Jocelyn Modo's Blog, page 22

Stronger Than Sin Release & Contest

From the amazing Caridad Pineiro:

Oct 26th is the release day for STRONGER THAN SIN! Come visit www.caridad.com to find out about an awesome contest that starts running on November 1 featuring a SONY Pocket E-reader as the Grand Prize along with other goodies. Also check out the Second Chance Bonus Prize of a $25 gift card and how you can earn points to win that prize. Take moment to visit a blog on the ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH Blog Tour for a chance to win one of the giveaways at each blog.


STRONGER THAN SIN has been getting rave reviews. You can check out all the reviews by visiting http://www.caridad.com/books/paranormal/stronger-than-sin/.



Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
www.jocelynmodo.com

And the winner is...

I had so much fun at the release party over at Romance Author Hotspot! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and entered my contest for a free copy of First Heat ! I received much more entries than I anticipated so I've decided to pick two winners instead of just one.

A n d   t h e   w i n n e r s   a r e . . .

Maria Durst
&
Jane Thompson

Congrats and enjoy ladies. I'm sending the book your way.


Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
http://www.jocelynmodo.com/

Should You Enter?

Lucky ladies! We have guest blogger Wendy Ely on today to discuss writing contests. Enjoy!

If you're active in the writing community then the chances are pretty high that you come across writing contests. I see them on chat loops, individual blogs, by publishers, writing groups, and many more! While some are free, the general concept for many contests is the author pays money to submit a manuscript to the contest. The manuscript is judged by the first round of judging and if it finals, the manuscript is read by an agent or editor.

Fabulous, right?

One of the main goals of a writer is to have their book read by an agent or editor of a big publishing house. The outcome of a contest seems like a great way to go, resulting in tons of manuscripts entered into contests each month. I do not enter my manuscripts into contests but I do judge a few contests each year and know a couple of contest winners.

So here are my two biggest tips for making the most out of a contest:
Do your research on who the agents and editors are in the final round. Is it someone that represents your genre? If it isn't, pass on the contest. If you final, having a judge who doesn't represent the same genre as your novel won't do you any good which ends up being a time and money waste.
Make sure you read the guidelines before submitting and make note of what type of contest it is that you're entering. The first round of judges needs to connect with your story in order for the big important person to judge it at the end. If you are entering a "first kiss contest", make sure it is a kissing scene. If it is a romance contest, it is a good bet that your manuscript will be judged on romantic conflict or other elements based on the romance. If the scene you've chosen doesn't portray those elements, your manuscript probably won't make it through the first round. Have you entered any contests? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

You may visit Wendy Ely at http://www.wendyely.info/

Bio:

Wendy has been interested in romance for a long time. She began her first romance novel when she was just thirteen-years-old. It certainly wasn't anything great but sparked the passion for writing romance novels.

When she's not writing, she's usually busy taking care of her two children in Phoenix, Arizona. Wendy keeps busy with her small business and going to college. During her free time, Wendy enjoys traveling and being outdoors.



Wendy's Awesome Books

Party @ RAH!

Release party over at Romance Author Hotspot with me and Rachel Leigh! Fun and freebies! Woot!


 Go to RAH

Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
http://www.jocelynmodo.com/

First Heat Released!

To celebrate the release of my new novel First Heat I'm running a contest. Shoot me an email at jocelyn@jocelynmodo.com to enter to win a free copy of First Heat . The winner will be announced here on Meta Modo next week on Oct 8th.

Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
http://www.jocelynmodo.com/

Call for Submissions: Couples erotica anthology

The following call is from editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, who wrote a column about what she's looking for. Check it out here: http://www.edenfantasys.com/sexis/erotica/rkb-secrets-of-a-sex-writer-writing-and-selling-erotica-0825103/

You can find a list of books edited by Rachel Kramer Busselat Amazon.

