J. Kenner's Blog, page 85

Hump Day Books from Emma Cane, Carolyn Jewel, Nana Malone, Harper Alibeck, Anna Markland, Barbara Bretton, Dee Davis, and Colleen Gleason

The work week getting you down? Grab one of these exciting reads to pep up your Wednesday!

 

A Wedding in Valentine: A Valentine Valley Novella

Only $1.99—soon to be available in print, too!

Learn more at Emma’s website!

My Darkest Passion (My Immortals)

Just released! Book 5 in The Immortals series

Learn more at Carolyn’s website!

MisMatch (A Humorous Contemporary Romance) (Love Match)

Will Jessica and Eli save each other? Or will secrets and lies stop them from finding true love?

Learn more at Nana’s website!

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The Water’s Kiss (A Regency Romance)

Sometimes the only way to take control is to lose it…

Learn more about Harper on Goodreads!

Dark Irish Knight (Montbryce~The Next Generation Medieval Romance Series)

Check out Anna’s blog post, coming Friday!

Learn more at Anna’s website!

Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover (Billionaire Lovers)

Scroll down to see Barbara’s blog post from Monday!

Learn more at Barbara’s website!

Dire Distraction (An A-Tac Novel)

Excited to promote Dee’s new release!

Learn more at Dee’s website!

Roaring Midnight (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles | Macey #1)

Amid the glitzy age of Jazz, when gangsters and bootleggers control the cities, there lies another, more insidious threat…the undead.

Learn more at Colleen’s website!

If you would like to submit a book to the Hump Day feature, click here!

P.S. - If you enjoy romance with a magical twist, my award-winning THE CAT'S FANCY is currently on sale for only 99 cents!  And it's also in the top 10 of several of the Kindle romance charts!  Woot!

And as a cool bonus, it's the prequel to my fun series of superhero romances that began with the USA Today bestseller Aphrodite's Kiss!  

I hope you check out The Cat's Fancy!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

The “Bad Boy” and the “Good Girl”: Barbara Bretton on what Men and Women Want (plus a contest!)

Why are men attracted to Mary Ann over Ginger? Why do women want the ‘bad boy’ they can fix? I’m glad to welcome Barbara Bretton to the blog today to talk about these popular archetypes! Keep reading for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card!

I’ve been a romance writer for over thirty years and it’s clear to me that I don’t know one single thing about sexual chemistry or the nature of attraction.

I should be an expert at it. I’ve written dozens of novels and created happily-ever-after endings for scores of characters. But when it comes to trying to understand why some matches work and some don’t — well, I’m as lost as the rest of you.

The Husband and I were watching The Sting the other night and I remarked that the male actors were prettier than the female actors. (Robert Redford and Paul Newman in their respective primes. Need I say more?) The Husband looked at me, pointed at Redford whose face was currently filling the screen, and said, “You think that pock-marked little shrimp is good-looking?”

Which, after I picked myself up from the floor, reminded me of the time he innocently remarked that he thought Mary Ann was hotter than Ginger and I began to wonder how I’d lived so long with a man I barely understood.

It turns out the great “Mary Ann or Ginger” debate is still alive and well in homes across America. Who would have guessed that so many people had such passionate opinions on fictional characters from a 1960s sitcom?

As a rule the women men find attractive other women view as plain and forgettable. The women that women find attractive leave men cold. Rarely do the sexes agree. (Ask a group of male and female friends what they think of Sarah Jessica Parker and you’ll see what I mean.)

When I posted my Mary-Ann-or-Ginger question I never expected the kind of almost unanimous feedback I got.

Ninety-nine percent favored Mary Ann.

Just a tiny handful of us (maybe three or four) thought beautiful red-haired Ginger was the show’s resident hottie.

The rest decamped en masse for homespun, pig-tailed Mary Ann.

Were we even looking at the same actresses?

Men and women alike came down passionately on the side of the brunette farm girl. They viewed her as trustworthy, good wife material, a hard worker, loyal to her friends, more positive traits than were attributed to Mother Theresa.

