Lynn Raye Harris's Blog, page 13

A Celebration!

Hey, y’all! I’m so excited to be able to say that REVELATIONS OF THE NIGHT BEFORE is not only available at the Mills & Boon website a whole month early, but that’s it’s also the NUMBER ONE selling book on the site for the second week in a row. Yay! Thank you all for buying Niccolo and Valentina’s story, and for all the wonderful things you’ve said about them. They were a fun couple to write, and they took me places I didn’t expect when I started (Gibraltar!).

I’ve just turned in the latest Presents, I’m working on another idea, and I’ve been working on that military romance I told you about. Much going on in Chez Harris as I work to keep the stories coming your way. But it’s fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Stephen Pressfield’s DO THE WORK. This is so appropriate for writers, but also for anyone who wants to start a new project or venture: On the field of the Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.

Go forth and slay the dragon, friends. It’s the only way the work gets done! You can do it.

Do you reread?

I love books. I think that’s probably something all of us (me and those of you visiting this site) have in common. We’re readers. Some of us are writers too. We all love a good tale well told. Our tastes may vary, but we all have our comfort reads, those books that you would willingly reread again and again.

I’m picky, I’ll say. I don’t have many rereads. And it may surprise you to know that the ones I do have aren’t romance novels. (Though I will reread Susan Elizabeth Phillips all day long!) My favorite rereads are these: J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS and David Eddings’ THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON series. Not what you expected, is it?

I am currently rereading LOTR for the fifth time in my life. It goes without saying that I’ve seen the movies — I’ve lost count of how many times, though I saw the first one in the theater four times in two weeks. Yes, FOUR times. Other ladies line up for the Twilight movies. I lined up for LOTR. It, along with THE HOBBIT, was the first fantasy series I ever read. So it holds a special place in my heart.

Recently, while trying to go to sleep after a long day of slaving on the current WIP, I had the bright idea to see if I could get LOTR on Kindle. I still have the original box set I got many years ago, but the print is so small. Imagine my delight to get the whole saga (excluding THE HOBBIT, which is a separate though related tale) for $9.99! I am once more immersed in the delightful world of the Shire and the perilous journey toward Mordor.

It’s an older style of writing, to be sure, and yet I have no problem getting into it. I think because I first read it when I was young and impressionable; therefore, getting back into it is like slipping back in time. Maybe that’s what it is about rereads. They take us back to a certain time in our lives, kind of like songs do. Unfortunately, there’s so much new stuff to read that rereading isn’t high on my list. But I just couldn’t help myself with one of my favorite stories of all time.

Do you reread? What are your favorites? One lucky commenter will get a copy of my D’Angeli Family duo!

“Revelations of the Night Before” available in the UK!

Hello, dear readers! I hope you had a great holiday weekend if you are in the U.S.! And it you aren’t, I hope you had a great weekend nevertheless! It was fine here, except that I am on deadline and we had tornado warnings on Sunday. Aside from that, it was enjoyable! Friday night, we had a friend over for dinner and a movie, and then Saturday we went to my parents’ house for dinner. Sunday was our bad weather day, and Monday I worked all day long while Mr. Harris read a book.

But, I am here to tell you that Revelations of the Night Before is available in the UK right now! It’s only available from Mills & Boon at the moment, but it will be for sale in shops there quite soon. This is book 2 in my D’Angeli Family series! Check out my Connected Books page for more information.

Want to read the first chapter? Click on the Browse this Book button! There are already a couple of nice reviews there.

And now I am back to work on the latest story! It’s due to my editor quite soon and I need to get these characters to their happy ending….

A New Adventure

pics on Sodahead

About five weeks ago, my mother decided to run for City Council in her town. It was definitely a last minute decision, but she leaped right in with both feet. She financed the campaign herself on a shoestring. There were yard signs, buttons, a website (which I built and maintained), and a Facebook fan page. Some kind soul donated a few T-shirts. Another donated some magnetic car signs. And Mom walked through the neighborhoods, visiting homes and talking with people. There were also flyers, which she printed up on a color laser and distributed during her walks.

