Romance Novel Sluts

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Good morning!

Well, the countdown to the National Conference for the Romance Writers of America is in full swing for me. I love going to the conference for a lot of reasons. Catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while is always a high point for me. I also get to spend time with my wonderful agent and editors, something I look forward to every year.

But this year is especially exciting for me. For the first time one of my books is a finalist in the RITA competition. For those of you who might not be familiar with the RITAs, it’s the most prestigious award a book in the romance genre can receive. I can’t tell you how honored I am to have my name and book, DARKNESS UNKNOWN, included in the list of finalists.

DARKNESS UNKNOWN is the fifth book in my Paladin series. The hero, Jarvis Donahue, first appeared in the second book in the series, DARK DEFENDER. He was supposed to be one of those characters who briefly appears for a specific purpose and then fades into the background. Jarvis had other ideas on the subject. He planted his feet in the middle of story and refused to disappear. I knew then that he wouldn’t be happy until he had his own book.

That didn’t mean I’d make it easy for him. The heroine meets him when she finds him mostly dead in the creek in the woods at the back edge of her farm. She recognizes his ability to heal quickly because her younger brother has the same talent. Jarvis ends up caught between his attraction to Gwen and his duty to introduce her younger brother to the world of the Paladins. Gwen has her own problems. She realizes on that there is far more to Jarvis than the handsome, charming man he appears to be on the surface. She isn’t sure that she can handle the warrior he truly is.

He questions everything.

No one thought Chief Talion Greyhill Danby would report to work so soon after wrapping up his affairs in London. Then again, he didn’t expect to find a beautiful spy with a major attitude in his new office. Clearly the Kyth’s Grand Dame doesn’t trust him to do his duty—to protect her.

She fears the truth.

Piper Ryan isn’t keen on the arrangement either. Matching wits with an ancient warrior isn’t in her administrative job description. But sharing space with the red-hot head of security could have unexpectedly tempting benefits . . . if he doesn’t dig into her secret past.

Opposites always attract.

When a mysterious e-mails result in danger, the fiery sparks between Piper and Grey grow scorching hot. They must defend the throne from a deadly invisible attacker, but will their raging desire keep them together . . . or will their burning suspicions tear them apart?

The winners for the RITA competition will be announced the evening of July 31st on the final night of the conference. Picture the Oscars, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the night is like. Lots of glitz and pizzazz, it’s the highlight of the conference. And whether I win or not, I’m just thrilled to get to be part of the celebration.

Alexis Morgan grew up near St. Louis and received a B.A. in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She and her husband have made the Pacific Northwest their home for more than thirty years, where she launched her career as a writer. She is published in contemporary romance, American West historicals, and currently writes paranormal romances for Pocket Star and Silhouette Nocturne. Her book, Darkness Unknown, is a finalist in the RITA’s, the top award in the romance genre.  Her next book, Dark Warrior Untamed, will be out next week!

Hi everyone… Wish we were doing this in person.  It’s so much fun for a writer to talk to other writers or readers.  Funny thing about being a writer.  The laptop doesn’t talk back which makes it a very solitary occupation.  Thus my love of talking when I get the chance.

So here’s the scoop on me.  I think I’ve loved romance from the start and just didn’t know it.  My first favorite author ever was Zane Grey.  OMG.  Picture an eight year old girl reading about heroes larger than life who are willing to die for the brand and for their girl.  I was hooked from the start.  I went from those to all of the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories (Tarzan).  I know, I know… but he was a nearly nude male who could swing from the trees and save people.  What’s not to love about that?

I went from those to the stories of Emilie Loring and Grace Livingstone Hill.  Those were all romances of the sweetest kind.  The most hot stuff going on in those books was a kiss at the end, but I had yet to reach twelve and was happy with that.  In later years, I became a huge Louis L’amour fan.  Read all of his stories.  I think my all-time favorite was actually one of the few he wrote that wasn’t a historical western.  It was called LAST OF THE BREED, about a Native American fighter pilot who crash lands on the coast of Russia, just across the water from the Alaskan shore.  It was about how he called on his knowledge of his warrior past to survive in the cold and snow and how he hid from the Russians until he could be saved.  I bought it for my son for a stocking stuffer one Christmas, (he was a huge LL fan, too) and then I sat up and read the whole thing before I could put it in his stocking and go to bed.  Call me obsessive, but I got my hero fix big-time with that one.

I mention all this because, if you know my work and the men I write about in my stories, you might recognize the same type.  I still love the men who are tough and strong, but not afraid to cry.  I love the men who honor their women, but never expect them to walk that step behind.  Instead, their women walk beside them, with their heads high, knowing they are cherished.  GREAT BIG SIGH.