Couples erotica anthology (title TBA)
Editor: Rachel Kramer Bussel
Publisher: Cleis Press in 2011
Deadline: December 15, 2010
Payment: $50 and 2 copies of the book on publication

Below is the call:

I'm looking for stories featuring many long-term, committed couples (monogamous or not) but newer couples can work too. This book will include primarily heterosexual couples, but adventures can include all sorts of experimentation, including bisexuality, group sex, etc. Sex toys, public sex, vacation sex, dirty talk, BDSM, etc. are welcome. The stories will range from romantic to intensely kinky, with everything in between. I'm looking to capture various stages of couples' lives and how they broach and explore fantasies together and continue to learn about each other via sex. I'm looking for diverse stories that cover a variety of ages, races, and backgrounds as well as various forms of coupling (marriage, cohabitation, long distance, etc.). Another option for storytelling could be an individual who encounters a couple, but stories told from part of a couple's POV are preferred. Male or female POVs welcome. Authors of all genders are welcome to submit to this anthology.

Stories should grab me with the first sentence and not let go. Looking for characters with a range of voices, storytelling tones, diversity of age, race, sexual experience. All characters must be over 18; no nonconsensual scenes, incest, scat or bestiality. No poetry. See Fast Girls: Erotica for Women, Orgasmic, Smooth and Passion: Erotic Romance for Women for an idea of the types of stories I prefer.

How to submit: Send double spaced Times or Times New Roman 12 point black font Word document with pages numbered (only .doc, NOT.docx) OR RTF of 1,500 to 5,000 words. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) required. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to couplesantho@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you'd like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. I will get back to you by July 2011. Publisher has final approval over manuscript. Please DO NOT submit stories to both Women in Lust and this anthology; pick the one that best suits your story.

About the editor: Rachel Kramer Bussel is the editor of over 30 anthologies, including Orgasmic, Fast Girls, Smooth, Please, Sir, Please Ma'am, Bottoms Up, Spanked, The Mile High Club, Do Not Disturb, He's on Top, She's on Top, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Crossdressing, Dirty Girls, and is Best Sex Writing Series Editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, a sex columnist for SexisMagazine.com and has hosted and curated In The Flesh Reading Series in New York since October 2005. Her writing has been published in over 100 anthologies, including Susie Bright's X: The Erotic Treasury, Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and Zane's Purple Pantiesv and the New York Times bestseller Succulent: Chocolate Flava II. She has written for Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, Penthouse, Time Out New York, Zink and other publications..

Have fun writing and good luck from Meta Modo.

Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
http://www.jocelynmodo.com/

Interview with Author Michele Hart

Jocelyn: Hi, Michele Hart! Thank you for stopping by to chat on Meta Modo today about your new release, Luminous Nights.


Michele: Hi, Jocelyn and Meta Modo! I'm glad to be here.

Jocelyn: Let's get right to it! Tell me what inspired you to write Luminous Nights.

Michele: The first scene popped into my head as clear as day, a gruesome prison murder and a high-risk escape, aided by a holographic mask. I just kept writing to see what happened.

Jocelyn: Your hero, Jack, is a bad boy with a mysterious and questionable past. What is it about bad boys that are such a turn on?

Michele: Jack is a bad ass. I think it's the risk-taking that sets our female hearts aflutter. Risk-takers bring home big game. It shows they'd make worthy cave companions. Courage, skill, cunning. All that stuff just turns us women on enormously. Nearly everything about human attraction goes back to the caves.

Jocelyn: Rachel and Jack have great chemistry. Is this something you have to work at when writing love scenes or do your characters' passion come naturally?

Michele: I don't have to work at it because I make my heroes really earn their women. By the time they find their women in their arms, I've put them through hell, so a lot of steam has built up. Especially with Jack. Fresh from prison, he's a very slick operator used to getting his way with women in the outside world, so I gave him an iceberg to melt in Rachel. She knows he's a killer, and she keeps that thought in mind when he's focusing his charm on her. She thinks she's strong, but Jack's got tricks up his sleeve.

Jocelyn: How do you come up with your science fiction worlds—the technology, galaxy, etc.?

Michele: Sometimes I start with a science that fascinates me. I love futuristic technology and sneaky things that do sneaky things. Jack has a lot of technology at his disposal. Sometimes I see a scene that just comes out with such clarity, it must be written. That's how I met Jack.

Jocelyn: How long have you been writing and when/how did you get started?

