Jessica E. Subject's Blog, page 137

#MySexySaturday – HOT Adult excerpt from Sudden Breakaway #eroticromance #MSSWeek13

Hi peeps! It’s the 13th week of My Sexy Saturday. Here are the details: every Saturday, published and unpublished authors will be sharing 7 words, sentences, or paragraphs from a work-in-progress or an already published story.

Here’s seven from Sudden Breakaway, an erotic interracial military sci-fi romance with light bondage.

She sighed at the gentle force of his lips touching hers. His tenderness turned to urgency as he trailed a finger down to her already slick folds. She rocked her hips against him. Forget the foreplay; she wanted him deep inside her. Too much time had passed since she’d been properly fucked.

Grasping the edge of his towel, she yanked it from his waist. The soft cotton pooled at their feet. Jared drew her closer, his erection firm along her belly. Her cream trickled down her leg.

“Now, Jared. Take me, now.”

He lifted her into his arms, lowered her into the tub, and then joined her in the warm water. The temperature of the liquid surrounding her served to amplify her desire.

Kneeling over her, his legs on either side of hers, he leaned down and captured her lips. But it wasn’t enough. She yearned to be filled. Reaching between her thighs, he parted her swollen labia with his fingers, and used them to penetrate her heat.

She bucked underneath him, taking him even farther inside. Still, desperate for more, she clutched his hips. “Fuck me, Jared. Shove that huge cock into my pussy.”

Nudging her legs apart with his knees, in one swift motion, he plunged deep inside her. Yesss.

Available From:

Amazon | Decadent Publishing | All Romance | Barnes & Noble | more

For more My Sexy Saturday postings, check out the participants’ list here.

Building An Audience Part 3 – Group Think by author Liz Crowe #buildingaudience #amwriting @beerwencha2

Group Think
By Liz Crowe 

Using “groups” be they on Facebook or yahoo or elsewhere to tout your books should be a key component of any new author’s promotions and marketing platform.  There are probably a zillion and a half of these things, as wide as one actually called “Promote Yourself Worldwide” down to “Romance Authors who Don’t Have Cats but Like Cowboys and Firemen but Without BDSM and Live In Mom’s Basement.”

Ok, I exaggerate (not on the “Promote Yourself Worldwide,” it exists) but you get my point.

On Yahoo there are “loops and groups” you can join so that you can send out emails to like-minded authors who are also readers and, sometimes, even to “just readers.” You have to be careful to follow moderation rules on these, as many of them are fairly militant about “over promoting” or following the “promotions days” rules. But if you are new to this, I recommend joining as many as you can and spending a few days or weeks observing what other, more established/successful authors do on them. Some of them are more for exchanging ideas and getting advice or solace when you get a rejection or a bad review. This sort of support is just as important as having a dozen or so of them in place JUST for promotion. Once you are signed with a publisher, many of them have their own groups that you should definitely use for advice and promotional help.

I’m in an interesting point of my own writing and promotions life, evolutionarily speaking. When I started out, I used my Yahoo and Facebook groups religiously. Every time I had a blog post anywhere, or a release, or a decent review, I would hop on the ‘book and plaster the same message in 20 or more groups.  Until I noticed that my own “notification feed” (that annoying pop up thing at the left bottom of the screen when you are on Facebook that tells you that someone has “posted in Romance Authors Who Need to Go On a Diet” or whatever group) kept dinging me as other authors did the same thing I had just done—plastered the same message into a dozen or more groups at the same time.

So, I have adjusted my approach a bit. I have observed a few of the groups where I actually get “likes” or comments on my posts and limited my activity to them and I try really really hard NOT to write the exact same post in them. Even if I am promoting the same release/review/contest/post I will vary the message for each of them so feels less spammy. It’s a much better use of my time.  Also, I have left over half of the groups I started out in as they were more focused on books that I would either: 1. Never read. 2. Never recommend or 3. Never consider in the same general realm as what I was promoting.

