D. D. Scott's romantic comedies are all about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who complete them. They're a bit chick lit with a gone-country twist. She's agented, and her series The Bootscootin' Books - think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy - debuted in August 2010 with book one BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS on both Amazon's Kindle and at Smashwords.
She's a member of RWA as well as RWA's Chick Lit Writers of the World, Kiss of Death, ScriptScene, ESPAN, and IRWA Chapters plus serves on RWA's History Committee for the National RWA Board. She's been a guest blogger on Romance Writers on the Journey, Inside the Writer's Mind, Daily Dose Fantasy Romance, Romance University, and Romance Lives Forever. She blogs with group blog Savvy Authors the second Friday of every month, is linked to on Romancing the Blog and also has an active blog of her own on her website at http://www.ddscott.com/. In addition, her first RWR article was published by RWA in the July 2010 issue with more to follow.
Also a Writer's Go-to-Gal for Muse Therapy, D. D. debuted her Muse Therapy Live Workshops this past March and April for GCCRWA's Silken Sands Conference in Florida and RT BookLovers' Convention in Ohio. She's busy now preparing for (1) the launch of MUSE THERAPY: UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL (the book version of her Muse Therapy Online Classes & Live Workshops) on Kindle and Smashwords this Fall, (2) the Kindle and Smashwords release of book two in The Bootscootin' Books STOMPIN' ON STETSONS which will hit E-shelves in time for the 2010 Holiday Season and (3) the Kindle and Smashwords release of book three in The Bootscootin' Books BUCKLE ME BABY plus the launch of a new Cozy Mystery series in 2011.
For updates on her books, her sexy, sassy, smart neurotic writer's life blog, and for a schedule of appearances and Muse Therapy Sessions, visit her website http://www.ddscott.com/. While there, sign-up for her mailing list for chances to win fabulous tchotchkes.
Thank you, D.D.
“Boots, Blahniks, & Country Music Muses”
First, a huge shout-out and yippee-ki-yay to everyone here at Lesa’s Book Critiques!
I’m romantic comedy debut author D. D. Scott, and I’m beyond thrilled Lesa asked me to stop by and chat with you during my BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS Blog Tour!
I met Lesa on Twitter and just luuuvvv her! She’s way, wayyy up there on my Super Tweeple List. And after she told me she’s a big fan of country music, I knew I’d found a new friend-for-life. Nothing beats putting on a pair of boots and hittin’ the nearest country line dancing floor. That’s exactly what me and my BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS characters do every chance we get! The results:
Romantic Comedy writer D. D. Scott two-steps into your heart with book one of her debut series. It's Chick Lit, Gone-Country. Think Sex and the City meets Urban Cowboy.
Manhattan apparel designer Roxy Rae Vaughn, who's also a still-in-the-closet, country line dancing queen, wants to be a fashion success story. Tired of being nothing more than a Fifth Avenue up-and-comer, thanks to her elitist parents, Roxy moves to Nashville, Tennessee and opens a boutique in a local tractor supply store, the only retail space she can afford. Short on cash and way, way down on luck, she rear-ends a pick-up truck belonging to a tomato-growin', bootscootin' cowboy who is anything but the perfect fit for her career plans, although he is her ideal dance partner. Can Roxy accept that her best fit is on the dance floor moving to her own style and her cowboy's lead?
Tomato farmer by day and bootscootin' instructor by night Zayne McDonald doesn't give a damn about winning Nashville's heirloom tomato contest, even though his late father did. Zayne wants to honor his father, but what he really wants is to line dance his way to a winner's spotlight. When he and Roxy are discovered by a huge dance show producer, Zayne learns it's partnering with Roxy that's his winning hybrid mix. That is, if he can keep her and the tomato contest away from Beefsteak Jack Baudlin, the toughest tomato man in CMT country.
So Why Boots? Why Bootscootin’...in Blahniks? And Why Country Music?
