Kristine Cayne's Blog, page 22
January 9, 2012
Tour of Grauman's Chinese Theatre & Give-away
Deadly Obsession is on tour! Today, the first day of the tour presented by Bewitching Book Tours, I'm guest blogging with the Reading Between the Wines Book Club.
(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. Sign up for my New Releases mailing list for additional chances to win a free book. The links are right here on the side ===> )
I'm giving away a free copy of the Deadly Obsession e-book to a commentor. Just leave a comment on the Reading Between the Wines blog to enter. And don't
forget, there will be one overall tour print-book giveaway, the winner to be selected among all the commentors.Come with me and I'll show you around Grauman's Chinese Theatre. We'll tour the famous forecourt and explore the unusual architecture and decor. Here's a sneak preview.
Hope to see you there!
~Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
January 7, 2012
Deadly Obsession - The Book Tour!
Deadly Obsession is going on tour! Hosted by Bewitching Book Tours, the tour will be held between January 9, 2012 and February 6, 2012.
(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. Sign up for my New Releases mailing list for additional chances to win a free book. The links are right here on the side ===> )
The Prizes
One free e-book will be given away at each stop to a randomly selected commenter. The more comments you leave, the better your chances of winning!
In addition, one print version of the book will be given away to an overall tour winner.
The Stops
Jan 9
Reading Between the Wines
Jan 10
Fictional Candy
Jan 12
Cocktails and Books
Jan 12
Theresa Stillwagon's Blog
Jan 14
Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
Jan 16
Obsession with Books
Jan 17
JeanzBookReadNReview
Jan 24
Lisa's World of Books
Jan 25
Wendy @ Rage,Sex and Teddy Bears
Feb 1
Erotica For All
Feb 2
Kate @ I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!
Feb 3
Curling Up by The Fire
Feb 4
Beverly @ The Wormhole
Feb 5
Rai29BookReadNReview
Feb 6
For The Love of Reading
I'll be visiting at each stop on the tour to answer questions from readers. Remember, one commenter will win a free e-book at each stop.
Additional Guest-Blogging Events
Additional stops not part of the tour are listed below. I'll be giving away an e-book at each of these locations as well.
Jan 20
Get Lost in a Story
Feb 8
Storm Goddess Book Reviews & More
Feb 15
Not Another Romance Blog
If you are a book blogger/reviewer and would like to review my book or have me as a guest on your blog, please contact me via email or leave a comment on this post.
I hope to see you all on the tour!
~Kristine
Deadly Obsession can be found at the following retailers: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble, Smashwords
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
January 2, 2012
National Stalking Awareness Month
Stalking is a very serious crime that affects people of all walks of life. You don't have to be a celebrity to have a stalker. In fact, it's estimated that 3.4 million Americans are victims of stalking each year. Ask your friends. I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn that one or more have had a stalker at some point.
(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. The links are right here on the side ===> )
To heighten awareness of how widespread this crime is, and to educate people about available resources for victims, January 2012 has been declared National Stalking Awareness Month.
The National Center for Victims of Crime have set up a great website, http://www.stalkingawarenessmonth.org, containing fact sheets, quizzes, reports and links to resources.
As I was writing my book, Deadly Obsession , I did a lot of research about stalking—what it is, what triggers it, anti-stalking laws, victim assistance, and victim defense. The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) proved an invaluable resource.
In the coming weeks, I'll be posting about the types of stalkers, the obsessive love behaviors that lead to stalking, as well as actual stalking cases.
Help for Stalking Victims
If you are a victim of this hurtful crime, please visit the NCVC's Victim Assistance page.
Get involved
If you wish to support the NCVC, please visit www.stalkingawarenessmonth.org/promote to learn how you can help promote National Stalking Awareness Month and help victims.
Get Started
How can you start? Find out how much you know about stalking by taking this quiz.
Please be safe,Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
January 1, 2012
It's 2012 - Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everyone! Have a goals or resolutions for 2012? As usual, I have more than a few.
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2012 marks the beginning of the next phase of my writing career. I'm launching
Deadly Obsession
this week. Beginning January 9th, I'm taking Deadly Obsession on a month-long virtual book tour presented by Bewitching Book Tours. At each stop on the tour, I'll be giving away a free e-version of the book to a commenter. One overall tour winner will get a print version of the book.
Outside of the official book tour, I'll also be visiting a few other blogs in January and February, most will include a free e-book give-away.
You can get the entire schedule Facebook Author page. Check often for updates as new stops are added.
What Else am I Doing in 2012?