I have my own private, strictly Liz centric, fan group that has 500 or so members (the numbers jump around as authors will join, figure out they are not allowed to promote in it and leave). One of my publishers did this so I had a platform to offer “specials” to my more loyal and dedicated fans. It’s sort of but not really a “street team” (a term that has unfortunately been corrupted by legions of fan girls who have no real concept of the purpose of such a thing). I do post exclusives in this group, and allow the members to get first shot at certain contests. I’m in there every day in some capacity or another, interacting. I don’t necessarily recommend this approach as a newbie, until you get your head around the “whys and wherefores” of the group promotion concept and have a bit of a backlist to promote in it.

So my advice to you fresh meat types with regard to groups is this:

Join a ton of them both on Facebook and Yahoo specific to your genre or subgenre. There are options for sweet/hot/weres/vamps/hard core BDSM/ man love/lady love/polamory you name it, its there. You just have to search for them.


Facebook allows you to search for key words now that will pull up pages to “like” AND groups to “join”
Yahoo does the same thing in the “groups” section but these are many times limited to invite only. So if you have a critique partner or an editor who you think could get you into one of them, ask them to add you.
I can recommend these: Romance Books 4 Us, Bookfair Buddies, Exquisite Quills, Coffee Time Romance, TRS (The Romance Studio) Blue (for erotic), The Romance Studio (for non erotic).



Watch and observe how more prolific authors use them for a few days/weeks once you introduce yourself. Don’t hijack threads to promote yourself on either email or Facebook. This is a Very Bad Thing to do as a rookie.
Don’t argue or bring up politics or religion in them. There ARE groups for that but they are NOT where you want to be promoting your work.
Don’t Spam! I.e. If you are on a book/blog tour, list it once then back away until the next day.
Interact and be supportive of the other authors in the group by commenting and posting THEIR posts on your networks.
Try to keep track of how much ROI you are getting. I.e. monitor how many “likes” or comments or hits you get on your blog post or whatever you are promoting in order to determine after about 6 months or so how useful that group is to you. I have left more than one (see above) when my posts fall on virtual deaf ears again and again.
Have fun! Post jokes and stuff but don’t bog the groups down with a lot of personal drama if you can help it. Most folks are there for the same reason you are and your daily iteration of your woes will really not incline them to want to read your books.

Good luck to ya~

Liz

About Liz Crowe:

Microbrewery owner, best-selling author, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town.  She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the Wolverine State Brewing Company.

Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications.

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).  More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction,” while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and many times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate, and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

If you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a Bud Light, or risk serious injury.

Website | Blog | Beer blog | Facebook | Twitter | Romance For Real Life on Facebook

Red Card (Black Jack Gentlemen:  Book Two) 
by Liz Crowe

Free will makes us human.

Choice makes us individuals.

Love makes us unique.

Metin Sevim has it all. At the pinnacle of international soccer playing success, he has managed to craft a perfect world for himself along the way.

When fate strips him of free will and the ability to choose his own path, he retreats from everyone and everything, destroying his hard-won career in the process.

Dragged back from the brink by his desperate family, Metin reluctantly agrees to coach the Black Jack Gentlemen Detroit soccer team but remains debilitated by memories and loss. When a surprising friendship emerges, it renews his passion for life, providing much needed solace… and extreme complications.

A saga of family dynamics and gender politics that cuts across cultures and circumstance, Red Card illustrates the human capacity for forgiveness through the life of one man as he attempts to rebuild his shattered existence.

Available From:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Building An Audience Schedule:

August 9 -  Intro & Knowing Your Audience

August 16 -  Blogging

August 23 - Using Yahoo & Facebook Groups with author Liz Crowe

August 30 - Twitter

September 6 - Facebook with Tawania from Wicked Readings by Tawania

September 13 - Pinterest with author Desiree Holt

September 20 - Google + with author Fierce Dolan

September 27 - Goodreads with author Cassandra Carr

Location, Location, Location! Guest post by @Melisse_Aires #scifirom #newrelease #DiasporaWorlds

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Guest Post by Melisse Aires

Thanks for having me, Jessica! 

