“What’s a Pinaholic?” you might ask…unless you already know about Pinterest, a site where users can “pin” and save images and other media to themed “pinboards.”

Some of my pinboards are themed: Books I Love; Quotes; The Writing Life; Health; Dream Home; Recipes to Try; Work in Progress; and My Book Covers (along with thirty-one others). The wonderful thing about this site is that the possibilities are endless. You can easily set up a board for anything you’d like to gather. Let’s say you’re interested in beekeeping, you can set up a board for that and pin photos, articles and videos about beekeeping.

The idea is that this is a place to easily pin, categorize, organize, share and discover interesting information. The good people of Pinetrest have even developed a  “Pin It” button that you can add to your computer toolbar or header so that when you stumble across something you can push the “Pin It” button and with a couple more clicks you’ve added the item that captured your fancy.

I’d like to believe that Pinterest has helped me cut down on my compulsion to shop online. Instead of “buying,” I add an item to one of my boards. Later, if I absolutely have to have it, I can easily find it and make the purchase.

It’s also great for creative inspiration. I used to make collages of my works in progress so that I could capture the theme and feel of my books. I’d include photos of people who looked like my characters, photos of their houses, their communities – anything that captured the essence of the book. Now, with Pinterest, I just click the “Pin It” button and add photos to my “Work in Progress board.” I used to have to download, print, size and paste these photos to a piece of poster board. Pinterest is a very handy time saver in that regard.

Although, I mus caution you that it’s so much fun that sometimes it’s easy to get absorbed in pinning just one more image… before you know it, hours have gone by. The other day, I found a little ditty that said, “Quit Piddling and Write Your Book!”  I pinned it on my board called “The Writing Life.”

Is anyone in the JQ community on Pinterest? If so, let me know and I’ll follow you. If you’d like to check out my boards, you can find me at http://pinterest.com/nancyrthompson/

On another note, my book FORTUNE’S UNEXPECTED GROOM has been on BookScan’s Top 100 list for the past four weeks! In celebration, I’ll give away a free copy to someone who leaves a comment today about interesting themes for Pinterest  boards.

For me that’s in Naperville, Illinois at the headquarters of Sourcebooks Publishers. I was lucky enough to get to tour the publishing house in April when I went to Chicago for the Romantic Times Convention. Dominique Raccah, who is the CEO of Sourcebooks, got us party limos and drove all the Sourcebooks’ authors to Naperville.

Here’s a picture of Barbara Vey, editor at Publisher’s Weekly and romance guru, trying out the stripper pole en route.

I was surprised at how unassuming the Sourcebooks’ building looked on the outside, but on the inside it was warm and welcoming.

Here’s the sign that greeted us when we walked in the door.

 We got a lovely tour and met all the important people.  Here’s my editor, Deb Werksman.

Here’s my publicist, Danielle Jackson (she’s the one that sends all those prize books out when I go on blog tour).

And here are just a few of the books on display in the offices. There were thousands more scattered throughout the building, and I really wanted to do some “shopping.”

Finally, here is the famous cow, with quotes from poets and writers from the Chicago-area. The rumor is that Dominique outbid Oprah for the cow.

Here I am with the cow.

And here is the author-part of the Sourcebooks’ family.

Going on a tour like this is every aspiring author’s dream, so this was truly a dream come true for me.

I decided to write the article because even though I like revising, I have a huge, huge fear of receiving editorial revisions. I used to get them in the mail. I would see that manila envelope, and my heart would start pounding. I would have to brace myself to open it, and I’d usually have to wait until I had mentally prepared myself. Now I get a revision phone call. Starting about three weeks after I turn in a book, I jump every time the phone rings. Is it my editor? Is she calling with revisions? No, no no!

I don’t know why I worry about the revisions so much. They’re never that bad–well, okay, sometimes they have been bad. More than once I have had to cut upwards of 150 pages from a book. More than once I have had to rework a timeline that didn’t work (i.e. chronologically, the story could not have happened as I wrote it). But those were all with books I wrote early in my career. I’m waiting for revisions on my 13th book, and if this book is like the last few, the revisions will be pretty minimal.

