LOVE NOTES Guest Blog Post And Exciting Update!

The "official" LOVE NOTES Blog Tour ended over a week ago, but Elaine G. Flores of TV Recapper's Delight was kind enough to let me write a guest post for her site. In it, I share how critiquing soap operas for a living led to me writing REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD. Let me tell you, it felt very strange to be writing about soaps again! She and I had a few discussions about which examples I should use in my piece and I felt as if I were going back in time to my days at SOD.

In other news, I've taken a giant leap and have decided to release my second novel, F@#! BOMB in March! I've hired Shane Morgan, author of THE RIGHT SONG, and one of my fellow LOVE NOTES writers, to design my cover. She created the cover for our anthology and I really like her work, so I knew I could count on her to come up with something cool for my book -- and she has. Her concept is simple, but eye-catching, and captures the spirit of my story. I'm going to have a Facebook cover reveal party on March 4 -- and plan to have the book out by March 16.

A few months ago, I attempted to get another agent for this novel, but ultimately decided to again publish on my own. I'll admit, I didn't put as much work into finding an agent as I did for BAND GEEK -- but my heart wasn't in it. I just want to get my work out there without having to go through a bunch of other people. I found that dealing with this aspect of the business made writing a lot less enjoyable for me. I truly respect agents and editors, and the work they do, but I'm just not sure I fit into that world. If I did, I would've found my place in it by now and would have sold a book in the traditional way. Since I haven't, I'm finding another means to do so.

Meanwhile, I'm very excited and nervous about F@#! BOMB's debut! I've gotten some great feedback on BAND GEEK and hope my readers enjoy this one just as much, if not more. So stay tuned for the book's release -- and check out the LOVE NOTES anthology on Amazon.

How To Write Kick-Ass Characters In A Story

Today's stop on my Virtual Blog Tour is at The Official Blog-Zine Of Terra Little. I wrote a guest post for her very cool blog where I explain what makes a character realisric and memorable.

And yes, once again, I bring things back to soaps! But you have to understand, I spent about a third of my life (so far) at Soap Opera Digest. For 14 years, 15 if you count my internship with Soap Opera Weekly, I lived and breathed soap operas. I've only been away from the industry for a few months, so I still feel like I'm a part of it. In fact, I'll probably always feel a connection to it.

I do think that there is something to be said for looking to soaps for ideas on what works -- and what doesn't work -- when it comes to creating a character. Soaps air almost every day of the year and all of the remaining soaps have been on for decades. This means that the characters have to stay interesting for all of that time! The lame ones eventually disappear; the audience is savvy enough to recognize them. Even if the shows try to shove someone down the audiences' throats, the show will *eventually* get the hint and make that character disappear. But the great, iconic characters -- the Erica Kanes, Dorian Lords and Jack Abbotts -- keep the viewers' attention for a really long time.

Of course, writing for TV is much different than writing a novel. For one thing, I don't have to deal with actors when creating my characters. There were no contract or salary disputes when I wrote Melinda and Josh. They just did whatever I told them to do! However, I do think that critiquing television for such a long time gave me some advantages when writing characters. I pictured them as real people, as they would appear in a movie or on TV. I tried to incorporate those visual cues that would make them come to life -- sort of the same way that a screen writer adds visual cues into a script.

It's a shame that daytime soaps are dying in the United States because I believe that they're a valuable piece of literary history. They've gotten a lot of flak over the years, but they're persisted in some form since the days of radio. I hope that my book has half as much influence and longevity.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now 99 cents.

Writing For Teen Publications

My next stop on my virtual book tour is at Cindy Vine's blog . Here, I talk about my decision to become a writer of Young Adult Fiction. As Cindy points out, there are dozens of genres that writers can choose from, from mystery to self-help. But I've always felt at home writing for and about teens. I explain why in detail in my entry.

What's interesting is that my love of YA literature extended to my journalism career. My original dream was to write for Seventeen Magazine or Sassy. I adored these publications when I was a kid and respected how they had typical fashion and celebrity pages, but also had serious articles. Seventeen didn't talk down to their audience; they embraced teens and presented many intelligent pieces. As I've said before, the teen years fascinate me because they're such an exciting and turbulent time. However, as a very young adult, I think that my interest came more from the fact that these were the magazines that were currently influencing me.

