Julie Kenner's Blog, page 88
April 30, 2013
Dogs on Harleys and an Accidental Demon Slayer: Angie Fox on the Phenomenon and her Tough New Heroine.
Today I’m excited to welcome Angie Fox to the blog! Love dogs and motorcycles? Angie talks about her writing and some adorable hog-ridin’ pooches!
Riding with the Harley Dogs: One Author’s Adventure
I’d always known writing would be an adventure, but I never predicted my writing would put me on the back of a coal black Harley Davidson, with an Irish Setter in tow. I’d set out to write a paranormal about a straight-laced preschool teacher turned demon slayer who has to run off with a gang of geriatric biker witches. But my heroine has a smart-mouthed dog that, thanks to her new powers, can talk…and talk…and talk. And I really loved that dog. What’s a writer to do? Well, I went online and learned that there is a nationwide club of Harley bikers who ride with their dogs. So my heroine could have her pink Harley, and her Jack Russell Terrier too.
And of course I had to meet these Harley riding dog lovers. I called up a few of the members of a Biker Dogs Motorcycle Club and the adventure began. They invited me into their homes, introduced me to their dogs and, like my heroine, the bikers hoisted me up on the back of a Harley, with a dog in tow.
Things I learned right off the bat:
After an hour on a Harley, you’ll walk like John Wayne for a week
Helmets hurt when they are worn backwards
Dogs love riding motorcycles
Stone, the biker who spent the most time making sure I didn’t fall off his hog, showed me how to ride, invited me to some biker rallies (note to self: don’t wear pink next time), and helped make The Accidental Demon Slayer as real as it can be (for a book about a somewhat sheltered preschool teacher turned demon slayer).
So just when I thought I was writing fiction, it seemed my made-up characters from The Accidental Demon Slayer weren’t so imaginary after all. One of the bikers I met even has a wife who is a biker witch. I’m wondering if she, like my heroine’s biker witch grandma, wears a “kiss my asphalt” t-shirt and carries a carpet bag full of Smuckers jars filled with magic. Maybe I’ll find out on my next adventure.
Angie Fox is the New York Times bestselling author of several books about vampires, werewolves and things that go bump in the night. Visit her at www.angiefox.com
Thanks to Angie for such a fun blog post! What kinds of activities do you like to do with your dog?
P.S. - Book two of my Stark Trilogy - Claim Me - is now available! And Complete Me comes out July 30. WOOT! (And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!)
P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!
XXOO
--J.K.
April 25, 2013
Book boyfriends, lust and prizes! Hop on the Claim Me Blog Tour!
I’m chugging along on the Claim Me blog tour!
And at each stop, one lucky commenter will win a copy of Claim Me, book two in the Stark Trilogy!
If you missed yesterday’s stop at Romance Junkies, be sure to come by and share your favorite book boyfriend!
And today, I’m at Riverina Romantics talking about the “why” behind the love … and why you need a “why” to get to happily ever after!
At both sites, Bantam is giving away a copy of Claim Me to a lucky commenter. So come on by and say hi!
April 24, 2013
Hump Day Books from Deb Marlowe, M.J. Scott, K.T. Bryan, Emilie Richards, Lilian Darcy, Tanya Anne Crosby, Shelley Munro, and Linda Barrett
Need a little pick-me-up from the mid-week slump? Take a look at this week’s Hump Day Books!
The Love List (Half Moon House) (Volume 1)
New Release!
Learn more at Deb’s Website!
Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City
Just Released!
Learn more at M.J.’s website!
THE EDGE OF TRUST (TEAM EDGE)
Now available for Kindle, Nook, and also in paperback and audio.
Learn more at K.T.’s website!
Somewhere Between Luck and Trust (Goddesses Anonymous)
I’m excited to promote Emilie’s book! See her blog post here.
Learn more at Emilie’s website!
Saving Gerda
Check out Lilian’s great book! Her recent blog post here.
Learn more at Lilian’s website!
Speak No Evil
Tanya’s first new book in nearly a decade!
Learn more at Tanya’s website!
One Night of Misbehavior
New release: A modern retelling of Cinderella
Learn more at Shelley’s website!
