Cynthia Eden's Blog, page 113
June 9, 2010
Grounding Fantasy in Reality
One of the tricky issues in writing urban fantasy is finding the appropriate balance between fantasy and reality. Urban fantasy, by definition, includes fantastical elements (including paranormal ideas or magic) in a mundane setting. Fantastic elements make a story interesting, and realistic elements make a story believable. Too much fantasy makes the magic less special, drowns it in a sea of fantastic characters and places. Too much realism makes the world too gritty or dull. But how much...
June 8, 2010
Writing Outside the Lines
When I was little, my mom used to sit in the back seat with me during those long car trips to our cabin so we could color together. She was quite the artist and would work very carefully on her own page, shading and blending the colors, while I, with the exuberance and inexperience of youth, scribbled madly all over the place on mine. When we compared pictures, hers so perfect and realistic, mine bold strokes of color without boundaries, never once did she criticize my technique or suggest I ...
Vamps & Newsletter Winners
Today, I'm helping JoJo celebrate her birthday bash–and I'm talking vamps. Or, rather, things I know about vamps. If you get a chance, come join the bash & you could win a copy of I'LL BE SLAYING YOU.
And speaking of I'LL BE SLAYING YOU…I want to thank everyone who entered my newsletter contest. (What? You didn't know I had a newsletter? Sign up!) The five winners from the contest are:
Gabrielle, Marci C., Sandra S., Patricia M., and Sheila T. Congratulations! I have already sent emails to...
June 7, 2010
Special Guest: Kelly Jamieson
Breaking the "romance rules"
I recently read a survey done by fellow author Cara McKenna at Naughty Author Chicks which identified several topics that are seen to be "forbidden" in erotic romance. Well, three of those topics — birth control, sex for conception and infertility — are in my book Lost and Found, out tomorrow with Samhain Publishing.
I broke a lot of other "romance rules" in this book, including the big, supposedly sacred romance "rule": the heroine is married. And there is marital...
June 6, 2010
Birthday Fun!!!
Hi, everyone! Hope you are enjoying my Deadly Days of Summer.
Today is my birthday (Yay! Happy birthday to me!) so I thought I'd share the birthday cheer and give one commenter a present. Want to win a $15 Amazon.com gift certificate? Then just tell me about your favorite birthday memory. Share! I'll pick one random commenter to win.
And have a great day. 
June 5, 2010
Impressions from an author of vampire books
[image error]Paranormal authors must have certain qualities in order to write in their genre: A very open mind. Imagination that goes beyond the earthly realm. Love of the unexplained. Maybe we all have a bit of scientist in us. In our own way we're exploring our world and beyond. We look at our plot and ask 'what if' we twist this into something darker and more dangerous (just saying that makes me smile). And for those whose imagination extends beyond the boundaries of earthly unexplained...
June 4, 2010
What makes a man sexy?
Hey everybody! Happy Friday! I wanna give a huge shout out to miss Cynthia and thank her for letting me have a bit of space here during this huge party month for her! And a huge congrats on her books finalling in all those contests! Woot!
A little introduction, I'm Juliana Stone a new author on the paranormal scene and my debut came out in April from Avon, HIS DARKEST HUNGER!
Isn't it pretty!!!???? My series, The Jaguar Warriors deals with a family of jaguar shifters and all sorts of...
June 3, 2010
Mixin' it up with Angels, Demons and Vampires
I love when Cynthia does her month-long blog parties! It's so fun reading all the authors' posts. I want to talk a bit about my new series from Nocturne, OF ANGELS AND DEMONS. I've always wanted to write angels, but could never really get into the whole 'guardian' or 'goodness' thing when it came to them. I know they can be fierce warriors, and that they are not always as good as we like to think they are.
Take the Fallen angels, for example. They Fell because they were enamored by...
June 2, 2010
Dangerous Guest: Donna Grant
Today, I'm thrilled to have awesome author Donna Grant as my guest blogger. Donna, welcome!
Scotland
Maybe it's because I write historical novels, but one of the most asked questions I get is "would you travel back in time and to where?"
It's an easy answer for me. Yes, I would travel back in time, and I'd go to Medieval Scotland. It would take some getting used to, especially the lack of plumbing, toothbrushes, caffeine, and pasta.
I have no doubt life would be more than difficult. After...
June 1, 2010
Deadly Days Guest: Ann Aguirre
First, thanks to Cindy for having me today! Today is the release of SKIN TIGHT, which features one of my favorite heroes of fall time. Why? Because he's an antagonist in the first book, and I love a redemption. He also does something fairly despicable in SKIN GAME, which made for a fun setup for his romance with his heroine. She's pretty freakin' mad at him when their book starts. In fact, she's pretty devoted to the idea of taking him down. How does that change? Well, you need to read the...
