THIS IS MY BOOK.

YOU SHOULD BUY IT WHEN IT COMES OUT IN JULY

OR PREORDER IT AT INDIGO/CHAPTERS, OR THROUGH AMAZON OR SOMETHING.

AND IF YOU'RE TOO EMBARRASSED TO HAVE A COPY ON YOUR SHELF, BUY THE EBOOK.

YOU SHOULD ALSO GO TO MY WEBSITE, WWW.VICKIESSEX.COM.

THAT IS ALL.

I SOLD MY MOTHER#$^&*$#@ BOOK!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go to my new website and read the story of how it happened! Then bookmark my website and visit it every day! DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!

Vickiessex.com

DO NOT WANT AGAIN!

Her Cinderella Secret got rejected by The Wild Rose Press.

*Sad trombone noise*

Read the details here.

Made the finals!

My MMA-based contemporary romance novel Fighting for Her Love made the finals for the Toronto Romance Writers' Gold contest!

Read the good news here.

Three Kangaroos

I've reclaimed the printer/scanner and installed the drivers so I can provide more of my elementary nonsense for the masses.

This is from a book of dictated stories, in which the student draws a picture and then tells a story to go with it, which the teacher writes down. I believe was from grade one.

Apparently, kangaroos like milk and picnics. Note the rainbow birds piled atop each other.

Golden Heart scores

Here are the scores for the Golden Heart 2010.

I'd entered Fighting for Her Love pre-second-round edits (after my interview with Victoria Curran). Can't help but wonder how it would score now.

I finished in the second quarter. Yay?

Do. Not. Want.

Her Cinderella Secret has been rejected once again.

*sigh*

Back to ye ol' drawing board...

Cross-posted from Victory's March.

Do. Not. Want.

*Sigh.*

My MMA romance novel got rejected by Harlequin Superromance. Not because of the quality of writing, but because of the lack of a more solid romantic conflict.

Go read the post-mortem on Victory Essex's blog--I got to interview senior editor Victoria Curran about it, and what came out of the hour-long talk was very enlightening.

Consolidating!

As I make the slow change over to my pseudonym, Victory Essex, you'll see shorter (and fewer) Writer Updates. Those will be hosted exclusively on Victory's March (my author blog), and occasionally on Vicki Heat's blog, Thermal Dynamics.

If you haven't done so, visit my blogs! And Become a Fan of Victory Essex on Facebook, and Tweet her! (If VE's on Twitter, does that make her a Twit?)

Any suggestions on design or content? Let me know! I'm always up for improving stuff. Cuz stuff is fun! Yay!

Third of three does not make me a loser, dammit!

I got the news today, oh, boy....

Finished third in the TRW's Golden Opportunity contest in the Contemporary Series category. From first in scores to third in rank (of three).

Poop. Oh, well, there's always next year. It was good to know I even made the finals.

Here's what the category judge, Harlequin Superromance's Wanda Ottewell, had to say:

How would you rate this entry on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest?
7

What was strong about this entry?
Really captures the heroine’s unique voice with the narrative. Her personality comes through well so the reader feels connected.

What could be improved?
A more unique, less typical meet between the hero and heroine would be good. While the collision between hero and heroine sparks physical awareness, as a device it gets used a lot.

I totally knew this about the setup when I set out to write the book, of course. But it is my first book, and after three years of rejigging, it actually rates as not half-bad, so on the scale of things, WIN!

Better luck next time!

If only this was the world's only problem...

Jesus would be mortified.

I find it hilarious that my teacher incorrectly fixed my spelling of "weird" by putting an "e" after "i", making it "wiered" rather than "wired."

Interactivity! Identity Crisis

I'm currently participating in an online workshop hosted by the Toronto Romance Writers on branding and, as I'm early in my career, it has been an eye-opening and thoroughly frustrating experience.

Admittedly, marketing is not my forte: I figured that out early during my short and entirely degrading experience working in a marketing department.

