Cynthia Eden's Blog, page 94

RWA, Release, and Party Time

Hi, everyone! Hope you're having a fabulous week!

Previously, I had planned to attend the upcoming RWA Conference in New York, but, unfortunately, my schedule has changed, and I won't be able to make it this year.  I will miss seeing all the wonderful readers and writers and hearing all of the great workshop presentations.  I know that those folks attending will have a fabulous time.

I also wanted to take a moment and say how honored I feel to be a RITA finalist in the romantic suspense category.  I am in a category that is filled with incredible authors, and I am honored to be included with them.  I would also like to wish all the RITA finalists (in all categories) the best of luck.

And now…a bit of party news.

Since I won't be out of town next week, I can focus a bit more on the release of NEVER CRY WOLF. (It releases on 6/28/11! That's next Tuesday! Next Tuesday!) I am planning a day-long party for this day. Beginning at 6 a.m. (Central time), I will put up contests and guests posts. Each hour, I will have a new giveaway scheduled.  Some absolutely fabulous authors are joining me in the fun (I'll post the full list tomorrow so you can see them all).  You can comment directly on the posts to be included in the individual giveaways, and, then, I will go back at the end of the event and randomly pick commenters to win gift certificates.  So, yes, the more you comment,  that means the more chances you have of winning. Win, win, win!

The fun will begin at 6:00 a.m. Central time on 6/28/11, and I will leave comments open until noon (again, Central time) on 6/29/11. That way, folks in different time zones can all have a chance to participate.

So…are you ready to party?  I do love a good party…

Cover Time

I've received the first cover in my new Fallen Angels of Death series–and I love it!

And here's the blurb:

HE FELL FOR HER

Nicole St. James was a nice woman. An innocent, pretty, twenty-something school teacher with her life ahead of her. But as the angel of death, it's Keenan's job to take that life away.  So when a vampire attacks Nicole, Keenan is not supposed to snap and take out the vampire instead. It cost him his wings–but she's worth it.

Except when Keenan catches up to his pretty school teacher, she's not so innocent anymore.  Hot red lipstick, tight black shorts and long white fangs–she's ready to kick the asses of anyone who helped turn her into a damn bloodsucker. Unless that ass is attached to a certain fallen angel.  Even with all of heaven and half of hell after them, someone will have to teach Keenan about the fun kinds of sin…

***

ANGEL OF DARKNESS will be out on 11/29/11.  I'm working on the book page now, and I'll have an excerpt up soon.

Thanks!! Have a great afternoon.

NEVER CRY WOLF Excerpt

NEVER CRY WOLF releases in two weeks (6/28/11). I am counting down the days. And since the release is so soon, I thought it was time to share a new excerpt from the book.  Hope you enjoy it!

He slanted a dark glance her way.  "Pack protection doesn't come as cheaply as you seem to think.  I don't give a shit about the old laws."

Her stomach dropped.  "If you don't help me, then I'm the dead one."

A shrug.

What? "You can't be that cold of a bastard.  I need your help, and I've traveled over seventeen hundred miles to find you."  Just like John had.  Hopefully, her quest wouldn't end the same way.

She wasn't ready to die.

Sarah sucked in a deep breath. "I know who set you up for murder. If you give me protection, and I'll give him to you."

Both brows rose.  "Oh, you'll most definitely give him to me…one way or another."

Her back teeth clenched.  "I could have left you in jail," she gritted.

A hard smile. "And I could have let the coyotes have you."

She flinched. Okay, he had a point there. A rather nasty, cold-hearted one, but…

"You must have done something pretty bad to get a price on your head."

Not really. She'd actually tried to do something good. That just hadn't worked out so well.

"Sarah King…" He drew out her name, as if tasting it. "Are you a bad woman?"

Yes. Don't trust me. She bit back the words.  Now wasn't the time for that much honesty between them.  So she didn't speak but she managed to hold his stare.