Though to be fair, I liked their fun pieces, too. I still have an issue of Seventeen that's from July, 1991. I specifically remember where I got it -- at the lodge at Yellowstone National Park. It was raining so we stayed in before dinner and I picked up the magazine in the gift store. It had an article about Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder's upcoming nuptials (talk about being dated!). It also had a quiz, "How much of a daredevil is your guy?" Said quiz was hilarious! A sample question: "What's the most daring thing he's ever done? a) Jump 10 garbage cans with his motorcycle b) take out his parents' car -- without permission c) put tinfoil in the microwave to watch it burn." I took it over and over again, answering for all of my male friends (Sorry Greg and Scott -- neither of you was very daring!) and crushes, and saved the mag as evidence of that fun and memorable rainy day. Of course, 1991 Johnny Depp aced the quiz! My husband, Jon, adds that he actually did take his parents' car without permission and was "somewhat daring" in his youth.

Anyway, when I entered college a couple of years later, I decided that I wanted to write for a teen magazine. I even did a report on Seventeen for one of my journalism classes; we had to dissect a magazine and explain how it was laid out and what made it so successful. Having such a specific goal helped me land an internship at Binghamton's daily newspaper, The Press & Sun Bulletin. Most students who'd applied wanted to cover hard-hitting news -- local elections, police beats, etc. I requested a position with the Features and Lifestyle sections -- and I got it. So for two years, I did everything from review local musical acts to interview local celebrities, and had six sectional cover stories published. I also helped edit their "Teens In The Tier" column, which was a section written for and by teens. It was very similar to Newsday's "Kidsday" section which I wrote for when I was in school, so The Press took advantage of my experience. I learned so much from my time there and appreciate the fact that they treated their student reporters like real staff writers.

I continued to write for teen publications after I graduated from college. The summer between my senior year and my year of grad school, I worked for Scholastic. I'd always associated the company with books, but they actually had a very large educational magazine division and I was assigned a position with the teen magazine Scope. Basically, it was your typical teen magazine -- there were movie reviews, interviews with teen stars ... only each article had an eductional angle. For instance, I interviewed the actor Richard Lee Jackson, who then starred on Saved By The Bell: The New Class (fun fact: His brother, Jonathan Jackson, played GENERAL HOSPITAL's Lucky). When I wrote out the story, though, I had to leave out certain words and place them in a vocabulary bank at the bottom of the page. Readers then had to choose the appropriate word to fill into each blank. Other stories I wrote came with a question and answer section; some came with ideas for reading comprehension essays.

It may sound like a dull way to put together a teen magazine, but it was so much fun and my editor Denise was the best. She trusted me and let me do whatever I wanted. She knew that I was an avid reader so she had me review scores of YA books. I'd sit in Scholastic's surprisingly lush library all day, just reading and taking notes, and looking out the large windows at bustling SoHo. She was also open to some of my more out-there ideas. After we received a letter from a kid in juvie, I suggested that I write an article about life in a juvenile detention center. She was all for it and the kid who wrote to us was all set to be interviewed ... but unfortunately, the center didn't want to be involved in the story. I made dozens of calls and appealed to several juvie halls, but none would bite. Oh, well. I still thought it was great that Denise had so much faith in me.

Once I landed the job at Soap Opera Digest, I put my teen magazine dreams on hold and fully embraced the soap world. However, a few years ago, our parent company had us put out a second magazine for teens called Pixie. I was finally getting to write for a YA publication! I should've been ecstatic, right? Only at this point, I was in my mid-30s and wasn't too thrilled about putting together four pages on Justin Bieber's hair (Yes, this was a real article that I was assigned to write). As Pixie found its voice, though, my editor gave me more freedom to write things other than celebrity puff pieces -- and I turned to my Scholastic and Press experiences for ideas. I composed an instructional piece on making jewelry, ran a regular feature on new bands that were worth checking out and even reviewed YA books. I was all set to do a teen travel feature, but alas, lost my job before I could make that happen. But during that time, I found that I still had a passion for writing for a younger audience.