My scifi romance series Diaspora Worlds is set in a far future where interplanetary travel is common. In my timeline, Earth first settled the Solar System, then discovered jumpstreams and moved out. They found a number of planets with Earth-like flora and fauna and came to learn that many were Seeded in ancient times by planet formers.

For a writer, it is  to fun move around different worlds. I thought I would share about different worlds in my books.

HER CYBORG AWAKES

Sirn’s Jewel, a lovely Terra-formed planet. The beach my couple hides on is gorgeous and unspoiled.

The rest of my couple’s time is spent in space on space ships and hubs! But they both have homeworlds–Sabralia is from an agricultural world called Coulon, and Kaistrel is from New Prague, an industrial, ship building world that was not Terra-formed.

ALIEN BLOOD

This book takes place on a Terra-formed planet claimed by the Tech worlds for colonization. Eventually it is named Farradae. I have another book planned for this planet, Lorl’s story. In the book my couple live on a sunny grassland of rolling hills, near a river. Later they move to a not-so-nice humid, buggy forest, and finally land in a beach-side town, with houses built on a hillside overlooking the sea.

While my couple spends most of the book on Farradae, Gema was born on an agricultural world but ended up on Toph, a Puregen tech world, and Kellac comes from New Prague.

STARWOMAN’S SANCTUARY

This book takes place in a space station, on an old luxury cruise ship and on a  Liveship. Eventually my couple get to New Prague, Kyler’s homeworld. Skyleen was originally from Juneau Colony on Mars.

My next book in the series, NEON ORCHID, takes place on New Prague, in the alien rainforest on a southern continent. I’m having some fun studying exotic plants and rainforests.

Future books…I return to Farradae, and return to the liveship. One book takes place on a small spaceship…

After that…well, something will look fascinating and  I’ll go there!

~ Melisse Aires

My website | My books on Amazon | My Facebook  Page

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Hump Day Hook – Asking out the mall Santa in HEY, SANTA #HDH #eroticromance #99cents

Hello everyone! Last week, I started sharing from my upcoming release, Never Gonna Say Goodbye. But, today I’m switching it up to my NEW release, HEY, SANTA. If you want to see the HOT MM cover for Never Gonna Say Goodbye, go here.

Andreas blinked, trying to wrap his head around what the sexy woman in front of him had just asked. He’d stared at her miles of long legs showed off by black tights, and her full, glossy lips, but he never expected her to leave her friend and come over, let alone ask him on a date. The only women who ever approached him were already married and concerned about the results of their child’s picture with Santa Claus. Or, the single moms who thought he’d make a great baby daddy. Um, no.

“You want to go out on a date? With me?” he asked.

Available From:

Amazon US | Canada | UK | more

Be sure to visit the Hump Day Hook blog to see who else is participating this week.

To Pseudonym or Not? Guest post by @MistyDietz #EntangledPublishing #BuytheBookTours #Giveaway

To Pseudonym or Not?
Guest post by Misty Dietz

Good day everyone! Big thank you to Jessica for hosting me on Mark of the Stars today to talk about pseudonyms! It was one of the first questions I was asked when people first found out I was working on a book: “Are you going to take a pen name?” At first I was really unsure because at least half of my writer friends do. I felt I should at least give it some thought because my books have sex, swearing, and some violence.

The reasons for using a pseudonym are diverse. Obviously anonymity is a key factor if writers don’t want the world at large to know it’s actually them. One of my buddies is an elementary school nurse and feels that there would be parents who would be uncomfortable, if not downright appalled, that she writes contemporary romance with sex in it.

