Sticks and Stones

Remember that old rhyme "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me?"
We used to chant it in school when someone insulted us. It never really made us feel better, of course.

And I feel the same way about reviews. I just read one in which the reviewer clearly didn't GET the book. It was Royal Blood, that is supposed to be a comedy spoof on vampires. The reviewer blasts my heroine for being stupid enough to believe in vampires. Well, I guess that reviewer has never been in a castle in Transylvania at night, with no electricity, during a snowstorm. If the situation is right, one starts to believe in anything. I have stayed at various old castles and houses in Europe and trust me, if you hear a strange noise in the night or see something moving that you can't identify, even the most rational of us can begin to believe in ghosts, ghouls, vampires etc.

So why should I feel so upset about one review? It's just one person's opinion, after all, and there are people in the world who actually like Lady Gaga. I don't think most people realize how fragile most writers' egos are. We never believe what we have written is any good until our agents and editors tell us so. As we write we go through pockets of despair in which we tell ourselves that we are writing rubbish and will never write anything of consequence again and all our fans will leave us and the publisher will drop us. Then we get an email from our editor saying "This was fabulous" and we dance around for a few days saying "It's fabulous. I always knew it."

Some writer friends have made a pact never to read reviews. I should learn to follow that advice, but I love reading the glowing kind and I have to say that before online bloggers I always got only good reviews from the traditional sources, PW, Kirkus, Booklist etc. They have all given me starred reviews. RT Reviews always makes me a top pick. So I have to remind myself that online reviewers are not pros. They give a personal rather than an unbiased reaction to what they read.

Sometimes I'm tempted to respond and explain where the reviewer didn't quite understand what I wanted to achieve, but that's not a good idea. And besides, if one person didn't GET my book, then I still have improvements to make in my writing. So it's back to work, I guess.

And tell me--are you ever influenced by reviews? Do you read the Amazon reviews before you buy? I confess to doing that before purchasing something eletronic and if a book got all 1 stars I don't think I'd try it.

A Perfect Weekend.

I know I've been rather silent this last week. I've a good excuse, or rather good excuses. I had book signings and a live Facebook chat, but also one of my oldest and best friends arrived with her husband to stay with us from England. Penny and I met on almost the first day of college and have stayed close friends ever since. Her lovely centuries old home in Lincolnshire is always my first port of call when I arrive in England. It's everything I fantasize about when I grow nostalgic for the country of my birth--lovely gardens, old church clock chiming the hour, sitting in the sun eating home grown strawberries and cream, strolling to the village pub for a hearty meal. She even rings the bells in her church and I've been to watch (and tried it without being jerked up into the tower).
It's her first visit to California so I'm cramming as much as possible into their visit. Also Saturday was my birthday and all 4 of my children flew in to be there. We had a lovely family weekend and it made me realize what is really important to me. Not eating out at a fancy restaurant. Not expensive presents. But sitting around the table with those I love, talking and laughing and sharing. That is my top pick for happiness.

Would you like to share yours?

Oh and two bonus reasons for happiness:
I had well over 500 birthday greetings on Facebook, which I found so moving
also
 My new paperback of Royal Blood was seen in Costco this week. My happiness is now complete!

Non-royal blood?

Things happen to me, especially at conventions. Especially in LA. Last year I was at Left Coast Crime and the Starbucks person didn't put the lid on my coffee properly resulting in a brown tsunami over my leather jacket and white turtleneck.

Today I'm at RT convention.... in LA again. Before my morning presentation Hollywood icon Bill Link lost control of his motorized scooter. It careened at me, trapping me between him and the table. Result was a cut arm that bled over my white linen pants. We tried getting out the blood with milk, which worked quite well, but I then had a round dubious-looking stain as I stepped up to the podium in front of 250 people.

I'm beginning to think I am doomed. No wonder I identify so strongly with my character, Lady Georgie. Accidents always happen to her when she wants to make a good impression. Wait a minute--perhaps the accidents that happen to her have already happened to me

At least I have a good supply of disasters for future Georgie books.
Keep your fingers crossed for this afternoon when I get an award for best historical mystery for Royal Blood that I don't trip, fall, stab myself or spill coffee.....

