Kelly Jamieson's Blog, page 34

All I Want For Christmas...

 ...is a fun, sexy little read, perfect for the holidays. We've all felt that pressure to make the season perfect, with perfect parties, perfect gifts and perfect decorations. When things don't go perfectly, it can seem like Christmas is ruined. But sometimes when things go wrong, it helps us see what's really important about the season.

If you bought my book All I Want For Christmas when it was previously published, this is the same book re-released with a new cover. But if you haven't read it, this is a good time to pick it up since it's only .99.

It's available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords



 

Perfectionist Erin Nordman usually loves Christmas, but this year things aren't going quite as planned. Lost gifts, too much work to do and organizing the office Christmas party are stressing her out. When Dex Mitchell comes by, the gorgeous Director of Finance who she's had a crush on forever, she turns into a stammering klutz.What else could go wrong this Christmas?

How about too much to drink at the Christmas party, a sexy encounter in the ladies' room and an embarrassed hangover the next day? Can anything turn this around so Erin gets what she really wants for Christmas?

Hockey and romance

I've had quite a few emails lately from readers asking if there are going to be more stories about the Heller brothers. Maybe it's because we're into hockey season! You may remember Jase from Breakaway...here's his Romance Trading Card...


And Tag from Faceoff...

Yes, we're well into hockey season now and I have to say I am LOVING having my Jets back!! I've always loved hockey, ever since I was a little girl. When we had our NHL team I loved going to games when we could and when we couldn't, watching them on TV. I especially loved cheering for them in the playoffs. When we lost our team, I kind of lost interest in hockey and mostly only watched it during the playoffs or the Olympics. In the playoffs I'd pick a team to cheer for, based on various reasons. Vancouver - because they're Canadian. Chicago - because their captain is from my city. Pittsburgh- because of Sid. But now I'm into every Jets game and it's so much fun! (More fun when they win, but hey, they're a young team ).

So I wrote a couple of hockey romances, you might know. (Faceoff's selling quite well on Amazon!) And as I mentioned,  I've had quite a few emails lately from readers asking if there are going to be more stories about the Heller brothers. 


So - am I going to write another hockey romance? YES.

I'd always planned at least three stories - Tag, who's the oldest Heller brother; Jase the next oldest; and Logan after him. Matt is still very young - he's in college, and that's pretty young for a HEA, but I haven't ruled out writing his story down the line! However, Logan's is yet to come and so I started working on it recently. Pray to the writing gods and goddesses that this goes well, but I think I've found the right woman for him. Stay tuned!

Win a Kindle at Beth Kery's blog!

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Author Beth Kery is having a huge contest to win a KINDLE at her blog this month, celebrating the release of her book Silken Rapture (wow, I love that title!!) You can find out all about it and how to enter at her blog . Today I'm a guest there and I'm also giving away a prize - a copy of One Wicked Night, my latest release. Come on by and leave a comment for a chance to win my book and the fabulous Kindle prize! 

Lest we forget...

Choices...really?

There has been much discussion lately about the many choices writers have now when it comes to publishing their work. There are still the traditional New York Publishers; there are smaller digital-first publishers; and there is self-publishing. This has turned into flame wars between authors who, I would venture to guess, feel exactly the same about the pros and cons of each choice but express their opinions differently. And I've seen the heated opinions on Twitter about differing opinions on this.
So apparently authors have many choices.
Really?

I think there are a few authors who have lots of choices when it comes to publishing their work.  Authors like Courtney Milan who has self-reported her two six figure deals with a New York publisher, but chose to self publish. Authors like Barry Eisler, multi-published with New York, who turned down a $500,000.00 deal to self-publish (but instead went with a different choice yet – one of Amazon's imprints, which isn't really self-publishing). And authors like Amanda Hocking, who did things in reverse —established herself through her self-publishing and then signed a four-book contract with St. Martin's Press which reportedly entered a bidding war that went over $2 million. 
But those are not the majority of authors. The majority of authors would probably say their first choice is to publish with New York (majority—not all) but the reality is that only a few will ever get contract offers by those NY publishers. That takes away a choice right there. There are also authors who will then choose to submit to digital-first publishers. Yes, there is a wide range of publishers from hugely successful publishers to tiny niche publishers, meaning a lot of choice but those authors might find their manuscript passed on by those publishers as well. Which then leaves really only one choice —self publishing. 
This past weekend I was at the Emerald City Writers' Conference and I attended a workshop on author branding by Angela James. During a question and answer period, she made the comment to an author (who had submitted her manuscript to Carina Press but had been rejected) that "just because you can publish doesn't mean you should publish".
I don't disagree with that entirely. I'd just had that conversation with some of my writing friends, when I'd noted another author who'd just self-published the first book she ever wrote. We discussed how that might not be in an author's best interests in the long run. Sure, I could self-publish the first book I ever wrote. And some people might even buy it, because I do have some fans who like my work. But I know that book is utter crap and it would only damage my professional reputation to put that out into the world for people to read.
But I also know from my experiences trying to find an agent, then finding an agent and having her try to sell my manuscripts, that it isn't always about the quality of a manuscript. There are very narrow things that editors are looking for, especially at the New York publishers. Anything that is outside that narrow box won't even be looked at, no matter how good it is. Smaller publishers and digital publishers might have broader windows of what they're looking for, but they still have those boundaries. So it's entirely possible that good books go unpublished because they don't fit within those strict boundaries of what publishers are looking for.  
In those cases, self-publishing is definitely a viable option. But let's not kid ourselves — there are times it's the ONLY option. Sure, Barry Eisler might choose self-publishing over a $500,000 New York deal. Courtney Milan might choose to self-publish rather than go for another six figure deal. But for most authors— those New York deals aren't on the table for them to choose.  
So when we talk about "choices" we need to be honest and realistic. For the majority of writers, there really aren't that many "choices".

