Lucy Monroe's Blog, page 78

Beach Party at Writerspace!

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Please join me and dozens of your favorite authors at the 2011 Beach Party at Writerspace on Sunday, August 21st from 8pm ET to 11pm ET. Authors will be dropping in to chat all during the evening and we will be giving away 100s of new books and other fantastic prizes -- 2 Kindles, tons of autographed books, advance copies plus special treats like gift cards and more. We hope to see you Sunday night! You don't have to be present to win, but you must be registered. To register, and for details on all participating authors and the prizes they're giving away, visit http://www.writerspace.com/beach

Contest Winners!

Congratulations to the following people for winning this week's contest! Please be sure to Email us with your name and mailing information so you can get your prizes!

Monday:Tuesday:Wednesday:Thursday:Friday:Saturday:
Please Note: Although Lucy is happy to ship internationally, there have been some customs issues in Africa and Asia, therefore she would like to offer winners in those locations a free ebook. Please provide your email and we will send you a pdf. file.

Guest Interview - Jane Porter

Thanks Jane for stopping by today to answer a few questions so we can all get to know you better! Check out Jane's newest Harlequin Presents, A Dark Sicilian Secret.









Question #1What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing?



Besides hanging out with my family? Read! I love, love, love to read.



Question #2What books are sitting in your TBR pile right now? What book are you currently reading?



I'm reading Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison (recommended to me by Caitlin Crews) and then will jump on Arabella by Georgette Heyer. Arabella is one of the few books by Heyer I haven't yet read.



Question #3 Action adventure or romantic comedy? What is your favorite movie lately?



Romantic comedy all the way. I don't have the nerves for action adventure. And I'm a sucker for romance, anyway. I just saw Crazy Stupid Love a few weeks ago and loved it.

Excerpt from Dragon's Moon (WIP)

Thought you might enjoy a little taste of what I've been working so diligently on for the past weeks.


This is the 4th book in the Children of the Moon series and the follow on to Moon Burning , but you'll get to revisit characters from all three previous books as well.


Let me know what you think!


Excerpt from Dragon's Moon (WIP - Working Title)(c) Lucy MonroeBerkley Release TBD 2012*All Rights Reserved*
Do not use in whole or in part *anywhere* without author's written consent.

Taran's people had all dismounted and gathered their belongings by the time the Sinclair made it down the hill from the keep.  His hair stuck up as if he'd been drawn from his bed and he wore only a sword and his kilt.Nevertheless, he was smiling.  "I'm glad you and your people have finally made it."  Like the friend that he was, the Sinclair reached out and pulled Taran in a warrior's embrace.Taran returned it before stepping back.  "I did not mean to pull you from your bed.""It happens."  The Sinclair gave the shrug Taran knew could irritate the man's wife, Abigail no end."We were going to camp outside the wall."  Taran let some censure bleed into his voice.  "I saw the drawbridge was down, so changed my plan."The smile the Sinclair gave was smug.  "I had a feeling you would be here tonight.""The security of your people is more important than a little inconvenience."Instead of taking umbrage at Taran's clear censure, Talorc merely let his grin grow wider.  "You are all my people now too.  Abigail insisted you would feel more welcome if the drawbridge was down.""You allow your lady to dictate in matters of clan security?" Taran asked with no little shock."You know Abigail."  But there was something in the Sinclair's voice and then he looked over Taran's shoulder.Taran turned his head to see a group of warriors entering the lower bailey as the sound of the drawbridge being lifted could be heard."You had a guard on watch outside the walls.""Of course."Taran almost smiled.  "It seems your life is filled with headstrong women, but you know how to handle them for the most part.""Women?" Talorc asked with a puzzled frown that went dark as he seemed to comprehend all that Taran had said. "For the most part?"Taran indicated the woman Lais had been referring to as Ciara.  The prince had heard her tell Lais she lived in the keep.  He had not missed his second's amusement at that fact either.The Sinclair bellowed, "What in the hell is Ciara doing down here in the middle of the night?"The woman in question jumped and then bit her lip before giving a small wave to her laird.  The Sinclair did not look amused, nor did he look particularly surprised.Taran doubted the other man would take the rest of his ward's exploits with the same equanimity. "A better question might be: what was she doing on top of the west tower?"Clearly able to hear them, though she stood several feet away, Ciara glared at Taran as if he had betrayed her most bosom held secret.  He let his own disapproval show in the look he returned her.If she had expected him to keep her dangerous actions from her laird, she was not only deluded about her brother – the woman was a fool.The Sinclair's eyes began to glow with the wolf's light and the scent of his fury was so strong, Taran wasn't sure the pack alpha would not shift right there.  His own dragon roared for a chance to come out.  "Ciara was on top?" Talorc asked with deadly quiet."Until she fell."Talorc did not ask Taran to repeat himself.  He did not question how Ciara came to be in the lower bailey now, in one piece.  He simply turned toward the tower and bellowed a man's name.

Humpday Hottie!

