Katie Reus's Blog, page 43

30 Days of Danger & Secrets!

I've been out of town so I apologize for the silence this past week. Thankfully the month of February won't be silent at all!


Just a quick reminder that starting tomorrow I have a fun lineup of wonderful authors the rest of this week! Tomorrow Cynthia Eden will be joining us and she'll be giving away a copy of her hot new release, Deadly Heat!


She'll be followed by Naima Simone, Carolyn Crane, Inez Kelley, and Caridad Pineiro!! All fave authors of mine! If you haven't read these authors you'll have a chance to get to know them very soon :)

Guest Author List

We're getting closer! In a little over a week 30 Days of Danger & Secrets will officially kick off!! Want to know who is blogging and when? Here's the list!


Feb 1 - Cynthia Eden
Feb 2 - Naima Simone
Feb 3 - Carolyn Crane
Feb 5 - Inez Kelley
Feb 6 - Caridad Pineiro
Feb 8 - Amy Atwell
Feb 10 - Jill Sorenson
Feb 12 - Angela Henry
Feb 13 - Loribelle Hunt
Feb 14 - Gemma Halliday
Feb 15 - K.C. Burn
Feb 17 - Kaylea Cross
Feb 18 - Toni Anderson
Feb 19 - Rebecca Zanetti
Feb 20 - Crystal Jordan
Feb 22 - Susanna Fraser
Feb 24 - Amanda Alvarez
Feb 25 - Nicole North
Feb 27 - Seleste deLaney
Feb 28 - Wynter Daniels
March 1 - Bobbie Cole
March 2 - Me, with the grand prize announcement!


** Open to all readers, 18 years or older, in US or Canada, who are legally allowed to participate in such a contest as allowed by their local laws. All federal, state, local, and municipal laws and regulations apply. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Grand prize winner drawn randomly by me via random.org. By participating in the contest, participants agree to be bound by the decisions of the contest sponsor. Winner will be notified via email and posted on my blog.**

Check out Cynthia Eden's 'My Deadly Valentine'

For the next few weeks Cynthia Eden is celebrating the release of her book Deadly Heat. (And seriously, if you've read Deadly Fear you know how kick ass this next book will be.) To help celebrate she's having a 'My Deadly Valentine' party with a ton of awesome authors. Caridad Pineiro kicks off the blog party today so until February 14th, make sure you check out her blog for daily and/or weekly contests!

Monday Funday & Updates

My husband is in the process of transitioning jobs so this week he's not working which means he's hanging out at the house. Or he was hanging out here. I sort of kicked him out, he just doesn't realize it. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my hubby (if I didn't I think our marriage would be in trouble) but since I work from home during the week the morning hours until the early afternoon are my work hours. I take my schedule seriously (if I don't, no one else will) and as soon as that pot of coffee is made and my computer is turned on, it's writing time. Okay, I'm digressing...so I sort of insisted that he go hunting today and now he thinks I'm the best wife ever. I insisted because I'm on deadlines and need that extra quiet and knew he'd have more fun out in the woods anyway. If he stayed here I'd have probably hinted that the front yard desperately needs to be raked. ;)


On to writing updates!


Last week I finished my proposal for book #2 I have under contract with NAL/Penguin. I finished the actual book at the end of last year but wrote the proposal afterward. I'll admit I'm totally envious of those who can write their proposals/synopses before writing their books. It's something I haven't quite mastered yet. So far I'm really ahead of schedule and hope to finish book #3 by May/June (before the baby is born!). Technically book #3 isn't due until December but I'm planning on getting no writing done for the first couple months after the baby gets here so I want the majority of that book done ahead of time.


I also found out that Dangerous Secrets (Carina Press, 2/7/2011) will be going to Audible! I'm so excited about that! During my daily walks I listen to books on my iPod from Audible so it's pretty cool to know one of my books will be available from them.


Lastly, this Friday I'll be listing all the guest authors who will be hanging out here next month so I hope you check back. Just read the previous post for the February contest details if you missed it.


Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm off to buckle down and get some serious writing done today.

Fun Contest Very Soon!

Less than one month from now my first release from Carina Press will be out! Dangerous Secrets is a category length romantic suspense a little higher on the romance than suspense! To celebrate this release, starting on February 1st I'll be hosting guest authors until March 2nd.

Click on the cover for a bigger version of the banner. Feel free to save it and post it on your blog or wherever. If you'd like the html code let me know and I'll email it to you.

In about a week I'll be posting the exact dates these lovely authors will be blogging so you can mark your calendars. Most of them will be having a giveaway and on March 2nd I'll announce the grand prize winner (Nine West purse, Amazon gift card, and over a dozen print books by paranormal and romantic suspense authors)


** Open to all readers, 18 years or older, in US or Canada, who are legally allowed to participate in such a contest as allowed by their local laws. All federal, state, local, and municipal laws and regulations apply. No purchase necessary. Grand prize winner drawn randomly by me via random.org. By participating in the contest, participants agree to be bound by the decisions of the contest sponsor. Void where prohibited. Winner will be notified via email and posted on my blog.**

Ah, Sweet Lover

That's what my Kindle has become! For Christmas my husband got me the Kindle and I absolutely LOVE it! It came in a couple weeks early and he wasn't home when it was delivered so... I opened it early and I haven't been able to put it down since. It's so slim and compact so I take it everywhere. Since I've been going to a lot more doctors appointments lately I've been getting plenty of reading done in the waiting room.


