Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I’m visiting Lissa Matthews today to help celebrate her birthday. Here’s the link to her blog: Lissa Matthews.

This week has been awesome for reviews. I’ve received two Recommended Reads for Stranger Things Happen. One was from Blackraven’s Reviews and the other from Dark Diva Reviews. The reviewer at Dark Diva Reviews said, “Shelley Munro is a master at penning stories that melts you from the inside out. If you don’t believe me, then check out Stranger Things Happen.”

Today I received a Recommended Read for Resisting Tamaki at HEA Reviews. The reviewer said, “I adored everything about this. The sex scenes are cold shower worthy hot and the writing is beautiful. The characters are likable. Shelley Munro is clearly a master at her craft. Read this book!” Here’s the link to the full review at HEA Reviews.

I’ve received the first review for Stranger Things Happen and it’s a good one!

Here’s a quote from the review:

“If you’re looking for a Friday night that’s guaranteed to set your body on fire from the explosive sex that these three cowboys embrace in with Anna, warm your heart and soul from the love that two perfect strangers eventually find when they give fate a chance, and put a smile on your face right before Valentine’s Day, then Stranger Things Happen by Shelley Munro is definitely the perfect book to read.”

To read the full review go to Blackraven’s Reviews

BTW – I received 5 Ravens and a Recommended Read. Happy dancing all around.

My book in the Perfect Stranger series, Stranger Things Happen is out today.

Here’s the blurb:

All Friday nights should be this good…

Computer programmer Anna Walton is lonely and facing a dry spell of epic proportions. Tired of the dating scene, she decides to spend her Friday night testing the Reality Suite, a program she and her friends have developed. She orders up some lighthearted flirting and energetic dancing with a fruity drink or two on the side, but what she gets are three hot cowboys with sex and mutual pleasure on their minds.

Dante Rosetti, his brother Gabriel and cousin Cayle take one look at the curvy Anna and decide exactly how their Friday night should play out. Lots of naked bodies, sensual sighs and hot, belly-clenching pleasure.

Once she’s adrift in a stormy sea of fantasy sex with three strangers, will Anna ever want it to end?

Purchase Stranger Things Happen from All Romance eBooks

I recently did a self-editing course with Angela James from Carina Press. One of the first things she tells course participants to do is read your work aloud. I’ve done this a little bit in the past and always felt a little stupid talking to myself. But the thing is when you read your work aloud, you listen to the flow of the words and hear any little stutters or awkward phrasing.

If you don’t like reading try Natural Soft. It’s a free text to speech software. Check it out.

Another idea I came across while doing the self-editing course is Wordle, which is a word cloud. Use this with your manuscripts to highlight overused words. A note with this one–I couldn’t get it to work for a long time. The problem was my Java, which was out of date. If you have problems go to Java and do an update.

And a final note–if you have a chance to do Angela’s self-editing course jump at it. I learned a lot and found the course very helpful.

Exciting news! I received an email from Whipped Cream Reviews letting me know that House of the Cat has been nominated for Best Book of 2010.
Voting opens on Mon 14 February.

I’d like to share some excellent writing articles from the Women on Writing website.

How to Trim the Fat from Your Manuscript

Recovering From Injury: Bouncing Back From a Rejection

Get Your Marketing Plan in Shape

Some of my blog visitors are already familiar with Bella, the new addition to Munro house. She’s very cute, full of energy and has an endearing way even after she’s committed a crime – read this as digging in Mr. Munro’s garden. When we picked up Bella her brown ear stuck up all the time while the white ear flopped over. The photo below shows her lopsided look.

Last week both ears suddenly started to flop and she looked balanced. Great, we thought. Then, this happened…

Her brown ear is flopping and her white ear is suddenly sticking straight up. She’s currently sporting the lopsided look and has been for two days. Talk about weird!

