The 6th Lunar Mates book is now available.
When her marriage ended, Abby retreated into herself to lick her wounds and rebuild her life. She’s found satisfaction and some success writing, and she’s happy. Mostly. Who wouldn’t welcome a little R&R?
Her favorite fantasy and many of her stories revolve around two men modeled after real life werewolf twins Rule and Lawe. When two of her friends talk her into participating in a local auction, fantasy and reality begin to mix. Rest and relaxation never felt so good, but is reality more than she bargained for?
You can get it here!
I love books.
Last week I went to Chapters to use my Mother’s Day gift card from my kids (smart kids, a gift card from Chapters and a gift card from Starbucks, conveniently located in Chapters).
Armed with only $30, I knew I had to be very careful how I spent it. What would I choose? What was I in the mood for?
The first thing I did was wander around looking for any of my author friends and turning their books face out. My local Chapters was sadly lacking this time, but I did my best. I turned out Wild, Wicked and Wanton by Jaci Burton (weirdly located in romance instead of erotica, strange since it’s one of the hottest books I read last year - I mean smoke pouring off the pages), Unpredictable by Eileen Cook (a wonderful local author who’s doing so well and is a joy to talk to), several of the Midnight Breed series by Lara Adrian and Dark Garden by Eden Bradley.
Feeling very satisfied with myself I searched out books by Alison Kent and HelenKay Dimon, two authors who’s blogs I have been loyally reading this year. I couldn’t find either, but Chapters said they would bring them in. In fact, I wasn’t having any luck finding a lot of Brava releases (they had a 2007 release from Sylvia Day and I was looking for a new one), which I also pointed out to the clerks.
So then I went to the scan every shelf method. In the end this is what I picked up:
Well, ok, I picked up more than that, but I had to put some down didn’t I? $30 doesn’t go very far when the spines of books still show a $3-6 difference in the Canadian and US pricing (one example $13 USD, $17.95 CAD). Um, yeah, our dollar has been almost at par for some time now. According to the bookstore they bought them at the higher rate so that’s how they had to sell them. Right. So basically it’s cheaper for me to go to the US to buy my books. Point taken, but I still had that gift card that I had to use.
And yes, to get these four books with Canadian pricing meant that I actually spent $9+ of my own money, but since I couldn’t decide which one to put down I took them all.
So far I’ve only managed to read the Jane Porter book (met her at ECWC last year, she’s so interesting and I loved Flirting with Forty) because we’ve just finished moving. I can’t wait to read the rest! I love books (not that you could tell from the stack of boxes marked books, sitting beside me ).
Hello all! Ava Rose Johnson here, ready and willing to chat with you about my favorite topic. Heroes.
For me, the hero makes a story. I read romances for a lot of reasons-heroine, fun plot, hot sex scenes-but the hero usually takes the biscuit for me. It’s the same with movies. Without a dashing hero, I’m not so sure I’d be interested.
Like a lot of people, I’m partial to the tall, dark and handsome version of the hero. Think David Boreanaz, Olivier Martinez, Clive Owen, Pierce Brosnan…I could go on forever. And speaking of tall, dark and handsome heroes, how could I not mention Mr. Big? I finally saw the Sex and the City movie last night and the whole way through, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Big is the perfect hero (for me). Yes, he’s flawed and can be stubborn and stupid at times. But that’s hot. Who wants a hero who is absolutely perfect?
Okay, so we want the romance and the passion and the deep love and the ‘likes dogs’ to be part of our hero too. I don’t think I could be hot for a hero who’s afraid of puppies. But a hero has to have some mystery, some depth, some kind of darkness to pull me in. That’s probably why my favorite kind of hero is a vampire. You don’t get more dark and mysterious than that!
In Power, my upcoming release from Cobblestone Press, the hero is a centuries-old vampire called Jourdain. He’s got the tall, dark and handsome thing going on. He’s also big on vengeance which can be seen as a flaw, but I love him for it. He’s pretty solitary, doesn’t get involved too easily. Of course that changes when my heroine enters the picture. *wink*
So what makes a hero for you? Do you need your hero to be Mr. Alpha, or do you prefer the Beta side? Are you fan of Mr. Big or do you just think he’s an arse?
To bribe you into telling me, here’s some tall, dark and handsome eye-candy for your pleasure. Enjoy!
Thanks for having me!