So I have a trilogy out right now with heroes like this.  The first book in the Storm Front trilogy is called BLOWN AWAY.  It came out in June.  The second book is TORN APART.  It’s just out – a July release.  The last will be out in August.  It’s called SWEPT ASIDE.  It’s about what happens to three different families/people when a hurricane-spawned tornado hits their sleepy little Louisiana town.

The first “real” romance I read that made me want to write them was Danielle Steele’s PALOMINO.  I still love that story.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of the J.D ROBB books, as well.  Eve Dallas is my kind of woman.

There are so many wonderful writers and like everyone I know, I have a huge TBR pile, as well.  It sort of comforting to me…like my security blanket…to know that when all else fails, I still have those to fall back on.

The novel I’m working on now is called BLOOD STAINS.  It will be the first book in a trilogy I’m doing that will be out next year.  I’m actually about finished with it.  Just doing a little editing/cleaning up on it.  July 3rd is my birthday.  I’m planning on writing THE END on that novel on the 3rd as my birthday present to myself.

Hope you all have a safe and happy summer.

Happy reading and always…always…remember the romance.

-Sharon Sala

Sharon Sala is a long-time member of RWA, as well as a member of OKRWA. She has 80 plus books in print, written as Sharon Sala and Dinah McCall. First published in 1991, she’s a seven-time RITA finalist, winner of the Janet Dailey Award, four-time Career Achievement winner from RT Magazine, National Reader’s Choice Award, and Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence winners five times each. Her books are New York Times , USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, WaldenBooks mass market best-sellers. Writing changed her life, her world, and her fate.

So, obviously I like to read romance. Well, I like to read everything. But since right now I’m writing romance, it’s only fair to wonder what my favorite romance books have been, or at least the ones that put me on my path.

First of all, I should make a confession. I never read The Flame and the Flower. In fact, I’ve never read Kathleen Woodiwiss at all. It wasn’t a matter of distaste or prejudice. I was just a mystery reader back then. In fact, it wasn’t until 1981 that I read my first modern romance. My friend Katie Wilson, who worked with me in the ER, kept trying to get me to read romance. Finally, just to shut her up, I accepted a grocery bag full and said I’d try it. And that bag changed my life.

Still no Woodiwiss. Not even Rosemary Rogers or Karen Robards. Instead the bag held books by Nora Roberts, Jayne Krentz, Rebecca Brandywine, Jude Devereaux, Lisa Gregory. A wide range of stories and writing styles, but all the books had one thing in common: the heroines were all strong women. The endings were happy. Hey, I thought. I could get into this.

Obviously I did. But which was my favorite? Oh, good heavens. I have no idea. I’ve read way too many. In fact, and I’m not boasting, I think I’ve read every sweet Regency romance ever written(it had been a bad year). There are so many brilliant romance authors, that it’s too hard for me to single out one author or one book as my definitive favorite. I can say that there are some that stand out. Laura Leone’s Fever Dreams, Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, Mary Jo Putney’s One Perfect Rose. Morning Glory by Lavryle Spencer and….you see what I mean? I can’t limit them.
Or maybe I can. Well, I can at least point to the author who probably did more than anybody else to get me where I am now.

It’s all my friend Sally Hawkes’s fault. Sally is the one who really guided my feet through Regency England. And she knew that I loved nothing more than a cracking adventure. So she said, “Have you read Patricia Veryan?”
Now Patricia isn’t for everyone. Her language is what I call High Regency. Patrick O’Brien’s characters speak much the same way. Not only that, she has a habit in her books of utilizing a quaint plot device I like to call Gypsy Ex Machina. But I’m telling you here and now, nobody does what I call historical adventure better. You think Scarlet Pimpernel was great (actually, the book was awful. The heroine spent the whole book sitting in a cottage waiting while the hero had adventures)? Well, it had nothing on the Patricia Veryan books.

She had three series, The Golden Chronicles and the Tales of the Jeweled Men, which were set right after Culloden and followed the purported Jacobite treasure, and then, later, in 1815, the Sanguinet Series. I’ll tell you how good those books are. I read them in order. Golden, Jeweled and then Sanguinet. But when I opened the first book of the Sanguinet series, I realized that strangers were living in the home of one of my favorite characters from the earlier series, Muffin. Suddenly I realized that the Sanguinet series began sixty years after the end of the Jeweled Man series. Which meant…..which meant…..Muffin was dead!! Not only that, everybody in the first two series was dead! This may sound stupid, but I had to put that book down for a good couple of weeks so I could grieve for characters who never existed. Only then could I read about their fictional descendents.