Movie star Ginger didn’t fare half as well. She was seen as materialistic, self-absorbed, unlikely to be faithful, good for a quickie but not for a lifetime. She was the dreaded high maintenance woman of male nightmares.

Once again men and women were in agreement: both genders saw few or no redeeming qualities in the red-haired glamour girl.

This never happens. Men and women have different standards of beauty and the criteria are hidden deep in our individual DNA. We can’t agree on Robert Redford or Julia Roberts or Channing Tatum or Jennifer Lawrence or name-your-favorite-star, but for some strange reason when it comes to two of the women in a really bad fifty-year-old sitcom we have a Kumbaya moment of near-total accord.

Women are attracted to difficult men. If we weren’t, the whole “bad boy” thing in romances wouldn’t be half as popular. The more complicated a guy seems to be, the more we want him. Women are fixers. We think we can heal all wounds, soothe all hurts, and ultimately turn a very bad boy into a very good man. (We can discuss the chances of that transformation actually happening some other time.)

But tell a man that a woman is high maintenance and watch him break land speed records heading for the exit. Judging by the response to my unscientific Mary-Ann-or-Ginger poll on Facebook last week, most of the men wanted dependable, loyal, uncomplicated partners like Mary Ann and most of the women agreed that they should.

Ginger, the sexy bombshell, was deemed, at best, unattainable and, at worst, worth little more than a one-night stand.

Freud asked, “What do women want?”

That’s easy, Sigmund. We want to know what men want and why.

Mate or playmate.

Wife or mistress.

Mary or Rhoda.

Rachel or Monica.

Betty or Veronica.

Ginger or Mary Ann.

Where do you stand? I’d love to know.

 Barbara Bretton is the author of more than fifty romance novels. She has written series romance, historicals, paranormals, mainstream, and everything in between. You can find her on Facebook (barbarabretton OR authorbarbarabretton), Twitter (@barbarabretton), or at her website!

Many thanks to Barbara for sharing her blog post on the different types of characters. Let us know in comments below who you would chose, and to be considered for the $25 Amazon gift card!

P.S. - If you enjoy romance with a magical twist, my award-winning THE CAT'S FANCY is currently on sale for only 99 cents!  And it's also in the top 10 of several of the Kindle romance charts!  Woot!

And as a cool bonus, it's the prequel to my fun series of superhero romances that began with the USA Today bestseller Aphrodite's Kiss!  

I hope you check out The Cat's Fancy!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Tori Scott on Deadlines: Using Stress as a Helpful Tool to Get Stuff Done

Today Tori Scott joins me to talk about the cause of an author’s stress – deadlines! Due dates are nerve-wracking, but can also be helpful tools to get you focused on your work. Read on to hear Tori’s experiences with deadline mania…

Deadline Panic

I’m one of those people who really kicks into high gear as a deadline closes in. When I was in high school, I waited until the last minute to start major projects, but I always managed to get them done. Sometimes it was three in the morning by the time I finished, but I still got up at seven and made it to school, project in hand.

When I first started writing, I joined RWA, then DARA (Dallas Area Romance Authors), and I signed up for my first conference. By the time the conference rolled around, I had about 10,000 words written on my first book, and I had an appointment with Allison Lyons from Harlequin. I’d never had an editor appointment before, and I barely knew what I was doing at this point, but I sat down and told her about my book. All 10,000 words of it. I made up the rest on the spot.

And then I did the unthinkable. I promised she’d have the completed manuscript in six weeks.

A first time writer, producing 60,000 legible words, in six weeks. Yikes. But when the panic set in as soon as I got home and thought about what I’d done, I sat down and wrote. And wrote. Allison had the manuscript on her desk a week ahead of the promised date. No, she didn’t buy it, but she did ask for revisions and I met every deadline she threw at me. But I was too in love with my “baby” to make the hard choices and change the things that needed to be changed to make it a “Harlequin” book. I will always be grateful for her encouragement, though.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about writing, about rewriting and revising. And the more I’ve learned, the slower I write. I’ve lost the ability to just let the story flow and not worry about the rules as I go. I write, rewrite, edit each section before I move on. I sleep on a plot problem until it unravels. I beat my head against my desk (figuratively) until my characters talk to me.

