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Category: My Books

The novels I’ve written and/or the characters in them.

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Published on 2 Comments on Why I Insist On Happy Endings

Last night in boogling around the vast expanse of offerings by Time Warner Cable, I ran across a channel running "Brokeback Mountain." As y'all know, as 'Olivia Outlaw' I've ventured into the world of erotic romance with my ongoing series:  Sultan's Toy - Book One (Captured) and Book Two (Claimed) are available on Amazon now. (Grab 'em before you read the rest of this.  I'll wait....)

And yes, I'm hard at work on Book Three as we speak. It'll be out soon - and I'll surely announce here when it's available.

Anyway, Sultan's is my first adventure into male/male romance, so I thought the time might be right to watch "Brokeback Mountain." I started watching it, but then, I had that thought, you know, THE thought.  I've never heard how it ended.  Oh, I recall people raving about it, but none of those raves  mentioned feeling all happy,  squishy and warm at the ending.  And that sounded an alarm bell in my head, a loud one, like the annoying Emergency Warning System. A local TV station runs the "test" before 6:30 am when I'm trying to chug my first cup of caffeine and wondering when I'll be able to write full time and arise at a decent hour. You really can't ignore that alarm.

I paused the beginning of "Brokeback" and went to the Great Googled One to do a search.  I typed in, "Does Brokeback Mountain Have a Happy Ending?' I no sooner hit enter than the first item on the list said - "one of them is beaten to death at the end."  Well, great quacking ducks!  Thank God for warning bells. You know what I did, don't you?  Yep.  I flipped back, turned off "Brokeback," kicked on "Amazon Prime" and watched an episode of BBC's Sherlock Holmes.

See, I don't "do" unhappy endings in entertainment.  Never. Ever.  I'm serious about that - so serious that I refuse to watch "Titanic."  I hear the ship sinks.

By trade, I am a lawyer. I'm toiling away at that until I can earn enough money at my writing to allow me to do it full time.  Don't get me wrong - I'm a "scrivener" which means I do legal research and writing for a living. So I write at work too. (It's the only thing I'm anywhere near good at, after all.) But none of the writing is happy. People involved in lawsuits rarely are joyous about it, of course, but so often the weight of the tragedy is nearly overwhelming - the destruction, the injuries, the sorrow.

And when I leave work and come home, to update myself, I'll flick on some news.  In today's 24-hour-everything world, it's not hard to find.  And I hear about school shootings and monsters planning to attack Olympic athletes who've dedicated their lives to become the best of the best and are willing to use their skills in their country's honor.

Enough. It's enough.

If I want sadness and tragedy, I'll go to work or watch the news. When I want to entertain myself, I EXPECT authors, actors, movie producers, TV showrunners, directors and all the others providing possible entertainment choices to have enough common sense to know they have one goal - Give it to me with a happy ending.

It's the one promise I make to all my readers whether I'm writing as "Mary Anne Graham" or "Olivia Outlaw" - at the end of my story, the characters will have a happy ending. Y'all can take that to the bank.

As readers or viewers, we can choose whether we want to end feeling all hopeless and despondent or uplifted and encouraged - why would we ever pick misery? Aren't all of our daily lives full of enough of that already? I'm up for almost any journey that a talented creator contrives, as long as it arrives at an ending that makes me happy.

Misery may love company but Happy Endings make you feel at home.

Published on

Hi there boys and girls and otherwise, it's the overweight luvah Heavy AOFM comin' atcha.

I finally got around to shoring up the decrepit version of WordPress we were running the site on. All - well, most - of the behind-the-scenes stuff is shiny and new, but hopefully you, our loyal readers, won't notice anything too different on the outside of the website...

EXCEPT...

I've taken the first steps to incorporate Mary Anne's new nasty author alter-ego Olivia Outlaw. All of Mary Anne's books are still in the same old place, but now Olivia has her own list. Granted, it's only got one novella on it right now, but it'll be getting more filled out soon enough. Mary Anne is working feverishly to get Book Two of The Sultan's Toy erotic romance novella series out, and we should be seeing it in the next few weeks.

