Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I was very excited to learn Fancy Free has been nominated as one of the best contemporary/suspense books over at Night Owl Romance. Here’s the link. There are lots of great books up for awards. Go over and vote – either for me or one of the other excellent books. I feel like a winner just being nominated!

A few years ago agent Donald Maass of the Donald Maass Literary Agency visited New Zealand to speak to us at our conference. He’s a wonderful speaker and I came away from his workshop feeling very inspired. At the moment he has a free download at his website of one of the books he’s written – The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success. I’ve already downloaded my copy. I like his book Writing the Breakout Novel. I have a copy, which I must read again because it’s full of excellent advice.

I’m about all things tea this week while I gear up for the 14 October release of Tea For Two, my first Samhain book. I noticed when I was over in the US recently that everyone drinks iced tea. We even had iced tea at the conference. I have to say it’s not something I enjoy drinking. Hot tea–yes, but not iced tea. Could someone tell me why they like iced tea because I can’t see the attraction.

I received my cover for my upcoming release from Samhain Publishing. My debut book for Samhain actually! Tea For Two is a contemporary tale about a woman who reads tea leaves. She tells a small white lie and the secrets start to escalate. i.e. they come back to bite her in the butt! Tea For Two is set in London and I had fun returning to London even if it was only in my writing. Here’s the cover. What do you think?

Tea For Two releases on 14 October, and by the time this posts I should have an excerpt up on my blog.

My special guest today is Samhain author, Lorelei James. She’s talking about family trees and books. Over to Lorelei and her Western men!

Shelley contacted me after she’d finished, TIED UP, TIED DOWN, the latest book in my Rough Riders series from Samhain Publishing, wondering if I’d ever considered creating a family tree for the characters as a reference point for readers.

I’ll admit I hadn’t thought of it. I’ll also admit I have lots of characters in my books — no one really is an island, even in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. The Rough Riders books are a Western saga, if you will, featuring a large ranching family. Each book can be read as a standalone, but each book builds on the entire arc of the series, both forward and backward, and each one features a different McKay or West family member.

***Complete disclosure; if I had it to do all over again, I would not have so many ‘C’ and ‘K’ names in this series – although it is something families do frequently out here in the Wild West, begin all offspring’s first names with the same letter. As sort of a wink wink nudge nudge to my readers and myself, in TIED UP, TIED DOWN, Skylar complains about the excessive use of the same consonant in the McKay family. And Kane asks his twin brother Kade why their mother gave them such similar names.***

I remember a series by a famous author in which the first couple in the series birthed one kid in the epilogue. Then in the next connected book that same couple were blessed with twins…but no mention of the first child. In the 3rd or 4th book, that same couple had triplets, not twins, still no mention of that poor little forgotten first kiddo. The inconsistency pulled me out of the story. Readers might think it is the copy editor’s job to double check facts and character lineage, but I wonder if the whole incident could’ve been avoided had the author created a family tree.

So I took Shelley’s suggestion to heart. Not only would an official roadmap be a bonus for readers, it’d be an easy way for me to keep track of my own characters. I checked a couple of author sites to see how they structured their family trees to get an idea of what I wanted. Then I posed the challenge to my readers loop, The James Gang, and two fabulous ladies volunteered to head up the project. Honestly, I think they’re afraid if I’m dinking around with working on a family tree I won’t actually be writing, and they’re sort of antsy for me to get the next book finished

These fans, Joy Roett and Carla Hartman created not one, not two, but three separate family trees. Immediately I sent the finished project to my website designer to post. Check out the results here.

Question of the day for readers: Do you look at family trees in the beginnings of books? Or skip over them entirely? Or would you go to the author’s website for more information?

Lorelei James writes erotic Westerns set in the modern day Wild West. For more information on books, contests and the James Gang readers yahoo group, visit Lorelei’s website: www.loreleijames.com

I have a new interview up at Sensual. You can read it here.

And in writing news I’m delighted to announce I’ve sold a book to Samhain Publishing. Tea For Two is a hot contemporary set in London and is the story of a Hayley, a woman who reads tea leaves and finds love along the way. I’m really excited about joining the Samhain family. Actually, color me very excited!!

I’ve been reading a lot of m/m lately. I’m not sure why, but I’ve felt in the mood to read this genre. My favorite out of all my recent reads would have to be Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English series. Adrien owns a bookstore specializing in mysteries and has a habit of stumbling over dead bodies. His lover is a cop called Jake who is firmly in the closet and has no intention of coming out – ever. The books are not erotic and there aren’t many love scenes. They concentrate mainly on the solving the mystery and the relationship between the two. I’ve fallen in love with Adrien. Actually, I like Jake too. This is a seriously good series, and quite frankly, Josh needs to write faster because I’ve just about read all his books now. I highly recommend Josh’s books.

This week’s special guest is Nicole Austin. At her website Nicole says, “A passion for erotic romance led to her creation of sizzling characters and boundary pushing stories.” Her wonderful stories are published with Ellora’s Cave and Samhain Publishing.

She’s also giving away a print copy of her upcoming release, Tamara’s Spirit, which isn’t due out until February. That’s right. The winner will score a copy of Nicole’s book before it hits the stores. As usual all you need to do is contribute to the discussion by posting a comment. Don’t forget to check back the next day to see if you’re the winner.

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