Good question! I am writing a short contemporary romance for a fun anthology for the members of the Kindle UK Forums.
In March, I hope to launch Deadly Addiction , the second book in the Deadly Vices series.
I will have another slightly longer short (I know that sounds funny!) that will appear in the Spring Hop Anthology (to be released in April) by the folks at WG2E. I'm really excited about this opportunity to band together with other indie-authors.
As you can see, this winter and spring will be filled with writing, editing, and promoting. I will be very happy to see the end of April, LOL.
After that, I will focus on completing Deadly Betrayal , the third book in the Deadly Vices series. My plan is to release this in the fall of 2012.
Whatever you goals and resolutions, I hope that 2012 brings you much joy, good health, and of course, success.
Happy writing,
Kristine
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Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
December 27, 2011
Connected Blog Blitz with Jolyn Palliata
Today I'm happy to introduce you to Jolyn Palliata, a fellow author from the Indie Romance Ink group. She has been an inspiration to me for her vibrant online presence and her out-of-the-box approach to reaching readers. She'll be talking about her paranormal romance series 'Twists of Fate,' and the curious way she came to write Connected, the latest in the series.
(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. The links are right here on the side ===> )
Jolyn says: Did you ever get
a song stuck in your head? Or part of one? How did you get it out? Did you
avoid the song at all costs in the blind hope it would stop hammering you into
submission? Or did you listen to the song over, and over, and over, until you
were so obsessed that all you could think about was that delicious, devilish
little laugh….er, what was I saying? (Right. Song stuck in my head. Ahh...I
mean, your head.) Now, I know this has happened to every person
reading this post, so I'm hoping you'll relate to my little story here.
Let me give you some background. In October,
I released Connected (Twists of Fate #1),
and here's a brief description of the story: A rock
group's rhythm guitarist, Rhys Alexander, dies and finds himself bound inside
the body of a woman he's never met. Can she help him move on to the other side,
or will he end up finding the love of his life…after his has already ended?
For a time, I had this for free on Wattpad
(where I posted as I wrote it). And several readers asked me how in the world I
came up with the concept. The short answer was 'By taking the longest route
possible.' The more involved answer is this…
It all started with a song—Imagine that, huh?—which
began with a synthesized-sounding guitar and a sinful, maniacal laugh that made
my gut quiver. (Yes, I do realize this may be an issue I need to fully address
later.) It was Disturbed's "Inside The Fire". Add a little Framing Hanley (with
that oh-so-sexy voice), and Tavion, lead singer of the band Persevere, was
born. And what kind of woman would knock a strapping rock star to his knees?
Why, a best-selling author, of course.
So here I had two people who worked in the
entertainment industry, but were worlds apart. What could possibly bring them
together? The answer seemed so simple, really: Fate. Then my next though was
"What if Fate was a living, sometimes-breathing, entity? What an interesting
point-of-view that would be!" And it
spiraled from there. I dug deep into the protag, Devan (the name of the girl in
Disturbed's song), and put pieces of me and my personality into the mix.
Naturally, then I had to mock myself and my works along the way. (i.e., Suddenly
Impending Reprisals became Devan's
masterpiece, and guess what…it made it all the way to the NYT Bestsellers list!
Way to go, Devan!!)
Now, the question was 'What inspired me to
write Connected', and so far, I'm
telling you how I started writing Twisted
(Book 2). Yeah, well, I'm getting there. (Remember how I said it was the
longest route possible?)
So there I was, writing Twisted and having a hell of a time. And then the unthinkable
happened (insert suspenseful music here)…I got writer's block. I'm talking a
stint of writer's block that could only have originated from the deepest, most
vile and sulfuric, bowels of Hell. And, man, was it stubborn! Over a year went
by before I picked it up again, and even then it wasn't because I came up with
a grand master plan, or that my head was swimming with ideas. No. It was simply
because I missed my characters. So I started to reread/revise/edit the 30K
words I had written, hoping it would shake something loose. Enter: two new
inspirations.
The first was the Demonica series by Larissa
Ione. In the series, paired up mates can sense each other's emotions and I got
to wondering "What would that be like?"
The next piece of inspiration came from
Avenged Sevenfold (A7X). I was studying up on rock bands for Twisted (and can A7X ever ROCK!!), and
checking out the band members (*drool*) and it inspired a new character—Rhys.
From Ione and A7X blossomed Connected (finally!) where Rhys' spirit was
stuck inside Addison (my protag), and they could sense each other's emotions.
But I had one problem. I absolutely REFUSED
to walk away from Twisted again.
