The Glamorous Real Life of the Romance Author

The other day, my son's Occupational Therapist mentioned she'd heard I was a writer. "What do you write?" she asked. "Romance," I told her. This earned me a look of surprise, like I'd just confessed to a secret life. I get that a lot when I tell people what I do for a living. The "glamorous" real life of a romance author is...not so glamorous.

Yes, it's true. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. For the next two months, I'm a home schooling mom, which means I spend my mornings overseeing reading, writing, and science experiments. I cook, I clean (sort of...mostly, my house is just a mess). I have even been known to bribe my son with the promise of ice cream if he will entertain himself quietly while I take a call from my agent or my editor in the other room.

And then every once in a while I get to dress up and be Rachel Lacey, romance author, for a little while. In fact, this weekend I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a workshop and got to spend time with my good friend and critique partner, Anna Rains. In July, we'll be attending the Romance Writers of America Annual Conference, where we'll attend classes, go to parties, book signings, and award ceremonies. Not too far in the future, I'll even have book signings of my own!

But most days, I'm just regular me. Rachel, mother of one wonderfully exhausting five-year-old boy, wearer of t-shirts and jeans, juggler of many things.

Speaking of the glamorous side of being an author, something very exciting happened for me this week. I have my very first cover to share! My debut, Unleashed, will be released on October 28th, and it's available now for pre-order. That's right, I'm on Amazon! Crazy, right?

I am living a dream come true, and I wouldn't change a single minute!

Rachel Lacey writes contemporary romance that tugs at your heartstrings. Her debut, Unleashed, will be out this October. She blogs on this site on rotation with the other Ever After Foxes. You can find her online at www.rachellacey.com, or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

LIGHTNING FAST GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate the mass market release, Forever Romance is doing a HUGE giveaway of FIVE copies of Hard to Handle as well as a prize pack of books from Ever Afters Rachel Van Dyken, Erin Kern, & Shannon Richard.

What do you have to do?

Enter--and don't dillydally, either. This contest ends MONDAY, MARCH 24th at 11:59 p.m.!!!
Here's the rafflecopter link (right here on our own EVER AFTER giveaway page)

Best of luck to you!
~Jess :)

Music Mondays: Going Back A Little...But Not That Far

So I've been working on I Run To You, the very first manuscript I ever wrote...

The. Very. First.

I spent two years editing this bad boy before I decided to start off fresh with a new story (Undone). In revisiting it, I've noticed that it's going a little bit more smoothly.

Or maybe I just haven't hit a really big bump in the road yet...we shall see how it turns out.

BUT since I've been delving into my old manuscript, I'm listening to music from I Run To You's playlist. Some songs are probably going to change, but the following are here to stay...


1.) Snow Patrol "Crack The Shutters" & "Run" - These are the 2nd and 3rd most played songs on the playlist.




2.) Coldplay "The Scientist" - This song corresponds to the very first scene that I ever wrote in the book.




3.) OneRepublic (feat. Sara Bareilles) "Come Home" - It's the ending of the book...it still makes me a little emotional.




4.) Ingrid Michaelson "Die Alone" - Love...just love. This song perfectly describes Mattie and how much she loves Emmett. PERFECTLY!




5.) Lady Antebellum "I Run To You" - It's the title song, it isn't going anywhere. I have a fondness/love for this song that I really can't even accurately describe with words.

Why book releases make you lose your mind...

The blog was blank for the week...

And it's all my fault. 

*hangs head*

My excuse? 

Well... a while ago I thought it would be a REALLY good idea to release two books within five days of one another. Not really sure if this thought occurred after a few glasses of wine or if I really was of sound mind when I made said decision, point is, we're lucky I still know my own name ;)

Book releases can easily take a calm, controlled, happy-go-lucky person, and send them to the madhouse. Things always seem to go wrong, from uploading the wrong file (yeah totally done that before), to forgetting what blog I'm supposed to be guesting on, to forgetting to upload files to createspace for print (yeah, been there done that too).

Anytime you release a book, it's absolute madness. Will people love it? Hate it? Hate me? I've done over 24 book releases and I still want to puke every single time a new book comes out. If I'm being completely honest, theres something absolutely terrifying about hitting #1 on the New York Times because you seriously wonder if you will ever do it again. There are always expectations, ones you put on yourself needlessly, or your publisher puts on you, or even your readers. And as an author you want so badly to make sure you aren't letting anyone down--even if its at a cost to your own sanity and health.

So my blog post? Totally forgot about it, but Im almost glad I did because now I get to give out some advice to authors everywhere---both new and old. It never gets easy. But I think if we wanted easy, we'd be doing something else entirely, don't you? The things that terrify us the most are the ones we need to be doing. When you put a book out there you're going to get rejected--you can't please everyone. Publish it anyway. We do what we do, because we love it. The deadlines, the blood, sweat, tears, all of it.

I may be stressed--but I wouldn't change it for the world.

My book series, Ruin, is all about doing things afraid. It's about conquering your demons and living---I think sometimes I need to take a dose of my own medicine!

Until next time!
Hugs,
RVD