CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSETED ROMANTIC

by Gar Anthony Haywood

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I am a hopeless romantic.  This isn't something I make a habit of admitting because hardboiled crime writers aren't supposed to have a heart, and if word gets out I've got one, it could ruin me forever (if I'm not in fact ruined already).

All but a few of my favorite books and movies are really just love stories in disguise.  They wear the trappings of crime fiction, but at their very core they are Romeo and Juliet, with the emphasis placed on the former.  Most involve a man, brave and strong and ostensibly indestructible, in love with one woman so deeply that his world has no meaning without her.  Her loss renders his surface masculinity --- the perception others have of him as impenetrable and without weakness --- a sham.

Take this scene from CASABLANCA, for instance:

Damn.  That was Humphrey Friggin' Bogart bawling like that.  Over a woman.  (Granted, the woman is Ingrid Bergman, but still . . .)

Is this what love is supposed to feel like?  Like someone's tearing your guts out with a baling hook?

Yes.  I think it is.  And I've come to this opinion, in no small part, by way of such cultural influences as the classic movie mentioned above.  I've always been a pie-in-the-sky idealist, and knew from a very early age that, whatever love was, there had to be more to it than what I was seeing at home.  My parents were loving, don't get me wrong --- when my mother wasn't throwing Dad's clothes out on the front lawn, anyway.  But there was nothing overt or effusive about their affection for each other, and I couldn't imagine myself ever being happy in that kind of muted relationship.  The brand of love I wanted for myself was big and bold and irrepressible, and in my search for it, I looked to contemporary art --- literature, film, music --- to paint its description for me, so that I might know it when I found it.

Needless to say, this is an approach fraught with danger.  Depending on taste, in trusting the people who make movies and write pop songs to shape his view of romance, a man could wind up taking his cues from such world-renowned experts on affairs of the heart as Jon Landis and Barry Manilow.

While I didn't make that grave mistake, what I did do was fall hard for material that celebrates love not as a prelude to a fairy tale, but as a double-edged sword that cuts like a goddamn Ginsu knife when it goes wrong.  In the films, books and ballads I gravitated to most, love isn't about pain, but pain is most definitely part of the bargain, and anything calling itself "love" that does not involve the risk of emotional evisceration is a mere imitation.

I know.  Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Oh, I can appreciate the occasional ode to love that has nothing but wonderful things to say about it, sure, but my obsession is with those that tell the sad tale of love found and then tragically, often stupidly, lost.  Because such tales are never told from the perspective of some giddy, delirious soul who merely thinks he's in love, but rather someone who knows he is and has the open wounds to prove it.  For me, it's a simple matter of credibility.

Curiously, I'm not of the school that believes "true" love only comes around once.  That's too pessimistic a take for me.  I believe you can replicate true love with various partners, though in each case, it will look and feel somewhat different.

How this somewhat backwards view of love has informed my writing is not easily explained, for I barely understand it myself.  What I can say with any degree of certainty is that I treat romantic love with deathly seriousness, and I've never created a protagonist who was immune to it or, more importantly, lived in denial of it.  The truth I think I'm always trying to get at in my writing is that we are all at our most human when we are willing to accept both our need for love and our moral obligation to share it with others.  How near or how far a character is to finding that acceptance is what separates good men from bad in my fictional universe.

So now you know my deep, dark secret: I'm a closeted romantic, just like these two guys:

But before you threaten to take my Man Card away, remember that my idea of a great love story involves all the stuff hardboiled noirs are generally made of: pain, regret and lots of insufferable longing.  As evidence, I present the following, some of my favorite melancholy ruminations on the subject of love lost, found, and on its way out the door.   They're all sad, to be sure, until you stop to realize that, before a man can hurt this bad, a woman (or a man, as the case may be) has to first make him feel better than he has ever felt in his life.

