I had the pleasure of attending the first annual RomCon convention this past weekend in Denver CO. It was a fun weekend meeting readers, participating in workshops and even being a fangirl since some of my favorite authors were there, too!

The workshops were aimed at readers, so they were a lot of fun overall. I only got to sit in on one or two others than the ones I did because there were so many offered. Since the focus was on the romance reader, many panels were very interactive — discussing issues like reviews, covers, publishers getting feedback from readers, etc.  Leading the various panels were well-known authors and other industry professionals and the discussions got heated at times!

The first workshop I did was called STRIPPING THE HEROINE and featured info about clothing in various historical times and places. I was joined by Pam Nowak, Amanda McCabe, Anna Campbell, Jo Beverley, and Deann Gist. We presented photos of costume resources and had and wore a number of historical costumes, explaining the layers and items of clothing as we went.  We even used a PowerPoint presentation (my first! wooohoo!) to show pictures of pieces of clothing we couldn’t bring with us. Here’s Pam Nowak (American/Victorian), me (Elizabethan) and Amanda McCabe (Regency) in our garb!

Friday evening was a lovely dinner and awards ceremony featuring two men from the local RennFaire who entertained us with tales of handsome heroes. While I was a double finalist in the Short Historical (one was my Brava release, A STORM OF PASSION), I didn’t win, but I do now hold the world’s record for accepting the most awards at a romance convention! Two of my friends asked me to accept if they won (they couldn’t attend) and it turns out that they won three awards!! By the third time, the emcees knew my name….and when someone wasn’t present later, the whole table next to me called out….”And here is Terri Brisbin to accept the award!”  Clearly I have another talent and am willing to represent anyone who needs me at the upcoming RITA ceremony at RWA’s Conference in Orlando! LOL!

On Saturday morning, I joined a group of authors to lead a game called “Shocking The Queen!”  The game was about the rules of etiquette in polite society during the Regency and Victorian time periods. Authors Anna Campbell, Jo Beverley, Delilah Marvelle, Deann Gist, Pam Nowak, Courtney Milan, Elizabeth Hoyt and I lined up on one side of the room and the participants lined up facing us. Authors asked questions and those who got the correct answer moved across the room in ‘Mother, May I?’ fashion. I played emcee, facilitating the game and determining if the Queen had been shocked or not. The sign in the photo was waved appropriately and sometimes in warning to the authors when some of them asked completely shocking questions!  The first player who made it all the way was crowned with a tiara and declared not shocking to the queen.

Let’s just say the rules of the game were a bit loosey-goosey, some cheating was suspected (and even encouraged!) but fun was had by all and we all learned a bit — some more than others! – and I know now where condoms could be bought in Regency England! Oh my!

I attended a bookfair on Saturday afternoon and met up with some of my favorite authors. Here are Judi Fennell and Lori Foster. I had a chance to chat with Lori about her readers’ gathering that she holds each year in June in Ohio. It sounds like lots of fun and I hope to attend next year’s event!

I only got out of the hotel the first evening to meet friends and fellow authors Deb Stover and Karen Fox for dinner. I could see Denver downtown in the distance. On Sunday, Denver was in the distance but the storms between the airport and the Rocky Mountains were very impressive! Take a look at the photo from the airport. Oh, that’s a statue of Anubis in front of the airport terminal, advertising the King Tut exhibit in downtown Denver…

So now I’m home, looking through the numerous books I received or bought. I really thought the convention was professional and fun and I hope they do it again next year!

Terri was signing copies of her Brava anthology, UNDONE, at RomCon this weekend along with her first Brava A STORM OF PASSION. She also signed coverflats of the cover for the upcoming October release, A STORM OF PLEASURE. Visit her website at www.terribrisbin.com for more info about all her books and her upcoming events!

I know the old adage is ‘short and sweet’ but when faced with writing a Brava novella it doesn’t quite apply! Short, well shorter yes, but sweet? I don’t think so!

Readers usually love or hate reading short stories or novellas because of their length. I think it’s just an instinctual thing — readers fear losing substance as the number of pages decreases. And that’s a fair fear — the struggle and challenge for writers is to be able to sustain conflict and emotional development as the number of pages and words we have dwindles. Getting all the characters’ history and previous baggage into the story takes a lot of work, sometimes more effort than when you have hundreds of pages to do it at your leisure.

The hardest thing (no pun intended), of course, is to weave a believable physical component to the emotional one but to do it in less than a 1/3 or 1/4 of the usual time and space and pages in a full-length romance novel.  The physical part has to matter, too, just like in full-length ones but it has to begin sooner and accomplish so much so fast — it has to increase the conflict or increase the attraction or move the plot along but in fewer pages and words. A lot to expect for a short story or novella.

