And wouldn’t you love to know what it is. Well, I can’t tell you, not yet anyway, but when I can I PROMISE you’ll be the first to know. Look, I don’t like to be vague, but I’m all about NOT counting chickens as when I have they’ve only gotten me scrambled eggs. And if that’s not enough mixed metaphors for you, then you’ll have to leave me time to think up more. My brain is kind of fried and there’s a blizzard going on in NJ as we speak. So give me a break and stop back soon. I promise I’ll have more for you as soon as I can.
Tag Archives: Gwen Jones
‘Ma Cher Capitaine’ the sequel to ‘Wanted: Wife’ – and no, you’re not crazy
If you’ll take a look at the top you’ll see I’ve posted the first chapter of the sequel to Wanted: Wife, Ma Cher Capitaine, which centers around Andy Devine’s half-brother, Marcel Mercier. It’s brand-spanky new, just out of my head into yours, and if you’re saying to yourself now wait a minute–didn’t I read this before…?” Well, yes, you’re right, but then you’re not. And I’ll tell you why. I had posted another iteration of this chapter before, but it’s not what appears now. Why is that?
Well, because ‘Capitaine’ is what we call in the biz a WIP–a ‘work-in-progress,’ and what you saw before isn’t what it is now. You see, writers go through many versions of their WIPs before they finally settle onto a final version, and even then it isn’t finished until the editor gives it her final approval. A writer can get half through the story, especially in the early stages, then find out something isn’t working, and sometimes that means she has to go back to the beginning and start all over again. Of course, every writer has their own methods, and some write from beginning to end without ever stopping to edit. Unfortunately or not, that’s not the way I roll, as I’m constantly editing until something finally sounds right to me. Right now, at this point, Chapter One does. Though I can’t say how I’ll feel tomorrow, next week or by the time I finish. Right now, I’m satisfied. If you are too, let me know what you think.
Happy reading,
Gwen
“Wanted: Wife” makes BN.com Top 100 Nook Book List
Okay, if I don’t blow my own horn, who will? So in a shameless self-promotion, here’s the skinny: Wanted: Wife, as part of HarperCollins’s holiday “Fill Your New eReader” promotion is offering said book at .99 until January 6, which apparently is just enough incentive for the adventurous to download my genius. I didn’t notice this until the day after Christmas, when coming down hard from a cookie overload I decided to see how my book was doing on Barnes & Noble. On that day WW was #1 in Romance and #13 OVERALL, right up there with Stephen King and Nora Roberts! Sweeties, to say I was floored is akin to calling Niagara Falls a drip. From there I next went over to Kobo where it was also in the top 50, and at Amazon it was hovering around 10,000, which doesn’t sound that all impressive until you consider they list about 400,000 titles. A week later, WW is still in the BN. com Nook Top 100 at 37, and 10 in Romance out of approximately 55k titles. Again–floored.
I’ve gotten some pretty fantastic reviews, too, the majority of which give me five or four stars. Of course, there are a few dissenters, grumbling about the surprising amount of sex in this romance (“I am shocked–shocked!–to find that gambling is going on in here!”), one even calling it “pornography.” (Hm. I wonder how many more books that sentiment sold.) But most comments were really sweet and all–good or ill–are appreciated. One frequent comment was if and when there’s going to be a sequel. There will. When it will be published…well, let’s just say I have to finish writing it first. Which I’m getting to right after I’m done here. There’s a major snowstorm working its way to New Jersey, and I’ve already armed myself with a boatload of writing chocolate and Irish Breakfast Tea. Zoom!
AGAIN gracing the pages of The Kelsey Review
Somehow I managed to end up between the pages of The Kelsey Review again! This time it’s an excerpt from one of the books I’m throwing out there for your approval, The Heiress of Bearberry. You can take a look right here at this site, or you can click on this link for a nifty turn-by-turn version of the 2013 edition of the literary mag. It’s chock full of all kinds of talent from Mercer County, NJ (that’s New Jersey’s capital county for those left unawares), from photos to original artwork, to poems and short stories and of course, excerpts from soon-to-be-sold novels extraordinaire. Who knows where it may lead? Last year I was lucky enough to get nominated for a Pushcart Prize, for a my short story “Hawks” in the 2012 edition. Pick up a copy and you can say you knew me when!