Simply put, it is entirely counter-intuitive to represent myself as something I'm not--and what I write is not who I am. I am not a person who focuses solely on contemporary family romance, even though that was what my last book was; nor am I the fantasy fanfiction writer most of the Google world knows me as.

Still, I can see the benefits of maintaining a certain integrity and message in my "public" face, i.e. Vicki Heat or Victory Essex. But having these two distinct IDs is really starting to throw me off. Some days I'm Victory Essex, the classy, dramatic writer who likes to glide through her mansion in her red velvet dress and drink brandy by the fireplace; other days, I'm Vicki Heat, who takes a shot of tequila with her to the bathtub where she lies around and dreams about where she'd like to place GSP or Tahmoh Penikett in her stories.

In the various worksheets and exercises, we're quizzed on the colors we like, the clothes that make us feel like a million bucks; we're asked to describe ourselves, how we present ourselves to others, our writing...it's all very confusing. Up until now, I've always just been Vicki So, an eclectic mix of all that is zany and sweet in the world...like a cotton candy cloud filled with euphoric ants. Now that I'm forcing myself to narrow it down to one identity to sell to the public, I don't know WHO I AM!

Help! Readers out there know me best (sorta). I need you to identify me!

Throw me some words to describe me! Manic? Humorous? Funky? Fresh? Smelly? Just this side of bat-shit-crazy? One donut short of a baker's dozen? You decide!

Your task: Give me your best adjective, adjective noun description of me as a writer.

(Bad) Examples:
Funky, Fresh Comedian
Wry, Witty Go-getter
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

Winner will get an icon designed by Poor, Pennyless Author!

Contest ends midnight EST, September 30, 2009.

Inspiration...

People often ask me if I base my characters on people I know.

Meet my latest hero, Kyle Peters.


Because working with Georges St. Pierre as a template for Dominic Payette in Fighting for Her Love worked so well to keep my creative juices (get your mind out of the gutter) flowing, I decided to pattern Kyle after Tahmoh Penikett, aka Helo from Battlestar Galactica and Paul Ballard from Dollhouse.

What I particularly like about Tahmoh, apart from a fantastic body, is his ability to shift from hard get-the-job-done guy to soft and sweet husband/lover/father. In his roles as Helo and Paul, he radiates absolute strength, but there's also a core of uncertainty and the tiniest hint of weakness there, too. If you watch him in interviews and on stage at conventions, he comes off as a super-playful guy who loves what he does and loves the fans. Tahmoh is also a practitioner of Muay Thai, as demonstrated in Dollhouse.

I found it quite easy to picture Kyle, a former Olympic gold wrestler, shifting through these different variations of Tahmoh at different stages of Kyle's life. The sheer intensity on his face is what I try to keep in mind.

And just because I think it's funny, Kyle's also a huge fan of Battlestar. 'Cuz that's the way I role.

WOO HOO!

My first book, Her Cinderella Secret, made the finals in the Toronto Romance Writers' Golden Opportunity Contest in the Contemporary Category!

YAY! Peer recognition!

Even if I don't win, I consider this a real accomplishment. Something to put on my resume.

Mind you, I still haven't heard back from Mills & Boon Tender Romance about it--I've emailed a couple of times, hoping to get a response. Next step is to write a letter, I suppose, to let them know the book (or at least the first three chapters) did pretty well.

Meanwhile, victoryessex.blogspot.com and vickiheat.blogspot.com are up and running! For now, each will get a posting on alternating weeks, unless something big happens, like this. HCS will likely be published under the Victory Essex label...if and when someone buys it...*hopes*

In other news...

My third book, Fighting for Her Love, is still awaiting a verdict (aka rejection) from Harlequin Superromance. It's still the best book I've written until now, and lots of people who've read the first chapter really like it. Big sister Fiona read the whole thing and told me it "kept her up at night," which is good.

