Lizzy Ford's Blog, page 63

YouTube Video Marketing Tips

I took a different path to the topic of YouTube video marketing than most people do. Most people start off trying to sell something and use videos to drive traffic to their site. I started off just trying to make videos to help explain concepts to our readers. I learned a couple of really basic lessons for the videos I posted on YouTube that I thought I would share here.

I've always been a big fan of instructional videos. There's just something about being able to see it with your eyes while you're listening to the demonstrator explain what they're showing that really helps lessons stick with me. I almost like them more than real life demonstrations, because you can pause and rewind while you try to duplicate the results yourself. It's like having a private instructor with unlimited patience

The most important thing I learned about posting videos was that the first line of your video description must start off with a link to your website. I usually like to work a link in naturally in my text or place it at the bottom, but with YouTube that isn't an option.

YouTube Video Marketing screenshot

As you can see in the screenshot above, only the first line or two of a YouTube video is visible by default when someone views your video. In order to view the rest of your description, they have to click on the "Show More" button. It is never a good idea to hide the link to your site. It needs to be front and center.

Adding a link to YouTube isn't as intuitive as adding a link most places. Most sites make you do a full html "href" style link or will turn a www.guerrillawordfare.com into a link for you. Neither one of these things work on YouTube. In order to link to your site you need to type:

http://www.guerrillawordfare.com

So that really should be at the start or very close of your video's description. This is by far the biggest factor in YouTube Video Marketing.

One thing I need to do a better job at is putting longer descriptions into my YouTube videos. Even if the text is below the "show more" fold and nobody ever reads it, it's still searchable. Along the same line of thought, make sure to take a second a use good tags. I send a lot more traffic to YouTube than I get from it, but relevant links to your site are never a bad thing.

When I started to write this post I thought I would end up writing a post similar to my rss directory submission post where I gave some links to use for some easy links. However, the big video sites like videos.yahoo.com and Bing videos don't allow for user uploaded videos. I was shocked. It became more obvious than ever why YouTube dominated this market. I ended up finding a few big sites which let me upload the video. I'm sure I can find more but these are the ones I used today.

http://www.screencast.com/t/3B3544koBo

http://www.myspace.com/video/rid/1107...

http://www.dailymotion.com

This is far from a masters course in YouTube Video Marketing but it's what I've learned so far. I may end up learning some great strategies for sharing on YouTube, but I haven't spend the time to learn yet.

Excerpt from "Damian's Immortal"

I forgot it was my day to post to the website today!  So sorry!  Anyway, I'm posting an excerpt from "Damian's Immorta." I'll be cruel to my poor readers by not sharing what happened to bring the immortal Jule and the Magician, Yully, to this point. 

This is the unedited version, so ignore all blatant and blasphemous grammatical errors.  Christine will beat this into shape in about a week!

Excerpt:

Yully cracked the door open, suspecting the man named Jule was there even before she

flipped on the lights.  Warm light flooded the cold room, and her breath caught.  She stared at him, not sure to say or think about finding a man chained to her basement wall.

Jule sat with his back against the far wall, his lip bloodied, one eye black, and his hands chained above his head to the pipes running from the floor to the ceiling.  He raised his head as she took a step into the room and met her gaze.  She wasn't sure she'd seen a man as big as he was anywhere but on the TV.  He looked like a professional wrestler with his

muscular physique, tattoos and long braid.  The thin pipes didn't look strong enough to hold him.

"I bet you don't know what that means," he said, glancing at her necklace.  His voice jarred her as it had in the alley.  It was low and gravelly with an edge of huskiness.

"You're really here," she replied, distraught. "Who did this to you?"

"You know who, sweetheart," he replied in his soft growl.

"Don't call me that!"

"Don't know your name."

"It's none of your business."

Jule leaned his head against the wall.  Yully took in his wounds again, unable to fathom why her father would chain him to the wall in their wine cellar.  What could this man possibly know that her father needed?  And how did she stomach the thought of her  father doing such a thing to someone?  Troubled, she toyed with the necklace around her throat.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"It's the House your father belongs to.  An ancient bloodline of immortals, one of the oldest," he replied.

"Immortals," she repeated.

"His kind don't age.  Ever notice that?"

"Yes." It was one of the many oddities about her father that she'd accepted over the years.  While their servants aged, her father never did.  He looked the same as when he'd come for her at the orphanage.

"I wear one, too," Jule continued.

