Jaci Burton's Blog, page 38

Changing The Game ARC Reviewer/Blogger Winners!

Wow. Thanks so much to everyone who emailed about reviewing CHANGING THE GAME! I had a lot of responses and i'm so honored so many of you want to review the book!

I used random.org to select the winners. All those who will be receiving an ARC have been notified.

But don't be sad if you didn't win, because very shortly I'm going to do a general giveaway for an ARC of CHANGING THE GAME! So stay tuned!

Review Copies of CHANGING THE GAME

I have some ARCs of CHANGING THE GAME I'd like to send to bloggers and/or reviewers who are willing to read the book before it's August 2nd release and post your thoughts. If you're willing to do that and you have a place to post your review, please do the following:

1. Email me at jaci AT jaciburton DOT com with CHANGING THE GAME REVIEW in the subject line.

2. I need the URL of where you intend to post your review. Note: I don't expect glowing positive reviews of my book. I just want your honest opinion.

3. I need the name and address of where you want the ARC sent. Can't mail it to you without it.

4. I'd like the review prior to the book's August 2nd release.

I'll collect entries and pull names randomly this Friday, then we'll get the ARCs sent out asap.

This contest is open to international entries.

Void where prohibited.

Please don't post here in the comments section. You need to email me at the email address noted above.

Thanks!

Photos!

I've put a bunch of photos from the RWA National Conference up on my Facebook Page. Click here to go see them.

I'm Back!

I'm back from the RWA National Conference. Brain dead, jetlagged, and I have a gozillion books, which I'll be giving away to all of you, along with some awesome swag, as soon as they arrive from UPS, since I had them shipped home from New York. And I also have a lot of awesome photos to share!

But for now, here's a video from the Literacy Signing, courtesy of the awesome Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches who puts an enormous amount of time and effort into doing these videos for our entertainment every year. I love her.

Enjoy the video! I'll be back soon…I have so much catch up work to do.

A Random Vent

Yesterday I was unloading the dishwasher, and while putting away storage containers and lids, I had to pull the lid container off the shelf. The shelf where I keep all the plastic lids is kind of high, and some of the lids are taller than the shelf, which means I kind of have to cram. Plus the container was overstuffed. Which meant by the time I jerked the container off the shelf, about 15 plastic lids fell on my head.

I'd hit the breaking point. My lid dilemma had been going on for months, but I'd ignored it. Being on deadline means I ignore a lot of things that irritate me, but having all those lids fall on my head was the last straw. So I took all the lids out of the container, and removed every plastic container from the cabinet and did a match up. If there was a container without a lid or a lid without a container, I pitched it. No mercy. I threw out a lot. No wonder shit was falling on my head. No wonder my cabinet was a mess. And, where do lids go without a container to attach to, and where do containers disappear to without their lids anyway? Inquiring minds want to know. Now my cabinet–and my stress level–are much happier.

What's one minor but you know it's going to be irritating project in your house that you're dreading, but you know needs to be done? Go ahead…vent to me.

Booksigning In New York

If you live in or around New York City, I'll be there next week at the Romance Writer's of America(RWA) annual conference. While there, I'll be participating in a booksigning, along with 400 romance authors, at the RWA's annual Literacy Signing on Tuesday, June 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. All proceeds go to literacy programs.

More details here including a list of all the authors attending. Hope to see some of you there!

I'm Exhausted

Aren't weekends supposed to be for napping and lying around to recharge your batteries so when Monday rolls around you're rested up and ready to go again?

Yeah, not so much at our house. We spend the entire weekend on the go from Friday night until Sunday night. I'm so fried and I would sell my soul for a nap right now.

But it was a fun weekend. We went to the casino (twice over the weekend), went shopping all over on Saturday (Biker Dude likely didn't think this was so much fun..heh). I bought some clothes and shoes for the Romance Writer's of America national conference I'll be attending in New York City next week. This week I'll be breaking in said new shoes, so picture me in semi heels, a tank top and worn out capri pants (there's a visual for you).

Yesterday being Father's Day, we met our daughter in the morning for breakfast, then spent the day and part of the night at the casino. We do spent a lot of time there. But hey, we figure if we spent the entire day there, we were winning, right? Can't say we brought all those winnings home with us though.

