Romance Novel Sluts

Archive for the ‘authors’ Category

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

I’m currently in the middle of promoting my new release My Reckless Surrender which comes out TODAY! Wow, that’s pretty cool. This is the story of a dangerous seduction in Regency London and you can read an excerpt and the blurb on my website at: http://www.annacampbell.info/recklesssurrender.html

When you’ve got a new release, you talk about that particular book endlessly! So it was lovely when the RNSs invited me over here today to talk about some of my favourite romances – you know, books I have NOT written! LOL!

I thought I’d talk about some early influences on my writing and the books that made me want to be a romance writer. Like most writers, I’m a sum total not only of what’s happened to me, I’m made up of what I’ve read. I’ve always been a voracious reader – I’m the kind of person who will read the back of the cereal box if all else fails. My house is crammed with overflowing bookcases because in a lot of ways those books are my history – I remember where I was when I read them, how old I was, how I was feeling. As evocative as a family photo album!

Mills and Boons (Harlequins) are an institution here in Australia. My mother gave me my first one to read when I was eight and I devoured category romance in huge numbers after that. My favorite authors included Anne Mather and Violet Winspear. And I loved Mary Burchell’s stories (she’s still a heroine as she saved a lot of Jewish musicians from Hitler). Anne Mather in particular has influenced my writing, I think – there was wonderful passion in her stories and always a great alpha hero.

In my early teens, I ripped through Barbara Cartland’s catalogue.  Given how many books she wrote, that took a while! She was great on historical detail so I’m grateful to her for that. She was the first writer I ever read who talked about the demimonde and courtesans. You can definitely see where she rubbed off!

Reading Georgette Heyer is a rite of passage for girls here in Australia, or at least she used to be. She was a staple of school libraries. I loved the wit and elegance of her stories – and again, the historical detail. I loved the glamorous aristocratic settings too. I think it’s thanks to her that I write Regency romance!

Another writer I loved then is Victoria Holt. I can immediately see her influence on my work. The dark, gothic touches, especially in a story like Claiming the Courtesan or Untouched. The brooding hero who might be a baddie and then again might not. The heroine trapped in a dangerous passion. The wild moorland or coastal settings. They were just delicious, those books!

I must have been about twelve when I read Katherine by Anya Seton for the first time. Wow, that book was amazing! The illicit, passionate, lifelong love between John of Gaunt and his mistress Katherine Swynford was breathtakingly romantic – and rather sexy for a sheltered Aussie girl in the 70s!

However, I really discovered sexy books when at the age of fourteen, I picked up a book by an author I’d never heard of. Perhaps you know her – Kathleen Woodiwiss? The book was The Wolf and The Dove and I loved it so much I finished it and just went right back to the beginning and read it again. The concentration on two vivid main characters, the intense sexual tension – and hot sex scenes – the sweep of the story, the vividness of the writing, I couldn’t put it down. I said to myself, “I want to write historical romance for Avon when I grow up.”

And guess what? I did!

So what got you hooked on reading romance? I’ve got a signed copy of My Reckless Surrender up for grabs to my favourite answer! Good luck!

It’s All Because Of Those Dark-Hunters!

The first paranormal romance novel I ever read was about three years ago, it was Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I had read plenty of romance novels in my early teens, French translations of Harlequins novels, Rosemary Rogers and Barbara Cartland but I quickly switched to fantasy and also later to hard-boiled detective stories.

So Kenyon’s book was my first exposure to a whole new twist on romance. I had picked up a copy at the pharmacy based on the cover. (I just couldn’t keep my eyes off that hot guy in the long black coat!)  As I read on, I couldn’t believe that I was reading this, it fell so silly yet, I just couldn’t stop. It was so much fun, and wild…  and then I hit the love scene… Wow! Can we say hot! Romance had changed a lot since the days of my youth.

In the following months, I read everything Kenyon wrote including her Kinley MacGregor titles. I was hooked. I always pick up her new release as soon as it hits the shelf.