Into the Wide Blue Yonder

Tomorrow my crazy September really gets going.
I fly to Portland, OR, for two days at the Festival of Wales. (No, it's not, as one old man thought, about the ocean creatures, but the country, stuck to one side of England, where my mother's family came from) It is the North American celebration of all things Welsh. There will be fabulous male voice choirs and Welsh foods and stories about Welsh pioneers in America--and me. They are holding a meet and greet cocktail party for me tomorrow evening and then on Saturday I have to give a speech, followed by a book signing.  I'm looking forward to it at lot, although I know I'll have to answer the same question about five hundred times:
when is the next Constable Evans book coming out?

The problem is that it's not. At least not in the immediate future. I made the decision not to write any more books when the publisher took most of the series out of print. That would mean that a new reader would not be able to go back and read the rest of the series in order, and we all know how important that is. So no more Evan for now, although I am toying with a short story or two, just to see how Evan and Bronwen are doing. And if that TV series ever gets off the ground, then I'll write some more.

In the meantime my hands are full enough with Molly and Lady Georgie, and I'll be kicking off Royal Blood with a launch party next Tuesday, followed by a tour all over the place.
Wish me luck. And stop by to say hello if I come to your town.

In Search of Bull's Blood!

I feel like NASA! Only seven days to go before Royal Blood is in stores and I set off on a book tour.
First stop the launch party at my own local and wonderful bookstore, BOOK PASSAGE is Corte Madera CA. If ever there was a perfect bookstore, this is it! Every book you'd ever want, events and classes going on all the time, a delightful courtyard to sit and read plus a geat little cafe so that you can sip a latte at the same time. It's reader heaven.

I always try to put on a big party there for my local friends and loyal supporters, and each time I try to do something different. This time, because the theme is Transylvania, Vampires I've decided to serve Bull's Blood wine from Hungary. Yes, I know Transylvania isn't in Hungary,but it WAS before the allies divided up that part of Europe after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Hapsburg Empire. And my story takes place not too long after the redefining of borders, so a lot of bad feelings and political intrigue (what else in a murder mystery!)
So the wine is pretty authentic.
Obviously for food it should be goulash or meat served flaming on a sword, but I'm honoring their light carpet and I'm sticking to salami, cheese and strawberries. Any other sugestions for red things, apart from licorice, which doesn't really do it for me?

So I'm off on a quest for Bull's Blood today! Wish me luck

Why do we love vampires?

Following on nicely with my superstitions thread, I suddenly realized that my next book is all about superstition--and our deepest folk fears, of evil that walks in the dark. In the past when only a candle lit a few feet of darkness it was easy to understand that the wind moaning down the chimney sounded like a soul in torment, or that a flapping sound was an undead creature flying through the night to seek blood.

My next book, ROYAL BLOOD, has all these elements in it, but I hasten to add that it is not a horror story. It is comedy, like the rest of the Royal Spyness books. Lady Georgie, my royal heroine--34th in line to the throne but penniless as ever, is asked to represent the family at a royal wedding in Europe. She discovers that the wedding is at a castle in Transylvania--and yes, something is crawling up the walls and a pale young man is bending over her bed.

I decided that there was such a universal fascination with vampires that I wanted to have fun with the whole Dracula motif.  I'm not saying whether there are real vampires in my book or not. You'll have to read it to see. But I am interested in what lures us to stories of the undead. The desire to be scared but safe. That same feeling as we sat around a campfire as children and told ghost stories. But it's more than that--it's the ultimare lure of forbidden fruit. The sexy vampire toying with our very soul, but irresistable.

That's why it's so delicious to write about--if, like me, you don't take it too seriously. I know there are some people who do. Charlaine Harris says that people with sharpened teeth show up on her doorstep. She's had to put in a perimeter security fence. They hire security when she speaks. So I seriously hope these folks are not offended when I poke gentle fun at them in my book.... I don't want them showing up on my doorstep, fangs and all.

So why do you think we are attracted to vampires?
ROYAL BLOOD comes out in September! Watch out for it.