She held a Meet the Candidate event, helped by her neighbors who made cookies and things. It was held in a beautiful historic home that someone has turned into an events place. She also had a television interview, and she toured the 911 Call Center and attended a couple of other candidate events.

It was most definitely a new adventure. Elections were Tuesday, and while she didn’t win, she received 26% of the vote in a three way race and came in second. In five weeks time, she made enough of an impact to get hundreds of people to vote for her instead of one of the other guys. I think that’s pretty cool!

I guess why I’m telling you this is so you know that you are never too old, too set in your ways, or too (fill in the blank) to have a new adventure. Mom is disappointed, of course, but she’s not giving up (remember that theme, writers!). She’s going to turn her site into a local politics blog, and she’s going to get involved. Did I mention she’s also a senior in college? Mom isn’t old (60s isn’t old these days), but she could easily sit at home and say she’s too old for new adventures. She retired from her job, but she hasn’t retired from life.

Now, if she’s reading this, she’ll be the first person to think she’s not doing anything extraordinary or that she didn’t do a good enough job to win the race. But we know differently, don’t we?

Get involved, try new things, write that book, and don’t give up. You are never too old (tired, dumb, lazy, etc) for a new adventure. If you’ve embarked on a new adventure, tell us about it!

End of Summer?

It can’t really be the end of summer, can it? I can hardly believe it’s nearly September. Though it doesn’t get cold here for quite some time (thankfully!), September is Fall to me. That means I have to go buy potted mums, get the Fall wreath out, and start thinking about what I want for my birthday. Mr. Harris is not fond of my propensity to want a new handbag or shoes. If I wanted a gizmo that plugs into a socket, accesses the internet, and plays music and movies, he’d be all over it no matter the cost. But I have all the gizmos I need. (Sorry, honey.)

After the birthday comes the anniversary. I cannot say how many years it’s been, because it makes me sound ancient when I’m not, but it’s a lot. Last year, he bought me a silver heart Tiffany lock on a chain. I really, really love it! (You did awesome, sweetie!)

So, it’s the end of summer. I feel whiny about that. I lived in Germany for several years, and I got used to cold weather. But then I moved to Hawaii, and I’ve never been the same. In Hawaii, you put your Christmas decorations out while wearing shorts. You go to the beach on Christmas day. Santa wears a very lightweight red suit at the mall (no velvet and fur there!) for the kiddies. The palm trees in Waikiki are decorated in lights. *sigh* I miss that. You’d think it’d be an abomination in some ways, since Christmas and snow go together like peas and carrots, but no, you get real used to it real fast.

Instead, I’ll be in Alabama where the grass is brown and the trees are brown and gray and the leaves are all gone. On Christmas day here, you might need a coat. Or you might just need a jacket. You can never tell. It’s been in the 60s and it’s been snowy since I’ve lived here, so it’s pretty much a mystery what you’ll get.

Nevertheless, I look forward to the holiday season, though I’m usually never prepared the way I want to be. Some years I get the tree up, some years I don’t. Some years I get the cards out on time, some years I don’t. See, I’m already thinking about it and it’s not even September yet! It truly is the end of the summer, and I’m sad to see it go.

Here’s a pic of me enjoying the warm weather while holding up a giant column. Or maybe it’s holding me up. Got any end of summer rituals?

A Contest!

It’s time to christen the new website with a contest! I have books overflowing here. I need to get rid of some today. And here’s the really great part: I’m going to give away Unnoticed and Untouched to two lucky winners. You cannot buy this book in North America. You may not ever be able to buy this book in North America. But you can have a chance to win it here today!

I’ll also give away some backlist books. Three books from my backlist to three lucky winners — how’s that sound?