So why do I have such a visceral, fear-filled reaction when I know my editor is calling with revisions? All the authors I interviewed for my article–veterans and newbies alike–seemed to have these really positive views about revisions. The editor wants the book to be great. The revision suggestions often give the writer a great idea for the story.

This has happened for me too, but you know what else has happened? An editor has suggested I make X, Y, or Z change, and I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t think I could do it. And if I can’t do it, then what does that say about me as a writer? Will everyone finally figure out that I’m a complete fraud without minimal writing ability at best?

At the core of my anxiety is fear of failure–fear that I cannot produce. I’m no genius. I don’t even consider myself very creative. It’s hard for me to step outside my comfort zone. An editor’s job is to challenge a writer to push the envelope, to write something better than the last book, to grow in the craft of writing. But what if I’ve reached the end of my potential? What if I can’t grow any farther?

But, as I said, I enjoy revisions.  Why? Because once I get past the fear and dive in, I realize I can do it. I realize the book is going to be way better with the changes than it was without. I realize there is nothing to fear.

Is there anything in your life like this–something you fear or that intimidates you? For Baby Galen, it’s the Dora the Explorer 4-D show at the zoo. It’s a 12-minute 3-D film with added effects (like a mist of water or wiggling seats). She really, really wants to watch that show, and every 4 or 5 months, I believe her enough to buy the tickets. But once we get in the theater, she gets scared and we have to leave. But I know if she just stayed for the show, she’d find out it’s really fun.

Step-back cover from Quick's Rendezvous

That being said I also really love just a good solid romance where you’ve mostly got the hero and heroine, maybe some secondary characters, but mostly it’s just them falling in love. There’s something so comforting about settling in with a book and falling in love right along with the characters.

my current hero inspiration

So how about you? How do you like your romance? Straight up or with a side of mystery or suspense or even some paranormal woo-woo?

*side note* I’m on round 2 of antibiotics with some steroids and my brain is really fuzzy so if this blog doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, I blame it on the drugs.

Last year, I put together a presentation for an event about the mysteries and possibilities of romance novel coverart and I collected examples of many — some beautiful, some questionable and some downright horrendous covers to show to my audience. I talked about author branding, marketing concepts, reader/story expectations and the one thing that the attendees could simply not believe was that authors have little or no control over covers.  It’s true but after having input on the four covers of my recently republished books, I can say that I think I’m grateful for not having been involved in all those others! LOL!

Actually, that’s not completely true — working with the cover artist/graphic designer on my covers forced me (FORCED!) to sift through dozens and dozens possibly hundreds of photos of gorgeous young men. It was a terrible experience, comparing their eyes and faces and . . . other bits, trying to find the perfect representation for my heroes. As I explained to my husband who was wondering why I was looking at gorgeous young men for hours and hours, it was my responsibility to find the right one from among all the wrong ones.

So, back to the other covers — the ones designed and created by my publishers. I have been blessed with mostly fabulous covers over the years. Lovely ones, gorgeous ones for the most part, across time periods, with hunky Highlanders, Saxon maidens, Regency duchesses and earls, and a few headless women, too. More than a few headless people–LOL!  To capitalize on the trend for my books to feature headless heroines (THE COUNTESS BRIDE, MAID OF LORN, THE BETROTHAL, THE CONQUEROR’S LADY, and all of my Bravas) then headless heroes (THE NORMAN’S BRIDE, TAMING THE HIGHLANDER, SURRENDER TO THE HIGHLANDER, etc), I even held a website contest to guess what the next cover would be!

Well, today I got the first peek at my next Harlequin Historical’s cover and I am blown away by it! I think it’s the best one yet — but I may be biased. What do you think?

When you look for a romance novel, in stores or online, what do you like on the cover? Are you partial to clinches? Hero-only? Heroine-only? Naked manly chests? Images not people?  And which of mine (found here ) do you think is the best? This new one or one of the others? Post a comment and I’m going to choose two people who will each receive a signed book (from this weekend’s Desert Dreams Conference in Phoenix AZ).