In the meanwhile, take a look at the sidebar, and the top menu, and the page list, etc. etc. for all the new stuff on YOUR side of the site.

Until later, my pretties, keep it on the topside.

AOFM outties.

 

Published on

Hi, it's your crazy duck lady writing as Olivia Outlaw here.

I just wanted to let those readers who have already picked up Captured(The Sultan's Toy:  Book One) know that I am hard at work on Book Two of Ring and Ali's story as we speak.  I really hope y'all enjoyed Book one, because I really enjoyed writing it.  I'm having even more fun writing Book Two, which should be out in the very immediate future - in the next week or so, I'm certain.

One of my favorite things about erotic romance is that it tends to be shorter than historical romance.  Another of my favorite things about erotic romance is that what drives the story is the erotic encounters between the lead characters.  What that means, dear readers, is that the sex must "draw back the curtains" not only on bedroom events, but on the characters, their romance and the problems interfering with their HEA.

Oh, the entire story isn't told through the sex, of course.  But even the parts that occur between the sex are highly charged.  Essentially, if the characters are not in bed at the time, you've no doubt that they will be back there soon.

It's a lot like romance told through ONLY the good parts.

If you've never read erotic romance or a male/male romance, you should pick up  Captured(The Sultan's Toy:  Book One) and give it a read.  I'll bet that if you do, you'll be a fan of the genre and - you'll be eager to see what happens next between Ring and Ali as Ring gets used to the palace in Turkey that houses Sultan Ali, his brother, Sultan Kaan, and their Father, Grand Sultan Osman.  Book One will tell you about Ring's harrowing and erotic adventures after he awakens to find he's been captured off the streets of London.  His captors are readying him to be The Sultan's Toy -

But human toys sometimes cause human complications, don't they?

Some like it hot and some like it hotter - and some like them both over the top!  Give Captured(The Sultan's Toy:  Book One) a read - either because you're a fan of erotic romance or because you enjoy my work as Mary Anne Graham. You must might be as "quackers" as I am over Ring and Ali...

Published on

I haven't blogged in quite some time. That's because I've been busy writing.

As me, myself and I - Mary Anne Graham - I just put out the first in a new series. My "Lovely Lairds" series will consist of 3 books that follow a trio of Highland Lairds as they meet their matches. The first, Romancing The Rose, is out and about now everywhere, or almost everywhere, including Amazon - which is where the above link goes.  (I love my Kindle Fire even if it is the version from several years ago.  Got my youngest a newer, HD (refurbished) version for Christmas and he hasn't even set it up yet! Can't pry that kid away from all those computer games.)

Be sure to check out Romancing The Rose.   I got lots of fan mail asking me to set a series in the Highlands because so many people enjoyed my book that is a permafreebie everywhere, the lead to my Forever Series, A Faerie Fated Forever.  If you haven't read Faerie yet, there is Zero reason not to pick it up for your ereader - yes ZERO, like the price! Once you have that one, be sure to pick up all the Forever books.  Ahead on my writing horizon, but a wee bit down the road, is Vlad's story.  It's written in my head.  I just have to get it down on my keyboard....

But Muse has been so active of late, making up for a period of a little while back when the fickle wench left me altogether, that I've had to --- CREATE ANOTHER ME.  Yes, dear duckly readers, I introduce you to the dirtier, more sensual side of your favorite duck lady.....  Olivia Outlaw.   That's my new "pen name" for my brand new series of erotic romances.  Why Olivia Outlaw?  Well, believe it or not, friendly duck fiends, "Outlaw" is my maiden name.  It was quite a moniker for a lawyer - which is still my day job until I can give it up to write full time.  My first boss used to joke, a lot, about how he hired an Outlaw while a nearby firm hired a new associate whose last name was.... Justice.

