How This Book Came About

Last week I promised myself and you that I'd write about how my various books came into being. Here's the first installment. I'd love to hear from you.

Passion’s Four Towers

 

The year: 2005 The location: Reno, NV The event: RWA National Convention

The inciting incident: Spotlight on Ellora’s Cave

I ran into sister writer and former RWA chapter mate Lynn LaFleur at this convention. She urged me to attend the spotlight on Ellora’s Cave. I did and won an anthology. Now, ordinarily I don’t like anthologies—the stories are too short. But I enjoyed every one of the stories—especially The Windsday Club by Charlotte Boyett-Campos. I wondered if I could write something equally funny and HOT!

At home, I began writing like a mad woman. I wrote scenes without thought of how they all would fit together. But at last, it was done and I sent my darling baby out into the cold reaches of cyberspace.

And received an acknowledgement that she’d arrived safely! Whew!

A couple of months later, I got a notice that things were a little backed up, but I should hear shortly about my baby’s fate. She survived her initial reading and had gone on to an acquiring editor. In late September 2006 I received a lovely rejection letter, saying too many of my sex scenes occurred “off stage” but if I wanted to revise and resubmit, I was welcome to do so.

Well, I guess you know what I did. I revised and resubmitted. “The Call” came in the form of an email that my DH woke me up at 0400 hours to read. His comment was, “I think you’ll want to see this.” And I did the Snoopy dance right in the middle of my husband’s office and sent an email back, saying, “Yes! I want the contract. And thanks!”

Passion’s Four Towers released in March 2007 and is still my best seller.

Why is this book so important to me? Aside from it being my first sale, I’d been trying to become a published author for fifteen years! I’d pretty much given up and decided if I didn’t sell I’d have to find another something to keep my mind occupied. But, thankfully, I did sell—in a genre I never expected to write. Erotic romance.

I now have sold thirteen stories from novellas to super novels (word counts from small to near 100,000). I even have a story that’s up for Book of the Month at Sizzling Hot Books Reviews: http://www.sizzlinghotbooks.net/

Voting starts on March 30, 2011 and goes for 48 hours. I hope, if you read this in time, you’ll take the time to vote for Their Consummate Courtesan from eXtasy Books.

In the meantime, hold on to your dreams and keep on writing. You never know when good things might happen and open a whole new world.

Dee Brice

March 27, 2011

Why Dee's Dites

Several months ago I succumbed to the need to have my own blog. I chose to call it Dee’s Dites (deesdites.blogspot.com). The other day DH asked me why that particular name.

Aside from the alliteration, “dites” is French for “tell.” Who can forget—assuming, of course, you’re old enough to remember—the song Ditez Moi from South Pacific?

Anyway, I have a French maiden name and thought deesdites appropriate. In addition, in spite of warnings to show not tell, writers do tell. We tell stories. We tell about people who meet and fall in love. And, hopefully, readers remember what we’ve told them.

Over the next several weeks, I’m going to tell readers how each of my books came about. Check me out at: deesdites.blogspot.com.

Oh! Also check out Book 4 in my Sensuous Seasonings series. It’s called Model Misbehavior and will release April 1, 2011—and no, that’s no April Fools’ Day joke—from eXtasy Books.

Dee Brice

Erotic Fantasies Where Nothing is Forbidden