Terri is on her way to the Desert Dreams conference this weekend where she’ll be presenting a workshop and signing at the conference bookfair. The bookfair on Saturday is open to the public.  Stop by if you’re in the area!

Is it any wonder that when my British husband and I married close to twenty years ago, our song was the theme to the movie Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves?  My heart still flutters when I hear Bryan Adams singing “Everything I Do, I Do it For You.”

My love of all things medieval began as a child, when I listened to fairy tales.  My dad, who is British, often took my sister and me to England during our summer vacations to visit relatives, and he took us to many historic sites.  We visited awe-inspiring churches built centuries ago, ruins of Roman baths, Stonehenge, The British Museum, old graveyards, and other places that left upon me a lasting impression of how fascinating the past can be.

After graduating from university, I further enriched that fascination through a one-year course with Sotheby’s auctioneers in London, England, where I studied silver, glass, porcelain, furniture, jewelry, paintings, and more from the Middle Ages through the 20^th century.  It was an amazing year.

An added perk?  I met the tall, dark-haired, charming Brit who became my husband.  And yes, he loves castles, too.

When I started writing medieval romances, I wanted to bring the past I’d experienced to life in a way that was meaningful to me and hopefully other people, too.  To do that, I had to make my characters and story settings three-dimensional.  I needed vital emotional conflicts for my heroes and heroines to struggle to resolve.  I needed to know what foods were cooked, what the different social classes wore, what weapons were used, how a man trained to become a knight, and how wounds were treated.  More simply, I needed sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.  Easy peasy, right?

Um…  No.

I spent many, many hours doing research on the internet.  I brought armloads of books home from the library and jotted pages of notes.  I accumulated a small library of books on kings and armor and medieval recipes (one day, when I’m feeling really ambitious, I’m going to try making a few dishes).

I also bought CD’s of medieval-era music and listened to them while I cooked dinner.  One of the songs started out slowly and then sped up to a vibrant melody accented by drums.  I was captivated.  Immediately I had an idea for the opening chapters of Dance of Desire, a fast-paced, emotional story of a proper noblewoman desperate to save her younger brother who is imprisoned as a traitor and the “barbarian” sheriff she is coerced into marrying to help rescue her sibling.

Dance of Desire was my first novel published in paperback and it won numerous awards.  My daughter, in elementary school at the time, proudly announced to her teachers that her mom was “a published romance author.”

With each book I penned, my love of the Middle Ages grew.  A Knight’s Vengeance, my very first medieval that I wrote when my daughter was a baby (and I revised from start to finish about seven times, because I was still learning how to craft a book) had several secondary male characters who deserved to be heroes of their own books.  The idea of connected novels, all set in the fictional county of Moydenshire I’d created, took seed in my mind.  The Knight’s Series was born.

Originally published in paperback, the first four books will be available again as eBooks on Kindle (A Knight’s Vengeance, Book One, and A Knight’s Reward, Book Two, are are up now, the other two will follow later this year).  My goal for the next year is to write the fifth and final novel and to wrap up the series the way I always envisioned.  And then…  I already have ideas for more medievals.

On trips back to England, my husband and I have taken my daughter sightseeing at some of the historic sites, including ones I visited with my father.  A few years ago we toured Warwick Castle, magnificent to this day.  One of my clearest memories is of standing in an interior room, putting my hand on the smooth stone wall, and just listening, to the voices of modern-day visitors drifting in from outside, but also to the ancient pulse that still seemed to flow within the stone.  It was an amazing moment that snatched my breath away.

When I sit down to write, I feel again that ancient pulse.  It inspires me.  It breathes new life into my words.  And the writer in me is happy.

Do you read historical romances?  What do you find inspiring about them?  Is it the historical setting?  The characters?  I’d love to know!

So back to that statement… I don’t know that I tend to feel particularly possessive about other people’s characters very often. But it has happened. Most recently it happened when I finally succumbed to Hunger Game mania and I dove in. Within a week I had downed all three books and I felt quite thankful that I had waited as long as I did so that I could gorge on all the books instead of waiting for their release as I had done with the Harry Potter books.