Anom’tan 4: Walking Death’s Edge
Cobblestone Press
Genre: Erotic Urban Fantasy
May 30, 2008
http://www.cobblestone-press.com/cat…r/lshannon.htm
Two sides of a single dangerous coin. Bryck works death magic to do his duty while Maya feeds on death to survive. Together they could rescue or destroy everything they hold dear. It’s a chance they’re willing to take, risking everything to bring Flayvor back safe and whole.
UNEDITED EXCERPT
“Hello, Dante.”
Bryck didn’t jump in surprise, because damn it, Daelyn don’t scare. And in his case, half Daelyn don’t scare much. Not that the woman standing in the entrance wasn’t odd. She was. She was perfectly odd. Her silver hair streamed around her, framing her light brown skin. The hair blended in, matching her white gown, some flowing muslin thing that looked almost as fragile as the girl herself.
From her bare feet to her silver hair, the girl was frail and ghostly. And obviously blind.
Dante glided forward and caught the girl’s hand. “Maya, I’ve someone I want you to meet.”
Bryck watched as she pulled her hand back. Good. She didn’t seek out the vampire’s touch. At least she didn’t seek out his touch now. Had she ever? He bit back the growl that clawed at his throat.
He had no right to even consider possessing such a fragile girl. He pushed aside the insane impulse and stomped up beside the vampire. “So this is her?”
Her face turned his way and he could almost see her hackles rise. Her nose flared out just once before she adjusted the angle of her face to look directly at him even though her eyes remained closed. “I’m Maya. Who are you, demon?”
Demon? How could she know? “You must see a hell of a lot better than it appears.”
She shrugged. “I usually see what I need to. Who are you and what do you want?”
“What I want is my demon back. I’m told you can assist me, but now that we’ve met I begin to wonder how.”
“But we have not yet met. Meeting requires a greeting. If it is as you say and you require my assistance, I would think you’d be somewhat more accommodating to my desire to have your name. As it is, I am beginning to consider you no better than the last demon I faced and that encounter ended with a demon dying. I ask again, for the last time. Might I know the name of this demon, who I face, who I do not know, who has come to ask for my aid?”
“Maya?” a human male asked quietly from the open door. “Have I come at a bad time?”
“Ricky.” The relief and pleasure in her voice twisted inside Bryck’s gut. She turned her back on him to make her way toward the human, moving slowly and with great care.
She wanted this human, when her only reaction to him was one of outrage. And why did that knowledge bring his already rising anger to a boil? Why did it make him want to rip the human into small bite sized pieces?
“Thank the gods you came. I was afraid that you would skip this week when I found the place had been attacked.”
“I know how much you need …my product.”
Her hand closed around the human’s elbow and she leaned in close enough for her small body to brush against his side.
Bryck’s vision darkened. “Fuck this! We don’t have time for your dealer to make a delivery.” He grabbed her shoulder, spinning her back around to face him. The skin-to-skin contact sizzled through his veins, setting his body on fire. His iron control over his powers melted, evaporated, leaving his darkness surging outward without restraint.
Her eyes opened with a flash of pure white light. Her energy met his with an explosion of power, throwing them both into the unknown. For a heartbeat the world roared. The lights and windows shattered. Tables and people were shoved away by the outward force. Lightning streaked from the night sky, pounding the street outside the club.
Then just as suddenly as the world had gone to hell, it all settled into a deep well of silence.
“Well, shit.” He dropped his hand away from her.
“You can say that again.” The white light of her eyes faded, revealing soft brown irises. She blinked up at him as if seeing him for the first time and considering the fact that she had appeared blind, it probably was for the first time.
Anyone who’s ever read my blogs knows I always title them with a song or lyrics to a song, because I like to see how many people can guess the song or artist. So, if you want to play along, tell me who sings the song in the title.
Now…onto the blog.
As any author will tell you, writing is hard. So if you’re planning to pursue the dream of becoming published, make sure you wear plenty of body armor.
Like most writers out there, I started writing when I was a child. It was my way to fill a void.
I was in my late thirties when I decided to actually plant rump to chair and start writing with the intention of getting it published.
My first attempt at a story did not receive the warm, glowing review from an editor I told myself it would and in all fairness, looking at the unfinished manuscript now, I was highly delusional to think so.
