Ric

WHO IS YOUR BAD INFLUENCE?

Have you ever had the experience of knowing you should be working, but the intoxicating presence of somebody, a light, a warmth that stops you from doing any work at all?  The feeling is very much like a teenage crush, intense and addictive.  You spend time waiting for them to show up, like a kid waiting for the ice cream van. It is akin to the hook of a story, that just wants you to read one more page, reach the end of one more chapter. It is the feeling that you know you should be somewhere or do something,...

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ALWAYS WORK SAFELY. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY BACKUPS!

This is good advice for everyone, but especially writers. Always save and always back up.  MS Word has a good autosave feature that has saved me a couple of times when the PC has crashed while I have been working. I have been told I am a bit too cautious.  I save my writing all the time. When I do revisions to the script, I save it as with a different file name, usually the story title with that day’s date, so I can see the current version of the story.  In addition to that, I back up the hard...

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AN INTERVIEW WITH CALLIE CARMEN THE AUTHOR OF OUR LATEST BOOK PATRICK.

I’d like to mention that the paperback is due out by June 1st.  I am so excited that I got to chat with the author Callie Carmen.  Her Patrick went live last weekend! The e-book is available to pre-order now at the sale price of $2.99 until the release date May 25th.  The story is a romantic thriller, and I think you are going to love it as much as I do.  Here is a taste of the story Chapter One. My chat with Author Callie Carmen Do you consider being a writer a gift or a curse? No, not a curse; I love writing. Especially,...

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FLOWERS? CHOCOLATES? A GOOD BOOK? HOW WILL YOU BE CELEBRATING MOTHER’S DAY?

Always a good family time, I hope you are having a great Mother’s Day.  It is a good time to make it a little special for your mum.  Flowers? Chocolates? A good book? How will you be celebrating Mother’s Day? In the UK we have already had Mother’s Day, but it is always nice that you can think of it again for the second time.  So what will your day look like? A family meeting?  Maybe lunch out; that is always popular here. I could not resist mentioning the gift of a good book, and a little mention of our...

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OUR LATEST BOOK, PATRICK IS NOW LIVE!

I’m thrilled to let you know our latest book Patrick is out! Prologue Serial killer I missed my lovelies. I opened the drawer of my nightstand and pulled out my prized photo album letting my fingertips brush the steel finish of the Pierre Cardin signature embossed on the lower front of my dead mother’s antique table lamp. Not wanting to disappoint Mother more than I already had by not becoming a surgeon, I had taken to heart the need to be precise in my work with my lovelies. I thought back on all the years when my mother had been training...

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EDITS? LOVE THEM! HATE THEM!

I always had a love-hate relationship with edits; I guess we all do.  In one and the same time; your edits are the thing you most want to see, you have the expectation that your writing is flawless, and dreading that what you have written has more holes than Swiss cheese.  Like it or not we are too close to our work to see the flaws we need the extra eyes to give a clear cynical view of our stories. So, the day comes, and the e-mail is there from your editor you take a deep breath hoping for a...

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ALL READY FOR THE WEEKEND?

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Are you the kind of person that works on weekends? Or do you think of writing like a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, kind of thing?  I have always been a bit work-obsessed and find it hard to separate work time, from chill time.  I find getting the balance between work and home, quite challenging sometimes.  This weekend I have a pile of scripts to review and some promotional work. I love my job so it doesn’t feel like work at all, and it is totally my choice to work the way I do.  Especially with my writing, I...

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HOW MANY CHARACTERS DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A STORY?

I wonder how many authors have considered this subject? One of the reasons I bring up the topic is my current read is Mythos by Stephen Fry.  The book is a retelling of the myths of Ancient Greece. There are a lot of characters in it.  It is absolutely impossible to remember all the names, but somehow it works because you are so familiar with all of the characters. It also works in epics like Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien and Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin.  (Is the R. R. a coincidence? I should Google...

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IN ROMANCE NOVELS THE ONE SUBJECT YOU CAN’T AVOID TALKING ABOUT IS S*X.

You can’t avoid the topic of sex when you work in a romance publishing house. I try not to talk about it too much in blogs because I don’t want folk to think that is all we talk about here.  But for a couple of reasons, this topic came up.  There are a few parts to this, so I hope you will bear with me. Ric told me of a discussion he had with a BVS published author, no names, she asked if her new story was sexy enough. I thought this an interesting topic for a few reasons.  How...

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IS A LITTLE KINKY OK! IS VARIETY THE SPICE OF LIFE?

I first started working for Black Velvet Seductions in 2014, soon after Ric took over as CEO. One of the first BVS books I read was Playing for Keeps by Glenda Horsfall.  I loved this book on the first read.  I also loved Playing by his Rules, her follow-up book,  Glenda has been away for a little while.  I would like to take this opportunity to say I very much hope she will be back with us with another book.  We have explored the kinky side of romance in a few of our books.  I had my first story published in the anthology First...

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