Soooo…how could I use this? Well, first of all, Rhys couldn't be a lead singer
since that's what Tavion is. And secondly, I wanted this to be a fast-hitting
novella used to compliment Twisted's
story. What I needed was a supporting member of the band... Hello, Rhys, my
luscious rhythm guitarist!
But then I had another problem. (Because I
needed more, right?) I couldn't picture Rhys in Tavion's band, Persevere, which
is a more mature, established group. No, he belonged with some
just-making-it-big band that wasn't afraid to play with the formula, to take
chances, and was just enjoying the ride and what life had to offer. He belonged
with the guys of Black Codex.
Then problem #3: How did Black Codex and
Persevere tie in to each other? I mean, if Connected
leads into Twisted, they have to know
each other somehow, right? Well, as luck would have it, they're all friends.
(Who knew?!) Eh, okay, so actually two members from Black Codex are brothers
and they grew up with a guy from Persevere, so, by association, they became
friends. (It's all in the details, right?) 
All right. Now what? I didn't want to
introduce Fate (my sassy, capricious entity) in Connected even though he's definitely hard at work behind the
scenes. It would've been too distracting from the plot, and I had plenty to
maneuver already! (Hello…dead rock star stuck in some chicks head!!) So what I
did was plot Connected so it all
occurs during the same timeframe as the first half of Twisted. Perfect! Then when people read Twisted, they'll get all the behind-the-scenes-extras that were
going on in Connected that either 1) I
didn't have time for, or 2) I couldn't smoothly transition in.
At the end of my long-ass journey, not only
did I have Connected, but I shook
myself loose on Twisted…aaand came up
with storylines for the other eight band members. (I'll spare you the details
on those. LOL) Thusly, the Twists of Fate series was born.
So, let me ask you again: Did you ever get a
song stuck in your head…?
For more information on the Twists of Fate
series: http://jolynpalliata.wordpress.com/romance/twists-of-fate-series/
Twists of Fate series Facebook Page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twists-of-Fate-Series/190217514383637
To purchase Connected (Twists of Fate #1): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&ie=UTF8&field-author=Jolyn Palliata
Kristine says: Thank you, Jolyn, for sharing your story with us. It sounds like the journey to Connected was very exciting! I'm reading Connected right now and enjoying it very much.
Friends, please leave a message for Jolyn and let us know if you've ever had a song stuck in your head and what did you do about it?
Happy writing and reading!
~Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
December 1, 2011
Deadly Obsession - The Book Cover is Here!
I'm extremely excited to share with everyone the wonderful cover Scarlett Rugers designed for Deadly Obsession , the first in my Deadly Vices series.
(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. The links are right here on the side ===> )
The Print Cover
Since I will be releasing Deadly Obsession as a trade paperback (in addition to e-book), Scarlett designed a full front and back cover. How do you like it? Does it say Romantic Suspense to you? Does it say Obsession? To me--with the mix of colors, the camera lens, and the cute guy--it says all of that, but then I'm biased
The E-book Cover
The e-book cover of Deadly Obsession is the one that people will see on Amazon, Barnes and Noble as well as most other online e-book retailers. So, it had to look good in large format as well as thumbnail. And because many e-readers are black and white, it had to look good in grayscale as well. I think Scarlett did a fabulous job on all accounts.
If you like these covers and you're looking for a cover designer, please visit Scarlett (http://scarlettrugers.com). I highly recommend her.
Facebook Author Page
In order to better communicate information about my upcoming releases, give-aways and contests, I've created a Facebook Author Page. The book blurb is posted on the My Books page: www.facebook.com/KristineCayneAuthor
I'd love to see you all there!
~Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
November 23, 2011
The People I'm Thankful For
From a writing career perspective, this past year has been exceptional.
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The Critique
First and foremost is my critique partner extraordinaire - Dana Delamar. In going over other's words countless times, we've ironed out tricky passages, streamlined backstory, amped up conflict and suspense, and punched up dialogue. And together, we are embarking on a journey to publication.
The Editing
Dana, who was an editor in her pre-writing days, is finishing up a last copy/line edit for me, and once I get the changes in, she'll do the print layout. Isn't she awesome?
The Cover
Cover designer, Scarlett Rugers has created a fabulous cover for Deadly Obsession, the first book in my Deadly Vices series. I'll be posting it as soon as the final touches are done so you'll see it for yourself. I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks.
The Formats
With any luck, I'll be able to get a proof from CreateSpace sometime in December. I'm excited and nervous to see my book in physical form.