"I don't see it," she said, gaze dropping to his chest.

"I'm chained.  You can dig it out."

She looked him over again, certain he could escape whenever he wanted.

"You're safe with me," he said at her hesitation.

She felt the truth in his words, perhaps because their souls had touched when they first met the day before.  Yully moved towards him and knelt.  Her hand brushed one of his forearms, held in place over his head by the handcuffs.

"Your skin's like ice," she said, suddenly realizing how cold it was in the storage room.  He wore only jeans and a dark t-shirt that stretched across his chest in all the right places and clung to bulging biceps.

"Cold won't kill me," he said, unconcerned.

"An Irish winter will," she returned.

She saw the silver chain around his neck and delicately tugged the round emblem free.  It was a silver coin, warmed by his skin, with a circle of cuneiform symbols surrounding a star with two arrows. Her own necklace had the same symbols surrounding five stars.

"You're an immortal," she said and dropped the necklace.  Her eyes went to his dark, steady gaze.  "You're a Guardian?"

"Yes."

She sat back with a frown.  He'd just admitted to being what her father warned her about!  Guardians were her enemies, creatures who preyed on humans, and her father said she must use her powers to kill them.  The man before her looked pretty human himself, with beautiful brown eyes and a body unlike any she'd seen before.  She'd sensed more danger from her father than from the man before her.

His intent gaze was steady, and she wondered if he could read her mind like her father

did.  The air between them shimmered with his body heat and her magic, and he didn't flinch away like normal people did.  This man seemed to accept her freakish powers,

until he spoke again.

"I feel your magic.  What are you?" he asked.

"I have to go." She flushed and stood.  Accustomed to being shunned by people, she'd almost felt normal around the stranger that seemed unaffected by her magic.  With regret, she realized her father was right: no one could accept someone like her.

She strode to the door.

"I may freeze to death tonight," he warned. "You may not have another chance to ask me

what you want to know."

"What makes you think I want to know anything from you?"

"The fact that you didn't close the door and walk away the moment you saw me." His voice was quiet and confident, and she felt like a visitor in his throne room rather than a woman talking to a stranger chained to her basement wall.

"Did my father hit you?" she whispered.

"You know the answer."

She chewed her lip.  "He said you want to kill me.  Do you?"

"Yes, I did," he replied. "But I don't now."

 

To be continued …. (hehehehehe)

Recent Google Analytics Changes

Diagram of Google Analytics changes

In this article I'm going to talk about some Google Analytics Changes and a new feature. If you don't use Google Analytics to measure the sources and frequency of visitors to your website then feel free to skip this article. If you do use Google Analytics then there have been a few recent changes that will probably interest you.

One of the most valuable pieces of information that you can get from Analytics is to see what search terms people are using to come to your site. I check these daily for new trends and ideas. A few days ago I noticed that one of my top search terms was (not provided). I've you've been watching your numbers I'm sure you've noticed the same thing. The cause of this change is Google's recent push towards security.

A few days ago, Google changed the default method of providing search results for those who are logged into Google accounts from HTTP to HTTPS. In practical terms this means anyone who is logged into Gmail or Google+ will have their searches done using HTTPS, and you won't be able to see what terms brought them to your site. Right now around 7% of searches come from people who are logged into Google.  For now, this development is only an inconvenience, but as more and more people start to use Google plus that number will start to rise.

More Google Analytics changes : real time analytics beta

About a week ago I asked Google to give me access to the Real-time analytics beta. It….is…..AWESOME.

To be completely honest it's more cool then useful but I still can't wait to use it the next time we launch a promo on Twitter or Facebook. Right now our real-time screen is showing that we have 6 visitors on the site (4 from the US). I can see what pages they are viewing and that one came from Facebook and one from twitter. There is a moving timeline in the upper right hand corner which makes it feel like it's a program from Mission Impossible.

Here is a screenshot I took this morning.

One thing I've always wished Google Analytics had was the ability to see activity within the last 30 or 60 minutes to measure the effect that a certain action online had. This is now possible with real time analytics, and I can't wait to test it.

In order to use real-time analytics I had utilize one of the Google Analytics changes that I had been avoiding, the new user interface. I don't think it's "worse" than the old interface, I just need to get used to it. The one thing I really love about the new version though is the data on social action. I can now see how many people gave me a +1 with Google, or used any of our other share buttons to share our content on Twitter, Facebook etc. This is a huge addition in my opinion and makes the switch worthwhile.