Laugh if you want, but you have to start somewhere. For those aspiring writers out there don’t discount your local press. A publishing cred is a publishing cred, and people do read these things. Plus it’s still a bit of a thrill to have someone think what you write is worth reading. And the more that you put yourself out there, the more of a junkie you become. What was it Dorothy Parker said…? “I love writing, but I love having written better.”
Well said, Dottie, well said.
Holy Cats! It’s been a long time!
It has, hasn’t it? I mean it’s been soooo long I’m back to wearing shoes! Truth–I wore my first pair since May yesterday, and today me and the husband even went to DSW and dumped $168. (If you have to ask, sweetie…) Anyway, I suppose you’re just dying to know what I’ve been doing. Well, not writing, if you must know, which is extremely bad when you’re a writer. But I’m also an instructor of writing, or as my still outstanding college loans keep reminding me, at the university level, and four classes and two graduate mentees have really kept me from doing much else. But don’t get me wrong–I love teaching, but I also love writing, so now that things have calmed down, I’m almost back to my former and soon-to-be-current career. And I’m kickstarting it by co-hosting a workshop at the Connecticut chapter of the Romance Writers of America’s annual Fiction Fest this weekend at Mystic.
I’m really looking forward to it, not only to get back into the mix, but to take some really great workshops with some really great writers. You see, writing is just like any other profession, and then again, it’s not. Like any, you have to keep up with current trends and who’s doing what out there in the world, especially because writers do so much of what they do alone. But every once in a while we come out of our cave and seek out our own species, and I promise to bring back a report and as many photos as I can sneak without using my camera as a social weapon or a third-person filter. Writers live a lot of third-person reality, and every now and then we have to get out into it. Really! Continue reading Holy Cats! It’s been a long time!
Hear me LIVE and in person Sunday 7/28 on the Klarque Garrison show!
That’s right! I’ll be on “Conversations with Klarque” on the Survival Radio Network blog talk radio Sunday, July 28 at 4:00 PM EDT. I have no idea what I’ll be talking about, but the gracious Mr. Garrison has assured me I won’t make a fool out of myself. So all I have to say is PLEASE dear sir–be gentle with this media fledgling! I have NO idea what’s going to happen, no idea what he’s going to ask me, but hopefully he’ll stay within the world of writing (or politics, I’ll allow that!)
So don’t forget to tune in at www.conversationswithklarque.com, or call 917-932-1078 if you’d like to put me on the spot. BIG fun!
Hey! Want to win a FREE autographed paperback of WANTED: WIFE? Of COURSE you do!
Here they are! Fresh off the press from HarperCollins Avon Impulse, and ready to attack your bookcase. Now of course you thought Andy was hot when he was smoking up your Kindle or Nook. But just imagine what he can do when your holding him in your hot little hands! Smell the fresh ink! Swoon over his picture (suitable for framing). Highlight the “good parts.” Scads of things you can do once you buy your own copy. But didn’t you mention “free?” Of course I did! There’s no one putting nothing over you! So how do I get one? you may ask. Well jeez! Wasn’t I just about to tell you?
You go here to enter the raffle for one of FIVE autographed paperback copies. The giveaway is ON NOW but the Rafflecopter takes off on July 21, so enter early and what the hell–enter OFTEN! And don’t forget to stick around long enough to “Like” my Facebook page!