I admit I also love a good wounded hero. Well, Sally and I nicknamed Veryan’s books “The Gimp of the Month Club”. There was LOTS of action. And then, to cap it off, Veryan wrote one of the great romance books ever, A Dedicated Villain. The hero, Roland Otton, has been the quasi-villain of the first four books, taking advantage of the political turmoil in England after Culloden to feather his own nest. As one of the other characters says about him, “the nice thing about this particular friend was that there’s no doubting his reprehensible qualities. He makes no bones of the fact that he’s a rascal, which simplified matters.”

And even though you see him do fairly despicable things, you can’t help but like him. In fact, by the time you read Dedicated Villain, in which he is the hero, you want to see him redeemed.

Like the good magpie I am, I stole a couple of bright, shiny things from Veryan, like the idea that historicals can have action and adventure and suspense along with emotion and sex(well, okay, I added the sex. Veryan was a bit too proper). And one more thing. In a completely different series of books, I made the villain of the first two books the heroine of the third. I did that in my Daughters of Mabh series I did for Nocturne as Kathleen Korbel. And I have to tell you: it’s particularly satisfying.

So while I refuse to name my favorite book among the hundreds I’ve read, I will tell you who impacted me the most. I think it’s Patricia Veryan.

What book or author impacted you the most? Not necessarily the most popular, or the one you reread the most? The one that changed the direction of either your reading or writing. The one that opened your eyes to a completely new genre or time period or character?

Eileen Dreyer is a multiple Rita award winning author who has been previously published in series romance, paranormal romance, and mystery, who just entered the historical romance genre with the first book in the Drake’s Rakes series, Barely a Lady – out now!

Thanks for having me today! Sarah asked me to talk about some of my favorite romances, and then I want to hear about some of yours. Mine include anything and everything by Lisa Kleypas. I absolutely adore her books, especially her Hathaway series.  Lisa is one of the few authors I run out to buy on launch day. If you haven’t read her Hathaway series, I highly recommend it. I bought the final book in the series, Love in the Afternoon, on Tuesday and I’ve been annoyed that I haven’t been able to devour it this week. Don’t you hate when life gets in the way of your reading plans? In addition to Lisa’s historicals, I also love her contemporary series that began with Sugar Baby. Lisa could write the phonebook and I’d read it.

Other favorites include Mary Balogh’s Huxtable series, about another unforgettable family. Are you seeing a pattern here? Despite the fact that I write contemporary and romantic suspense, I love, love, love the historicals! I blame my friend Michele Anne Young for getting me hooked with her book last year, Lady Flees Her Lord, which is awesome by the way! That book left me wanting more historicals, and I’ve been totally insatiable ever since. Another of my auto buy series is Robyn Carr’s Virgin River books. I really love everything about those books, from the characters to the fictional town of Virgin River to the mountain setting. That series resides permanently on my keeper shelf.

The book that sparked my love of romance was The Thorn Birds, which I read when I was probably far too young for such a book, the summer between 8th and 9th grades. I’ve never forgotten the yearning love Meggie had for Fr. Ralph and tension between them as they tried to resist all they felt for each other. Other books I’ve loved recently are Nora Roberts’ Bride series (the first three books are out, the fourth is coming later this year), Anna Campbell’s My Reckless Surrender, Christy Reece’s Last Chance, and Julie James’s Something About You. All books worth checking out!

Enough about me. Tell me some of your favorites! I’ll give a copy of Fatal Affair to one respondent. Now, about the book:

On the morning of the most important vote of Senator John O’Connor’s career he is late—again. His best friend and chief of staff, Nick Cappuano sets off to O’Connor’s apartment expecting to roust him from bed and hoping he is alone. But what Nick finds is that O’Connor, the handsome, amiable Senator from Virginia, has been brutally murdered, and Nick’s world comes crashing down around him. Complicating the disaster, the detective assigned to the case is none other than Sam Holland, Nick’s one-night stand from six years earlier, the woman who broke his heart and haunts his dreams. With six years worth of unfinished business hanging between them and more than a few scores to settle personally and professionally, Nick and Sam set out to find the senator’s killer while trying—and failing—to resist the overwhelming attraction between them that seems to have only grown over the years.

It soon becomes clear that the senator’s past holds secrets that not only led to his death but now endanger Nick and Sam as well. Working together to find a killer and to rediscover the love they thought they lost long ago, they must put the past behind them and build a future that offers a world of new opportunities for both of them—including an offer from the Virginia Democrats for Nick to finish the last year of John’s term. Buy the book at http://ebooks.carinapress.com.