I no longer have the platforms that I did when I wrote for magazines, but am thrilled to be gaining a new audience on my own. More importantly, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to follow my passion in two different forms.

Please read and review my Young Adult novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD

Shake, Rattle And Roll

I've been thinking a lot about Hurricane Sandy and my friends and family back East. I hope that the storm turns out to be not as bad as feared; I also hope that we can fly back on Wednesday when scheduled and that we have power.

But is seems as if I can't escape Mother Nature. Apparently there was a minor earthquake in the Los Angeles area this morning. Yikes! That would be terribly ironic if I escaped Sandy only to have to deal with The Big One out here.

Being a New Yorker, I haven't experienced too many earthquakes, only very minor ones. Last year, we felt the shaking that came from the quake in Virginia. It was very minor; it almost felt like the subway were running beneath our building. However, we didn't have a subway in that location so my officemate (who was from England, by the way) suspected that it was a quake. He looked it up online and yep... it was. It didn't feel like much of anything, but everyone in our office started screaming as if it were the end of the world. I love it. We can handle blizzards, storms, mass power outages... but a quake makes us shriek like babies.

The good news is, no natural disasters ruined last night's dinner. It was SO good to see my Soap Opera Digest friends and catch up on old times. These particular editors have always been very supportive of my writing and continue to be supportive of my book. I appreciate that because I feel as if they know what they're talking about!

We also talked a lot about how print media is dying. Much as I love the idea of books being online, I'm saddened that most traditional magazines and newspapers are having to switch formats or are just completely folding. There's something to be said about holding a glossy magazine in your hands when you're reading on a train or in the doctor's office... or are standing in line at the supermarket. Plus, print media was really good to me. I enjoyed all of my reporting experiences from writing for the small papers to the national magazines. I'll never forget the thrill of picking up a paper that was hot off the press, being able to smell the ink -- and seeing my byline in print. Digital media reaches a much wider audience, but I do miss those days when I got to be a "classic" newspaper reporter. I'm glad that I got to experience what's sure to be the tail end of print media as we know it.

Anyway, I'm off to celebrate Rachael's birthday and to participate in our Random Acts Of Kindness project. I'm also going to be posting more BAND GEEK excerpts in honor of my upcoming book tour, so stay tuned!

And, of course, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

Greetings From California -- New Twitter Address!

Hello from sunny California! We're having a great time in Los Angeles. The weather is gorgeous and we're missing the "Frankenstorm" Sandy that's barreling toward the East Coast. Seems like we picked a good time to get out of town.

My cousin lives in a beautiful Spanish-style ranch with nice, open rooms. She and her husband have two dogs and an African Gray Parrot -- and the bird and I are roomies! Their guest room also doubles as the room where the parrot's cage is kept, so I got to sleep with the bird last night (not in the bed; he was safe in his cage). When I awoke this morning, the bird was staring right at me.

Last night, I had a couple of odd experiences. First, I was jolted awake when I heard an electronic voice barking at me from beneath the mattress. I thought tht I was going crazy -- or the house was haunted. But when I woke a bit more, I realized that it was one of those toys that says things. I managed to dislodge it and it stopped talking to me, but man, did that freak me out. I then woke again around 4 a.m. and could see a single bright star when I looked out the window. I didn't expect to see any stars in Los Angeles, so this one was super bright. I'm thinking that maybe it was Venus?

Once we were up for real, we spent the day relaxing, reading, writing and puttering around the neighborhood. We're having a barbecue tonight and I'm going to reunite with a couple of my old pals from Soap Opera Digest. I worked with these guys for 14 years so it's going to feel weird seeing them with me no longer working for the magazine. Still, we'll always share a bond because we went through something together that not too many people can understand. Tomorrow, I'm seeing an old childhood friend who is also in the publishing industry. It's cool to be surrounded by so many other writers.

Meanwhile, some exciting news -- I finally set up an official Naomi Rabinowitz Author page on Twitter, so I'm no longer using my jewelry page for book tweets. My handle is simply @NaomiRabinowitz Check in and follow me so you can get news on me and my book!

And you can still get REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD for 99 cents!