These days my deadlines are self-imposed. I don’t have an editor breathing down my neck. Now I have fans who email me or post on my Facebook page, wanting to know when the next book will be out. I’ve found those harder to ignore than an editor waiting for that promised manuscript.

With the current book, I was determined to finish before leaving to take my grandson to North Carolina for a Duke University summer program. Sometimes life happens (like my husband breaking his foot) and things don’t go the way I plan, (roof replacement/living room repair and painting with workmen in and out), or stumbling blocks get tossed in my way (sinus infection). If I didn’t have a goal and a deadline, nothing would get done. It’s a Gemini thing. It’s like when I go into the house to get something and I see something I meant to do earlier, so I stop to do that, and then I see something else and before I know it, I’m back in my office without whatever it was I went to get in the first place.

For a writer, everything is new and shiny and distracting. New blog? Oooh, I wanna go see. New pictures? Yes, show me! Release party? I’m there! But when the deadline looms, you have to put away Facebook and Twitter and Bubble Safari and get down to the business of writing.

This time I thought I wouldn’t make it. But I did. Just barely, but I made it. The newest book comes out this week, just before my life explodes with travel and obligations. Am I relieved? You bet. Do I wish I was better at planning my life so I didn’t put myself under such stress? Oh yeah. I always swear I’ll do better the next time, work harder earlier in the writing process so I’m not rushing at the end. And every time, I catch myself writing all night for days at a time to make the deadline.

What about you? Do you work better with a deadline looming or when you have all the time in the world?

Tori Scott has been seriously writing with an eye toward publication for 12 years, though she’s been spinning tales and writing poetry since elementary school. She is a former Golden Heart finalist in the prestigious RWA writing contest, a winner in several regional contests, a finalist in the International Digital Awards, and a semi-finalist in the Best Indie Books of 2012. She lists several publications among her accomplishments, including a featured Christmas story in Woman’s World magazine.

Tori loves reading, swimming, photography, traveling, and especially writing. She sets most of her books in Texas because she was born in West Texas, raised in North Texas, and now lives in East Texas.

See Tori on  Facebook,  on Twitter @ToriScott, her Blog, and Amazon!

Don’t forget to check out BENEATH A TEXAS STAR, Book 4 in the Lone Star Cowboys series, released June 6th!

From BENEATH A TEXAS STAR:

Bull rider Nick Jackson has spent his entire life not knowing who he really is. Abandoned as a toddler and raised in foster homes, Nick is afraid to put down roots, to make commitments, to love, because life has a way of ripping those things away from you when you least expect it.

Psychologist Jean Sutherland wants to help Nick discover his true identity and find his family, but not as a professional. Her interest in Nick is purely personal. She finds it difficult not to cross the line between her personal and professional lives, and nearly ruins them both in the process.

Both discover that sometimes its better to leave the past alone…

Many thanks to Tori for coming on the blog! Those deadlines sure are killers! Do you like to use last minute stress as a motivational tool?

P.S. - If you enjoy romance with a magical twist, my award-winning THE CAT'S FANCY is currently on sale for only 99 cents!  And it's also in the top 10 of several of the Kindle romance charts!  Woot!

And as a cool bonus, it's the prequel to my fun series of superhero romances that began with the USA Today bestseller Aphrodite's Kiss!  

I hope you check out The Cat's Fancy!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

A new #StarkOnSaturday from Complete Me (Stark Trilogy book 2!) and a few early review comments!

Here’s another #StarkOnSaturday as we count-down to the release of Complete Me - Stark Trilogy book 3!!!

I finished my review of the page proofs just the other day … and that means the published book is just around the corner (how on earth did summer get here so fast!)

Thank you to Reading Is My Breathing for this cool graphic utilizing part of the Complete Me blurb!