PAPERBACK RELEASE DAY – Wanted: Wife
It’s Release Day for paperback Wanted: Wife! As you may have gotten from my post yesterday, there’s nothing like seeing your work in old-school print–that is if it’s old school after all. It just feels too new and fresh. As of this morning, Amazon already had almost exhausted its stock, so it must be selling somewhere. Just like the U.S. Treasury when it runs out of money, I just suppose we’ll have to print more! I received a nice little shipment of books from Avon’s own Carly Bornstein yesterday (thanks, sweetie!) and I took one of those copies around to my local Barnes & Noble’s Community Relations Manager, Susan Hogan. I thought if I brib–er, gifted her a copy, she might be persuaded to stock a few on her shelves. Turns out she already had some on order. Hey! Wasn’t that nice! And she also went a step further saying she’d like to have me do a book event. Well! Way more than I expected. So we’re looking at late summer/early fall, you know, right around the time it hits the New York Times list. I will most definitely keep you posted.
Many thanks to all the usual suspects who brought this day around–editor extraordinaire Tessa Woodward, my most glamorous agent, Marisa Corvisiero, Avon indispensables Carly Bornstein and Caroline Perny, fellow writer, beta-reader and head-smacker (when necessary, which is often) Linda J. Parisi, and all those wonderful people out in the dark. From my desk to yours, thank you.
Old school still matters
I’m sitting here with my head in a towel, just out of the shower, writing this. The immediacy of tomorrow just struck me and I had to make note of it, as it’ll be the first time I’ll see my fiction in print–in print the old-school way that is, how every writer still works to see themselves. Although print these days may seem quaint, it’s a technology that’s survived five hundred years and there’s a reason for that, to get it in down in writing denoting a seriousness, the permanence of ink still resonating. With so much of our documents now virtual, it’s a charge, at least to this writer, to heft her own book in her hands, a tangible confirmation of her creative ability. I’m sure most other writers feel the same, at least most of the writers I know do, although there are some who don’t and that’s fine. But there’s just something about books in general that get to me. It’s the smell of ink and paper and the space they occupy, whether in a bookstore yet to be adopted, or packed into your own shelving, indicating a concrete database of accomplished cultural knowledge. I have five tall, crammed bookcases myself, a compendium of the varied aspects of my life, from my undergrad and graduate studies, to textbooks I use for teaching, signed books by favorite authors from my bookselling days, my reference for research, the non-fiction feeding my political bent and inner historian, to rows and rows of fiction as varied as James Joyce, Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker to Diana Gabaldon, Lisa Klepas and Khaled Hosseini. And now one more, decidedly personal.
Which you can buy by going right here. I see a space on your shelf it’d fill perfectly!
Hard act to follow?
I’ve been getting some great responses to Wanted: Wife and quite frankly, it’s floored me. It’s one thing to have your friends, your agent and your editor think you’re worth the ink or pixels, but they’re hardly for whom I’m ultimately writing. The real gauge of a writer’s success is what the readers think, and you may be saying “Oh yeah, that’s what she says now.” But it’s the truth, and those who forget that do so at their peril. True, all books are ultimately subjective, but if I’m producing what the marketing promised, then I suppose I’m fulfilling my end of the bargain. I’d like to think you agree I am and if I’m not, please let me know. Really. (And that’s not just because I’m needy. I’m NOT! Okay, I am. So indulge me before I cry.)
On the other hand you’re only as good as your last book. So if I want to keep going with this writer thing and eventually lose my day job (“day job” being a relative term in professor-land), you have to constantly exceed the bar. So that’s what I’m working on now, the follow-up to Andy featuring his younger brother, Marcel. If he turns out half as “swoon-worthy” as Andy (not my term, but a popular readers’ descriptor) I’ll be in the ballpark. A revised sneak-peek is attached at the top, and a big hint of what it’s about at the left. Let me know what you think.
And yes, that’s me aboard the A.J. Meerwald, New Jersey’s official tall ship, which is visiting up and down the state’s coast this summer, as well as Philadelphia and New London, CT. Visit www.ajmeerwald.org for the 2013 Public Sail Schedule. Now excuse me while I crawl back into my head and get to work.
Gwen Jones Writes 