So yesterday my friend and I were talking about writing books and she said someone had just told her she didn’t want to ‘waste time’ writing a book no one was going to buy. And I said that no book was a waste of time, to which she answered that I should blog about that. So I’m going to, because you’re stuck with me. Ha!

I’ve written a lot of books. Before I published with Avon I had completed 11 historical romances, 2 contemporary manuscripts I was targeting to Blaze and a handful of erotic romance novellas (two of which had sold to a small press). Those are full manuscripts, completed and revised and all rejected many, many times (I stopped counting after 100 rejections).

Do you want to know how many of those books have sold? Well, all of the erotic novellas (but all to very small presses, “Fallen Angel” was something I wrote specifically at Avon’s request for PARLOR GAMES) and one of my historicals (SCANDALOUS, my debut).

Yup. Out of 16 books that I wrote before selling to Avon, only ONE of the historical manuscripts has sold. Everything else I have contracted and scheduled is new material that I was writing at and after the time of that first sale.

Out of the 10 historical manuscripts that are still unpublished, I know of two that I would for sure like to see published some time in the future. There are a couple others that I might be able to significantly re-write and feel comfortable with, but I don’t know if I will ever do that.

So do I feel like all that work was for nothing? Absolutely not! In my mind (and this is just me), you can take all the classes in the world on craft, you can read books until your eyes cross, you can read blogs and ask questions on writer’s loops forever… but you won’t learn to write books unless you write books. At the bare minimum, every book I wrote made me a stronger writer. It helped me hone my skills. It let me apply the concepts of POV and character development and realistic dialogue and whatever else I was trying to strengthen at the time. I don’t think I would have learned how to do those things if I’d just been writing proposals or just plotting books and querying them without writing.

And every one of those books has a place in my heart. My first book, awful as it was, set me off on this crazy journey. My second book was the first one I wrote really quickly because I was so excited to get the story down. My third book was my first struggle and I wanted to quit so many time, but I didn’t let myself. My fourth book was where I started to feel like I was really becoming a writer. I remember what book I was writing on September 11 and how it helped me to turn off the television for a couple hours each day and go lose myself in a world where I could make everything ‘happily ever after’. These books, whether they are ever published or not, are old friends.

So for me, no book is a waste of time. There is something to be taken from every one of them.

So now that I’ve used the Jaunty forum as a confessional about my Deal or No Deal obsession, we can all move on together and talk real things. Like romance. Which is one of my favorite subjects, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. So let me give you a little background… when I started writing romance, I wanted to write historical romance. I didn’t really know what that meant in the beginning (see my little known fact about being a romance scoffer from Monday), but as I studied the market more, I started to understand it. Most of my favorite authors wrote Regency-era historicals (Julia Quinn, Suzanne Enoch, Elizabeth Boyle) and I decided that I’d go for that period, too. Much research later and that’s what I was doing (over and over and over again, but we won’t talk about that right now).

I always wrote “hot”. Love scenes have never been a problem for me. I’ve always enjoyed that dynamic between the characters because it can totally turn a story on its head. It can change the conflict, it can build trust, it can tear down walls or it can completely destroy whatever bond you’ve built for your characters so far and make them have to re-evaluate everything they’ve ever believed about themselves. So for me, the ‘good stuff’ isn’t something extra I throw in for kicks, but it’s really intregal to the plot (at least in my mind).

Which made an expansion to erotic romance really natural to me. I did it in 2003. I had not had much luck in selling historical romance for four years. I was very frustrated and just about ready to throw in the towel when I was watching The Mummy with Brenden Frasier and Rachel Weisz and had an idea. An ancient Egyptian tomb, an American Tomb Raider, a British woman after a secret… and an erotic curse.

The erotic curse part was where I knew I’d moved from historical romance to erotic romance. So I wrote it. It became “Ancient Pleasures” and was my first sale (as Jess Michaels) to a smaller press that produces novella collections of erotic romances called SECRETS (mine was in SECRETS, Volume 11). It was fun to write, it was different, it was quick (I think I wrote it in three days because I was damned excited by the idea and the characters) and it was hotter than anything I’d ever written.

I also wrote it differently. This is what Manuelita asked on Monday. When I build a historical romance, I build character, then plot and I start to see where the right place for the characters to make love is. In an erotic romance, I build character, then I build sex… and the sex is part of the conflict, it’s part of the plot, it drives the story. I think, for me, it has to be that way in erotic romance, otherwise, after my characters shag like bunnies for a while, they’ll roll over and realize they have no conflict. So in an intensely sexual book, the sex has to continue to drive the story forward.

