Thursday, March 28, 2013

Review: Someone Else's Fairytale by EM Tippetts


Jason Vanderholt, Hollywood's hottest actor, falls head over heels for everygirl, Chloe Winters, who hasn't gotten around to watching most of his movies. She becomes the woman every other woman in America is dying to be, but it just isn't her fairytale.

Who hasn't dreamed of a chance meeting with that hot Hollywood actor and having him fall head over heels in love with you?  This girl definitely has!  Chloe Winters has not!  And the meeting with Hollywood's newest "it boy", Jason Vanderholt, on the set of his latest movie did not sweep Chloe off of her feet. In fact, quite the opposite, she tends to shy away from his attention.  This intrigues Jason all the more as he tries everything to get to know Chloe.  Along the way to their inevitable romance, we learn about Chloe's horrific past with a crazy half brother, a rather childish mother, and more family secrets than one person should have to deal with.

This book was such a delightful read. It is a very sweet love story with two likable characters that just have to get past their differences to get together. The supporting characters make you cheer for and gnash your teeth over their behavior as much as you root for Chloe to learn that fairytales do exist and that this IS her fairytale.  EM Tippetts has a great voice and as soon as I tore through this book, I dove right into the sequel, NOBODY'S DAMSEL. (Review to come!)  I hope that there is more chick lit coming our way soon from this talented lady.



How I Balance Science Fiction and Chick Lit Writing by E.M. Tippetts

How I Balance Science Fiction and Chick Lit Writing

I’ll begin with a note of honesty and admit that I don’t balance them all that well. Last year I wrote and sold exactly one science fiction story while I did two chick lit/YA novels, but I get that this question focuses on the general. How do I be a science fiction writer, for which I use the name Emily Mah, and a chick lit writer, for which I use the name E.M. Tippetts.
To start with, a brief history of how this happened. Emily Mah is my maiden name and I always wanted to be a science fiction and fantasy author. That’s where I did my training, at the Clarion West Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy and in the Critical Mass Writer’s Group. That’s the genre in which all my stories fit. I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico; what other people consider science fiction is just normal life for me, and I’ve always loved a good fantasy book. All of my sales in this genre have been short stories.
But when I turned thirty, I decided I wanted to publish one novel somewhere, so I chose the LDS market. There is a small group of publishers and bookstores in Utah and the mountain west who cater to Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and because it’s a smaller market, it’s much easier to be published there. I used my married name, Tippetts, and abbreviated my first two names to initials because I liked the sound of it: E.M. Tippetts. Using this name I wrote a chick lit novel which sold to the second publisher I sent it to, and a year later I was a published novelist, but I ended up in so many contract bickerings with the publisher that we parted ways and I called that all good. I’d go back to being Emily Mah and move on with my writing.
Still, chick lit novels kept itching at my awareness, so I wrote a couple and just left them on my hard drive while I began to sell science fiction short stories to some of the bigger, more prestigious markets. And then my Clarion West classmate, Susan Ee, decided to indie publish her novel, Angelfall, and I couldn’t help but notice that this looked like a ton of fun, being your own boss as a novelist. I didn’t want to go indie as Emily Mah, though, because traditional publishing still can look down on the self published. I wanted to preserve my good name, so to speak, so I thought instead I’d indie publish my chick lit novels.
I turned this into an exercise for myself, to learn marketing. Without any publisher or publicist, it was all up to me, so I decided to see if I could do enough on my own to sell books. The answer appears to be yes, as I made a lot more money as E.M. Tippetts last year than I ever have as Emily Mah.
This is the situation you find me in now. It’s been a year since my crazy experiment to try indie publishing and I’m loving the process. That’s what keeps me writing as E.M. Tippetts. But in my heart, I’ll always be a geek and love science fiction. Science fiction stories still ask to be told, so what I plan to do is take time between each novel to work on at least one. How well will this work? I have no idea. This is still very much the beginning for me. Later on this year or early next, I may dust of my last science fiction novel and submit it around to agents too, but only once I feel like I’m in a good rhythm with my chick lit writing.
Let me say this to any aspiring writers, though: give a lot of thought to names. Do you write one kind of story, or do you have a clear line of demarcation? If so, take on a second name. This is a branding issue. You might have no trouble hopping from one genre to another when you write, but it’s surprising how conservative readers can be. Many don’t stray very far from one genre they love, so don’t ever put one in the situation of thinking they’ll get one genre when they pick up a book and ending up reading another. I’ve spoken to several authors who wish they’d taken on a pen name for a different venture. It isn’t always necessary, if you always write romance and have a fantasy element in a romance novel, that doesn’t require differentiation, but if you write a hard science fiction with robots and a big space battle, you’ll probably want to use a different name for that one. The names don’t have to be all that different, either. Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks is a good example there. You can still be you, just give your fans a clear signpost.



Author Bio:

E.M. Tippetts grew up in New Mexico and now lives in London, where she raises two boisterous toddlers, designs jewelry, and writes novels. A former attorney, she used to specialize in real estate and estate planning, specifically literary estate planning. She currently has five novels out, Time & Eternity, Paint Me True, Someone Else's Fairytale, Castles on the Sand, and Nobody's Damsel (Fairytale 2).

Connect with E.M.


www.amazon.com/E.M.-Tippetts/e/B001JP3ZRK/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_7?qid=1363303467&sr=8-7

Friday, March 22, 2013

The Karmic Connection cover reveal!



Libby Mercer is back with a new novel coming out soon and I'm currently reading it! I just have to tell you that I la-la-la-love it!!  And today is the big day as Libby unveils the cover, which I have to tell you is absolutely FABULOUS!


What is the universe up to?
Guilty of nothing other than working too much – or so they say – Adam Stowe is dumped at a “wellness center” in the middle of nowhere by a couple of concerned colleagues. When he meets Lorraine, the beautiful and bewitching yoga instructor, his spirits start to lift, but once he discovers what a flighty fruitcake she is, they drop back down to subterranean levels.
For Lorraine Jameson, Luna Wellness Center was a beacon of solace when her life was falling apart, and she can’t stand the way Adam’s toxic energy is poisoning the peace. He embodies everything negative about the life she discarded eighteen months ago. Despite being fiercely attracted to the arrogant man, she’s determined not to let Adam Stowe anywhere near her heart.
Adam and Lorraine couldn’t be more unsuitable as a potential couple… so why is the universe so dead set on uniting these two?
The Karmic Connection is a different kind of love story with a cast of quirky characters and a mystical, magical New Age-y flavor.

 Connect with Libby here: