My new baby

It’s here. My new baby! Okay, no, not that baby – she/he still has a good six months of cooking left (will post bump pics next week!). The baby I'm talking about is my latest book cover! And it’s hot. I’m talking steamy. I had to light a metal cigarette after looking at it. You wanna see?

You sure?



Okay…



Here goes…



Ta da!



I’m in love just a little bit. :)

Scandal Sheet is the first book in my brand spakin’ new Hollywood Headlines series, hitting bookstores in November. The series revolves around the L.A. Informer, Hollywood’s most infamous tabloid, the various reporters who work there, and the stars they stalk. Scandal Sheet belongs to Tina Bender, the Informer’s gossip columnist extraordinary. She know everything about everyone who’s anyone and she’s not afraid to print it. That is until she begins receiving death threats, telling her to “stop writing about me!” And when her overzealous boss, Felix Dunn (who some readers may remember from the High Heels series), hires her one buff bodyguard, Tina’s life starts to spiral out of control – both professionally and personally.

Anyone want to read an excerpt? Well in case you do, I just happen to have on handy. This is one I haven’t even posted on my website yet, so it’s the first sneak peak at Scandal Sheet. Okay, now I’m off to go spend the rest of the day playing with pictures and making a fun book trailer. Wish me luck!


Scandal Sheet

* * *

TEEN SENSATION ON MORAL VACATION:
LAST NIGHT THE INFORMER CAUGHT EVERYONE’S FAVORITE TEEN ACTRESS, JENNIFER WOOD, AT THE HOLLYWOOD MARTINI ROOM WITH A MEMBER OF A BOY BAND IN ONE HAND AND MARY JANE IN THE OTHER -

“Shit!”
“Tina!”
I swiveled in my chair to face my boss, Felix Dunn, standing in the doorway to his office, hands on hips.
“What?”
“Swear Pig.”
I pursed my lips together. “That doesn’t count.”
“I just heard you say ‘shit.’”
“It was computer related. Everyone knows computer related swearing doesn’t count.”
He narrowed his eyes. Clearly my argument wasn’t cutting it.
“It’s your own fault, you know,” I protested, changing tactics. I looked down at my computer. I’d been working on a juicy tidbit about the It teen actress who’d been caught with a joint in her hand at last night’s afterparty when my backspace button stuck, taking out one very cleverly worded line, even if I did say so myself. “I mean, how many centuries old are these things anyway?” I went on. “Would it kill you to buy some new hardware once in a awhile?”
He shook his head. “Swear Pig, Bender,” he repeated. Then disappeared back into his office.
“Shit.”
“I heard that!”
I stuck my tongue out at his door and dropped two quarters into the purple piggy bank on my desk. Somehow our newly appointed editor in chief was under the impression that yours truly swore too much. I have no fucking idea where he got that impression. But, he’d set up the Swear Pig as a way to break my bad habit. Personally, I was fine with my bad habit. It’s not like I was shooting heroin or anything, ya know?
Which brought me back to my story.
I swiveled around, pushing my glasses back up onto my nose and put my fingers to keyboard, recreating my perfect line.

IT MAY BE ONE JOINT TODAY FOR OUR FAVORITE FAIR-HAIRED TEENY-BOPPER, BUT WITH THE WAY HER LIFE IS SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL, CAN COCAINE, METH, OR EVEN HEROIN BE FAR BEHIND? HOW MANY BLONDES DOES IT TAKE TO SPELL “REHAB?”

I sat back in my chair, surveying my work. Okay, so it was a little mean. But, seriously, she played a perky cheerleader in a tween cable show. This was tabloid gold.
I hit “send” letting my daily gossip column zip through the L.A. Infomer’s network to Felix’s inbox, then gave my knuckles a satisfying crack.
I glanced at the clock. Quitting time. And somewhere there was a big beefy burrito dinner with my name on it. I grabbed my Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox that doubled as my purse and made for the exit.
Unfortunately, not before Eagle Eyes Dunn could catch me.
“Bender?”
I thought a dirty word and turned around. “Did you want something, chief?”
“You finished up that Wood piece yet?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe of his office.
“Just emailed it to you.” I loved it when I was one step ahead of the boss.
“What about Pines?”
“Pines?” Edward Pines was the director who’d recently been arrested when, after a routine traffic stop, a stack of pornography had been found under the seat of his car. Not that naked bodies were a novelty in Hollywood, but these particular magazines had included photos of thirteen year old boys in the buff. I don’t care how much his last action pic grossed, that guy was total Hollywood road kill now. “What about him?” I asked.
“Being arraigned today. It’s your story, right?”
Damned straight. My headline the morning after Pine’s arrest had read: PINES PINES AFTER PINT-SIZED PRE-TEENS. What can I say? I had a thing for alliterations.
But as much as I was relishing the story, I wasn’t thrilled with the timing.
“He’s being arraigned now?” I asked, my stomach growling. “It’s dinner time.”
“The news waits for no one, love. Cam’s meeting you at the courthouse,” he said, ducking back into his office.
So much for my burrito. “Shit.”
“Bender…”
“I know, I know. ” I reached into Strawberry Shortcake and pulled out another quarter, dropping it in the ceramic pig on my way out.
At this rate, I’d be broke by Christmas.

* * *

What do you guys think? Feedback? Early reviews?


~Trigger (and cover!) Happy Halliday


P.S.
For any of you writers out there, I’m conducting a series of workshops on my website this summer. The first one, the New Author’s Survival Guide, will be next month. So, if any of you are newly/about-to-be published or planning ahead for when that call does come, check it out!

*****Permission to Forward*****

Online workshop: New Author’s Survival Guide

A practical guide for the newly published. Whether you’ve just signed your first print contract with New York, are dipping your toes into the arena of e-publishing for the first time, or preparing in advance for when that first call comes, this course will take you on a step-by-step journey from contract to bookshelves with everything a new author needs to know to survive in the competitive marketplace. In this one week online course, we’ll go over:

- Contracts – what to avoid and what to fight for
- Rights – what to do with your TV/Film, Foreign, Electronic, and Audio rights
- Editor/agent relations – who do you turn to, how often, what makes you vigilant and what makes you a pest
- Revisions and Galleys – what to expect, what to watch for
- Promotion – how to tailor a promo campaign for you, make the most of your promo dollars, and getting your publisher behind your book
- Cover art/blurbs – your input and options
- Cover quotes – how to get them, which ones are most effective
- Contact info for reviewers, vendors, booksellers

May 4th - May 11th Cost $20
For more information or to register for class, please go to:
http://www.gemmahalliday.com/classes/

Instructor Bio:
Gemma Halliday is the author of the High Heels Mysteries, as well as this fall’s upcoming Hollywood Headlines romantic mystery series. Gemma’s books have won a multitude of awards, including a Golden Heart, a National Reader’s Choice award and two RITA nominations. She’s sold foreign rights for two of her novels, and optioned television rights for her debut book, SPYING IN HIGH HEELS.