This Just In!

Great news from Julia Quinn via the Eloisa James and Julia Quinn Bulletin Board:

If you've never read The Duke and I , here's your chance. For the next month, you can read the entire book online. Free!

Or tell a friend--there is an email link on the site so you can share this free read with other book lovers.

And the best part is this: you're reading for charity! Avon Books is launching Love Gives Back, a program where they’ll give you monthly Sneak Peeks into upcoming releases and invite you to read Avon books for free online. The more you read the more you give – they’ll be donating a mass of books to charity organizations each month based on how much you read.

So get yourself over to the Avon Books Browse Inside website and read away! Tell everyone you know! Help me on my quest for Bridgerton World Domination! (Just kidding.)

Happy Reading!
JQ

Exciting News & Happy Mother's Day!

I am absolutely ecstatic to tell all of you that I am now represented by Kimberly Witherspoon of InkWell Management. Kim's client list contains several of my "when I grow up, I want to write like _____" authors, such as Sophie Kinsella, Rebecca Wells, and the utterly fabulous Eloisa James - I am truly honored to be in such extraordinary literary company!


Not only is Kim an amazing agent, she's an incredible person. She is one of the founding board members of the Bronx Academy of Letters, a high school centered around the belief that students with the ability to express themselves in writing will have an advantage in whatever future paths they choose to pursue. There's even a writer-in-residence at the school - how awesome is that?!

I am so thrilled to be working with Kim and InkWell - good things truly do come to those who wait (even if they wait very impatiently).

Belated congratulations also have to go out to Darcy, Pam and CM for being finalists in the Golden Heart! I can't wait to cheer all of you on in San Francisco! And a round of applause for Jackie/Jacqueline's sale to Kensington and Tessa's sooner-than-we-thought release dates! There have been so many other contest finals among the FanLiterati, I just can't keep track, but hugs to each and every one of you! The FanLit alums are truly taking the world of romance by storm!

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Happy Mother's Day!

The mother-daughter relationship is an integral part of my book, and the scenes featuring Izzie and her mother were some of my favorites to write! In honor of my wonderful mother (and since I haven't posted one for quite some time) here's an excerpt from Promise Me Always:

Before Isabella knew it, December came, and it was time to help her mother with the dreadfully tedious undertaking of addressing invitations to their annual Twelfth Night ball. Her mother always liked to work in the library, which had never bothered Isabella before but she now found terribly distracting. Her cheeks were perpetually crimson, causing her mother to ask repeatedly whether she needed to sit farther away from the fire.

And if she did manage to focus, it was only a matter of time before she caught a scent of the rosemary and bay leaves that were tied to the bunches of mistletoe hung throughout the house. Thoughts of mistletoe naturally led to thoughts of kissing, and thoughts of kissing led, of course, to thoughts of James, and then Isabella got distracted all over again.

“Izzie!” Olivia hissed, kicking her under the table.

“Ow!” Isabella yelped and jumped nearly oversetting her inkwell. “What was that for?”

“Girls?” Lady Weston looked up. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes,” Olivia said. “I was just warning Izzie that her penmanship was getting a bit sloppy.”

“You kicked me!” Izzie protested.

“I was trying to be subtle,” Olivia ground out.

“Oh, dear,” Lady Weston said and made a clucking noise. She had come over to inspect the damage and was leaning over Isabella’s shoulder. “Oh, dear,” she repeated.

Izzie frowned. True, her mind hadn’t been entirely focused on the invitations she’d been addressing, but it wasn’t exactly what one would call a stimulating activity. It was thoughts of stimulating activities that had distracted her in the first place… With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Izzie glanced down at the vellum envelope before her.

“Oh, dear,” she blurted out, echoing her mother’s distress. After copying out Baron Bridgeman’s direction, Izzie had absentmindedly embellished the creamy paper with drawings of interlocking hearts and wreaths of flowers, all containing various permutations of her and James’s names. Another envelope sitting in the finished pile bore no address at all; Izzie had filled the space instead with marriage vows. On yet another she had sketched herself and James locked in a passionate embrace—

Cheeks flaming, Isabella snatched up that particular envelope just as her mother was reaching for it to take a closer look. Izzie ripped the damning evidence in half and crumpled the pieces into a tight ball as she stood, walked over to the large fireplace and threw them in.