Michele: I've been writing on and off for about 15-20 years, interrupted by life. I have a good friend who, back in the day, sported a Mohawk and more earrings in his ears than I had in my ears. He was a creative dynamo, and I admired that in him. He passed me some pop fantasy stories, encouraging me to be creative. It worked. I was soon writing, and I have him to thank. All of Jack's woman-wrangling skills came from my friend. He showed me how sexy combat boots can be. He used to wear them with his zebra-striped toga. Sexy. He's Jack without the drive to kill everyone.

Jocelyn: Have you ever had an Aha! moment when writing? If so, what was it?

Michele: My writing is a series of Aha! moments. I'm not a planner, so the whole story is a surprise to me first time around. I often find myself saying, "So, that's why that happened!" Long-hand for Aha! If I'm in a 1940s hipster mood, it's "Eureka, baby."

Jocelyn: Now that we've covered the serious stuff, how about a few fun fluff questions? If you could be an alien, what kind of alien would you be?

Michele: I don't know how to answer that without revealing the plot of an upcoming book! I would be a friendly alien wearing a shiny robe. Who else can get away with that, fashion-wise? I would wear a big fedora to conceal my bulbous head around the "small skulls" so they don't become envious of my giant brain. I would mesmerize the humans with some silly trick: teleportation, telepathy, interdimensional light-speed travel. Upon landing on Earth, I would immediately demand naked time with Brad Pitt and a soundproof room. Not a good idea to listen to his screams. But oh, what a welcome it would be!

Jocelyn: What would be your first question to the aliens when they visit our planet?

Michele: I'd want to know their motive right away. We have a gorgeous, juicy planet with a lot of yummy water and a fat wallet of gold, which protects against radiation. Astronaut helmets are coated with a thin layer of gold for that reason. The aliens could be here for our heavy metals, uranium or plutonium. We could be a food source for them, maybe a planetary farm they revisit from time to time to replenish their slave population. We've been blasting TV signals into space for quite a while now. Maybe they're addicted to Friends, and they came to protest the show's end. I'd really want to know what the aliens want. It's a long, costly drive for a mission of peace. I would pat them down as soon as they step from their ship. Especially if they want naked time with Brad Pitt. Brad belongs to us, and we'll be the ones who make that decision.

Michele: Thanks, Jocelyn and Meta Modo, for a fun visit.

Jocelyn: Thank you for allowing us to get to know you and Luminous Nights better and giving us a sneak peak of the first chapter!

Read peril-packed excerpts, watch a kick-ass book trailer

Buy Luminous Nights at: http://www.BookStrand.com/luminous-nights

Visit Michele at her sweet website: http://www.ILoveShapeShifters.com/

Below is an exciting excerpt of Luminous Nights:


"I'm not authorized to hand itineraries to every slick, badge-waving power jerk who boards my ship."

Jack's eyes sparkled from the insults. "So you think I'm slick?"

Rachel's brow dived into her sight, and she thought his bulletproof pursuit of her cute, but she couldn't let him know that. It was a sure bet the number of his bedpost notches constituted a furniture mauling.

"Get over yourself, Marshal. If you'll excuse me, some of us have to work for a living."

Jack propped a combat boot against the galley entrance, preventing her exit.

"Don't brush me off so quickly, Rachel. You don't know what I'm willing to barter for that itinerary and the name of Xerxes's contact on Desmonda Station."

Looking into his handsome holographic face, she became interested in hearing his enticements for its entertainment value. "What do you have to barter that I'd be interested in?"

"How about that surrender you requested?"

"I thought you never surrender, Marshal."

"I had less of a technical surrender in mind than a custodial transfer of my physical self into your private servitude, prepared to take on missions of erotic nature."

She couldn't stifle her smile. "Private servitude. I could have you wash my windows."

"My better skills concentrate in the bedroom."

"Oh, yes…missions of erotic nature."

Not the slightest bit disarmed by her sardonic tone, Jack reached out and tugged the zipper of her techsuit down achingly slow past her cleavage to her bra. He gave her his weaponized eyes of blue laser, powerful enough to break any woman's will. Then he bit his bottom lip as though relishing the temptation of climbing into her techsuit with her. It was a lethal combination. Her blood surged through her body at the application of it.

"Do you often offer yourself as a reward for evidence?"

"This is my first time. Does it show?"

"Not at all. What makes you think I'd find value in your private servitude, Marshal? Enough value to break the law?"