The details: leave a comment, that’s it. You will not be added to my newsletter or get any strange emails from me in the future. I’ll let the contest run until Wednesday sometime. You MUST check back to see if you won. I won’t chase you down. I won’t send you emails or make Facebook or Twitter posts looking for you. In my experience, that doesn’t work and it takes time. If you really want a book, you’ll check back. You have 5 days to claim your prize.

To be kept informed of all my blog posts, including when I announce these random contests, you can subscribe to my blog. There’s a box in the sidebar. Just add your email. This does NOT put you on my newsletter. That’s a different box (see the bottom of the page for that one). I pledge not to spam you. I hate spam. I hate when I visit an author’s website, leave a comment, and suddenly start getting emails. I hate it so much I won’t do it to you.

The thing I don’t get about spam, and I mean the penis enlargement ads and all that, is who ever clicks on that stuff? Surely someone does, or they wouldn’t keep sending it. Right? I try to imagine who would do such a thing, but I can’t.

It’s a Makeover!

It’s finally here! The new site, as you can see, is live. My fabulous and talented designer, Frauke Spanuth at CrocoDesigns, does such good work, doesn’t she? She’s a very busy lady these days, however, so if you want to book her, you may have to wait a while!

You’ll notice some new features — first, we’ve separated out the UK books and North American books. Soon, the UK and NA schedules will merge, but the covers will still be different, so we’ll keep the separate pages. Also, there are some books on the UK shelf that will not be on the North American shelf. Sadly, my D’Angeli Family duo will not be coming to North America in the Presents line. Oh, they may be released digitally, but they won’t make it to store shelves. Yes, this upsets me. But with the merging of the schedules, there are a lot of authors who are losing books in the cross over. It’s not what we would prefer, but it’s necessary to line all the English language releases up.

And I am thrilled that my books will be available at once, with the same title, in different English language markets! No more telling the UK readers about a book and then informing my US and Canadian readers they will have to wait. I’m not sure when or if Australia and New Zealand will line up with this schedule, but hopefully they will do so soon as well.

On the front page, you’ll notice a big cover with some smaller covers peeking out above and below. Hover over the smaller covers and click. That will bring the book forward in the slide! Very cool, right? There is also a Coming Soon page. Here, you’ll be able to find out which books are coming next, both here and in the UK. On the individual book pages, you’ll notice some foreign covers. Those are just fun, I think! I love seeing them. Not every foreign cover will be displayed, as some I never see until I get the book itself, but we’ll put up many of them.

I still have to update some of my Behind the Scenes features. I’ll be working on those as time permits. And there will be some things that are perhaps a bit wonky or out of place, but we’re working on the tweaks. Well, Frauke is working on them. I just sit and stare and panic from time to time.

I hope to keep you up to date more often on the blog now that it’s shiny and new! This site is meant to grow with me as I expand my wings as a writer. And yes, that means there are some changes coming in the future. No, I’m not going to stop writing for Harlequin. But I am going to bring you my military Special Forces trilogy. And I’m probably going to do it myself. The first book, Hot Pursuit, is one of those “not quite right for New York” books. It’s a blend — small town and military — and not a big, dark book with explosions (heh, I do blow up a house though) and car chases (okay, there’s one of those too). It’s just not a dark suspense novel. It’s a romantic, adventurous, suspenseful, hot and steamy book about a Special Operations commander and the hometown girl who once had a crush on him. I’ve loved this book for a long time and feel like my readers would like it too.

I can’t tell you when it will be just yet, but I’m working on the things I need to do to get this book out there. And of course I’m working on a yummy Presents too! I still have several books to write for the Presents line, so you’ll be getting plenty of those in the year to come. In fact, for a quick peek at my schedule thus far, here it is: THE GIRL NOBODY WANTED, November 2012; MARRIAGE BEHIND THE FACADE, January 2013, and A GAME WITH ONE WINNER, April 2013 (no information on that one other than a title and publication date).

