Title Magic Welcomes ATV Finalist, Edie Ramer!

Happy Monday!

Today marks the start of our much anticipated American Title V (ATV) interviews. As most of you may already know, the American Title Contest is sponsored by Dorchester Publishing and Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine. This will be the fifth year the contest has been running. This year there are only eight finalists versus the usual ten, and the categories have been left open to encompass all categories of romance fiction. For a complete list of the eight American Title V finalists, you can go to the RT blog September archives by clicking HERE. Scroll down until you see September 5, 2008. It’s the second to last blog entry.

As former American Title finalists ourselves, we want to show our support for the current ATV finalists by hosting interviews of them here at Title Magic. Here is the schedule of interviews for this week.

>> Monday (today): Mai interviews Edie Ramer
>> Tuesday: Helen interviews Qaey Williams
>> Wednesday: Lexie interviews Tamara Hughes
>> Thursday: Trish interviews Barbara Longley

The remainder of the ATV finalists interviews will be posted next week – just in time for voting for the first round of the contest which begins the following Monday, November 10th. Round 1 voting will be on the First Line. Please visit often this week and next to get to know your fellow ATV finalists.

Now, without further ado, let’s get these interviews started! Please join me in welcoming American Title V finalist, Edie Ramer, to Title Magic. Edie’s finaling manuscript is titled DEAD PEOPLE. Her short stories have been published in National magazines and she is also co-creator of an inspirational website for writers, www.writeattitude.net.

MT: Thanks for joining us here at TM, Edie, and congratulations on the ATV final! Can you tell us where you’re from?

ER: First I want to thank Mai and the other American Title IV finalists for having us. Mai, you’ve been a huge help to me, right from the beginning when I emailed you about the cover letter. :) Now, back to the question. I live in southeastern Wisconsin. Right now everyone has their Halloween decorations out and leaves of all colors are covering the lawns. It’s beautiful.

MT: I hear the weather’s been rather warm up there for this time of year. What category does your finaling manuscript, DEAD PEOPLE, fall under?

ER: It was warm, but not today! Like I said, it’s nearing Halloween, time for DEAD PEOPLE to come out and beg for candy. (That’s awful, but I couldn’t resist.) DEAD PEOPLE is a light paranormal.

MT: Can you give us a quick 100 words or so blurb about the story?

ER: When Cassie Taylor talks, ghosts listen. She wants to heal their souls so they can leave earth. Brooding songwriter Luke Rivers wants to give his newly found daughter a normal home, but he discovers his new house in small town Wisconsin is haunted by a ghost with an attitude. His ghost whisperer has an attitude too – even before someone tries to kill her. So why does he have the hots for her? And why does she lust after him? He wants conventional. She wants acceptance. No wonder she thinks men are hard and DEAD PEOPLE are easy.

MT: That sounds like a great story. Very fun and with just the right touch of kickass attitude. What was your reaction when you first found out you finaled?

ER: When I found out I’d finaled, I felt pure happiness. I wanted it so badly -- or something else wonderful. Though I didn’t expect it, I hoped for it. To me, the American Title is the romance writer’s version of American Idol. Getting a request for the full was the “You’re going to Hollywood!” call. Getting the news that I was a finalist was moving into the top ten. Only in this case, the top eight. That’s even better!

MT: This is better than the “You’re going to Hollywood” stage. You passed that when they requested the full. This is the Top 10 – or in this case, Top 8!! Do you have a website?

ER: Absolutely! www.edieramer.com. I hope people will check it out and visit my blog. I also belong to the Magical Musings group blog, www.magicalmusings.com, and the American Title V group blog, www.loveconquers.wordpress.com. And I’m a new convert to Facebook! www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=747112424. I need friends, so look me up and friend me. :)

MT: I’m a new convert to Facebook too, and love it! Not only is it a great marketing tool, but you get to meet new people who are interested in what you write and strengthen relationships and friendships you already have. What kind of books do you like to read?

ER: I feel like Sarah Palin, saying “I read them all.” I read everything from mystery to YA, and especially romance in all the genres. I read non-fiction too. Right now I’m reading a book on life between lives.

MT: I’ll refrain from making any kind of comments regarding Sarah Palin, lol. The life between lives concept sounds interesting. Who are your auto-buy authors?

ER: I can put names down here! My auto buys are Loretta Chase, Mary Balogh, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jayne Ann Krentz, Jennifer Crusie, Amy Knupp, Jan Kenny, and many more. I recently ordered Karin Tabke’s HAVE YOURSELF A NAUGHTY LITTLE SANTA and Liz Kreger’s PROMISE FOR TOMORROW. I have Cynthia Eden’s MIDNIGHT SINS on pre-order. I’m looking forward to buying Helen Scott Taylor’s THE MAGIC KNOT in February.

MT: Sounds like your average reader then. :) What is it you like most and admire about the heroine in DEAD PEOPLE?

