Lucky for Some

by Anna Campbell

This is a picture of the lucky bamboo plant that my good friend and fellow writer Amy Andrews gave me several months ago. It's still alive in my less than tender care which means it's definitely a LUCKY bamboo plant! I'm not the greatest person with pot plants as the sad dried-up corpses of all my previous pot plants will attest!

Apparently feng shui says it's good luck to have something green and alive in your workspace. I'll take anything I can get, frankly, especially at the moment as I'm in the early stages of a new story. And I must say my bamboo always makes me smile and feel good, so that's lucky in itself.

Do you believe in luck? I do - but I think the luckiest people are the ones who work hard to make sure that they're in a position to take advantage of whatever luck comes their way. As a writer, it's lucky if you get the judges to like your work and give you the marks to win a contest, or if you place your work in front of an editor or agent who gets what you're trying to do and decides that they'll go into bat to have your work published. Those, and a thousand other variables, are completely outside your control in this business.

But writing the best piece of work you can is something within your control so then you're in a position to take advantage of any luck that happens your way. So perhaps I feel fortune favors the brave! Luck plays a huge part in any writing career but you'll be luckier if you make sure everything you can control is as good as you can get it.

On a smaller scale in terms of cosmic good fortune, I've just put up my March/April contest on my website. I've had a spring clean (although we're moving into autumn here in Australia!) of my prize cupboard and come up with four great signed books that I'll give away to one lucky entrant who answers a simple question. The prizes are For the Sheikh's Pleasure by Annie West, Rescue at Cradle Lake by Marion Lennox, Scandal's Daughter by Christine Wells and Bride of Shadow Canyon by Stacey Kayne. Fantastic reads, all of them! You can check the details out here. Good luck!

So how big a part has luck played in your life? Are you superstitious? Do you have special rituals or talismans you think make you lucky?

What I Love About Blaze

If you’ve been reading my Blazes for any length of time—say, at least a year—you may have already guessed that I have a hard time settling down with any one style of story. I’ve written a Blaze time travel, several dark cop dramas, a Sex in the City style series set in South Beach, a Wrong Bed, and a couple of pseudo-pirates on the prowl. In March, I’ll add a cursed sports agent and a psychic investigator to the mix. Some of my stories have been more along the lines of a sexy romp while others have been angsty explorations of sensuality. There’s a chance my rampant story explorations have made it tougher for readers to know what to expect from a Joanne Rock read. But I’ve gotta say—I love that I can do so many different things in Blaze.

Where else can readers find such huge diversity in plot lines? From strong suspense plots to the occasional ghost or vampire, Blaze charts a huge amount of story terrain in six books a month. With a wide range of recurring miniseries like Forbidden Fantasies, the Wrong Bed, Extreme and Blush, the line makes it easy for fans to find the type of Blaze that most appeals to them. This summer, the series charts all new territory in a traditionally contemporary line when Blaze introduces its first historical—Hope Tarr’s Bound and Determined. I’m hoping readers are excited about seeing a Blaze style premise played out in a historical setting as I am.

Because, quite honestly, writing for Blaze is a writer’s dream from a creative perspective. With the only dictate being a red-hot premise, the sky’s the limit on plot development. I have the freedom to listen to my Muse and follow where she dictates.

Take for instance GETTING LUCKY, my March release. I wanted to write a story set in the Thousand Islands ever since I read a book about Boldt Castle. The setting is remote and romantic, the kind of backdrop you’d see in an old Gothic novel. Furthermore, I hoped to use some of those Gothic elements to enrich the story. But what would work in a Blaze?

Enter my blue blood sports agent who is losing his career and his assets at an alarming rate. He retreats to the family place where he grew up to meet with a psychic investigator in the hope she can remove whatever curse is hanging over his head. And before I knew it, spooky things were happening left and right while my couple discovered the unlucky hero definitely hadn’t lost his mojo in the bedroom. I had so much fun with this story. And it could only happen in a Blaze.

Here’s an excerpt I hope you’ll enjoy. And even if my March Blaze isn’t up your alley, I hope you’ll check out the rest of the month’s offering. I’ll bet you’ll find something fabulous…