A Little Retail Therapy
After a bit of a rocky start, I had the best weekend I’ve had in a looong time. Did my taxes for the accounting department (AKA the hubbster), and verified that yes, my writing is not a lucrative business. Yet. It actually put me $200 in the hole last year. Needless to say, the accounting department wasn’t terribly excited by this evidence in light of how many hours I put into it last year. Although, only the first book of the series was out at the time, and this year I’ll have at least three and maybe four releases, so it should be a better year, financially speaking. On the plus side, I did make a bit of money from my massage therapy job, but not enough to help us out all that much. Awesome. Two part time jobs aside from being a full time mom, and nothing to show for it. Where the hell is my chocolate stash?
What better way to lift a girl’s spirits than to spend the day shopping? After weeks of her trying to pin me down, I finally agreed to spend the day with my mom, just the two of us. We went for lunch and then spent all afternoon at Winners, where I promptly went hog wild. That’s why I rarely go shopping–I know better. 🙂 Bought some nice things for my upcoming trip to Texas with The Wild Rose Press group, plus some cute little jammies and a pretty purse. Doesn’t really matter what it is; if it’s got ribbons, bows, hearts or lace on it, I’ll probably like it. I’m such a girl! Anyway, I spent way too much money but I left the store feeling a hell of a lot better than I had that morning. Funny how that works 😉
Yesterday was a family day spent playing miniature golf, topped off by a picnic in our backyard and Sunday Night Baseball (baseball’s back–yee-haw!). And, I actually got an entire chapter written this weekend.
You know that saying “feast or famine”? As of today I’ve got three articles to write, two for my Massage Therapist Association magazine that I just accepted a freelance job for (the accounting department approves), and my galleys just came in for Absolution. One last visit with Luke to catch all the typos. Sigh… He’s so dreamy, I can’t wait for you all to read his story!
Reviews: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Getting a good review is a huge relief for us writers. It affirms that a) we can in fact write our way out of a paper bag, and b) that someone out there liked our stuff. At heart, I think most of us are pretty insecure and sensitive creatures. Why is it that negative criticism carries so much more weight than the positive? Even if the positive is 90% or more of the feedback you receive?
Just last week a writer acquaintance of mine stopped by for a visit, and we got talking about writing. He’s not a romance fan, but he did read my first book out of support and maybe curiosity. Anyway, I’m sure he was trying to be helpful, but he went on to tell me all the things I could have done to make it a better book. It could have been he was trying to point things out to help strengthen my future projects, but really, why tell me all of that when the book’s already been published and there’s not a thing I can do to change it? It’s not perfect, of course not! It was my first book, after all. But it also won an RWA published Laurel Wreath award for best romantic suspense of 2009, so it isn’t awful.
In happier news, I have received several glowing reviews so far for Cover of Darkness. Trust me, I so needed some good news right now in my writing world, so they couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m going to post a couple of lines here for future reference, when I might be tempted sometime in the future to strangle myself with my laptop power cord because my writing isn’t going well 🙂 And because I realize not all the feedback I’ll receive in the future will make me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Dana Dean of Got Erotic Romance gave it 5 stars and said:
Wonderful. In Cover of Darkness Ms. Cross did exactly what a writer should do. Almost from the first page I wanted to be the heroine even when danger and chaos lurked around every corner. I admired Bryn’s dedication to a father she rarely saw, her strength and determination to do whatever it took to survive, and her compassion. Mostly, I envied her opportunity to be rescued by several hunky men. Although Dec is obviously and spectacularly the hero in this story, the other men who circle Bryn like satellites should not be disregarded. In fact, I suspect they won’t be. Cover of Darkness tells Bryn and Dec’s story, but it also drops tantalizing hints about the lives of several others and left me wanting more. I enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to see whose story is next. Well done, Ms. Cross.
Camelia at Long and Short Reviews gave it 4.5 books and said:
The many intriguing secondary characters and their motivations, the subterfuge, hate, and the love make Cover of Darkness a breathtaking and a heartbreaking story of life in a war zone and what it takes to survive. The price is sometimes high. The excitement, fear, and horror keep the adrenaline pumping at top speed as the story unfolds. How love survives and even thrives in such times is a mystery and a miracle.
Kaylea Cross’ writing style plunks the reader down into the middle of the action, traitorous deals, and the horrors of war as she mines the best and the worst of human nature to create a phenomenal love story.