To view more animal photos visit Camera Critters

Most days I go for a bike ride. It’s a great way to get out of the house and combat bottom spread–the writer’s curse. I think I suffer from a very mild form of hayfever or allergies because the minute I go outside my nose starts to run. It’s not enough to cause me distress, but when I’m exercising I tend to breathe through my mouth.

Picture this: Me calmly riding along on my bike with my mouth open and listening to my iPod.

Got the picture? Right. The minute I open my mouth it’s like an invitation to a Rave. The invitation spreads fast and far to every bug in the vicinity. They fly in like kamikaze pilots, diving bombing me to get to the party.

Now, we get to the unladylike topic of spitting.

Here’s what happens. A bug flies into my mouth. First I almost run my bike off the path. I’m choking and gasping and flapping my hands. Oh, good, I think. The bug didn’t get in. Then I feel it. The bug inside my mouth. I gag and splutter and attempt to spit it out. It’s still there. I gather up saliva, swish my mouth and do my very best spit. A great blob of saliva lands on my hand and I start laughing. Remember I’m still riding my bike? Right. I’m now chuckling like an idiot, wobbling down the path, and swiping my wet hand on my T-shirt. Oy!

When hubby reads this he’s gonna laugh. He’s always said I’m a girl when it comes to spitting. Personally I don’t think it’s a skill I need to learn, not unless I come back as a llama or a camel. Then I’ll be in real trouble.

BTW – today’s bike ride was a two-bug day.

How are your spitting skills?

I’m fairly new to Twitter, and I’m always wondering what to tweet about. I subscribe to The Book Marketing Expert newsletter and this week they included an article covering things for people to tweet about. Here are a few of them.

Thirteen Things For Authors to Tweet About

1. Teach stuff – teach a little mini-lesson on Twitter. Delve into your area of expertise or just talk about book publishing and how to get published.

2. Share sites or blogs that your followers would be interested in. Be their “filter” to new and exciting information.

3. Use Twitter as a news source: you can easily announce news both from your world (as long as it relates to your topic) and from the world of your expertise.

4. Tweet any good reviews your book gets, it’s always fun to share the good stuff!

5. Feed your blog through Twitter using Twitterfeed.com

6. Use YouTube to share helpful videos you think your followers will love.

7. Run a contest.

8. Ask for advice or ask questions that encourage responses.

9. Talk about the latest trends in your industry.

10. Review a product or book on Twitter.

11. Post an inspirational quote or message.

12. Follow big names in your market on Twitter: this will often bring in their followers too, and you want to see what the “big guys” are up to.

13. Widen your network – follow other Twitter folk, this will not only give you some ideas for your own “tweets” but it’s a great way to network with other writers or professionals.

Source: Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Are you on Twitter? If so, what is your Twitter handle? (I’m @ShelleyMunro) What do you tweet about?

We’ve had our puppy Bella for about two weeks now. She’s the cutest little thing, but she does tend to be a bit cheeky/naughty. When she gets excited she starts to bite. Since she still has her baby teeth, it feels like needles piercing the skin. We definitely want to dissuade her from this habit.

Author Kimberly Menozzi had an excellent hint in one of her recent Thursday Thirteen posts. She keeps a spray bottle filled with water to dissuade her kitten from biting and clawing. I was immediately taken by this idea, deciding it could work with a rambunctious puppy.

This morning Bella was really naughty during her walk. I was half a block from home and decided to return to get the spray bottle. I didn’t care if people laughed when they saw my giant blue spray bottle. All I wanted to do was get her to stop biting both me and the lead.

The spray bottle works a treat. All I have to do is show it to her now and she stops biting furniture or people.

Really, a bright blue spray bottle is the very best of fashion accessories for the discerning puppy owner!

Do you have any puppy (or kitten) tips?

I’m visiting Rhonda Print’s blog today. Rhonda did an interview with me and I’m also giving away a download of A Discreet Affair to one commenter. Here’s the link to Rhonda’s blog

I’ve received the final cover for My Perfect Stranger story. Stranger Things Happen will be out on 6 February. What do you think?