Not Here Really

Have to run to work and my mother is still in the hospital, so between working, or trying to, and calling down to the hospital to get an update on her status, I'm really not here or anywhere. argh. *sigh*. But in the meantime, I'm working on The Accidental Highland Hero. What's wrong with this picture? He's got the bare chest right. But somehow the socks and shoes make it look a little too dressy when he has no shirt. Not that I mind that he's shirtless. Just the opposite. But I'm thinking bare legs and bare feet, more of a rough and tumble kind of guy would even be better. But, hmm, the chest is very nice.

Okay, off to the real world....

Terry Spear

www.terryspear.com

Winning the Highlander's Heart, The Accidental Highland Hero

Sinfully Sexy Saturday Ahead of Incoming Ike

I just finished Deadly Liaisons edits for the new vampire romantic suspense and am in the middle of finishing up The Accidental Highland Hero in a couple of weeks. This guy could be James when he's out of his kilt and taking a dip in the loch. And then it's off to another werewolf adventure.

Hoping Ike won't hit us too bad. The winds have already picked up considerably this morning. Torrential downpours are expected. And I expect that we'll lose our satellite, maybe our electricity as any little storm can do it.

I'm off to work in a little bit. Hope that won't be a disaster. Grocery stores were crowded and the gas pump lines were insane last night. People were stocking up on bottled water--we've made additional ice to help keep our food referigerated. Hopefully, it won't be anything like what Houston has experienced.

Hope everyone has a Sexy Saturday and stays safe in the path of the storm!

Terry Spear

http://www.terryspear.com/

Heart of the Wolf, Don't Cry Wolf, The Vampire...In My Dreams, Winning the Highlander's Heart

I've Been Shipwrecked!

Hmm, I feel I've been in a shipwreck and I'm trying to find what's left of the pieces. :)

I've moved, closed on the house, have a library talk to give this morning, and can't find anything. :)

But otherwise, it's a great Saturday! I woke at 4 am, couldn't sleep and so have been working again on Allure of the Wolf edits. Should be done soon, hopefully this weekend. Just got word that Betrayal of the Wolf is going into edits...AND, it will be a FALL release after Don't Cry Wolf's spring release in 2009!!! Woohoo, no waiting 11 months from one book to the next. So I'm really excited about that.

Allure of the Wolf should be a Spring 2010 release, and have to get to work on the next couple of books. I'm working on Deadly Liaisons edits also--a great vampire romantic suspense, and have to finish The Accidental Highland Hero.

What's really great about writing, is the wonderful fan mail we receive from time to time. I got a letter from a lady who has an incurable illness and is stuck at home, and has read Winning the Highlander's Heart three times, plus bought copies for her friends. It's letters like these that make me love writing so much, despite all the trials in getting the works published. And another, from a thirteen year old girl who loved The Vampire...In My Dreams, couldn't put it down, and is dying for a sequel. Then I had a note from a lady who watched the book trailer for The Vampire...In My Dreams and loved it. This, after I found someone had given it a one star rating.

With all my heart, I thank my readers, for encouraging me to continue sharing my stories.

Right now, I'm off to search for the magazines I have stories in to use in my talk today....if I can find them in the shipwreck. :) Will anyone be at the talk? I envision seven people...the other authors who are speaking, the librarian, and my mother. :) The good thing is we have chocolate kisses to hand out. Chocolate is always a good thing to help cope with adversity.

What do you do to cope when you've been shipwrecked in life???

Don't Cry Wolf's Cover

I'm in the middle of a hellish move, and in the midst of it received final edits for Don't Cry Wolf and finished them, but best of all, I received the cover!!

Much more colorful than Heart of the Wolf's! What do you all think? I love it!

And I received this wonderful unsolicited review while I was blogging on Between the Lines for Heart of the Wolf:

A comment regarding "Terry Spear - The Trials and Tribulations of Publication...And Those Most Devilish of Heroes—the Vampire", an entry at Between the Lines, was written at 8/22/2008 1:32:35 PM.

Author: Rosemarie Brungard

Home Page: http://romanceatheart.com/
Comment:
I stumbled on Terry's book, Heart of the Wolf recently, and enjoyed every minute of the read. I found her writing fascinating, and very much to my liking. I loved the strong characters, and the way the hero and heroine tried to protect each other. The efforts were bumbling at times, but when it came right down to it, and when the heat was on high, both Bella and Devlyn are there and ready to step up to the plate.