After a moment, he lifted his hand, and offered it, palm-up to her. "Once you come with me, there's no going back."

The heated look in his eyes told her he wasn't just talking about a few days of protection.

But right then, she would have traded what was left of her soul to walk away with Lucas Simone.

"I don't want to go back."  The rumors she'd heard over the years, about humans being absorbed into the packs—women, mostly, who disappeared after they were linked with male shifters—those stories drifted through her mind once more.

Some wolf shifters roamed alone. The Lones. Some Lones existed in society, blending almost seamlessly with the humans.  But most of the Lones didn't blend so well. They had breakdowns. They'd been known to go on killing rampages. Often, they were tagged as serial killers and put down.

The rest of the wolves…they were pack.  Pack was sacred.  Pack was strong.

What would she have to do in order to belong? What would she have to sacrifice?

And did it matter?

Sarah took Lucas's hand and kissed her old life good-bye.

***

Have a great Tuesday!

Giveaway Time With Savannah Stuart

Today, my talented writing pal Savannah Stuart is joining me at the old blog. She's talking about her new release, HEATED MATING, and giving 2 e-book copies to commenters.  (Sweet!) Savannah, welcome–and congrats on the new release!

***

Thank you so much to the wonderful Cynthia Eden for hosting me! Since I'm having a release she's been awesome enough to let me hang out and chat today.

When I first started writing the only thing I ever contemplated trying was romantic suspense. It was a genre I was familiar with and absolutely loved and it's also the reason I fell in love with romance in the first place (thank you Linda Howard!). Thankfully I discovered other genres and soon I was writing paranormal romance in addition to erotic romance as well. It seems that whenever I said I doubted I'd ever write in a certain genre, I found myself wanting to try it. Apparently reverse psychology works when I do it to myself.

Recently I decided to try writing an erotic sci-fi even though in the past I was absolutely sure it was something I'd never be interested in. I like reading in the genre but just didn't think it was for me. Even so Heated Mating was born. Thankfully my editor didn't laugh at me when I submitted it to her.

What are some things you've surprised yourself by trying? And did you like the end results or regret it? Or, who are some of your favorite erotic sci fi authors? Two I really enjoy are Nathalie Gray and KC Burn. Answer either question and be entered to win a copy of Heated Mating. I'll be giving away downloads (digital format only) to two commenters. Winners will be announced in the comments section tomorrow (Saturday) after 12 Central so be sure to check back! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Heated Mating Blurb:

Saroya has always been fascinated by Linc and never understood his reluctance to be near her. When he makes it clear he's sexually interested in her she jumps at the chance to join him in bed. But things get more complicated when he won't commit emotionally.

Linc has wanted Saroya from the moment he met her, and throughout her short mating with his brother. His culture might encourage two males to mate with one woman, but Linc could never share Saroya. Not even with his brother. When his brother dies, leaving Saroya unmated, Linc intends to claim her. Before he can win that battle he'll have to swallow his warrior pride and win her heart once and for all.

A little about me: I've been reading romance since I was a kid and the addiction stayed with me into adulthood. As Savannah Stuart I write sensual erotic romance and the majority of it is published through Ellora's Cave. As Katie Reus I write dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. My publishing houses are Carina Press & NAL/Signet Eclipse. To learn more about me please visit both my websites. http://savannahstuartauthor.com and http://katiereus.com.

NEVER CRY WOLF Giveaway!!!

Do you like werewolves? I do. They're strong. They'd wild. They can generally kick ass.

I've got 5 copies of my upcoming werewolf romance, NEVER CRY WOLF (available 6/28 from Kensington Brava) that I'd love to give away to readers.  Want to win?  Then just leave me a comment–it can be a comment about anything at all (see, simple!).  I'll let the contest run through the weekend, and I'll pick a winner on Monday morning.

Thanks!! Have a wonderful weekend!