I think the trickiest part of trying to encourage our readers to share our content via social media is where to draw the line between making it easy and apparent, and making it obnoxious. I think most sites are at one end of the spectrum or another. A lot of sites ignore social media sharing all together and some sites seem to do everything but grab your screen and shake it until you tweet the article to your friends. I'm hoping these new features will give me a chance to monitor any tweaks I try to implement in that area.

There was also a recent tweak to Google's algorithm to favor more recent data in some results, but I haven't had a chance to study that enough yet to the point where I feel comfortable discussing it. If you have any thoughts or questions about these Google Analytics changes or any others feel free to post them here.

Shea MacLeod: Dragon Warriors and Personal Courage

As part of my participation in the Indie Chicks Anthology, I volunteered to host the 24 participating women on my site.  Each one has an inspirational story to tell, and none are as poignant or powerful as that of Shea, whose personal story revolves around her decision to leave an abusive relationship.  I'm excessively proud to host my fellow Indie Chick and my fellow Indie Eclective partner-in-writing.

So, I'm doing two things today: feauturing Shea's latest book, Dragon Warrior, for a giveaway and posting her personal story of courage, entitled, "Knight in Shining Armor," which I urge you to read.

As always, to enter the giveaway: cleave a comment at the end of this post; OR click on the Twitter, G+, or FB buttons at the bottom of this post; OR retweet my tweet; OR comment, share or like my post on FB; OR comment, share or +1 the post on G+.

A man without a past.

A woman without a future.

A world destroyed by monsters.

All that's left is hope.

In Rain Mauri's post-apocalyptic world there are no shades of gray when it comes to survival. Until she meets a Dragon Warrior and discovers nothing is as simple as it seems.

Together, Rain and the Dragon Warrior must uncover the truth behind the nightmare their world has become. Their quest will put them in the crosshairs of a ruthless enemy, but with her determination and his skill, they might just save their race from destruction. If they can save each other first.

Available for purchase from Amazon and Smashwords.

Visit Shea at her blog.

Knight In Shining Armor by Shea Macleod

It's strange how long a bruise can last.

Long after the physical evidence is gone, the muscles remember.  A raised hand or an angry voice, and the body flinches away.  The mind tries to forget, bury the pain deep … but the scars are forever.

It didn't start that way, of course.  He said all the right things.  Did all the right things.  When I was sick he took care of me.  When my car broke down he fixed it.  I thought I'd finally found my knight in shining armor.

What I'd found was a nightmare.  The minute I was hooked, everything changed.  It started with the name calling, the blame, the bouts of rage.  As time passed, he turned increasingly violent.  It was always my fault.  I was useless.  I'd never be anything.  Do anything.

Accomplish anything.

If I tried to fight him, he threatened to destroy everyone I loved.  To ruin their lives.  Stupidly, I believed him.

He was always sorry after.

You might ask why I didn't leave.  It's a fair question.  But until you've been there, until you've lived through that, you have no idea how messed up a woman's head gets when she

has to live through that day after day.  There is no such thing as confidence, self-esteem.  You learn to live with the overwhelming conviction that this is all there is.  You have nowhere else to go.

That's the very worst part of abuse.  Beyond the bruises and the emotional scars.  The absolute knowledge that this is the way you will live.  And most likely the way you will die.  You don't deserve anything else.

In a way, I was lucky.  I had something else.  A secret weapon, if you will.  I just had no idea back then how powerful that weapon was.

I could write.

All through those nightmare years I wrote.  Not about what I was living through, but

about something else.  An imaginary world where I would escape, where I was strong.

A place where I kicked bad guy ass. A place where I was my own hero.

Prophetic? Perhaps.

The writing kept a spark of something alive in me.  My soul?  Hope?   Who knows.  But one day, that tiny spark of something flared up.  I couldn't   take another minute.

I had nothing. No money.  Nowhere to go.  But I walked out that door and never looked

back.  Nobody rode in on a white horse to save me.  I saved myself. It was a very long uphill struggle to get healthy again, but through it all I kept writing.  Writing had always been my passion, now it was my salvation, too.

Through writing I regained my sense of self.  I grew strong.  Stronger than I ever had been before.  Words poured from me as my mind and body healed itself.  Slowly but surely I

recovered.