Outlaw captures the rebellious feelings of my new writing identity perfectly.  And I chose "Olivia" because it sounds so darned good with Outlaw.  Anyway, Ms. Olivia Outlaw is a much more in-your-face sexual kind of lady.  I've been told that my Forever Series, in particular, is quite sexual -- too much for some reviewers' tastes.  While that is true, in all my other romances the characters' relationships, their histories, or events move the stories along.  In "erotic romance" it's the sex that actually advances the story.  While that is something of a technical difference, it is a very important one.

I decided to create a "pen name" so that readers not willing to boogle over to the dark and delicious side of love with me can still enjoy my other, more traditional tales.  When you see one written by me as "Olivia Outlaw", you'll know that it'll be shorter than my regular books -- much shorter -- but it'll be much, much, much - (Did I say much?) - SPICIER.  Ms. Outlaw's stories are downright out there, so much so that they come with their very own disclaimer!

My first "Olivia Outlaw" book is out and about now too.  It is a a 21,000 word novella that is Book One of a male/male romance series between an English Duke, Harrington Richards, the Duke of Devonshire (Ring) and Sultan Ali Paszade bin Osman (Note I don't say Grand Sultan.  The Grand Sultan is Ali's father.)  It's my "Sultan's Toy" series and the first is entitled:  Captured - Book One (The Sultan's Toy).   Again, the link goes to Amazon though it's available in most venues.

I'm already hard at work on Book Two of Ring and Ali's story.  The novellas are much shorter and faster to write, so I expect that Book Two will be available within the next 2 weeks, and possibly sooner.  If you're already a Ring and Ali fan, you won't have long to wait!  I'm loving this new genre and the novella format because it's like writing a book with so many "good parts" that the next steamy session is always only a few pages away.

How will my waddle into erotic romance work out?   That depends upon my quacking fine readers.  So far, sales of my Outlaw title are running substantially higher than sales of any other title, including A Sixth Sense of Forever, which is my Graham bestseller across the board.  That bodes well.  Besides, sometimes writing under a pen name turns out pretty fine.  There's a certain English lady named Erika Leonard who wrote a trio of books under the pen name E.L. James.   I hear that the "Fifty Shades" series turned out quite fine for Ms. Leonard, ahm, Ms. James, ahm -- bet she doesn't care as long as the royalties get deposited in the right account.

That's my attitude as well.   I'm hoping that Ms. Outlaw will help Ms. Graham write her way to freedom from her day job so that both of them can write full time!  You can help - pick up copies of BOTH Romancing the Rose and Captured - Book One (The Sultan's Toy) and you'll be contributing to my freedom fund.

And, I promise, I'll try not to stay away from the blog so long again.  We have all sorts of nifty news to consider and quack about and I know I've missed out on our pondside chats for a while.  That absence, more than anything, should tell you how much I'm enjoying writing the erotic romances.  If I can't tear myself away from writing them, I'm hoping you won't be able to tear yourself away from reading them!

HAPPY 2014 everyone - may this be the year that all our dreams become our realities!!

Published on

Hello again kiddies! AOFM here! It's almost that time... CHRISTMAS HELL YEAH!

Just wanted to give you some quick updates here.

  1. Romancing The Rose.

    2. Mary Anne worked hard and put up her latest full-length novel Romancing The Rose (The Lovely Lairds) on Nook and on Smashwords. I have added the buttons and links for them on the book list page underneath the book's entry.

  2. Fixed up some of the other books.

    3. I saw where I had been neglectful in adding buttons for the vendors of Mary Anne's other books. I got those buttons on there and sorted out, along with some other things on the book pages of vendor websites themselves.

  3. Getting the plan together for the BIG SECRET.

    4. The BIG SECRET. Well, let me reveal it. Mary Anne has decided to get into... Erotica. She is going to write it under a pen name: Olivia Outlaw.