YOU ARE EVERYTHING - The Stylistics

This song kills me every time I hear it.  The title says it all.  Everywhere this poor bastard looks, he sees the woman he loves --- and she's gone.  She's walked out and she's not coming back, leaving him to pine for a past he can never, ever recapture.

Damn.

WARNING SIGN - Coldplay

Yeah, I know.  Coldplay isn't for everybody.  In fact, there are as many people who think their stuff is lightweight crap as there are those who find it incredibly moving.  Right or wrong, I fall into the latter camp, and this song is Exhibit A in my defense.  This time, the poor bastard in question has lost the love of his life because he foolishly let her walk, and he's only now figured out what a tragic mistake that was.  But maybe there's hope for the big dope yet; he's offering her a sincere mea culpa and inviting himself into her open arms, and if she's willing to give him another chance. . .

(You can write the ending any way you like.  I choose to believe she forgives the fool and they make a spectacular go of it the second time around.)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - Something to Remember Jack By

If I were a) a raging homophobe; b) a misguided Christian fundamentalist; or c) a block of stone, I probably wouldn't give a damn for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.  But as I'm none of these things, I consider Ang Lee's movie to be one of the greatest romances ever filmed, and this scene tears my heart out.  So sue me.

INCEPTION - Letting Mal Go

All right, let's get this out of the way right now: I've drunk from the INCEPTION Kool-Aid vat and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I love this film, and I think Leo D did a yeoman's job in the lead role.  While most of the discussion about INCEPTION has generally centered around its complex sci-fi plot and groundbreaking CGI, it's the love story between Leo's Cobb and Cobb's late wife Mal (a breathtakingly beautiful Marion Cotillard) that makes this film work for me.   Cobb wants to get back to their children, yes, but what drives him more than anything is the desperate need to preserve Mal's  memory, to cheat death by holding onto and reliving every second of his time with her, over and over again.

SPOILER ALERT!

Whether Cobb really reclaims his children at the end or not is almost immaterial.  That he finds a way to reconcile with Mal, to earn the right to go on loving her without guilt, is all the closure any viewer should require.  (Sorry, the video can't be embedded --- you've gotta click on the link to view it.)

http://youtu.be/f_o70GrwaaU 

HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY - George Jones

Corny?  Sure.  Dated?  No doubt.  Heartbreaking?  Damn straight.

VERTIGO - Madeleine Reborn

Just like Coldplay, Hitchcock isn't for everybody.  As evidenced here, one man's cinematic masterpiece is another's sacred cow in desperate need of a good goring.  But I grew up on Hitchcock, and VERTIGO served as one of my earliest lessons in love as maddening, debilitating obsession.  When the only way a man can think to survive a woman's death is to RECREATE her --- man, that's one brokenhearted sonofabitch.  What Jimmy Stewart does here at around the 3:05 mark, when his Scotty thinks his beloved Madeleine has all but risen from the grave to return to him, is sheer genius.  And if you can't feel all the emotions he's going through, you might know a thing or two about love, but you don't know jack about LOVE.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER - The Final Day

I suppose there's an outside chance that, were it possible to watch this movie and NOT fall madly in love with Zooey Deschanel, it wouldn't pack the emotional punch it does.  But me, I've got it bad for Zooey, so this ending hurt me to the bone.  In part because I've been there, done that, and don't ever want to go there again.  Unrequited love is the coldest bitch of all, ain't it?

DIARY - Bread

Ladies, let this song serve as a warning to you: If you must fall in love with someone other than your present partner, and feel compelled to write all about it in your diary, PLEASE don't leave the goddamn thing where your husband/boyfriend can find it.  And fellas: If you spot your woman's unlocked diary lying carelessly around the crib, under a tree or anywhere else --- walk away.  Just walk away.  Because believe me, you don't want to know what the lady's thinking.  Ever.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME - Mourning Elise

Picture this: You've finally found the one woman in the world you could ever really love, and discover she's dead, having been born at the turn of the twentieth century.  But that's not the bad news.  The bad news is, you've figured out how to travel back in time to be with this woman, only to have fate snatch you back to the present, where she's out of your reach forever.  Cold blooded, right?  Now imagine the woman in question looks like Jane Seymour.

