P.P.S. Have you got a certain scale of how much it costs (per page or so) for your company to convert out-of-print books by midlist authors, because I know someone who would be interested, but money is tight.

Yes, I have a rate card. Email me and we can talk.

Well in my case you got a buyer via your excerpts, first Stay then The Proviso.

P. S. My squee is live on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981769632/ref=cm_cr_thx_view

P.P.S. Have you got a certain scale of how much it costs (per page or so) for your company to convert out-of-print books by midlist authors, because I know someone who would be interested, but money is tight.

romance with dark underpinnings – bless you for your extremely long excerpts.

That’s why I did that. Proviso is very dark and very savage. I wanted to be honest and upfront with the reader because I hate being ambushed. I figured if a reader can make it through Giselle’s de-virginization, s/he could probably make it through the rest of it pretty okay.

Nash is polarizing. People either love him or hate him.

Wow are you going to connect the Dunham books to science fiction?

Yes. It’s got a few foci. 1) Delilah has TWO husbands, turning my church’s history of polygamy on its head (not to mention the fact that polyandry has really never worked in any society it’s been tried). 2) Chemical warfare. 3) Genetic experimentation a la the Third Reich. 4) The uprising of a people against a totalitarian regime.

I always have to explore something, some theme, in my books.

Here’s the not-so-official blurb (so take it with a grain of salt):

In 2068, Delilah Kenard is an average Mormon girl with dreams of a temple wedding in Nauvoo, a perfect pink princess reception, and a honeymoon involving a 5-star hotel, fluffy white bathrobes, and room service.

Her mother, however, will make sure neither Bram Forrester, a Catholic, nor Devon Nishimura, an LDS boy whose virtue is long gone, serve as the groom.

But three years later, a chemical weapon is accidentally released, decimating the world’s population and leaving very few fertile humans to save the species.

The US government, in an effort to rebuild the population, institutes a compulsory program that has the church~and the rest of the populace~in a tailspin. It has never been known to have worked successfully in any human society in history:

Polyandry.

Most of Delilah’s family is gone, but what remains presents her a choice: Take Bram and Devon as her registered mates or let the government assign her to two complete strangers.

And yes, as his name implies, Devon is of Japanese descent.

I agree. Especially for a romance reader who reads little romance with dark underpinnings – bless you for your extremely long excerpts.

“the tackling of weighty subjects that make people uncomfortable, especially in the context of genre romance.”

Well you had a bit of that in Stay as well, which intrigued me. The faith and the politics casually and not so casually referred to (for example I don’t agree with Vanessa’s idea she should be able to do whatever she wants with the land she bought – personally I think that leaves responsible stewardship up to the single owner, and if he’s NOT responsible by nature, tough luck – but I could follow her viewpoint and why SHE thought so. I also adored the Laura Ingalls Wilder homage, highlighting the fact that some books can be transforming for some readers – and they don’t have to be the Bible).

“People don’t evolve in a vacuum and we aren’t one-dimensional, and so often I want to know *more* about why X character did Y thing, but there’s no room to develop that.”

I never felt bored by anything you did in Stay, so the level of exploration was just right for me.

“I have to struggle for my money day to day. I don’t want to read or write about the struggle. We all know how to struggle for a living.”

Well, we can pick the struggles we want to read/write about. I don’t mind rags to riches stories in whichever genre I read (fantasy, science fiction, romance), but I believe I read for escape – not because my personal life is so horrid, but to relax and get impressions away from my day-to-day life.

I never would have thought that reading more about Mormon faith, Ayn Rand/ Libertarian, or Republican beliefs would interest me, but it was part of your characters and shows me another view apart from the dissenting views I’ve read about these subjects before (not being a US citizen this is all rather far from my personal experience anyway). And you’re not preaching, it just comes naturally to the characters.

“Dirk, no. He’s normal and not prone to drama (unless it’s his last resort). However, you probably realize my next book is about a bishop (Mitch Hollander, referenced in Stay and whom you will see referenced in The Proviso a bit more).”

I just thought his relationship to all the drama going on and impression of quiet strength would make another interesting viewpoint on the developments. I also liked that he was a person of colour (I’m Caucasian myself – well half), but didn’t turn into a token black by the way he was described.

I read the info on Magdalene – the wait is sooo long. Oh well.

“Annie and Nash both have stories (you probably guessed that).”

Oh, I’d like to read more about Annie. Nash didn’t have that much “screen time” to come across as anything than too egoistical for my taste when I realised he had approached Vanessa on the strength of her resemblance to his wife (especially when he wrote that email/mms whatever it was near the end), I felt more like applauding his ex-wife, heh.

“After Magdalene (book 3), there’s Dunham (historical privateer-and-pirate swashbuckler set during the American Revolutionary War), and then Delilah (a post-apocalyptic tale). After that, I’ll start in on Nash, Annie, and a couple of other Dunhams. Jack Blackwood (referenced in Stay and whom you will see in The Proviso) actually has a story.”

Wow are you going to connect the Dunham books to science fiction? Or is that simply separate? Historical Dunham I can see.

“Oh, thank you so much!!!”

Well, they haven’t incorporated it yet, and I haven’t bought it via Amazon. But then my two Sherwood Smith reviews also took days to show up (although I bought those via Amazon). Let’s hope they will.

“I’ve been toying with the idea of sending it out, since the whole DellArte thing came about and I got some attention.”

I think some of the ebook friendly romance review sites might be good to start with – especially for Stay.

