I decided to celebrate Ebook Week by providing a free read for our readers. It’s from my back list.

Since I’m writing the long awaited sequel, GENETIC SNARE, I’ve chosen the first book in the series to be free this whole week.

You can download a pdf of DETAILS OF THE HUNT for the next 7 days for free and while you are there take a look at all the other fabulous authors’ work waiting for you.

http://www.mlrpress.com

I’d add the cover image but Ican’t seem ot get that section of this blog to work for me!

Laura Baumbach

Two authors published by MLR Press have been nominated for a…

2011 TLA GAYBIE!

The TLA Gaybies honor what they feel was the very best work in movies, television, literature, online journalism and film festivals from 2010.

The following MLR Press authors have been nominated for their work in the following literary category:

Best Gay Mystery

Richard Stephenson for Cockeyed: A Donald Strachey Novel

Neil Plakcy for Mahu Men

They are asking their customers, fans and members of the industry to vote throughout March. The results will be tabulated in the beginning of April. Winners will be announced April 15^th. Fans can vote immediately and can vote as many times as they want!

Find the details of the 2011 TLA GAYBIES here:

http://www.tlagay.com/gaybies/a-2

Congratulations on these 2011 TLA GAYBIE nominations. Good luck, Neil and Richard!

Laura

We all face it at one time or another as writers. It’s part of life and part of the writing process. DETAILS OF THE HUNT, my 2006 EPIC finalist, a semi-finalist Shreikfest Screenplay contest and Preditors and Editors top ten pick was rejected by Kensington. Darn them! I still have the letters from both the late Kate Duffy and John Scognamiglior in my desk. Double darn them! *g*

Samhain rejected my first submission to them because it fell a few hundred words less than their cut off point for short stories but Changeling took ENTHRALLED, the same story, first time out.

EC took 18 months to reject a mainstream thriller I wrote for their other line and 2 hours to reject a m/m short I sent them. They get the award for shortest rejection time and longest! I walked away from them after that. Yikes.

Aspen Mountain Press took on the thriller FLIGHT OF THE SPARROWS which is actually more YA than I realized when I wrote it since the main character is a 16 year old British orphan with an eidetic memory who gets embroiled with an American Special Forces team.

My point being we all face rejection at some time in this business, but its what you do about it that makes the difference. There is an interesting article posted recently listing 50 well-know authors and their rejection numbers. I thought it would be inspiring to share it.  If you are out there dealing with having your story rejected again and again, know you are not alone.  Keep plugging away.

“50 Iconic Writers Who Were Repeatedly Rejected” (http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/05/17/50-iconic-writers-who-were-repeatedly-rejected/)

Laura

Saturday the 2010 EPIC  Awards were held in the wonderful old city of New Orleans. There was much partying, sightseeing, eating, plot bunny births and drinking to be had.

Friday I had the experience of dining at one of the truly best restaurants I have even eaten at — The Commander’s Palace.  It was exquisite. The old house it was located in was gorgeous. The setting across the street from a huge mausoleum-packed cemetery was so atmospheric of New Orleans. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable, elegant and expert at their jobs. We even got a little ghost story with our $.25 luncheon martinis! (I only had two, I swear!)  The food was divine.   Turtle soup with sherry. Braised steak cooked just the way I like, with caramelized onions and seasoned side sauce for extra zing if you wanted it. The bread pudding souffle was heaven, especially with the Jack Daniel’s creme sauce poured in the steamy-warm center. The entire meal was perfection from start to finish. I couldn’t recommend this place more. A real highlight on the trip!

Saturday’s awards dinner was thrilling for MLR. Kirby Crow’s ANGELS OF THE DEEP took the erotic horror category, and MEXICAN HEAT by myself and Josh Lanyon took the erotic romantic suspense/mystery category. MH is published at MLR in print. The electronic format is with Samhain, so it was technically their win but it’s the same story so I’m running with it! lol. While accepting Kirby’s award since Kirby couldn’t be there, I did make a point of mentioning how wonderful it was to be allowed this year to enter our books in the proper categories instead of the previous years’ single GLBT category where romance, horror, mystery, paranormal, sci-fi and everything else competed against each other and only one GLBT book could win. We competed on level ground this year and took two categories home with us!

The trip was a great success. Especially because I got to spend more time with my friends Sandy Hicks, Ally Blue, Jet Mykles, Jade Buchanan, Rick Reed, ZA Maxfield, and Jolie du Pre! There is never enough time to be with friends in this fast paced world and I appreciate every moment that does bring us together. And I got to nudge several of  them about the manuscripts they are writing for me! *g*

The site should’ve been an author’s dream. All these threads talking about books, places to get them, the excitement of waiting for new releases, discovering something new. Hours after a book is released, there’s a good chance you’ll find it there.
The problem is, the people who frequented the site have no intention of paying for the books. They’ll click on the links, go to fileshare sites, and download the books.
As one of the members once said, “…why pay for the books when you can get them for free?”

Walking the e-plank

Whether published in e-format or print, there’s a good chance many writers will have to deal with piracy.
For Ginn Hale, author of Wicked Gentleman, the problems have been twofold.
“The first is the amount of my creative time that has been wasted by the endless cycle of having to write and request that a link be taken down only to have it pop back up under a slightly different name,” said Hale. “This can go on and on for weeks, until I just give up in frustration.”
“My second problem is that it’s made my first experiences with the readers of digital works a very negative one. I want to believe that most readers of e-books and electronic works are honest people, but being constantly pirated — and being told that I should be happy about it because it’s promotion — hasn’t done much to buoy my optimism.”
Like Hale, other authors have been frustrated by the pervasive links. (continue reading…)

MLR Press authors will be chatting all day  tomorrow, Saturday, May 9th over at the LoveRomanceCafe yahoo group.

They have the entire day set aside for us, so please drop by and chat for a bit. There will be plenty of excerpts from new releases and some soon-to-be released stories as well. Probably even a few old but still fabulous stories, too. Stop by any time. Stay as long or as short as you can. Authors will be popping in and out all day.

A few months ago, I asked fellow authors of GLBT romance to join together with me to look into forming a special interest chapter of the RWA. While RWA has acknowledged this sub-genre of romance, there was never a chapter where authors of this sub-genre could meet to discuss issues and experiences that focused on their writing, promotional needs and publishing issues. Over 100 authors showed up to discuss the possibilities. In the end 39 RWA members formed the Rainbow Romance Writers online special interest provisional chapter of RWA.

I’m very proud to announce that as of today we are no longer provisional but officially part of RWA! Here is the official announcement from chapter president Jade Buchanan:

Rainbow Romance Writers is the newest Special Interest Chapter within the Romance Writers of America. A lot of hard work has gone into setting us up as a chapter, but we are very proud to announce that writers specializing in LGBT romance now have a specific place to network with other career-focused writers and concentrate on our unique needs within the romance genre.

Our goals are:

* to promote excellence in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender romances
* to help members become published in LGBT romances
* to be an advocate within the industry for our genre
* to be a resource to our members and others on writing and the publishing industry

We currently have 39 wonderful members who represent all different aspects of the LGBT romance genre.

Interested writers can contact us at membership@rainbowromancewriters.com
if they would like to become members of Rainbow Romance Writers. They can also email me directly at jade.buchanan@yahoo.com

http://www.rainbowromancewriters.com

Here’s a HUGE thank you to everyone involved in making this happen, those in the new chapter and those at RWA who service the interest of the whole romance writing community! KUDOS!