But it was after I had read the books and I was sitting in the theatre with my niece watching the movie. She hadn’t seen it and I had taken the advantage of my sister being in town to watch my kids so I could take her daughter to see it since she is also a lover of the books. I became agitated in the movie, annoyed at some of the younger audience members who giggled and snickered during some particularly tender moments. And I realized in that instant why, it was because I was offended that they weren’t getting it, they were making these moments cheap and belittling them. Because those were MY characters. That was MY Katniss and MY Peeta and they could just leave if they couldn’t appreciate what was going on on the screen. Now granted much of the emotional progression of the characters was missing from the movie for the sake of time, but still the movie does a lot very right.

Every now and then you read books. Magical books that dig inside you and burrow deep into your soul. Characters that hang on and refuse to let go. Lots of books are great, wonderful even, but some books go beyond just a good story. Their worlds become so real, so engrossing that to leave them is nearly painful, as if you’re grieving a dear friend. I don’t want to leave the world of the Panem, of Katniss and Peeta and Gale and Haymitch. I don’t want to walk away from them. I felt this when the Harry Potter series ended. Satisfied with the way the story was told, but also a great sadness that the tale was over, that my journey with the characters had come to an end. Of course I can re-read them, but nothing ever feels the same as that first time turning the pages as fast you can (or clicking the kindle button as was my case) and grabbing on to every word so as to not miss one morsel of story.

I don’t know if I ever accomplish that as a writer. I don’t know if I have any readers out there who have been that engrossed in the worlds I create. Mine aren’t as unique and original as those you find in books with a more fantasy bent. But when I read books like these, they make me want to be a better writer, make me want to strive to create characters that haunt readers all the way into their dreams, that make readers clutch the book to their chest and sigh heavily when its all said and done because they’re sad to leave the characters and the world in which they dwell.

So how about you? Can you easily lose yourself in the world of books? What are some of your favorites that have totally captured you and made it hard to leave the characters?

The Jaunty Quills are thrilled to welcome Susan Crosby to the sisterhood today. She and I are chatting about her new book, FORTUNE’S HERO, the fourth book in the latest Harlequin Special Edition series,  Fortunes of Texas – Whirlwind Romance.

Nancy Robards Thompson: Welcome, Susan! Please tell us about your latest book.

Susan Crosby: FORTUNE’S HERO has an older hero and younger heroine who are such complete opposites you’d never think they could end up with a happily ever after.  Garrett Stone rescues Victoria Fortune after she’s crushed in the aftermath of a tornado, then he disappears into thin air.  Victoria never gets to thank him, so a few months later she goes in search of her unsung hero.  Garrett thinks he’s perfectly content with his life.  He and the many stray animals who come or are brought to him on his ranch are content together.  They don’t need a woman around.  But even his dogs start to favor the lively Victoria, and Garrett can’t fight his feelings forever.

NRT: What life lessons do the hero and heroine of FORTUNE’S HERO learn before they earn their happily ever after?

SC: Victoria learns about true passion, not just for the man she comes to love but for a particular, satisfying kind of work in a world vastly different from what she’s known all her life.  Garrett learns he can count on another person.  This is huge for him.

NRT: Why will readers enjoy this story?

SC: Garrett is an old-fashioned cowboy, a modern day knight in shining armor—and he wants no gratitude from the woman whose life he saved.  How Victoria wriggles her way into his life leaves him baffled, amused and ultimately deeply in love.

NRT: That sounds fabulous, Susan! I can see why readers will love it, but what will they enjoy the Fortunes of Texas series as a whole?

SC: I personally love the Fortunes, the whole continuity of family and all it entails—support, criticism and a love you can count on, no matter what–unconditional but also honest.

NRT: They sound like quite a bunch!  On another note, what’s a typical writing day like for you?

