Author's Name: Shara Lanel
Website: www.sharalanel.com

Dawn Oliveri w/a Shara Lanel is a multi-published author who specializes in romantica. She has written for Liquid Silver Books and HeatWave Romance.

New Release:
GEMINI: Directing Claire
The Zodiac Series
Liquid Silver Books

Devon Marceau, Special Agent for the FBI, thinks horoscopes are a crock, especially this morning's, which tells him that today he'll find love. Yeah, right! Forget love, just give him Scott Creighton, the big bad he's been chasing for years. It looks like the man's about to slip through Devon's fingers again, unless he can convince his sexy receptionist to take on a role that certainly is not in her job description.

Claire Reed is a writer and a romantic, so when her horoscope tells her to take a risk, she steps up to the challenge. Sure, she can play the lead starlet in a porn movie, even though she's never acted before. Especially if that means starring opposite her sexy boss, Devon. What she doesn't bargain for are the men with guns watching her every move and getting far too engrossed in their little performance, or how far she and Devon might have to go to keep Creighton from suspecting a set-up. Good thing kissing Devon in her underwear is such an enjoyable activity, even with the cameras rolling

On Writing...

I've been writing since I could hold a pencil. In fifth grade I wrote a story set on the steam train in my hometown. In the sixth grade I passed around a serialized adventure story set in a cave. I never stopped writing after that, eventually taking journalism and creative writing in high school. In college, I studied film, which taught me a lot about storytelling. But it wasn't until a few years ago that I joined RWA and my local chapter and really focused in on writing romance.

On Her "Big Break"...

These two questions actually go together. I wrote a steamy book that didn't quite fit the romantic suspense mold. To me the steamy parts were the good parts, so that came naturally. A Liquid Silver author from my local chapter read a bit of my work and said I should submit to Liquid Silver Books, which I did. And to my unending delight, they decided to publish Enlightened Love, first as an e-book and later as a trade paperback. I actually had to spice Enlightened Love up a bit for LSB, but since then I've discovered I have a knack for writing the sexy stuff, and boy is it fun!

On Writing Schedules

Writing schedule? What's that? This summer my schedule has been writing after the hubby goes to bed until 2 a.m., or if I actually manage to have my son in an activity for a few hours, I'll take my Alphasmart to B&N and type until it's time to pick him up. I'm hoping to get more sleep and more writing time once school starts back up. Any day now.

On the "Day Job"

Mommy-ing is my only other job, and believe me, that's plenty! Sadly, housekeeping and cooking tend to fall to the wayside when I've got a deadline or promotion to do.

On Balancing It All

I lose a lot of sleep and have a very scary house. The one thing that does suffer is reading for pleasure. I love to read, but lately when I open a novel, I feel like I should be doing something else. Definitely need to work on that.

On the Importance of Self Promotion

Oh yeah. That's the only way to sell books. Both of my publishers do many things to promote, but it's up to me to build my readership and name recognition. I maintain two web sites. My http://www.sharalanel.com site is mainly for readers, and I do giveaways, excerpts, and post reviews. My http://www.dawnoliveri.com site is more for potential editors and agents, so they can check out what I've done, what I'm working on, and other writing samples. I also have a newsletter, Shara's E Zone, that comes out monthly and usually includes a free short story.

On Her Publishers

Liquid Silver Books and HeatWave Romance are both primarily e-publishers, though they do print books as well. HeatWave just launched this past spring. Liquid Silver is part of Atlantic Bridge Publishing. I've enjoyed working with both publishers. Liquid Silver has an awesome staff of cover artists-I love my covers! They also have a forum where prospective authors can ask questions, and where current LSB authors can discuss promotion and other aspects of the business. I've found this very helpful.

On Agents

Sigh. No agent yet, but I'm sending out partials and meeting with agents at conferences whenever possible, so hopefully I'll find a match soon.

On "What I Wish I'd Known"

I've learned so much in the past year that it's hard to say. I'd say confidence is the thing that would have helped me the most all along, confidence in my work, confidence when pitching to editors and agents, just knowing that I really do have something to offer them. Having that confidence might have gotten me a bit farther faster. At the very least, I would have written more and spent less time mired in doubt.