And about me:

Marie Force’s first romantic suspense, FATAL AFFAIR, was released June 21, 2010 from Carina Press. Book 2 in the Fatal Series, FATAL JUSTICE, is coming soon from Carina. She is also the author of LINE OF SCRIMMAGE and LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT. Of LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, Booklist said, “With its humor and endearing characters, Force’s charming novel will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, reaching far beyond sports fans.” Wild on Books said, “LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT by Marie Force is most definitely a keeper. It is an astounding book. I loved every single word!” A third contemporary, EVERYBODY LOVES A HERO, is due out Feb. 1, 2011. Since 1996, Marie has been the communications director for a national organization similar to the Romance Writers of America. She is a member of RWA’s New England, From the Heart and Published Author Special Interest Chapters. While her husband was in the Navy, Marie lived in Spain, Maryland and Florida, and is now settled in her home state of Rhode Island. She is the mother of two children and a feisty dog named Brandy. Find her at www.mariesullivanforce.com, on her blog at http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Force/248130827909 and on Twitter at twitter.com/MarieForce. Marie loves to hear from readers. Contact her at marie@marieforce.com.

The allure of the smart hero, for me, is undeniable. That’s not to say I don’t like equally intelligent women, or to imply that there are particularly dumb heroes out there. I guess what I should say is I have a fondness for intellectual heroes. Now for those of you who might have read my blog may have discovered that I’m married to a university professor (not one of mine, mind you) so perhaps this attraction to the smarty-pants type is not that surprising. But aside from real life, I dig the men of the mind in fiction as well.

A few examples to prove my point. Do any of you watch Fox’s show, Lie to Me? Now the actor, Tim Roth, isn’t particularly handsome, but his character is so smart and perceptive and physical that there on screen he becomes super sexy. It’s inexplicable, really, because sometimes he’s a bit of an ass on the show, yet that appeal is always there and it’s totally because of his mind.

Another example of the unattractive, though sexy, man is Jeff Goldblum, in just about anything he’s been in, but in particular Independence Day. I’m telling you when he’s walking across the dessert at the end in that fly suit and his crazy long legs are so apparent, whoa, he’s smoking. But again, it’s his intelligence (not to mention his unconditional love of his wife) that gives him that umph!

And, of course, there’s Indy, as in Indiana Jones. Now I know what you’re thinking, it’s Harrison Ford, of course he’s sexy and you’re totally right. He’d be hot with a paper sack on his head. He the character is so damn clever, just smart in all the right ways. Couple that with his knack for getting into danger and then finding ways out of it and you’ve got the perfect hero and ultimately the inspiration for my Legend Hunters series.

Early this month the 2^nd book in the trilogy hit stores. DESIRE ME is set in Victorian England and is all about the quest for the truth about the lost continent of Atlantis. And Max is just that yummy kind of hero that’s smart, but also strong and capable to get himself and his heroine, Sabine, out of trouble. And believe me they get in a ton of trouble. You see they’re on a quest to find a secret weapon that will enable them to unravel an ancient prophecy. And along the way sparks are flying between them and dangers lurk around every corner. It was great fun to write and I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

“A wildly inventive and original plot, a captivating cast of secondary characters, and an unforgettable hero and heroine (whose sexual chemistry is strong enough to generate actual sparks) add up to a scintillating addition to DeHart’s Victorian-set Legend Hunters series.”— Booklist

And here’s a short excerpt to whet your appetite.

His left eyebrow slowly rose. Max watched her face for several moments saying nothing. Then he opened his mouth to finally speak, but he paused as if considering something before he began. “I believe I’ll reserve my question until after you’ve examined my map.” When she made no move to look, he swept his arms open. “Please, look as long as you’d like.”

Excitement battered her insides as she made haste to the map. She stood as close as she could without pressing her nose to it. The prophecy was here somewhere. She only had to locate it. There were no words along the border of the map, nor in any of the corners. Perhaps it was on the backside, but she couldn’t very well take the thing off the wall and out of the frame. At least not yet.

She didn’t know how long she stood there searching every inch. It was hard to focus on her search because she was so distracted by the details within the map:  Poseidon’s palace, military barracks, farms and cottages, and the three guardian temples. She forced herself to count each ring, her eyes moving along the circles searching for any words. But she found none. Then a symbol in one of the trees caught her attention. She looked closer.

“The seven rings of Atlantis will fall by fire and steel, opening the path for the army of one.” Max’s voice came from behind her, but she stood utterly still, afraid if she moved, he’d stop. “Empires will crumble and crowns will melt. The three will lose their blood unless the dove can bring salvation.“

The words flowed over her like an ancient incantation, as if her very soul recognized them. She braced her arms on the cabinet below only to realize it was a large glass case enclosing a long spear. It was blackened and charred. She was just turning around to face Max when his arms splayed on either side of her anchoring her in front of the map.