Last week, I launched a new series on my blog, http://ddscottauthor.blogspot.com/ called “Behind and Beyond My Books” where I give readers the scoop on the ‘Why’s’ behind each of my storylines.
In this blog series, I answer “How do authors choose their topics?” “Or do the topics choose us?”
For me, it's a bit of each mixed together for some fun and fabulous, farcical, romcom adventures. I take topics I enjoy and ask quirky, LOL 'what if's'.
For example, as you know by now, me and my muses The Carrie Squad simply luuuvvv boots and bootscootin'!!!
(Note: They'll be more on The Carrie Squad in another Behind and Beyond My Books post...but yes, The Carrie Squad is named after my favorite gutsy gal, Sex and The City's Carrie Bradshaw).
So for me and my muses then, and our characters too, nothing beats putting on a pair of boots (like these babies below) and doin’ a mean grapevine and beautiful box-step:
Another favorite pair – also bought in Nashville TN.
Okay...so perhaps I have a boot fetish. But my muses The Carrie Squad, well they gotta have their Blahniks – as in Manolo Blahniks! Yep, you guessed it, Chester. Blahniks because of their namesake the beloved Carrie Bradshaw and her fetish with all-things-Manolo-Blahnik. Manolo even named one of the fabulous pair of shoes he created after Candace Bushnell and Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw! So there’s your answer to ‘Why Blahniks’ in my romantic comedy BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS.
Anyhoo...
As a child, I took dance for eight years - everything from tap to ballet to jazz to disco and point plus more. Even though I was a wee bit plump for my leotards, I had great rhythm, style and always danced my heart out. I was good. Plump. But good.
In college, the country line-dancing craze hit. My college town even had a fabulous bootscootin' bar called the Neon Cactus where you could Texas Two-Step all night long! A few years later, while traveling to my favorite city Nashville, TN (also a fabulous topic for a future Behind and Beyond My Books post), I discovered the world-famous Wildhorse Saloon! Thus, the saloon in my BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS was created and christened The NEON COWBOY SALOON.
In this case then, I think the topics chose me as their author. Because both boots and bootscootin' plus country music are a big part of me and a beyond perfect fit for my lifestyle, me and my muses as well as our characters gave life to these items on our pages.
Whether in boots or stilettos, check out how I made my passions fit my pages. (Hint: You betchya I made the bootscootin' dance scenes hot too! There's nothing like dancin' with your man - even if it's in your living room. Actually, especially then...) Here are the links to my debut release BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS:
http://www.amazon.com/Bootscootin-Blahniks-Books-ebook/dp/B003ZDO30W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1281641043&sr=8-2
http://smashwords.com/b/21363
Now, besides celebrating my debut release BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS, I’m also a Writer’s Go-to-Gal for Muse Therapy where it’s all about giving writers fun and fabulous tools to analyze their muses’ funks, rein in their creative divas and up their page counts.
Together, we discover what makes your muses tick. What ticks ‘em off. And what makes them dance like nobody's watching.
Here’s the scoop...the secret to upping your page count isn’t done by hurling nasty insults at your muses. Oh no. You’ve got to wine and dine those divas. Whether it’s with coffee, chocolate, fabulous finds in some chic boutique, or with what I call Muse Therapy Trips, it’s all about pampering those chicks and chucks ‘til you get out of them exactly what you want...and then some.
As a writer’s Go-to-Gal for Muse Therapy, I know it ain’t easy being the Queen or King of your Creative Kingdom. It’s tough. Darn tough. There are sooo many Doubt Demons, Wicked Witches, Flying Monkeys, and Apple-Hurling Trees driving us to lie down in our poppy fields of rejection and slumber away our dreams.
How do I know it ain’t an easy trip along the Yellow Brick Road to Publishing Oz?