And she is the one who inspired me to start writing.  I had gone to her website and read her whole story on how she got published, on how she had started again after her brother’s death and just sat down, wrote and submitted her stories. I had always thought you needed an MFA to get published and there she was, about my age, mother of boys like I am, and writing after a deep loss just as I was, having lost my father a few months before I started reading her books.

The encouragements she gave on her website ran so true to me that I decided to give writing a shot. I had dreamed of doing this since I was a little girl and it was the first time I realized that everyone out there at a chance to get published if they tried and worked hard at it.

So I did.

I loved the whole concept of bands of sexy tortured immortal guys and that is a feature I kept for my own book. I was floored when one of my latest reviews used both my name and Kenyon’s in the same sentence. Not in my wildest dream could I have ever imagined this could happen. I certainly don’t have her sense of timing and quirky humor (I wish) and my writing probably also shows my love of fantasy stories Marion Zimmer Bradley style but, like some of Kenyon’s early work, I have a regular young woman getting swept into a paranormal world that exists in our world without anyone knowing about it… and did I mention the band of sexy tortured immortal guys?

The strange thing is that beside her books and Christine Feehan’s Drake Sisters series, I have a really hard time reading paranormal romance.  Mostly because I can get lost in Kenyon and Feehan’s stories without noticing the writing, whereas with everyone else, I tend to compare myself (unfavorably) with the writers and it makes me very anxious.

So when I read romance, I usually stick with very different genre like regencies, urban fantasy or sci-fi romance. Julia Quinn, Jeanne C. Stein and Ann Aguirre are my current favorite and I am discovering new writers I like all the time.

I hope I get to hear Sherrilyn Kenyon speak one day,  maybe if she comes back to Seattle for a signing, or maybe at a writer’s conference. Meanwhile, I am content with her books and glad she is so prolific.

I’d like to giveaway a signed copy of Ancient Whispers to a commenter, so tell me, if you do like Sherrilyn Kenyon, which book is your favorite? Mine is Dance With The Devil. Zarek is my favorite bad boy of all time. If not, please give me a good recommendation for a good regency author. I read all of Julia Quinn’s books and I don’t know where to go next!

——————————

Marie-Claude Bourque is the American Title V winner and author of Ancient Whispers, a sensual gothic paranormal romance filled with sorcerers and Celtic priestesses in search for eternal love in modern time.  She worked as a climate research scientist, a scientific translator and a fitness expert until she turned to fiction writing. She draws her inspiration from the French legends of her childhood and a fascination for dark fantasy. Ancient Whispers will be released by Dorchester-Love Spell on May 25 (although it is available now on Amazon) Find more at www.mcbourque.com

Sorry, I’m holding off another week before going back to the Rita posts.  They will return next week.  Meanwhile… I’m going to wax nostalgic.

While at my favorite bookstore/former employer over the weekend, I found an almost prestine copy of Threads of Destiny by Arnette Lamb (first printing), signed by Arnette.  While I already own a copy… don’t ask me where it is, I had to add it to my collection.

Threads of Destiny is not my first Arnette Lamb – though it is her first book.  Highland Rogue gets the honor of my first.  Border Lord was the book I was reading when Tim Regal in my high school economics class asked me “Is it true?  Those books have sex in them?”  I did, in fact, answer “Yes.”  He never did make fun of my choice in reading.  Strange.  Or not sure if I should think it to be strange.

Arnette wrote hot books.  Hot Highlanders.  Highland Rogue is quite steamy.  It made me blush more than once.  As did Border Lord – with it’s distract worthy cover – and The Chieftan.

Never heard of Arnette Lamb?  Sadly, Arnette died in September 1998 from cancer.  Rumor had it that she was working on a series of pirate books at the time.  Many lists tote a book called His Flame as her last release in December 1998.  It never came out – so don’t worry if you can’t find it.

If I have intrigued you… and you are a Highlander lover – read Highland Rogue.  It is considered a classic by many.

Here is a little more about it:

An indentured servant from Virginia, Juliet White came to Scotland to find her niece, the child her sister had borne before she died. The search took her to the castle of Lachlan MacKenzie, duke of Ross, where she was accepted as governess to the four illegitimate daughters of the lusty aristocrat, all sired in one lascivious season at the Scottish Court. Seeking to know for certain if her sister’s child is among her small charges, Juliet probed into the notorious duke’s family history… while the girls, each in her own fashion, begin to find a place in Juliet’s heart.

