The Conference You Don’t Have to Get Out of Bed For!
From July 28-31, come hang out with some terrific, savvy authors — and you don’t even have to brush your teeth (although, seriously, good dental hygiene gets you extra points.)
We’ll be hosting panels on:
The Power of Three: A crit group tell-all (Paranormal)
Register for free at Romance Divas, then come join us on the forums for the discussions, as well as some terrific prizes: Eden Bradley/Eve Berlin:
1) erotic e-books, THE SEEKING KISS and TEMPT ME TWICE.
2) a synopsis critique in any sub-genre of erotica/erotic romance. Jax Cassidy:
1) erotic e-books, DEVIL’S HEART and BRUSH STROKES.
2) book cover design or banner ad Kristen Painter:
copy of her e-book, ALL FIRED UP Rhonda Stapleton:
1) STUPID CUPID YA Book trilogy
2) a proposal critique (1st 3 chapters and synopsis) for any genre of book, romance or not K.B. Alan:
1) The choice of one of her e-books: PERFECT FORMATION, ALPHA TURNED or BOUND BY SUNLIGHT.
2) A $25 Barnes and Noble gift card. Robin L. Rotham: Signed copies of BIG TEMPTATION, ALIEN OVERNIGHT, and ENEMY OVERNIGHT AJ Chase: copies of e-book CAT AND MOUSE Inez Kelley:
1) e-book package of both MYLA BY MOONLIGHT and SALOME AT SUNRISE
2) The complete Dirty Laundry Series (3 e-novellas) co-written by Ginny Glass aka Wordsugar and Inez Kelley Kate Pearce:
1) a three chapter ~and~ synopsis critique-any erotic romance, paranormal romance or historical romance.
2) Winners choice, in either print or e-book format (if available), of a set of the Simply series (there are 5) ~or~ a set of the Cowboys (there are 3) ~or~ a copy of KISS OF THE ROSE-readers choice. R.G. Alexander:
Winners choice of any two e-books from her Samhain or Ellora’s Cave back list Nadia Lee:
Critique of 1st chapter & synopsis-paranormal or contemporary romance Shelley Munro: Winners choice of any one her backlist books from Ellora’s Cave or Cerridwen Press Ciar Cullen: Winner’s choice of any one e-book on her website. Voirey Linger: A copy of her e-book RISKING ETERNITY RF Long:
1) a submission package critique (letter, synopsis and 3 chapters)
2) e-books! (details TBA) Crystal Jordan:
1) 1st chapter and synopsis critique
2) One copy of any e-book off her Samhain backlist (http://samhainpublis…/crystal-jordan)
3) One copy of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (print or electronic, winner’s choice) Jeannie Lin:
1) a first chapter critique, any genre
2) an official BUTTERFLY SWORDS souvenir charm Elise Logan: Winner’s choice of any e-book from her backlist
Marguerite Labbe:
1) A critique of an m/m story
2) Signed copies of her m/m vampire trilogy MY HEART IS WITHIN YOU, HAUNTED BY YOUR SOUL and OUR SACRED BALANCE Seeley DeBorn:
One jar of home made body or face scrub, customized to the winner’s preferences and skin type.
For example: Orange Spice Oatmeal, Coffee-Cocoa, Citrus Salt, Lavender Mint, Honey and Flax
Sela Carsen: a copy of her e-book CAROLINA WOLF Hailey Edwards:
1) a copy of her sweet fantasy romance ebook, EVERLONG.
2) two five dollar MBaM gift cards Charlotte McClain:
Copy of her two e-books, LOVE TO DECLARE and ROCK STAR’S RETREAT Cynthia Justlin: (Golden Heart Finalist!) Proposal Critique (3 Chapters and synopsis)-any genre other than erotic Lainey Bancroft:
1) signed copies of her contemporary romance, THE TROUBLE WITH TESSA and her chick lit romance COZUMEL KARMA
2) Proposal critique (3 chapters and a synopsis) any genre except Steampunk Tina Burns-Publisher-Liquid Silver Books:
1) a critique of 1st 3 chapters & synopsis
2) 3 be-book prizes for 3 different winners! Winners choice of any one e-book download from LSB library. Mima:
Winner’s choice of one e-book from her backlist-see her website for booklist.
Taneasha: handmade jewelry by our own Taneasha-details to come!
Barbara Sheridan:
1) Winners choice of one e-book from her backlist-see her website for booklist.
