It’s the end of September. You’ve got about a month until NaNoWriMo starts. Seems like plenty of time, right? Some of you are wondering why I’m already talking about NaNo when it doesn’t even start until November 1.

Because writing and finishing a book takes more than just the 30 days you’re planning to spend working on it during November. If this is your first time considering doing NaNoWriMo, or you’ve tried before and didn’t quite make your 50k, stay tuned because I’ll be sharing with you my tips, advice and some tricks to help you be ready to start writing on November 1, and to get 50k (or a finished story) by November 30.

Take the quick poll below so I can see what your biggest concerns are about participating. I’ll be addressing as many of these as I can before and during November, to help you hit 50k.

What makes me an expert, you may be asking. And that’s a great question. I’ve been doing NaNo for about ten years now, and have hit the 50k goal every year. Most years I’ve finished an even longer novel by November 30. And these novels have been contracted and released by a publisher—not self-published. (Bound for Trouble was my 2013 NaNo project.)

I’ve collected the worksheets and techniques I use for developing a novel into an easy-to-use novel planning kit, How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner.

Giveaway: Leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of my book How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner

Word Counts – Today: 0 | September: 0 | 2014: 0

One Maserati brings Parker and Blake together, but will Blake slow down and discover the important things aren’t in the fast lane?

Here’s another tempting excerpt from the upcoming Unconditional Surrender Military Bundle coming your way in October. 13 novellas by your favorite M/M authors for just 99 cents.

Don’t forget you can pre-order it! Amazon (also available in UK, CA, FR, DE, JP, AU, and just about everywhere), All Romance Ebooks, B&N

Enjoy a sneak peek at “Cruise Control” by Kerry Adrienne. I can’t wait to read the whole thing. Fast cars and fast men? I’m hooked!

Excerpt:

The passenger door opened and a man’s deep voice rang out, “You won’t touch it.” The man stepped out of the truck. “Unless I am directing you. Clear?”

Parker licked his lips, Maserati forgotten. Maybe if the porn magazines had men like this specimen, he’d have at least peeked. Tall and muscular, the man seemed to have stepped off the pages of his imagination.

“Did you hear me?” The man put his hands on his hips.

Parker nodded and took a wobbly step. A Maserati and a hot man? More excitement than he’d seen on a Friday night since he’d been home. Maybe ever.

The man smiled, and Parker flushed. A moment later, the smile was gone and the man was all business.

“Blake Best.” He stuck out his hand. “This is my car, Leon.”

Parker took Blake’s large hand and held on while the other man shook for both of them. He looked into Blake’s blue eyes, or were they brown? He couldn’t tell in the half-light, but whatever their color, they were framed by gorgeous dark lashes matching Blake’s cropped, dark hair.

“P-Parker Monteith.”

“Good to meet you.” Blake squeezed his hand. “I’m making it clear up front. You don’t touch my car unless I say so.”

“Hey, I gotta get to another call,” the tow truck driver yelled. “Let’s get this showboat off my truck.” He pushed a button and the truck bed squealed lower.

Parker looked down. He was still holding Blake’s hand. He pulled away and cleared his throat. “Help get this car into the garage so I can take a look.”

Blake headed to the truck bed and Parker followed. Parker couldn’t help but watch Blake’s ass. Clad in thick jeans, it was difficult to tell exactly how firm it was or its exact shape, but damn, it was the first exciting ass he’d seen in forever.

“Be careful, that’s my baby,” Blake called.

“Huh?” Parker’s face flamed, and then he realized the man was talking about the car. Oh my God, the car. It sat, or did it float, on the truck bed, a vision in creamy white with dark shadows spiraling along its side. It’s black top was closed, but Parker knew exactly what the car looked like with the top down. He stuck his hands in his pockets.

Yeah, it was just a car, but oh, what a car it was.

“Stand back!” The tow truck driver unlatched the last of the wheel lashings and pushed the button to extend the winch.

Blake turned toward Parker. “I can’t watch.”

“He knows what he’s doing.”

A loud screech sounded. Blake cringed and whirled toward the tow truck driver.

“What in the hell?”

“Calm down. Your precious car is fine.” The driver lowered the front end of the car then released the winch.

They pushed the car into the garage without a problem, though Blake insisted they wear cotton gloves, which he provided from the trunk. In the stark garage lights, the white car appeared even brighter, like a gleaming star, lit from within. Blake fussed over the car, running his hand along the body and cupping the headlight and squeezing.

“Sign for it.” The tow truck driver shoved his clipboard under Parker’s nose.

Parker signed for receipt of the car and the driver capped his pen and stuck it back in his pocket.

“He’s your problem now.”

Parker gathered he wasn’t talking about the car.

LINK TO Kerry Adrienne

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I’m going to confess something to you today: I would rather re-read The Hunt for Red October than just about anything on the romance best-seller lists. Since I write gay romance for a living, it may surprise you to hear (or read) that I never really liked reading romances.

My newest novel JADED is finally here!

I’m so thrilled about this particular release.

I’ll explain my use of “particular” with a true confession: Very often, by the time a book comes out, the author has been through more rounds of edits and galley readings than we would like, and we’ve written half a dozen other pieces in the meantime. The actual release day feels almost anti-climactic. We work hard to pump up our enthusiasm to engage readers and reviewers, but many of us just want to get back to what we are writing at the moment.

