While I was sleeping…

Filed in: blog | publishing | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | harlequin historical undone | taming of mei lin | warrior bride

I always know what time it is in the UK. At least, I know when 5pm hits over there and the business day is over. That block from when I wake up to about noon is when I wait eagerly for news…if there’s any wait-worthy news on the pipeline…which there usually is.

In any case, I woke up this morning to a wonderful surprise. The powers that be have decided to rename my Harlequin Undone short from “Warrior Bride” to “The Taming of Mei Lin”. The Undone line is e-published, with a possibility of later going print in an anthology. The title is the main selling point for Undones and the powers wanted something that reflected both the sensuality and the Asian setting.

I’m quite thrilled! The Taming of Mei Lin also has the added benefit of referencing The Taming of the Shrew. Hee hee…which actually works quite well here. I wish I had thought of it.

Mei Lin is the feisty counterpart to Ai Li, the heroine of Butterfly Swords. You’ll have to look carefully for Mei Lin’s appearance in the longer novel.

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Search Stories on Google/YouTube

Filed in: blog | promotion | trailer    Tags: butterfly swords | research | search story | trailer

I learned about this from writer/blogger Dara Sorensen and am blown away about how people can come up with such fascinating time sucks.

Of course, I had to construct one for Butterfly Swords.

Now I know you’ll be going off to make one of your own. Look for “Search Stories”

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Dream Vacations

Filed in: research | travel | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | dunhuang | research trips | silk road | yumenguan

Every writer dreams about the research vacation. Ah yes, write a story set in Hawaii and write off the travel expenses as research. I wonder how often this actually happens. Teachers dream about being able to take vacations in the summer on teacher discounts too. (You can’t see me, but I’m rolling with laughter right now.)

I’m re-researching the details of Yumen Guan and the western frontier where part of my story is set and daydreaming about taking a research trip. I think there are even “Silk Road” packages that will take me from Xian out to Dunhuang. Hubby would throw a fit. I don’t think China is his choice for a dream vacation (weak stomach + meat and potatoes man — need I say more? ).

14 day Silk Road package. I’d be able to visit the ruins of the Jade Gate fortress and my beloved Gansu corridor. Until then, I’ll just stare at it from Google Maps and take lots of artistic license.

When I first read about Yumen Guan, I knew it was the perfect location for my story. The fortress ruins look so lonely rising out of the desert. Because it was built in the Han dynasty, by the Tang dynasty it would have been over 500 years old.  I studied other military gates or “Guan” to figure out what the Jade Gate may have looked like in its heyday. The construction of a stone wall surrounding a towering wooden structure seems very common.

What’s in my head is something in between the barren rock and the fortress of its heyday. Oh, and another reason for my choice? Yumenguan or Yumen Guan is readable and pronounceable. Decisions, decisions. Back to revisions now.

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Interview at Romance Writers on the Journey

Filed in: Announcements | book reviews | friends and family | interviews | The Bookshelf | writing    Tags: agent stories | author interview | butterfly swords | golden heart | publishing journey | romance writers on the journey | success stories | the call

Keli hosts the "Romance Writers on the Journey" blog

My interview is featured today on Keli Gwyn’s “Romance Writers on the Journey” blog. The blog features unpublished and debut authors on the road to publication. I like to read the blog for inspiration and Keli caught me when I was hanging around to find out more about some of my fellow Ruby Slippered sisters from the Golden Heart® 09 tour.

I think she does a fabulous job researching these interviews. It’s all the dirty details on my contest warpath and the  roller coaster I’ve been on since March. (Never before revealed online…shhh!!!) To put things into perspective, when I volunteered to do the interview in June, I had received the GH@ nomination and was thinking the Call would never come.

Hop on over and take a look.

http://romancewritersonthejourney.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/meet-debut-author-jeannie-lin/

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The Gateway to the Best Contest

Filed in: The Bookshelf | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | CORE critique | gateway to the best contest | golden heart prep | morwa | the dragon and the pearl

Ah, nostalgia…this time last year I was polishing Butterfly Swords and trying to enter it in contests in preparation for the Golden Heart®. The Golden Pen contest is closed for entries, but the Gateway has just opened!

