03/21/11
How I researched Talk to Me
When I decided to set Talk to Me in a radio station, I knew that in order for the book to work I would need to understand what a producer does, what a host does, where the equipment is, what it looks like, etc. There are a lot of things you can research on the Internet, but for stuff like this, it’s really best to see it in person and to talk directly to people in the field.
Luckily, a friend of mine co-hosts a sports talk radio show on the biggest sports station in my area, so I e-mailed him a bunch of questions and also asked for a tour. Coincidentally, through my old Evil Day Job I had met the station manager, and I asked him some questions too. On the day of my tour, I went through the entire station complex – there are seven stations there total. My friend brought me into the studio to meet the producer and he showed me the producing board. I got to see how far away he was from the host, how he talked to him during the show, etc.
Armed with what I saw and the notes I took, I went back and started writing the book. During the course of my writing I contacted my friend a few more times to ask him how something worked – like the remote broadcast my hero does, or if it would be possible that no one would be at the station late at night (sexual hijinks time!). He patiently answered all my questions.
I think my book is better for the research I did before I started. For my current book where my hero is a bull rider I’ve followed bull riders on Twitter, watched PBR competitions, and gotten the documentary about how the PBR was formed. I also had a professional bull rider read the book – poor thing’s eyes were probably glazed over from all that sex! But he assured me that my details were right, and that’s what’s important!
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BIO:
Cassandra Carr lives in Western New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words. When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out on Twitter. Her debut novel, Talk to Me, was released by Loose Id on March 22, 2011. For more information about Cassandra, check out her website at http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com, “like” her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/Cassandra_Carr.
BUY LINK : http://www.loose-id.com/Talk-to-Me.aspx 
excerpt follows Read the rest of this entry »
03/14/11
Good morning, musers. Once again, I find myself having to apologize for not having this post ready to go up in the wee hours of the morning. I will blame it on my crazy-busy weekend. *smile* We had a soccer jamboree on Saturday. I didn’t even play and was worn out at the end of the day, I can only imagine how my son must’ve felt! But his team won all three of their games!!! *big grin* But I digress…
What I really want to talk about is how everyone feels about “daylight savings time.” We go to bed at night and somehow, in the middle of the night the government sneaks in and steals an hour from us. There’s a reason for it, but what it is, I can’t tell you. Read the rest of this entry »
02/21/11
Spring Fever or Can I Blame it on the Weather?
I have to apologize for not having this blog up bright and early this morning. I generally do a bit better with my blog days because I have about 20 different reminders set up, so I won’t forget. Ok, I exaggerate, it’s only 2 reminders. One comes to me a week in advance and that’s when I really start wracking my brain for a topic if I don’t already have something in mind. The other reminder comes to me two days in advance and that’s when I generally write the blog and put it in the queue to be posted. Read the rest of this entry »
01/25/11
Welcome Joss Ware to the blog today. She’s here to talk about her post-apocalyptic Envy Chronicles series and, more specifically, her latest release in the series, Night Betrayed. (Check out this special pricing on the e-book release of the first two books in the series!)
A post-apocalyptical world may not sound very romantic, but believe me–Joss has pulled it off! Read a little about the ideas that sparked Night Betrayed.
01/6/11
Interview with Christyne Butler
Joy Dent–Tucker 
picked your name as the winner of A Daddy for Jacoby. E-mail me your snail-mail address at triciafieldsblog@gmail.com and Christyne and I will make sure you get your book!
There’s no way my introduction can give justice to the person Christyne Butler is. We first met in New York in 2003, at the RWA National Conference. Picture this: neither of us had ever been to one of RWA’s (Romance Writer’s of America) National Conferences before. Registration had opened in January and we had both registered early, and separately, because we didn’t know anyone else going. Neither of us wanted to pay the cost of a room alone, so we went searching online for a roommate. I think we “met” on a discussion board on the eHarlequin forums, but we didn’t meet face to face until we arrived in New York. She flew in from Massachusetts and I flew in from Tennessee. Bound to be a match made in heaven, right? Luckily for us, it was. At that conference a friendship was born and thank goodness for that, because we relied on each other to find our way around the conference, the hotel, and the city. I wish I could say we’ve roomed together at every conference since, but there have been a couple I haven’t been able to attend, but if we’re both at Nationals together, we’re roommates. Not only is she a fabulous writer, she’s a great friend, a good roommate and a wonderful encourager (or whip cracker–how-ever you want to look at it).
This month her third book for Silhouette Special Editions is out: A DADDY For JACOBY. Trust me, it’s a great read! And one lucky commenter will win an autographed copy. Just check this post again on Friday to see if your name was selected. Read the rest of this entry »
12/30/10
The original title of this pose was, “I don’t have anything to say”, but I didn’t think that sounded very inspiring. Really, though, I’ve wracked my brain for the past week trying to decide what I was going to discuss in this blog post, but my muse is still out enjoying her egg-nog or something, because I’ve come up with a big, fat blank. And that’s not just for the blog, it for all my writing. Even my journal is sadly blank for the past several days. If I sit and ponder it too much I can get pretty worried about the fact that I can’t find any words inside, that the place where my words come from feels dried up and empty. But then, if I sit and think about it some more Read the rest of this entry »
12/6/10
What are you able to build with your blocks…or Scenes, the Building Blocks of Story
That’s the first line of the poem Block City by Robert Lewis Stevenson. I had to memorize it in the 3rd grade, and I still remember it–well, some of it. It always comes to mind when I think about putting things together or building something, etc. It’s been running through my mind lately because I’m revising my WIP (work in progress) and I’m analyzing it scene by scene right now. Read the rest of this entry »
11/24/10
I swear it seems like only a few weeks ago that I was planning out my yearly goals. Now November is nearly over. What happened to the rest of the year? I know I didn’t have a chance to use it all, if I had I would have accomplished so much more! Read the rest of this entry »
11/2/10
I learned something last week, completely by accident. Trust me, I would’ve never tried this any other way. The other day something unusual happened to me; I woke up early. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m not a morning person and waking up early is not something that happens a lot in my life. 
And if I do happen to wake early, I just roll over and go right back to sleep. This particular morning, though, I couldn’t go back to sleep for some reason. It was really out of character for me. So I decided to go ahead and get up. No point in staring at the ceiling. I’ve heard people talk about getting up early to write, so some of y’all might think that’s what I did, but you’d be wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
10/18/10
Last week I received a rejection for a story I had submitted. It was a disappointment, but as a writer seeking publication, it’s just one of those things. Rejection happens. Read the rest of this entry »