“Olivia,” her mother said, “I believe we’ve done enough invitations for today. Why don’t you go upstairs? I am certain Mrs. Daniels could your help in the schoolroom.”

“But—”

“No.” Lady Weston’s voice was firm. “I need to speak with your sister. Alone,” she added, when Olivia made no move to leave.

“Fine,” Livvy huffed. “I’m only the one who noticed it in the first place,” she grumbled, shutting the door behind her with more force than was strictly necessary.

“Actually, Mama,” Izzie said, edging toward the door herself, “I think I am feeling a bit feverish. Perhaps I should go lie—”

Lady Weston gestured to a pair of comfortable wingback chairs by the fireplace. “Sit,” she commanded, her tone brooking no room for argument.

Izzie gave her mother a look that said she was not at all happy about it, but she did as she was told. Her mother tugged the other heavy chair to directly face Isabella, and then seated herself. She took a deep breath as if readying herself for what was to be an unpleasant conversation.
“My dear,” she said, leaning forward to place a hand on Izzie’s knee, “I know that you have feelings for James—”

“If by feelings you mean love, then yes, I love him.”

“Darling, your affection for James has never been in question, but…”

“But?” Izzie prompted.

“But,” her mother sighed, “I cannot help wondering if you are so fixated on James that you have closed your mind and your heart to anyone else.”

“There is no one else for me. Only James.”

“You didn’t give any of your other suitors a fair chance,” Lady Weston protested.

“Yes, I did,” Isabella responded automatically.

“Really?” her mother drawled. “Name two.”

“Stimpson and Brantley,” she shot back.

In truth she had given each of them far more than what her mother would probably consider a fair chance. “The former disgusted me,” she continued, “and the latter evoked no warmer feelings than those one would expect from such a long-standing friendship. Just the sight of James makes my heart race and my insides get all quivery and—”

“And yet we must face the facts,” her mother finished for her. “James does not seem to reciprocate your feelings—”

“But he kissed me!” Izzie blurted out, then clapped her hands over her mouth.

“He did what?” Lady Weston squawked.

“Er, well—” Actually she had kissed him, but she would have to be on the rack before she would confess such brazen behavior to her mother.

“Isabella Anne Weston,” her mother threatened.

“All right, he kissed me. I admit it.” Izzie raised her hands in surrender. “It was the night of my ball. I was crying and he felt sorry for me.”

“Mmmm…” Lady Weston gazed at her, silently assessing. “And that was all, was it?”

Isabella flushed and crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. “Do you truly wish to hear the details?”

Her mother thought for a moment before grimacing. “No, I suppose I don’t, but you may as well know that a gentleman may kiss a lady without his heart or any of the finer feelings being involved.”

“Oh, there were feelings involved,” Izzie muttered under her breath.

Not quietly enough, apparently, for Lady Weston flushed bright red. “I presume that this … uh … incident did not go much beyond kissing and that you are … er … all in one piece, so to speak?”

“Eh?”

Her mother looked pained. “No, I can’t believe that James would ever…” she whispered to herself. “But remember when you and Oliver… No, surely he wouldn’t. Or if he had, he would have offered for her…”

“Mama?”

Lady Weston drew in a deep breath. “Yes?”

“I still don’t understand what you mean about being all in one piece.”

Her mother groaned. “This isn’t something I should have to explain until your wedding night.”

“Oh!” Izzie’s eyes grew wide with sudden comprehension. “You wanted to know if James and I were like Venus and Mars.”

“I beg your pardon,” her mother said. “Did you say Venus and Mars?”

Isabella nodded. “Yes, like the pictures in the book I found in— Well, it’s not important where I found it, and I only looked at it because I thought it was so odd to find a religious tract in … the place where I found it. Which is not important,” she added again for good measure.