You'd want to just lie down and die, wouldn't you?  Well, that's more or less what poor Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) does here.

Okay, enough is enough.  I think I've embarrassed myself as much as I'm going to today.  If I expose one more inch of my hard-shell exterior's soft, pink underbelly, I'll run the risk of saying something kind about Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings," and whatever respect you have left for me will be gone for sure.

Luckily, it's Sunday, so for a much-needed infusion of testosterone, I'm going to go watch some football, drink a beer and read some Mickey Spillane.  While I'm busy doing that, please consider the following. . .

Questions for the Class:  What's your personal concept of romantic love, and how is it manifested in your work?  What songs or films would you list as representative of romance as you perceive it?

Have you ever read…..?

By Brett Battles

Every time someone asks me that question, I know the answer is probably going to be no. I cringe sometimes, wondering what author’s name they are going to throw out at me, and how stupid I’m going to look when that “no” slips from my lips. It’s inevitable.

See, not only are there just too many books to read ‘em all, but, personally, I have some gigantic holes in my reading history.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve pretty much been reading solidly since about fifth grade. At different points in my life I’d read a couple books a week. (I realize there are some of you out there who read almost a book a day. Wow. That has never been me.) There have also been points in my life – mainly during particularly stressful periods when I had a day job – where I was lucky to read a book a month. But no matter what, I always have a book I’m reading.

Thanks to my father, I started my reading life in the world of sci-fi. He was, and continues to be, a huge fan of the genre. I ripped through Asimov’s FOUNDATION series (trilogy at the time I started), through various books by Arthur C. Clarke, and nearly everything by Robert Heinlein. I read James White, a few by Phillip K. Dick, and bits and pieces of all sorts of others.

For a while the only thing I would let myself read was sci-fi. I remember one birthday my mother giving me a Western novel. I’m sure I said, “Thanks,” but I never read it. I was a purest. And, by definition an idiot.

Eventually my horizons broadened, and I started reading thrillers and adventure stories - almost everything by Alistair MacLean, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED by Jack Higgins, BLACK SUNDAY by Thomas Harris, and then, of course, the works of Robert Ludlum.

And as I grew older still, I’ve come to enjoy books of many different genres, but those holes remain. For example, because of my sci-fi fanaticism in my teens, I missed out on the whole pulp crime/intrigue world of fiction. Why? Because a) I just didn’t even know about it, and b) if I had I probably would have said, “Where’s the spaceship?”

By missing that chunk of our collective history, I had missed some of the greatest writers of our time. I know, I know. I should be taken out and shot. But before you pull that trigger, know that all of that has been changing over the last decade. Slowly at first, but really picking up speed now.

And thanks to the 31^st Vintage Paperback Collectors Show & Sale here in L.A. held a few weeks ago, I’m moving into light speed catch up mode! If you’ve never gone to a classic paperback show, you should. They are unbelievable! Thousands of old crime and thriller and adventure novels. And –tapping into that old first love of mine – tons of vintage sci-fi stuff, too!

I left the show with 138 books. That’s right. 138.

Now, admittedly, that number is cheating a little. I met up with someone who had offered to give me a box of books they didn’t want any more. Turned out to be a total of 100 books, most of where were part of the Edward S. Aarons’ ASSIGNMENT: series. There are 48 books in the series, I am now the proud owner of 44 them, with duplicates of most. Couldn’t be happier.