Another reason is your actual name itself. Is it hard to pronounce? Too long to fit nicely on a book cover? Does it seem to be at odds (in your opinion) with the genre you’re writing? Or do you just want something different? It can also be a way for an author to brand herself in multiple genres (Jayne Ann Krenz is Jayne Castle is also Amanda Quick depending on her genre.).

I really have no compelling professional or personal reason to take one, so ultimately, I decided to keep my real name. Yeah, not everyone will pronounce it right (it sounds like deets), but I want to take complete ownership of my stories. I’m okay with my children reading my stories when they’re older and…I am who I am. If people judge me negatively for the stories I write, that is entirely their right. And totally not my problem.

Someday I may change my mind, though, so I’m keeping all options open.

What’s your take on pseudonyms? For the fun of it, if you were a new writer, what pseudonym would you take? Do you get confused by authors who write under multiple names, or do you appreciate knowing what type of story it is by what name they’ve published it under?

At the end of my blog tour we’ll be drawing the name of two commenters from all of the blogs to gift not one, but two fantastic prize winners. See below for details, and thanks for being here!

XO, Misty

Come Hell or High Desire by Misty Dietz

Torn between dangerous desires…

Framed for a series of brutal murders, rebel-turned-CEO Zack Goldman must go to ground. When he discovers that sexy boutique owner Sloane Swift has a shocking gift—terrifying visions that connect her to his mentor’s missing daughter—he can’t believe her refusal to help him. Nor can he believe he’s actually falling for the frustrating woman.

Their chemistry will either find its perfect equation…

Helping an accused killer ranks low on Sloane’s to-do list, no matter how hot the attraction burns between them. But putting to rest her overwhelming guilt over the missing girl’s fate proves more difficult than she ever imagined…that is, until her heart and conscience begin to align.

…or detonate everything in its path.

As the real killer locks in on Sloane, Zack will stop at nothing to keep her safe. And as they earn each other’s trust—with danger in hot pursuit—they may just lose their hearts in the process…

Available From

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books

The Excerpt

Her fingernails suddenly raked at her skull. “Lord! I almost forgot. We have to go back to Ann’s. She has a diary!”

He swerved into an empty parking lot and swiveled to face her, blood pounding in his ears. “What are you talking about?”

“Ann keeps a diary. We have to find it.”

“You’re just telling me this now? You should have goddamn said something right away!”

“Don’t you dare curse at me like that, you seismic jackass!”

He had to get out. He flung the truck door open and strode onto the cracked asphalt. Her door slammed shut moments later, and within seconds she was wagging a finger in his face. “And don’t you walk away from me, either!”

“Then don’t be such a damn shrew.”

Color flooded over her cheekbones seconds before she punched him in the gut. Hard. An ancient fire lit up his nerve circuits and adrenaline had him widening his stance. His heart gunned.

His groin tightened.

And she was still shrill.

“I’m not a shrew! How am I supposed to act in a situation like this? You think I’m enjoying this? I hate it! But unfortunately I have a conscience which would haunt me for the rest of my life if I don’t follow this through until we have some answers. You came to me and wanted to rule out the church first. Then with everything that happened, I forgot about the diary until right now. That clear enough for you, you—”

Clear enough, honey.

He vised her head between his palms and kissed her. He hadn’t meant to, but the moment her mouth opened to his, he was lost. Not breaking contact with her mouth, he wrapped one arm around her, his hand splaying across her ass, locking her hips against him. Her hands were in his hair, her hips grinding, driving him crazy. They feasted on each other’s mouth, tongues dueling, daring, seeking. He felt her fingers between their bodies, slipping underneath the waistband of his jeans, pulling at the hem of his shirt. Her fingernail scraped his abs and he groaned. She leaned away from his mouth, her eyes dead sexy. Liquid brown. He was gonna—

A car horn blew, jerking him back to life. Back to the parking lot. He looked over to see a man in a black minivan at a stoplight giving them the thumbs up. He honked twice more, waved, and drove on.