But Lachlan was not a man to let a lovely young woman keep her innocence under his roof. When the renowned rake stirred her girlish dreams into a woman’s desires, Juliet was stunned to find her resolve succumbing to the virile charm of the man she suspected of seducing her sister. Powerless to resist the wild rush of yearning, Juliet plunged into a river of passion whose waters might be too turbulent to carry her to a safe shore…

Makes me want to read it all over again.  Threads of Destiny also goes with it (it comes before it – but you don’t have to read them in order.) Beguiled, Betrayed and True Heart go with them.  They are three of the girls from Highland Rogue.

Border Lord and Border Bride have to be my favorite pair.  I think probably just be cause I love the covers so much.

Also – with these two you see the boy and girl from Border Lord all grown up, and how he gets a little revenge on what she did to him in the first. 

The Chieftan, Maiden of Inverness and “Hark! The Herald” from the Holiday of Love collection go together.  They are also set earlier in Scottish history from the others – around Edward the Third, if memory serves me correct.  Also, Holiday of Love might be a little hard to find – since Judith McNaught, Jude Devereux, and Jill Barnett are in the collection.

The Betrothal and “Flowers from the Sea” in the Cherished Moments collection are both stand alone.  I never read the The Betrothal.   I don’t really know why.  It is kinda like Dodd’s Priceless.  That one book that I haven’t read by an author.

Arnette is worth reading and even going back and rereading.  So, if I piqued your interested, go to your nearby used book bookstore, cause that might be the only place where you will find her books.

I LOVE paranormal romances.  Give me a comfy chair, a couple of free hours, a hot-hot-hot hero who morphs from the man of my dreams into a villain’s worst nightmare, a kick butt heroine I’d enjoy tipping a few in a pub with,  a roller coaster of a plotline, and I’m a blissfully happy camper. Growing up devouring books on cultural myths, legends, and ghost stories, it was only natural for my leaning toward the macabre to evolve into a paper bound love affair with the preternatural.  And for my writing to follow suit.

To make the impossible believable, to make the unlovable heroic, to make seemingly insurmountable differences bow before the power of romance, is the heart and soul of a paranormal read.  Whether it be Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters or Maggie Shayne’s tortured vampires, from that first page to the last, they come to life through the magic of the written word.

Kresley Cole, Vicki Pettersson, Keri Arthur, J.D. Robb, Jenna Black and Alyssa Day, take me away to your belief-suspending worlds of fantasy and delight that become real and familiar for those precious moments we spend together. Tease me with sizzling innuendo, shock me with “I didn’t see that coming!” surprises, leave me breathless with anticipation.  Thank you for always making me anxious to come back for more. And thank you, thank you for never serving up the same ole same ole under the guise of something new.  My imagination salutes you. My muse genuflects in awe.

You leave big footsteps to follow in.

I like my otherworldly romances like I like my coffee:  hot, dark, richly flavored with variety, eye-popping, and satisfying to the last drop. And I wouldn’t expect you, the reader, to accept less, either.

If you’re offended by shameless self-promotion, look away from the page now. Now, I say, before it’s too late…

“Gideon kicks off a paranormal romance series with intriguing characters and zippy action, but deftly avoids writing herself into corners and masters the tension required to keep her complex and engaging story moving.”  (Starred review, Publishers-Freaking-Weekly on Masked by Moonlight)  Told you I was shameless.

My new dark paranormal  Moonlight series for Pocket Books debuts with Masked by Moonlight on May 25, 2010 then is followed in consecutive months with Chased by Moonlight (June 29, 2010) and Captured by Moonlight (July 27, 2010).  I hate to wait, don’t you? Especially when the deliciously dangerous Max Savoie, the shape-shifting right hand enforcer of a New Orleans crime boss and heir-apparent to a shadowy shape-shifting clan, and tough-as-nails detective Charlotte Caissie, who’s determined to bring down his manipulative mentor even if it means using the only man she can’t resist, begin a delicate courtship dance that will end up with one of them surrendering their loyalty for the sake of love, or their life.

