If you’ve read Those Who Can’t or Fait Accompli, you might be a little confused. Neither story has any rock OR roll in it, and let’s be honest, precious little romance. But really I consider myself a romance novelist first and a writer of erotica second. The novel I will be releasing in exactly one month, One Night Standoff, has a lot more rock n’ roll AND romance. It’s about a very damaged musician who doesn’t realize her fame is empty until she meets a man who doesn’t realize she’s famous. The official blurb is as follows, though I think I need to work on it… I’ve sent it to a billion sites asking for potential reviews and almost all of them have turned me down. I can deal with that, I promise! I don’t care what people say about this novel, I believe it’s good and everyone else can go to hell (see?! Rock n’ roll!), but obviously I need to figure out what’s wrong with my blurb and why it isn’t catching people’s attention. If I can just write a catchy blurb for bait, I have nothing but faith in the strength of my novel to reel everyone in 🙂
Norah Castle’s life is perfect. As a triple-platinum recording artist known the world over, she has everything she ever wished for and more. If she sometimes feels that it’s not enough, she ignores it, because what else could there be? When a personal tragedy occurs in her hometown, she grudgingly returns to Westerville, OH, dispensing with her stage name in the interest of privacy. “Disguised” as Honor Castlereagh, the girl who ran away to Los Angeles and never came back, she takes a man home for a one night stand, a casual encounter to get her mind off herself. Little does she know he’s the one who just might force her to face her past, face herself, and want everything she never thought to wish for…
Yeah, reading that it sounds kind of lame even to me. Ah well, still time to work on it! A few reviewers have said they’ll add it to their lists, and I’m lining up guest posts and the like, so… Fingers crossed.
Back to the rock n’ roll thing. They say “write what you know”, and as a musician I know music. I was in a decent band for four years; we had some minor success, toured a bit, and it was awesome. But it was also… Nothing like you’d expect. We (music fans) get an image of glitz and glamour and buy into it, but in my experience the most famous musicians are the most unhappy. That’s where the idea for this novel really came from, a desire to examine that paradox. Some of my friends have teased me, assuming that the heroine is some kind of wish-fulfillment Mary Sue, but no one thinks that after reading it. Norah/Honor is not someone I’d like to be, or even someone I’d like to know, but at the same time she’s why I believe so strongly in this story. She’s a horrible person and she truly needs redemption.
…And now you’re all thinking “Wow, that sounds like something I do NOT want to read.” See! I told you I need help with my blurbs! But whatever. It’s good and everyone else can go to hell (after they buy a copy, svp).
Any tips for blurb writing, guys? I could use them!
diana iles elliot 