But beyond this wonderful gift (thank you, Michael & Jodi!), I purchased 38 more. One goal was to fill out missing parts of the MATT HELM series I didn’t own. Got some, still need more (but that means more happy searching in the future). Other finds were: THE MAN WITH MY FACE by Samuel W. Taylor, PERRY MASON THE CASE OF THE HESITANT HOSTESS by Erle Stanely Gardner, RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP by Edward L. Beach, THE SINGAPORE EXILE MURDERS by Van Wyck Mason, and LOVERS ARE LOSERS by E. Howard Hunt (yeah, that E. Howard Hunt.)

I also gave into that sci-fi boy inside and got about a dozen or so 50s era sci-fi novels.

Kid in a candy shop? Yeah, that’s me. 

But the best part is once I get through all of these, then when someone asks me “Have you ever read…?” I won’t tense as much waiting for the name. Sure, the answer is still going to end up being “no” more often than not, but the percentage will be less. And I’m working on tilting the scale the other way!

So, holes in your reading history? Are you doing something about it? And who have you read, but wish you had read sooner?

I Don’t Care What You Do, Do Something

By Toni McGee Causey

This past week, one of the news items that was depressing to read was the one about a woman in her 40s who lives in Australia who, according to the evidence mentioned in the article, was a victim of incest from the time she was 11. Her father fathered her four children, three of whom still live. In that article, the woman who encouraged the victim to come forward deduced the situation and spoke up. In another article, a third woman criticized the one who encouraged the victim as a “busybody” who was always putting her nose in other people’s business.

Well praise God for busybodies.

The victim was too terrified of her father’s violence to speak out, even when she lived away from his house. It took her three years from the time she first reported it to get up the courage to file a restraining order.

Closer to home, domestic abuse is on the rise. According to some statistics, every 15 seconds, a woman is assaulted in her own home.

Did you read that? Every. 15. Seconds.

Do you know what that translates into? Roughly 5.3 MILLION women, every year. EVERY YEAR.

Three to ten million children will witness violence in their home.

Some people, though, think, wow, that’s bad, but it’s not affecting me, and I don’t know anyone affected. 

Well, think again.

You know someone who has suffered from abuse. They just haven't told you. They may still be suffering from it.

From The American Institute on Domestic Violence:

• The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners exceed $5.8 billion each year.
• Of this total, nearly $4.1 billion is for victims requiring direct medical and mental health care services.
• Lost productivity and earnings due to intimate partner violence accounts for almost  $1.8 billion each year.
• Intimate partner violence victims lose nearly 8.0 million days of paid work each year - the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity.

You know what’s going to make it worse? Tremendous amounts of people are out of work and their unemployment has run out, or will run out soon. They’re looking at extreme financial difficulties coming up on a winter, where heat and food are going to be luxuries. Heat and food. There are victims out there in fire areas, storm areas, who’ve lost what little they had that held them together. This does not even count the people who are already locked in a vicious cycle of welfare and abuse, where they feel like they have no other choices but to live in the hell they’re in.

Anecdotally, the cops I’ve spoken to tell me that domestic abuse cases seem to be on a serious rise. People are at their wits’ end, tempers are all over the place. Those who were prone to violence before become violent again. Some people who’d never been violent will snap.

Now, I know a lot of people want to help. A lot of people try. [Side note: my pet peeve, the one that drives me absolute batshit? Cynicism. To me, cynicism is the five dollar word that means lazy, but with a hipster dress code. If someone can read those statistics and not feel a compulsion to do something, then I don’t want to live in the pretty world they live in, because that world is going to hell and they’re asleep at the toll booth.]

If you’ve read this far, I doubt very much that you’re cynical. You may know more about it and can help illuminate this problem even more. You may have already donated/volunteered and if so, if you've got suggestions for ways to help, see below -- we want to hear from you. But maybe you don’t know what to do about it because the problem is so large, and you’re just one person. That, I understand.

Here are some ideas:

Food Banks are always desperate for donations. There is generally a big surge around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but people have to eat between now and then. You’re bound to have something in the pantry you can donate. I’ll bet your neighbors do, too. You could do something small (yourself), or join up with neighbors. Going to gather around a TV with friends over football? Get ‘em to bring donations.