SC:  I start early in the day because I’m a morning person.  I’m generally done by 2:00, which gives me time for other things.  I begin by reading what I wrote the day before and making changes, if necessary, then move into new material.  When I stop, I almost always write a few sentences about what happens next so that I have a place to start the next day.  It’s rare for me to work on Saturday, and never on Sunday.

NRT: What was your path to becoming a romance writer?

SC: I read THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss in my late 20s.  That fueled the fire for me.  I wrote a few historical romances just for fun, then abandoned that to return to college in my 30s.  After an 8-year pursuit of a bachelors degree in English, as well as raising a family, I got serious about writing for publication.  By then I was more interested in writing contemporary romance.  I went to book signings and talked to authors.  I read like crazy.  Then I sold the 2nd book I wrote—because I’d done so much preparation in advance, I felt.

NRT: What advice do you have for aspiring romance writers?

SC:  Writing is a learned skill.  Yes, you have to be a good storyteller, first and foremost, but the mechanics of writing is a skill you develop.  I had no idea was conflict was when I started.  I thought it meant fighting, and I didn’t like fighting.  Then I learned that conflict drives the whole story.  What is keeping this couple apart now?  More important, what could keep them apart forever?  How those conflicts get resolved in a believable way is the biggest challenge.

FORTUNE’S HERO is my 36th book, and my fourth Fortune continuity.  I love revisiting the Fortune family as much as I love creating my own fictional families.

Award-winning, nationally ranked #1 bestselling author Susan Crosby began writing in 1992 and made her first sale a year and a half later to Silhouette Books, a division of Harlequin Books.  She was selected as their Premiere Author, which is their “rising star,” for Silhouette Desire for her first novel, The Mating Game, released in 1994.

She has since published 35 more novels, including the current FORTUNE’S HERO for Harlequin Special Edition.

Susan has made the USA Today and Borders best-seller lists, and has been nominated for or won every major romance award, including having one of her books, His Seductive Revenge, named by Romantic Times magazine to their Top 400 Romance Novels of the past 2 decades, a list culled from 25,000 books.

(He’s one of the many voices in my head. And okay, it’s also just a reason to throw a gratuitous picture of Steve Boyd in this post.)

As an author, I find voices to be intriguing. Different authors’ voices, yes, but also all the many voices for characters that an author has inside them. Authors usually have more than one type of character that they write, whether it be the plain, shy heroine or the silent, tortured hero. The sultry seductress or the devil-may-care rake. And that’s just historical. Think of the maniacal villains in romantic suspense, the fun girl-next-door or the hard-working corporate-ladder-climbing woman in contemporaries. The protective, possessive don’t-make-me-get-alpha-on-your-butt paranormal heroes, the hardened-yet-secretly-vulnerable urban fantasy heroines. (Okay, I think I’ll stop with the hyphens. =)

Inside each author are dozens of voices, probably even hundreds of voices waiting to get out. Many romance authors write across sub-genres (for example, I know Shana has written chick lit in addition to historicals, and the contemporary Cate Lord is the alias of historical Catherine Kean). I know that with my own writing process, the books I tend to get the most excited about writing are the books where out of the blue I just hear a character’s voice in my head. It’ll be a line of dialogue made very distinct by the words, yes, but also by the way it’s said. (For example, think of Rhett Butler and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” That’s so unique to Rhett.) But when I say “voices”, I don’t just mean the things they say, but how they’re revealed through internal narrative as well.

Like other authors, I have several types of voices. Here is the hero from THE SINNING HOUR– Simon Astley, a nude portraitist.

Even here, Miranda was everywhere he looked, her memory his constant companion. He saw her dusting a rag over the gilded frames, reaching high to straighten the drapes. He climbed the grand staircase to the first floor, wondering how she would view his commission by the gaming hell’s owners. She’d doubtless chastise him for entering this den of vice, or look at him with that same silent reprimand she’d given him when he flirted with his models.

Innocent. She was so innocent. And oh, but how he’d longed to corrupt her.

Simon exhaled a jagged breath of laughter, his fists clenching. Discipline forced his fingers apart, urged him to smooth his hand along the stair banister, to admire the gleaming mahogany and the sensuous slide of it beneath his palm. Anything but to dwell on her, to submit to this despair that continued to close in each day without her.

