So last Friday night I participated in my first live author chat, and let me just say…WOW.
It started at 8:30 PM, and I had myself all set up in a quiet room with a nice big glass of wine. I was a little nervous people might not come, but right away awesome people showed up to say hi, chat, ask questions, and drink wine. I felt like this…
Aaaaand then it got crazy.
I could not keep up. My internet could not keep up. My Facebook skills could not keep up. Comments and questions were flying so fast my head was spinning. At the end of the chat, I felt bad that M. and I hadn’t answered everyone’s questions…but it was so hard to find them in the maelstrom.
I decided to go back through the chat and look for questions, which I would then post here with answers, and I laughed so hard going back through the threads…
Poor M. had a massive headache but tried valiantly to welcome every person that commented. Laurelin Paige showed up with Jon Snow. Delancey Stewart tried hard to be serious but gave up and poured wine. Janie Oor reminded us all it was Steak and BJ Day. M. copped to drinking Franzia and Carlo Rossi in college, also to falling in a river. There was MASSIVE confusion, and I just kept drinking and laughing as I stared at the madness on my screen.
So here’s the recap plus all the questions from the chat on my page–with answers!
8:30 PM I post an hideously embarrassing introduction in which I spell “am” wrong: “It’s 8:30 PM! I have wine! OK, so I’m nervous…but M. told me I should start. So I’m Melanie and my sexy comtemporary romance, Frenched, will release on Tuesday March 18th. (How and am I doing?)”
1) What kind of wine are you drinking? Red blend from California 🙂
2) Why did you decide to set Frenched in Paris? Because Paris has the reputation for being a place to fall in love. And I love that city!
(Here’s where Laurelin shows up with Jon Snow, distracting us all with his hotness. M. calls the chat a clusterfuck. I try hard to stay focused.)
3) Have you spent time in Paris, Melanie? Yes! I’ve taken five or six trips there, and my family lived there for a year. I was student teaching at the time so I didn’t live there for any extended period, but visited a lot.
4) How did the characters in the book meet? They meet when Mia wanders into a bar in the Latin Quarter where Lucas is bartending.
5) Are you authors fluent in other languages? I know some French, but I’m not fluent.
(Here’s where M. wonders if I’m actually answering questions or if I passed out already.)
6) More teasers? Yes! Here they are.
7) Did you design that cover for Frenched? No, that cover was designed by Tom Barnes. He’s wonderful.
(M. says he imagines me just drinking and staring at the screen. Pretty accurate–I was totally razzled by then.)
8) Will Frenched be in paperback or ebook only? Paperback too!
(Laurelin shows us a bottle of wine a fan gave her.)
9) Any particular inspiration for the characters? Um, Jon Snow… 🙂
10) From M.: Wait…Laurelin…does that wine say…Penetration? Yes. It did.
11) How long did it end up taking you to finish writing Frenched, from conception to end? Good question. I had the idea back in the fall and wrote the beginning in December, but I slacked during the holidays. Most of it was written during January and February. So maybe 2-3 months.
12) Paula, did you bring your Wrecking Ball outfit for Matthew Sky? I have no idea what this question is about nor will I attempt to answer it…
13) Did you find writing Frenched to be easier than writing your historicals? Yes. Less research, although I did spend a lot of time studying Paris. But I like the research part of writing, historical and otherwise.
(At this point there were a lot of shenanigans about bad wine, falling into rivers, and Walmart.)
14) Melanie, how do you and M. know each other? I reached out to M. after reading Night Owl (blog post about that here) and we became friends. We have never met, but I hope we get the chance some day.
15) Is Frenched a standalone? Yes, it is, although I have two more novels planned in the series. Companion novels. I hope to release one in June and one in October.
(Here is where Sheri admits she is hiding in the laundry room…)
16) Melanie – do you have a writing “process,” or ritual you follow? I’m a total panster. I usually know where a story starts and just sit down and start hammering at it. With Frenched, I knew the ending too, so I just had to write the journey. But I’m a linear writer, so if I get stuck I find it very hard to jump ahead. I have to go take a run or fold laundry or something. Ideas never hit me when I’m actually at the computer in need of them.
17) What’s your fav erotica book? Wow, that’s a hard question. I love the Crossfire series, the Fixed series, Tangled, and of course Night Owl. M. says Beautiful Bastard.
18) Biggest turn on? Does Lucas have those characteristics? I like a confident man. Lucas is confident. He also talks dirty…I like that too.
On that note, we all went over to Andrea’s Book Blog page, where I got even more lost. But I had fun in the chaos and it made me really happy to see people getting so excited about books and authors.
And if I ever say I will do a live chat again, someone please remind me of this!
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