Women’s Shelters – again, always desperate for donations. You probably have a shelter somewhere in your town. Call them, see what they take as donations, see what they need. Some have stores where they re-sell donated items to raise money; others use the items donated for the women. Some of these shelters are desperate for clothing—especially for women who had to leave their violent home without their belongings and now need to job hunt. Many of these women have children and children have this stunning habit of growing out of their previous year’s clothes – particularly coats and gloves and shoes.

I will be willing to bet you that you have stuff at your house or apartment you are not using that someone else could use. Most shelters will give you a tax receipt that you can use if you itemize. We went through every closet, our attic, and garage and found a ton of items we weren’t using, and this was after my kids had had a garage sale. We donated what was useful, and recycled the rest and I was astonished at the value of what we ended up donating. Stuff that was completely going to waste here, not to mention cluttering our house.

Don’t have time to clear out a whole house or apartment? I didn’t either. I did it one small area at a time over a few months. Piled everything in a “donate” corner and then every once-in-a-while, we’d run it over to the shelter. If you have kids, get them involved. Ask your neighbors to consider donating. If you have a vehicle and they’re willing to donate, maybe you can offer to drop the stuff off. Most people have good intentions, but don’t get around to doing it because it’s not on their way. Maybe you can be the one who changes that.

Do you Twitter? I put money in a jar every time I Twitter. At the end of the month, that goes to a shelter. I may not make a big difference with that amount, but combined with others’, every little bit helps. I’d love to start a Twitter drive. Suggestions?

What habit do you have that’s totally frivolous? Or maybe your kids? Could you sponsor a group? A marathon? Maybe have a contest between writing groups or book clubs.

Book Clubs – maybe you can bring used books to the shelters. Or donate toward a literacy program. The problem of literacy is pervasive and creates despair, which can compound violence in the home.

Will you be attending a conference? Whether it’s a formal conference-wide sponsorship or just a group of friends, how about putting one drink’s cost in a jar for a donation to a shelter in that city? One drink. Or one snack. Particularly for crime writer conferences, this could make a big supportive statement in the community. We write about crime, which means we write about victims of crimes. Let’s give back.

You don’t have any money or excess items to give, but you’re interested in making a difference? There are literacy programs. Or if that’s too long of a commitment or not do-able on your schedule, maybe you could volunteer once a month to help out with the food banks or the shelters or teach a class how to write a business letter or a résumé.

You don’t have to start a program. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are already a ton of programs out there who need volunteers. You don’t even have to do a whole lot. Just do ONE THING. One. Pick something that means something to you, and do it. I don’t care how crappy your week has been, if you’re sitting here, capable of reading with internet connection on a computer somewhere, odds are that there are people around you who are suffering and that YOU could make a difference.

I don’t care what you do, do something.

Tell me some more ideas in the comments, folks. Or tell me something you’ve been inspired (not necessarily by this blog, obviously) to do in your community.

IF YOU ARE IN AN ABUSIVE SITUATION, there is help. THERE IS A WAY OUT. If you don't feel like you can confide in someone close to you, PLEASE please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline:

1−800−799−SAFE(7233) or TTY 1−800−787−3224.

Or, if you feel safe enough to use your computer (that it is not being monitored by the abuser), their website is: 

http://www.ndvh.org/

A new writer's journey...

One of the things that we love to do here at Murderati is showcase fellow writers whose work we admire, who are Good People. I have had the best fortune in meeting so many Good People over the last few years, people who reached a hand out to help me, who graciously gave me some of their time or space on their blog, and did so with a "Pay It Forward" attitude, and so it is with great joy that I get to introduce the Murderati group to a debut author who just impresses the hell out of me: Leanna Renee Hieber.