"Nonstop action from the first page to the last makes this sexy paranormal romance a winner." Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

RUNNING WITH A DANGEROUS CROWD

Lucas Simone is not the kind of guy you mess with. He's big, he's strong, and his eyes hint at a wilder side most women can't handle. Of course, that's because his predatory instincts are no metaphor—he's a genuine Grade-A top-quality werewolf, tough enough to fight his way to dominance over the scariest pack on the West Coast. There's only one chink in his armor. Unlike most alpha dogs, Lucas has a reputation for protecting the weak and innocent.

Sarah King is counting on that protective impulse—it's the only thing standing between her and certain death. There are only two problems: one, she's not quite as innocent as she'd like Lucas to believe. And two, if he doesn't stop stoking Sarah's animal lust, it's only a matter of time before her own wild side gets unleashed…

***

You can read a NEVER CRY WOLF excerpt here.

Are You A Fool For Love?

Oh, yes, it's giveaway time again.  Today, one commenter will win a Kindle ebook copy of Marie Force's release, FOOL FOR LOVE.

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Here's the blurb for you:

Joe Cantrell, owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company, has been in love with Janey McCarthy for as long as he can remember. At the same time, Janey has been dating or engaged to doctor-in-training David Lawrence. When things go horribly wrong between David and Janey, she calls her "fifth brother" Joe, one of the few people in her close circle who lives on the mainland. Janey decides a few days with Joe is just what she needs before she goes home to the island to face her parents and family with the news of her broken engagement. It was bad enough for Joe loving Janey from afar, but having her in his house is pure torture. Will he take advantage of this opportunity to show her what they could have together? And what will Joe's best friend and Janey's protective older brother Mac have to say about it?

Want to win?  Just tell me the wildest thing you've ever done for love.  I'll pick the winner at 5 pm Central time today. (I'll send the Kindle ebook gifting info directly to your email address. Please note: You don't have to own a Kindle to win; you can view the ebook through the Amazon Kindle for PC program, too.)

But wait–because there is more! More! When this contest closes at 5 today, I will be pack to post another contest–one that will last all weekend. I'll be back to giveaway 5 copies of NEVER CRY WOLF.  I'll leave that contest open for comments through the weekend.

Have a great day!

Lexi George & DEMON HUNTING IN DIXIE

Today I'm excited to have Brava author Lexi George as my guest.  Lexi has a great new paranormal romance out from Kensington Brava right now–you don't want to miss out on the demon hunting fun!  And you won't miss out–because one very lucky commenter will win a copy of Lexi's book, DEMON HUNTING IN DIXIE.

7 Things I Haven't Learned So Far . . .

Writers often write about what they've learned on the bumpy road to publication.  Here are seven things I haven't learned:

1. How to turn off the internal nag.  Call her my muse, my conscience, my inner perfectionist—whatever.  I haven't figured out how to make her be quiet.  She never stops.  Always with the nagging and the recriminations.  I hear her in the morning when I first wake up and the last thing at night before I drift off to sleep.  She talks to me during staff meetings at work, sermons at church—I know.  I know!—and in the car on the way to work.  The beyotch just won't shut up.

2. How to hyphenate.  Every time I hyphenated a word in Demon Hunting in Dixie, Kensington took it out.  I knew I was comma challenged, but now I can add hyphen challenged to the list as well.  Notice I did not use a hyphen in the previous sentence?  Totally freaked out by that short little line.  Sigh.  So now I don't bother to hyphenate.  I figure the hyphen fairy will supply them as needed.

3. How to write a sex scene without mint chocolate chip ice cream and red wine.  We all have our dirty little secrets.  I write sex scenes under the influence of chocolate, sugar and alcohol.  Nuff said.

4. Time management or how to pretend I don't have a day job or a family.  I work full time and I'm a busy mom.  I also have the concentration spat of a gnat.  Finding alone time and the quiet I need in order to write continues to be a challenge. The dogs.  The telephone.  The children.  The husband playing computer games that generate strange wom wom phe-oww noises in the room next door.   Can I just say arggh!