However, that not so glowing response to my first book gave me the determination to do it right. So for the next four or so years I did as much studying and training as I could find on the Internet. Living on a military income with four children to take care of didn’t allow me to spend real money on my training, so I read books and found a free online writing course which really helped me understand the craft….as opposed to reading published authors and trying to emulate them.
So, in 2003 I sat down and wrote my first book. I thought it was awesome! And really…the premise was…but when I sent it to another writer (who was fairly new at fiction writing) he tore it to shreds and all but said, I’d never be a real writer. So, instead of letting him dissuade me, I decided to prove him wrong and went back to my “how to” books and studied some more. It wasn’t until an editor I had submitted a query to, asked to read the whole book that I though, Yeah…I can do this. Of course, that was short lived when the editor rejected the manuscript saying it “wasn’t ready”. However she gave me wonderful insight into what I was doing wrong. So, with her feedback, I went back to the manuscript and spent the next three months *fixing* it. When I was satisfied I’d done what needed to be done, I sent it to a reader, who was the wife of a writer friend. She loved it! That was my sign. I sent the book back out and three months later found an agent.
Of course, now you’re probably thinking…so where’s the heartache? Well, four months after I signed with this agent (who happened to be at one of the more prestigious firms in NY) I got a call saying she was leaving the house and could no longer represent me. Thus began my first “shot to the heart”.
It took me a year to find a new agent (2005) and when I did she was very enthusiastic about the work and started submitting right away. About four months later, we got interest from an editor. That summer I met up with the editor at the RWA conference. We talked about what she planned to do for the book, she asked if I’d be able to do the revisions she wanted and she was genuinely excited about taking the book to committee. Then, in November that same year, she asked me if I’d write a novella for an anthology she planned to put together. She only gave me a 15K word count, because I’m an unpublished, unknown writer and she told me it had to be contemporary–I’ve only written suspense—and erotic—I can do a hot love scene…but there’s a difference between my hot and the erotic she wanted.
Needless to say, I was totally out of my comfort zone….but I wrote up three chapters and a proposal and sent them to her. Since it was the holidays and the publishing business pretty much shuts down in November and December, I didn’t know what she thought of the story. Then…..
Heartache.
Before the editor could go to committee with my novel or submit the novella, she left the house. We still submitted the novella because the anthology was supposed to still be a “go”, but the editors sat on it for three months with no reply and my agent pulled it. And, instead of resubmitting my novels (she had my two romantic suspense books), my agent decided to wait for my current work in progress. However, life and things happened in the past year that kept me from working on the story and I was unable to send her a completed manuscript by the end of July, so she cut me from her client list.
Heartache.
Now, you’re probably wondering why anyone would want to subject themselves to such pain. Well, for me the reason is, because if I don’t….how will I know? (If he really loves me…oh, sorry….can’t stop the songs in my head).
However, because of my own stubborn determination and persistence, I AM now published. My book, Her Will His Way (the novella I mentioned earlier) released April 18th at Cobblestone Press. I’m so very proud of this book and am so happy to be able to share it with you all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terri Molina is a native Texan, born and raised in Southeast Texas. She is an active member of the Romance Writers of America including the Northwest Houston Chapter and Desert Rose Chapter in Phoenix, Arizona. She writes multicultural romantic suspense, blending in the flavor of the Southwest with her Mexican heritage. After years of living a nomadic life with her Coast Guard husband, she now resides in Southeast Arizona with her husband, four children and a dog. When she’s not writing she enjoys reading, singing karaoke with the kids and spending time with family and friends.
To learn more visit her at
www.terrimolina.com
__________________
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Well let’s see…I’m an avid reader. Always have been, always will be. I enjoy a good story whether it’s romance, science fiction, or horror. I’m in it for the story. That’s what I strive for. In every story I write I try to provide my readers with a great story first and foremost.
Were you a reader before you became a writer?
Oh yes. I could read 3-4 category romances a day or one and a half single titles. I spent hundreds of dollars a month on books.
Did you always aspire to be an author? Was writing a passion of yours?
Yes. I started writing in the second grade. Unfortunately, I didn’t win that first writing contest. But it created the need to write.
Have you always had the writing bug? And how long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing seriously since 2002. I entered contest but didn’t start sending my work out to publishing companies until 2005.
Your real job is very different (non-creative) from writing. Does this difference drive your imagination?