It's fantastic when you meet a new author and you think, "Wow, this is such a fun person to hang out with," and then you read her work and think, "Geez, and she's so delightfully twisted, and talented!" This incredibly beautiful woman writes about everyone's favorite serial killer, Jack the Ripper, in The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. With a ghostly twist:

What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Hidden in the dark heart of Victorian London, the Romanesque school was dreadfully imposing, a veritable fortress, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met its powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadows, of the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She saw simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gift. This arched stone doorway was a portal to a new life, to an education far from what could be had at a convent—and it was an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death…

I met Leanna about a year-and-a-half ago at RT, when she was helping director Morgan Doremus create video interviews of various authors in attendance. They had me laughing within minutes, completely forgetting my phobia of being in front of the camera (I am used to being behind it), and they made the experience enormously fun. (If you were to see the videos, I look like I'm constantly about to laugh. I am so freaking thankful Morgan didn't do a series of outtakes of all the faces I made at them, or the time we all doubled over in laughter and one of us who shall remain nameless fell off the stool.) (Also, I did not realize my bangs had completely consumed my face. That was pre-Lasik and I was, apparently, legally blind. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I recently interviewed Leanna because I love her work, think she's a fantastic new writer and thought her journey would inspire.

INTERVIEW:

So let's just get an overview of your tastes as a writer... if you were to go to that Great Coffee Shop in the Sky, who do you want to meet most?

C.S. Lewis, Tolkein and the entire 19^th century canon of Gothic writers. I can’t pick one, I’ve folded my adoration for each and every one of them into my muse. The whole Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood too—and their coterie – this means you, Christina Georgina Rosetti…

Writers always like peeking in on other writer's writing rituals... we're nosy creatures, after all. What's yours? 

I don’t always have this luxury but this is my best-case writing scenario as I’m working on the Strangely Beautiful series: While showering I’ll shift my thoughts into longer sentences with British accents. Then I’ll put on music (piano music, Phillip Glass soundtracks or 19^th century classical composers) and light at least one of my two stained-glass lamps. Preferably a candle is lit. Must prepare and sip a cup of clove tea: the precise scent of my Professor hero. Wow, I guess I’m like I’m the method actor of writing books…

Along the way from first words onto the page through to publication, writers face rejection. Tell us a little bit about your journey and what your favorite rejection story would be. 

I started my first novel somewhere around the age of 12. Ray Bradbury once said “Write 1,000 pages, bury it in the ground and you can become a writer.” I chose a fireplace instead. There are a few things about me that will make it obvious as to why Strangely Beautiful is my break out series. I can hardly remember not writing, not loving ghost stories, or not being weirdly obsessed with Europe in the 19^th century.

Come September it will be about nine years from the moment young Miss Percy Parker waltzed through a wall much like a ghost, into my mind, and I couldn’t sleep or stop thinking about her. She couldn’t have had worse timing, I was working often 14 hour days with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. We’d be on the road touring Julius Caesar or Midsummer Night’s Dream to some sleepy high-school class and I’d be in the company van scribbling away like a madman. I was surrounded by wonderful ideas, artists, and so much great theatre that I couldn’t help but channel that energy into the first draft of the book, giving it some legs that none of my previous works had. It also gives it a bit of a dramatic flair and sparkle that those who know me quite recognize as a personal touch. But from those first scribbled notes, it was a long road ahead…

Percy, Alexi and The Guard were there all the while, waiting in my wings as I hopped around the professional theatre circuit, my favourite friends to come home to. I moved to New York with the hope that I’d figure out which passion should come first, theatre or books. I was at a Broadway callback and all I could think about was Percy. That was that. Thanks to dear writer friend Isabo Kelly I’d already joined the very-helpful RWA NYC chapter and threw myself into networking, got an Agent, met other helping hands like Marianne Mancusi and eventually one of the best in the business, editor Chris Keeslar, and Dorchester became the perfect house for a cross-genre work like mine.  