I have a Sony reader that I got years ago and in comparison, it's only okay. The wireless option of the Kindle is awesome and I love being able to download books without worrying about hooking up my ereader to my computer. With the Kindle, I can download anywhere I can find a wireless connection (which isn't hard) so it's doubly nice if I'm traveling. In addition, Amazon is always offering free books. Technically I think it's the publishers but I like that when a big author has a new release, they'll often offer one or more of their books for free via th e Kindle for a limited time. I've discovered a few authors that way and I've been able to download some of my favorite authors' back list books. And it's something I haven't found that Sony offers (though I could be wrong).


So far, I think my favorite application is the ability to separate my books by genre. I've got about 10 genre separations and while the classification system still needs some tweaking (they don't alphabetize the books by author or title so with a big collection I imagine it's annoying) it's very nice to be able to file all paranormal or erotic romance books together.


I know so many people who got the Kindle for Christmas. Do you have one? What do you think of it? Or do you have another ereader?

My First Pet

Hope everyone had a safe and fun time ushering in the New Year. Ours was bittersweet because we lost our dog on New Years Eve. It was very unexpected and I'm still trying to deal with it. Since the place we're renting doesn't allow pets, our dog was living with our in-laws until our lease is up. Somehow she got out and to make a long, sad story short she was hit by a car and passed away.


She was a Siberian husky and the cutest dog in the world. Obviously I'm biased but she was the runt of the litter so full grown she was only 37 pounds and absolutely adorable. She never grew out of her puppy phase so she never lost that cuteness. You can't tell in the pictures but she had the most beautiful blue eyes.


Years ago, right after I got engaged, my now-husband was deployed overseas but as soon as he got back he bought me an early Christmas present (it was right before the holidays). My present: a puppy. For almost eight years she was my constant companion, my writing buddy, my walking buddy, and a warm bundle of love that slept next to me when my husband was deployed. When I was sick or sad, she just knew it and gave me extra affection. It's hard to have a bad day when you come home to a happy dog who just wants to lick your face and show you how much she loves you. Once the man's deployments were over, we never kicked h er of the habit of sleeping in our bed. Even if we tried to keep her on the floor, she just jumped back up with us once we'd fallen asleep. Eventually we gave up the battle. Living without her was hard but I knew this lease wouldn't be forever and our in-laws have a dog who she got along with so it was a perfect temporary arrangement. Other than New Years, Christmas was the last day I saw her and I just wish I would have played with her longer or hugged her longer or something.


I know she was loved and had a really good life but I'm still going to miss her for a very long time.

The End of the Year & News about 2011

[image error]

Holy crap, I can't believe this year is almost over! I haven't blogged in about two months so figured I'd post one last blog before the New Year. 2010 was an exciting year and I know 2011 will be full of even more adventures.


A little recap of my year: I sold two books to Carina (and absolutely love my editor, the wonderful Charlotte Herscher), both of which will be released next year. The first, Dangerous Secrets, will be out February 7 and I'm really excited about it! I also sold a handful of books to Ellora's Cave (under my pseudonym), some that came out this year and two that will be out next year. I'm still waiting to hear back on a submission so I might have three. I also sold (thanks to my amazing agent) a trilogy to NAL which will be published under the Signet Eclipse line. Some of my favorite authors are published through them so it's a double thrill for me!


While all this definitely makes for an amazing year, the coolest thing to happen to me is I found out I'm pregnant. A lot of you know and I haven't exactly made it a secret on facebook this past week, but for those of you who don't, finding out I'm pregnant has been the highlight of my year. We weren't trying but we weren't NOT trying either. It was sort of a 'if it happens, it happens'. And it did, faster than we expected! I won't know the sex of the baby for a few more weeks but when I do you can be sure I'll announce it.


I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years. My blog will be up and running again full force starting late January/early February. For the entire month of February and part of March, I'll be hosting a slew of wonderful authors for 30 days of Danger and Secrets. Cynthia Eden will kick off the 30 days on February 1st, and she'll be followed quickly by Naima Simone, Carolyn Crane, Caridad Pineiro, and many many others! In addition to almost daily giveaways I will also announce a grand prize winner on March 2nd (a cute Nine West purse filled with over a dozen books by the hottest paranormal and romantic suspense authors). In a couple weeks I'll post more details so make sure you check back!


Until then I hope everyone has an awesome and safe New Years!!

Taking a Break

[image error]

Due to deadlines I'm taking a little break from blogging through the holiday months. I'll definitely be back in January and in February I've got a fun lineup of guest bloggers which I'll be sure to post about beforehand. I'm just so stretched for time lately I had to find a place to cut back.


This isn't to say I won't do any blogging over the next couple months but I'm going to be pretty scarce here. I'll still be blogging every other Friday under my alter ego at Naughty Author chicks and l'll still be on twitter @katiereus and on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/katiereusauthor) if you want to find me there.


I know the picture has nothing to do with this post but the dog looks like mine (except my baby's eyes are blue) and it's super cute!

Updates

Southern Magic's reader luncheon was so much fun! Thanks to Cynthia Eden the drive, which would have been blah, was a lot of fun and I got to meet the wonderful Naima Simone. I blog with her under my alter ego and she's even funnier in person! The luncheon was awesome, I met some really nice readers, and I even came home with a new bundle of books.


I forgot to mention last week that I sold my romantic suspense Deadly Obsession to my editor at Carina. (yay!) Those edits are a little ways off so I'm busy working on book #2 in my paranormal trilogy and I've officially passed the halfway mark. Normally I plot every few chapters as I go but I've actually plotted out the rest of the book. Now I just have to write it :)


What did everyone else do over the weekend?