2) Critique of up to 20 pages of either M/M, or M/F romance or erotic romance in various subgenres (contemporary, historical, paranormal or suspense/mystery) David Bridger:
A copy of his ebook BEAUTY AND THE BASTARD Victoria Janssen:
3 print books TBA (whatever she finds at the RWA Conference) Gemma Halliday:
Signed copy of SCANDAL SHEET Jennifer Leeland/Jennifer McKenzie:
1) copy of her e-book MARKED FOR PLEASURE (Kindle version available upon request)
2) copy of her e-book MARKED FOR DESIRE (Releasing June 29th) (Kindle version available upon request)
3) copy of her e-books The Command Series (Trilogy)
4)copy of her BDSM e-book series (3 from TWRP and 1 from Samhain) Emily Ryan-Davis:
1) Critique of novella-length (up to 30k) manuscript; any time period, m/f, menage, f/f (m/m not her area of expertise)
2) signed print copies of her anthology: MATING CALL, DRAGON DANCE and DRAGON BOUND
3) e-book copy of CHANGING THUMBELINA Sabrina Darby:
1) Signed copy of her erotic historical novel, ON THESE SILKEN SHEETS
2) Critique of first thirty pages of any Regency (erotic or non erotic fine, but m/m outside my area of expertise) Alina Morgan:
1) copy of her e-book The Twilight Deception
2) copy of her e-book The Shadow Unveiled Debbie Mumford:
1) Critique of a synopsis
2) Winner’s choice of any e-book from her back list. Kimberly Troutte:
1) copy of her e-book SOUL STEALER
2) copy of her e-book CATCH ME IN CASTILE Sasha Devlin:
1 pair of hand made writing mitts or gloves-style and color TBD by the winner Julia Knight
Winner’s choice of one copy of any of her books available in e-book format
Writers – have you ever had trouble writing a love scene and keeping track of limbs? Carina Press author, Kathleen Dienne has written an excellent post about writing love scenes and making sure your characters don’t do the impossible.
I do my very best thinking in the shower. I think about my day. I think about my current work-in-progress and plotting problems. I think about my goals. The only problem with doing my thinking in the shower is that I can’t take notes. By the time I get out of the shower, some of my brilliance is forgotten. So, imagine my excitement when I saw Stepcase Lifehack’s post on Productivity PrOn: 5 Unusually Useful Nightpads and found a mention of some special notebooks.
Author Adrienne Kress has an interesting post called It’s Not About the Odds. She talks about the luck required in getting a publishing contract and how you can slant those odds in your favor by doing a great query letter.
Rebecca at Dirty Sexy Books has a tongue in cheek post about urban fantasy stories. If you’re not really sure what an urban fantasy is read the Ten Commandments of Urban Fantasy.
Margie Lawson has a guest post at Routines for Writers. It’s all about writing body language and verbal cues–an important thing in good characterization.
I’m reading a book called The Wolf Almanac by Robert H Busch. It’s research for a new idea I have, and you might have guessed from the title that my story will feature wolves.
I often come across good articles and posts relating to writing and the writing business when I’m surfing on the net. What? You thought I wrote all the time?
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy both keeping up with the writing market and learning new things. I thought I’d share the bounty and repost some of the links I’ve found.
Bootstrap Book Marketing Co-op has a post on one thing that can really derail a writing career, and that is professional jealousy. We all have times when we feel down or think someone else is getting a better deal than us and the green-eyed monster creeps in. Bootstrap has a post called The Writer’s Other Classic Curse and Four Ways to Deal With It.
Erastes writes some very thought provoking posts at Reviews by Jessewave. A recent post related to horses in historical novels. Neigh…I blame Hollywood talks about horses and mistakes writers making with them. Note Reviews by Jessewave reviews gay romances, but the post on horses relates to all historicals.
I like blogging. I enjoy doing my posts and visiting others to see what they’re blogging about. I like the interaction with readers and other authors. Initially most of my blog stops were writing related and I visited other writers plus agent, publisher and reviewer blogs.
I’ve learned I enjoy posts that give me visuals as well as the post and have started implementing this at my blog. (although this one has nothing to do with my post! It’s just a nice shot of New Zealand) Most of my posts also end with a question to give visitors something to comment about if they want.
Recently I’ve started branching out because blogging is one form of promo that I enjoy. I’ve visited blogs on cooking, travel, handicrafts, photography and farming. My exploration started as research for a story idea, but it also turned into a personal analysis of what I think works in a blog.
