New contracts, new courses, new releases

Completely unrelated, but why not since I've just celebrated
20 years of marriage and here's an odd wedding
picture I've just stumbled across.

I used to be so good at keeping a diary. Now everything happens so quickly I can barely keep up.

Of course, there was loads to catch up on after returning from the AbFab holiday of a lifetime - California and RT. Not least of all, sleep. Not that I've had a lot of that lately. No, I've had edits... and final edits... and final checking of final edits.

Finally, finally, though, I finished those while working away at the table of our hotel room at the Park Royal. It was nearly 8pm and I'd arranged for our lovely houseguest, Camilla, to look after the kids overnight so I could join Eivind the night prior to him leaving for LA. Ironically, though we live in Melbourne, he's officially Sydney-based and it's only when he flies out of Melbourne that he gets a hotel room. Thus, on this occasion, wifey decided it would be nice to celebrate finishing edits with a meal in a nice restaurant.

Ha! I'm forever miscalculating the time it takes me to finish edits. For days I'd had 'just a couple more hours' before I'd be finished. Eivind was very patient though, as he was careful not to rush me, even though I could hear his tummy rumbling as I kept him waiting for dinner. (He really is such a darling.)

At 7.45pm I pressed send and had my hand on the door handle waiting for that lovely 'whoosh' sound that tells you your file is out of your hands and winging its way through the ether.... meaning, 'there's nothing I can do about it now'.

So Eivind and I had a lovely juicy Wagyu steak to celebrate washed down with a bottle of wine.

No sleep-in unfortunately the next morning as I had to race back home to the country to get the kids off to school. And no sleep-in since as I'd promised Total-e-Bound a 'Free' read for their newsletter.

I've just finished it now and must say I think it's rather OK. I had no idea what to write but now it's a tale of treachery set shortly after the French revolution in which my heroine is preparing to seduce and murder to avenge her parents' deaths, thinking my dashing hero Silvain Guilbeaux was the informant whose testimony sent them to the guillotine.

Only here's the catch (as if it wasn't half obvious that this is exactly where it would be)... it's not!

Does he die? Does she? Does she have second thoughts about following through with her dastardly plan? After all, she's a well trained spy, now, and she's got pretty good at discovering men's vulnerabilities. The more arrogant they are, the more she relishes her role of meting out justice. Though that said, this will be the first time she's actually planning to administer the poison and wield the dagger. Every other time she's simply rendered the villain (and they've been genuine villains) insensible before dispatching them into the hands of the authorities.

So, I literally finished it five minutes ago and have raced to get 6000 words done in a marathon two days... Hopefully my Free Read will draw in a few readers to try Rake's Honour and Her Gilded Prison and The Cavalier.

Other News

Yes, The Good news is that Carrie, my editor from Ellora's Cave, has contracted Dangerous Gentlemen, the sequel to Her Gilded Prison. I'm happy to see that it appears to be selling quite well now.

So here's the initial premise

for

Dangerous Gentlemen

An innocent debutante, embroiled in the Regency underworld, becomes a prostitute to save her own life but when her new “protector” is falsely branded an enemy of the Crown, there’s nothing she won’t do to see his name cleared.

Romantic Times - both in Kansas City and on our Californian Motorcyle Trip

So, it started with the RT... The idea of going to the US, that is. I'd just signed up for the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention 2013, held in Kansas City, when Eivind suggested we turn it into a holiday the two of us could share. He's a pilot and keeps a motorcycle at the hotel so it's always there when he and the crew have their layovers. For some time he'd been keen to have me see the world from a different perspective - riding pillion on the back of his BMW R1150 GS.(I'd been on a motorbike for less than an hour before this trip.)

Well, what an amazing four weeks it was! I can hardly believe I've been
back from the States for over a week now.

We had big expectations and they were all exceeded.
I loved the US and I met so many fabulous people.

Probably the only thing we didn't do was renew our marriage vows since we decided to go to Cirque du Soleil instead.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures tell the story, starting with a few from the RT convention. I had an absolute ball, sharing a room at the Sheraton Crowne Plaza with my Choc-Lit editor, Rachel Skinner, and meeting my fellow Chocliteers - such a nice group of women who feature in many of the pictures, below.

Here I am by the poster pointing out the
beautiful cover of my September release with Choc-Lit,
The Reluctant Bride (under my Beverley Eikli
name)

At the e-Book expo with the
groovy posters Ellora's Cave had organised

Fellow Chocliteer Liz Harris by the Choc-Lit
banner with her book cover of The Road Back

All glammed up for the Thursday night ball: Fellow Chocliteers:
L-R: Sue Moorecroft, Lyn Vernon, Evonne Wareham,
Beverley Eikli, Christina Courtenay, Liz Harris. (The dress I
wore was one I'd made 30 years ago when doing costume
design at the London School of Fashion.)