Reese over at Night Owl Reviews gave it 4 stars and a “top pick rating”. She said:
Kaylea Cross writes romantic suspense at its finest. She does an amazing job bringing to readers an exciting new Navy Seal romance. Dec was HOT HOT HOT. The details in the story were believable and there is a great blend between the romance and the military details. Readers will also be sucked into Luke Hutchinson’s own personal problems. Cross is an author to keep your eyes on.
(Yay, because Luke is my favorite and I want everyone who reads my books to be sucked into his personal problems!)
And while this is not exactly a rave review, a reader from Nights And Weekends wrote:
At the beginning of the novel, I was tempted to compare it to Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series, which is also about Navy SEALs. But as the novel progressed, I saw that I couldn’t compare the two. Cover of Darkness is very pro-America and pro-military, whereas Brockmann’s novels are written from more of a liberalistic viewpoint, which doesn’t accurately portray the military mindset.
Unlike Brockmann’s “heroes,” Declan McCabe would never be caught dead questioning whether or not Americans are the good guys or why they were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place. He might be concerned about, say, collateral damage, but he never doubts his mission. I will grudgingly admit that Brockmann is the better writer, but I feel more connected to Cross’s characters because they think more or less the way I do. I also think that Cross writes far more believable military men—men who think the only good “tango” (terrorist) is a dead tango. But Cross is also very careful to show “good” Muslims, the people who live their day-to-day lives by the actual teachings of Islam (there is one elderly woman who—despite grave danger to herself—shows compassion to Bryn) and not the more twisted fanatical teachings.
(Okay, I’m just tickled to be somewhat favorably compared to Suzanne Brockmann, one of my favorite authors of all time. Who’d have ever thought that would happen?)
That’s it so far, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for other good reviews in the future.
Critique partners
I’m over at Writers Gone Wild today, blogging about how an awesome critique partner can make all the difference to your writing career, and your life. Swing by and say hello!
Making the Call
Over the weekend I attended interviews for The Cmolik Foundation, a private foundation providing B.C. students with scholarships for a total of five years of post-secondary schooling. I’m a Board member as well as a Student Selection Committee member so it’s a lot of volunteer work, but this weekend was what makes my time away from my family (and my writing!) worthwhile.
The Cmolik Foundation seeks students that are well rounded with a clear sense of their goals. They don’t have to have a 4.0 GPA, but they need to show determination and perseverance in overcoming adversity. Let me just say that out of the nine interviews on Saturday, all of the applicants had faced and overcome hardships that I hope my children never even have to contemplate let alone go through. Addict parents, parents in prison, death/suicide of a parent that left the child without care, or left in charge of all their siblings, effectively turning them into a parent before the age of ten. The amazing thing was, all the students had overcome obstacles like these and still thrived in school. And all of them somehow turned into quality human beings. An amazing feat, considering their young age and backgrounds.
Just a few weeks ago when we met to review our applications and decide on the interview short list, I was asked to draft a rejection letter. Ironic, don’t you think? I’ve been on the receiving end of far too many of those for my liking. I wound up calling it a “regret” letter, rather than a rejection letter. And it was short and sweet. Getting one sucks, period. No need to rattle off some platitude that makes the student want to roll their eyes. If they even read that far. A no is still a no, regardless of how it’s worded.
But then last night, I got to make “the call”. The chairperson of the committee was supposed to contact the successful students today, but I was so anxious to let them know that she agreed to do it last night. Three of the six students burst into tears, and I think it wasn’t so much the $35k scholarship as much as it was knowing someone cared and believed in their potential. That our five member selection committee saw something special in them and found them deserving of our funding.
I hope one day I’ll be on the receiving end of “the call” from an agent or editor, but it was really cool to be the one doing the phoning in this case. We elected one of our other members to make the “regret” phone calls, and trust me I definitely didn’t want that job. We could only take six students for this September (there are 27 students currently in our program), but the remaining three that we interviewed still may receive funding of some sort. I rounded up $1k for one of them yesterday, and at the Awards Dinner coming up we’re going to ask for donations to see if we can’t help out the other two as well. You never know, we might be able to pay for their education as well.
One of our students in particular tugged at my heartstrings. He’s a great big football player, but if anyone could fit the phrase “gentle giant”, it’s him. He pretty much had all of the women on the committee in tears during his interview. He’s the reason I wanted to personally make the calls, and I know he’ll do us proud. It reminded me so much of my current favorite movie, The Blind Side. This is definitely one kid that deserves a chance, and I know he’ll make it!