical novels as The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, The Last Wife of Henry VIII and her latest, The Tsarina’s Daughter. Reviews of The Tsarina’s Daughter, available in paperback in August 2009, are extremely favorable. Publishers Weekly writes that in The Tsarina’s Daughter, “…her tale of a family’s fall from power and a country in transition is both romantic and gripping.” Read the full interview below.
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Have You Ever Wanted to Write a Romance Novel?
So, have you ever thought about writing romance fiction? Have you ever dreamed about being the next Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, or Linda Howard? MyRomanceStory.com is here to help! Our new series, How to Write Romance Fiction, by Irene Vartanoff, longtime romance editor and writer, will provide guidance to help you write and publish your first romance novel. Topics include: The Fabled Formula for Writing a Romance Novel, Find the Right Method for Plotting Your Romance Novel, Writing a Query Letter for a Romance Novel and Does Your Romance Novel Need a Sex Scene?. You can take courses about romance writing. You can buy books about romance writing. Or you can visit MyRomanceStory.com and learn from the experts—for free! Don't miss this special opportunity! From MyRomanceStory Blog
Read more at MyRomanceStory Blog.
Surprised by Love Whitewater Rapture Wild Fire Also available in Spanish as Sorprendida por el Amor.
Includes two romantic suspense graphic novels. Love Match Story and Script by Amen Henriques Widow or Wife? Story and Script by K.G. Banville Also available in Spanish as ¿Alguna vez encontraré el amor?. All paperbacks are available in select stores and online at MyRomanceStory.com and Amazon.com.
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From his first novel, 
Loyal fans of New York Times bestselling author Carolly Erickson might be surprised to learn she thinks of herself as a musician—specifically a professional jazz keyboard player, mostly retired. As she explains, “Writing, like music, is part of the same creative flow.”
Isn't It Romantic
Romance is happening! In 2007, over 8,000 romance novels were published. Romance novels account for more than half of all mass market novels sold in the United States—in fact, romance was the biggest fiction category in 2008, and is expected to maintain that position in 2009. Romance has mass-appeal, and is showing up on the best-seller lists of USA Today, the New York Times, and Publishers 
My Hero, My Yard Man
Will I Ever Find Love?
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After a few years Sanchez found that writing proposals about claims administration and quality management wasn't exactly exciting. “I found technical writing a bit tedious, so I would take a break and play with fiction,” he said. “When interesting things happened to me I would turn them into stories. In fact you can see in my first book, it was basically stories that I had written and cobbled together.” Sanchez wrote his first book, Girlfriends, when he was 27. “Originally I wrote about men and women. I was thinking of a story based on young, single people, a 'Friends' type of thing.” After sending out queries, he found some interest from Kensington Publishing in New York, and that is how he “accidentally” became a Chick-Lit author: “This was just about the time Sex and the City was first getting big, and the whole Chick-Lit thing was starting,” he said. “The publisher asked me to scale down the men and add in more women. As a first time writer trying to get published, I was willing to do anything a publisher suggests! So I kind of fell into Chick-Lit writing as well.” It's worked out for him. Girlfriends, which Michael Musto of Village Voice described as “Valley of the Dolls meets Bridget Jones via Three Coins in the Fountain!” is now in its 12th printing. The book became a Barnes and Nobel Best Seller and reached number four on Lambda Book Report's “Books Everyone Likes” best sellers list. Girlfriends was followed by The Way It Is, about three roommates; Tight about a woman contemplating plastic surgery; and Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown, which focuses on a single mom trying to juggle work, family, and some semblance of a social life. In his books Sanchez looks upon the trials and tribulations of his thirty-something characters with a wry sense of humor combined with a sensitivity to the poignancy of their situations. In Tight the first paragraph of chapter one introduces us to one of the main characters, Brenda. She is waking up on a cold winter's day in bed with her husband and dog and feeling lucky:
Of his latest book, Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown, Publishers Weekly said “The writing is brisk, and the emotional undertones treat nicely the ups and downs of life, love, children, and aging parents.” It's the ability to look at the humorous side of his character's true-to-life dramas that makes Sanchez's books so popular. But how does he get into the heads of his woman characters? To learn more about the culture of a Puerto Rican character in one of his books he placed an ad on the Internet for any Puerto Rican women who would be willing to talk to him. For his last book he invited a bunch of working women to brunch, “plied them with Mimosas and got them to spill their guts!" Sanchez said. But generally Sanchez said, “I just write what seems right, and most people seem to like it.” Sanchez's novels are set in the Washington, DC region where he grew up, and his characters, like his own family, are ethically diverse. He was born on a military base in Missouri. His dad is from Bolivia, and his mother from Washington, DC. The family moved to Prince George County, then Charles County where his parents still live. Sanchez currently lives in Arlington, VA with his geriatric dachshund Gomez. Sanchez's favorite book of all time is Gone with the Wind. “I absolutely adored it,” he said. “Scarlett is the best-developed character I've ever read.” Rita Mae Brown and Stephen McCauley are among his current favorite authors. Sanchez says he reads about one book a month, and it takes him about a year to write one of his novels. His style has evolved over the years. “My last book (Once Upon a Nervous Breakdown) was the first one with just one main character, and is more of a dramatic story, although humor is still laced in.” Finding humor in hard times is a theme in the book he is currently working on, a novel about a dysfunctional family during the holidays. If he could write a book in any genre, Sanchez would like to write a historical novel. “But I don't have the time or patience to do the research necessary to make sure the storyline would be accurate,” he said. “I don't know how those authors do it. They must spend years on research, or have an assistant who does it for them full-time.” You never know though: we could see a historical novel from Sanchez yet. It might be something he just falls into.