I’m a little partial because:

1) MORWA is my home chapter and I’m coordinating the historical category

2) This was the very, very first contest where I finaled. It was with The Dragon and the Pearl (aka Silk and Shadows at the time) and not Butterfly Swords, though I did get great feedback on Butterfly.

3) This was the first time I received a request for a full manuscript off of pages — which means the first time an industry professional took notice!

Anyone who has their eye on the Golden Heart® or who wants to get good writing feedback, should enter the Gateway. There’s a half-off discount on multiple entries and MORWA as a chapter is very much into critique with the majority of the members also being active in the CORE critique group. Because of this, the comments tend to be very detailed on the entries. (No guarantees! But you have a much better chance, honestly!)

Here’s the bulletin below. More details about the significance of this contest to my writing journey will be revealed in an interview I’m doing with author Keli Gwyn on September 3rd on her blog: Romance Writers on the Journey

*****Permission to forward*****

Gateway to the Best contest is open! One of last year’s finalists, Jeannie
Lin, won a Golden Heart last month and sold her book. Two other
Gateway winners also finaled in the Golden Heart.

Entries consist of first twenty-five pages; no synopsis. Electronic entries
only.

Final judges are:
Historical -* Esi Sogah, Avon*
Contemporary Series -* Laura Barth, Harlequin*
Paranormal -* LaToya Smith,** Grand Central*
Single Title -* Katherine Pelz, Berkley*
Suspense -* Margo Lipschultz, Harlequin*

Deadline is Sept. 11 with payment via PayPal or check.

First entry is $30. Half price for multiple entries. No restriction on
number of entries in each category.

The first place winners will each receive a certificate, a one-year
membership to MORWA (e-newsletter only), a Gateway Arch charm, and an
electronic banner announcing the win for the author’s website. The second
place winners will each receive a certificate and a one-year membership to
MORWA (e-newsletter only). The third place winners will each receive a
certificate.

Grand prize winner receives $100 and a critique of full manuscript by one
major Published Author.

For more information, visit http://www.morwa.org/gateway.htm or contact me.
Nancy Litzau
Gateway coordinator

Missouri Romance Writers (MORWA)
nlitzau@sbcglobal. net

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I'm dreaming…I'm dreaming

Filed in: writing    Tags: Asian setting | butterfly swords | first sale | historical romance | jade lee | morwa | tigress series

I’m in one of my moods and when I get there, I always get introspective and there’s usually some blubbering.

Take a look at my flowers! My lovely chaptermates at MORWA gave them to me today to commemorate my first sale, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. They arranged for something better than the Golden Heart® and the contract put together. (Okay, maybe not better than the contract.)

Remember how I was gushing about meeting Jade Lee at Nationals? She shows up today at the Crestwood Barnes and Noble for the meeting. I guess that’s not too weird. She’s a romance author and the ladies at MORWA seem to know everybody. But when Kimberly Killion announces my sale, who comes up to present me my first flowers? Jade Lee…who also announces that she finished Butterfly Swords last night and is giving me a cover quote!!!

Let me go total fan girl for a moment. (I thought I played it pretty cool by not bawling all over Ms. Lee’s shoulder at the meeting) Four years ago, I found Hungry Tigress at a rest stop in Barstow. I had just started writing “Dragon Court”, just stumbling around trying to learn, and I wasn’t even setting it in Asia. I was going for a fantasy world based on China. But I read the rest of Jade Lee’s Tigress series and was so inspired, I committed to the Tang Dynasty.

Then I sought out more Jade Lee. I read Devil’s Bargain. I read The Concubine and brought it to Nationals to get it signed. You know the Crimson City series? I actually only read Seduced By Crimson and none of the others. What kind of nut only reads the middle book in a series?