I'm working on a second "Fight" book, tentatively titled Wrestling with Attraction. A brief overview:

Kyle Peters has a new student: Charlie Handover was sent to him with promises that ol' Chuck would be the next big thing in mixed martial arts. Just one thing: Charlie's a girl. Kyle refuses to get into it with another female fighter. The last one accused him of sexual assault and nearly ruined his career as a coach.

Charlie Handover has never been good at anything except fighting. The tomboy has a real chance to be an MMA star. But to get there, she needs Kyle to teach her. He can train her to grapple and hold an opponent in submission. But it seems her untrained heart has other ideas when she falls for her reluctant coach.

THAT'S in a name!

The people have spoken. My pen name is:

Victory Essex

But since the votes were so close, I'll be taking on Vicki Heat for more salacious contemporary fiction, and using Victory Essex for more family-oriented romance. Special thanks to Xiao Pangzi for the name suggestion: she'll be receiving a special Harlequin vintage print T-shirt as thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Stay tuned for victoryessex.blogspot.com!

Best. Book review. EVER.

From Smart Bitches, guest book review on PREGNESIA, which I proofread.

Frickin' hilarious.

Carla Cassidy's comments are included. What a sport.

What's in a Name, part II

I've put up my 4 narrowed-down choices for a nom de plume for my romance writing career (see side bar), but that doesn't mean I won't accept more suggestions!

I thought I'd share a few tips from various persons in the industry about choosing a pen name. I learned a lot, especially, from a workshop romance author Eloisa James gave the TRW a while ago:

1. Make the name short, less than seven letters long. The size of the font used on the cover will be bigger this way. Don't forget, you're competing with a whole bunch of other romance books and authors--make yours stick out.
   
2. On choosing your last name, think about who you'll be close to, and who you want to associate your work with.
3. Be wary of picking letters at the end of the alphabet: in big bookstores, that usually means you'll be at the bottom right-hand corner of the bookshelf, where no one will see your books.

The other requirements still stand: domains have to be available, as well as a blogger account name.

Thanks to everyone who has voted or put in their own two cents so far!

Guilty of Cruelty to the Visually Impaired...

...And that's that.

I think that person on top of the ginormous bird is playing with a paddle ball.

Readin' the Blogs, Postin' the Links...

Just thought I'd point y'all towards my friend Heather's awesome word blog. Check it out at the-word-blog.com.

Also, for no reason other than I need a laugh during these dreary, rainy days, this:

Goodbye fanfiction...

...Hello real world writing.

Yup, I've pretty much decided to leave the realm of fanfiction so that I can focus on honing my craft as a "real" writer. Last night, I posted my final chapter of my final Avatar: The Last Airbender story. The series is over, and I've pretty much told all the stories I'm going to tell. So it's a good time for me to stop.

I had some great times working on that stuff over the past three years with some great reviews and fantastic support from fans who've written some really nice things about me. They're the reason why I'm pursuing my writing career, and one day, I'm going to be able to thank them all in print when I get published.

Fare thee well, fanfiction. Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Meanwhile, big sis said she enjoyed Fighting for Her Love, (Hi Fi! Thanks for reading!) so with a little more spit and polish, plus a beta read among the pros, I think I'll be ready to pitch it to Harlequin Superromance. It'll be the first time I'll pitch to someone at my actual office--I've been staunchly avoiding that scenario when an editorial assistant smacks me across the back of the head with my own manuscript before setting it on fire and placing it on my desk. But I can't help what I write, and it fits best with the line, so I'm going ahead and risking injury.

Star Attraction is giving me a headache. I'm not sure I like it anymore. But it's still worth pitching, just because I can. If nothing else, I can post it on a blog or on fictionpress.com.

Haven't heard from Mills & Boon still about Her Cinderella Secret. Will try contacting someone at the end of the month.

Testing ideas for a fourth novel. Still have lots of unfinished projects, plus I want to try my hand at short stories. Mostly trying to take it easy and enjoy the summer while simultaneously planning the wedding and finding a new place to live. Fun times.