Sorry I haven’t updated more–but now I’m chiming in with my first RT update.  🙂  The weather is great. There are plenty of writers, readers, and booksellers about, and the convention is in full swing.

I had a great time at the Red Sage Pool Party today. Larissa Ione and I signed copies of SECRETS, VOLUME 18 and SECRETS, VOLUME 21 (and, by the way, Larissa is really awesome, just saying).  I met lots of wonderful folks, I chatted, I signed, and the time passed SO quickly.  Thanks to everyone for coming out for the event–and thanks to Red Sage for organizing the great party.

I’ve attended a few publisher spotlights while I’ve been in Orlando (Red Sage, Kensington, and Grand Central Publishing), and what I keep hearing is that romance is selling and selling well.  Here are a few highlights from the chats:

1st–Red Sage is looking for ebooks with a word count of over 40,000. The editors want stories with modern, smart and confident heroines; strong, sexy, and intelligent heroes; strong plots and high sexual content; all romance sub-genres are welcome.

At the Kensington spotlight, folks were told that the “hardest” sells right now were the contemporaries. Unagented submissions are accepted and the current response time on a manuscript is about 3 months.  To query, send a synopsis and the first 50 pages of your work.  (Here’s a link to Kensington’s submission page.)  Megan Records lead the spotlight, and she acquries for Zebra and Brava.  Kensington is looking for historicals, paranormals, and urban fantasy stories.

The next spotlight  I attended was the Grand Central event.  Grand Central only accepts agented submissions.  They are looking for sexy historicals, paranormals, contemporaries “with heart”, romantic suspense stories and erotic romances.  In the spotlight, it was noted that all the sub-genres are “getting sexier.”  The editors are currently acquiring for 2011 and 2012.

That’s all my publishing news for now.  I’m going to the Kensington party and the Grand Central party later tonight, then I’ll be off at the ball tonight.  I’ve taken some photos, and I’ll try to post them soon.  And I’ll try to take more tonight.  🙂

It’s great meeting folks!!

Today’s interview victim is the very talented Yolanda Sfetsos.  Yolanda is a fabulous lady who writes some great paranormal tales and it is  a real pleasure to have here at my blog today.  🙂  Yolanda, welcome!

1.    Please tell us a bit about yourself and the genre (or genres) that you write.

Hi Cynthia! Firstly, I just wanted to thank you for having me here today.

I live in Sydney, Australia with my husband, daughter, and cat.  I love to write stories with an otherworldly slant, and a good dose of darkness thrown in. Mostly I find myself writing urban fantasy tales because I love the genre and it allows me to include just about everything that I love to write about, but I also enjoy writing Sci-Fi and Futuristic stories.

2.    Describe SEALED WITH A DEMON’S KISS in 15 words or less.

A world with witches, warlocks, and demons sprinkled with betrayal and the unexpected.

3.    Okay, now use as many words as you’d like to describe your story.

This is the blurb…

Tamara is a pentagram witch who has been imprisoned by warlocks for five years. They want to use her power to conjure and bind a powerful demon, but she runs away a few days before their attempt.

Tyler is a demon who has lived with humans for too long. His latest mission is to keep a pentagram witch from the clutches of the warlocks. To protect her with his life, so his master won’t be conjured and enslaved.

However, when their attraction gets in the way, Tyler isn’t sure he can do what his master wants him to.

4.    Which character do you like better from SEALED WITH A DEMON’S KISS–the hero or the heroine?  Why?

Well, I actually like both of them because each character goes through a lot – together and individually. But the heroine has been through a horrid ordeal just before the story starts and always felt out of place. Even with those she was supposed to belong with. It was a challenge to tell Tamara’s tale, but also a lot of fun.

5.    What is the most challenging part of being a writer?
Rejection would have to be the most challenging. No matter how many books you have published, rejection still lurks behind every corner. Oh, and self doubt. I don’t know why that happens to us writer folk, but I read about it on other writer’s blogs all the time. Personally, I go through patches of this too. One second, I’m loving the story, and the next I start to question everything about it, and then fall in love with it all over again. Strange.

6.    In a fight, who would win…Dracula or the wolf-man?  What? This question seems odd? Please, folks are dying to know this answer.

Yikes! Good question. Well, I would have to say that wolf-man would probably have more strength, so his feral nature could squash Dracula… but those vampires are cunning and clever – which can prove to be lethal. I’m gonna have to go with Dracula because he could outsmart wolf-man.

7.    What’s your favorite scary movie?  Come on, spill.  No explanations—just name it.  Let everyone else guess why.

I love a lot of scary movies, but I’m going to have to go with: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

8.    Tell me the one thing you wish you’d known about being a writer, um, before you became a writer.

This is a hard one. I wish I’d known just how hard and how much work is involved in the non-writing part of being a writer. At the end of the day, I think the easiest part ends up being putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. I find all the other things a lot harder – synopsis, queries, promo, etc.

9.    What is your writing schedule like?

Well, I get up early in the morning and get writing/revising as soon as hubby goes off to work. So I get an early start. Once my daughter wakes up, it’s time to shut everything down until I’ve dropped her off. When I have, I go for a nice walk by the river and think about whatever WIP I’m working on at the moment. This usually helps me sort out what I’m going to focus on for the day. I get home, get stuck into it, stop for lunch, keep going, and then stop with enough time to blog.

By that time, hubby gets home, so I don’t touch the writing until the next day. I spend pretty much the whole time my daughter’s at school working. I like to write at least 3k words per day, or get through 50 pages of revision. It depends on what I’m working on at the time. Oh, and I take most weekends off.

10.    Tell me anything you’d like to tell me.

Well, if you’d like to know a little more about me or my books, you can visit my website at www.yolandasfetsos.com. I also blog almost every single day at Blogger and LJ, so feel free to pop in and say hi. I love to chat!

Hi, everyone! I’m out on the roads today, but if you’re looking for a good blog post, please head over to The Bradford Bunch.  New York Times best-selling author Angie Fox is our guest there today, and she’s giving away a copy of her upcoming release, THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR DEMON SLAYERS.

Before I talk about the RT Convention, I wanted to announce that I’ve got a guest post over at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA blog.  My topic is promotion, and, oh, yeah, with the RT Convention just days away, promotion has certainly been on my mind! (Thanks, Elisabeth, for inviting me to guest post!)

I’ll be heading out early tomorrow and driving down to Orlando with my family. We’re going to have some Disney fun before the convention begins next week. SO looking forward to some vacation time!

If you’re planning to attend the RT Convention, please come say hello!

On Thursday, April 23rd, I’ll be at the Red Sage Tropical Splendor Pool Party from 12:45-1:45.  Books, editors, and a good time at the pool! Come on by!

And then on Friday, April 24th, from 10 am until 11 am, I’ll be at the Love Shack: The Sequel party (hosted by Lauren Dane, Ann Aguirre, Anya Bast, Megan Hart, and me!). We’ll be giving away 100 goodie bags (filled with autographed books and bonus prizes). Food, fun, and books!

On Saturday, April 25th, I’ll be participating in the Giant Author Bookfair from 11 until 2.

I’ll also be attending publisher spotlights and posting the info that I gather here on the old blog. (I’ll try to do as many convention updates as I can, so stay tuned!)

Have a great day!

Do you ever wonder how authors balance writing and a family?  Well, I’ve got a post up at Mama Writers–it’s the tale of how I wrote HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT, with a very little baby.  🙂

I LOVE the Mama Writers site.  Every time I head there, I feel inspired. So, yes, this is definitely a blog site I’d recommend!