I'm featured at Barnes & Noble!

When Barnes & Noble asked me to compile a list of my favorite romances, I was thrilled. Before I changed career directions and began writing urban fantasy (or should I say before urban fantasy abducted my muse in the Dreaming and began torturing her if she didn’t write the Fever series) romance was my first love. The opportunity to return to my roots and compile a list of my all time favorites was just the excuse I needed to sit down and re-read a few of them.

Among the list which can be found here are some of the rock my world romance novel faves that helped shape the writer I would become.

I remember reading Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning when it first came out, and thinking, “wait a minute, she thumbed her nose with impunity at multiple romance novel conventions. How did she do it and get away with it so well?” I read it twice in a row for sheer enjoyment, then four more times to learn from one of the best. I LOVE the scene on the steps in the castle near the end! Nobody writes alpha heroes (or squirm in your seat sex scenes) like Linda Howard. Written in 1997, this time travel novel that involves the Knights Templar is a classic.

Then there’s Lisa Kleypas breaking more rules with Derek Craven’s story: Dreaming of You, the sequel to Then Came You, a book in which she created a secondary character so riveting that Derek simply had to have his own story, and in my opinion eclipsed Lily and Alex’s story (which is saying a lot because it’s one of my favorites, too). I recently gave Dreaming of You to my niece. It was originally published in 1994, and I was curious to see what someone in her early 20s would think, reading it seventeen years after it was first published. My niece was as crazy about it as I was, and embarked on a total Lisa Kleypas glom. Some romance novels are timeless.

Another “rule-breaker” is Connie Brockway, who set one of my all-time favorites—As You Desire—in the Egyptian desert, which simply wasn’t done in the romance novel writing world back in 1997 (or today for that matter, it’s still a tough sell to publishers, unless you’re the incomparable Connie Brockway.) Much to my delight, she has finally written the sequel: The Other Guy’s Bride, which is scheduled for release November 1.

Then there’s Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love writing together in Blood Trinity, Book 1 of the fantastic Belador Series (Book 2 comes out this fall, Alterant, Belador Code), a classic Julie Garwood that still makes me laugh out loud reading it today, and my favorites by J. R. Ward, Jude Devereux, Julia Quinn, and Kresley Cole, all wonderful reads, some of the best of the best.

Back at my first RWA, in Anaheim CA in 1998, I was invited to a Bantam Dell dinner. I’d sold my first manuscript but it hadn’t yet been published. I remember walking into the room and seeing 30 or so Bantam Dell authors (Joan Johnston, Connie, Christina Skye, Virginia Henley, to name a few and back then nobody was writing steamy stuff with quite the balls Virginia had, LOL) gathered around the table talking and laughing and the most extraordinary thing was that there was a seat for me at that table. I remember sitting down and someone asking me how I felt and I replied, “Like the guy who wanted to play pro football all his life and suddenly finds himself in the locker room, thinking, is this a joke? Am I really here?”

I used to go to Barnes & Noble every weekend and spend more money than I had any business spending because books were always more important to me than food. Now, seeing my selections at their website, and on their endcaps, well, I’ve got that locker room feeling again. ☺

I hope you enjoy my choices. Now tell me about some of your favorites!

A bit about my past...

I’m frequently asked why I decided to become a writer, and what my childhood was like, as if it might de-mystify the process of becoming a successful author or clarify a ‘recipe’ of a personality type, so the person asking can decide whether they, or their friend or loved one has good odds of becoming one, too. Not only is there no such recipe for success, all the writers I know had remarkably different childhoods, and remarkably different reasons for wanting to be a writer.

I’ve always shied away from the question in the past. Dude, past is past, as Dani would say. But because of something that happened recently, I’ll shine a light down a dark alley.



At 12, I was a geeky nerd. A brain. I hated that word. People copied off my tests unless I put both arms around them and ducked my head over the paper, which I usually didn’t because it didn’t bother me that much that people copied. I found it flattering and interesting, especially if the guys copying were cute.

In ninth grade, we had to split off from the common middle school and go either to public high school or private all-girls Catholic school. You guessed it: I went sans boys, kicking and screaming all the way, on a scholarship. My sister had gone there before me, my little sister went there after me, and my sister’s daughter followed.


Three important happened to me in adolescence, the first of which I’ve already discussed elsewhere (Eros and Thanatos, romance novels and Harlan Ellison, aka Sex and Death.)

The second involved neither choice nor anything for which I bear responsibility: I had long, vibrantly red hair.


The third was all choice and all my fault: me and my best friend Esther (last name omitted so doesn’t hunt me down and kill me for telling this and I’ll soften it by pointing out that she was smarter than me (but a little geekier:) made a cognizant and intelligent-or-so-we-thought decision to change our image at the ripe old age of twelve and a half. We decided to start smoking Marlboro reds. Nobody thought the druggies were geeks. Therefore we would no longer be considered geeks.