Favourite rejection? After considering Strangely Beautiful, set in 1888, one editor rejected saying “It’s a little too Victorian.” That still makes me smile fondly.

I love that. Your book is very cross-genre. (I know the feeling.) What does that mean to you?

Allison Brennan wrote a great post on this topic here a little while ago. Branding is very important to an author, and to a reader. We want to make sure the right books go into the right hands. It can be very limiting to an author, however, when only one word is applied to a work of fiction. I hope that fantasy, historical, Gothic and romance fans (as well as those who enjoy blends of light horror, suspense and mystery) will find my book because I feel all will find a part of their respective favourite genre represented in the ways appropriate to the narrative. It’s hard to appeal to a whole fan base and yet I wouldn’t do without the genre label. The spine of my book says Historical Fantasy and I think that’s about right. The wonderful thing about the word “Fantasy” is that it is an open and over-arching word, and often Fantasy incorporates a romantic through line at the center of its questing adventures. A descriptive title and a cover that exactly fits the story really helps.

It took a long time for a marketing department to take a chance on this book. As I’d said, it was a 9 year journey from idea to bookshelf, and several of those years were spent with marketing departments and editors saying “this is really good, but it’s too much of this- or not enough this…”

Well, thank goodness someone took a chance, because this is a unique world which deals with crime fiction and fantasy and horror in a way I found wholly fascinating and original! Tell me, what sort of promotional things are you doing as a debut author? 

1. August 22^nd I kick off my Haunted London Blog Tour at the Bradford Bunch. The tour hops various blogs until September. Each day I’ll tell a different ghost story. Many spirits “Ghost-star” in my book, each of them a documented London haunt. They don’t get their full due in the book, as they’re quite familiar to my Guard of spectral police, but their tales are too fun not to tell-- like telling spooky stories around a roving campfire. Each day I’ll give away a signed book. Schedule can be found here: http://www.leannareneehieber.com/haunted-london-blog-tour-book-giveaway/

2. The morning of Release Day, August 25^th I’ll kick off a Virtual release party at www.RomanceNovel.tv, my video interview will go live and we’ll do a bit of a chat/book giveaway.

3. NYC Reading/Signing on Release Day! At the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble on August 25^th at 7:30pm I’m thrilled to be doing a reading and signing with the inimitable Edgar winner Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime, Stoker winner Jack Ketchum and thriller author Anna DeStefano

4. Running a contest on my website, a 3 question quiz about the Shakespeare references in my book, starting Release Day, 8/25 and running for the next three weeks. Winner has a choice of either a replica of the Phoenix pendant Percy wears in the book, or a gift certificate. The second name drawn receives the second item. Details: http://www.leannareneehieber.com/contest/

Thanks, Leanna, for letting me bug ya with questions. And now in the spirt of all writers who have had rejections, I'll refer back to that previous question and share one of mine. Someone who read the first book in the Bobbie Faye series sent me an email that he thought it was funny as hell, extremely well written, and he absolutely "hated that woman" and "didn't want to spend another minute with her. Ever." That just completely cracked me up, and I loved it, because it was an honest response and a personal one. I respected that he just did not like tough female characters, but the books ended up selling the next week, which took the sting out of the rejection. I'm sure I've had worse, but I still think about that one and smile. No one is ever going to love everything (nor should they) and everyone isn't going to love one single thing, all of us at the same time (nor should we), and as new writers, we need to remember that. And write with our passion.

So how about you, 'Rati? What's the best rejection you've ever gotten (and it can be something you realized in hindsight, something that ended up being a Good Thing.) Doesn't have to be about writing... let's hear it.

And as a bonus, all commenters are eligible for a free copy of Leanna's book, THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER as well as a signed copy of my first in the Bobbie Faye series, CHARMED AND DANGEROUS. (Contest runs 'til midnight, Pacific Time, tonight -- Sunday. Winner announced here on the blog after that.)