5 Blue Ribbons for Night Music

I got an early peak at the Romance Junkies review for Night Music (thank you, Chrissy!) that will post on their site shortly. Night Music is available as an invidual ebook or in the print anthology Beginnings, in bookstores near you.

5 Blue Ribbons

“Charlene Teglia continues the exciting story involving another of the band members of The Sirens from THE GRIPPING BEAST with NIGHT MUSIC. This story enthralled me from the very first page. I couldn’t help but admire Meghan for her strong attitude and refusal to feel sorry for herself. If she’s going to die then she’s going to live the rest of her life to the fullest, that includes living dangerously for one night with the mysterious man who’s intrigued her for so long. I admit that I adore Rom. He’s got his dominant tendencies but he’s willing to stand by and risk losing her to a mortal man. You’ve just got to love a man (vampire or not) who will sacrifice his own happiness for the woman he loves! This story is powerfully intense and full of love, life, and the kind of friends that everyone should have in their lives. Beautifully written Ms. Teglia!” – Chrissy Dionne

Happy dancing!

Anastasia’s Style and character arc

NJ Walters’ Anastasia’s Style releases today in the Ellora’s Cave Valentine Vixens series. I got to read this early, and the timing was one of those synchronicity things, because I have an estranged husband/wife reunion novella in Capture Me. It makes for a very interesting dynamic, powerful emotions, and lots of dramatic character arc.

Anastasia is sweet and hot, romantic and poignant and very erotic. It’s an interesting take on the husband/wife from different worlds scenario. He’s from the haves, she’s from the have nots. And she isn’t relegated to the stereotypical role. I loved how both the hero and heroine owned up to their mistakes and took responsibility for their part in their marital problems, and I completely believed they had put all the pieces back together solidly and had earned their happy ending. Tough job to pull off in a Quickie! Kudos to NJ for a job well done and for lucky readers everywhere, go forth and download the minute it’s for sale!

Author Bio

charli
Charlene Teglia decided she wanted to earn a living writing fiction at age twelve. After piling up enough written pages to sink Atlantis again, she sat down to write a novel and find out if it would sell. The first novel was so much fun that she got carried away and kept going, although it took another eight years to make her first novel sale.

In between, she worked for various software and technology companies. She left HP when she realized she wanted to write printer repair instructions in iambic pentameter. They thought she was so funny, they left her name plate on her cube after she left like a shrine. Or maybe it was as a warning to others. She lives in Washington with her husband and two daughters.

Her first Ellora’s Cave title released in February of 05. Since then her books have garnered several honors: 2005 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Erotic Novel, 2006 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award nominee for Best Erotic Romance, 2005 CAPA nomination for Best Erotic Anthology, 2007 Fantasm Award, two Love Romance’s Reviewer’s Choice Golden Rose Awards, four Fallen Angels Reviews Recommended Reads and she is a seven-time recipient of the 5 Blue Ribbon Award from Romance Junkies.

Charlene is represented by Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency.

Praise for the novels of Charlene Teglia:

Romantic Times, 4 1/2 Stars and Reviewer’s Choice Award
“This is great erotic fiction!…fresh, sexy and humorous.”

Romantic Times, 4 1/2 Stars
“If you love bad boys and women that are more than their match, this is the anthology for you.”

Romance Reviews Today
“THE GRIPPING BEAST is time travel fantasy at its best. This tale is a page turner…Charlene Teglia is quickly working her way onto my automatic buy list. She’s truly a talented and promising author.”

Romance Reviews Today
“WOLF IN CHEAP CLOTHING is action-packed and ferociously seductive.”

Fallen Angel Reviews, Recommended Read
“The book has a believable plot, with just enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested, but what I enjoy most about this author’s writing is her great skill at characterization and dialogue.”

Just Erotic Romance Reviews, 5 Stars/Heat Level 0
“Ms. Teglia is a terrific writer who has penned a story of love and magic that left me sighing at the end.”

Ecataromance Reviews, 5 Stars
“As usual, Ms. Teglia’s sex scenes were small doses of TNT and the tension was perfect.”

Download a Printable Booklist

Author Interviews

Romantic Realm of Shadows
Joyfully Reviewed
Coffee Time Romance
Gotta Write Network

Books

I’m the award-winning author of 20 novels and novellas in a variety of erotic romance subgenres. From contemporary romantic comedy to historical fantasy to futuristic, I’ve dabbled in just about every flavor.

What is erotic romance? It’s romance in which the erotic element is an important part of plot and characterization. Morgan Hawke has written an excellent definition of erotic romance as a new genre of women’s adventure stories, but the romantic relationship and happily ever after remains an important part of the story.

Romantica is the term trademarked by Ellora’s Cave for the blend of erotica and romance they publish. All of my titles are sensual or erotic romances, but only those under the Ellora’s Cave imprint can be called Romantica.

Thoughts on Fast Draft

So, while I’m continuing to work in Fast Draft form, I thought I’d pause and post my thoughts on why it’s effective. It sounds insane on the surface; no time to write? Write 20 pages a day for two weeks! You don’t magically get more time or energy during those two weeks. Yet, the pages get done. Why? How?

First of all, it’s short term. If I told myself I had to write 20 pages a day every day forever I’d probably have a nervous breakdown on the spot. Also, without interruptions in the workflow the story is able to gain momentum. Start and stop is the worst way to write, for me at least. Every time I’m interrupted, I have to start all over again. It’s excruciating and progress is nearly invisible, which is discouraging. With Fast Draft, I have no interruptions. I build up momentum once and keep it. And I have lots of measurable progress every day, which is exciting and it builds my enthusiasm to keep going. Because I can see it’s working.

Possibly most importantly, there’s no time to second-guess and because it’s only one day’s work I’m a lot more willling to charge ahead knowing I may have taken a wrong turn that I’ll have to cut later if it doesn’t work.

For instance, I came up with a fix that resolved my lack of conflict (hero and heroine’s goals were too similar and they wanted to live happily ever after in chapter one). The next morning, I looked at my fix and thought, “that will never work”. Then I thought, well, write it anyway. If I go forward with this and it doesn’t work, I’ll find that out. I was willing to waste 20 pages because of the production mindset. In 2 pages here and there fits and starts writing, I didn’t feel I could afford to waste ANY because the clock was ticking and ever word counted.

And yes, the fix worked. It drove the entire plot and produced some absolutely brilliant stuff. That I would have chickened out on and not done, pretty much guaranteed, if I wasnt doing Fast Draft.

I can see that this is an invaluable tool for me, at least. I will continue to utilize Fast Draft and I think it’ll probably allow me to achieve my dream of taking a vacation this year. If I can be more efficient and get the work done faster it’s a lot more likely that I can actually take time off.