Sloane burst into a fit of laughter that quickly dissolved into tears.

And that clinched it. He’d woken up this morning in some creepy-assed Twilight Zone.

 

About Misty Dietz

Misty’s love affair with words started in middle school when she penned dark stories set in exotic locales she knew nothing about. In college, her boy-angst spilled over into disturbing reams of poetry. After grad school, real life hit, and the writing went into hibernation until she found her own happily-ever-after with an ultra linear man who is the long-suffering counter-balance to her zig-zagging tendencies. Now, she spends her days writing emotionally complex, adrenaline-fueled stories, teaching Zumba, and praying her children don’t come home with math homework.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest

Author Giveaway!!

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The Mating Game – Guest post by Taryn Kincaid & Giveaway! #PNR #eroticromance #1NightStand

The Mating Game
Guest post by Taryn Kincaid

Those of you who’ve seen my Twitter tweets and FB posts over the years get that I’m not a big student of the animal kingdom. Currently, on these hot August nights, the repetitive buzz and drone of cicadas or crickets or frogs or whatever the heck they are creak and rumble so frickin’ LOUD, they are drowning out the hum of the SUVs motoring by on the parkway that winds through the woods on which my apartment looks out and riverish lake beyond that.  In another month or so, it’ll be obnoxious honking of the Canada geese that will have been turning the sound button  WAY up on the remote control.

Yeah. So. I may not be an animal person. I once lost a fish. But that is a story for another day. This is all by way of telling you my knowledge of the all things fauna is slight. (Cat pictures on Facebook nothwithstanding.)

But most of the time (at least in my limited experience), the female of the species goes into heat…causing all the toms in the alley to howl for tastes and all the hounds for miles around barking for a sniff of that little sumpin’ sumpin.’

So one day the plot bunny insisted we really, really need a crazed male who is himself the one in heat! (Actually, as I’m writing this post, I am recalling when Spock experiences “pon farr,” in the Star Trek episode “Amok Time.” But if I remember that correctly, “pon farr” strikes all Vulcans, not just males. I might be wrong about that.)

Anyway…enter “breedspawn,” the period of demon male crazy that strikes my hunky fire-sex hero Bhyrne Raines in HEAT WAVE, the latest book in my Sleepy Hollow series of 1Night Stand stories.  But it’s not just about the compelling S-E-X drive that hits him full blast at the most inconvenient time. He’s also got the problem of possibly forming an eternal mating bond…with the worst possible female: Zena Raines, the sexy, sultry succubus princess he’s escorting back to the queen….

Awkward.

HEAT WAVE by Taryn Kincaid:

Sent into the human realm to retrieve prodigal princess, Zena Night, Bhyrne Raines is shocked and unprepared for his carnal reaction to the sexy succubus. In service to the succubus queen, the rugged enforcer must stifle the instant passion exploding within him. Fulfilling his royal duty doesn’t allow for quickie dalliances. His biological clock is ticking, and he begins to enter breedspawn, an intense and unstoppable frenzy of mating all fire-demon males must endure. But the more he wants to avoid Zena, the more he’s drawn to her.

Reluctant to give up her carefree life of partying among the mortals when the hot-as-sin Bhyrne comes to fetch her for the queen, Zena uses her succubus wiles to entice him, or at least delay the inevitable trip to the royal court. Once in the demon stronghold, hidden deep within the Catskill mountains, she learns the reason for the summons: she must choose a consort within two days.

Zena needs a mate. Bhyrne needs to mate. With time running out for both of them, they each turn to 1Night Stand. Can Madame Eve come to the rescue?

EXCERPT from HEAT WAVE:

Holy freeze gun, Batman. The words died before she managed to expose them to air. Her mouth snapped shut.