Pia (Christina Courtenay), Evonne and Liz at the Formal Dinner
They all looked fabulous!

Getting organised for the Pride & Prejudice session.
Plenty of chocolate and beautiful place-settings plus Juliet and her
son Will, who played Mr Darcy, made this another very popular
Choc-Lit event.

Another gala evening (can't remember which, there were so
many)

Me with fellow Aussie, erotic romance author Lexxie Couper

Choc-Lit director Lyn Vernon and my editor, Rachel Skinner

The Happy Chocliteers - our British (and my Aussie) accent
really stood out amongst the 2000+ delegates at the Convention

Here's my editor Rachel demonstrating
what she'll do if I don't get my edits in on time.
The Reluctant Bride goes to the printers in mid
July and will be released on September 15 (provided I get my edits in on time:)).

Lovely author Marcia King-Gamble and the equally
lovely Sue Moorecroft
at Club RT 

Gorgeous hubby, Eivind,  kitted out with the Go-Pro camera
on his helmet to record our Californian
trip, making our way up the Big Sur

Beautiful light at Joshua Tree with Eivind's BMW R1150 GS
and our Exped Orion 3 tent, behind. The tent did us proud
for our 3 weeks (occasionally interspersed with a really
nice hotel or cottage).

  

Eivind and me getting sunburnt at Joshua Tree. We stayed
an extra day because we enjoyed it so much. By this stage
we'd had no running water for 4 days. 

Las Vegas attending Cirque du Soleil's Zumalia

After 3 weeks of camping and motorcycling
there were no marital tiffs, I'm happy to report. A ready supply of wine and firewood
in the panniers and no domestic drudgery or whingeing
children (whom we sometimes missed) probably helped.

We decided on the spur of the moment to take a 5-hour detour
to see the Grand Canyon, arriving just as the sun was setting.
Great campsite, too.

So there you have it - just a taster of a truly amazing and diverse four weeks - my first visit to the United States.
Loved it!

Having a Blast at Romantic Times Book lovers Convention

This is what Rachel Skinner, my editor
(pictured back) will do if I don't
get my edits in on time.

We've had a real blast at the RT convention - my first though I've met so many people who've been coming for years.

There have been other great authors to meet, as well as my Choc-Lit fellow authors and our wonderful director, Lyn Vernon, whom I've met for the first time. I'm also sharing a room with the lovely Rachel Skinner who is pictured standing behind me at Rosie Gulch's saloon.

The book signing was a lot of fun and so was the Ellora's Cave disco where I walked across the stage with a Caveman after a fab dinner and before the disco dancing. EC then put on a lovely Thursday brunch for their authors and gave away absolutely beautiful bags in a range of colours to all of us.

We at Choc-Lit ran a panel on Irresistible Heroes and also a chocolate tasting session. Then there was the Heather Gramam Vampire party last night and the formal ball the night before.

Stay tuned for more RT photos, everyone!

Nice to be Editor's Choice

Good on fellow Total-e-Bound author Maggie Nash for alerting me to my good news story of the week. I made Editor's Choice for my English Civil War sensual romantic novella, The Cavalier, here. (I say sensual, rather than erotic, because although TEB is a publisher of erotic romances, my books tend towards being more sensual romances complicated by wicked plot twists.)

The Cavalier is about a beautiful Puritan woman whose castle is being beseiged by the Cavalier lover she was forced to relinquish eight years before. It was one of four in Total-e-Bound's Bodices & Boudoirs' collection, which included titles by myself, Maria Claire-Payne, Alysha Ellis and Natasha Blackthorne.

Unfortunately, though it was published in August, it seems to have slipped under the radar, though last month it got a fabulous review from Two Lips Reviews. On the TEB site it was the only one of the four  stories - all 20K - that had a title that didn't start with 'A' so it looks like there are only three stories in the collection as readers have to go to 'T' to find 'The Cavalier'.

I was disappointed that it didn't get any kind of reception at all and continues to languish, forgotten, because it was, I think, a great story, full of conflict and with a good twist in the storyline. Still, Icy Snow from Two Lips Reviews gave it 4 stars with the following review:

Eight years before, Elizabeth suffered numerous beatings by her father because she wished to marry Cavalier Charles Threthveyan. At last, when she realizes her suitor has given up and abandoned her, she marries the man her father has chosen, Puritan Silas Drummond, who has long lusted after her, though he’d never admit it. Now, Drummond is besieged by Royalist forces and Elizabeth and her husband are captives of Captain Reynolds, the King’s Man, and his second-in-command, her former suitor.