And thanks to all the early reviewers who’ve raved about the book–and the series!!  I’m thrilled that readers have fallen in love with Nikki and Damien the way that I have.

Here’s a snippet from a recent Goodreads review:  ”I’m very grateful to J. Kenner for having written a wonderful trilogy that made me dream and that captured my heart since the first page of the first book till the last page of this memorable conclusion!” – Shining-Love

And another from Megan:  ”Normally I fall in love with the first or second book in a trilogy and am left disappointed with the final book. So often the last book in a series is a matter of wrapping up loose ends and the reader is just waiting for the happily ever after epilogue. This is definitely not the case with The Stark Trilogy. The third book is by far the most complex, and may I add SEXIEST, book in the series.”

And a special shout-out to everyone who has read and spread the word about Release Me and Claim Me – making them both multi-week New York Times and USA Today bestsellers! Y’all rock … and you’ve left me breathless!

I hope you enjoy this snippet from the upcoming Complete Me, book three in the Stark Trilogy that began with with Release Me, continued with Claim Me, and will conclude with Complete Me!

He steps back from me, his eyes gleaming mischievously, then holds out his hand. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Come with me and find out.”

He leads me through the crowded club full of beautiful people who are much more interested in each other than with us. I’m relieved. We do not look like the Nikki and Damien who have been in the German news. I’m in my Girl-Goes-Clubbing outfit and Damien is casual in jeans and a light jacket over a T-shirt, not to mention a day’s worth of beard stubble. That’s not to say that I haven’t seen a few heads turn when we pass, but I think that is more a product of Damien’s astounding good looks than his status as a celebrity billionaire.

As far as I can tell, the club has two main rooms, both filled with bright colors and shiny surfaces. The DJs spin an eclectic mix, but the theme seems to be techno-club, and while the music isn’t anything I recognize, it is deliciously danceable.

At the moment, however, dancing is not on the agenda. Instead, Damien leads me to the terrace, and we step outside. I pause a moment to take it all in—the candles that illuminate the patrons in a surreal glow. The plush leather sofas and loveseats that dot the terrace. Some are in clusters near colored lights and provide a place for energetic dancers to have a drink and get a second wind. Others are secluded, tucked away in dark corners for lovers to curl up together and soak up the atmosphere.

The bouncers downstairs made it clear that no one gets into this bar if they look shabby, and here under the starlight, that policy is obvious. Everything glows, including Damien and me. There is a polish to everything that I see, but I know better than anyone how tarnished something shiny can be underneath, and I can’t help but imagine this place come morning. The sofas stained with spilled drinks. Cigarette butts stamped out on the stone floor. The ethereal candles revealed as nothing more than globby clumps of wax.

Nothing is as it appears. Not this club nor its patrons nor Damien. And certainly not me.

We weave among the other patrons to one of the love seats tucked in a darkened corner. Damien sits, and I start to sit beside him. “No,” he says, then pulls me into his lap so that I am straddling his leg, the hard muscles of his thigh pressing enticingly against me as I face him.

I exhale, making a little ah sound as shimmers of awareness crash through me.

“Trouble, Ms. Fairchild?”

I lift a brow and rock my hips, grinding my rear against him and making this hedonistic tempest crackle and pop inside of me. And—if his face is any indication—my lap dance is driving Damien a little crazy, too.

“No trouble, Mr. Stark,” I say, as primly as I can manage despite my body being on fire.

“Christ, Nikki …”

He tugs me forward so that I am still straddling him, but now I can feel his denim-clad erection against the bare skin of my thigh above my stocking. I meet his eyes, my heart pounding wildly, then moan when his mouth crushes against mine. One of his hands is around my waist, holding me in place at the small of my back. The other slides under my skirt, his fingers finding the thin strip of silk that makes up the thong, then begins to move in slow, easy circles calculated to drive me crazy.

“Damien,” I whisper. “Someone might see.”

“I want you. Right now. I want to watch you explode in my arms.”