ER: I admire Cassie’s bravery, the way she goes on with her life and doesn’t feel sorry for herself, despite her unloving childhood. No self-pity allowed. And she hasn’t allowed her childhood to harden her heart – against dead people. Live people ... well, that’s another story. I also like her snarky tongue. In real life I’d love to have her as my friend.

MT: She sounds like an interesting person, and a strong character. What is you like most and admire about the hero in DEAD PEOPLE?

ER: My songwriter hero, Luke, was the only child of a free-living and loving parent. He didn’t know his father, and his childhood was unstable. He wants to do a better job for his newly found eleven-year-old daughter. He wants to do the right thing. I love that about him. Plus he writes really good songs.

MT: Who wouldn’t love a man who loves music and is dedicated to his child? Can you tell us more about the conflict in your story, DEAD PEOPLE?

ER: It would be easy to say the major conflict was finding the person who killed the woman who’s haunting Luke’s house. But the major conflict is Cassie’s and Luke’s gaping wounds. They’ve been used and abused. Neither of them believes in happily ever after. Neither of them trusts that another person will love them without reserve, without wanting anything except to be loved by them in return. Even Luke’s daughter has been hurt by her drug-addicted mother. Although there is humor in DEAD PEOPLE (there is! Really, there is!), their lives haven’t been easy. In one way or another, they’re all damaged.

MT: So it’s a character-driven book, versus a plot-driven book. I’ve always found that most romances are character-driven. It enamors the reader more to the book, in my opinion. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

ER: I agree with your so much about characters! It’s the people that linger with me after I’ve read a really good book. I recently took a right brain/left brain test and I came out in the middle, leaning toward the right brain. That’s how my plotting is too. I know the basics about my characters (subject to change). I know the premise, their GMC, their primal needs (I got “primal needs” from Blake Snyder’s SAVE THE CAT!), an idea of the ending, and a few things that will happen along the way. That’s usually it. As I write I get insights and revelations. It keeps the story interesting for me. If I’m surprising and delighting myself, I hope I’m doing the same thing for the reader.
MT: Well, we can safely say that you’ve done the same thing for the editors at Dorchester! What do you like to do when you're not writing?

ER: I read books. The local librarians know me well. I watch favorite TV shows. (Is anyone else drooling over the lead actor in The Mentalist?) I spend time with my family. I walk my dog and pet my cat. I did a research road trip the other day with a friend, and had a blast – and a great lunch at a Turkish restaurant. I’m addicted to my email and spend too much times on blogs. I’m a serial dieter, and one day I will finally lose those last five pounds.

MT: You and me both, Edie!

Thank you so much for taking time out today to join us here at Title Magic. It was a pleasure learning more about you and hearing about Cassie and Luke. Best of luck with DEAD PEOPLE in the contest!

ER: Thanks, Mai! You and the other American Title IV finalists are awesome for doing this!

If you want to learn more about Edie and her writing, you can find her at:
www.edieramer.com
www.magicalmusings.com
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=747112424

Stay tuned tomorrow for our next American Title V finalist!

Romantic Times Convention and Award Ceremony

By Helen Scott Taylor

I'm delighted to announce that I won the American Title IV contest. This is such an honor considering the quality of the other entries I was competing against. Here's the wonderful book cover Dorchester designed for my book, which will be released in February 2009.

Five ATIV finalists made the trip to Pittsburgh for the Romantic Times Convention. Evonne and I made the trip across the Atlantic from the UK to join Holly, Trish and Mel. It was great to meet up and although we missed the other five who didn't make it this year, we all had fun. Here we are from left to right, my daughter Katherine, Evonne, Helen, Trish, Holly and Mel.

The awards ceremony on Friday was exciting. Chris Keesler from Dorchester called all five of us up on stage before he announced the winner of American Title.

Then I made a short speech of thanks wearing my tiara! I even received a kiss of congratulation from Mr. Romance 2008, Chris Winters.

From left to right, Kathryn Falk, owner of Romantic Times, Helen and Chris Keesler from Dorchester.

Dorchester made a poster of my book cover that I got to ship home! (At great expense. would you believe UPS wanted to charge me $300 to ship it back to the UK!! Needless to say I found a cheaper alternative.)

One final pic that I must show you because my daughter is so pleased to have had her photograph taken with Fabio!

Jenny Gardiner - Sleeping With Ward Cleaver

Greetings from the magical realm of American Title. Jenny Gardiner, winner of American Title III is our guest blogger. I am so proud she is with us today. Without her generous guidance, I fear we Title Magicians would have spun our wheels, before understanding what it took to gather in those all-important votes. More importantly, Jenny helped us to understand the real opportunities available to us in the publishing world because we were finalists.

Jenny's warm charm, her deep insights and her kitchen-knife sharp wit nearly jump out of the pages of her novel, Sleeping With Ward Cleaver. Enjoy this modern day feast of relationship wisdom, where love wins.