    These are going to be shorter texts, more along the lines of novellas than full-fledged novels. They're also going to be more explicit and explore other types of couplings (or... triplings? I don't know what kind of nasty things she has roaming around in that crazy duck skull of hers).

    Her first foray into this new venture is The Sultan's Toy - Book One: Captured is currently available on Smashwords and a few other places, so check it out... if you're nasty. LOL!

    I will be updating the website soon to accommodate this new fork in the road of Quacking Alone Romances' destiny.

    Until then, peace out. And MERRY CHRISTMAS WOOHOO!!!

 

Published on

Hey boys and girls, it's your favorite brick-throwing angry guy here, still married to the Duck Woman What Writes All Them Booksies.

She's just finished up a new one, and I've done the cover, and it's now on the Kindle.

It's called Romancing The Rose (The Lovely Lairds).

Apparently, she's got a series of these books about some Lovely Lairds running around in that noggin of hers, trying to escape through her fingers onto a laptop keyboard. Beats me, I just do the pictures.

Anyway, here's a link to the book on our book list page, where you can look at the cover and click the button to go to the Amazon page and purchase the e-book for your Kindle or other compatible device.

And of course, we will make the book available on other devices/platforms/what-have-you in the near future.

Mary Anne also has a surprise announcement which will be forthcoming very soon. Some of you may already know about it. Here's a hint.

Peace and love and Merry Damn Christmas y'all.

AOFM out.

Published on

One of the present trends is to scoff at books that don't portray people, places, things or eras "realistically."  I get those reviews for my historicals all the time - "this isn't how things went during the Regency" or "this behavior would never have been tolerated during the Regency."  That really disturbs my ducks.

Whether it's Regency England, the American West, Highland Scotland, Myrtle Beach, SC - or some imaginary modern day town (coming soon, perhaps) - I DON'T WANT TO PORTRAY IT REALISTICALLY.  You know what?  Reality really sucks.

If readers were overjoyed with their reality, they'd have no reason to ever pick up a book.  If television viewers were tickled twitless with their lives and their worlds, TV would no longer exist.  YouTube would go away and there would be no gaming industry because people would have every bit of the fun and danger they could ever want in their everyday lives.  In the real world, people aren't going to balls every night, surgeons find their jobs more tedious than titillating and people don't get paid to travel to exotic locales to spy or kill people.   All of that - every last bit of it - is not realistic.   Yet people spend beaucoup bucks on books, movies, and games and then they spend hours reading, watching or playing.

Why?  Why do that if what they are seeking in their entertainment is a "realistic" experience? Do people have so much money that we need to toss it away for something we'll despise experiencing?

We - unfortunately - presently live in a world where too many talented, hardworking people are unemployed or underemployed.  Simply to survive, to hold on a little longer, more people have to lower themselves and destroy their souls daily by taking welfare and food stamps from the government.  People still lose their homes in droves and bankruptcy and judgments are facts of life most of us never wanted to face.  That's reality and - like I said - it sucks.

Let's have LESS reality.

People who spend money they really need for food, bills or utility payments on books are -  for the love of all ducks - not looking to get more reality in their lives.  They're looking to escape from whatever wolf is presently lurking just outside their door.  If people want more reality, they can turn on a 24-hour news channel and be depressed and enraged constantly and it's probably part of their basic cable package.   People buying books or spending entertainment dollars are looking to bring fun and excitement into their lives.  They desperately need some time away in order to give them fuel to work at surviving for a few more days.

The LAST thing writers, artists, actors, producers or directors owe people is "a slice of life."  Real life slices people into slivers of themselves just fine in today's world without their paying to get sliced and diced a little faster.  We owe people something more, something different, something BETTER.

Don't buy my books if you're looking for a realistic portrayal of anything.  I'd never shortchange my readers by giving them reality.  If you're looking for reality -- open a window, answer your creditors' calls, and turn on a 24-hour news channel.  If you're looking to escape to a place that looks and feels nothing like your everyday world - pick up a Quacking Alone romance where a happy ending is guaranteed.

