Keep Your Claws Sharp and Your Fangs Sharper! Life is unpredictable and you have to be ready for every bite!

Thanks again for your comments and your attention to my Supernatural Erotic Romance web site annepatriciaroberts.com, for reading my blogs at vampirewriter@annepatriciaroberts.com, and for sending your email comments to vampireromance@annepatriciaroberts.com 
You have made this a adventure a great success! Remember: Keeping good company is the highest gauge of self-worth! 

This is the week we all look forward to each year. No, I'm not talking ... << MORE >>

To those of us who stand in the streaming rays of the sun, shift under the glow of the full moon, or rise at dusk and never get tan lines,  

Let's take care of business first. I just received my latest hit tallies for this site and my blog activity. Thank you all so much for visiting me. I had no clue how popular I am in U.K. Here is a shout out across the big pond for my supporters there. Love you, Luvs!

 I wonder if my popularity in England has to do with the Brits well earned history and infatuation with vampires. I can only hope, that the astounding number of hits I get from those lovers of Big Ben is no coincidence to both a very famous British gynecologist and a fancy cosmetics line in the U.K. each using the name Anne Roberts. I'm neither swabbing women nor making the masses beautiful one shade of lip gloss at a time.

Naturally, I discovered those other Anne’s by googling myself. It's a rush. If you haven't done so you are missing out. By the way, I am the number one site under both Anne Patricia Roberts, as written in a variety of ways, and Supernatural Erotic Romance. Bragging, you quip? No, you silly bee, I set up my web site to attract attention to my writing, to help other writers that aspire to become published. I’d love to bring more readers into the amazing worlds of Paranormal, Supernatural, Erotic, Futuristic, and Romance fiction.

That brings me to my wonderful news, and then some goodies I've noticed about writing for adults vs. young adults. I wrote my first novel. Then I learned how to improve my writing. I swear to you. It was in that order. My purple prose ran rampant. They were bruised, actually. My punctuation was punctured and bleeding out, still is a little, but it doesn't hemorrhage like it used to. Those poor participles were dangling like a male model without his Haynes under briefs. And last, lest I start to rant, the point of view of my characters was hopping so fast, it was like watching the head go around and around on that unfortunate young girl in the Exorcism.

 I'm still learning better uses for the English language, and always will be. I think writing is like that. Just when you are down on yourself about your punctuation or the fact that your writing has a long way to go, something wonderful happens. For example, an editor contacts you out of the blue, and she says those words you would get down on your knees and do unspeakable things in public for ... YOU HAVE PROMISE!

That actually happened to me last month. Maybe, she noticed my web site and decided to take a gamble. I will never know, but a real, live, accredited, cosmopolitan editor of Paranormal Erotic Romance emailed me. I ended up showing her a few pages of my novel. She was incredibly kind and gave me advice ... for free ... out of the goodness of her big heart. Writers are to beware, but this editor really was helping me because she wanted to do the whole “pay-it-forward” deal. A professional with exceptional values… and I got to work with her. Neat, huh?.

After her initial contact, I studied her advice for a solid week. I researched every correction she made to my story. I almost started praying the words she had gifted me, "you have promise,"" like some mantra for rain or peace or the skill to write a well crafted short story. My mumbling was answered with inspiration. Sorry, getting a bit carried away, in actuality, she was very cool. Her guidance sparked me to write a paranormal erotic romance short story, which I had, a little painfully, amateur edited, elsewhere. I submitted my story to a Publishing house that specialized in epub. Believe me when I tell you, and half the world, you will be the first to know if they buy it from me, and where you can a copy of it.

The moral to this story is not to sit in your castle, ye maids and maidens, and wait for a wonderful editor to come riding in on their great, white stallion across the mote and sweep you off your feet into publishing bliss. Women need to get real. Take any critique from anyone who will give it, professional or not. Join a writer's group, get a writing partner (more of the editor's great advice), and try to get an overall view of your writing weakness's. My primary offender will always be poor punctuation. That's okay. I have the ability to tell a fast-paced story with great sex scenes, and I'm never, ever giving up writing. Now, I understand why the author of Harry Potter is rumored to have lived out of her car. It is an honor and a rush to create stories to entertain my fellow humans.

 Digress much? Yeah, well, you know you love it. You know you loved Twilight, too. It is so popular with adult females, that when I mention that I am an aspiring romance writer, and my theme is usually vampires, most women respond by saying, "Like Twilight?" Inevitably, wearing my Cheshire cat grin, I tell them, "Oh. Those books written for tweens and young adults do provide an excellent introduction to the paranormal world. Don't they?" 