It's nine years later and that life seems like a distant nightmare.  The woman I was then

could never have dreamed of the life I am living today. The writing has never stopped.  It just moved with me, changing zip codes.  I now write in a sunny room in a Georgian

townhouse in London, England.  I have self published two novels and am about to publish the third.  My stories, while sometimes holding a dark edge, are still full of hope and my readers love them.  I am now selling enough that I can stay at home and write full time.  I made my dreams a reality.

Guess what?

You can, too.

The day I walked out of that abusive relationship was the day I became my own hero.  That one action changed everything.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please visit the Hot Peach Pages for a list of agencies all over the world who help women living in domestic violence.

No woman deserves to be abused and mistreated.  It's time to say NO to violence.

It's time to be your own hero.

Note: This is one story from Indie Chicks Anthology: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today. Also included are  sneak peeks into 25 novels! My novel, DRAGON WARRIOR, is one of the novels featured. All proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer.

Indie Chicks is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Introducing the "Damian's Oracle" book trailer

As part of the Autumn of Gods, I'm thrilled to share with you the "Damian's Oracle" book trailer! This one was put together for me by Christine and Joe of Flip City Books, with the music by Dano.  It's beautiful!  Like it?  Share it with your friends!

Guest Post by Author Ty Johnston

All November, I am traveling from blog to blog while promoting my new epic fantasy e-book, Ghosts of the Asylum, but today I want to talk about something other than myself as a writer or about my new e-book.

I hear from a lot of budding fiction authors looking for ways to promote their work. Most are looking for something free and easy. There's nothing wrong with that, especially considering the current state of the economy.

However,what consistently boggles my mind are the number of writers who don't take advantage of the many free possibilities already available to them.

One of the strongest tools an author can utilize is social networking.  Sure, everyone has heard of Facebook and Twitter, but are you using those sites to their fullest capacity? Are you checking out other sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, tumblr?

Another tool important for writers is SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is basically a fancy way of saying "keywords that draw the attention of search engines." Good SEO pushes your blog posts and online articles into higher rankings on search engines, which means more potential readers will be drawn to your online links.

Again,I'm often confounded that imaginative writers of fiction aren't using these basic, free opportunities already sitting right in front of them.

One of the reasons I wanted to bring up social networking and SEO is because of this very blog you are reading, Guerrilla Wordfare. This is one of the few blogs connected to fiction that also has a strong focus upon online promotions. All writers need to know this stuff, but especially fiction writers who too often seem to be lost when it comes to promotions, especially online promotions.

There's no reason to be lost. The basics are more simple than you realize, and it's all right there, already at your fingertips, and nearly all of it is free.

If you are a fiction writer, you need to check out this blog, Guerrilla Wordfare, on a regular basis. There is knowledge is spades to be had, and it's not costing you anything.

About Ty: Fantasy author Ty Johnston's blog tour 2011 is running from November 1 through November 30. His novels include City of Rogues, Bayne's Climb and More Than Kin, all of which are available for the Kindle, the Nook, and online at Smashwords. His latest novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, will be available for e-books on November 21. To find out more, follow him at his blog.

Interview with Steph from Bookaholics Romance Book Club

Free Best Wallpapers

Today's interview is of Steph from Bookaholics Romance Book Club , a romance-only book club out of San Francisco, California.  Steph's club is dedicated to informing readers about the newest and hottest books in romance.  Her website also sponsors author interviews and GIVEAWAYS, some of our favorite things in Lizzyland!  She has multiple links to sites with free ebooks, contests for free books,  free goodies as well as hosts giveaways on her own site.  (I love free stuff!)

Check out her site!  Here's Steph's interview!

1. Your world is reading, reviewing, blogging, heck– breathing! – romance books.  Paranormal has probably been THE biggestsubgenre in romantic fiction for a couple of years.  Any insight into the next big thing in paranormal?  We've cycled through highlanders, vampires,werewolves, trolls – what would you like to see next?

Lately, I have noticed many books on angels and dragons appearing.  I also think urban fantasies have a lot in common with paranormal romances and do a lot of 'crossover' reading.  The worldbuilding in romance books has really grown. Authors are really creating long spanning stories that go on for several books and are very complex.  In this case I have a bit mixed feelings.  While I would like to keep my favorite characters/series going at some point I feel Iwould like a storyline where the plot ends in one book or in a trilogy.   I don't like the trend that authors orpublishers have started to end many books with cliffhangers at the end.  I feel it is cheating the fans a bit. 