How Writing About Soaps Influenced My Own Writing

For 15 years, I wrote for soap magazines. I began as an intern at Soap Opera Weekly in 1997, then became a full-time staffer at its sister magazine, Soap Opera Digest. I stayed at SOD until I was let go earlier this year. No hard feelings. I consider myself lucky to have had such a unique job.

During that time, I've received many questions about working in the daytime industry, at least peripherally: "Do you have to watch all of the shows?" Answer: Yes, but each editor is given a specific beat and show to cover. "Have you ever met Susan Lucci?" Answer: Believe it or not, no. "Uh... what exactly do you DO?" Answer: A little bit of everything! Over the years I covered ONE LIFE TO LIVE, PASSIONS and BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL. I interviewed actors, went on set visits at the studio (when I was writing about NYC-based OLTL), wrote reviews and news stories about the shows and had a long list of other duties. It was great fun and occasionally glamorous, but a lot of work.

It was also one hell of a learning experience. When you're writing for a weekly magazine, you very quickly adjust to the ins and outs of putting out a publication. Deadlines were tight and when it came to writing, I had to think on my feet. If a three-page interview were due the next day and I didn't get to speak with the actor until the last minute, I didn't have time to dwell on every word. I had to get my piece out fast ... and make it sound great.

A huge part of my job involved critiquing the shows. There are challenges in writing effective positive and negative reviews, and I grew accustomed to dissecting every TV program. However, in writing about OTHERS' writing, I learned much about what to do -- and what not to do -- when it came to crafting my own novel.

For instance, one thing that we editors (and fans, too, for that matter) often complained about were "insta-romances." Soaps are built on romance and couples, and the shows would unfortunately attempt to speed up the process by having characters experience an instant love connection. They then robbed viewers of having the pleasure of watching people actually fall in love.

When it came to my characters, Melinda and Josh, I really took my time in getting them together. Yes, they start to interact in the first chapter, but it takes about half the book until they act as more than friends. And it takes even longer than that for them to actually get physical! Agnes Nixon, creator of OLTL and ALL MY CHILDREN once stated, "Make them laugh, make them cry and make them wait." I really tried to follow this advice.

Another soap-related concern of mine was how well shows used their vets and showcased the different generations. Some, like DAYS OF OUR LIVES, kept their vets front and center and gave storylines to characters of all ages. Other shows ... not so much. Though BAND GEEK is a teen novel, I still wanted to showcase Mel's family. One of the side storylines involves Melinda's stormy relationship with her mom. It's told from Mel's point of view, but over time you really begin to understand what her mother, Lydia, is feeling. Meanwhile, Josh's story is centered around his relationship with the band conductor, Mr. Francis. Mr. Francis is portrayed as a villain at the start of the book, but by the end he also has more depth -- and you can understand why he'd be fed up with a talented, but naughty, student like Josh.

That said, I made sure that characters were punished for their misdeeds. Too often, soap villains would get away with murder -- literally! Josh is not a bad guy, but he's an anti-hero; he does many wrong things for what he believes are the right reasons. He also does some very sweet things. In other words, he's human. But eventually, his actions catch up with him ... and he (hopefully) learns from his mistakes.

Finally, I made sure that my teens acted like, well, teens. There have been some amazing youthful storylines on soaps. My favorites include the tales of GENERAL HOSPITAL's Liz and Lucky, and DAYS's Belle and Shawn. However, there have also been many instances where soap teens act like younger adults and that's really not fun to watch. Most teens don't go around solving crimes (unless they're Veronica Mars -- and let's face it, most of us are just not cool enough to be her). But many teens can relate to school and family problems, or what it's like to have a boyfriend/girlfriend for the first time. Mel and Josh are on a mission to get back at Kathy, but the bulk of their story is about friendship and love.

When you've been a part of something for as long as I was, it sticks with you. I'll always be grateful for my time writing about daytime.

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

How I Became A Novelist -- And Beat My BUFFY Addiction

While working at Soap Opera Digest, I interviewed many actors who told me how they were born to act and couldn't imagine doing anything else. This is how I feel about writing.

I discovered my love for writing when I was really young. I'd make up characters and stories in my head and loved to play games like "House" where I could be creative. Then when I was 8 years old, my second grade teacher entered my poem in a local competition -- and it won first place for my age group. I got to read my work in front of a dining hall full of people and was introduced to the event's guest speaker, author M.E. Kerr. A few kids in my class asked for my autograph. It was awesome.