Hot?  Oh, baby.  These are lovers who fear nothing…except each other.

“Mix Romeo & Juliet with Beauty and the Beast. The sexual chemistry sizzles on the pages.” (Coffee Time Romance and More)

Dark?  As the deepest shadows of the night.

“Darkness and danger has never seemed so appealing.” (Paranormal Romance Reviews)

Variety?  I like to call it a little lagniappe, a little something extra that goes just a step beyond the usual.

“More than a scary werewolf tale. It is a steamy romance; a whodunit; a story of intrigue and power.” (Romance Readers at Heart)

Eye-popping, joy-riding, edge-of-your-seat adventure?

“A complex romantic police procedural working an urban fantasy beat . . . the story line is filled with action, but character driven.  A taut paranormal thriller that sub-genre fans will relish.”(Alternative World Reviews)

And best of all, good to the last drop.

“The reader won’t find more excitement anywhere that keeps the blood pumped up than in this thriller. An excellent storyline keeps the interest from page one to the end.” (Fresh Fiction)

My Moonlight series is unique in that it follows Max and Charlotte’s developing romance and deepening intrigues through the first four of  six novels (six so far!). Sorry, you WILL have to wait for their concluding book to come out in 2011.  I’m still doing revisions.  Books five and six will continue the plot twists with different heroes and heroines, some you’ll meet in earlier books and some that will surprise you. But, as in the tradition of the masters before me, none will be predictable.

Take a few hours off and suspend belief.

For excerpts and an inside look at my Moonlight series, visit: http://www.nancygideon.com

Enjoy this taste before you go:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyawnTxvAuo&feature=player_embedded

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Nancy Gideon is the author of over fifty romance novels spanning the genre from historicals and series suspense to the paranormal, as well as a horror movie novelization and several indie horror movie screen plays.  She’s also written under the pseudonyms Dana Ransom and Rosalyn West.  On those not so free hours, she works full time in a law office.

What are the qualities in a book that have you waiting breathlessly for the next one in the series?  A continuing storyline?  The chance to meet your favorite characters again? A cliffhanging ending? The author’s ‘voice’?

Comment below for a chance to win a copy of Masked by Moonlight.

I read and enjoy many romance sub-genres—from historical (my first love when it comes to romance fiction) to paranormal to romantic suspense and pretty much everything in between but one sub-genre holds a special place in my heart…

Contemporary romance!

Yep, a good old (or would that be new? *g*) fashioned romance set in present day with no Dukes, vampires, shape-shifters or murderers running amok. Just two people who must overcome their own doubts, fears and inner conflicts before they can have their Happily-Ever-After with the person they love. As soon as I read my first contemporary romance (I believe it was a Silhouette Intimate Moments although, sadly, I’ve forgotten the title) I was hooked!

A few of my very favorite contemporary romance books are:

Catch Of The Day by Kristan Higgins. I love, love, love Kristan Higgins and highly recommend her books. They’re laugh-out-loud funny AND heart-breakingly real.

The Perfect Neighbor by Nora Roberts. I’m a huge fan of Nora’s books and am currently loving her Bride Quartet series. I have to admit most of the books on my keeper shelves are by Nora

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. SEP is a Goddess when it comes to contemporary romance!

Dirty Sexy Knitting by Christie Ridgway. This book, a current RITA finalist, has one of the most wounded heroes I’ve ever read and I totally loved him *g*

Going Down Hard by my fabulous critique partner, Tawny Weber. Now, all of Tawny’s books are wonderful (and GDH does have a small, suspense subplot *g*) but I fell hard and fast for Reece, the sexy hero of this book, so it gets a special shout-out!

So let’s talk about contemporary romance! Do you love them? Who are your favorite authors of contemporary romance? Any contemporary books you’re looking forward to reading this summer?

-Beth Andrews
http://bethandrews.net

Beth is a 2010 Rita Finalist for A No-So-Perfect Past.  Her latest book – Do You Take This Cop?  is a May 2010 Harlequin SuperRomance – which if you comment, you might when a copy.