While she doesn’t consider herself a romance writer, she knows that romance readers are drawn to the passionate storytelling and vivid characters of historical fiction. According to Erickson, whimsy also plays a very large part in these novels. She says, “It is especially important in these uncertain, worrisome times when we need the escape and fun of letting our minds play.” When asked about her approach to writing fiction, Erickson explains that she prefers not to analyze her writing process. She says, “Creative work is magic and magic ought not to be looked at too closely.” She adds, “Writing comes easily and naturally to me and always has. I work very quickly and fluently and trust the muse.” Erickson is very candid about her personal life. Her two long marriages ended in divorce. She has one middle-aged son and two stepdaughters, one of whom she helped raise. She describes her first husband as her college lover back in the days when "sex before marriage was anathema." She goes on to say they broke the rules and lived together in a tiny one-room apartment that she describes as very romantic. “Our landlady turned a blind eye, and our neighbors across the courtyard, a visiting Russian scholar and his wife, smiled benignly and closed their curtains. Bless them,” says Erickson. That marriage ended after fifteen years and Erickson vowed to never marry again. She even turned down the proposal of a man she refers to as a wholesome young lawyer. She reconsidered her aversion to marriage when she met her second husband whom she calls an extremely handsome, strong, warm, earthy man and great lover. Unfortunately in time Erickson and her second husband also parted. She explains there was no avoiding it and she wishes him well. Erickson is a devoted animal lover. She tells us that she loves cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, elephants—anything on four legs (or two, for that matter) that is in need. She has taken in as many as eight feral cats of which there are many thousands in Hawaii where she lives. She says “I love them all dearly and am glad that the loyalty of my readers helps to keep them all in cat food.” Her current five are Lilith, Merbet, Caramel, Chester and Licorice. She also sponsors another cat on the mainland named Samson. Erickson’s next novel, The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, will be released in September 2009. Another novel, also set in Tudor times, is in the works. When asked about which other historical characters she would like to tackle she replies, “There are many historical subjects I would like to write about but I must be guided by the advice of editors and marketers who have their fingers on the pulse of what readers enjoy and are attracted to.” As our conversation ends, Erickson asks to send her best wishes and warm aloha nui loa to all her readers, with thanks for their support over the years. To the aspiring writers among her fans she wishes them the joy and fulfillment of storytelling, now and into the future. Read a review of The Secret Life of Josephine: Napoleon's Bird of Paradise in the Book Review section on MyRomanceStory.com. |
“I wasn't terribly well-qualified for the job,” Sanchez said (in fact according to his website his only previous writing experience was a five-page term paper on the Coke/Pepsi Cola Wars). “But I figured I could learn how to write a proposal,” he continued. “Somehow I got the job, and I spent the first few years learning the craft of writing.”
Erickson came to historical fiction after a long successful career as a nonfiction writer. Her critically acclaimed and prize-winning biographies include those on Marie Antoinette and Tsarina Alexandra, two women she would later explore in fictional novels she calls “historical entertainments”. Erickson describes writing fiction as fun because it allows her to depart widely from the known facts of an historical character. It also allows her to invent fictional characters, action and dialogue—something that is never allowed in her nonfiction work.