But, when it all works, novellas are fabulous — able to be read in an afternoon or evening, during a short break or lingered over before falling asleep, or my favorite, to read while sitting on a beach watching the waves and the people! And they can make the reader cry and laugh just like the big books do!

So it’s a love-hate relationship with both reading and writing them.

So, how about you? Do you grab up or avoid short stories and novellas? Are they time well-spent or wasted in your humble opinion? Leave a comment and I’ll pick one person to receive a long, a short, and an in-between length of my recents books, including my current novella  “A Storm of Love”  in the Brava anthology UNDONE. I hope you’ll give it a try, even if you don’t win!

Terri is thrilled to be in a collection of sexy, historical novellas with Susan Johnson and Mary Wine this month — UNDONE is on the shelves  (and available online) now!  “A Storm of Love” is both a sequel and a prequel to Terri’s other Brava stories – A STORM OF PASSION (Dec 2009) and the upcoming A STORM OF PLEASURE (Oct 2010). Visit her website for more info — www.terribrisbin.com

OH!!  Terri also apologizes for being late in posting this — life is really crazy right now and she’s waaay behind the ball instead of being in front of it… Sorry….

Well, after almost two years of wishing and hoping and crossing all appropriate body parts and then waiting and waiting and waiting, it’s finally HERE!!  My first Brava release, A STORM OF PASSION, hit the shelves in the last two weeks. I can hardly believe it…..

I’ve been having fun with it, signing it in bookstores in PA and NJ, blogging and chatting online about it, finding reviews about it and reading emails from readers about it. And I’ve been enjoying special moments, big and small, since it showed up on sale and on shelves in early December. A special moment happened at my day job this week when a coworker, not usually a reader, told me she’d blocked herself in her bedroom and finished reading my book! Another reader came up at a signing and said she recognized my name from among her mother’s favorite books!  And so on and so on. . . .

      I thought that since this is not my first book, or even my tenth, the thrill would be gone, but I was wrong. After sixteen Harlequin Historicals, this is my first single title romance and my first in the tradesize paperback format.  It’s in places that my HHs never were – like the bookstores at Union Station. 

    The only bittersweet part of this is, of course, the fact that our own Kate Duffy, who asked me to write this trilogy for her and Brava, is not here to see its release. Our last conversation was when I turned the final manuscript in to her, so I know she liked it.  And she chose the cover and the titles. So, her hand is obvious in almost every step of this path to publication.

    So I am celebrating — getting ready for the holidays, writing the next book, planning the third and enjoying all the moments, savoring the fun and the experience and hoping that the thrill is always there.

   I hope you’ll give A STORM OF PASSION a try – it’s a dark, emotional story about a man gifted and cursed and searching for a way out of his nightmare and about a woman who believes that revenge is the answer when it’s truly just the first step in her search for the courage to live.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Terri

Terri is thrilled to find that 2010 will see four more releases, from both  Kensington Brava (May and October) and from Harlequin Historicals (April and July). Please visit her website for more info and to enter her latest “Viking World Tour” contest….and more!

   I just had the moment that authors wait for — copies of my December book arrived on my doorstep. Somehow, a book never feels real to me until I open that box and see and smell the final version.  And, of course, it’s the moment when I get to celebrate my new release with. . .

. . . the UPS guy!

    Mine has been through all the ups and downs of publishing with me — the rejection packages, the manuscripts through copyediting, the first book, the next one and so on. He seems to know when it’s a good package or a bad one. He’s watched me scream, he’s watched me cry, he’s watched me smile. And he still brings the next one up to my door and waits to see me open them.  Then he nods, waves and drives his big brown truck off to his next delivery.

   Well, that happened last Friday.  The knock on the door, the box on the steps, the driver waiting as I opened the door and then the box.  I held up the book and he waved and drove off.

     And I stood looking at the final copies of a story I never thought I’d get a chance to tell. A story that was a leap of faith for me to send to an editor. A story that took me outside my comfort zone as a writer. A story that Kate Duffy convinced me I should write for her and for Brava.

      So, as I stood there checking to see if the words inside were the words I remembered writing, I read the dedication and realized that I’d never have the chance to write a book with Kate again.  And that tamped down the usual excitement and all I could do to ease that was to content myself  knowing that she had been invaluable to me while writing the story. One suggestion, one recommendation from her, changed the whole dynamic of the story and the characters and made it the story it should be. . . and the one it is now.

       The one I hope readers will love as much as she did….

        This one’s for you, Kate….. 

Terri

www.terribrisbin.com