Family Interrupted
Just released!
Learn more at Linda’s website!
P.S. - Book two of my Stark Trilogy is now available! Claim Me hit shelves yesterday, and Complete Me out July 30. WOOT! (And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!)
P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!
XXOO
--J.K.
April 23, 2013
Claim Me is on shelves! And I’m blog touring (with giveaways!)
So excited that Claim Me is tucked between David Baldacci and Nora Roberts. Woot!
I’m so thrilled because Claim Me hit the shelves yesterday, and thanks to all of you awesome readers, it’s doing well!
More important, I’ve gotten wonderful feedback from folks who’ve already devoured the book!
Thanks to all of who who’ve Tweeted or posted on the J. Kenner Facebook page or left reviews at Amazon or Goodreads or elsewhere in cyberspace.
I appreciate it so, so much!
Here’s a peek at one of the reviews. Needless to say, I’m absolutely thrilled the reviewer connected so well with the book!
It’s been nearly a week since I finished reading CLAIM ME, by the incomparable, J. Kenner. I’ve tried to write this review at least twice a day — every day — since the minute I finished the book. Hell, I even took notes while I was reading it because I didn’t want to forget a moment or emotion evoked.
The problem isn’t that I don’t know what to say, the problem is what I want to say, can never truly give the proper credit due to this amazing story and the talent of its author.
…
There are points in the book when you feel like you’ve somehow been transformed by the words you’ve just read.
Needless to say, I’m sitting here thinking that FIVE starz seem too weak in comparisons to the roller coaster ride of emotions that this book takes you on.
And, of course, if you missed the earlier post about the blog tour, be sure to go back and check it out. Don’t miss the chance to win your own copy of Claim Me! You can find the links here!
April 22, 2013
Interested in a Sports Hero? Vanessa Kelly gives us the Scoop on Writing Sports Romances (and a contest!)
Aren’t baseball and football players hunky? They sure make great heroes for romance novels. Here to share her experience writing sports romances is Vanessa Kelly! For a chance to win two of her athletic hero novels, read on!
Hi, Julie! Thanks so much for having me on your blog today—it’s great to be here! For those of you who don’t know me, I write historical romance as Vanessa Kelly. But I’m also part of a husband and wife writing team that goes by the pen name of VK Sykes. Those joint books are sexy contemporary romances, mostly set in the world of major league sports. Much to our delight these sports romances—all but one self-published—have been doing very well.
But here’s the interesting thing—we’d heard for years from various editors and agents that sports romances were “box office poison.” That unless you’re Susan Elizabeth Phillips, nobody wants to read about hot athlete heroes or immerse themselves in the uber-masculine world of dressing rooms, playing fields, Nascar racetracks, or competitive alpha males. According to the powers that be, nobody wanted to read those types of romances.
Good thing that hubby and I never listened to that advice, because our experience with sports romances has been just the opposite. Readers love them, as I’m sure authors like Jaci Burton, Marie Force, and Belle Andre will tell you.
I actually believe there’s a subtle form of sexism in the assumption that women don’t like sports romances, i.e., that sport is primarily a male domain and that women just don’t like all that macho, nasty stuff. Women, in fact, are avid watchers of most professional sports in North America, especially football and baseball. That being the case, why wouldn’t they be interested in sexy athletes as heroes?
Fortunately, through the wonders of self-publishing, we’ve been able to bring those sports romances to our readers, who are clearly more open minded than some in the traditional publishing world give them credit for. In fact, there are so many authors these days who wrote books that were rejected over and over again by publishers as too different or not marketable, and who’ve gone on to achieve real success by self-publishing those very same books. Thank God for that, because it means a greater diversity of reading material for all of us and what could be bad about that?
What about you? Do you think the powers-that-be are off track? Do you like sports romances, or do they make you break out in hives? One person who comments will win a copy of our soon to be released book, Curveball, plus the first book in our sports series, Fastball.
A synopsis of Curveball, book 4 in the Philadelphia Patriots series:
Taylor Page has never wanted anything but a career in major league baseball. Through talent and guts, she’s clawed her way through the ranks of league management to land a position as Assistant General Manager of the Philadelphia Patriots, the team her father once scouted for. The only problem is that most men in baseball still don’t take a woman exec seriously, especially a thirty-year old blonde with no on-field experience. She needs to do something big to convince her bosses she has what it takes to manage a team.