I know because it’s taken me almost nine years – you heard me - Nine Years - to get to Publishing Oz! And as you may know from my blogs, and if you're a writer writing-for-publication you know from your own personal often horrifying experiences, that there’s not just a few apple-hurling trees but forests full of ‘em when you’re off to see the wizard (in agent or editor form) on the Yellow Brick Road to Publishing Oz.
I survived the nine, tougher-than-tough, heartbreak-after-break years it took me, the ten complete manuscripts-written it took me, and the larger-than-life failures that took me and shook me by believing in myself (and my muses too!) even when and especially when no one else did!
For me and my muses The Carrie Squad, we stayed-on the dance floor, even when the crowd surrounding it's edges closed-in like vultures circling prey, snickering and sneering about my audacity to keep bootscootin' to my out-of-the-norm manuscripts, characters and narrative voice.
BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS, like all the stories and most of the blog posts I write, is about Gutsy Girls.
I’ve always danced – bootscootin’ style for me – to my own beat. And so do my characters. We’re sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women finding the men who complete us. I’m lucky I finally found my real-life hero. And boy do I have some fun and hotter-than-hot ones to introduce to my gutsy-gal heroines. (Did you recognize international cover model Jimmy Thomas on my debut cover?! Talk about a every Gutsy Girl’s dream hero!) Here’s a sneak peak:
I think I write such gutsy-gal heroines because I live every day of my life - as both a writer and as a woman in today’s chaotic Wonder Woman-required World - trying to be gutsy. Lucky for me – and my heroine’s too – I discovered Kate White’s beyond fabulous book ‘Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead...But Gutsy Girls Do: Nine Secrets Every Working Woman Must Know’. Yes, Kate White as in Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. If you haven’t read Kate’s book...do it! It will change your life. (Sidenote: I met Kate at this year’s RT10 in Ohio. I was a gutsy-girl, went up and introduced myself to her. Now...we’re considering partnering for my Muse Therapy Adventures! Gutsy, right?!)
Where am I going with all this gutsy-girl talk?
I’ve only made it to my very own debut-release day because I’ve had the audacity to bootscoot onto my pages with my chick lit, gone-country characters even though chick lit is supposedly dead. When everyone else on the dance floor was waltzing along with their fabulous historicals, doing whatever they do in their paranormal-style Star Wars cantinas, or hitting some fabulous, tough-girl techno club like an Angelina Jolie kick-butt action chick, etc. You get the idea. I had the guts to not just bootscoot, but to also do so on the E-Book Country dance floor (BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS is available at Amazon’s Kindle Store plus on Smashwords.) Retail space most of the traditional pub world is still watching from the sidelines – too afraid to dance on with gusto like nobody’s watching.
To go another gutsy-girl step forward, and to give myself a platform on which to build a fan base for my romantic comedy books, I also decided to finally use the psychology degree my parents paid for and thus Muse Therapy has hit couches the world over.
So whatever your dreams are, put-on your own style of shoes – whatever you, your feet and your muses love to dance in - then bootscoot, waltz, Star Wars Cantina Groove, or kick some serious booty and dance your way to your dreams!
For updates on my books (I’ve got two more coming out this year plus a brand new series next year!), my sexy, sassy, smart neurotic writer's life blog, and for a schedule of appearances and Muse Therapy Sessions, visit my website http://www.ddscott.com/. While there, sign-up for her mailing list for chances to win fabulous tchotchkes.
In the mean time, I’m looking forward to your comments here at Lesa’s Book Critiques and hope to see y’all on my Kindle and Smashwords Reviews posts plus “in therapy” either during my online class sessions or live workshops.
Ohhh...and how’s this for a bit of added fun? Anyone who comments will be eligible to win a free Muse Therapy Online Class of her or his choice between now & the end of the year. So start commenting...
‘Til then...keep your muses happy. Pamper ‘em silly. They’ll be glad you did and so will you.
Sexy Sassy Smart BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS “Boots, Blahniks and Country Music” Wishes --- D. D. Scott
Thank you, D.D.! I'm glad you were able to introduce your work to my readers.