Published on

My last post mentioned romance author Marie Force's killer survey in the context of my deciding that I needed to do more marketing through Facebook.  I haven't yet changed the format of QA's Facebook page (click the link and like it -- I'll wait).  However, thanks to Marie's saavy tips, I have started doing more linking of my books complete with hashtags.  And it has helped so Marie was right about that - people do find books through Facebook.  This post is because I promised a follow up to delve into more of Marie's marvy info.

Now, my question is about the survey's finding that contemporary romance has become more popular than historical romance - 27.55% of responding readers preferred contemporary to 23.15% preferring historical.  Why do I find that interesting?  Because my numbers don't bear that out at all.  My historicals sell far, far better than my contemporaries although I think the contemporaries are great books.  My personal sales ratio is about 85% to 15% in favor of the historicals.

I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE for the contemporaries to catch up to the historicals in sales.  Heck, I'd cheer if they passed the historicals.  My historicals are composed entirely of my wicked, wacky and way warped imagination.  They're over the top tales where the heroes tend to be bad boys who fall in love as hard as they fell into risky, risque behavior.  My contemporary heroes share the over-the-top personna to a point, but those books also call upon knowledge I've gleaned from my "day job" - as a lawyer. My contemporaries all take place at that precarious point where love and the law meet.  It's a dangerous spot, which is why those books are my "Dangerous Relations" series.

None of my contemporaries takes the reader inside the courtroom as much as Dangerous Relations:  Seducing the Billionaire. That book starts in the Family Courtroom where the hero is divorcing his "belle bitch" wife.  It's a tricky endeavor because he doesn't want a separation from his soon-to-be ex's half sister, Rachel.  She's only 17, but the hero fell in love with her about a year earlier, when he rescued her from an abusive foster home.  She's been too young to allow her any idea of his real feelings, even if he hadn't been too married to show her.  But, at the beginning of the book, everything is about to change.  When it does, the hero finds himself in a Courtroom, where his only defense against felony charges is to show the jury his helpless adoration for the girl who vanished just when she could have saved him.  If you like love stories, trial stories or romantic suspense, you'll love Dangerous Relations:  Seducing The Billionaire.  Pick it up and give it a read today - you'll be glad you did!

My other two (2) contemporaries are also at the juncture of love and the law - at different stages. Dangerous Relations: Griffin's Law is about a law student who commits the serious offense of falling in love with one of her professors.  And the professor?  He's hiding more than she could've ever imagined.   Dangerous Relations:  The Office Ink is about a young associate targeted by the law firm partner who hired her.  Too bad for her that she was also targeted by the partners brother.  And when Cupid's passing out flaming arrows, someone could die.  Did the young associate's boss kill the competition, brother or not?

This post is my test marketing of my contemporaries.  Marie Force's survey says contemporaries are outselling historicals.  Like I said earlier, my experience has been the opposite.  Will my numbers from this test prove Marie right or wrong?

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Published on 2 Comments on Think Chicken Instead of Duck

I figured out why I haven't made enough money from romance novels to quit my day job (practicing law) yet. I even know why I haven't made enough dough to support myself writing full time and pay cash to buy a new house. One of my tweeps steered me towards the secret, and I wanted to share it here on the blog.

Even the duck lady is bright enough to know that what I need is a bestseller - or better yet, several. And yes, even I who am more quackers than the average quacker know that the secret to launching a book to the bestseller stratosphere is one word -- PUBLICITY. I also know what publicity is - you know what it is? EXPENSIVE.

And because I'm a strange duck lady who communicates best in writing, I'm one of those things that most people think is as real as the proverbial Magic Genie. Yes, Virginia, because I'm a lawyer who practices research and writing (a scrivener) I'm something else that far too many of you can understand. You know what that is? POOR. Yes, a poor lawyer. Go figure.