If you want to keep up with everything I’m doing — new books, new blog posts, new giveaways — then you have several ways to connect with me. You’ll see on just about every page that Frauke has linked to all my social media sites. You can also subscribe to this blog. Look in the sidebar here, or just go to the home page, and type your email into the subscription box. I will NOT spam you! This is only so you can get my blog updates. There is also an option to subscribe to my newsletter. I don’t spam you there either. I don’t send them often, but once in a while I’ll let you know about a new release or a contest. And you can unsubscribe from any updates at any time. I want you to feel welcome here, and I want you to feel like you can trust me not to send you things you didn’t ask for. So sign up, or don’t, and cancel at any time. Not a problem.

Finally, you’ll notice Pinterest buttons on my book pages. Feel free to pin my book covers to your boards and tell your friends about my books.

That’s all from Chez Harris at the moment! More to come soon, including that promised guest post by Mr. Harris…. And please tell me what you think of the new site!

Changes coming!

There are changes coming to this website in the next few days, so bear with my glorious web designer while she updates everything. I’ve had this design since the beginning, though we did have a different color scheme and different header for a while. But as my writing grows and my books in print grow, I need more space and a friendlier design. Something you can navigate easier as you look for information on my books!

I’m excited about this new phase in my writing life! For years, I had a website I’d designed. When I sold, I knew I wanted a professional to design my site for me. I loved what she did, and I was very happy with it for a long time. But when she first built this site, I had one book that wasn’t even available yet. And then there were two. Then three. And so on.

Now, I want something a bit more organized. I’m excited about what’s coming. I hope you’ll like it too!

In other news, I am returned from RWA in Anaheim, fired up and ready to get some work done. If you’re a writer, and you weren’t there, you need to read Stephanie Laurens’s keynote speech. I was in the room, and the response was incredible. Talk about change!

Over all, I’d say the atmosphere of this conference was incredibly hopeful. In the past, it’s been various shades of angsty and fearful for the future. Now, not so much. As authors, we have options. Options we must think through very carefully, but options nonetheless. Self-publishing is an incredible tool available to us now. But I caution you to treat it exactly like you would traditional publishing. You still need a professional editor (not a friend or family member), a cover designer, and maybe even someone to help you get the formatting done right.

You have ONE chance to engage a reader, and if she can’t get past your cover or your typos or grammar mistakes to engage with your story, you’ve probably lost her for good. Just yesterday, I was talking with my eye doctor, who is a voracious reader. She told me that at first, she used to download the freebie and cheap Kindle books — but that she’d stopped because they were so bad. She said she’d read a couple of good ones, but most of them were awful. And yes, she mentioned grammar as a factor.

So don’t do that to yourself. Do it right, not quick. And of course there are still plenty of options if you want a publisher too! Especially these days with the start up of several online houses and online imprints of traditional houses. Options, friends. They are before you.

I leave you with a couple of pictures from RWA before I sign off to work on the latest book that’s due soon!

Historical author Michelle Willingham, me, and Romance author Donna Alward.

Before the Harlequin party with Jennie Lucas, Fiona Harper, Donna Alward, and Janette Kenny.

Off to Anaheim

It’s been a very hectic few weeks here, friends! First, we had a crisis with our beloved kitty, Miss Pitty Pat. I’ll talk more about it when I get home, but she had a blood clot and lost a leg. She’s still with us, though every day is a gift because it’s her heart that is the issue. Other than the lost leg, you wouldn’t know anything had happened to her. She’s happy, and we are grateful.

Of course I had a book due during that time, and revisions, and more revisions (even published authors don’t always get it right the first — or even second — time!). And then there was all the prep for the Romance Writers of America conference in Anaheim. Since I’ve had such a successful Weight Watchers run thus far, I had to go buy new clothes. But now I’m all packed and ready to board that plane! I’m looking forward to seeing friends again, to sitting and chatting over drinks and meals, and to just having a great time recharging the creative drive. There are so many workshops I want to attend! And one I’m giving on Saturday morning at 9:45 with Crystal Jordan and Kate Pearce! World Building Made Easy should be lots of fun, so come and see us if you’re there.