 

Want more? You can pre-order Complete Me from Amazon or from Barnes and Noble! On-sale July 30!

And if you missed Release Me, you can snag your copy from your favorite retailers here:

Random House

Amazon (print)

Amazon (kindle)

Amazon United Kingdom

Barnes and Noble (print or Nook)

Books-A-Million

Kobo

iBooks

Indie BoundAnd, of course, you can get Book 2, Claim Me, from these great retailers:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-Million

Random House

your favorite independent bookseller

in the U.K. from Amazon

 in the U.K. from Waterstones

 in the U.K. from WH Smith

More soon,

XXOO

P.S. - If you enjoy romance with a magical twist, my award-winning THE CAT'S FANCY is currently on sale for only 99 cents!  And it's also in the top 10 of several of the Kindle romance charts!  Woot!

And as a cool bonus, it's the prequel to my fun series of superhero romances that began with the USA Today bestseller Aphrodite's Kiss!  

I hope you check out The Cat's Fancy!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

The Cat’s Fancy is on #bookbub today! A fun prequel to my series of superhero romances!

Thanks #Bookbub !!

The Cat’s Fancy is one of the featured books on Bookbub today!

Be sure to grab a copy of this award-winning prequel to my superhero series of paranormal romances!

Happy to see The Cat’s Fancy #10 on the #kindle Fantasy Romance list!

Yay!  Woke up this morning to some great movement of The Cat’s Fancy up the Kindle charts!  Thanks everyone who’s grabbed a copy of this prequel to my superhero series of paranormal romances!

Haven’t got your copy?  Snag one now!

Hump Day Books from Lori Austin, Jenny Andersen, Karen Sandler, Tori Scott, Virginia Kelly, Kim Hornsby, Linda McLaughlin, and Sydney Jane Baily

Need a new book to get you through the rest of the week? Pick up one of this week’s Hump Day Reads!

 

An Outlaw in Wonderland: Once Upon a Time in the West (ONCE UPON A TIME IN WEST)

Chosen as one of Publisher’s Weekly Best Summer Books 2013!

Learn more at Lori’s website!

Zeph Undercover (Stone’s Crossing)

Paperback release–May 31, 2013

Learn more at Jenny’s website!

Timewrecked

I’m excited to feature my friend’s book which is now FREE

Learn more at Karen’s website!

Blue Moon Over Texas (Lone Star Cowboys)

Check out Tori’s blog post, coming this Friday!

Learn more at Tori’s website!

Dancing in the Dark: A Novella

Now on Kindle for only $1.99!

Learn more at Virginia’s website!

The Dream Jumper’s Promise (Dream Jumper Series)

Tina Greene can’t accept that her husband’s body simply disappeared the day he went surfing off Maui and never returned…

Learn more about Kim on Goodreads!

Lady Elinor’s Escape

Lady Elinor Ashworth always longed for adventure, but when she runs away from her abusive aunt, she finds more than she bargained for.

Learn more at Linda’s website!

An Irresistible Temptation

She never imagined she’d be knocked into the street five minutes after disembarking the train. And certainly not by a dusty, grimy cowboy with soft brown eyes and a devastatingly sexy grin.

Learn more at Sydney Jane’s website!

If you would like to submit a book to the Hump Day feature, click here!

P.S. - Book two of my Stark Trilogy -  Claim Me - debuted at number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and is now entering its fifth week on the  USA Today bestseller list! And Complete Me comes out July 30.  WOOT!  

(And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!  I'm thrilled that it's now in it's 12th week as a USA Today bestseller!)

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

The Cat’s Fancy is an ENT (Ereader News Today) bargain book!

I’m thrilled that The Cat’s Fancy (complete with it’s brand-spanking new cover!) is a featured bargain book over at Ereader News Today!

Check it out!  And grab your copy before the price goes back up!

From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Julie Kenner aka J. Kenner…

“Ms. Kenner has a way with dialogue; her one-liners are funny and fresh. Her comic timing is beautiful, almost Jennifer Crusie -esque.”