One can easily understand Bella's fear of Volan, and it is a shame she isn't able to trust Devlyn with her secret, but when all the facts are out, the reader truly understands the difficulties Bella would have encountered, and the tremendous danger both she and Devlyn were surrounded by in that time. As young and not yet mature, their strength and cunning could never have been a match for Volan, but at least as adults, and with Devlyn in his full power, they finally have a chance to succeed.

As time goes on, I hope to be able to get more of Terry's great books. If the rest are as good as Heart of the Wolf, they will be on my keeper shelf for a long time!!!~Rose!~

Thanks so much to Rose, and others like her who make me want to write forever!

Also, I received the new cover for Winning the Highlander's Heart and absolutely love it! What do you think?

Back to moving and working on Allure of the Wolf! Hope everyone's having a great Saturday! :)

Terry Spear

Heart of the Wolf, Don't Cry Wolf (Spr '09)

http://www.terryspear.com/

What to Do When...???

You ever feel that you are torn everywhich way but loose? Have conflicting goals? Not sure what to do first???

With the 107 degree heat here, I have to do yardwork early, but I need to hide in a cave and finish Allure of the Wolf, but I need to clean out my outer building and keep moving stuff in case I've sold the house, but I have to work on online classes, and write up two new ones.

I pretty much have my days planned first thing in the morning. But what do you do when nothing works like it's supposed to? Yesterday I hung screens in the windows for the supposed buyers of my house, but I found that the other owners left me 5 short. My mower is still in the repair shop---over a week, and so I weedeated, but the weedeater kept hanging up and I didn't have time to mess with it before the potential buyers came to look at the house again.

Then I had to run to town to make a counter offer, but I had to stay home because my internet wouldn't work--phone line staticky...but the phone man said it was fine.... Line busy, usually means my line is full of static. Good news, my line is clear, I didn't get charged, and he bought a copy of Heart of the Wolf. Bad news, my internet wasn't working still and I had to get to town before things closed to take care of other crucial business. So I called my internet provider, got a nice foreign person, and guess what? My wonderful internet provider changed the access number. Why not forewarn us??? I asked. I wouldn't have had to wait 3 days to get a phone repairman out here, spend 9 hours catching up on online class lessons with my students at my son's apt--he had that fast internet stuff--wish we could get it out here--and miss calls for items I had for sale in the paper so I can move!!!

*Sigh* Now I'm back online. It's almost like having a car that doesn't run. It's essential to have working!

The good news is--I sold The Accidental Highland Hero, sequel to Winning the Highlander's Heart. The bad news--I have to finish writing it! :)

So what do you do when you need to be outside doing stuff, inside doing stuff, in town doing stuff, all at once???

I need five of me. :)

Terry Spear
www.terryspear.com
Heart of the Wolf
The Vampire...In My Dreams (coming Aug 26!)

Shapeshifters!!!

As I'm writing Allure of the Wolf, I look for pictures about Arctic wolves to get me in the mood. Sitting in the 104 degree heat in the south makes it hard to envision cold Arctic weather. So here, my hero has dropped his glove and has shifted into a werewolf. Neat, huh? See the wolf track??? And here he is, protecting the camp in his wolf form.

And then, back in civilization, he's shifted again and getting cleaned up. Hmm, now I can see the story more clearly. Sometimes so many things distract me--things that have to get done, it's hard getting back in the story. So sometimes, creating a photo album of the story can help. :)

What do you do when you're trying to work on a project and nothing seems to be working?

Terry Spear

Heart of the Wolf, Allure of the Wolf

The Vampire...In My Dreams

www.terryspear.com

What is Urban Fantasy?

Urban Fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that takes place in contemporary times. Which means, gargoyles, and demons, and yes, werewolves, oh my, live in our times. Just think, you could be conversing with a werewolf or a vampire even on the Internet and never realize it. You thought some of the people out there were scary? Well, in an urban fantasies, you don't know the half of it.

How can us poor humans face a world like that? In the past, these fantastical creatures were often evil. Now? Lovers. Werewolf lovers. Vampire lovers. Gargoyle lovers? Even half human/half demon lovers. Yep, it takes all kinds to make the world go around.

And that's what's fun with having an imagination and sharing it with the world. No longer are the princes just plain cursed...the prince who is a bear by day, the prince who is a frog...nope...now the princes are vampires, and princely ghosts, stone princes, and well, yes, even frog princes of a much sexier nature.

What are your favorite kinds of urban fantasies and why?

The End

Why finish writing a project?

I find that every project is different for me. Some I whip through, though most I get stuck on at some point, since I'm a pantser--writing by the seat of my pants. I couldn't plan out a story if I tried. I have lots and lots of story beginnings and some I've finished that need major revisions for one reason or another.