2. For romance in general, I think we've seen a dramatic increase in erotica and in graphic content,, even in mainstream romances.  Do you think there is still a place for sweet romance?

Yes, there definitely is.  Most people who love romance want a romantic story.  But I think they have to be marketed differently, now publishers push the more sensational books.    That being said, I think erotic books are more daring, inventive, sexy and generally quicker/easier to read.  Modern woman have more limited time and having a 'quickie' is often very satisfying.  

3. Who are your favorite romance authors?  Any cool stories about meeting them?

Christine Feehan is a big favorite of mine.  Everything she writes is a solid and entertaining read.  I met her at a RWA meeting and got a picture with her.  I couldn't believe how personable and nice she is!!  Another person who is wonderful to meet is Sabrina Jeffries, she is always very open and talkative with her fans.  Some authors are introverted but most want to meet their fans and are very welcoming.

4. Have you "met" any characters recently that really resonated with you?

I like when I get emotionally involved in the characters.  I just read a book last month by Virna De Paul called Chosen By Blood. It reminded me of books by J.R. Ward.  I thought the characters were amazing.  I liked that the author really made them feel human with insecurities and issues that most people can empathize with and even get emotional over. 

In Chosen By Blood, the heroine is dying and doesn't tell the hero. She wants to find answers to her past before she dies but finds out the hero is marked to die.  She gives up her dreams to try to protect him.  I loved the angst and suffering in the story that makes you long for them to find happiness together.

5. How often does your site do giveaways? (Yay for freebies!)

Yes!  We have several book giveaways every month.  Everymonth we try to update new freebies for readers.  Our site  also has a continuous list offreebies from authors and publishers. 

Thanks so much for letting me have the opportunity to be on your site!

You're so welcome, Steph!

"ShareThis" to help your Readers Share your Content with Others

I wrote an article in September on WordPress Plugins worth using. A few days after I wrote that article I started using another plugin which I have been meaning to discuss. It's called "ShareThis," and it adds social media sharing buttons to all of your posts.

Google is placing more and more of an emphasis on social media in its search results. The most obvious way this is manifested is in search results where one of your friends has clicked "+1" on a page. Your website may be on page 5 of Google results for "science fiction novel" for just about everyone else in the world, but if your friend Bob has clicked +1, it will probably be displayed on the first page of results for any of his friends, along with a message saying that Bob liked this particular page. You can see what this looks like.

Not only do you get the boost from page 5 to page 1 (which is huge) but you get a personal recommendation from one of your friends to one of their friends. This might not happen too often for your page, but it's one example of how social media can help you. If two articles on two different sites are similar in almost every way but one has had 20 users tweet it out and the other article has had 0 tweets, then Google will likely assume that the article with 20 tweets is the better article and will place it first in the rankings. SEO is alive and well but it's getting more intermingled with social media daily.

Google is working through several issues with how to factor in +1 hits to search engine results. They claim only +1 hits from individuals they deem "relevant" will count towards rankings results. This is to combat people trying to inflate their rankings by buying +1 hits from eBay and fiverr.

Now that you're thoroughly convinced you need people to share your articles with their friends, what should you do about it? Make it as easy as possible.

sharethis.com is a fantastic site which makes adding social media and bookmarking icons like the ones below automatic, easy and free.

ShareThis screenshot

For WordPress users it's as simple as installing the "ShareThis" plugin. For users of other blogging software or other types of sites, you can go to their website for details on how to get it up and running. It has step by step instructions for seven different blogging sites, a normal website and a newsletter. You can even pick how you want to buttons to look. Once I installed the WordPress plugin and added in our social media accounts, I never had to think about it again. Every time I add new content to the site, ShareThis puts the buttons on the bottom of the article. This makes it extremely easy for your readers to share the article they just read with their friends.

There are definitely flashier options out there for adding social media buttons to your site but ShareThis is a quick and easy way to add this functionality.

Autumn of Gods Updates – 2 Nov

Weekly Autumn of Gods update!

I started a Kickstarter project for "Damian's Immortal" and tried to be more creative about rewards.  I included a subscription service for all my books in 2012 that you can gift to a friend/family member or keep!

This week's drawings for signed paperback copy of "Damian's Oracle" can be found at:

Today: Courtney's blog (Thanks for hosting, Courtney!!)

Until 8 Nov: Goodreads

Lizzy's going on a book tour to promote the War of Gods series!  I start 11 November.  I'll post a schedule soon, so you can stalk … er, visit!