5. How not to read bad reviews.  I know better. I've been warned.  A multi published writer in my RWA chapter told me not to read the darn things.  But it's like looking away from a five-car pileup.  I can't do it.  And then I'm sorry I read them, because there's nothing you can do about bad reviews except grin and bear them.

6. How to be a plotter.  I am not a writer who has everything mapped out with flow charts and medical records and family trees for each character, and plot arcs pinpointed before the first word is written.  I am a pantser with a serious case of plotter envy.  Wish I could plot the whole thing out before hand, but that's not the way I roll.  I start with the hero and heroine and the basic premise of the story—small town girl meets sexy demon hunter in pursuit of a rogue demon, chaos to follow.  I usually knock out 50 or so pages to get a feel for my characters and then I get nervous and sit down and come up with a list of plot points.  After that, I wing it for a while and try to connect the dots.  About three-fourths of the way through, I sit down and sketch out the remaining chapters to make sure I get everything in, and so I know how it's going to end.  So, I guess that makes me a plotser!

7. How to be blasé about getting a book contract and an agent.  I am so uncool about the whole thing.  You see, I had decided it might not happen for me.  After 16 years of writing, three years of querying, and 145 rejections from agents, I was starting to get the teensiest clue that my dream might not come true.  And then it happened when I least expected it.  I walked around for three weeks after I got The Call from Kensington feeling like somebody had dropped a safe on my head.  I still expect someone to jump out and yell Punked! at any second.

To say that I was in a state of shock (and still am!) is to say nothing.  Though I'd dreamed and hoped and schemed and fought the good fight to get published for a number of years, I knew the odds.

Of course, I hoped to be among the lucky few.  But I knew that talent and persistence are sometimes not enough, that there are thousands of writers out there working to better their craft in the hopes of catching the attention of an editor or an agent.  Still, knowing my chances were slim did not stop me from dreaming.

I've heard that luck sometimes plays a part in getting an editor or an agent.  Now, I am a very blessed person, but I've never considered myself 'lucky.'  I'm not good at games of chance and I'm not the kind of person who is likely to win the lottery.

Before now, that is.

My 'luck' came in the form of a smiling, blonde haired member of Southern Magic, the Birmingham chapter of the RWA.  Carla Swafford caught a comment I made on the Southern Magic loop that I was having buzzard luck in the querying process, because I was being told by agents that light paranormal romance is 'very difficult to sell.'  After reading my lament, Carla emailed me at home.  She'd read an interview with Megan Records, an editor at Kensington, on the Southern Sizzle Romance blog.  In the interview, Megan said dark paranormal is hot.  No surprise there.  But then she said something that made me sit up and pay attention.  She said, "I hardly ever see funny paranormals. Shame, because I like those too!"

I queried Megan, referencing the interview and her comment, and she sent me back an email requesting the full.  Two weeks later, I got The Call.

Needless to say, I owe Carla Swafford Big Time.  If not for her, I might not have queried Megan.  If not for Megan, God bless her sweet heart and her funny bone, I would not have a publishing contract.

Turns out I'm lucky after all.  And definitely not blasé.

So, what are some things YOU haven't learned so far?  A copy of Demon Hunting in Dixie goes to one commenter!

Bodyguards In Bed

Happy June!!  Summer, oh, yes, sweet summer is now upon us!

And do you know what goes well with summer? Books. Good books to read on a hot summer day.  So, I thought I'd do a giveaway on the old blog.

Are you in the mood to read some sexy novellas about strong bodyguards?  My friend Elisabeth Naughton is in the new anthology, BODYGUARDS IN BED–an anthology that looks like a great read.

Want to read an excerpt from Elisabeth's story? It's here!

Now…wanna win a copy of the book? I'll pick one commenter randomly, and I'll send that person a copy of BODYGUARDS IN BED via Amazon (you can get the trade version of an ebook version).  Just leave me a comment telling me if you would or would not make a good bodyguard.   Easy, right?

