So this week brings the arrival of a debut author, Delilah Marvelle and her wonderful new book, Mistress of Pleasure. I asked Delilah to drop by and meet all of you, so without any further ado:

1) Delilah, how exciting to see your first book Mistress of Pleasure coming out! Congratulations! What was the spark that ignited this story? In other words what came to you first?

Thank you so much for the congrats, Elizabeth, and for having me on your blog! I’m definately thrilled to see my first book in print.

Ah, yes. The spark that ignited this … Read more »

So last week I talked about how great you all are, and this week I’ll share what authors are usually up to before a book comes out. Really, if you think we are all successful, well-adjusted and basically lofty individuals and you want to hold onto that delusion, please read no further. It only gets ugly from here.

Now most authors I know spend the two weeks before their book comes out fussing. Not just fussing, but pacing around. Waiting. You see we’ve spent months, years even waiting for this book to come out, for this story to get told … Read more »

I’ve found myself having a hard time coming down from the conference this week. I just didn’t want the fun and energy to stop. To prolong the love, I’ve been reading everyone else’s posts about the SF RWA conference and thought I’d share them, along with extending my own posts about the conference:

My First Time – Oh, get your mind out the gutter, it wasn’t that first time. But it seemed to be a lot of folks first time at conference, including Abi at Waxcreative, Ciara Stewart (who, BTW, for someone who went for the first time and claims … Read more »

It is so hard to come back from conference and distill it down into one blog. Okay, sort of impossible. Because I have to admit, I’ve never had so much fun at conference as I did this past week. (Well, with the possible exception of the first NYC conference–remember Diane?) From the Yarn Crawl with Debbie Macomber and company, to the tea with John Charles, to the meetings with Waxcreative–my wonderful web team, to the workshops I gave, to having my DH come down Friday night and spend time with him, to presenting one of the RITAs. It was … Read more »

I’m a little rushed this week as I get ready to go to the Romance Writers of America conference in San Francisco, so here are some quick links for all of you that I thought I would share.

If you are going to the conference, then check out these:

1) Map of the area. Niki Burnham sent me this link and it is fabulous. Click to go to the Union Square neighborhood, and then click on the link that says “Map”. You’ll get a pdf file of the neighborhood, the sort of detailed map that tells you all the … Read more »

I’m trying to finish a book right now (in the final week stretch) and while I am editing the draft I run into words I’ve shoved into the story that are either: a) creatively spelled or b) I’m not positive they mean what I think they mean. Or it’s old slang that I’ve used to give the story that period feel. But all in all, I need a good dictionary when I edit to make sure I’ve got it right.

I really try hard to get it right. Let’s put it this way, last night —really, last night–I … Read more »

So this week has been filled with, like the title says, a little bit of everything. I usually am not huge on tooting my own horn, but I’ve gotten sent this from a bunch of people, so I thought I’d share, ’cause I’m sort of proud of it. This came through in the Romantic Times Newsletter:

Elizabeth Boyle is our lead Clubhouse for September. We were inspired by our senior historical romance reviewer, Kathe Robin, who read her latest book, TEMPTED BY THE NIGHT, and immediately called us to rave about it. We just love it when a book grabs

I was asked recently how I start writing a book. Well, I’ll let you in on a super secret: it all starts with the right notebook. Really.

And it can’t be just any notebook. I like colored ones. I have two that I work between–one that is sort of lime green and the other is bright blue. I like those colors because when my office turns into a bomb scene, either because I am in full writing/research/what the heck did I call that butler mode, my office can get a tad bit messy. So a neon bright notebook stands out … Read more »

This is probably not a word that most people would use when describing me. I am not the most patient person. I want things to happen. Now. Not months from now, not years from now. But now. Today. Immediately. And so I became a writer. I can just see career counselors and life coaches all over the place just shaking their heads. Because writing is all about the patience. The hurry up and wait. A one page at a time sort of existence. I can’t just get up one morning with a brilliant idea and sit down at 9 with … Read more »

I’ve been so caught up in finishing a book, everything has sort of stacked up on the desk. I looked up the other day, blinked like a ground hog and realized I’ve got a bunch of events coming up soon and I didn’t have any of the particulars nailed down. Like airline flights, hotels, rental cars, the sort of details that my lazy-ass assistant never gets to. Oh, wait, that’s me having to get up an hour early to get it all done–so you can understand why it just sort of doesn’t–get done that is. And with the first trip … Read more »