So why finish the story? Why finish more in the same vein? Because you might sell every one of them!!! I sold Heart of the Wolf, but had started Don't Cry Wolf before I sold, but quit, worrying that if I didn't sell Heart of the Wolf, why write another? Even though it was also a stand alone title. When I sold Heart of the Wolf, my editor wanted to see Don't Cry Wolf. It wasn't done! So I finished it and she wanted to see more...and bought Betrayal of the Wolf and Allure of the Wolf. So why finish the story?


Even if you don't sell, you still have them available to sell. And to me, that's the main goal. With every book you write, you hone your skills more. Some get really good at writing the first 3 chapters for contests, but what about avoiding the sagging middle? What about learning to give a compelling end that will encourage readers to pick up the next book and the next one? By writing the whole tamale, we gain more experience. :)

And the best part? We have books to sell. :)

Terry, who is off to work some more on Allure of the Wolf--54K done, 46K to go. Downhill slide!

Heart of the Wolf, Don't Cry Wolf (cover coming soon!!!!), Betrayal of the Wolf

Discovering Romance with Sourcebooks

New news!!

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Hmm, from sexy shapeshifters, to guys who definitely need a good soak in a hot tub to remove the dirt and uncover those hunky muscles in 10,000 BC, there's nothing like an alpha male to stir up a girl's heart.

So what do you like? The hero who is all confident, secure, alpha through and through, or a little bit beta--with definite reservations about his hero qualities--like our reluctant hero in 10,000 BC.

Well, Devlyn Greystoke in Heart of the Wolf is not a reluctant hero, quite the contrary, but he does have issues with his ability to best the devil alpha pack leader! But to win Bella Wilder's love, he'll have to fight to the death. And what's not to like about a hero like that?

So what can the "early man" hero do but rescue his blue-eyed goddess against insurmountable odds in 10,000 BC? Love will conquer all, right? At least we hope so!

Terry Spear, Heart of the Wolf (Coming April 1!), Don't Cry Wolf, http://www.terryspear.com/

I Got THE CALL!!!

I always love to hear stories of how an author got their first call. Most have written for years, love to read, loved to tell stories since they were small, but getting THE CALL is always unique.

For me, I received my first call for two books, The Vampire…In My Dreams and Ghostly Liaisons from Medallion Press. The way it happened was I was dying in bed with the worst flu that had hit me in a very long time. Fevers, chills, truly felt I couldn’t live another day. And then I got THE CALL. Forget the fevers, the chills, feeling like I was going to die any moment. I had to tell my family, and then I had to tell the world, via the Internet. I spent hours on the Internet, then finally went back to bed, contract fairies floating in my head.

Medallion Press closed the Young Adult line in September, the month before Ghostly Liaisons, my first book was to be released.

That’s okay. Because then I had the chance to receive THE CALL again. I kept sending out manuscripts, getting rejections, and sending out again. And it happened. It was similar to the first time…

“Is this book still available for sale?”

“Yes!”

Only this time the purchasing editor said she hadn’t finished reading it. But so far she loved it. “Was my werewolf world unique?”

Luckily, I had read several other werewolf novels and watched werewolf movies over the years and none of them had done what I had. Of course, I paused before I said yes. What if the editor didn’t want unique? Was it too different from other author’s works? Unique is great, but being too different, can be a problem. So, what did I say?

“Yes!”

Great, but she had to finish reading it. Talk about cliff hangers. She would get back with me in a few days. A few days passed, a few more. She called. She loved it. But it still wasn’t THE CALL. She had to pitch it before a board. Another week passed, and then a few days after that, it came.

“We want it!” she said.

I didn’t respond instantly. I kept waiting for the—but--

Nope, no “buts.” They wanted it! So HEART OF THE WOLF will be out April 1, 2008 and that’s no April Fools!!!

It received a terrific Publisher’s Weekly Review and the day after that my editor called and said, “I love Don’t Cry Wolf. I haven’t finished reading it, but if the end is as good as the rest, I’m pitching it to my Publisher next week.”

This time I was a little more reassured the news would be good, but until it’s really a done deal…it’s not a done deal.

And once again, I got THE CALL. Don’t Cry Wolf will come out in Spring, 2009!!!

This is what we work so hard for after writing and writing and writing, revising and revising some more, and suffering the interminable rejections, and finally there comes a day when we receive—THE CALL!

Don’t let those doubts get you down. Keep writing, revising, and submitting, and you can one day share with us your story of how you received THE CALL.

Terry Spearhttp://www.terryspear.com/, Heart of the Wolf, Don’t Cry Wolf, Winning the Highlander’s Heart, The Vampire…In My Dreams