His hypnotic eyes twinkled, took her over, and lingered a bit too long "I can set a fire on Pluto. I'll melt an iceberg like you."

He did set her to a simmer with his eyes and voice alone. She hadn't reacted to a man like that in a long time. And she knew better than to let it happen. But Jack was a beguiling kind of fun. She couldn't resist playing along.

"I don't think you can…" she teased in a dilatory, cold challenge, brushing his shoulder of lint from his white shirt, "melt an iceberg…like me."

Jack's hand rose to her cheek and slipped into her hair. She was stunned to respond, having underestimated his hubris. She'd thought his threat an empty one. The stroke of his thumb against her cheek robbed her of her nerve. The will to protest his intimate contact fled her.

Her thoughts stopped at the silent command of his sky eyes.

Before she could step away, he brought her to his mouth and, with a half-second's pause, Jack kissed her gently. His free hand at her back, he pressed her against his big, warm body, and he deepened the contact into a softly invasive kiss of restraint and quiet passion instead of a harder kiss more physically driven. The unexpected tenderness sent an awakening burn through her, giving her a full-body sizzle, something she'd never felt. She didn't want his unwanted kiss to end.

When he released her, she reminded herself to breathe, to retake possession of her mental faculties. She was close to a sweat. If he'd kissed her any longer, she'd have needed to shed her clothes to keep them from catching fire. The places his hot hands had been were now cold without them. Rachel thought her knees would buckle.

Jack was right. He could set a fire on Pluto.


-End Excerpt-

Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
http://www.jocelynmodo.com/

Evernight Publishing Call for Submissions

Below is a call from a new e-publisher, Evernight Publishing, who is expected to launch October 2010.

With all new e-publishers it's a good idea to include a reasonable release date in your contract so that your manuscript doesn't end up in limbo if the venture fails.

Evernight Publishing http://www.evernightpublishing.com/

We're looking for new and established authors to join Evernight Publishing. We are currently accepting completed manuscripts of 10,000 to 80,000 words in sub-genres of romance and erotic romance, as well as urban fantasy.

Upon final acceptance, your book will be edited, assigned an ISBN, and our artist will create an eye-catching cover. It will be available for sale through Evernight Publishing website and also sold at several distributors.

At this time we are focusing on ebook publishing, but plan to offer POD publishing for titles 50,000+ words in the future.

Authors earn 40% gross royalties from sales off our website, and 40% net royalties from distributors.

Your book should be thoroughly edited before submitting. We want to see books that have well developed plots, strong conflicts, and memorable characters.

To submit:

Send a query letter with your name, pen name (if applicable), working title, word count, genre and any previous writing credits to: evernightsubmissions@gmail.com. Please add "SUBMISSION" to the subject field.

Attach a one page synopsis and the complete manuscript. We will send an acknowledgment within three days, and make a decision on your submission in less than one month. These guidelines will be updated as needed at: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/9373.html


Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
www.jocelynmodo.com

Model Men Call for Submissions!

Call for Submission

Model Men
Editor: Neil Plakcy
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: December 1, 2010
Payment: $60.00 per story, payable on publication, plus 1 copy of the book

Who hasn't experienced a pang of lust or longing at a photo of a male model? Whether a hundred times life size on a billboard, or romping through the pages of a glossy magazine in his Calvins, Tommys or Ralphs, the male model is the gold standard for masculine beauty.

But what happens behind the scenes at those South Beach photo shoots or Manhattan runway shows? When the students put away their sketch pads, and the photographers shelve their lenses? Model Men will show these men at their handsomest and sexiest moments.

The editor of Hard Hats, Surfer Boys, Skater Boys and The Handsome Prince is looking for great stories focused on male models. Hand models, silver foxes, and locations around the world are fair game for Model Men. I'd love to see stories set in the traditional locales of New York, London, Milan and LA as well as other, unexpected places. Surprise me, romance me, get me hot and bothered!

Story length: 3,000 ­ 5,000 words

Deadline: December 1, 2010

Publication Date: 2011

Payment: $60.00 per story, payable on publication, plus 1 copy of the book

Submit your story to Neil Plakcy at plax@bellsouth.net as a MS word attachment."

Love, light, and laughter!
Jocelyn Modo
www.jocelynmodo.com