“Find what you were looking for?” he purred.

She looked up and met his gaze. His blue eyes were so clear, so beautiful, she nearly winced. Those were the kind of eyes that could pierce a soul, find hidden secrets and unveil them with little effort. For her, that meant nothing but danger.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said stiffly, “I was merely admiring the map. It’s really quite stunning. So unique.”

He leaned closer to her, his eyes scanned her face. “Yes, beautiful,” he said softly.

Tell me about your favorite kind of hero, what kind of guy always piques your interest? Make a comment and you just might win an autographed copy of DESIRE ME. I’ve got 2 copies to give away.

-Robyn DeHart

SEDUCE ME (RomCon Readers’ Crown finalist, RT Reviewers Choice Award Winner, Best Historical Romantic Adventure)
DESIRE ME, GCP, June 2010
TREASURE ME, GCP, March 2011

www.RobynDeHart.com
www.JauntyQuills.com

Monica joins us today to tell us about her typical day… which many of them probably mirror the days she spent writing her latest release:Assassin’s Honor, Book 1 in The Order of the Sicari.

Now, a word from our sponsor:

Archeologist Emma Zale sees the past when she touches ancient relics. It’s how she uncovered evidence of an ancient order of assassins—the Sicari. When a sinfully dark stranger shows up on her Chicago doorstep demanding an ancient artifact she doesn’t have, he drags her into a world where telekinesis and empaths are the norm. Now someone wants her dead, and her only hope of survival is an assassin who’s every bit as dangerous to her body as he is to her heart.

Ares DeLuca comes from an ancient Roman bloodline of telekinetic assassins. A Sicari, he’s honor bound to kill only in the name of justice. But when the woman he loved was murdered, Ares broke the Sicari code and used his sword for revenge. Love cost him dearly once before, and he’s not willing to pay the price again. At least not until hot, sweet, delectable Emma walked into his life. Not only does she hold the key to a valuable Sicari relic, she might just hold the key to his heart.

Assassin’s Honor – now available from Berkeley Sensation – being given away today to one lucky commenter!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program:

5:00am    Press the alarm clock button for 10 minute snooze

5:10am    Groan then hit that snooze button again

5:20am    Slam that sucker hard. Open one eye and sigh wearily

5:21am    Drag aging butt out of bed and stumble toward the bathroom

5:22am    Turn on shower to wait five minutes while hot water gets through cold pipes from hot water heater on the other side of the house to shower head.

5:27am    Head hits tile outside of shower after falling asleep waiting for hot water

5:28am    Rubbing sore forehead into shower for reviving deep-penetrating (minds out of the gutter please) massage of hot, hot water.

5:40am    Emerge from shower, somewhat energetic, definitely awake, and eager to get to the computer; boot it up then back to the bathroom.

5:41am    Stare into the looking glass and choke on the idea that time is not a woman’s friend, gel and mousse hair, one eye open inspect critically and use more gel and mousse.

5:45am    Blow dry hair and pray the gel and mouse doesn’t need to be reapplied…THANK YOU GOD. Brush teeth, inspect gums and think when I was a kid I used to pray for a tooth to fall out…please God let them stay in.

5:55am    Apply mascara and blush. Too tired and lazy to do much more than that. Curl/crimp hair with curling hair reminding oneself that that professional curling iron is damn hot. Inspect burn on finger, burn on ear ignore since I can’t see back there

6:00am    Choke on hair spray and cough my way to the office. Hack like the old broad I am for 15-20 minutes in between skimming email in Gmail

6:20am    Begin writing. Actually that means rereading what was written yesterday for about 10 minutes to get in the right frame of mind. Just when I’m ready to write…

6:30am    Get Baby out of bed for school (summer time is prayed for)

6:35am    Back to writing and starting in the groove, but wait

6:40am    Baby, get out of bed NOW

6:45am    Back to writing, really starting to get somewhere when I hear a canine yawn;
Dog has arrive. By Dog, I mean the dog who recognizes me as Ed Asner in UP. I ignore Dog. Write, write, write, write…..slam

7:15am    Hit a wall, what do I write now??? Hmmm….go play on Gmail. Someone might actually be awake now I can talk to

7:30am    Writing again, doing great

7:55am    DAMN!!! I have to get dressed (work clothes) and leave for the day job, no I’ve got a few more minutes, it’s going good, I can’t stop now

8:10am    OH @#*$*@#$& I’m gonna be late for day job

8:25am     Out of the house and in the car (if I’m lucky) for 25 min ride to work

8:45am    Note I gained five minutes, but said Hail Mary’s the whole way to work in hopes I won’t get a ticket for flying on the wings of an angel. Settle in for the day with a job I love, but with some people who are enough to incite workplace violence. There are reasons people should not own guns. I’m one of them.