Some days. My day job as a computer programmer/analysts can be a drain. If I’m dealing with a particular hard problem or training people then I use the creative juices try to come up with ways to explain technical things to non-technical people. Other days I find myself coming up with new ideas while I work. I keep a notebook handy for just such an occasion.
What is the best part of being a writer?
Creating stories that entertain me and getting paid for it.
How did you get your break and sell your first book?
It’s kind of funny. The first book I sold will actually be my fourth book released. When Cobblestone Press first came out with their Vampire Oracle line I loved the oracle card images. I submitted three proposals. Battle, Lust, and Hunger. On Aug. 10th 2007 (like how I remember the date?) the publisher contacted me and expressed how much she liked my Hunger proposal. But she felt it fit the Sacrifice card better. After reading through her reasoning, I had to agree.
Has your writing made you adjust your lifestyle in any way?
I’ve learned sleep is for wimps! 
No, actually I learned to take care of my family first. After that the day job and finally all free time is spent on writing and promoting my books.
Are you planning on writing any series books or do you have any more books that lead on from your existing titles that we should know about?
You betcha. The sequel to The Diamond Heartstone is The Pearl Heartstone. I am working on that one right now. It’s the story of how the nasty prince meets his match. The sequel to A Chance Encounter is also in the works. It will detail how Monique, Heather business partner and best friend, gets caught by her own set of powerful Faeries. Yes, it’s another ménage. And…as if that wasn’t enough, in September and October of this year I will be releasing Mastering Mirage and Making Mischief. These will be the stories of Soundwave’s sisters who are out searching for big sis when they cross the wrong men. Is that enough?
www.leilabrown.com
www.leilabrown.blogspot.com
~Addictive Erotic Romance You Can’t Resist~
The other day one of my co-workers asked me what I was reading. This is an every day occurrence. In fact, I’m asked several times a day what I’m reading. There aren’t a lot of people in my office who read; there’s only one other girl who has her nose stuck in a book on her lunch and breaks like me.
It seems people who read are an oddity in my office.
That’s okay, though. I don’t mind being an oddity. In fact, I revel in it. I have always been what I would call eccentric, always outside the norm. But it seems I’m even more outside the norm because I read romance. And I write it.
I love love love romance. I read tons of it. You write what you love to read, right? As a romance writer, I’m almost duty bound to read romances; I’m pretty sure it’s in my contract somewhere.
But people always get wierded out by the fact that I read romances for two reasons. I’m a guy and I’m gay. People assume that, since I’m a guy, I shouldn’t read romance and, since I’m gay, I wouldn’t want to read straight romances.
They’re wrong on both counts.
I love romances not just for the sex scenes, but for the story, for the characters. I don’t know what it is about romance but the characters always seem to be more alive, more real than in regular fiction. Plus you get passion, excitement, harrowing plotlines, danger and disaster at every turn, conflict galore AND a happy ending. What can be better than that?
If any kind of writing was popcorn or candy for the mind, romance would be it.
In the end, I love reading romances and I love writing them even more. For whatever reason, my characters always come alive more if they’re in one of my little romantic novellas.
I’m particularly proud of Valentine (available now from Cobblestone Press) and Finding Beauty (coming soon from Cobblestone Press). To me, they are some of my best pieces of writing that I’ve done.
Thankfully, there are always new stories to write and to read. I will forever be a romance writer and a romance junkie.
For more info on Valentine, check out the blog! www.valentineanovel.blogspot.com
And, while you’re at it, don’t forget to pick up your copy of Valentine by clicking here
Artists use pencils and paints. Sculptors use their fingers and clay. But it wouldn’t seem like a writer would use much more than a pen and paper, would it?
Not so! Writers use a lot of tools to organize their ideas and get them out for general consumption. Pen and paper is important to some, and others don’t touch it. Here are my tools of the trade:
1. A spiral notebook
Mead Five Star, if you please. Usually five subject. It’s got pockets for storing loose notes that get scribbled on envelopes, a sturdy plastic cover that doesn’t rip or bend much, and is stable enough that I can write on my knee if I want to.
2. Pens
Paper-Mate Profile has a nice flow to it. It makes my handwriting almost legible. Almost.
3. Power Structure
There are a lot of writing programs for your computer out there. Some of them almost write the story for you, some are very bare bones. I’ve found that which one you like is really subjective. Power Structure works out for me, although I’ve been looking into some cheaper alternatives. Still, I can’t deny that this helps keep my plots and characters organized.