First of all, I am not joining the band wagon on Twilight bashing. I’m pretty ambivalent about teen literature. Sure, I see both the up and down sides of the fame achieved by that type of book.

I wasn’t really a fan of the parallels the writer drew by comparing the big, bad archetype of the Catholic Church to the book’s vampire leaders all dressed like Bishops and based in Rome. I am neither Catholic nor Mormon, but religions are a touchy subject for fiction writing.

A Mormon housewife trashing another religion is like me, an aspiring writer, bashing the success of her book. However, religious subterfuge is a no-no in youth fiction. Let’s all keep our own religious ideologies in check and write using more universal morays than those likely to be offensive, please. Other than that I am happy for the writer’s success.  

The most profound aspect of the Twilight novel is that the writer has provided young readers their paranormal romance training wheels. Even though when I was a teen, I still wanted to read the build-up of sexual tension I probably would have liked this book anyway. I figure, by the time I start hitting my writing groove with my own stories those teens readers are going to be in college and chomping at the bit for my erotic fictions. Yipee!

The Dark Side Anthology features stories with drama and action driven plots, just like books for younger readers. The heroes are men, or beings, who inevitably are driven to pursue and protect the object of their desire while a developing romantic conflict builds along with the plot. Readers of all ages love reading about relationships with powerful and irresistible heroes and heroines with whom they can identify.

 In romances for all ages, these heroes are domineering, gorgeous males, similar to the teen novel heroes that are less forward and more pensive. The adult and erotic story heroes have needs that must be met, deep-seeded problems they are forced to face, and pasts with filled with suffering and trauma. The difference is that in erotic or sexy romance hand holding and a kiss on the cheek isn't going to satisfy them. Thank the Deity of your choice for that. 

I worry many women have been raised with such a fear of unwanted pregnancy that, even in their reading choices they can't let go of the Victorian shyness about sex that was verbally beaten into them. What is the solution? LET GO GIRL! Doing it and reading about "the wild side" of life are two different behaviors.

Being sexually promiscuous is dangerous and deleterious. Reading, and learning new things, and then giving your sweetie a tap on the shoulder and wink is all fun and most enjoyable. You can plunge into an erotic fiction anytime you want to. You have to grow up and give yourself permission to read about desire between mature, consulting adults. Reading gives you a chance to break free of your expected role in life. Try it. I promise you will not go blind. I did and didn't.

 Now, I write stories that make other women squirm with delight and seek out their partners after reading one. Thereby, they bring new ideas into their bedrooms, kitchens, in their back yards at night after the neighbors got to sleep.

The allegory, Grasshopper, is that you should read a variety of literature before you lock those cathedral doors, choosing "safe" material which is popular and more socially acceptable in some circles. There is so much more out there that has been written for you, the adult woman. Jeepers, make a book cover out of a brown paper bag to hide the sexy male model on the cover of your spicy stuff or better yet, order online and no one will ever know if you are enjoying "War and Peace" or one of my tantalizing tales.


Talk to you in your dreams,
WBCT (Warmest Blood Curdling Thanks),
Anne Patricia Roberts

Warmest felicitations to my sisters and brothers in Blood, Fangs, and Big Bushy Tales,  

    So, B.F.D., a werewolf ate my cat ... welcome to my world! Just kidding, but sometimes it feels like my life does have a very persistent knack for clawing the "q" out of quirky and embedding it deeply into the quixotic. I thought when I grew up life would be totally organized and efficient. I really believed that when you hit a certain age the genetic "grown-up traits" inherent to all the adults in my family, at least, would kick in and make life turn into a framed glued puzzle of middle class contentment and compliance. Don't get me wrong, yes, there is contentment in my life, but there is so much more mystery, surprise, love, and  bliss. Its good to know I was wrong about my probable dull future as an adult woman. Both my deisgn and path have turned out to be wonderful, but busy. So my blogging got a little bit buried for a while under my eclectic life, but no worries, I will always come back to you. I missed chatting with you all and wanted to thank you so much for the supportive comments...and the nutty ones too. In case you haven't noticed by now, this paragraph is my round-about way of tell'in ya'll that I apologize for not blogging in forever. Forgive me? Good- 'cause  have I got some crazy news for you.   
    