Book release dates:

Damian's Assassin (re-release): 19 November

Damian's Immortal: 02 December

 

Interview with "Reading the Paranormal's" Kelly, mad-reader and reviewin' fool

I met Kelly of Reading the Paranormal in a smoky online chat room … no, wait, that's not quite right.  Actually, it was Twitter, which can sometimes feel like a smoky online chat room.  Anyway, Kelly is the same kind of freak of nature I am, only she reads like a fiend where I write like a fiend.  She's reviewed every one of my books, and the books of about a zillion other paranormal romance authors on her blog.  Go check her out her reviews of my books - she's a riot!

1. You read a lot of books.  No, really, like TONS of books!  I don't

know if my readers know just how many, but I'm guessing a dozen a week.

And you review many of them!  How many do you average and how the heck do

you find the time to read and review so many?

I read ridiculously fast.  Like, circus freak fast.  So, yeah.  I've read A LOT of books this year.  I'm also incredibly lucky that I have a job with a lot of downtime where I can sit there and lose myself in a book.  Let's see, I've read over 400 books this year already so… I read nearly 10 books a week.

Whoa.  I didn't realize that.  I guess you really do learn something new every day. I

find that I have to put myself on a somewhat strict schedule when it comes to

reviewing.  Since I do review every book I read, if I let myself fall behind the books start running together in my head before I get my thoughts down.

Completely randomly, I have a set of rules as to what books I can count toward my overall

reading goals.  I call it "Kelly's Rules for Counting in the New Millennium".  It involves such complex thoughts as "the same book cannot be counted twice in the same calendar year".  Umm… that's actually the entire set of rules.  I guess I need to rename it "Kelly's Rule for Counting in the New Millennium".  That sounds lame.  I have to think up some additional rules now.

2. Since you're constantly exposed to romance books, what are you noticing as far as the next big thing?  The industry lately has run through paranormal and dystopian.  Are you seeing anything in particular start to emerge or any long-neglected niche?

I keep crossing my fingers that sexy sci-fi will be the next big thing.  Aliens! Spaceships! Sweet, sweet lovin' in outer space!  How can people resist that combo?  More to the point, why would they want to?

I have been coming across a lot of demon and angel books.  Personally, I tend to read more on the demon side of the spectrum.  I like my heroes to be bad boys who are looking for redemption.  Tortured, tormented … those are my guys.

3. I saw on your website you participate in reading challenges.  What's been

your most fun challenge to complete?  Any war stories?

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this but I completed nearly all the reading

challenges so quickly that I upped the goals on each of them by ridiculous

amounts.  One of my favorite challenges this year was Steampunkery & Book Reviews' Morbid Romantica Challenge.  I got to read about Highlanders, Demons, Assassins, Zombies and Tormented Heroes (and SO MUCH MORE!) all in the name of this challenge.  It's like book candy for my brain!

As for war stories, I honestly can't think of any.

4. What advice do you have for authors about seeking reviews?

My biggest advice is to do your homework on the blogger you're sending the request

to before you send it.  Make sure your book fits the genres I read before you ask me to review it.  For the record, I so rarely read contemporary non-paranormal books that it's become a running joke in my reviews when I do.  My second piece of advice is to have a little patience.  I read quickly, but I do have a life outside of blogging.  In theory.  Okay, fine.  I spend way too much time buried in either a book or on Twitter.  Way to twist my arm to get that piece of info out. =P

5. Do you have a favorite book?  How about a favorite author?

I love, love, love Moira Rogers' writing.  She consistently gives us strong characters – both male and female – in interesting settings.  Her werewolves are to die for.  Almost literally.

I met Jodi Redford through Twitter and she's quickly moved to the top of my favorite authors list.  Her book Maximum Witch had a shark shifter as the main character.  I didn't

think a shark would be sexy, but Jodi absolutely pulled it off.

I also love Kelley Armstrong, Jeaniene Frost, Nalini Singh, Kim Harrison, Sherrilyn Kenyon … yeah, I can keep going on this question.  All night.

As for a favorite book… I can't pick just one.  Books I keep going back to re-read are Lover Avenged and Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward (Rehvenge and Zsadist are totally my book boyfriends, just so you know), Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (this book single-handedly changed the way I look at 1st person narratives), and… there are so many more that they're making my head spin.

What can I say? I love books!

Kelly can be reached at her blog, Twitter, or Goodreads!