Plot Party and Brainstorming

Well, not this kind of party.

This past weekend Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers had their annual Plot Party at one of the member’s homes—Diane Sismour. The drive to her house was over miles of rolling hills and beautiful open Pennsylvania farmland. Upstairs in a gorgeously remodeled carriage house, eight of us ate salads, quiche, and snacks and drank tea and coffee while we discussed our current books or asked for help on plotting new ones.

Colm Toibin

We selected names and each person got their chance to ask questions or discuss their book. I had questions on the final book in my series, wanting to make sure all my plot points sounded solid, and that my story had no plot holes. I also wanted to brainstorm my black moment and tweak it. I knew the ending, just wanted some ideas on the best way to get there.

Others wanted help with goals for their characters, or felt their story wasn’t working or was stalled and wanted to know why. Another writer had a basic idea and premise for a new story and wanted help brainstorming it to get her jump started. With everyone throwing ideas out, I discovered we all have different strengths. Even if an idea won’t work, that idea can open up a new perspective or an alternate possibility for the story.

David Starkey

Plotting groups are different than critique groups. A plot group can discuss or hash out specific plot elements, goals, motivations and conflicts of characters, or brainstorm scenes or turning points. Plot holes are found and repaired, new life is infused into a dying story and enthusiasm sparked when writers have lost direction.

Haworth Parsonage -Bronte sister writing room

Creative energy feeds off itself and new ideas are considered as others are discarded. The plot group should be arranged as a brainstorming session and not a critique. Critiquing can come at another time. Just get the ideas flowing and write them down or tape them. It’s also a good idea to have a timekeeper so each person has a set amount of time, so the session doesn’t go on too long and the group gets tired.

Kevin Crossley-Holland

And plan for food and drink, probably not alcohol, to keep your minds sharp. To save time it’s a good idea to come with the outline of your story, a list of questions of what you need help with or a basic idea or premise for the story you want brainstormed.

This morning I was up at 5:00 am reworking two synopses on two novels I’m writing at the same time. Even though I only discussed one book at the plot party, the group gave me fresh ideas for both stories.

Alissa Nielsen

After the Plot Party where is your writing space? I posted a few photos of authors' writing spaces, from the spacious, to the cluttered, to the cramped. I couldn't imagine working inside a closet. Where do you write? What would be your dream writer's space? I write on the dining room table, but I have my eye on a spare bedroom as soon as we get a large enough desk.

UFO or Hoax

On July 3th my husband and I were hanging out on our pool deck at about 10:30 pm. He was reading a book and I was on my computer. He looked up from his book and pointed to three or four red lights in the Northwest sky moving in a line toward the Northeast. Believe it or not, I had been Googling ‘UFOs—metal spheres with spiny projections’ (but that’s another story). And my husband was reading The Shimmer by David Morrell. This book is in line with Roswell with mysterious lights and an isolated research facility.

I shrugged and said, “They’re planes. ABE (Lehigh Valley International Airport) must be busy with flights for the holiday weekend.”

“Now look. And I don’t hear any planes. We usually hear them,” he argued.

I looked up and there were at least twenty of them. Some were in clusters and others in a line. They continued to move across the sky, and more came. “What are they?”

“Don’t know. They’re not planes.”

I ran inside and grabbed the camera.

A neighbor came out and he was checking out the red lights. He was stumped too.

[The photos didn't come out well but you can see faint dots of light above and to the right of my husband in the white tee-shirt]

The light show lasted about twenty minutes, and there were around 50 of them. I searched “red lights in the sky” on Google and found several instances—one in New Jersey six months ago that was never explained and also an incident in Ohio. One suggested it being a hoax, a prank. I know it wasn’t fireworks. They seemed to be moving about the speed of a small plane or helicopter. BUT, if someone wanted to do a prank, how would they do this? Searching around on the Internet I found one possibility which seems most logical for what we saw.

Tying red flares to small helium balloons and releasing them could work. Hopefully, the flares wouldn’t land and set anything on fire. But I guess the flares would go out before they landed. But if someone launched 50 of the fake UFOs, they would have to land sometime and someone would find the remains. Wouldn’t they? As much as I would like for them to be real UFOs, most likely this was a holiday prank.

[This photo I tried to inlarge a bit. I also tried a different setting (longer exposure) that's why you see the double image. I was probably shaking the camera.]

My husband was going to play a joke on my neighbor and make a foil hat to wear at the pool today. I shook my head. What is it with the foil hats? Don’t people know that if there are really extraterrestrials, their technology for probing minds would be advanced enough NOT to be stopped by mere foil hats?
My husband leaned back in his lawn chair and said, “You have to use Heavy Duty foil.”

Coming Attractions: DRAGON WITCH

Soon, I'll have a new book coming out from Ellora’s Cave, an erotic paranormal romance—a futuristic. DRAGON WITCH is my first erotic science fiction. This Sci-fi has space travel, a shapeshifting dragon, a sultry witch, harsh planets and rebel pilots. AND a hot, alternative romance between two men and a woman. Not to mention a passionate love story and an unexpected ending. I'll keep you posted on the release date.