    I finished writing the first book! I know, how did that happen, right? It just did it. I made the time in my life for my dream and I didn't let anything stop me. So, If you want to write you will hear over and over that the best way to become a better writer than you are is to actually WRITE. After I finished the first rendition of my 300 page, 30 chapter story, I felt like a proud Black Widow mommy who'd just given birth to hundreds of little lethal baby spiders and hadn't even eaten a single one myself... yet!  But really, the best advice I can give about writing stories is don't ever forget that it is the STORY that is your actual baby. The characters whom you love, that plot that is too ingenious to miraculously have come out of 'lil ol you, and the hero whom you take to bed with you each night in your dreams, are all just parts of your hard work. I believe seeing the story as a whole and keeping the big picture, the main idea, of your story in focus is imperative.Guiding those subplots and techniques that you know how to implement and taking a specific path drawn of your own design will help you so much in making sure your novel, short story, poem, term paper is as wonderful as you can make it. Was that soap boxy enough for ya? 

    After the initial rush of nirvana I got after completing my first novel I started researching publication. I mean, I-wrote-a-book after all, who wouldn't want to publish it? Right? I quickly discovered that, thought my having written a novel made for great conversation at get-togethers, nobody really cared or cares that I wrote a book. Then I worried about that for, ooh, about 5 minutes, and then earnestly started doing some research about how to get my little 300 pg. miracle published. My take on actuall getting published is so a story for another day, but the point is that after hunkering down and making a sincere effort to learn about the world of book publication,
I decided that my strategy was going to have to change. What I learned was that even though I want my first book in print worse that I want to eat carbs again, I also want to bring the most attractive offer to the table that I could when the day comes for me to start sending queries.
     
    After having had several nice high-stress-low-appreciation careers, I am more than motivated to form a successful plan for my career and then endlessly adapt, rewrite, and/or recreate my existing work as long as I can create new tales. So my nefarious plan to get in every book store near you became about writing a sequel. I began a few months ago with the sequel and am about 150 pgs, into it. I'm such a writing monster that the first book is up to 460 pages. I couldn't stop writing. God help me, I love the escape and I love the world I've created in this series even more! Ah, don't worry about my blogs turning into the rampant ravings of a lonely bi-polar schizophrenic. Can scitzophrenics BE lonely? Anyway, I have a good balance in my life of every day reality vs. the fantasy of my stories, and I shall try to maintain my sanity as well as ever. When the sequel to the first book is.completed (yea, for the first time at least) and then I'll have my loyal and not-punctuation-challenged-coven read it for me, and after it has been rewritten and reworded and regurgitated at least twenty-five times, I will begin queries to agents whom I think might be a good match for my skill set and who, if interested, will assist me in half of my novel again anyway. 

    I'm not sweating publication, I just want to write for now and am willing to let some of the stress of selling my wares stay in stasis until I have my proverbial planets in order. For now, I am enjoying being the creator. I already have at least a few chapters worth of ideas for the third book. So I wait, and write, knowing that even long after the cosmos are all aligned for good luck with my moon in Mars, or when the Aztec calendar has long run out of time and the world implodes, or if ever there comes the day when I stop shopping for clothes off of sale racks, then maybe that will be the day I run out of stories to tell! You see, even if radiation fries us all like yesterdays chicken wings, at the end of the world there will be cockroaches and Anne trying to get published while writing her next book as furiously as a space ship flaming through the atmosphere on re-entry. See, I can write Sci-Fi.

    See how much we've missed each other. This has been fun. As long as you go through each day and discover something new, life shall always be wonderful for you. So if, in the mean time, that Werewolf goes for my other cat, I'll be ready to threaten him with my own pack of loyal writers and aspiring Masters and Mistresses of the Supernatural. Then see how fast he drops the bone in his mouth and scampers off with his tail in between his hairy legs. 

    Warmest Blood Curdling Thanks, (WBCT),
    Talk w ya soon, Anne Patricia Roberts          

Happy October my pulsing platelets,

    Do you want to know what success is or shall I tease you with more blathering? Okay, okay! In the four months since I've created this website I have received over 5,000 hits, and I didn't even have to post any pictures of myself on line to do it: let alone take anything off or compromise my veil of modesty. Nice huh? 
    Thank you all sooo much for visiting with me! To my mind, writing and knowing that others have enjoyed my work IS success; be it in blogs, short stories, or the few who have read ...<< MORE >>