“I am afraid you’ve lost me. A religious tract?”

“That’s just it!” Izzie waved her hands in frustration. “It wasn’t religious at all, but the title was so misleading. Godly Love, I think it was called.”

“Ah.” Lady Weston nodded. “I believe I begin to understand. I can also imagine where you found it or, rather, whose possession it was in. I shall ensure that it has moved along with this person to his bachelor lodgings so as not to corrupt any of my other children, besides Olivia.”

“Besides Olivia?”

“I can’t imagine that you kept such a find to yourself.”

Isabella’s blush proclaimed her guilt.

“Now, back to the subject at hand – I trust you and James were not like—” Lady Weston swallowed hard. “—Venus and Mars.”

“Oh, no!” Izzie exclaimed with horror.

Her mother breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank God!”

“It was more like Juno and Jupiter.”

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek and have a wonderful Mother's Day!

So, since Tessa's TMI Tuesdays are always so much fun, what's the most embarrassing conversation you've ever had with your mother?

Judgement Day

As my heroine, Isabella, would say: "Oh, dear!"
I resolved to be a better blogger, and I have turned into a holidays-only blogger. Worse still, I haven't even covered all of the holidays between Halloween and now. I'd resolve to be better, but it seems that would only make it worse!
So, here's a brief update:

• I spent Thanksgiving and Hanukkah in Los Angeles with my family, and we celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday with a surprise party. My cousins and I gifted her with a hilarious photograph that spelled out our love for her on our backsides. *Note to anyone planning to attempt this: While rubbing alcohol does remove most of the Sharpie from skin, you may be left with a faint residue of the letters "G" and "R" (or what have you) on your bottom for a good week.
• I started my new job as Marketing Executive for The Bridgeman Art Library International. The head of the company is a viscountess! No, seriously, she is. And her husband is in the House of Lords! Glory be!
  
• I acted as Calligrapher Extraordinaire for one of my good friends who is getting married this May. Congrats again, Allie and Luke! Your return address is permanently engraved on my brain! ;)
• I became hideously addicted to Facebook... It was bound to happen eventually - it's every procrastinator's dream!
• I saw the movie Enchanted twice and adored it both times! The costumes from the movie are on display in the windows of NYC's The Wonderful World of Disney, and they're gorgeous in person! (There might be duplicates on display in the Downtown Disney store at Disneyland, but Tessa would know better than I.) I also realized why Amy Adams, the lead actress looks so familiar... she looks like Tessa!
  

Okay, now that the brief update is out of the way, bring on the blog. I am shamelessly stealing the topic from India Carolina and posting about Golden Heart judging. I signed up for the Single Title Contemporary category and gleefully opened my FedEx box containing the partial manuscripts.

Before I go into detail, here are the facts and figures:

• Out of the six entries I received, two of the authors chose to put their name in the header. These manuscripts received my best and worst scores, although no amount of Google searching revealed anything about either of them.
• Synopses ranged from 2 to 11 pages, the average being around 7 pages.
• Out of six heroes, two had names I had trouble pronouncing. There was also a fireman aptly named Cole - he was hot (pun intended)!
• Three of the six entries contained fewer than the maximum 55 pages, the shortest including only 44 pages.
• Two entries did not end on a hook. Actually, they didn't really end at all. The last page simply broke off in the middle of a sentence, and no, there weren't pages missing because the synopses took up the remaining page count. How much should one mark off for not having a hook, even a bad one? It seems like one of those crucial elements in a partial... but it's also fairly easily fixed. It's debates like these that will drive a judge bonkers! Now for the blog...
  

I confess, I picked up the manuscripts printed in Courier typeface first, and then I chose by which title sounded most interesting to me. Wouldn't you know, the entry I liked the most had my least favorite title and was in what had to be Times New Roman size 10... but I couldn't mark down. It was too good. I never expected to give a 9 to an entry - and yes, there were things that I initially planned on marking down for - but at the end of the entry there were tears in my eyes and, after eliciting that much emotion, the author deserved the highest score I could give her. I fully expect to see her in the finals, and I can't wait to read the rest of her novel.