4. A wiki
Power Structure’s great for plots, but it’s not great for world building. For that, I use a wiki. Just like Wikipedia, but with my own content. I have character profiles, story synopses, notes, you name it. I copy and paste descriptions from my stories into it to keep track of what I’ve said about who. This is a really terrific tool that I just discovered, thanks to Moira Rogers.
5. Music
Writing without music is torturous to me. Give me my iPod, or the playlist on my computer. I sometimes have specific playlists for specific situations, like writing steamy scenes or fight scenes. My main playlist is 193 songs long (that’s about 14 hours of music).
6. Colored paperclips
This is about as organized as I get.
7. Messy desk
If it’s too neat, how can I think?
8. Pretzels (or black licorice)
I don’t smoke. But I’ve been known to sit around, writing a particularly tetchy scene with a pretzel stick hanging out of my mouth like a cigarette. Sometimes, I have good black licorice. Mmm.
9. Firefox
I sometimes have three tabs worth of research material open at a time. Included in this are the online dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and Wikipedia. Also, Google Earth and Google Maps.
10. People
No one writes in a vacuum. I have my husband, my critique partners, my good friend, and other authors to bounce ideas off of, get told off by, and generally get help from. I use Pidgin to access multiple messaging services.
On my BFF’s 21st birthday, a large group of us went to a male strip club to celebrate (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). A very good time was had by all. We oohed. We aahed. We gave away a lot of dollar bills.
What we didn’t know was that the piece de resistance, the icing on the cake, the show stopper had yet to begin. The very last act, the one that brought down the house, rocked us to our cores. When the soundtrack to the movie An Officer and A Gentlemen began, the room went silent.
Even now, almost fifteen years later, my heart is doing back flips.
Three of the world’s finest men came strolling down the runway in military uniforms. And the women went WILD. I should say that I don’t know if the men were good looking. Heck, they could have been fugly. They could have drooled or not been capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. It didn’t matter. They wore the uniform. They had the stance. They exuded an aura of we’re in effin’ charge around here. And we ate it up.
When I sat down to write my first novella, SOLDIER, you can believe that night at the strip club was in my mind. When my heroine Anna finds a military man naked and unconcious on her front lawn, at least she has the common sense to behave a little better than we did that night.
Well, barely.
Find out more about how one night at the club inspired this story by picking up your copy of SOLDIER from Cobblestone Press.
Hugs,
Dee
As the author of paranormal romance, I love diving into myths and legends. I like reading about the origins, seeing what other authors have written, and then creating my own little world for my characters.
Stormy Weather, my upcoming series, is set in Louisiana, where myths and legends abound. The Deveraux brothers are a small pack of werewolves from France. In my research of werewolves I found a few interesting things.
Werewolves date back centuries to Romania and Greece. It’s said that King Lycaeon tried to test the Gods at his table by feeding them human flesh. The Gods weren’t a big fan of that obviously and turned him into a werewolf.
Interesting Tidbits about Werewolves
It’s said that the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood is a werewolf.
It’s believed by some that werewolves can be killed by silver bullets.
Some authors consider werewolves immortal while others say they have a lifespan of several hundred years.
The word werewolf is thought to come from wer, meaning man. Man-Wolf.
Some say werewolves only appear during a full moon, but many stories claim that they can turn at will.
Lycanthropy is the ability to transform into a werewolf.
A Lycanthrope is a werewolf.
In Portugal werwolves are called lobis-homems. In Argentina the word for werewolf is Lobisón. It’s said that the seventh son will become a werewolf. In French, werewolves are known as loup-garou.
There’s a myth that comes to play in my first book of the series, The Cajun’s Captive. Amanda calls Sebastian loup-garou. The Cajun myth states that werewolves punish Catholics who don’t follow Lent. This of course gives Sebastian a good laugh.
With so many myths abounding, I’ve only discovered one truth. Werewolves are only limited by our imagination. Everyone has a different take on this mysterious beast. You can step into the world I’ve created June 13th with The Cajun’s Captive.
About the Author
Selena Blake writes paranormal and contemporary romance for Cobblestone Press. Her series Stormy Weather will be available in 2008. Drop by her website to find out more about the handsome Deveraux men of Louisiana and for a free short story. Http://www.selena-blake.com