In “Ancient Pleasures”, it was driven by the curse. Isabella and Jake wondered if the emotions and animal attractions they were feeling were real or from the curse. In my novella “Fallen Angel”, which will be available May 23rd in Avon Red’s launch title PARLOR GAMES, my heroine is a courtesan, so sex is part of her in a different way than other heroines I’ve written before. My hero is a disgraced Bow Street Runner who is hired to protect her after she is threatened. The sex in that story is part of their cover, it’s also a healing force between two broken people who have avoided connection and are surprised to find it now.

I love writing erotic romance. For me, it’s the perfect marriage between the two best elements of two popular genres. It takes the intense emotional development and satisfying ending of a romance novel and mates it with the powerful sexual drive of pure erotica (where sex is the story and no happily ever after is required). It takes fantasies of varying kinds like true love and all night orgasms, and finds a way to meld them. And that is why the subgenre is so popular right now both with readers and with editors/publishing houses.

So I have my Jenna Petersen books, which are hot. Or my Jess Michaels books… which are extra hot. I think there’s probably room for both.

So yesterday I mentioned my sick interest in reality television. Right now my current obsession is NBC’s Deal or No Deal, hosted by Howie Mendel. I’m not sure this counts as reality t.v. It’s a game show, really. Okay, so here is the quick run down of the show for those who have not watched it.

There are 26 briefcases. Each one contains a money value inside, from 1 penny to 1 million dollars. At the beginning of the show, the contestant picks a number, hoping it will contain the million. Then he begins opening other cases, to reveal what ISN’T in his case. In varying intervels, he is offered a buy off by ‘the banker’ (a shadowy figure above the action) that is based on the odds that his case contains a large number. So if he opens up six cases and they all contained small amounts of money, the banker might offer $50,000 to make the contestant stop playing. If he opened up some larger amounts (like eliminated the million or something), the offer might be smaller. It’s up to the contestant to decide if they want to take the deal or refuse it (Deal… Or No Deal).

So the game is essentially about timing and luck. NBC picks the craziest people as contestants. They must feed them lots of sugar before taping because they are invariably hyper and overly excited and yell at the banker and hug Howie (who, in reality, really hates to be touched, so I don’t know why he’s doing this show though he’s remarkably good at it). They act like the game isn’t completely luck based, so they agonize over the briefcases as if their choice really makes a difference. But they play really driving music and it’s high drama all the way.

And, regardless of the fact that I sometimes think the whole thing is a big fix… I can’t stop watching it. I TiVo it. I want to be a contestant, only I’m too lazy to create a tape and make my loved ones create tapes where we pretend to be super peppy.

So I wondered, why do I love this silly show. Is it just the high drama? Is it the fact that I pick my own number and then sit with a smug smile when it’s opened up and reveals $750,000 (that’s happened three times. I’m telling you I HAVE to go on this show)? Or maybe it’s that it really is completely random and you can trick the banker into giving you half a million dollars, only to open the case and find you have a penny inside.

Who knows?

So anyone else have a ridiculous show that they love regardless? Or maybe share my obsession with Deal or No Deal (the show about opening things is how Best Week Ever describes it).

Oh, sorry, I got confused. So yes, here I am… Jenna Petersen… here to entertain you (hopefully) for the week. I respond to just about anything except for “Dance Monkey!!”… because I don’t dance.

I’m not really sure where to start today. I mean, all the Jauntys know me (see, they’re all nodding, some of them are rolling their eyes, a few have started crying and are heading BACK to therapy). And from the comments, it seems like a lot of the people who come here and read the blog already know me. So introducing myself seems a little redundant… kind of like that character in Fifty First Dates whose short term memory loss gives him retention for about thirty seconds, so he keeps introducing himself to everyone over and over and over again (“Hi, I’m Tom. Hi, I’m Tom. Hi, I’m Tom.”)

Later in the week, I want to do some interesting facts you may not know about writers, but maybe instead of introducing myself, I’ll do some interesting facts you may not know about me… and um, if you don’t know who the heck I am at all, you can find me at Jenna Petersen and The Passionate Pen where, trust me, you can find more info about me than you probably ever wanted to know.

So… Little Known Facts About Jenna Petersen:

1. I grew up in Idaho — Yes, Famous Potatoes. Our license plates actually said that. I always wondered which famous potatoes came from Idaho. Like Harrison Ford Potato? Billy Bob Potato? Now they want to take Famous Potatoes off the license plates and I think… why?? They are still famous, aren’t they?

2. I married my high school sweetheart — Actually we were in a class together in the second grade. My Mom has photographic proof. But we didn’t really know each other until high school when we had a romance novel worthy love-hate relationship. Sometimes, when people from school hear we got married and have been married for almost a decade… they gasp. But it’s true and now there is no hate, just love.