Veteran Pittsburgh outfielder Ryan Locke knows his career is in jeopardy when a suddenly unreliable throwing arm comes on top of rehab from a major injury. He’s had a solid run—especially at bat—but he’s not a star with a mega-contract. As a single parent with a troubled daughter and an alcoholic mother to provide for, retirement is out of the question. Ryan’s best hope is for a trade to an American League team as a designated hitter, allowing him several more years of play.
When Taylor needs to find a replacement for an injured first baseman, she comes up with an innovative but risky idea: convince her boss to make a trade for Ryan Locke, and then convince the still talented slugger to play first base for the Patriots. Unfortunately, Ryan is dead-set against that plan.
With both their careers on the line, neither Taylor nor Ryan can afford the explosive physical attraction between them. But despite Taylor’s best efforts to resist Ryan’s campaign of seduction, she’s not sure she’s got to willpower to keep from playing along.
Vanessa Kelly writes USA Today bestselling contemporary romance with her husband under the pen name of VK Sykes. She also writes award-winning historical romance under her own name, and was named by Booklist as “one of the new stars of historical romance.” You can find her on the web at www.vanessakellyauthor.com or www.vksykes.com.
Check out Vanessa’s Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Vanessa’s Blog, and Rock*It Reads.
Much thanks to Vanessa for her post! Remember to comment for a chance to win her novels Curveball and Fastball!
April 21, 2013
Come tour with me … & enter to win Claim Me (Stark Trilogy, book 2)!
I’m blog touring to celebrate the upcoming (TUESDAY!!) release of Claim Me, book two tin the Stark Trilogy that began with Release Me!
Come on by and join the fun! At each stop, Bantam is giving away a copy of the book (print to US winners; digital to international).
I’m talking about traveling via writing, vacations, and why my TBR pile never seems to shrink!
Hope you’ll pop by! Here’s where I’ve been the last few days:
http://whatsonthebookshelf-jen.blogspot.com/2013/04/blog-tour-claim-me-by-j-kenner.html
http://booklovinmamas.blogspot.com/2013/04/claim-me-by-j-kenner-blog-tour-giveaway.html
April 20, 2013
Last Stark on Saturday before release day! Claim Me (Stark Trilogy book 2) coming Tuesday!
WOW! This is the last #StarkOnSaturday before next Tuesday’s release of CLAIM ME!! So here you go! Enjoy this snippet from the upcoming Claim Me, book two in the Stark Trilogy that began with Release Me.
Matt Bomer looking so very executive. Yeah, he could be Damien …
“Are you in an office or a cubicle?” he asks.
“An office,” I say. I swallow, recalling all the things I wrote in that letter.
“In that case, my dear Ms. Fairchild, I think you should close your door. For that matter, I think you should lock it.”
“Damien, I’m at work,” I protest, but I do as he says.
“What a coincidence. So am I. Imagine my surprise as I’m reviewing my morning mail. Requests to speak at business conferences. Investment opportunities. Real estate proposals. All intriguing opportunities, but none so enticing as what I find when I open a simple letter sent on my very own stationery.”
“Damien . . . ”
“You have a way with words, Ms. Fairchild. I was quite relieved that my assistant was at her desk when I read your letter. I don’t know that I would have been able to hide my erection. You really are quite a little minx.”
My brows lift. “A minx?”
“I can still remember the sound of your voice,” he quotes, “so smooth I almost came just from the sound of it. And the cool leather against the hot skin of my ass. Even then, I wanted your hands on me, your cock inside me. I barely knew you, and yet I wanted to submit to you utterly.” He says, “Yes, I think minx is a very accurate description.”
“Oh.” Hearing my own words read back to me, I have to silently agree. “I was inspired.”
“I’m very glad to hear it. When I ran across the scarf in the apartment this morning it reminded me of you, and after I got your letter, I thought that I should return it right away. You see, we didn’t really let that scarf live up to its potential.”
