J. Kenner's Blog, page 96

Hump Day Books from Shari Shattuck, Terese Ramin, Judy Fitzwater, Cheryl St. John, Emma Holly, Patricia Rice, Constance Walker, and Stacy Juba

Looking for awesome books to beat the mid-week slump?  Check out these  new or notable reads–great books from your favorite or soon-to-be-favorite authors!

Legacy (The Callaway Wilde Series)

New book in a great series! One of my favorites! Thrilled Callaway is back!

Learn more at Shari’s Website!


Accompanying Alice

New In Digital!

Learn more at Terese’s Website!


Vacationing with the Dead

“A romantic comedy filled with ghosts, mayhem, and all out fun.”

Learn more at Judy’s Website!


Land of Dreams

Now bargain priced for Kindle

Learn more at Cheryl’s Website!


Winter’s Tale (Hidden series)

Now Free!

Learn more at Emma’s Website!


Trouble With Air and Magic (California Malcolms)

Launched this week!

Learn more at Patricia’s Website!


Warm Winter Love

Love has a way of not always conforming to set ideas…

Learn more at Constance’s Website!


Twenty-Five Years Ago Today

Check out the brand new audio edition for Amazon, Audible and iTunes

Learn more at Stacy’s Website!

Interested in submitted a title for the weekly Hump Day feature?  Here’s the info!

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

Have you seen this tearjerker of a video?

This YouTube video has gone viral, so chances are you’ve seen it. I’m a little behind the times, as I bookmarked and just got around to watching it yesterday. I was in tears just seconds in. It’s a Father-Daughter bridal dance, but the father passed away before the wedding (that alone has me in tears). The family did something special, though. It’s just lovely.

And I have to say, the brother has a very nice singing voice.

How about you? Did you tear up, too? Did you have a father-daughter dance at your wedding?

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

Writing Advice & Life Advice. Take It or Not?

My post today over at the Whine Sisters was inspired by yesterday’s wonderful guest blog from SaraLynn Hoyt, wherein she outlines the steps for making a book really shine.

Something she said about making the changes to your manuscript based on editor and critique partner comments resonated with me … Come on over and check out my thoughts.  You may be surprised!  (Hint … sometimes I just say “no!”)

 

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

Quality is Key: Guest Blogger SaraLynn Hoyt Discusses Indie Books

I’m excited to host Sheryl Hoyt (who is writing as SaraLynn Hoyt) on today’s stop on her blog tour today!  

If you recognize her name, that may be because you read about her in a recent Time Magazine article focusing on the rise and success of indie authors.  

It’s a topic that fascinates me as I am very happily and very well-published by a traditional New York publisher.  But I’m also getting my feet wet as an indie  author by putting up my backlist and (soon) adding new indie books to pre-existing series that were discontinued before I was ready to stop writing them!

SaraLynn’s article focuses on the question of quality, from her perspective as an indie book author and a reader.  So, without further ado, please welcome SaraLynn!

Recently, I was featured in an article in the 12/10/12 issue of Time Magazine, entitled “The 99¢ Best Seller” where journalist Andrew Rice wrote about my self-publishing journey.

When I started down this road of self-publishing, I knew there was a stigma attached to what used to be called vanity press. Thank goodness for the Kindle

and a new attitude about self-publishing or as Andrew said in his article, I’d still be pitching to NY waiting for some overworked, underpaid editor to pick my book off the slush pile.

With that said, what is the biggest criticism Indie authors are still subjected to?  That the quality of Indie books is lower than NY published books. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Besides, I’ve never seen a perfect book, not ever. I’m not just a writer, I’m a reader and I’ve read a lot of NY Times bestselling books published by the Big Six and there is always at least one typo— usually more— and some of the editing, let’s admit, is not always so great.

I remember reading one of my favorite authors after she’d had many books published and I honestly wondered if the editor had all of a sudden decided that since she was a best-selling author, there was now no need to edit her books any longer because people would buy them regardless of how crappily they had been written. No offense to the author since, after all, that is why we have editors, beta readers and critique partners.