We failed to consider that we would then be considered druggies. It wasn’t one of our finer plans.

But I blame the red hair for most of my problems. In a town as small as the one I grew up in, it made me ridiculously noticeable. I couldn’t get away with anything. Nothing. I can’t tell you how many times I heard over the high school loudspeaker “Would Karen Marie Moning please report to the principal’s office immediately!” after the smallest, slightest bending of the rules. Always only me. I would go dragging in and the principal would load me up with demerits for sneaking off campus at lunch to King’s Tavern--which, I might point out, yes, I did but with no less than 7 or 8 friends walking right beside me a fact that I groused long and loud about to the principal (not that I’m a snitch or anything) because it got old after a while to always be the only one getting in trouble, and her frosty reply was “we can’t recognize them from a distance. You can’t be missed. That hair! You should do something with it!” Think Rowena here.

After the third or fourth such incident, I did. I fixed her, or so I thought with appalling shortsightedness. I went home from school one day, perilously close to suspension from accumulated demerit points, and cut off all my hair to about an inch long. Back in those days I had no money unless it was corn detassling season, and hair dye wasn’t easy to come by. I still had red hair. All I’d achieved was it now looked stupid. If memory serves, class photos were a few days later. I burned that yearbook. . I acquired a collection of hats. It didn’t help. I became recognized because I was the only person in our small town that wore hats.

By sixteen, I’d been permanently expelled from private school. My graduating class (at the public high school) had something like 75 people in it. I was ecstatic to leave my small hometown behind and vanish into Purdue University with 45,000 students! I was finally, blessedly invisible. Anonymous. Nobody noticed me. I no longer stood out. I was in heaven.

Fast-forward seven years. I’d graduated from Purdue, and was working in insurance arbitration and litigation, sitting in a gray office with gray carpet, feeling myself getting grayer everyday. Still had vibrantly red hair. If I was late for work—and I frequently was—everyone noticed.


I decided to become a writer for three reasons.

1. I figured I wouldn’t have to work as hard at being a writer as I would at a real job. I deserve any hate mail I get from other writers for that comment.

2. I couldn’t stand driving in rush hour traffic anymore. I could hear the clock ticking the minutes of my life away. I teetered on the razor edge of road rage whenever I got behind someone doing the speed limit in the fast lane because everyone knows you can go a minimum of 7 miles over the speed limit most of the time and not get pulled over, and added up by miles, that was at least 9 minutes of my life they were wasting by driving too slow in the fast lane. It’s called the fast lane because people are supposed to speed in it, right?

3. I thought I would be invisible. A name on a book. No one would ever see or want to know me. They’d only want my books. I could be a complete isolationist, a lone wolf, give into my nature at heart. I’d learned young and well that visibility was directly proportionate to culpability.

By the time I was seventeen, two phrases had become inextricably linked in my mind:

Being noticed—Bad. For. Me.

The gratitude and relief with which I embraced life as a writer was immense. I would be anonymous, solitary, words on the spine of a book, a placeholder on a library shelf, unnoticed, uncared about unless the story wasn’t up to snuff.

By now you must be wondering what brought on this spiel.

I got a unexpected box in the mail today, filled with letters, cards, and gifts from all those people who weren’t going to notice me or look beyond the spine, who would read my books and never even think about me. Cards from people who’ve been concerned, with what I’ve gone through recently, people who wanted me to know I wasn’t alone, to offer words of strength and encouragement, to say “hi, I hope you’re feeling okay,” and to share their own struggles and triumphs. I’ve been sitting here for hours, stilled by the moment, searching for words to express how it makes me feel. Not only am I not invisible, I’ve got a connection with my readers that astonishes and humbles me. How many writers have so many fans that are also friends? I’m blessed.

For those of you who are still worrying about the cigarettes, don’t. I quit smoking many years ago. I was pissed off for an entire year but I survived it.

Today, as I absorb the outpouring of love from you, I realize I am completely over that other small childhood problem I had, as well.

These two phrases have become inextricably linked in my mind:

Being noticed—Lovely!

Much love,
Karen

(Yes, yes, I’m going back to my office now. I know it’s the only way I can really thank you. The Barrons scene is coming along nicely. Well, as nicely as anything Barrons ever does.)

(For those of you who are now going to postulate that Dani is my Mary-Sue (which no longer means quite what it used to years ago) give it up. She's no more my Mary Sue than every other character I've written.)

First 100 donations for Japan Aid received in record time!