One Wicked Night Release Contest!

It's finally here! One Wicked Night is out tomorrow at Samhain Publishing! (And other fine book etailers everywhere!).


To go along with my One Wicked Hour party at the Samhain Cafe tonight I'm having a contest here at my blog and giving away a copy of One Wicked Night. Just leave a comment telling me which of my covers is your favorite! (They're all down the side of this blog  à  or you can also see them on my website.)

I'll run the contest overnight to give people a chance to get her after the party and will draw the winner tomorrow afternoon!

Getting married in Mexico?

Ana y Jose Beach Club, Tulum, Mexico, Photobucket

Every year I hear of someone I know who's planning a "destination wedding" and often it's in Mexico. When we were in Puerto Vallarta a couple of years ago, I swear there was a wedding on the beach every day. It was actually really beautiful - right beside the ocean, breezes blowing, tropical flowers and palm trees. So romantic. I thought maybe my husband I should renew our vows just so we could do that, LOL.

This week in the news I read that legislators in Mexico have proposed a bill that would require all couples getting married to sign a prenuptual agreement that would speicify the period of time they expect the marriage to last.

Whoa!! Why didn't someone think of this sooner??

Romantic as I am, I know a lot of marraiges end in divorce and know how painful and expensive that whole process can be. So if you're getting married, why not just do it for a couple of years? That way if things aren't going well, the marriage just ends. Done. No muss, no fuss.

If things ARE going well, I supposed you could get married again! What fun! I love weddings. It could be another wedding on the beach in Mexico!

The Catholic Church naturally was not amused by this. Rev. Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Catholic archdiocese  said, "This denigrates the concept of the family ... and makes it more like a pact between friends"

But Carlos Torres, spokesman for legislator Lizbeth Rosas, one of the bill's sponsors, said that people can specify whatever term they want (although apparently it can't be less than two years). So they could say 50 years, 99 years or even until death do us part if that's what they want.

Yes, as a romantic it does seem somewhat cold and practical. But I do see some positive things about it too. The law hasn't been passed yet, but it will be interesting to see if it does and if destination weddings to Mexico increase because of it!

Updates on various topics!

The Nine Naughty Novelists are celebrating our SECOND anniversary!




 I can't believe it's been two years. I have to say, hooking up with these ladies was one of the best things that has happened in my writing career. It is so awesome to have friends who understand exactly how I feel and what I'm talking about with every rejection and review, and with every sale and celebration. We've had so much fun together and I'm especially proud of our serial stories. Putting The Zillionaire Vampire Cowboy's Secret Werewolf Babies up for sale on Amazon and Smashwords seemed kind of crazy to me - we wrote it just for fun! But the reviews and the sales have blown my mind! And our second serial story was just as much fun. Not only is it fun brainstorming these ideas (this is an amazingly creative group of writers!) the writing part has made me stretch as a writer. I've never TRIED to write funny before, although I'm told there is a lot of humor in my stories. I've never written about vampires or werewolves. I've never written a historical romance. And I've definitely never written a virgin before. I'm amazed at how we each come up with some little idea, and then the rest of us take it and run with it.

To celebrate we're giving away books! Lots of books! And an Amazon gift card! Go to the Nine Naughty Novelists' blog  to find out how to participate!

In other news...

My critique partner Nara Malone has a release out this week:  SNATCH ME from Ellora's Cave.


This is such a unique (and HOT!) story! I'm not much into virtual worlds like Second Life, but Nara is a total tech geek (I say that with admiration and affection - one time she totally helped me rescue a document I thought I'd lost forever and she's encourage me to step our of my comfort zone and into her virtual world). Yes she has even created her own virtual world to show people what it's like. I really loved experiencing that virtual world after having read Snatch Me, so I could better imagine what Jolie was experiencing in the story. You should definitely check this one out!

And in morenews...I'm gearing up for my next release which is out October 25. ONE WICKED NIGHT - I can't wait!!



AND...I have official cover art for my February Samhain release and it is HAWT!! I totally love it and thank you to the amazing Scott Carpenter for this cover:



I think I had more to say but now I can't remember what it was. Must make notes. And I'm sorry I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks! Time got away from me - in my defence, I've been deeply into my "work in progress" and it's going great!

Why I won't *like* every author on Facebook

I've seen the posts on the various publisher and author loops, where someone posts their social networking link - Facebook link or Twitter link or Goodreads page and says, come like me, or follow me, or whatever. And everyone does, because we all want more followers or fans or whatever they're called.

Then I see blog posts and Tweets and Facebooks posts about authors who "spam" other authors with news about their books, their contracts, their reviews.

That's why I won't follow, like or friend every author I know. Okay, I actually have done that before - so when I get invitations to events, or news about a release, if I'm not interested I just disregard it. I *don't* complain about that author spamming me. If I didn't want to know about that stuff, I shouldn't have friended/liked/followed them -- right?

But now I've figured some of this stuff out, I'm not doing that any more.

So I will ask the same from others so I don't get accused of spamming other authors - don't like my page, or friend me, or follow me if you don't want to read about my new release or my release party coming up. I don't want to be afraid to invite people I follow to my release party because they'll think I'm spamming them. I want to invite people who might be interested in what I'm doing, so if you're not interested,  don't friend/follow/like me. I'm okay with that. I'd rather have fewer followers and have them people genuinely interested in what I'm doing, than a gazillion friends who aren't interested and get annoyed when I tell them what I'm doing

Here are my links if you're really interested!



http://ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com/

Giveaway...

I'm a guest at fellow author Tara Kingston's blog and I'm giving away a copy of Faceoff! Come on by and find out a bit more about me and say hi! I'll draw the winner Sunday Sept 25/11.