     Felicitations from My Fantasy Realm, 
  
       I make no apologies for my writing! Rape with retribution, sex married with deep emotional connection, and outrageous plots and genres forced on unwitting humans are, and shall always be, integral elements in all of my stories!
       You know YOU like to read about seemingly 'normal' people who, through no course of their own, are thrust into unbelievable situations. It's fantasy! If you are human, and moderately well balanced, then you fantasize. I do it to get to sleep at night. If I'm lucky my lulling fantasies will drift into my dreams and I will remember them. If I'm truly fortunate, then I'll get a whole story out of one. For me they are usually action packed adventures with reoccurring basic themes. 
       We can't help linking the word fantasy with sex, and that's okay. If you fantasize about sex, then good for you! Does erotica or porn do it for you? Then, guess what, your human! For me it is about tempering myself and my characters. Enjoying life in all of its colorful grandeur is really important to me. Getting caught up and obsessing about any one thing throws me off balance. If given a choice of physical pleasure or mental stimulation, I'm afraid I'd be stuck sitting on the fence for a long time. I'm the kinda gal who would try to figure out how to make the 'having my cake and eating it too', analogy work.
       When my fellow bipeds get hung up on words like erotic, sex, and porno, it makes me crazy!
Really, do you think or dream about monsters? I do. Are they fully realized like mine? If so, then they have sex, they eat, they exist. But, do they offend you? No? Why not, they are monsters! Yeah, I thought so, you like them because they are taboo just like sex! We can't help ourselves, so stop beating yourself up about being politically incorrect! Maybe, I should abstain from writing fantasy because some of the content of my more graphic writing might offend? NAH!    
       The best piece of advice that I can pass on to you is, that you must indulge in those activities that make you happy or the unventured will drive you nuts. If you feel like your predilections manifesting in thoughts and/or actions are dark, then keep them to yourself. IF YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE WHAT YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT, THEN THEY WILL NEVER KNOW! I know you know that, but Jeez, remember it! Sometimes I talk to people who gush information, some of which I do not need to be a party to! Needy and lacking self esteem much? Master your thoughts, and own them! 
       Several of you have asked me what is up with the book? Do I ever have so much to tell you! Reading more material about becoming the next published author has been a lesson in patience! Sheesh, you can't imagine the wealth of literature and books out there on the topic of writing books!
       At first, it all struck me like the chicken and the egg metaphor. If I read one more time that it is near impossible to get published unless you are published I'm moving to the Peru to raise Llamas.                
       Here is another good one. First time fiction authors aren't likely to be published unless they have a sequel novel and a readership following. Hmm?
       To get an agent or not to get an agent? How about I import all of the advice and assistance that I can from every source I can, and let my long fingered grubby paws work smart! I like that idea better than stressing out about getting published. 
        Yeah! Originally all I wanted to do was write stories. Suddenly, this tame trek exploded into a wild fruition not of my own design! After my first novel was completed last year, I started reading up about what to do next! The other day, when my Doctor innocently asked the question that everyone always asks me, "how is the book going?", I nearly bit the poor man's head off. Sorry Dr.W. I answered his question with a kinda snotty, "I'm researching publication, but there is way more to this that you think!" He's a unique character and he retorted, "I never thought it would be." I guess I thought, at one time, hey just write a book and then get it published. When ever will I stop being so naive! 
         I have started the sequel to the first book and I already love it!
         I dug up a pretty cool old poem of mine and worked on developing it. It's a poem about a female vampire and her reality of being a monster. Like any of us would, she tries her best to undo her curse and her quest is answered. In order to beef up my resume, query, marketability, I'm submitting it to several newspapers, hopefully in time for Halloween. I'm taking one bite at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed. I liked my Dr.'s answer, "I never thought it (writing a book) would be (easy)!" Lesson learned, nothing really worthwhile is easy. This woman loves an up hill battle. Like you, I appreciate the control associated with accomplishment!
         Next blog, I'll give ya a bit of poetry! 
  
 WBCT,
 Anne Patricia Roberts       
       
          
      

  Thanks for tuning in again!

  Last week was sort of exciting! I mentioned in the last blog that I had just sent out my first query letter to a real literary agency!!! It was true. No bull! Remember from two weeks ago and from my web page, that I have completed my first Supernatural Erotic Romance Novel and am (painfully, but patiently) going through the real life steps of getting published along with you, my co-pilots in adventure!!! Step two proceeds, as I try to acquire an interested, motivated and enthusiastic literary agent, who has all of the contacts and, will in turn handle the publishers. 

  I sent a very vanilla query to the Knight Agency. Specifically, to an agent whom I thought might best represent my Supernatural Erotic Romance Novel. She is very experienced and has listed as among her literary interests paranormal romances and scifi among the other styles of writing, and of which she is preferential. I googled her and the agency and took a shot in the darkness of this moderately unselfexplored realm. I hate being a novice at anything, so I have ordered a book and am chewing through sites on how to get an agent, write a better query letter, polish a book proposal, get published, market your self and your book, and eons of ect's. 

  The Knight Agency has a very informative website and I read it cover to cover, but on my expanded screen laptop, natch! I thought it was kind and generous of the Knight Agency to provide wanna be published authors with some great advice. They have a submissions page and I emailed my query letter to them on June 9th. They strictly caution all interested parties that they will not respond earlier than 6-8 weeks, if they chose to respond at all.  They responded to me in 9 days!!! Better luck next time was my first query review!