1:30pm    LUNCH TIME!!  Gather up lunch and laptop and traipse off to small, hidden cubicle in back of a division for an hour of writing. Get LOTS done. No interruptions, no email, not Internet, just the screen, the story and me.

2:30pm    *SIGH*  Back to the day job where dreams of becoming a best-selling author  fill my head so I can say good bye to this job I really love. Not the writing job, the other one, the day job

5:30pm    *Whistle Blowing* Quitting time! Well, maybe. Depends on the boss and if there are things to be done yet

5:45pm    In car headed home. @(*#$&@#& traffic jam on I-95, take Expressway….Mistake….BIG @#$@#* Mistake…traffic jam on Expressway because everyone else had the SAME brilliant idea I had. Hmm, that sounds like an author’s nightmare…walk into a bookstore….see your book…OMG! It’s not your book, it’s someone else’s!! Someone else stole your idea (ideas cannot be stolen) and they sold it before you could even get your editor to consider it. Wake up to find self in traffic jam still wondering why it is you write and how you can rescue self from the hell that is often the state of a writer.

6:15pm    Plus or minus a few minutes, walk in the back door and hear, “You’re late, why didn’t you call, dinner is ready.” Thank God for a husband who is wonderful enough to cook dinner, do laundry, clean house, take care of doc appts, sick kids, home repairs, fixes cars and EVEN does windows. No you may not have my husband.

6:20pm    Eat dinner with the family, discuss the day. Bitch and moan about day job.

6:40pm    Not much time to eat. Head upstairs to office, answer email that couldn’t be answered at day job. Write blog posts, do promo, mailings, personal finances on payday, research, write if possible

9:45pm    Tired, need a break, watch TIVO’d comedies like Modern Family or The Nanny

10:30pm    Gotta go to bed. Exhausted.

11:00pm    After tossing and turning about plot and what’s left to do on book, drift off to sleep, no wait. Grab pen and write in the dark scraggly note on book. Pen falls to floor and I drift off.  5:00a.m. is too close for comfort.

Addendum:  The above is a true story. Do not try this at home as only dedicated writers willing to slit their wrists and bleed over keyboards are qualified to run this marathon.

Disclaimer: May sleep in on weekends until 7:30am. Household does not arise until 10am. Long work hours on Sat and Sun to be expected.

An award-winning author of erotic romance, Monica Burns penned her first short romance story at the age of nine when she selected the pseudonym she uses today. From the days when she hid her stories from her sisters to her first completed full-length manuscript, she always believed in her dream despite rejections and setbacks. A workaholic wife and mother, Monica believes it’s possible for the good guy to win if they work hard enough.

This isn’t going to come as a huge shocker to anyone who knows me, but when I was a kid, I was a nerdy little bookworm.  Okay, okay, I am STILL a nerdy little bookworm!  But back then, I didn’t wear the name with such pride

One of the only escapes for a bookworm is, of course, the books that got us in trouble with the in-crowd in the first place.  For me—exceedingly nerdy as I was—the best books were the ones that took me farther away.  And those were the science fiction and fantasy stories.

Once upon a time, it wasn’t easy to find paranormal romances.  Paranormal, yes.  Romance, yes.  But the two genres were still circling like a particularly wary hero/heroine pairing.  There weren’t a lot of titles to assuage my longing for the things that do the bump and grind in the night.  I was too young anyway for the good stuff   But I did find a few amazing stories on my keeper shelf today because their magical mix of enchantment and mayhem and passion and darkness and love still inspire me, all these years later.

FIRE DANCER by Ann Maxwell

The first science fiction romance I ever read—I hadn’t even know these kinds of stories existed.  The interspecies bond between the strong mentoring hero and his powerful ward is poignant beyond words.  And that means a lot, coming from a writer.  It’s possible I was drawn to this story because I would have liked to wield lightning bolts against my enemies as the heroine does

DRAGONSBANE by Barbara Hambly

A love triangle of sorts, between a witch-woman, a warrior and a dragon.  You won’t know which love should triumph.  I think this book is one that pushed me to become a writer because I was determined that happy endings should always, always win out—after much angsting and adventuring, of course.

THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD by Patricia McKillip

Like a medieval ballad, this lyrical fantasy will have you donning silks and brocades while running through the nearest flowering meadow barefoot—whilst smiting evil with the power of your rare and mystical beasts.