I've included a few Sci-fi heroes who could be the hero in my story, depending on your taste. Who is your preference?

I loved writing this book. It started out as an Ellora’s Cave Quickie (less than 15,000 words), but the story took over and the characters had more to share. I put it on the side for a while to finish other projects and finally got back to it.





The setting is in the future on a planet called Somerled, a harsh, tropical planet. Biologist and witch, Jaida Chel combines nature magick with herbal science to protect Kai, the last shapeshifting dragon on her world of Somerled. But when Captain Brayden Stokes reenters her life not only is Kai’s life at stake, but so is Jaida’s secured position in the colony. Brayden and Jaida can’t resist the sexual heat between them, even though she knows a relationship would be doomed. Fleet pilots don’t stay planetside for long.



Jaida is torn between Brayden and her dragon and companion, Kai. When Kai morphs into a human twice a year, his sexual desire is ravenous. He must mate for twenty-four hours or die. Unrestrained passion between Kai and Jaida draws Brayden into a ménage. The three cross boundaries, exploring erotic encounters beyond anything they could’ve imagined. When secrets and betrayals are revealed, Brayden must risk everything for one last chance at love.

If readers like this story, I would love to write more like it.

DARK SHADOWS & Tote Bag-Winner

DARK SHADOWS REMEMBERED

BITTEN BY PARANORMAL ROMANCE

I'll be doing an interview and guest blogging for Bitten by Paranormal Romance tomorrow 6/24/10. I'll also be giving away an ebook copy of Desert of the Damned I hope you'll stop by and check out the site. She has some awesome paranormal pics. I especially like the old Dark Shadows pics. Anyone remember that supernatural soap opera? We used to run home from school to watch it. We were hooked. The pics of Barnabas Collins, a vampire in the show, brought back memories. Dark Shadows featured werewolves, vampires, zombies, witches, time travel and alternative universes. Cool stuff for a kid. After all these years, paranormals are still hot.

TOTE BAG OF HOT BOOKS -- WINNER

WOW! I had a huge response for the tote bag of hot books. Thank you all who entered. The WINNER is:

Sheila from Golden Valley, AZ

Enjoy all your great reads and the cute tote bag!

I also gave away a tote bag with a few extra goodies on June 1st to Eva form Henrico, VA. This tote bag was a hot item at the Romantic Times Convention. Jimmy Thomas made them up with pictures of a number of the book covers he's on. Lots and lots of sexy covers! I stuck something entra along with the bag too.

I'll be giving another one away on July 1st. This is a special thank you to my Passion Sense newsletter members. All members are automatically entered and only open to newsletter members. So if you join before July 1st, you can be included in the drawing. Opting out later is always open. And I never share info. There's a link on my blog below my website link and there's also a link on my website http://www.kathykulig.com/

HAPPY READING

***How many Dark Shadows characters can you remember?

RomantiCon 2010, Wicked, Wild & Fun

Last year in Richfield, Ohio, I attended the first RomantiCon Convention sponsored by Ellora’s Cave, and I’m so glad I’ll be able to make in again this year. https://www.jasminejade.com/romanticon/index.html

I have to say it was the most relaxed convention with the friendliest atmosphere of any writer’s conference I’ve ever attended. Ellora’s Cave/Cerridwen authors, fans, EC staff, industry professionals and don’t forget the hunky Ellora’s Cave Cavemen were there at the events—parties, workshops, book signing and more. There’s lots of time to mingle and meet with authors, fans and the Cavemen. The workshops are fun, entertaining (very entertaining) and informative for both fans, authors and aspiring authors. By the photos in this posting you’ll see what a good time it was. These pictures are taken from RomantiCon 2009.

EC/CP authors and staff are very warm and supportive people. There is no way you can attend this event without having a great time. Even Bingo is exciting when Caveman Rodney is calling out numbers while flexing his muscles.

The theme party this year is Roaring Twenties, so if you have a flapper dress, or gangster, moll, or bootlegger costume, go for it! It not, no worries. Bring your favorite party dress or outfit. Not everyone dresses in costume. The idea is to be comfortable and have a good time.

This year Ellora’s Cave will be celebrating their 10th year Anniversary and the 2nd year of RomantiCon so you can expect of lot of good things—goodies, books, lots of books, and more books, photo opts with those hunky guys walking around sans shirts, plenty of dancing and lots of good memories. I hope to see you there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivzISuOUKr0

Long Island RWA Luncheon with Editors & Agents

The Inn at Fox Hollow in Woodbury, NY, a gorgeous restaurant and hotel on Long Island’s north shore, was the venue for Long Island Romance Writer’s Luncheon on June 11th. This was my first year and I rode with my friend Diane Sismour—she drove, I navigated. If you’ve ever tried driving around NYC and you’re not familiar with the area, it’s quite an adventure. Diane’s GPS kept getting lost. Too many parallel roads, I guess. It kept saying, “Recalculating trip,” or something. Diane finally said, “Oh, shut up, Lucy,” and switched it off. With Mapquest directions and a NYC map, I kept Diane in the correct lane, watched for signs and exits. And there are a lot of signs, last minute exits and a thousand trucks. It’s a two-person journey if you aren’t familiar with the area. NYC is insane.