  It sounds snotty when I say it, but these agencies are the life raft to us writers, who are treading lightly in an ocean span of shark trolled waters. They are the talent agents of the literary world, and they are in a position to call the shots. Authors would be advised to be thankful that any agency took time at all to show even the slightest interest in their book!!! Hey, if you decide not to represent me, you just move back into the category of perspective readers of my Book!  

  Does the author have to be such a spineless sea cucumber when it comes to doing what professional agents say? No, you can be difficult and stay unpublished and step aside for people like me who are willing to do anything it takes, cow towing to people who make 15% of what I make, not-with-standing! Professional in presenting my platform? Yes! Following the Marquis of Queensbury Rules in my strategy? You bet!!!   

  Alas, on June 17th, when I received my first "thanks, but no thanks letter", from the Knight Agency, I was honored. Nobody likes rejection, but the letter was great and encouraging and I printed it up and framed it on my wall. It represents one more hurdle in a long tough race that I plan on winning, and if along the way I stumble and fall, well so be it. I've got lots of back up plans! 

  Authors like Hemingway and Emily Dickinson received dozens of rejection letters in their time. The average acceptance to rejection ratio when submitting query letters is 12:1. I'll take those odds. I may never achieve the level of writing that the Masters have, but I am a shameless self promoter! I absolutely love people and am a patient and confident enchantress of my wares!!! I feel that, because of my outgoing personality and living in the age of communication,  I actually have a leg up on some of the Masters of those written words. I think todays Authors need to have a presence, be willing to put themselves out there so that readers and lovers of the multi-genre will be enticed into reading their novels. Is there really an author out there who thinks that their book is so stellar, that marketing and promotions will not be a huge piece of the pie. No joke, I would love nothing more than to sit all day long and write stories. But, there are benefits to staying well rounded in life and I don't wish to be reclusive.  The sun is too bright a place for the likes of you and I to be hiding away from! So, I take the laptop outside...

    Did I promise and excerpt from my unpublished Vampire Romance novel? WELL, ANNE DELIVERS... 

  Five Chapters into the book our hero, a vampire warrior of the Dark Realm, is called upon by his omnipotent Queen to rescue a mortal female in terrible danger. Our Queen beckons the heroic warrior to hasten! His target, a beautiful female scientist, is in grave danger and she also represents a key strand in an intricate royal web of manipulation. 
 Presently, the human woman is in dire straights as she is being attacked in her Virginia home by the worst Sadist and Torturer in Vampire history!
  The Queen, unused to requesting anything, appeals to our hero for expedition of his warrior skills!  
 
  "Rhys?"
He knew from hearing her first breath, that on the other end, Ursula was in distress!
  "Urse...Ursula, what is it? Are you not well?" Rhys' deep voice was tense and he immediately sat straight up in bed. Ursula's familiar song was lifeless on the line, she usually sounded so melodically animated, but not today.
  "Darling, we fear this, this vision that has come to us in our day-sleep." Ursula was trying not at all successfully to hide the terror in her tone. The Queen was saturating Rhys with her fear through the cell phone and through their distant psychic link.
Rhys frowned.  "Your visions are not soothing, my Lady?" He asked, swinging his legs off of the furs and allowing his eyes to adjust to the pitch black of the bedroom. 
The long distance feminine voice quaked. Ursula didn't quake, not ever! "No, my darling. All that we are in this morsel of time edges so near to immortal ruination. We plead for thee to leap into the darkness of the abyss, yet again."
Rhys spoke the only words that his vampire warrior soul permitted.  "Ursula, my Mistress, I am ever your champion."
Ursula sighed, as if she could ever doubt his bravery, his devotion to her.  "Thou shall ever be my warrior, my hero, my lovely Rhys."     
   
  That was all you get, for now! Just a shy peek. The title you ask? It is under wraps until I get an agent!

  In two weeks, I think we'll discuss the difference between the words ROMANCE, EROTIC AND PORN!!! Why this topic? My pack goes to my web page and sees Anne Patricia Roberts Supernatural Erotic Romance Writer and they say their first thought is that I am writing porn. WRONG! Though views on porn vary, my interest lies in a great fast paced title Tsunami of a story. The sex, which is laced throughout the story, is meant to enhance. More to come on this...and soon another shy peek at the story!!!

WBCT(Warmest Blood curdling Thanks) Anne
Oh! Quit giving me crap about my punctuation! I proofread, but I will always hold that I am a story teller, not a talented editor, so get over it and read for the content!!!