3. I was a romance scoffer — Yes, I used to be one of ‘those’ people. The ones who thought romances were silly and easy to write and etc, etc, etc. Well, then I actually READ them and tried to WRITE them. Turns out, not so much with the silly and the easy?? Ha! I actually believe that if most of the scoffers of the world actually read a few good romances, they would be forever converted.

4. I like fighting — Not me personally fighting (I’m a girl who wears glasses, I don’t want anyone to pop me and I doubt I could pop anyone else if you paid me), but UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). There is something so “Warrior” about men who get into a ring and really go at it. Bare knuckle, mixed martial arts, pound the crap out of each other fighting (see, you never knew that from looking at my sweet little author picture, huh). And you may not believe it, but for a lot of these guys, it’s a thinking man’s game. They have to carefully maneuver the situation to their advantage and I LOVE when I can see that happening.

5. I’m a reality television junkie — I know it’s wrong. Writers should support scripted television (and I do, I like lots of scripted shows), but there is something about Amazing Race and Survivor and American Idol and a bunch of others that just keeps me tuning in.

So I’m here all week for more fascinating posts like the above (what, don’t all leave the room… come back!!). And I’m happy to discuss whatever comes to mind. So feel free to suggest some topics today if you want in comments. We could talk writing or my books or cats or whatever.

Please welcome Jenna Petersen, our Jaunty Guest for the week! The author of Scandalous and From London With Love, Jenna has also penned The Sin Series and other erotic romances as Jess Michaels, and has written a novella in Avon’s Parlor Games anthology coming at the end of May. Keep a look out for her red hot romances coming to Avon’s new erotic romance line soon!

Jenna runs The Passionate Pen website, devoted to helping aspiring authors on their quest for publication, and is our evil laugher extraordinaire on the Avon chat board. Feel free to give her a whip while she is here.

Jaunty cats Bob and Pounce proclaim her books, “Taste like fine tuna! Smashing!” Ask Jenna about the Stuff On My Cat website if you are scratching your head in confusion.

On Friday, at the crack of noon Pacific time, did you hear that hallelujah chorus? That was me, celebrating the fact that I turned in my manuscript on Monday, met with our tax accountant on Thursday, and woke up Friday with the realization that I did not have to spend 16 hours working at my desk that day.

There will still be revisions and copy edits, and I have two weeks to prepare a proposal for book four (which will be due December 1) and tons of research for my treasure hunt plot, but now I can cut back to a regular work schedule. Stopping for the day doesn’t have to mean I’m about to go to bed, nor is the sky necessarily starting to get light again.

Friday was my first Day Off since February 12. There have been days since then in which I was not very productive, but every day I was BIC-HOK’ing (butt in chair, hands on keyboard), at least making the attempt at forward progress. Even the day our 17-year-old cat passed away I spent time at the computer, in the vain hope that concentrating on my characters’ problems would take my mind off the gaping hole in my heart.

But Friday was a cause for celebration. On Friday, I did my full 45-minute kickboxing workout, not just a 10 or 15 minute routine like I’ve been doing for the last couple months. I started reconnecting with the strange man who’s in my bed every night, who’s been preparing all my meals, massaging my aching arms and hands, doing the shopping, and taking care of all the other errands. We actually went to a theater to watch a movie on Friday, and afterward ate dinner in a restaurant that does not have a drive-thru. It felt positively decadent.

If there is someone in your life who is supportive of your goals and aspirations, give them a hug now and then. I wouldn’t have survived the last few months without my husband’s loving support.

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

This week with the Easter holiday fast approaching, I found my thoughts drifting to my memories of holidays of past years…

Easter- don’t laugh but growing up I must not have been listening closely enough in church because somehow I got it in my head that everyone who died in the past year rose from the dead once a year on Easter Sunday. I vowed, as a young child, if death ever threatened…to try to hang on to as close to Easter as possible (in order to spend as little time in the ground as possible )

Memorial Day- going to the “grave yards” with my parents and hearing stories of loved ones who’d died…such as my mother’s oldest brother who died when he was sixteen of gangrene…and how the last time she went to see him in the hospital he tried to cheer her up since she was so scared. He died two days later.

July 4thSnakes were always my favorite fireworks. I loved to see the long black snake grow on the sidewalk. Now, looking back, I’m sure my mother really liked the stain on the sidewalk the snake left, too I remember bottle rockets (no longer legal in my town). We’d put them in the bottle, light the fuse and up they’d go.

Labor DayState Fair time in Nebraska. We’d go to the State Fair every year and my favorite part? Cotton Candy and the Midway, of course

Halloween Going door to door with friends as an older child (10-11) and coming back with a whole grocery sack of candy. I trick or treated until I was thirteen and I couldn’t understand the people who thought the holiday was only for little children. I vowed never to make a young teen feel bad for coming to the door, and I’ve kept that promise!