One of the Queen’s guards stood before her, huge and tall, nearly twice the size of most of the other males in the joint, a hella hunka supernatural male. Clearly not human, although Hugo Boss’d to his Adam’s apple in an apparent bid to fit in among the humans trolling for hot sex, illicit drugs, watered-down booze and loud music. Beneath the fabric of the unstructured designer suit, the toned muscles of a demonic warrior rolled like tidal waves. Even without the small lapel pin the uninformed might mistake for the The Rolling Stones’ logo, she’d recognize him for a captain of the guard. Maybe the Queen’s own Captain.

Hellfire and cotton candy. Trouble. T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

But, by the goddess, whattahottie! Despite her certainty that his presence in the club corridor boded ill for her, the force of her sudden hunger shook her.

Like lightning.

Thunder.

A desperate bolt out of the blue.

Instant connection to him on the paranormal plane, as if he’d wrapped her aura in gold chains and tugged her to him. But did that fast lane to heaven run one way or two?

A grim expression straightened the lines of what otherwise might have been a generous, sensuous mouth. A military buzz cut had weed-whacked hair the color of iron. And it didn’t stop there. Without doubt, metal fortified every single cell in the massive male’s body, pure titanium flowing in his veins. The stern planes and angles of a hard-edged, swoon-worthy face set grimly as cement. Though he lounged in the hallway like any Archie or Jughead waiting in line to discharge his rented beer in a urinal, he exuded authority, his carriage and bearing such that he made the others look like a pack of Twizzlers. Oh. Yeah. More than a mere guardsman, she guessed. An enforcer.

Ruh-roh.

Available From: 

Amazon  US/ UK/ Canada |   Decadent Publishing 

ARe | CTR  | Barnes & Noble  | Smashwords

 

Author Giveaway!!

Taryn Kincaid is offering one lucky commenter the choice of an ebook of one of her back list titles, or cool book swag. Leave a comment or question for Taryn for your chance to WIN. And be sure to leave you email in the body of you comment so that Taryn can contact you if you win. Good luck!

 

 

#MySexySaturday – Who knew Santa could be so sexy? #scifirom #holidayromance #eroticromance

Hi peeps! It’s the 12th week of My Sexy Saturday. Here are the details: every Saturday, published and unpublished authors will be sharing 7 words, sentences, or paragraphs from a work-in-progress or an already published story.

Here’s seven from my new release, HEY, SANTA, an erotic sci-fi holiday romance.

Claire smoothed her dress across her lap. The short hemline didn’t come close to reaching her knees, or barely her butt for that matter. Though a festive red color, the dress’s plunging neckline revealed even more skin. She shivered in her chair, ready to ask for her coat back. Why did she have to buy the shortest dress possible?

Like she needed it anyway, with her date already ten minutes late. She doubted he would show. Who wanted a socially inept woman? Heck, what man wanted to start dating someone two days before Christmas? She sighed, resting an elbow on the table. Why did I ask out Santa? She didn’t even know his name, what he looked like. Yet, she’d given him enough personal information to stalk her. Way to go, numbskull. She might as well have given him her house key. And since Tiffany had driven her to the restaurant, she’d have to take a cab back home.

“Hi, Claire. Sorry, I’m late.”

She jerked her head toward the deep, husky voice. Her Santa had arrived. But instead of the white-haired, bearded man with the fuzzy red suit, she stared at a Greek god. Broad shoulders. Muscles constricted by the sleeves of his dress shirt. His wavy brown hair looked wet, as if he’d recently stepped out of the shower. Or maybe snow had started to fall since she’d arrived. Pulse racing, she dared to gaze into his crystal blue eyes, the part of him she remembered from their meeting in the mall. Yet, even with his tanned complexion, something seemed not quite right with the color of his skin.

Was he as nervous as her? Her last non-double date occurred so long ago, she didn’t know how to act.

Not wanting to be rude, she stood to greet him. He had, after all, arrived rather than standing her up. And the sooner he touched her, the better.

Resting his hand on her hip, he moved closer, kissing her cheek, his lips soft and gentle. His breath smelled of fresh mint, a far cry from the last guy Tiffany had tried to set her up with.