“We didn’t?” My mouth is dry.
“No,” he says, softly. “But I intend to make up for that. There are a lot of things one can do with a scarf. A lot of things one can do with fringe. The delicate brush over your erect nipple. A teasing stroke over your hot cunt. I promise you that we’ll fully explore all of the various possibilities.”
“Um.” I swallow.
“Wear it today and think about what I’ll do with it tonight.”
“Tonight?” I ask, as I drape the scarf around my neck.
Damien laughs. “I’ll pick you up at seven,” he says. “I’ll have you naked by eight.”
Claim Me will be on-sale April 23!
Pre-order Claim Me from Amazon!
Pre-order Claim Me from Barnes & Noble!
Pre-order Claim Me from Books-a-Million
Pre-order Claim Me from Random House
Pre-order Claim Me from your favorite independent bookseller
Pre-order Claim Me in the U.K. from Amazon
Pre-order Claim Me in the U.K. from Waterstones
Pre-order Claim Me in the U.K. from WH Smith
Want more? You can even pre-order Complete Me from Amazon or from Barnes and Noble! On-sale July 30!
And if you missed Release Me, you can snag your copy from your favorite retailers here:
Random House
Amazon (print)
Amazon (kindle)
Amazon United Kingdom
Barnes and Noble (print or Nook)
Books-A-Million
Kobo
iBooks
Indie Bound
Wow! Hard to believe that release day for CLAIM ME is next week!!! Don’t forget to pre-order your copy!
XXOO
April 19, 2013
Memorable TV Moments: What are Yours? Lilian Darcy Shares her Experiences (Plus a Giveaway!)
Do certain TV shows stay with you forever because of what you were doing when you saw them? Lilian Darcy joins us on the blog today to tell some of her own captivating stories! Keep reading and comment for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card!
Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Julie!
First, a little bit about me for those who don’t know. I’ve written over eighty contemporary romances for Harlequin, Silhouette and Mills & Boon, and am now also writing women’s and mainstream bookclub fiction. I’m a five-time finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Rita Award – thrilled to be a finalist again this year, in Best Short Contemporary Romance! – and have also written for Australian theater and television.
I have a husband, four kids, a cat, several chickens and two thoroughbred performance horses – although my daughter is under the impression that those are hers. I like hiking, winter sports, gardening and of course reading. Truth be told, I would like to have a less eventful life, but every time I attempt to scale down, something else shows up to fill the available space.
And now my little musing on…
LIFE’S MOST MEMORABLE TV.
Most of us vividly remember where we were when we heard that John Lennon had been gunned down on the steps of the Dakota building – or, if you prefer, when we heard that Justin Bieber had been arrested for speeding on an LA freeway – but for me there’s and even more vivid connection between certain periods in my life and the TV or videos or DVDs that I was watching then.
Here are some of my life events, and the TV that’s inextricably linked to them. I wonder if any of them resonate with you.
The time I was apartment-sitting in a pre-war studio apartment on New York’s Upper West Side, and in the next apartment lived a concert violinist who practiced for nine hours a day, and I drowned it out with cable repeats of…
“The Brady Girls Get Married.”
In labor with my second baby at around midnight on a Saturday night, and the TV in the hospital room was showing…
Well, it was until I lovingly and supportively suggested to my husband that this was the last show in the entire universe that a laboring woman would feel like watching.
The time we were living in Ohio and my husband was working in New Yorkfor the summer, so I was on my own with a manic one-year-old in an un-air-conditioned house, and the highlight of my week was…
“Northern Exposure” on Tuesday nights.
The winter that I was imprisoned in this same house for what felt like about eight months with a baby and a sniffly three-year-old and the three-year-old was totally in love with…
A children’s Christmas carol video (whose exact title I have suppressed, for the sake of my mental health) so we just watched it over and over again. I still can’t hear “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” without developing claustrophobia and flu-like symptoms.