Advice for Other Writers

Read Strunk and White's Elements of Style. When I worked at a magazine after college, my editor recommended it to me. It's a small book, but packed with info, and I still refer to it from time to time. Can I sneak in a second thing, for the more advanced writer? Go ahead and set up a web site, or at least plan one out. That way you won't be scrambling when you've sold your book and have so many other things on your mind, and I've heard that publishers like to see that you have an avenue of promotion already in place even before you get "the call."

Don't give up on yourself. It doesn't matter how sucky your writing might be now (and you might think it's worse than it is), you can improve it. Writing is a craft, and it takes time to learn, and even then it takes loads of revisions to get to the polished books you see on the store shelves. The authors who get published, whether in a year or ten, are the ones who wrote THE END on a novel (or two or three) and actually sent the thing out. They didn't quit no matter how many rejections they received.

Last Words

Let me just say that I'm looking forward to Halloween this year. I've got a short story coming out at HeatWave Romance October 28th called "Try a Little Magic." Plus Trista Ann Michaels and I have written two stories for a Halloween anthology at Liquid Silver, entitled Love & Magic. The tentative release date is October 24th. My story "Grave Awakening" is set in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, so I've posted some of my dad's photographs on my web site to get into the Halloween mood. Trista and I also plan to run a giveaway to celebrate the release, so keep an eye on my News Page for details: http://www.sharalanel.com/contest.html

Shara Lanel's newest releases

GEMINI: Directing Claire
The Zodiac Series
Available Now from Liquid Silver Books

Devon Marceau, Special Agent for the FBI, thinks horoscopes are a crock, especially this morning's, which tells him that today he'll find love. Yeah, right! Forget love, just give him Scott Creighton, the big bad he's been chasing for years. It looks like the man's about to slip through Devon's fingers again, unless he can convince his sexy receptionist to take on a role that certainly is not in her job description.

Claire Reed is a writer and a romantic, so when her horoscope tells her to take a risk, she steps up to the challenge. Sure, she can play the lead starlet in a porn movie, even though she's never acted before. Especially if that means starring opposite her sexy boss, Devon. What she doesn't bargain for are the men with guns watching her every move and getting far too engrossed in their little performance, or how far she and Devon might have to go to keep Creighton from suspecting a set-up. Good thing kissing Devon in her underwear is such an enjoyable activity, even with the cameras rolling

A Ball Drop Between Friends
Available Now from HeatWave Romance

What's it take to get two long-time friends to finally admit their attraction to each other? A ball drop on TV on New Year's Eve.
Kelsey and Rex have been friends since elementary school. They consoled each other through failed engagements and marriages and the ups and downs of life, but only as friends.denying their more-than-friendly feelings for each other. And each year, they get together on New Year's Eve, usually foregoing the traditional kiss at midnight-but not this time. A game of checker shots primed the moment, and a slow dance in the living room leads to more. Finally Kelsey and Rex are ready to move to the next level in their relationship, but can friendship and love co-exist?

Try a Little Magic
October, 2005 from HeatWave Romance

Adriana has had her eye on her sexy co-worker Gareth, but one disastrous date reveals his problem-Gareth is hopelessly shy around women. Adriana decides it's time to "Try a Little Magic" on Gareth, in the form of a sex spell designed to relax his inhibitions and get him to obey Adriana's every command. She's pretty sure it will work, though she's never tried it before, but what will the sexy man think after he "awakens" from the spell to find himself naked in Adriana's bedroom?

LOVE & MAGIC: Grave Awakening
October, 2005 from Liquid Silver Books

Diera Rand dreams of dead people, dead people buried in Hollywood Cemetery who open their eyes. Funny thing is, they always have the same eyes. Holt Pendragon dreams of being buried alive while a red haired witch hovers over him casting a spell. When the two meet, Diera is skulking in her car with a camera, investigating the disappearance of her boss's daughter, and Holt is dancing around in a circle of witches. Diera hates witches. But she needs Holt's help to find the missing girl who has been sucked in by a High Priest working dark magic. Will Diera and Holt overcome their differences and try a little sex magic to find the girl?

Visit Shara online at http://www.SharaLanel.com