So I can't afford all that publicity, which leaves me hanging around here, on Twitter (@quackingalone) and on Facebook. I shuffle my feet a lot and try to think of pithy, not totally insane things to say that might interest readers into checking out my books. ("Hey, Ethel, this one might be good for a laugh. The writer's a complete nutcase.") But I thought that was pretty much the limit of the options my non-existent publicity budget could afford. Then, one of my gang tweeted the link to an article.

...continue reading "Think Chicken Instead of Duck"

Published on

Trust me, I knew about it long before today - when I found out it had a name:  THE DISCOVERY PROBLEM.

It's the perfect name because that's the problem --  how to be discovered.   You could call it THE FOUND PROBLEM but that implies that you're lost and you're not.  Not exactly.   You know where you are.  On a good day you even know who you are.  On a very good day you remember what  you've written.  But the readers, do they know?  No, and that's the problem.  How does a new writer get discovered by readers?

Perhaps, it just takes the right project.  My favorite example is the McDreamy one - Patrick Dempsey.  He had some success in his younger years and then he fell off the radar.  I understand he even left La La land for a while and went home to Maine.  But he rebuilt his resolve and returned.  In 2002 he finally got his big break.  The project that would make viewers, producers, studio honchos and everyone who mattered discover him -- or so he thought.  Getting cast in "Sweet Home Alabama" turned out to be not as sweet as he expected.  Well, if that movie didn't get him discovered -- would anything?  It took 3 more years before Shonda Rhimes watched him audition, knowing she'd found her Dr. McDreamy.  And yes, Grey's Anatomy got him discovered - but he could have, so very easily, given up.

I guess you don't get to pick your moment to be discovered -- you just have to keep working and keep believing.

What brought all of this to mind?  A frequent source of information -- a must read romance blog for everyone who loves love - Dear Author.   DA posted this today - their Friday news. The story about JK Rowling was interesting -- but what set my insane little ducks to quacking was the piece about "The Discovery Problem in Crime Fiction."  It linked to this blog by Nancy Bilyeau, which included this eye-opening paragraph:

It was M.J. Rose, author of the enthralling Seduction: A Novel and founder of Author Buzz, who first told me about the "discovery problem" in fiction. Novels by debut authors keep hitting the shelves, but some are having a hard time finding readers, no matter how well written. Newspapers and magazines have eliminated their review sections; bookstores are struggling; fiction fights for people's attention as twitter, Facebook and cable TV series beckon.

Dearest Duck, what's a writer to do?   Well, she might want to consider writing ROMANCE.  The article says:

"Among fiction fans, thriller and suspense fans are the most obsessed of all--telling us they primarily read authors they know and love most, to the exclusion of trying new writers," Peter emailed me. The debuts "have the greatest challenge trying to reach a new audience that simply isn't interested in reading unknown authors."

Romance readers are "more open to new voices," Peter explains. Of the number of books bought last year by fans of the thriller genre, 19 percent were written by unfamiliar authors--but when looking at fans' purchases of erotic romance, a whopping 45 percent were penned by new authors.

"Fans read their favorite category to satisfy different needs," Peter says. "My personal view: thriller fans want guaranteed, consistent entertainment with minimal risk of disappointment--romance readers want new experiences, to experiment and take risks."

So, romance readers are risk takers who are the most willing of all readers to take a chance on new authors.  I guess, I need to take a page from a McDreamy playbook then.  I need to keep writing, stay available and -- wait for a call from Shonda Rhimes.  (Okay, okay, but a girl can dream, right?  I wrote Dangerous Relations:  Griffin's Law as a tribute to Grey's Anatomy.  Who better to film that movie that Shonda Sunshine?)

Romance may be risky business, but authors in this genre are mighty lucky to have a reading audience that will risk their hard-earned money on a new writer.  Someday -- soon, very, very soon -- maybe millions of readers will decide to take a chance on a historical or a contemporary romance by yours truly, MARY ANNE GRAHAM, a/k/a the crazy duck lady who believes that like life, love is best over-the-top.