Striking a bargain with Reynolds to spend the night with both men in return for her husband’s safe release, Elizabeth doesn’t count on the response she has to Charles’ nearness. He swears he still loves her, asking for a charade of seduction to save her honor. Elizabeth agrees but can’t hide her own desire and soon their pretended lust becomes all too real. Or has it? Before his commander, Charles becomes the callous seducer. In private, he’s the protective lover she once knew. Elizabeth has been charged by her husband to poison both Charles and his commander. She goes to an arranged meeting bearing the vial containing the fatal dose, but will she use it on Charles and Reynolds, or on herself? Can she free her husband though it would mean losing forever the man she really loves, or will she once more try to fight for the chance for happiness?

Beverley Oakley has created in The Cavalier a short but intriguing historical piece, giving a great deal of insight into the war in which the Cavaliers and the Puritans participated. Even for such a limited length, the characters are well-delineated, and their aims and desires equally explained. Elizabeth is torn between wanting to believe Charles and keep her original assessment of him intact in spite of how she sees him now conducting himself.

Charles has to redefine his ideas of why Elizabeth jilted him in light of what he was told and what he now learns. The contrasts between the beliefs of the Cavaliers and the Puritans and the war they fought is defined and explained, and Elizabeth’s dilemma in meeting again her lost love, of whether to believe him or accept the public face he shows of the callous libertine is well set up. I’d definitely like to read a longer work by this author.

Hitting the High Road

Here's the gorgeous off road BMW on which I'll soon be spending
a lot of time riding pillion throughout the US.

 Late this afternoon my lovely editor, Rachel, sent me my edits for The Reluctant Bride. There were lots of them but they were spot on, echoing as they did a vague disquiet I had about certain aspects, such as timeline, coincidences and the need in one or two areas to subtly erase the perception that my hero was just a little too patient with my heroine to be believable.

I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into them. I love the challenge of making plots rich, convoluted but, ultimately entirely plausible. And that is my challenge before May 8.

Meanwhile I have another book to get to my editor at Ellora's Cave. In fact, by this afternoon I hope to have sent in Book 2 in my Lady Partington series. Two Dangerous Gentlemen will follow Her Gilded Prison which was released last week.

Then it's headlong into planning for our motorbike/camping trip through California and Nevada before DH returns to Australia to look after the kids and I carry on to Kansas City for the Romantic Times Convention.

What to do when your WIP isn't playing ball OR In praise of wonderful critique partners

Available Ellora's Cave

By Beverley Oakley

What do you do when you're convinced your WIP is rubbish?

The question really should read, "What am *I* going to do?"

Yes, trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse is my problem right now, and one of my ways around it is to do absolutely anything except work on it.

I've written 62,000 words to complete my first draft. It has a beginning, middle and end. But there's so much that's not working.

Book 1 in the series just came out on Friday and I'm really pleased with Her Gilded Prison. It's a poignant, passionate erotic Historical.

Now I'm taking up the story of my heroine's daughter, a very lovely, worthy heroine in her own right who lands up in some unusual and unexpected trouble.

But is it working?

I would say not. I would say I have an awful lot of work to do on it, but can I force myself to the page?
Right now I'm torn between:

The Passive Approach: Burying my head under the covers and declaring I'll never write another word;

The dramatic Approach: Tossing my printed manuscript from a high balcony and damning those failed pages as they are removed forever from my life by the wind;

The Indulgent Approach: Eating and drinking a lot of things that are really bad for me;

OR

The Sensible Approach: Sending it to my critique partners.

So, now that I've slept off the Indulgent Approach by employing the Passive Approach, I have mounted the stairs to the balcony off my tower room, and with a stiff breeze blowing, am about to take the Dramatic Approach.

Wait, just a moment! It's my mobile.

What? Jess, Bernie, Frances on a conference call?

Goodness, they've tracked me using satellite and they know what I'm about to do.

They say they've all been there before. That every writer has.

(I must say, I'm getting a little emotional here because of all the other nice, sensible things they're saying, too.)

Really? Oh, those are wise words, indeed.

They're saying that if I managed to knock Her Gilded Prison into shape I can do the same with Hetty's Story (known more formally as Two Dangerous Gentlemen). They're saying that I must take the Sensible Approach and send it to them to sort out. They'll tell me exactly where I'm going wrong.

The wind is threatening to tug the pages out of my hand but I'm gripping the manuscript more tightly now. The reams of notes in the margin represent weeks of work. I realise can't afford to waste that much effort by casting it to the wind.

Not when I have such great critique partners who can sense when I need a pick-me-up and who take action. Not when I have such skilled critique partners who can hone in on the trouble spots and tell me where and what I need to fix.

Jess, Bernie and Frances - my wonderful critique partners - what would I do without you?

Photo of Australian Readers Convention Authors

Here are the 60 or so authors at ARRC (Australian Romance Readers Association). I'm in the orange dress in the back row.

The whole weekend was huge fun and I loved meeting readers and fellow authors so much that I'm off to Kansas City, Missouri, in May for the Romantic Times Convention where I'll meet my publishers at Choc-Lit, Ellora's Cave and Total-e-Bound.