Thanksgiving-My mother’s wonderful food–she made the best dressing and pies. Way-back-when the college football rivalry was between Oklahoma and Nebraska and that game was always held the day after Thanksgiving. We’d all be glued to the television cheering the Huskers on.

ChristmasChristmas Carols, candlelight service at church on Christmas eve and ….presents! My family went the conservative route on gifts, but always tried to get us one thing that we wanted. We never got a gift from Santa Claus, though, and I remember knowing he wasn’t real for as long as I can remember.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter….and I hope my musing will spur you to reflect on some memories of your own!

Next week we will have a fellow Avon author and all-around great woman, Jenna Peterson, as a guest blogger. I met Jenna several years ago at a Romance Writers of America national conference and found her great fun.

Look for her posts during the week of April 17th!!

First of all, I have to start with an update on my last blog—it was all about Stalking SEP (Susan Elizabeth Phillips) and Julie Garwood. Well, guess who read the blog and emailed me? Yep, Ms. Phillips herself! She has dared me to go up to her at the Avon dinner in Atlanta this summer and remind her of this.

Will I have the guts? Will I blather on like a moron? Will we become lifelong friends and move into houses next door to each other—oops…that might be the stalking thing again.

Stay tuned for the updated update coming in early August!

Next topic: I am moving in 9 days. Ultimate Sportsfan and I have had our house up for sale for 6 or 7 weeks, and suddenly it sold, and now we have to be out ASAP. Oh, the packing, and all the realty forms! And I promised to change my name when we moved. That meant trips to the DPS and social security office. You know how much fun that always is! So that’s been my life of late.

But I’m now Shane Bolks UltimateSportsfan. Never fear, I’ll still be writing under Shane Bolks and Shana Galen.

Did you see our new bookshelf? It’s got links to all our upcoming books. Mine is Reality TV Bites, which comes out in July. It’s the follow-up to my Rita nominated book, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Men I’ve Dated.

And, you might wonder, am I actually getting any work done in the midst of this chaos. Yes! I’m almost done with the screenplay for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Men I’ve Dated. Not that it’s sold or anything. But who knows what may happen. May 1 I’m scheduled to begin writing the third book in the Misadventures in Matrimony series. It’s called THE WRONGED BRIDE.

Lastly—and sorry for the hodge podge of topics—we’re mixing things up a bit in the next month or so. We’re going to have guest bloggers and a contest (starting May 1) and who know what other diversions. Check back often. We love to hear from you!

You can thank fellow Avon author Sophie Jordan for my topic today. Over at the Avon Authors board, she posted a message about going to Disney World that really kicked my Disney obsession into high gear. And once I get going on a Disney kick, it’s usually pretty hard to talk me down. So thanks, Sophie!

Most of you who have been long-time visitors to my website or who have chatted with me before will know I am a huge Disney fan. Those who know me personally, however, will claim that I’m more of a Disney fanatic. And they’d be right. Believe me, I used to be a perfectly normal person. I watched Disney movies as a kid and loved them, but there was nothing obsessive about it. Then, during my senior year in high school, a Disney movie called The Little Mermaid came out and everything changed. From that moment on, I was helplessly hooked. (Is it telling that the word “hooked” immediately brings Peter Pan to mind?)

How do you know whether you are a fan or a fanatic? (In other words, how do you know whether you should seek psychiatric help?) Well, I’ve come up with a little check list to help my fellow Disney maniacs identify the problem. As you know, that’s always the first step to recovery.

You are a Disney fanatic if you:

1. Have every Disney movie available on both DVD and VHS and have watched them so many times that you could repeat every scene by heart, word for word.

2. You find yourself humming any number of songs from one of the Disney movie soundtracks at the oddest–and most embarrassing–times.

3. Whenever you have a chance to go on vacation, you choose to go to Disney World for the zillionth time rather than go somewhere new, even if there are other choices available to you. (Hawaii, you say? Hmmmm. Sorry, but Mickey’s calling my name!)

4. You collect all things Disney. (See above picture) Snow globes, figurines, mugs, dolls, posters. In fact, you spend more money on Disney merchandise than you do on feeding and clothing yourself. The Disney Store is your idea of heaven!

5. You know more about Disney trivia than your niece and nephews, who are all under the age of ten.

6. You own both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 for Playstation 2 and have spent so many hours playing them that you sometimes forget to eat. (On the plus side, what a way to lose weight!) Note to Shirley: You’d love KH 2! There’s a Pirates of the Caribbean section where Sora joins forces with Capt. Jack Sparrow and–Well, you see what I mean about obsessed!

7. You use any excuse to wear your Snow White Halloween costume. Ooops! Did I just admit to that?

So, how do you measure up?