After that, I'll get my word document converted to the necessary formats, upload my book to the distributor sites.
The Launch
The plan is to get this all done by the first week of January.
The Readers
I'd love for you to share this tremendous journey with me
~Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
October 31, 2011
ECWC 2011: Bigger and Better!
ECWC 2011, hosted by the Greater Seattle Romance Writers Association (GSRWA), took place last weekend--three days of networking, learning, and pitching. What more could a writer want or need? Nothing. This conference in downtown Bellevue, WA had it all. A hundred or so volunteers worked tirelessly to ensure a smoothly run conference benefiting all attendees.(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. The links are right here on the side ===> )
Finish the Damn Book
One of the most exciting things to happen to me during this conference had to do with Cherry Adair's Finish the Damn Book Challenge. At ECWC 2010, I pledged to write a single title romantic suspense of roughly 110K words.
I completed Deadly Addiction , revised, edited and polished it, and sent it off to Cherry by her deadline of 10/23. This earned me a very nice certificate of completion from Cherry as well as a wonderful pin.
But Cherry had a surprise for us this year. Twenty-six contestants completed the challenge. Of those, she would pick eight, at random, and send the first three chapters to an agent or editor that had committed to reading and responding to the author by November 15, 2011. To those not familiar with publishing, this may not sound like much. But to those in the biz, this is huge! Agents and editors often take months (or longer) to respond to a query.
Imagine my delight when Cherry called out my name
Today, Cherry has sent off the first three chapters of Deadly Addiction to an agent/editor, and I'll hear back by November 15. Very exciting! Of course, this does not mean that I'll have an agent or make a sale, but with any luck, it does mean that I'll get some comments back.Workshops
ECWC 2011 had some very interesting workshops. My favorite were:
1) Investigations 101 by M.A. Taylor
2) Death and Taxes: Essentials of Federal Tax Reporting and Audit Survival by Becke Turner and Diane Kelly
3) Cop Awareness: Body Language by M.A. Taylor
As you can probably tell, research oriented workshops catch my interest. What better way to learn how your characters would/should act and do their jobs than from an expert? M.A. Taylor gives you all that and more in a compelling way. I spoke to several other attendees of her workshops and all felt they'd learned a lot of useful and usable information. For details on M.A. Taylor's workshops and classes, please visit her at: http://www.MATaylor1010.com.
Diane and Becke's workshop on taxes was a pleasant surprise for me. I'd expected it to be your usual necessary but boring expository on what's allowed and what's not. And while they did go into detail on that and did cover the necessary forms, they did so in an entertaining and eye opening way. I kept the handouts which I know will be very useful to me as well as my accountant come the Q12012 tax season. For information on Diane's upcoming release as well as dates when this workshop will be taught again, please visit her at: http://www.dianekelly.com Becke, who successfully fought an audit, discussed the audit process and provided the letter she wrote for her appeal. She can be contacted through her website at: http://www.becketurner.com/
Happy writing,
Kristine
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Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
August 15, 2011
Interview on Jagged Edge Reviews
Today, Kati Lear is interviewing me on Jagged Edge Reviews. We're discussing the writing process, my current works, and what got me started. Click here to join the chat!(To make sure you don't miss any entries, please consider subscribing by RSS feed or email. The links are right here on the side ===> )
Happy writing!
Kristine
Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
August 13, 2011
My Favorite RWA 2011 Workshop: Beyond the Uniform
This year, I attended my first RWA National Conference. New York City in late June, thousands of attendees, a hundred or so workshops--it was a blast!
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The workshops focused on career, craft , publishing, research and the writer's life. Needless to say, there was something for everyone.
Over the course of three days, I attended many workshops. The one I found most helpful to me was a workshop on the research track by Margaret Taylor entitled, "Beyond the Uniform: What Makes Your Cops Tick." With over twenty years in law enforcement, Margaret knows all there is to know about what makes cops tick...and what doesn't.
Her presentation was energetic, enthusiastic and above all enthralling. I loved every minute of her workshop and I know that the information she shared will help me create stronger, more believable law enforcement characters.
Topics covered included: the cop mindset, training, humor, PTSD, real life (arrest) scenarios, perceptions of women on the force, cop psychology on and off duty, and too many more to list here.
If you ever have a chance to attend one of Margaret's workshops or master classes, do so. If you're interested in law enforcement, you won't regret it.
For more information, check out Margaret's blog - Something To Think About: http://www.mataylor1010.blogspot.com/
Happy writing,
Kristine
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Copyright 2011 @ Kristine Cayne