Available From:

Amazon US | Canada | UK | more

For more My Sexy Saturday postings, check out the participants’ list here.

Building An Audience… What do I blog about? #buildingaudience #amwriting

Welcome back everyone! Today, I’m going to talk about blogging. I’m not going to go into setting up a blog, as there are plenty of excellent posts out there that explain how.

Five Best Blogging Platforms

Blogger vs. WordPress.com: A Complete Comparison

How to Set Up a FREE WordPress Blog

Today’s post is about what to blog about. One of the keys to building an audience on your blog is to post regularly. But if you don’t know what to blog about, that can be a daunting task.

Remember what I said last week about using your common interests to find your audience? Well, blog about things that you enjoy. Share your interests, hobbies, favorite books, movies, food, and more.

Here are SIX things you can post on your blog on a regular basis:

1) Your personal story – Your readers are going to want to know more about you. Share why you started writing, what inspired your current work-in-progress, research that you had to do for your story. If you’ve received rejections, or revise and resubmits, what did you learn from them? Though, do not use this type of post to bash anyone. Keep it positive and show your growth in this industry. Make this a weekly or monthly post that includes updates of your progress as well.

2) Share your work – There are many weekly author memes that give unpublished and published authors a chance to share their work. And if you interact with the other participants, you can make some great friends and connections. Here are some that I know of:

Tantalizing Tuesdays (write a story based on a picture)
Hump Day Hook (any genre – one paragraph)
Horny Hump Day (sexy romance – 3 sentences)
Three Word Wednesday (write a short story based on the three words posted)
My Sexy Saturday (any romance – 7 words, lines, or paragraphs)
Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturday (no adult content – 4 to 10 sentences)
Saturday Spankings (no more than 8 sentences)
Weekend Writing Warriors (all genres – 8 sentences)
Sunday Snog (kissing scene)

3) Popular lists – Post your own comprehensive list about something that you enjoy; movies, music, books… There are some regular ones you can be a part of as well.

Top Ten Tuesdays
Thursday Thirteen
Friday Five (can’t find a signup, but you can do your own on your blog)

4) Invite your favorite authors to visit your blog. This isn’t always possible, but it’s worth a try. You never know who may say yes.

5) Host book tours – There are many book tour companies in need of hosts. All you have to do is sign up with the company as a host. They will send you emails about the tours they’re looking for hosts for. Often, they’re also looking for people to review the books. If there are some that catch your interest and are similar to what you write about, sign up for the tour. (Each company is different in how they want you to sign up.) Here are some of many of the tour companies I know:

Sizzling PR
Buy the Book Tours
Goddess Fish Promotions
Writer Marketing Services
Bridging the Gap Promotions
Book Monster Promotions
Shades of Rose Marketing
CBLS Promotions
Bewitching Book Tours

6) Get involved in Writer and Blogger Challenges – I haven’t done any of these, but I know many authors who have, and they make great connections each time.

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Blogging from A to Z Challenge (April)
National Novel Writing Month (November)
Camp NaNoWriMo (April & July)
Blog Every Day in May
Ultimate Blog Challenge

There are many other things you can blog about, and if you think of others, please leave them in the comments below.

Schedule:

August 9 -  Intro & Knowing Your Audience

August 16 - Blogging

August 23 - Using Yahoo & Facebook Groups with author Liz Crowe

August 30 - Twitter

September 6 - Facebook with Tawania from Wicked Readings by Tawania

September 13 - Pinterest with author Desiree Holt

September 20 - Google + with author Fierce Dolan

September 27 - Goodreads with author Cassandra Carr

FREE! Get your copy of Moving Day by @Cassandra_Carr #Freeebook #BargainBooks

Moving Day
 by Cassandra Carr

It’s moving day for Sebastian, who’s making a home with Sarah. Though Rob couldn’t be happier for his friends, after the move has been completed he finds himself at loose ends, questioning the direction his own life is heading. Unbeknownst to him, Sebastian and Sarah are worried about the same thing and hope he can find someone special. Will he ever get his happy ending, or is Rob doomed to eternal bachelorhood?