I’ve also discovered a phenomenon called the Blog Carnival. This is where one person acts as host and sets a theme. Different bloggers then send them links and the host does a post showcasing all the links. Here’s a more detailed explanation. I thought this was a good way of reaching potential readers and decided to join some of the carnivals.
I think I might even set up my own blog carnival soon, probably writing or romance related, although I might venture into new territory and connect the blog carnival with an aspect of my research.
Do you like blogging? What are your favorite non-writing blogs to visit? Have you heard about the blog carnival before and would you be interested in participating?
So this track was playing on my iPod while Scotty and I wandered at our old-dog pace around the reserve this morning. It made me start thinking. Possibly a bad thing, but follow along…
I’m a country girl at heart, and my husband also grew up on a farm. The farming background gives us a lot in common. But I’ve also lived in towns and cities and met city boys. Their idea of dates are different for a start. A country man might take you to a rodeo, to an agricultural show or stock sales. Dinner out might be at the local pub and jeans are fine. In the city, dates are to nightclubs, nice restaurants or maybe a walk in a park. There are art galleries and museums and sexy dresses. Spiky heels that áre in no danger of sinking halfway to China when you walk beside your man. Try that in the country and see what happens!
In most of my writing, and especially in my Middlemarch series, the heroes are all country boys. Strong, capable farmers who don’t need to work out in a gym. An exception to this rule would be PLAYING TO WIN where my hero is a professional rugby player and businessman. He does a lot of promotion and charity work and is at home wearing a suit. While my Middlemarch men could do the suit thing, they’re more at home in the wide open spaces.
I like to read about both types of heroes, but I have a real soft spot for a cowboy, country male type. I like them because they’re independent, capable, usually emotionally strong and can turn their hand to anything. They’re not generally full of themselves. Maybe they’re not quite as good at romance, but we know the right woman can smooth the rough edges.
What do you think about real life – country man or a city man and why? And in fiction – which do you choose? Is your answer different and why?
This year Harlequin is celebrating sixty years of romance. They’re giving away free downloads of sixteen titles that represent most of their lines. If you haven’t checked out their free offer yet, run straight over and download the titles that grab your interest. I’ve already downloaded my share.
Here’s the link.
Today I have a selection of interesting tidbits for you from the world wide web.
The first is at Romancing the Blog and it’s about books and censorship. This post shocked me. I dislike censorship of any sort and feel that adults should have freedom of choice. I can borrow erotic romances at my local library. They’re labeled with large stickers that state the book contains explicit content. It’s my choice to check out a book with spicy content. I presume this also alerts the librarian if a minor tries to check one out. That’s all the oldies need on their library books – a sticker stating the book contains salty language or explicit content. They can then choose to read a particular book or leave it on the shelf.
Emily at EREC has a post about Everything Old. It’s about the universal problems faced by authors. They’re ageless problems!
I’m blogging over at The Samhellion about Sleeping with the Fishes and routine. I forgot to mention it yesterday. Oops!
Sign up to receive a free copy of Night Hawk, a short story by Lora Leigh.
I’ve been working hard with my writing, starting quite early in the day. I can only sit for an hour or so and try to walk around a little in between. I’ll go and get a cup of tea and do a few stretches. I’m still going through my Country music phase and had the Country station playing. A lively song came on so I started dancing instead of stretching. After a while I sensed someone staring. I turned around and our little dog had woken up from her snooze. She was out of her basket, standing beside it, and staring at me in total disapproval. We stared at each other for a long moment, silently communicating.
“You look stupid,” her look said.
My look said, “Too bad. I’m having fun.”
And I ignored her and carried on. She kept staring until I stopped and went back to writing. I could practically see her thoughts as she settled back down in her basket. I’m so embarrassed. Of all the owners in the world, why did I have to get this one!
On the web, I came across this post by agent, Holly Root. It’s about the Seven Deadly Sins of Publishing. I thought it was rather good, especially the part about each writer’s career being different and you shouldn’t compare your path to another writers.
I also found this post about Kitchen Myths and Pretensions very interesting. There were a few things I knew and I learned some new things, too.
I read in the New Zealand Herald today that some of King Henry VIII’s love letters, along with thousands of other Tudor and Elizabethan documents, go online this month for public viewing.
The love letters were written by the king in 1527 to the woman who became his second wife. He was still married to Catherine of Aragon at the time. He writes to Anne: “I beg to know expressly your intention touching the love between us. Necessity compels me to obtain this answer, having been more than a year wounded by the dart of love, and not yet sure whether I shall fail or find a place in your affection.”
Here’s the link. It wasn’t live when I went to look, but they say it will go live very soon.