Yeah, there was a lot of smiting going on in my childhood fantasies

Now a writer myself, with the realms of paranormal romance wide open, I can combine and amplify everything I loved about those stories.  And add the good parts too   Yup, I’m a true Book Slut now!

In Forged of Shadows, the second book of my Marked Souls urban fantasy romance series, the leader of Chicago’s demon-possessed warriors introduces his newest recruit to his world of danger, desire and demons:

He shoved open the access door to a swirl of frigid March air.

Thin clouds blanked the sun into a matte white disk that leached the dimensions from the surrounding industrial district. The gray-walled buildings looked flat as cardboard cutouts. Even the graffiti, unreadable at this distance, assuming it was ever readable, had dulled.

The wind rattled Jilly’s blue-spiked hair but couldn’t bend it. “King of all you survey, hmm?”

“Not even a knight,” he demurred. “I want you to see what we’re fighting for.”

“We’ll be hailed as conquering heroes, no doubt.”

He shook his head. This part of the test was always hard for the newly possessed fighters to swallow. “No one besides us will ever know. Demons stalk the Magnificent Mile as often as the South Side, but the battleground doesn’t matter.” He curled his fingers into fists to stop himself from reaching out to her and tilted his face to the sky. “Unfortunately, this is as close as you’ll get to heaven.”

She pivoted to face him. The wind bit through his shirt and he knew she must be equally chilled, but she stood without shivering. Though the top of her head didn’t even reach his shoulder, she sized herself against him with a long, slow look even more deliberate than the one he’d given her. Was it his imagination, or did she linger over places a good repentant demon should make him forget?

She breathed out a soft noise that left him no indication which way she had judged him. “This close, huh? And I haven’t even been properly damned yet.”

She took a step forward, tilting her head as if to get another perspective.

He tightened his hands into fists at his side, not against the cold, but against a rising heat that seemed to spark off those spiced eyes. “You will be. Soon.” Obviously some demon was at work that she would tease him so.

“We have hours before nightfall,” she said. “Hours before I can meet your fighters. Or my demon. So let’s go. Show me something to make me believe I have a better chance if I join you.”

And that latent demon in her apparently still had power to call to him, because he—who of all the talyan should know better than to give in to temptation—followed her.

You can read the opening chapters of Forged of Shadows at http://tinyurl.com/forgedofshadows and learn more about the Marked Souls at http://jessaslade.com

For a chance to win a signed copy of Forged of Shadows, or Seduced by Shadows, the first book of the Marked Souls, leave a comment with the first paranormal romance you ever read and what drew you in.

They told me not to do it. My husband, my mom, even my critique partner. They told me not to set part of my latest novel The Making of a Duchess in Paris. Even more, they urged me not to make my hero a Frenchman.

“I thought French settings didn’t sell,” my husband said over dinner.

“Didn’t your editor tell you too much of that one book was set in France?” my mom said when I called her one day to chat.

“Do you want to sell this book?” my critique partner demanded.

And they were all correct. Everyone knows historical readers like England and Scotland as settings. And my former editor did tell me to quit sending my characters to France. And, yes, I did want to sell this book. But I’d already started writing it, you see, and what could I do if the hero was French and part of the book was set in Paris?

I argued and tried to explain. The hero fled France for England when he was only 13, so he wasn’t really so French. And a lot of the story took place in London. I just set a few scenes in Paris. Okay, they were key scenes, but by then the reader would have read enough that she wouldn’t mind. What about the first chapter? That was set in France. Um, well…

Look, I’m not going to apologize. My hero in The Making of a Duchess is French. Julien Harcourt, duc de Valére, is half French. His mother is English, and the two of them are forced to flee France when their chateau is attacked by peasants during the French Revolution. Julien is only 13, and he’s forced to leave his father and younger twin brothers behind. Everyone assumes twins are dead, but Julien doesn’t believe it. He never gives up searching for them, not even when England and France go to war and his trips to France raise eyebrows in the British government.

And that’s where my heroine comes in—Sarah Smith. See, she’s very English! She’s a governess forced to spy on Julien for England’s Foreign Office. She needs to prove him guilty of treason. And how is she going to do that? Why pretend to be a long lost friend of the family, a French comtesse.

Oops. There’s that French thing again. And if that turns you off, I completely understand. If you don’t like adventure and fast-paced action, you definitely shouldn’t read this book. If you don’t like funny scenes of mistaken identity or the hot flare of attraction between enemies, you shouldn’t read this book. If you hate Paris, English ballrooms, women in silk gowns, or a man in a tail coat and starched cravat, you shouldn’t read this book.

But if you think you could possibly stomach it, you might check out an excerpt on my website, www.shanagalen.com. And you might pick up a copy of The Making of a Duchess. It’s in stores now.