I won’t go into more details here on badly edited books I’ve read from the Big Six, but I think we’ve all seen ‘em.

So the truth is Indie authors can actually have a higher quality product if they want. Plus, Indie authors can actually fix any errors that readers find! How great is that? If a NY pubbed author finds and error in their book— like let’s say the hero’s name is Tom in the printed copy and Tom turns into Ted once or twice—what can they do? Nothing…hope for a second printing? That’s about it. However, as an Indie author, I can simply fix the error and re-upload my book. Problem solved.

So how do I publish the highest quality book I can? I follow these steps:

Write a book that I would want to read.
Make sure my research is tight.
Rewrite the book multiple times.
Have an honest critique partner tell me what I need to fix.
Fix the stuff my honest critique partner has told me about! (Don’t skip this step no matter how much you want to!)
Put the book away for a week or two or three, then sit down and read it through in one or two sittings and DO NOT MAKE EDITS. This is where you find out if your book reads smoothly and is ready for the final process or not.
Now you can go back and make all your final edits before you hire an editor.
Hire a professional editor and wait.
Make edits suggested by editor (that’s what you paid them for).
Spellcheck.
Find a Beta reader and have them make comments and ask questions, find errors etc.
Make edits based on Beta readers’ comments.
Do a final read thru and fix any errors you find.

If you follow these steps, you will have a very high quality product to put on sale that you can be proud of. My only caution is at some point you will need to stop editing and be satisfied with all your hard work.

As writers, we could potentially keep rewriting and improving forever. Instead, write another book and start the process over again. Your fans will be happy you did, because not only do they want a quality book, but they want lots of quality books. Happy writing!

Sheryl Hoyt was born and lives in the Seattle, WA area. She resides in the beautiful Cascade foothills with her high school sweetheart and their cats. A business professional by day, Sheryl has been writing novels in her free time for over 20 years. A lover of all things historical, she enjoys research and travel in order to expand her knowledge and add authenticity to her stories.  You can find her on Twitter and Facebook, and lots of other social media outlets.  Visit her website to learn more!

Thanks so much for being here today, SaraLynn!

Okay, readers, what say you?  Are you an author of indie books?  Avid readers?  Do you have thoughts about SaraLynn’s suggestions for making sure you work is of the highest quality?

As for me, I think the list is an excellent one.  Even so, I’ll raise my hand and start the conversation rolling by saying that I disagree that fixing the stuff your critique partner and/or editor flags is a must-do. Honestly consider it? Yes.  Realize that something you wrote gave them pause, yes.  But that may not translate to taking their actual advice as to either the problem or the solution.  What do I mean?  Well, that’s too much to go into here … but thanks to SaraLynn, I think I’ve pinpointed a blog post for later this week … so stay tuned!

Be sure to share your thoughts below!

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

Anniversary Celebration at The Reading Cafe … and a chance to snag Release Me, Carpe Demon, Tainted, and When Blood Calls!

It’s the first year anniversary of the Reading Cafe, and they’re giving away all sorts of goodies! Come on over and join the fun! You may win the first book in four of my series!

The Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series (Carpe Demon, in development as a feature film with 1492!)

The Blood Lily Chronicles (Tainted) (series currently out of print but coming back to digital soon!)

The Shadow Keepers series (When Blood Calls as J.K. Beck)

and the Stark Trilogy (Release Me, by J. Kenner my current NYT and USA Today bestseller!)

And be sure to check out all the other prizes at The Reading Cafe during the celebration.

Hurry! Contest closes February 14!

What prompts a sequel? Guest post by Ciji Ware

Please welcome Ciji Ware to the blog today, talking about something near to my heart–sequels.  I love getting attached to the characters I read and write about, so I’m a fan of sequels and series–however they’ve come to be!  

Check out Ciji’s post … and be sure to check out her latest novel, That Summer in Cornwall!

Sequels to novels are inspired by any number of reasons:

A)   The first book was too long and got chopped into two novels.

B)   The author has run out of ideas and figures a spin-off is a solution to a creative “dry well.”

C)   There were “loose ends” left at the end of the story that beg for a “To be continued” follow-on novel.