When we got home we watched the season finales of Game of Thrones and The Killing. Game of Thrones was amazing. I can't recommend this series highly enough. It was so much better than I thought it would be. Superb acting all around, and the scenery? Breathtaking. The Killing was good, too, though the ending? Not sure what I think about it. Kind of anticlimactic with a sprinkling of WTF? tossed in.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend, and that you started your Monday off great. I'm hoping to get my daily word count in soon so I can take that desperately needed nap.

Taking A Shot – The Cover!

If you want to score, you have to get in the game…

The last thing Jenna Riley needs is more sports in her life. While her brothers are off being athletic superstars, she's stuck running the family's sports bar, whether she likes it or not. Then in walks pro hockey stud Tyler Anderson. As much as Jenna would like to go to the boards with him, she's vowed to never fall for a jock—even one as hot as Ty.

Ty, intrigued by the beautiful bar owner, becomes a regular. He senses that Jenna wants to do something more with her life. And as he gains her trust, the passion between them grows, as does Ty's insistence that Jenna should start living for herself. With his encouragement, Jenna starts to believe it, too…

But first, Jenna has to figure out what she wants, what she needs, who she loves, and if she has the passion and pride to take a shot at having it all—including Ty…

I just don't have words for how much I love this cover, or all the covers for this series. Berkley's Art Department has been genius in creating covers for my Play-by-Play series.

Also, Taking A Shot is now up for preorder at Amazon . Yay!

A Long Story (That Ends With Clydesdales!)

So last night Biker Dude and I headed out to get some fast food. He'd had an after work meeting that ended late, and I was starving. Fast food worked for me (once the blood sugar hits low, I need to be fed and fed NOW).

So we hit the McDonald's drive-thru. And waited. And waited. And waited. Then another car pulled into the other drive-thru lane. The person behind the magic speaker box waited on the other car, then came on to wait on us. Biker Dude isn't the most patient person, so when she waited on the car who'd arrived five minutes after us, he was outta there, deciding he wasn't giving McDonald's our money that day.

McDonald's is the halfway point between where we live (pretty much middle of nowhere) and town. Which meant we'd now have to drive into town to get food. Color me near fainting by now, but I figure I'd just deal. We pulled into the Carl's Jr drive-thru and ordered our food. While waiting, three Budweiser semi's pulled onto the main highway. No, not beer trucks. Three Budweiser Clydesdale semi's.

Now we live in a pretty small town. If the Clydesdales are going to make an appearance in our town, we're going to know about it. Biker Dude and I discussed this while waiting for our food and decided they had to be going to the expo center, so he decided I could eat my burger in the car.

I grew up in St Louis, home of Anheuser Busch, home of the Budweiser Clydesdales. I'm a big fan because they're beautiful horses, and I wanted to know where those semis were headed, so I was game. We drove to the expo center, and pulled into the back parking lot, where sure enough they were unloading the Clydesdales into the barn.

Interesting, since the only thing going on was a Dressage tournament this coming weekend. Not a big enough event to draw the Clydesdales. So we got out of the car and headed into the barn to see what was going on. They had corralled the horses and were feeding and watering them, so we wandered and took pictures and talked to their handlers. Yay!

Turns out they were in Peoria, IL today, headed toward Minnesota when they got the call to be part of the parade to celebrate the Dallas, Mavericks NBA championship win, so our small town was their layover point for last night. Go Mavs! And we couldn't be happier to see the Clydesdales.

Oh, and we got these (aren't they beautiful?)

Dear Readers

I read a blog post yesterday that disturbed me greatly. I won't link to it or discuss the specifics, but it leads me to this.

Thank you. Thank you for buying and reading my books in print, or digitally, through the library, book club, either online, through your local book store or UBS. I am so grateful you found my books and found something in them you enjoy, and that you keep coming back for more. I don't care what format you read my books in, or where you buy my books, as long as it's convenient for you. I don't care if you preorder them, buy them on release day, or during the first week of release, or a month or two later. I'm grateful you read my books, I always have been, and always will be. I love to get emails and read Twitter and Facebook posts from you where you talk about my books and my characters and who and what's coming up next. Your enthusiasm fires me up and keeps me going.

There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for you. Without you, I don't have a job.

So again, thank you.