In fact, I’ll even give away a signed copy of The Making of a Duchess to one reader who comments below. Just tell me your favorite romance novel setting (and it doesn’t have to be France). I’ll check in later to read your answers.

I was in elementary school when the movie Splash came out. Splash is the story of a mermaid who emerges from the water to find her true love in New York City, completely naive to human ways but determined to be with her boy, despite the risks. I fell in love instantly. Not with Tom Hanks (who is adorable enough, but no thank you) but with the idea of being a mermaid. With the romantic notion of living underwater and saving drowning boys who would love you forever. With the idea of being not just different, but magically different. With the idea that there might be a world out there, right beneath the surface, that we don’t know about.

My cousin Michelle and I had countless discussions about how we could find out if we were mermaids. (Because we were sure that we were mermaids.) In Splash, Madison (played by Daryl Hannah) turns into mer form whenever she comes in contact with water. Michelle and I tried jumping in the pool. No luck. Taking baths and shows. Still no. We finally decided that it had to be salt water for the change to happen. Sigh, the ocean was too far away. (I have since been in saltwater many times and can sadly attest that our theory was wrong.)

This love of all things mermaid and this dream of being one never went away. When The Little Mermaid came out when I was in high school and I fell in love with mermaids all over again. So it should come as no surprise that, when I was spending some time in south Florida’s Gulf Coast, that I dreamed up this idea for a mermaid story of my own.

It began with a simple thought: wouldn’t it be cool if a mermaid could bestow her magical powers with a kiss? And then, the obviously next question, what if she kissed the wrong boy? And so a book was born.

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid, like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid—she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview High School ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems—like her obnoxious biker-boy neighbor, Quince Fletcher—but it has that one major perk: Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type—the instant they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily ever after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

Sound like fun? You could win a signed copy of Forgive My Fins just by commenting. Let me know if you ever dreamed of being a magical creature as a child, and of course share if that dream ever came true! I’m still hoping for fins, you know.

Hugs,
TLC

Tera is the winner for last year’s Best First Book Rita for Oh. My. Gods. – about a girl who finds herself going to a private school for the decedents of the Greek gods. You can find her blogging at her own blog: http://teralynnchilds.blogspot.com or with several of her YA fellow authors at Books, Boys, and Buzz: http://yawriters.blogspot.com

Reading is a pleasure.  It’s an escape.  And for this writer, reading is a must.  I read for the joy of it, because I want to be pulled into a story, swept away from the fact that I have laundry to do, or that the litter box needs cleaning out.  However, I also read to learn.  I read to study new trends and to understand new lines.  I read to figure out how an amazing writer keeps up the breakneck pacing, how they bring characters to life that I feel as if I’ve known all my life.  I read to learn how they keep me muttering to my persistent kitties, “Just one more chapter and I’ll grab the scooper.”

Yup, writers are in the entertainment business.  And to stay on top of our game, we best stay on top of our market.  Nevertheless, the best books are the ones that while I’m turning pages, I completely forget that I’m there to study my trade.  I become a full-fledge reader.  I lose myself in the story and become immersed in the world being played out scene by scene.

Two books that have recently pulled me in and have had my kitties meowing at me insistently are Lori Wilde’s, The Sweetheart’s Knitting Club and Susan Andersen’s Bending the Rules.  Funny thing is that both books share common elements with each other.  The same elements I like to bring to my own work.  Of course, there are the hot guys and the sexual chemistry between the hero and heroine.  Hey, every romance needs that.  But that’s only part of what makes these books special.  There’s the sense of community, of friendships.  Both Susan and Lori bring their characters alive by building them, block by block.  They have pasts, regrets, flaws, fears, and needs.  They are not just someone I’m reading about; they become someone I care about. Someone I root for, cry for, and someone with whom I share laughter.

Boy howdy, do I love the laughter.  And you’ll find a big serving of it in Shut Up and Kiss Me. Hopefully, you’ll also find it to be a story that touches your heart, an intriguing tale that makes you sigh, chuckle, and care.  Hopefully, you’ll find it to be a story that will make it easy to ignore the stacks of laundry and the kitties waiting for a clean box.

And here’s what I’d like to hear from you.  What are you reading and what chores do you let slip when you find yourself pulled into a great book?   Oh, today I’m giving away a $10 gift card to B&N to one lucky commenter, so make sure you leave a comment.  And I’m also over  at: http://writebybethany.blogspot.com/ doing an interview and giving away a signed copy of Shut Up and Kiss Me.  So come on over.

Happy reading.

~CC — Christie Craig

www.christie-craig.com