The two fall days when we left our kids with Grandma in New Jersey and booked ourselves into a Manhattan hotel for two nights of couple time, and the first evening we went out to dinner and had a great night, and then we woke up the next morning and it was September 11, 2001, and we spent that numb, terrible day like so many others in Manhattan, going to the nearest hospital to try to donate blood but nobody needed it, sitting silent on a bench in Central Park while the smoke billowed at the lower end of Fifth Avenue, and the sky to the north was perfectly clear and blue. We went to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to try to get back to New Jersey to be with our family, but couldn’t find a way out of the city, so we picked up take-out Chinese for dinner and ate it in our hotel room and watched…
“28 Days” with Sandra Bullock and Viggo Mortensen.
Last summer when my mother-in-law came from New Jersey to visit (we live in Australia now) and forgot to bring her hearing-aid, and didn’t really *get* Australian TV, even when it had closed captions, so she and I binge-watched DVDs of…
“Modern Family”, which she hadn’t really *got* before, either, because she didn’t understand the relationships (I blame the hearing-aid batteries) but I freeze-framed it at that part in the beginning where they show each family together and explained it to her. “He’s the father of her and him, but he’s divorced from their mother, and she’s his second wife, and that’s her son from her first marriage…” After this, she loved it and we had some great laughs over it together.
The three-day vacation in the mountains that my husband and I took just a few weeks ago, when we hiked miles during the day, and then watched the first two seasons of…
UK crime drama “Scott and Bailey” on DVD at night. (Oh, “Scott and Bailey.” I love thee beyond all reason. I cannot wait for Season Three.)
Now tell me some of yours. Did you watch “28 Days” that night?
And if you’re in the mood for binge-reading instead of binge-watching, try my romances from Harlequin Special Edition, or my mainstream bookclub fiction, and watch out for an exciting new women’s fiction series called Montana Born, featuring books by Jane Porter, Megan Crane, C J Carmichael and me, launching in November. Find me at www.liliandarcy.com, at www.backlistebooks.com on Twitter at @liliandarcy, and on Facebook.
Thanks to Lilian for sharing her most memorable movie moments! What are some of yours? Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card!
P.S. - I have a new Protector (Superhero) novella out! Check out Aphrodite's Embrace (currently only on the Kindle, but coming soon to other etailers!)
And in super fab news, Bantam has moved the pub date for the next two books in the Stark Trilogy even sooner! Claim Me will be out April 23, and Complete Me out July 30. WOOT! (And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!)
P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!
XXOO
--J.K.
April 18, 2013
Join us for the Claim Me Blog Hop!
Welcome to the Claim Me blog hop from today through May 4!!
Enter for a chance to win:
10 print copies of CLAIM ME
10 print copies of RELEASE ME
5 eBook copies of A VAMPIRES SALVATION
One Claim Me Scarf!
Woot!
Hop here to visit everyone:
And here’s the Rafflecopter to enter! Have a great time … and good luck!
April 17, 2013
Hump Day Books from Catherine Gayle, Donna Fasano, Donna Michaels, Carly Carson, Pauline Baird Jones, Anne Marsh, Stephanie Queen, and Jill Hughey
Need a new romance to put some spunk back in your Wednesday? Check out this week’s Hump Day Books!
Wallflower (The Old Maids’ Club, Book 1)
Now Free!
Learn more at Catherine’s website!
Her Fake Romance
Named 2013 Best Romance in Big Al’s Books & Pals Readers’ Choice Awards
Learn more at Donna’s website!
Her Fated Cowboy
New Release! First book in Harland County Series!
Learn more at Donna’s website!
Eclipse of the Heart
New Release!
Learn more at Carly’s website!
Relatively Risky
New in romantic suspense!
Learn more at Pauline’s website!
Slow Burn
Learn more at Anne’s website!
The Hot Shots (Scotland Yard Exchange Program)
Book 2 in the Scotland Yard Exchange Program Series!
Learn more at Stephanie’s website!
Vain (Evolution Series)
New Historical Romance!
Learn more at Jill’s website!
P.S. - I have a new Protector (Superhero) novella out! Check out Aphrodite's Embrace (currently only on the Kindle, but coming soon to other etailers!)
And in super fab news, Bantam has moved the pub date for the next two books in the Stark Trilogy even sooner! Claim Me will be out April 23, and Complete Me out July 30. WOOT! (And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!)
P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!
XXOO
--J.K.
