The weekend

Yes, just Friday I know, but it's the weekend, dash it! My cautious peek around the curtain hiding their world from ours, shows me preparations for revelry. There seems to be a festival of sorts in the making. Even the Dream-Maker is back there. For a longish weekend perhaps? Anyway, he seems content, away from his self-enforced exile in the human world. I think I'll join them too. See you all on Monday.
Cheers, Rayka
PS: wonder if the fae folk eat cotton-candy? I love pink cotton-candy.

www.RaykaMennen.com

Almost the weekend

Well, I have been working and working and working on a killer beginning(pardon the pun since there is a killing on the first page) for my new book. And I think I am almost there. I'd be there faster if I wasn't so distracted by all the wonderful blogs I have a hankering to read every day. Take Pub Rants for example - Agent Kristin Nelson's accounts of the book fair across the pond are fascinating. And there's about 10 others I lurk around in hoping to glean wisdom about this somewhat fickle industry. And I click on a link and it takes me to another page and another page and before I know it, I am reading, open-mouthed, about the cure for fatty livers or some such thing!
Cheers,
Rayka

www.RaykaMennen.com

Monday's Hit List

Things I must get done today.....besides all the regular academic tasks, I must complete the new beginning for my new fantasy. I read it over the weekend and thought it needed some spiffing up so here goes.
Cheers
Rayka


www.RaykaMennen.com

Ack! I must get highlights

So, did anyone read the piece about authors' looks being important to selling and being reviewed?
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/trends/author_photo_confidential_113420.asp

So my writing must be supplemented by.....a super model look? Why am I wasting time? I need to call the salon for a makeover!

Cheers,
Rayka


www.RaykaMennen.com

Romance novel sales up in recession

Gee, it certainly was a pleasure to read that sales of several sub genres of romance are up in this recession. Whether it be escapism (something endorsed by both the New York times and the LA Times) or the 'bodice-ripper' fantasy (thank you Meghan Daum at the LA Times but we actually left that term behind a few decades ago), I was glad to see sales are up. Not for my books mind you, but I am glad for my friends and acquaintances whose books I hope are selling!
I was curious about the hairy, very-male looking arm pulling out a romance novel in the New York times photo that accompanied the article! Does this mean readership has changed too? Oh no! is nothing sacred to us gals anymore? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/books/08roma.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

Cheers,
Rayka

www.RaykaMennen.com

What I am working on now

After almost a year and half's dry spell with no substantive writing done, I am back on track. My muse has returned from extended vacation. The book I am working on now is a contemporary fantasy. Based partly on myths of ancient Ireland, readers get whisked between Chicago, Ireland and a mythical land of elves (located behind a water shield). Riona, who thinks of herself as a garden variety witch, is hardly prepared for the events that follow the fleeting shadow she sees on her porch one night. Cian, top detective and pragmatic crime-solver, is suddenly thrown into a world of witches, renegade elves and other beings he never knew existed. Their paths are destined to cross, but will they find love along with adventure?
Stay tuned for more on this story. Visit my website for contests and other information and to see my back list.
Ciao,
Rayka