On the other end of the scale, I also never expected to give anyone a 1. I usually gave even the most dreadful FanLit entries a 2 - all right, I gave the random bits of poetry and the infamous oral sex scene zeroes, but can you blame me? - but this entry threw me for a loop in more ways than one. In addition to what I thought was poor writing, I felt parts of it were distinctly racist, and although the main character is attempting to come to terms with the fact that she's prejudiced, the whole thing felt offensive.

I actually ended up checking the "Not a Romance" box because a) the relationship between the hero and heroine was openly adulterous, and b) based on the synopsis, I couldn't qualify the ending as "happy" as the hero's wife is killed, which allows the H&H to be together again. All I could think about was the hero's poor daughter having tragically lost her mother, and this overshadowed any possible happiness about the reunited H&H.

Happy ending? Not in my book.

But what do you think? What makes a book a "romance" for you, and what lines have to be crossed for it to have that dreaded "Not a Romance" box checked? And is it just me, or do you also see the resemblance between Tessa and Amy Adams?

www.BeckyKelly.com

Happy Holidays and Happy Birthday to my BFF and roommate, Lizy, and to Kim Castillo, who lovingly keeps the Bon-Bons and Truffles in line over on the Eloisa James & Julia Quinn Bulletin Board!

Happy Halloween!

Skipperdee dressed as his namesake turtle from the classic children's book, Eloise

Congrats!

Actually, the sign should read: "And the winners are:"

Terrio and Maggie

I will e-mail you both with your ARC choices - the first one to claim a book gets it!

I also have an extra set of TOR/Forge coverflats if anyone has a coverflat collection and wants them, just leave me a post - again, the first to claim them gets them.

All in a Year's Work

It's hard to believe, but exactly one year ago my chapter, "Patience Makes Perfect," was selected as the winning final chapter in Avon's FanLit contest.

In the space of a year I have:

• Finished a manuscript, started another, and then turned to revising the first one
  
• Sent out lots of fulls and partials and received lots of rejections
• Attended one national RWA conference (Dallas), one local RWA conference (New Jersey), one local RWA meeting (NYC) and one local RWA awards ceremony (NYC RWA's Golden Apple Awards)
• Moved from sunny Los Angeles to not-so-sunny Manhattan
• Been told that my manuscript was lacking in commercial prospects and that I would someday be a NYT bestselling author (not the same person, obviously)
• Read countless books (hey, buying books is a tax write-off!)
  
• Procrastinated by playing inumerable games of spider solitaire and TextTwist
• Written about 40 blogs, including a guest blog for the Romance Vagabonds
• Taken 4 computer classes at FIT
• Done a lot more stuff that isn't blog worthy, and possibly some stuff that is blog worthy but I've forgotten

All in all, I have to say it's been a pretty great year, made even better by all the wonderful people who visit this blog - whether family, friends or fellow authors. Your support has meant the world to me! Let's hope this next year is bigger, sexier and a lot more fun!

XOXO,
Sara

P.S. The contest winners for the previous blog will be announced on Monday - there's still time to enter!

Dumpster Divin' and a Contest

It's not a rare sight to see people digging through the dumpsters of Manhattan. It is, however, rare to see a well-dressed, professional looking crowd clustered around a garbage bin. Naturally, I had to investigate...


Books! I found books! Well, ARCs, actually, and folders filled with promotional coverflats!

I actually found an ARC for Ellen Emerson White's Long May She Reign, which is the fourth book in a YA series that I discovered in seventh grade and have been obsessed with ever since. The President's Daughter is the first book, and I have read it so many times that the cover is falling off. It's sadly out of print, but perhaps they'll bring it back now that the latest book is being released. What a find!

So, a) what's the craziest thing you've ever dug out of the trash, and b) what book have you read so many times that the cover is beyond repair?

I'll choose two posters at random and send you a prize package of ARC and coverflats.