Thank you, Jenny, for being our guest blogger.

I am thoroughly convinced that modern love remains the same, no matter how old or how new it is. In his song of that name, David Bowie warns, "don't believe in modern love." If you ask me, I think you have to believe in it--it's been around so very long, how could it be wrong?
Lately I've borne witness to modern love of the teenaged variety. Now, I've been parenting teens for several years, and rarely do I truly get a glimpse into their cloistered world; my kids usually make certain that I'm excluded from that elite club. However not long ago, we hosted French foreign exchanges students, and because of the many events slated at which host families are requested to be in attendance, I was the beneficiary of a thoroughly modern education in modern love, international style.
A group of bleary-eyed teens from a small town in France arrived at our high school parking lot, full of trepidation, not quite sure if they would be stuck with lame hosts (and hosts worried they'd be stuck with lame guests!), and probably wondering what their American counterparts would be like. In a few short days we watched with amusement the transformation from apprehension to near aggression--that is, when it comes to pursuit of that elusive concept, modern love.
It was interesting to observe these teens' progression from virtual strangers with very little evidently in common, to friends, in a matter of a few short hours to, well, what definitely appears to be more than just friends...
Mid-way into their visit, we attended yet another gathering for the group, this one to watch France take on England in the rugby world cup. While rugby was the excuse for the gathering, there were far more than scrums on the minds of these kids, who--a mere hour into the party--were found flirting with one another, some making out in the barn out back, others sitting in the laps of their American counterparts, many swapping spit and a few mad gropes wherever they could.
It was downright refreshing (well, until we noticed one of our kids was involved)! But seriously, what it did do was bring back that feeling of what it's like to fall in love again--with someone you hardly know, but you know it feels right, and you're willing to sort of put it out there for all to see because the passion takes over the logic, and even if under normal circumstances you wouldn't be caught dead with your parents seeing you in a clinch with a kid you barely know and with whom you can hardly communicate (at least verbally!), well, under the circumstances, it just happens.
Ahhh...if only we could bottle that raw, fervent emotion and uncork it when we need it most, imagine how much better off we'd all be! Especially because eventually that powerful passion fades. After all, such intensity is hard to sustain, so how could it not?
This was a theme I wanted to explore when I wrote Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. After that ardent passion fades and mundane reality takes over, after the happily-ever-after: then what? You fall in love, get married, and expect things to be perfect. But then you start to take each other for granted and life takes over and kids come along and life is more about survival and trying to keep your head above water than worrying about stoking the fires of passion that once overrode everything else. I've seen enough marriages not be able to forge past those hard times (my own parents included), so I loved the idea of creating a couple who are at the point of deciding whether their marriage is salvageable, and if so, how in the world are they going to fix it? It's something I think a lot of people experience in their own lives and I figured they could relate to. Maybe it's my attempt to create a happily ever after, re-dux: to give readers a chance to feel what it might be like to fall in love all over again, this time with the same person.
It broke my heart to bid farewell to a lovely group of French teens, many of whom fell crazy in love for kids who live an ocean away--not exactly a recipe for sustaining a viable relationship. But at least they have had the great fortune to experience that forcefield that everyone eventually comes to recognize as love. And whether it's modern or not, fact is, it's as old as the hills, and most of us would give anything to experience that feeling again and again.

American Title III winner, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver, (Dorchester/Feb. 2008)
www.jennygardiner.net & www.thedebutanteball.com

Love at First...Sentence?

We talk a lot in the writing world about the need to grab our reader’s interest in the opening pages of a book. Not until the American Title Contest though, did I give serious thought to the potential power of the first sentence.

Certainly some books have incredible, memorable openings:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, Pride and Prejudice)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

“Call me Ishmael.”(Melville, Moby Dick)

But those are well-loved classics. Would we think those lines so great if we didn’t know the stories that follow them?

Curious about how the authors of today are crafting their first lines, I grabbed a few favorite books off my shelf. See what you think of these opening sentences:

1. There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever.
2. His footsteps were soundless, but Victoria felt him moving.
3. Anthony Bridgerton had always known he would die young.
4. I didn’t realize he was a werewolf at first.
5. One fine August evening in South Carolina, Agnes Crandall stirred raspberries and sugar in her heavy nonstick frying pan and defended her fiancé to the only man she’d ever trusted.

As with the classics above, my opinion isn’t unbiased because I know the stories that follow them, but all five of these first lines set a tone and pull me right along to the next sentence. The books and their clever authors are:

1. Janet Evanovich, One for the Money.
2. Colleen Gleason, Rises the Night
3. Julia Quinn, The Viscount who Loved Me
4. Patricia Briggs, Moon Called
5. Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, Agnes and the Hitman

What are the opening lines of some of your favorite books – and was it “love at first sentence?”