I thought I was prepared for it. After all, I’d had work published in magazines before. I’d had months to get familiar with my Harlequin book cover. Goodness, it’s been more than a year since I finished the story and sent it in. I’ve had plenty of time to adjust to the idea that I’m going to be a real author (whatever that is) with books for sale wherever books are sold.

But when I walked up to my front porch this afternoon and saw my box of author copies, the clouds parted, rainbows appeared, birds sang, and unicorns pranced through my front yard. I would have let out an undignified squeal, but my neighbor and his adorable sons were standing right there, so I had to try to play it cool. That lasted about thirty seconds before I found myself foisting a copy upon him. I doubt he reads romance, but I couldn’t help myself!

Then, I went inside, took some time to compose myself, and curled up on the couch with a book. My book. Yet, I was looking at it with new eyes. I nervously turned it over and read the back cover copy–which I had never seen before.

From the heights of Mount Olympus to the depths of the underworld, new author Stephanie Draven spins a story of fate and seduction…

Not a bad start, I thought. I would read this book.

I carefully open the cover and peek at the first page. A hot and steamy excerpt. Eek, did I write that? Oh, and look at all those superfluous conjunctions I hadn’t noticed before. I flip to the Dear Reader letter, in which I discover a missing comma in the first sentence. Okay, there are going to be errors. I tell myself to stop looking for them.

Somehow, I’m still grinning like an idiot. This might be because my name is at the top of every other page. Or it might be because these are my words, my story, my sweat, and a few of my tears. It’s not the first book I’ve written, but it’s the first time I’ll ever see a novel of mine in print, so I savor it.

I love e-books, but the sensation of actually holding the book in my hands is different than seeing my stories on my e-reader. I hold the book close and fan through the pages, delighting in the feathery texture against my thumb. I hold it close and sniff it. Paper and glue and ink. But it’s more than that. I am acutely aware that I’m holding in my hands the culmination of years of hard work. I’m also holding in my hands all the sacrifices my family has made to get here.

I’m holding countless queries and stamps and envelopes. I’m holding all the rejection letters and all my late night fears that I just wasn’t good enough. I’m holding the critiques and workshops and the kind comments of those who told me not to give up and the not so kind comments of those who told me I was wasting my time.

That’s a lot of emotional weight for one little book to carry. Somehow, it manages. I used to tell myself a story that one day I’d be published. I had to keep telling that story to myself until I believed it. Now I do.

I notice the little tagline under my series decal and laugh.

Mythica: Myths that come to life and love…

That’s about right.

The experts say that you should push out content as often as possible to maintain a relationship with your readers. Now, I’m no expert on marketing, but I’d rather maintain a good relationship with my readers.

I know how I behave when some company starts spamming my inbox every day. I tune it it out. Or sometimes, I unsubscribe. What does an author possibly have to say that’s so important she can’t do it in her book? Why must she harass her readers regularly with promo? I can’t fathom it. Recent studies have shown that people have learned to tune out advertisements in magazines. No matter how perfect the placement, if it isn’t something that speaks to the reader, her eyes will gloss right over it. I think email works the same way. That’s why I’ve come up with the Stephanie Draven theory on newsletters. That being:

Don’t send a newsletter unless you have, ya know…news.

I may turn out to be all wrong, of course. (As I get older, I seem to be wrong more often. Or at least, I’m more willing to admit it.) But I’m gonna take the risk. My very first full-length novel will hit bookshelves at the end of September and run through October. That means I have a lot of news in the next month or so. So I wrote a newsletter. In a few weeks, when I’m closer to my release date for Poisoned Kisses, I’ll write another one. I might even pen one for Thanksgiving, letting everybody know how it went. After that? I’ll probably give it a rest unless I have news about my next book.

Oh, and for the love of Pete, don’t subscribe anybody to your newsletter who hasn’t given you the go-ahead!

In lieu of ranting about printers and all the artistic things that I’m not good at, I will just show you my bookmarks. They have a lot of black on them and the colors don’t show up quite right, but hopefully you get the idea.

Being an ignorant novice at all this, I ordered 500 of them because they were only two more bucks than if I’d only ordered 250 of them. I’m not sure if this is going to be way too few, or if I’m going to be trying to pawn these off on people for years, but I guess we’ll find out.

Yeah, yeah. I write dark modern paranormal romance for HQN Nocturne. But my alter-ego writes historical fiction and I’m a fan of all things Roman. I like the idea of a Vestal Virgin with a forbidden love. To that end, it’s my pleasure to welcome my Maryland Romance Writer chapter mate, Kate Poole as a guest today. Kate’s latest book has just released and she’s here to tell us about it:

Sara is the daughter of the emperor’s legate in Caledonia, the Roman name for Scotland. Annachie is a Pictish warrior captured by her father’s soldiers and made a slave. Their friendship grows into a love neither of them can even acknowledge, much less consummate. When her father finds them in what he thinks is a compromising position, he gives Annachie to a notorious slave trader and takes Sara back to Rome. Thinking that she will never see Annachie again, Sara agrees to become a Vestal Virgin. But six years later, her world is turned upside down when the games in the Coliseum feature the renowned gladiator, the “Beast of Caledonia”. Annachie! Only for him would Sara forsake her vow of chastity and risk her life. And when she faces the ultimate price for loving him, only Annachie may be able to save her.

Many thanks to Stephanie for allowing me to post on her blog.

The Beast of Caledonia is my second book, and a bit different from my usual Scottish settings. But not as much as you might think. The book starts in Rome, with flashbacks to when Annachie and Sara first meet–in Scotland, or “Pictland” as it was known at the time.

Most everyone has heard of Hadrian’s Wall, in northern England, but a lot of people don’t know that there was a second wall–the Antonine Wall–that bisects southern Scotland. Built by the emperor Antoninus in 148 A.D., it was meant to keep the “savages” out of Briton. But, as Annachie points out in Beast, it also kept the Romans out of Scotland!

I don’t remember when or why I got the idea for this story. I have been writing on it for 3 years, so it preceded HBO’s Rome series, and definitely Starz’s Spartacus. But I won’t deny that both those excellent shows helped me in my research. As did Colleen McCullough’s truly superb Rome series. I hope that I have given my readers a taste of the religion, customs, and violence of that time period which will peek their interest to explore these other media.

If you decide to give the Beast a try, I hope you enjoy it. If you do (or don’t!), please let me know: katepoole06@comcast.net

Thanks again, Stephanie, for letting steal your blog for a while!

Kate Poole, Anchor and Storm, Beast of Caledonia Coming August 24, 2010 – “Exhibition”

www.jasminejade.com www.katepoole.net