—All About Romance

There are people in this world who believe in magic, who search for the possibility in their daily lives . . .

Focused attorney Nicholas Goodman is not one of those people. A rising star in a major law firm, Nick has all the pieces of his life in order: a great career, financial success, and a girlfriend whose father is one of his major clients. Everything in his life is neat and orderly—until the day Nick opens his door and finds a green-eyed, dark-haired beauty standing there. And she happens to be totally naked.

To these people, love is just as magical as a unicorn in your driveway . . .

Maggie is one-hundred percent, head-over-heels in love with Nicholas. He’s kind and smart and sexy, and she’s certain he’s the man for her. There’s just one problem: Maggie’s not exactly human. But through the power of magic, she’s given a chance. She has one week to make Nick fall in love with her.

One week to make “happily ever after” a reality.

THE CAT’S FANCY introduces Deena & Hoop, characters in the Protector (Superhero) series, and is a prequel to that series.

PRAISE FOR THE CAT’S FANCY!

“The Cat’s Fancy deserves a place on any reader’s keeper shelf!”

—Word Weaving

“Ms. Kenner’s debut novel sets the stage for more glorious stories to come. I can’t wait!”

—The Belles & Beaux of Romance

“[Ms. Kenner] is a pure delight, she’s fun, she gives readers what they want, a story to take you away and make you forget the rest of the world. [The Cat's Fancy is] SPLENDID!!”

—Bell, Book & Candle

Why yes, the Oxford English Dictionary is exciting!

Just saw that one of my favorite books, The Professor and the Madman, is on sale for $1.99 for the Kindle!

 

It’s an absolutely fabulous book (I actually listened in audio) and I’m grabbing my copy right now so I can read it, too!

 

Check it out.  It’s awesome!

 

 

 

 

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say:  “The Oxford English Dictionary used 1,827,306 quotations to help define its 414,825 words. Tens of thousands of those used in the first edition came from the erudite, moneyed American Civil War veteran Dr. W.C. Minor?all from a cell at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Vanity Fair contributor Winchester (River at the Center of the World) has told his story in an imaginative if somewhat superficial work of historical journalism. Sketching Minor’s childhood as a missionary’s son and his travails as a young field surgeon, Winchester speculates on what may have triggered the prodigious paranoia that led Minor to seek respite in England in 1871 and, once there, to kill an innocent man. Pronounced insane and confined at Broadmoor with his collection of rare books, Minor happened upon a call for OED volunteers in the early 1880s. Here on more solid ground, Winchester enthusiastically chronicles Minor’s subsequent correspondence with editor Dr. J.A.H. Murray, who, as Winchester shows, understood that Minor’s endless scavenging for the first or best uses of words became his saving raison d’etre, and looked out for the increasingly frail man’s well-being. Winchester fills out the story with a well-researched mini-history of the OED, a wonderful demonstration of the lexicography of the word “art” and a sympathetic account of Victorian attitudes toward insanity. With his cheeky way with a tale (“It is a brave and foolhardy and desperate man who will perform an autopeotomy” he writes of Minor’s self-mutilation), Winchester celebrates a gloomy life brightened by devotion to a quietly noble, nearly anonymous task. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Peter Matson. BOMC selection.”

 

Check out Virna DePaul’s Interview (and giveaway!) in which we discuss the Stark Trilogy, Demon Hunting Soccer Moms and more!

Recently, Virna DePaul and I interviewed each other, and now her interview of me is up at Romance at Random … and R@R is sponsoring a giveaway, too! Pop on over to read the interview and get the details!

And check back! I’ll link to my interview of the awesome Virna as soon as it goes up, too!

P.S. - Book two of my Stark Trilogy -  Claim Me - debuted at number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and is now entering its fifth week on the  USA Today bestseller list! And Complete Me comes out July 30.  WOOT!  

(And if you missed book 1, Release Me, grab your copy now!  I'm thrilled that it's now in it's 12th week as a USA Today bestseller!)

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.