Getting ready for a business meeting? I bet he's thinking about something a little more exciting! Maybe his plans for after the meeting....? I'll make the reservations!

Contest Prizes for this Week's Give Away!

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Prizes for this week's Book A Day give away! I'm giving away two books a day from blog comments. Weekly winners will be posted on Saturday!



Monday:Desert Sheikh's Innocent Queen (includes a re-release of Hired:The Sheikh's Secretary Mistress)Lucy Monroe ANDThe Mane Attraction Shelly Laurenston

Tuesday:Ready (Mass Market)Lucy Monroe ANDTexas Bad BoysRosemary Laurey, Karen Kelley, Dianne Castell



Wednesday:Deal With This (Mass Market)Lucy Monroe ANDThe Shaughnessey AccordAllison Kent



Thursday:Royal Affairs (includes a re-release of Forbidden: The Billionaire's Virgin Princess)Lucy MonroeANDKisses Like a DevilDiane Whiteside



Friday:Close QuartersLucy MonroeANDAgain Sharon Cullars



Saturday:Blackmailed into MarriageLucy MonroeANDWho's Been Sleeping in My Bed?Gemma Bruce

Identity Theft...Me? Really?

Part of portfolio John Coulter Illustration by John Coulter
Several weeks ago one of the websites I use for promotion informed its clients that an older area of the site had been hacked.  The hackers had posted several hundred email address and password combos from this site as well as quite a few others.  I immediately went searching all over the internet for places this email address had been used in combination with this particular password.  I found none, but I changed passwords on any potentially vulnerable accounts just in case.


There was nothing I could do about the places I had bought electronic books online using this particular combo that have since gone out of business.  Well, as near as I can figure...one of those sites has come back to bite me in the butt.


My bank noticed the fraudulent use of my credit card right away and contacted me.  Someone had set up an account with Yahoo and Match.com with my info.  Can you imagine?  A dating service.  Me!  Right, 'cuz Hubcap isn't enough for any one woman to handle.  Anyway, those sneaky peets followed up their fraudulent use of my card and attempt to create a different me online with an email to my legit account telling me about it (purporting to be from my bank) and saying all assets were frozen until I signed in (on the link provided of course).  Now, I'd just been in my account to go over the fraudulent charges with my bank, so I knew that claim to be false.


The email looked very legit though.  I've gotten so many non-legit ones, I know the signs to look for...misspelled words, odd phrasing, etc.  This email had none of them.  However, I have a policy of NEVER signing into money related accounts through an email link.  I always go to the home webpage and sign in from there when in question.  Good thing too...as these emails were clearly phishing emails.


I'm really grateful my bank caught onto the fraudulent charges early, but let me tell you...for a lot of people, those charges would not have raised a red flag.  But I don't Skype, I don't use dating services (even the really good ones LOL) and I pay for things like Yahoo Mail with a separate credit card I *don't* use to pay for anything else and is not linked to my bank account.  And still, I feel like there's a whole passel of security measures that are going to be going into place in the next days and weeks.


I figure we can help each other out with that, right?  What things to do you do to protect your identity in this world of online shopping, banking and book buying? 

Contest Winners!

Congratulations to the following people for winning this week's contest! Please be sure to Email us with your name and mailing information so you can get your prizes!

Monday: Nova
Tuesday: Virginia Wednesday: Sherry Thursday: Amy Friday: Di Saturday: Maria



Please Note: Although Lucy is happy to ship internationally, there have been some customs issues in Africa and Asia, therefore she would like to offer winners in those locations a free ebook. Please provide your email and we will send you a pdf. file.

Catch the Buzz...

What would happen if a few hundred authors/readers teamed up, formed an on-line book of the month club, chose the book from their very own membership, and promoted each other? Great things.

Where did this idea come from? From a poor experience I had when I joined a book club on Twitter. Sounded like fun, but they started reading three days after the book was chosen. Not nearly enough time to get a copy. When I complained (gently) the club told me I should have either done an ebook or gone to the library. Not possible and not very friendly either. That got me thinking. If I ran a book club I'd give everyone enough time to get their books.



Also, some New York best seller sold another 90 books. No big deal to him/her. But to someone like me, it would be a very big deal. If I ran a book club I wouldn't use big time authors, I'd only use…our own member's books. A book club that uses traditionally pubbed, self pubbed, PODs, or e-pubs? Unheard of.



The membership will vote each month from four books that will be chosen by lottery from all who submit. There will be nine romance categories, one a month, with room for other cats if there is a demand.

On June 17th I published a website, www.ibookbuzz.com, and started emailing authors and RWA chapters one at a time. Two months later, I have 207 members. And it's growing every day.

Our first category is Contemporary and we're due to start reading September 1st. Come and join the fun. Imagine, YOUR book could get to be a book of the month selection. ¸.•´ ¸.•*¨)¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´(¸.• (¸.•´¸¸.•¨¯`•.¸¸.♥

Humpday Hottie!

Summer fun at the beach!