Thanks for checking out the contest–and have a great day!  (The contest will run until 5 pm on 6/2.)

NEVER CRY WOLF Giveaway

Want to win an early copy of NEVER CRY WOLF? Then head over to the Brava blog! I'm giving away 5 copies there.  The contest will run until Friday at 8 a.m. Eastern time.  Good luck!

My Favorite Countess–Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm so excited to have my buddy (and uber talented author) Vanessa Kelly here today!  Vanessa has a fabulous new historical romance out on the shelves now.  Welcome, Vanessa!

Playing Second Banana

My latest historical romance, My Favorite Countess, is now in stores.  As you have likely deduced from the title, the lead character is a countess.  A widowed countess, actually.    Her name is Bathsheba and she has many thrilling and occasionally dangerous challenges to overcome in the course of the narrative, along with her hero, Dr. John Blackmore.

The story, of course, is mostly about them.  But it's not all about them.  There are several other characters in My Favorite Countess and their stories are important, both as sub-plots that support the main plot and in adding portrayals that enrich the book in their own right.

Secondary characters have always played a critical role in books, movies, and TV shows.  Take, for example, one of my favorite TV programs:  House.  Gregory House is the lifeblood of the show, with his caustic wit, his insane adventures, and his tortured psyche.  If he wasn't on screen for at least 75% of the time, I think most viewers would get pretty darn cranky.  And Hugh Laurie's portrayal is so commanding that he could probably read the proverbial phone book and make it interesting.

But one of the things that makes House such a great show is the way the main character interacts with the secondary characters.  Where would House be without Wilson to play faithful second banana, the one person who truly understands him and accepts him for who he is?  And how about his team of assistants, whose different personalities serve as foils to highlight House's strengths and weaknesses, and also challenge him to confront the demons that bedevil him?  These characters aren't cardboard cut-outs.  The portrayals are so fully realized that viewers care for them, both in their separate story lines and in how they relate to House.

Romance novels are often part of a series, and when they are secondary characters tend to play an even more vital role.  They help to pull the story forward from one book to the next, ensuring continuity and also introducing new themes and plot twists in the over-arching development of the series.

My Favorite Countess is the third book in my series of Regency-set historical romances, and I do have characters from earlier books playing key secondary roles in this one.  The most important are Stephen and Meredith, the Marquess and Marchioness of Silverton, and the hero and heroine of my first book, Mastering The Marquess.  In that book, Stephen and Meredith faced many challenges on the way to their HEA—including a poisoning and a kidnapping—and you would think that I would just leave them in peace to enjoy their happy lives together.

Not!  In fact, things have the potential to go very wrong for them, and it will be up to John and Bathsheba to save the day.

But Stephen and Meredith aren't just devices to drive the plot and give my hero and heroine an excuse to be, well, heroic.  This pair of secondary characters inhabits a fully realized subplot, and it brings an additional strength to the story that wouldn't be there if I had left it out.  When this subplot joins up with the main plot in the climax of the book, things get really hairy for everyone, and I think it's all pretty darn exciting!

On my website, I have a bonus prequel chapter to My Favorite Countess, that kicks off Meredith and Stephen's subplot several months before the main action of the book begins.  You might want to check it out, along with the regular excerpt for the book.

What do you think of secondary characters in romance?  How important are they to the hero and heroine's story?  And who are some of your favorite secondary characters in romance novels?  One commenter will win a copy of My Favorite Countess.

Vanessa Kelly writes Regency-set historical romance for Kensington Zebra.  She also writes contemporary romance with her husband under the pen name of VK Sykes.  You can visit her on the web at:  http://www.vanessakellyauthor.com

Free bonus read:  http://www.vanessakellyauthor.com/books.html

Excerpt:  http://www.vanessakellyauthor.com/excerpt_mfc.html