Okay, thanks to my husband Nicholas for sending me this link to the rare video footage of the Frilled Shark. It’s a shame this creature didn’t survive, but I truly think this shark is fascinating.

So, I thought (just for the heck of it!) that I’d list some of my favorite reference books. Here goes:

For crime:

*Scene of the Crime: A writer’s guide to crime-scene investigations
*Deadly Does: A writer’s guide to poisons
*Cause of Death: A writer’s guide to death, murder, and forensic medicine
*Police Procedural: A writer’s guide to the police and how they work
The Criminal Mind: A Writer’s guide to Forensic Psychology
Forensics: True Crime Scene Investigation

*Indicates books are part of the really simple, easy to understand Howdunit series.

For the paranormal:

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythical Creature
The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures
The Vampire Book
Haunted Britain and Ireland
The Encyclopedia of Superstitutions
Monsters–An investigator’s guide to magical beings
Psychic-True paranormal experiences
The History of Mythology

For history:

Tutankhamun
Valley of the Golden Mummies
British Kings and Queens
Everyday life in the Middle Ages
What life was like in the age of Chivalry
The Medieval Warrior
Armor
Anatomy of the Castle
The history of Archaeology

There are many books of this sort lining my shelves–I’ve admitted it before and I’ll do it again, I’m a reference book addict. For any writer out there who wishes to build his/her own reference library, my advice is simple: Begin by hunting through the bargain books at Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million–I’ve found so many great books there–and saved myself huge amounts of money.

Tell me, do you have a favorite reference book you’d like to share? Perhaps one I should get for my little library?

I’ve literally got dozens and dozens of reference books in my office. Some are plot-related (how to murder/maim/investigate a crime scene, etc.) while others are craft-oriented.

One of my favorite writing-craft research books is Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies (gotta love the Dummies books) by Leslie Wainger (with Harlequin). One of the chapters that I found interesting in this particular book was Chapter 22, otherwise known as the “Ten Reasons Why A Manuscript Gets Rejected” chapter.

Here are the reasons cited:

1. Bad Writing
2. Unsympathtic/unlikeable characters
3. Unrealistic characters
4. Boring stories–nothing happens!
5. Illogical plots
6. Outdated story or character
7. Poor research
8. A book billed as a romance when it isn’t
9. Bad fit–or not the right publishing house for the work
10. Incorrect formatting

Now, I’ll confess–number 10 gave me pause. However, Ms. Waigner writes “Books that are obviously formatted incorrectly don’t even get read. Obvious mistakes include single-spacing your manuscript, improperly paragraphing, making your margin too narrow, having dialogue written in italics instead of quotes, and having your text written in all caps.”

So, a note to those planning to send off submissions–make absolutely certain you check a publisher’s formatting guidelines!

Anyone out there want to weigh in with other reasons why you suspect manuscripts get rejected? Hmm? Personally, I’d like to add a little note to #9–I think the “Bad Fit” situation could be extended to include “Bad Time”–some stories might not sell b/c a house JUST bought a similar story or because there is a glut in the market or b/c there’s only room for one western romance every three months…

I was surfing on the eHarlequin site, and I found this great listing of pet peeves from an editor. Now, I’ve always wondered about the submission issues that might get under an editor’s skin, and, well, now I know a few!

I was curious to see if another editor might have the same issues, so I asked Felecia Mills, editor with Red Sage Publishing, for a list of her top five pet peeves. And here they are:

1. Not giving me enough time before you start e-mailing me wanting to know about your submission. It takes longer than 2 weeks.

2. Wimpy heroines! Create strong, independent, intelligent, self-sufficient women who don’t need a man to “complete” them.

3. Sudden turns of character. I hate it when I’m reading about a devilishly wicked character who suddenly, and without explanation, turns “good”. Whenever a character has turned “bad”, there’s always plenty of backstory to explain why. I would think turning good would be require at least a little explanation.

4. Weird language. Please don’t make the hero use words that nobody has used since 1832. You can have a great story, well developed, strong, sexy characters, all ruined by stinky dialogue. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve read the word “sated”.

5. I would think that everyone would do this, but please, read through your story before submitting it. It doesn’t bode well for your writing career if you submit stories full of typos, grammar and usage errors. Don’t rely on spell check. Invest in a good dictionary, thesaurus, and a good usage & style book. And learn how to use them. And use them often.

Thanks, Felecia, for answering so honestly.

So…anyone been guilty of committing any of these submission crimes? I’ll confess–I think I use “gaze” too much (one of the listed Harlequin pet peeves), but I’ll sure be watching out for my usage in the future!

Okay…I haven’t been a good blogger lately–I apologize. I’ve just finished up the rough draft of my novella (tentatively titled Blood Hunt cuz, yes, it’s about vampires and the hero is a bounty hunter and, well, you get the idea). So, my immediate plans are now as follows:

1. Blog! I plan to write about four craft-related posts that I’ve been thinking about for weeks but just haven’t been able to write (due to time constraints).

2. Make some changes to my website. I’m ready for a new author page. I’m ready for a FAQ’s page. I’m ready for a “News” feature on my homepage. And who knows? Maybe I’ll add some other features, too. If anyone has any suggestions for my updates, let me know! Particularly in regard to the author page and the FAQ’s page–if you have questions, you can post them here or email them to me at info@cynthiaeden.com.

3. Read the upcoming Jayne Ann Krentz release, White Lies, cuz I really, really love her work.

4. After I’ve had a chance to clear my head a bit, I’ll go back and look at Blood Hunt with fresh eyes as I begin my read-through.

5. Hmm…guess that would make it time to start writing a new book! A novel this time…

And how is everyone else out there in Blog Land? Having fun? Reading awesome books? Writing like crazy?