Also, I’ll be participating in the Literacy Signing on Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 8:00 in the Anaheim Convention Center. You can find me at table #807, so stop by and say hi!

I’ve got a few things left to do, so this is a short post. But before I leave, how about a peek at my upcoming book in the Santina Crown series? This is book seven, THE GIRL NOBODY WANTED, and you are seeing the cover first! I find it highly amusing that the hero is dressed in slacks and a white shirt when for a big portion of the book, he’s marooned on an island with the heroine. But I still think it’s a great cover — and obviously they aren’t marooned yet since there’s a city in the background.

Stop the Press: Jilted Bride Stranded with a Notorious Playboy!

Anna Constantinides, publicly humiliated when her long-time fiancé announced his engagement to someone else, might have thought things couldn’t get any worse…. Until her private jet crash-landed on an uninhabited island, leaving her stranded with billionaire hotel magnate Leo Jackson.

Renowned playboy Leo’s reputation is legendary, and if the smoldering looks they were fighting to contain when rescued are anything to go by, there can only be one question on everybody’s lips: just how long did it take wickedly sexy Leo to undress buttoned-up heiress Anna?

You Need to Blog

I was minding my own business, working on revisions to my latest Harlequin, when Mr. Harris called. “You need to update your blog,” he said.

I blinked. I might have nearly choked on the sip of water I’d just taken. “Huh?” I said.

“You haven’t said anything in a few days. You need to update it. It’s just sitting there.”

Well, I know that. But since when does he care about my blog?

“People want to know what you’re up to,” he told me.

I think he has a much higher opinion of me than I do of myself, as I’m not sure anyone really wants to know what I’m up to.

“What should I blog about?” I asked, eyeballing the calendar and the blog posts I have due for other people. And the revisions. Let’s not forget those.

“Your new office,” he said. “Or something.”

Something. Yes indeed, something. So here I am.

It’s true I got a new office. I finally decided that I may have a career going, so it was time to move off of the old dining room table I’d been using as a desk and get something nicer. Plus I needed new bookshelves as well, so I got an entire matching office suite with a desk, bookshelves, hutches, and all sorts of fun stuff. This entailed moving my desk to another part of the office. Today is my first day sitting at my new desk. And, well, it’s taking some getting used to. I used to sit on the other side of the room, desk against the same wall the door was on, but now my desk is floating in the room, unanchored by a wall.

This is a new thing for me. I’m facing the door, which is good, and there’s a window beside me — but I have to lean forward to see out of it, which is probably a good thing because now I’m not observing whatever asinine thing the neighbors are doing.

Still, my order has been upset, at least for a little while. And I think it’s seeped into other areas of my life. Today, as I was trying to put on mascara, I not only got a big blob between my eyes, I somehow flipped the wand into the air and let go of it. It landed in my hair. :/ That was fun.

But here I sit, hair and skin de-mascaraed, desk floating, writing a blog post because Mr. Harris told me to. Strange times indeed.

Anything new in your life? Anything you’re still getting used to? Is it more exciting than a desk in a new place? (Though I AM excited about my new office. Very. I feel all professional now.)

Another exciting thing in my life is the release of my 9th book in North America tomorrow!

Captive But Forbidden features a hunky security tycoon who agrees to bodyguard for my heroine for a little while. Things happen. Sparks fly. It’s all very exciting, I promise!

The news that wild socialite Veronica St. Germaine has cleaned up her act and stepped into her father’s shoes as ruler of a Mediterranean principality creates a tabloid frenzy! But it’s not just the paparazzi that are out for blood…

Duty demands that bodyguard Rajesh Vala must protect Veronica—whatever the cost… But Veronica has always rebelled against commands, and she isn’t making Raj’s job easy!

He calls it ‘safeguarding’. She calls it being held captive at his beach house. Both realise that the attraction between them is inconvenient…

Veronica is forbidden, not for bedding!