From Pennsylvania, the drive should’ve taken less than 2 ½ hours. We were delayed by an accident on the LI Expressway (why unearth do they call it an Expressway, it should be the LI Parking lot). Four hours later we arrived, only a few minutes late. The luncheon with about a hundred people was already in full swing.

Check the link for the list of editors and agents who attended. http://www.lirw.org/luncheon.html There were about a dozen agents and around eight editors.

Diane and I got our badges, bought raffle tickets for the baskets and found a table. But we didn’t sit. We skipped the hors d’oeuvres and dove right into the mingling with a stack of business cards and a pen in hand. The editors had a purple dot on their badges and the agents had a red dot, so you wandered around checking out badges and deciding who you wanted to talk to. I had my list in hand, with an elevator pitch (a two or three line pitch with the title and genre of my book).

Usually, I’m fairly shy in groups like this, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. After the four-hour drive, I wasn’t going to go back without making some contacts. I had a number of pleasant conversations with writers, editors and agents. I introduced myself, asked a question or two, asked if they were looking for such and such (the subgenre of my book), gave them the title, told them more if they seemed interested. If they were, I asked for a business card. I'm sure next time, it'll be a little easier. The editors and agents were very gracious. They patiently listened to the pitches—a ton of them—shared information and were very receptive to talk about the latest in the publishing world.

Their guest speaker was Steven Zacharius, President of Kensington Books. Obviously, he’s a man who loves his job and has great enthusiasm and a positive outlook for the future of the publishing world. He talked about the history of Kensington, how he got started in publishing, and how Kensington was adapting to the changes in the marketplace, especially with ebooks and ereaders growing in popularity.

I highly, highly recommend going to the luncheon. Well worth going. Thank you to the members of the LIRW group for putting on an awesome function.

Summertime HOT Reads

Head for the beach, the pool or a cool spot on your porch, grab a tall glass of iced tea and something hot to read. Whether you prefer your Nook, Kindle or a paperback there are lots of great books out there. Check out Romantic Times Magazine for some ideas or peruse Ellora’s Cave for all their sexy titles.

*Please share what you're reading this summer and don't forget to check out the CONTEST at the end of this post.

If you like sexy paranormal romance, hunky guy pics, interviews and reviews there's a cool site called Bitten by Paranormal Romance. They'll be posting a review and interview for Damned and Desired soon. So stay tuned. As you stack up your summer to be read pile, I hope you’ll consider my books:


DESERT OF THE DAMNED
Book One in the Demons in Exiled series from Ellora’s Cave
Available in print and ebook at Ellora’s Cave and Amazon


In the Arizona desert, while exploring the dark side of her passion, a woman is torn between two men, but discovers she’s caught in the middle of a war between demon and shapeshifter. And one is an ancient evil intent on possessing her soul.

“This is a hotly erotic tale of skin walkers, shape shifters, old legends, and new desires.”
~5 Stars, Bitten by Books

“...the steamy sex scenes will leave you panting for more.” ~ 4 Stars, Romantic Times Magazine





DAMNED AND DESIRED
Book Two in the Demons in Exile series from Ellora’s Cave
Available in ebook at Ellora’s Cave and Amazon

She’s a demon, he’s a shapeshifting leopard. From their first meeting in the Sedona desert, passion ignites and trouble begins. When immortals from an alternate dimension try to free their exiled world, Brad Montag is caught in the middle of a battle that could destroy not only him, but the land he loves. If Sakari Lock chooses to save him, she stands to lose everything, unless…





“Very entertaining. I couldn’t stop reading, wondering what was going to happen next. I recommend this book as one you must pick up.” ~4.5 Cherries, The Long and the Short of It

“I would highly, highly recommend this book to you if you like paranormal erotic romance. Really, an amazing book.” ~5 Stars, The Pen and Muse

“Kathy Kulig has a vivid imagination and a wonderful writing voice to make it come to life.” ~4 Cups, Coffee Time Romance.



WILD JADE
Cerridwen Press
Available in print and ebook at Cerridwen Press and Amazon

An ancient supernatural mystery returns to the sultry jungle, igniting dangerous obsession and untamed passion. When an archaeology student and her director uncover a 1,300 year-old tragic love story, one in which they were directly connected in a past life, a new menace threatens their project and their lives. Will history repeat itself?

“I found that the exotic locale and the potential for danger make WILD JADE captivating.” ~ Joysann, Beyond Her Book Blog, Publishers Weekly

"Kathy Kulig tells Lauren/Cimi and Deven/Kayab's tale with such passion and fervor that I was completely captivated by them...” ~ Blue Ribbon Rating: 5 ~ Chrissy Dionne, Romance Junkies







****CONTEST: Still need some more books? Don’t forget to check out my website for details on how to WIN a tote of HOT books. http://www.kathykulig.com The drawing will be on June 22nd.