The bolded line above is the essence of Simon to me. In this novella Simon strives to become a better man for Miranda, because that’s what he thinks he has to do in order to deserve her, but no matter how much he tries to reform, he’s still a bad boy at heart.

On the other hand, here is the voice of a heroine from a contemporary romance I’m experimenting with (note the word experimenting =)).

It always started innocently enough.

A quick glance. A smile. “Hi, I’m Kate.”

He might nod, might tell her his name if he felt like being polite. Then, without another word, she’d move in like a porn goddess intent on giving him his happy ending.

Unfortunately, today was no different.

“Ow! That’s hot!”

Kate rubbed more oil into the model’s hairless chest in brisk, efficient strokes. “Sorry,” she muttered. Someday, she’d really like to have a gorgeous man do more than whine when she touched him or grumble when she asked him to turn around so she could massage the oil into his butt cheeks.

As I said above, I’m experimenting with this voice. It might not be the one that I stick with for this heroine or for this book, although I do like the snarkiness. =)

But overall, I love that as an author I’m able to do this kind of experimenting. In fact, I experimented with Simon’s voice in THE SINNING HOUR for a while, trying to find the perfect combination of come-hither wickedness and desperation for his character. Not only do I get to create worlds of fictional people and their love stories, I also get to determine how they sound and, as a result, how a reader will relate to them and picture them in their mind.

This, perhaps, might be my favorite part of writing. It’s empowering, fun, and most of all, I can tell the people who look at me like I’m crazy (*cough* my family *cough*) that the voices really do speak to me.

Do you notice “voices” when you read, whether an author’s voice or a character’s specific voice? Do you have favorite characters from past books who stood out to you because of their voice? (For example, Michael from Julia Quinn’s WHEN HE WAS WICKED is a favorite of mine because of this.)

So without further ado, today I am sharon guy lady crushes. That’s right folks, here is my list of those women that I just find flat out mesmerizing. Some of have found their way into my books, but some are waiting in the wings to be case in just the right roll.

I mean y’all had to know this was coming. I know there are lots of Angie haters out there, but I’m not one of them. However you feel about her personal life and some odd choices she’s made over the years (hello, Billy Bob) you can’t really deny that she’s beautiful. Almost abnormally so. I mean really what must it be like to wake up in the morning and see that in the mirror. But it goes beyond her appearance. There’s something about her, the cadence of her speech, the way she moves, she’s just, well, mesmerizing. Its for that reason that I watch her in nearly anything, which explains why I am a fan of the Tomb Raider movies. Shut up, they’re entertaining.

Ah, sweet Minnie. Who doesn’t love her? Maybe it’s just the fact that her role in Circle of Friends resonated with me. Or maybe it’s her slightly awkward laugh. I don’t know, but whatever Minnie does, she charms the socks off me. She’s pretty without being obnoxiously so and well, maybe I just have a soft spot for her because she was the first actress who inspired one of my heroines.

Well, no list, male or female, is complete without the funny one. Oh how I love me some Emma Stone. Quirky and sassy, she’s the perfect inspiration for any heroine, historical or contemporary. She’s got a great wry smile and intelligent eyes and a one-liner for any situation. So I guess Jim Carrey isn’t the only one crushing on her.

Elegance and femininity are all I can think of when it comes to Kate Winslet. I suppose her lovely British accent doesn’t hurt, she just sounds so proper. And she can look stunningly beautiful but in such an unassuming sort of way it’s so easy to imagine her as that wallflower heroine that hero sees standing in the ballroom, fidgeting with her fan and trying not to roll her eyes when her mother tells her for the fourth time to stand up straight. He, of course, is entranced, and we follow right behind him.

Okay and just because I can, here’s a little more eye candy for you….

So how about y’all? What actresses catch your attention every time? Which ones are your favorite to imagine as the heroines you read about? I’ve got five copies of Treasure Me to give away so comment and you just might be a winner!