However, JADED is different. This is one of the books I wanted to write for a very long time. I am a huge, HUGE fan of mysteries, and while I’ve ready thousands, I never felt confident enough to write a true murder mystery. Until now my stories have had mystery elements, but not what I would call an “official” mystery. I decided it was time to give it a try, even though I wasn’t sure I was good enough to pull it off. (still crossing fingers on that). I hope you’ll find it works.

One of the many small Shinto shrines in Tokyo. (Photo EM Lynley)

Second: I lived in Japan for five years. I worked for an international bank and did economic research on Asian financial markets. I had learned Japanese in college and studied the history, politics, and economics of Japan (historical and modern) and was so thrilled to finally get to work there. It was an incredible experience. Every single day was new, exciting, sometimes frustrating, but absolutely never ever dull. I met so many wonderful people, visited beautiful places, even learned to scuba dive off the Izu Peninsula (where Trent and Reed go in Jaded), and visited more hot springs than I could count.

It took me at least a year to get over reverse culture shock when I moved back to California. I missed everything about Japan, from seaweed on pizza to rice vending machines to the beautiful little temples dotted all over ultra-urban Tokyo, even the crowded subways (still better than a 30-mile drive in rush-hour traffic).

I wanted to share these experiences with you. Like the other Precious Gems series books, I brought Trent and Reed to places in the world I absolutely love, so I could bring you along on the journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed the change to travel and see some incredible new things almost as if you are there.

Guardhouse at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Trent goes to view cherry blossoms here. (Photo EM Lynley)

Another fun thing about this book was making a few real people into characters. There’s a real Sam Kobayashi, a Nishikatsu and absolutely a very real Shindo. In fact, they are all men I dated while living in Japan. I may write another blog just about that! There is also a real Motofuji. He was one of my Japanese professors at UC Berkeley. I loved the man. He was such a sweet person who made third-year Japanese a pleasure instead of a terror (like one of the other instructors). I discovered he recently passed away and felt a real sense of loss, though I hadn’t spoken to him for many years. While his character in Jaded is a Yakuza leader, I’ve made him a very old-fashioned and extraordinary man who has many of the same fine character traits in my Motofuji.

Not only did I included Japanese friends as characters, one of my readers, Christopher Hammel, makes an appearance in this book! Christopher asked me quite emphatically if he could be in the book, so he plays a role I think of as Reed’s Agent Coulson. He knows just how to get whatever Reed needs and has contacts all over Japan. He helps save the day.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading JADED even half as much as I enjoyed planning and writing it. I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment, or send me an email.

Here’s more about JADED:

It’s book 3 in the series, and to get the most enjoyment, I suggest you read them in order. While the plots do not connect, the character development and relationship progression is very important.

BLURB: Gay-romance writer Trent Copeland finds his life in a rut while his boyfriend, Special Agent Reed Acton, is away on an undercover mission. After attending a special course at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Trent’s eager for another challenge. He jumps at the opportunity for a trip to Japan to oversee appraisals of two art collections to be sold at the gallery he co-owns. But the trip isn’t all cherry blossoms and Hello Kitty. When one of the collectors he meets—rumored to be the head of a Yakuza gang—turns up dead, Trent is accused of the murder and thrown in jail.

Reed drops everything to help find out who really committed the crime. He’s in unknown territory in Japan, forced to navigate Tokyo’s sex underworld to unravel the truth and save Trent. He poses as a “host” at a seedy late-night club. When Reed’s undercover activities place him at a ruthless Yakuza leader’s sex party, he must be willing to go to any lengths to secure Trent’s safety and freedom. But trusting the wrong people brings both Reed and Trent to the Yakuza leader’s attention. If they’re ever to have a happy ever after, they’ll first have to call on every skill just to stay alive.

Read the sneak peek

Plan Your Novel in as Little as One Day

NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month is an annual event for writers around the world. It offers participants an opportunity to write a 50,000-word novel with the support of others. It may be just the motivation you need to get writing.

The key to NaNoWriMo is planning–not outlining–your book before you even write a single word.

• Have you been dreaming of writing a novel for years and didn’t know how to tackle the daunting task? This book is for you.
• Have you attempted NaNo and found your story and inspiration flagging long before you hit 50,000 words? This book is for you.
• Are you an experienced writer or published author who wants a comprehensive planning tool to enable you to plot, write and revise more quickly? This book is for you.

This step-by-step method will enable you to build the foundation for a complex novel, with engaging characters and an emotional journey that will keep your readers turning pages. Accompanying worksheets and full instructions make the process almost foolproof.

Author EM Lynley has used this technique for more than five books, and shares her proven method with you.

Download the Worksheets

(The server may be overloaded, so wait a moment for the DL to start. Please e-mail me if you have trouble.)

You’ll need two sets of Worksheets to use the book. The Worksheets are FREE. The instructions for using the sheets are in the book, How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner.

[purchase_link id=”3823″ style=”button” color=”blue” text=”Download Story Planning Worksheet” ] the Story Planning Worksheets.

[purchase_link id=”3847″ style=”button” color=”blue” text=”Download Story Skeleton Worksheet” ] the Story Skeleton Worksheets.

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