But I really didn't write for the glory, as nice as that was. I wrote because I enjoyed it. In elementary school, I was a HUGE fan of Judy Blume (still am, actually) and wished I could grow up to be like her. I'd write my own stories, which I'd also illustrate. I wrote recently about how I have no plans to write a horror novel, much as I like them. Well, when I was in the fourth grade, I did attempt to write a short, illustrated horror novela. In it, the characters fear that the zombies will be like the ones in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. This was in 1984, mind you, so the pop culture reference was very current!

I tried my hand at writing a real novel in the sixth grade. It was called WAR OF LOVE and was about a bunch of hijinx that take place in the band room (sound familiar?). The characters were based on my friends -- and I even used their real names! I worked really hard at this thing, churning out pages on a typewriter at first. When we finally got a computer the next year, I carefully saved every page onto a floppy disc. In the end, it was about 200 pages, an honest-to-goodness novel. I have to say that for a 12-year-old, it wasn't bad. The story took a very weird turn toward the middle and there were some silly, unrealistic sections that didn't make sense, but the dialogue wasn't horrible and my descriptions were vivid. When I showed it to my husband, he laughed and laughed at some parts, but genuinely enjoyed it.

Once I entered junior high, though, my focus turned to journalism. By now, I was starting to think in practical terms: I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't want to starve, either. Journalism seemed like a good way to go. I wrote for the school paper all the way up through college and did various internships. Finally, I landed an internship at Soap Opera Weekly in 1997, right out of grad school. Nearly a year later, I was hired for a full-time position at its sister magazine, Soap Opera Digest. I remained there until earlier this year.

I took a few creative writing classes during college, but beyond that, pretty much put fiction writing on the backburner. This changed in 2002. At this point, I'd been at SOD for four years. I loved the job and had a great time there, but it was busy and stressful, and I was resigned to the fact that I was writing ABOUT soaps, which were other people's creative work.

Meanwhile, I'd become addicted to the show BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. I faithfully watched every episode and obsessively read fanfiction online. Then I'd discuss the show with other fans at work or in chat rooms. I'd never been so into a show before, but well, it's an awesome show and I was working in an environment that encouraged fandom.

It got to the point, though, where my mood would be affected by plot points. If I didn't like the way Spike behaved in an episode, for instance, I'd be upset -- not just during the episode itself, but for the rest of the day. If a great episode aired, like the fantabulous musical ep, "Once More With Feeling," that would make my week.

As 2001 rolled around, though, I started to become antsy. I didn't like the way the show was going and it frustrated me to know that I had absolutely no control over the characters. The writers were going to do what THEY wanted to do; after all, this was Joss Whedon's creation, not mine.

The turning point came for me after September 11, 2001. This was an awful, tragic event for the entire world, but I was physically in Manhattan at the time of the attack. I didn't lose anyone that day, but Jon was in the National Guard at the time and was called up to do some work around the city. I'm grateful that he was never called to duty overseas.

Anyway, after 9/11, I was really depressed and kind of messed up. I went to work every day, but I hadn't played my flute in years nor had I done any writing outside of magazine assignments. So for New Year's 2002, I made a simple, but important resolution: Do Stuff.

That next year, I really stuck with it. I picked up my flute again and played a few gigs at a restaurant with a guitarist. Jon and I traveled to London for the first time. And that April, I began work on BAND GEEK. The idea came about when Jon suggested that I take the band novel I'd written as a kid and turn it into a more mature story. Using that as my starting point, I set out to write a story about what life would've been like had Jon and I known each other as teens. Pretty soon, the story and characters took on a life of their own and BAND GEEK was born. I loved having complete creative control over my characters and I enjoyed having something to do other than write about soap operas.

So far, BAND GEEK is my only novel that's seen the light of day, but I've written many other pieces. I have a lot of half-started novels or outlines for future books. I actually finished a second novel, but it's very outdated; I'd love to go through it and see how I can make it a bit more current.

I haven't yet made it big as an author, nor do I really expect to, but writing makes me feel complete. I'm glad that I found my way back to being creative.

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.