Price: FREE

NOTE: This is a “bridge story” between Should’ve Known Better (Storm Series 1) and Underneath It All (Storm Series 2). Should’ve Known Better is available now, Underneath It All will release this fall. However, you can read and enjoy this story without having read Should’ve Known Better, though of course reading the first book might make characters and situations more clear in this bridge story.

 

Available From:

All Romance | Kobo | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble

 

About the Author

Cassandra Carr is a multi-award winning erotic romance writer with Ellora’s Cave, Sybarite Seductions/Twenty or Less Press, Decadent Publishing, Siren Publishing, and Loose Id. She lives in Western New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words. When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out online. Cassandra is the co-founder of two successful group blogs, Romancing the Jock and Dirty Birdies, and participates in several others as a contributor. Currrently Cassandra also serves as president of Western New York Romance Writers.

For more information about Cassandra, check out her website at http://www. booksbycassandracarr.com, “like” her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/ AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ Cassandra_Carr.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

 

 

WIN with the Summer Seduction Blog Hop August 14-21

Hello and welcome to the Summer Seduction Blog Hop!

Thank you to everyone at Silken Sheets & Seduction for organizing the hop!

I know it’s still the summer, but I’m going to share an excerpt from my new release, Hey Santa. This short story is an erotic sci-fi holiday romance.

Hey, Santa

An Alien for the Holidays story

Erotic Sci-Fi  Holiday Romance  

Excerpt:

“You can’t be serious.” Claire mustered the dirtiest look possible for her best friend.

Tiffany held out her hands and air-squeezed the man’s firm rear end from a distance. “C’mon. Look at that ass.”

“Yes, but a Santa Claus? How do I know what he looks like under that suit and beard?” Imagining removing the white hair to find a wrinkled old man, she shuddered.

“Only one way to find out.” Smacking Claire’s butt, Tiffany urged her forward. “Go ask him.”

She planted her feet. Thank goodness she hadn’t worn heels for their marathon shopping trip two days before Christmas. “If you’re so interested, why don’t you?”

Tiffany rolled her eyes, sighing. “Because I’m engaged to be married to the love of my life. You’re the Grinch who needs to get laid.”

“I’m not a Grinch,” she snapped. Breathing deeply, she counted backwards from ten. “I’m sorry. This is a very stressful time of year for me.”

“I know.” Tiffany cupped her elbow. “I just want to see you happy at Christmas again. It doesn’t have to be a miserable holiday anymore. That’s part of the reason I dragged you with me today.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat, tears welling already. Please don’t let me turn into a blubbering mess in the middle of the mall. While she appreciated her friend’s concern, she coped better on her own. “I…I should go home. I can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”

Hey, Santa:

She doesn’t want a lot for Christmas…

Claire Otton dreads spending another holiday alone. When her best friend convinces her to approach the sexy mall Santa, she takes the chance and asks him out, hoping for so much more.

He’s waiting under the mistletoe…

Although Andreas Castellanos blends in on Earth, he knows he will never belong. But when the gorgeous woman he’d been staring at invites him to dinner, he has a hard time saying no.

All they’re asking for…

Can these two lonely souls find magic together or will their secrets steal their chance of a happy Christmas?

Available From:

Amazon US | Canada | UK

GIVEAWAYS!!

There are TWO giveaways for this hop.

1) I will be giving away an ebook of one of my back list titles.

2) 1st Grand Prize draw for $50 Adam and Eve gift card & 7 ebook bundle

2nd Grand Prize draw for 10 ebook bundle

Contests are international.

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

No purchase necessary.

Enter the rafflecopter forms below, signing in with your email address or Facebook.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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And be sure to visit the other participants for more chances to WIN!