“I had originally offered an LRF version, but I was told it looked horrible on their Sony, and since I had no way to verify that it looked halfway decent, I decided to drop that format. Sorry about that.”

I don’t know what went wrong there, but you have .lit, .prc and .epub in your zip (and thankfully no drm – although when I buy a book I crack that anyway) so I just used Calibre to convert from .epub to .lrf – with base font size at 12 pt for my not so good eyes – and both books read beautifully (I always check after converting). Calibre adds the cover pages (although in Stay there was already your cover included) and a summary when it converts and all the paragraphs, etc. are intact.

Off for the night (it’s almost 11pm), lots of health and success to you!

as long as I can get towards an optimistic solution I’ll follow

Stay will have spoiled you for all the big “tense moments” and secrets in The Proviso, but I’m not sure that’s a BAD thing for readers who might not otherwise like it or understand where I’m going with it.

It’s readers like you who enjoy the journey for which starting with Stay is probably a better idea. I mean, you already know Knox’s disposition, but how he gets there . . . Hee!

The brutal part of The Proviso, in my opinion, is the tackling of weighty subjects that make people uncomfortable, especially in the context of genre romance. I consider The Proviso my homage to the groundbreakers of genre romance, but I also wanted to put different twists on the characters, make them identify religiously and politically (because I get impatient with vague references to such things in other books), make them identify sexually within the context of religion and politics, make them try to put all that together and balance the various facets of their personalities.

People don’t evolve in a vacuum and we aren’t one-dimensional, and so often I want to know *more* about why X character did Y thing, but there’s no room to develop that.

I don’t mind that they’re good looking and wealthy and have all the choices open to them now.

Wealth, to me, is part of the fantasy. I have to struggle for my money day to day. I don’t want to read or write about the struggle. We all know how to struggle for a living. BUT I also don’t want to have unproductive people. Wealth without work is not attractive to me.

I’m really glad you found the ending realistic. 🙂

I liked your black bishop sidekick Dirk. Will we eventually get to see more of his story? And Vachel?

Dirk, no. He’s normal and not prone to drama (unless it’s his last resort). However, you probably realize my next book is about a bishop (Mitch Hollander, referenced in Stay and whom you will see referenced in The Proviso a bit more).

Vachel has a story. Some of it’s on paper. (The premise is kind of melancholy and fits him.) But I’m not sure if or when that’ll happen.

Annie and Nash both have stories (you probably guessed that).

After Magdalene (book 3), there’s Dunham (historical privateer-and-pirate swashbuckler set during the American Revolutionary War), and then Delilah (a post-apocalyptic tale). After that, I’ll start in on Nash, Annie, and a couple of other Dunhams. Jack Blackwood (referenced in Stay and whom you will see in The Proviso) actually has a story.

Since there were no Amazon reviews yet, I logged into Amazon.com as Ajousch and have submitted a review on the paperback version

Oh, thank you so much!!!

I hope that you’ll get more coverage on review sites, too.

I’ve been toying with the idea of sending it out, since the whole DellArte thing came about and I got some attention. Maybe I’ll start looking at doing that seriously.

My goal is (and always has been) to build a reader base that never knows what to expect from me, but trusts me enough to go on any ride I want to take them on. That’s why your comment here today has meant soooo much to me. You said you trusted me, and that’s priceless.

(Now I’m hoping I don’t betray that. *biting fingernails*)

Well, I read the Eve Dallas series and various romantic suspense (and some BDSM) – and I don’t read them for pleasure in the brutality but if that’s the way the development is set-up and the plot goes – as long as I can get towards an optimistic solution I’ll follow (most of the time – the first Armenkor book by Joshua Palmatier I haven’t finished yet because of the child abuse at the start) – so hopefully I’ll manage.

I bought it and converted it to .lrf again (1725 pages!!), I probably read it during the Christmas holidays, I need to read you fairly uninterrupted. I managed to read Stay over the weekend (well Friday afternoon and Saturday and this morning the last 100 pages). Oh right, I like the fact that your characters – hero and heroine – both are mature adults (even when they’re young at age, due to the darkness in their back story) so it’s believable their happy end will actually last. *grin* And of course I don’t mind that they’re good looking and wealthy and have all the choices open to them now. I liked your black bishop sidekick Dirk. Will we eventually get to see more of his story? And Vachel?

Since there were no Amazon reviews yet, I logged into Amazon.com as Ajousch and have submitted a review on the paperback version – as I obviously didn’t buy the Kindle one – well mostly quoting what I wrote to you here. If others disagree, they’ll at least have to write their own review to say so ^^.

I hope that you’ll get more coverage on review sites, too.

The Proviso is brutal, and remains that way all the way through; the politics and religion are heavier duty, but I try to keep it off the judgment side of things. It’s just who they are, not a statement on what should be.

Stay was meant to be a sweet love story, and I’m glad you liked that I took a long time to develop their relationship. I don’t really like the wham-bam-I-love-you-ma’am thing.

now I trust you enough to think that The Proviso probably also will work for me

This brought tears to my eyes. It’s what every author like me, who writes vastly different things from book to book, hopes to hear.

Thank you thank you thank you!

I bought it, have just finished it (meaty length of 850 pages on my Sony PRS505 when I have the font setting at 12 pt, lovely character interaction, you really show that relationships take longer than a week to make people be in love and work out, just the right amount of sexxoring for me and interesting introduction to political views I don’t share without getting my back up), so now I trust you enough to think that The Proviso probably also will work for me

*is off to buy the ebook* I hope you sell well enough it’ll be profitable to go on with the series.