Thanks to all of you who've donated so far. I'm currently working on getting a very special gift for future contributors and will know more shortly and post soon. You guys are amazing! We've raised almost $5,000 at this point, in less than 24 hours. I'm stunned and awed by your generosity. Thank you!

Linkin Park, Japan Aid & Awesome Prizes!

As some of you know, Linkin Park is one of my favorite bands. I listened to their music extensively while writing Shadowfever. The song “What I’ve Done” played in my head constantly while I was writing Dani’s character. “In the End” was one of Mac’s broody songs for a time. “In Pieces” is one of my personal favorites. Not only are the members of Linkin Park fantastic musicians, they’re active humanitarians as well. In 2005 they founded Music for Relief, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception, Music for Relief has raised over $4 million for victims of multiple disasters across four continents! Linkin Park is currently championing a campaign to aid the children impacted by the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.

I think it’s wonderful when celebrities donate their time and money to help those in need and, in support of Linkin Park efforts, I’ve talked with my publishers and friends and rounded up some great things to give away to the first 100 people that donate via my page at Music for Relief. Those of you who know me know that I will never ask for something for nothing, so I’ve put together a thank-you for your support.

The first 100 people who donate $25.00 or more will receive an appreciation gift from me valued at $75.00 containing:

~An autographed copy of the new mass market Shadowfever, with the gorgeous new cover and stepback. You will receive it approximately 3 weeks in advance of the publication date! (Courtesy of Random House Publishing Group)

~A CD or MP3 audio recording of Shadowfever by Audie-award winning Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross (Courtesy of Brilliance Audio)

~JZB and Mac Tattoos

~BloodRush CD, Official Soundtrack to the Fever Series

~Shadowsong CD, Official Soundtrack for Shadowfever

In addition, there are other special prizes that can be won by anyone who donates via my page, and are not limited to the first 100 contributors:

~The top donator will receive two tickets to FeverCon 2012*(A $700.00 value!)

~One lucky person selected randomly will receive a phone call from Phil Gigante, who will read a scene from Shadowfever just for you!

~As a special thank you to fans who are aspiring writers, I’m doing something I’ve never done before:anyone who donates $50.00 or more will be entered into a drawing for a critique of the first 50 pages of your current work in progress by me. Important: After you make your donation, email manager@karenmoning.com to tell us that you have a current work in progress, and wish to be entered into this drawing. The name of the donator must match the name on the manuscript I critique.

We are working on securing additional special prizes that will be given away to anyone who donates, winners selected randomly.

If you’d like to donate, we’ve made it simple. Just visit my page http://www.give2gether.com/projects/music-for-relief.KMM/

(Be certain it’s my page you’re donating on to be counted in the first 100. Look for the KMM at the end of the address.)

Click the “donate” button and follow the instructions.

After you’ve made your donation, please email your mailing address to manager@karenmoning.com so we can prepare your package. Your name must match the name of the donator at my Music For Relief page. Your gift will go out the first week of August.

When you visit my page at Music for Relief you’ll see that if I reach the donation goal of $500.00, I get 2 tickets to see Linkin Park in concert. I made the first $500.00 donation myself. This is about the children of Japan, not me.

Special thanks to my wonderful publishers Random House and Brilliance Audio for their generous support and donations, and to fellow Linkin Park fan and friend Paris Cohen for drawing my attention to this worthy cause.

*Tickets to FeverCon 2012 do not include transportation or hotel accommodations.

Update: So far we have 85 donations but only 67 people have emailed us their address, which means there are 18 people who either don't want the gift, or have forgotten to email us their address.

PLEASE let us know either way (manager@karenmoning.com), so we can make sure you receive your gift, or give it to the next donor. We don't want anyone to miss out.

Thank you!

Getting out of the closet...and many thanks

For the first time since April, I have an office again! It feels like such a luxury after these past few months. I missed my books, my computer, the many treasures you guys have given me at our various get togethers that decorate my walls and bookcases and inspire me. The MacHalo just got unpacked and is hanging on the wall. I get to go to work tomorrow morning somewhere besides a closet. For whatever reason the muse decrees, I do my best work in the dark, and the only dark place that's been available has been a very small closet. Could barely fit my chair in there. (Florida houses, huge windows, no shades, what's with that?) Between the blow up bed and the closet, all I was getting from Barrons was a cool stare and a 'you've got to be kidding me, Ms. Moning.' So Monday--dark office--back in the saddle--can't wait!

Thanks for being patient, and a huge thanks for all the support and love you've been sending via FB, MB, blog and emails. I hope you know how much it means to me! You'd think I'd eventually get past being astounded by the quality of people you Maniacs are, but I never do. I loved the quotes so many of you sent me, bits of wisdom acquired through your own trials and tribulations. At a time when I felt so alone, you reminded me that I wasn't. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!