I don’t know who in my chapter thought to do this for me, but I am simply overcome. Just to think, a year ago I had nothing to show but hope and now my freakin’ idol has read my book.

At this moment, I don’t care if Butterfly Swords only sells one copy to my mother. This is a dream come true and I’m so very happy.

This is a good moment.

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Crashing after conference

Filed in: friends and family | slice of life | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | post-conference | revising process | the dragon and the pearl | writing karma

Little Sis just bought her house and is now going through the cycle of painting, carpeting and cleaning. She called me because she was feeling a little bit hum-drum and didn’t know why. Well, she actually did know why because we always have theories for everything. I suppose that’s why we write.

She likened it to how you always get depressed after finishing a big project. The house is finally hers, now what?

I know these things about me. I knew there would be a post-conference crash. I used up all the adrenaline stores by not sleeping, gushing over seeing and meeting so many people, and crying in the bathroom every morning because I couldn’t believe everything that was happening.

I’m finally writing again. I have no room for excuses. Little Sis says the revised 15 chapters of The Dragon and the Pearl are better, but she won’t start doing line edits until I send her the whole thing. Probably she’ll be reading it between fixing the house and settling in. What a slave driver. Love her.

Oh yeah, karma moment! I got to meet Hilary Sares who sat in front of me at the RITA/GH® awards ceremony. She was there for my chapter-mate Kimberly Killion, who was up for a Rita award. I thanked her in person for placing Silk and Seduction (aka The Dragon and the Pearl) first in the Gateway contest and requesting the full. I never got to send it to her, but it was the first time my writing got any notice from an agent or editor. And the manuscript was so very rough back then. If that’s not motivation to get these revisions done, what is?

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Butterfly Swords wins the Golden Heart contest

Filed in: Announcements | events | publishing    Tags: butterfly swords | golden heart | historical romance | rwa | speech

When they were getting ready to announce my category, my husband took my hand. I held onto him so hard as they read the names of all the finalists. Yes, I wanted to win even though I had a contract. Don’t we all hope and dream for the moon?

And I did win. I won, I won, I won! I can always boast that Butterfly Swords won the Golden Heart® for the best historical romance manuscript of 2009. No one can take that away. Ever.

Is this ungraceful of me to strut like this? I do admire and genuinely hope the best for my GH® sistas, especially in the historical category. In fact, I have a feeling a couple of them are also really, really close to signing. One in particular, but I won’t name names.

It’s just been such a long journey with so few celebrations up until the very last few months. And even with the contest placements and manuscript requests, I was getting scared. The best agents in the industry and the top romance editors were saying my Asian setting was too risky.

When I got up on stage for my acceptance speech, do you know how I felt? I felt like that moment at the end of the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. They finally announce that Chris (Will Smith) has earned the job he worked so tirelessly for without any promise of success. The executive says, “Tell me Chris. Was it as easy as it looked?”

Chris fights back tears as he replies: “No. No it was not.”

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My news

Filed in: Announcements | Asian fantasy | publishing | writing    Tags: butterfly swords | first sale | historical romance | mills & boon

Dear friends,

As of this morning, 10:57am EST, Butterfly Swords, has been sold to Harlequin Mills & Boon.

I’m at RWA national conference, among friends, among many of the people who helped me get here. This couldn’t have happened at any better time. Many, many more stories later.

Kudos to Lisa & Dara who may have noticed that I also quoted The Pursuit of Happyness when I signed with my agent. Last Friday was the day I first received the offer.

This is a dream come true. I’m happy.

-Jeannie

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The Great Agent Hunt is over

Filed in: Announcements | publishing | writing    Tags: agent hunt | butterfly swords | Gail Fortune | queries | representation

Jeannie Lin is represented by Gail Fortune of the Talbot Fortune Agency.

That felt really good to be able to say that! This has been a long, long road and I know a new journey is just beginning. It’s nice to have an advocate by my side for this leg of it.

Think good thoughts for Butterfly Swords!

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