D)   There was a minor character in the original book that the novelist thought had a story of his or her own, just waiting to be told.

That Summer in Cornwall definitely fits into Category “D.”   My new book, published February 1, 2013, is a contemporary, stand-alone sequel to my time-slip novel, A Cottage by the Sea that was set in the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries and published some fifteen years ago.

The idea for a second book, also set in Cornwall, England, came to life because of one question that had long lingered in my mind:  whatever happened to little Janet, the three-month-old baby girl born to the odious British film director, Christopher Stowe, and Ellie Barton– that husband-stealing sister of my wonderful heroine in Cottage by the Sea, Blythe Barton, who eventually became Lady Barton-Teague, thanks to her remarriage to Sir Lucas Teague, the modern owner of crumbling Barton Hall?

The new novel begins when Blythe’s first cousin, Meredith Champlin, unexpectedly finds herself the legal guardian of a child she’s never met:  Janet Barton Stowe, now an unruly eleven-year-old “Beverly Hills Brat,” whose mother (and Blythe’s long estranged sister, remember) has died in a private plane crash a month earlier.

At the urging of the child’s blood aunt who has had no contact with her niece since the child was a babe in arms, Meredith decamps from her job as an intensive care nurse and pet therapy specialist in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to spend the summer with the ill-mannered, computer-addicted Janet at Barton Hall, a castle perched on the cliffs of Cornwall.  The adult cousins hold high hopes that three months in the land of their ancestors might transform the troubled pre-teen into a happier child.

Then, former British Army Lieutenant Sebastian Pryce, veteran of a canine bomb squad in Afghanistan, arrives on the estate with some secrets of his own.  Soon Meredith begins to wonder if their immediate attraction and his empathy for her young charge are blessings, or the prelude to yet another heartbreak like the one she escaped by leaving Wyoming?  Who could predict that her Corgi, Holly, and a novice search-and-rescue Border Collie named T-Rex hold all the answers by summer’s end?

That Summer in Cornwall also grew out of the notion that I longed to make another foray into the land of my Ware ancestors who hailed from Clyst Honiton close to the border of Devon and Cornwall.

As I had in 1994, I invited my writer pal of long-standing, romance novelist Cynthia Wright (one of the “Historical Jewels of Romance” and author of a new novel, Tempest, set in beautiful Barbados) to join me in October of 2012 and retrace our steps of nearly two decades earlier.

My goal was to refresh my memory of that region and learn more about the wonderful work of the volunteer K9 groups dedicated to search and rescue efforts all over Britain. The trip also allowed Cynthia to research her up-coming series of novels that deal with eighteenth century smugglers that inhabited the region we both love to explore.

One of the great joys of that sojourn was our stay at Caerhays Castle near Gorran Haven, the model for “Barton Hall,” the stunning setting for both the original book and the sequel.

It is now possible to let rooms at this wonderful estate with its world renowned rhododendron gardens, and Cynthia and I spent nearly a week cosseted in the turreted Bottom Lodge across from idyllic Portluney Beach.

The more I learned about the links between Cornwall and its emigrants to America (and especially the Wyoming mines and ranches), the more the story of That Summer in Cornwall simply fell into place.  Not only were there the expected connections of mining and ranching, but I even discovered the Yellowstone All Corgi Club whose activities in that part of the world underscored how hard the “Queen’s Corgis” work as sheep herding dogs in the Rocky Mountain states, and in Britain.

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The area of Mid-Cornwall is also the region where Cindy’s and my mutual author/heroine Daphne du Maurier wrote many of her best-loved novels. We had a great time following in du Maurier’s footsteps, seeking out the locations of such classics as Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, and Jamaica Inn.  I hope That Summer in Cornwall honors her memory, and readers also think the new novel is a worthy sequel to A Cottage by the Sea.

 

Thanks so much, Ciji, for coming by the blog today!  

Readers, what’s your most memorable trip?  Have you ever been to Cornwall?  Drop a comment and let us know!

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

 

Join me Saturday for the Pflugerville Library Romance Readers Social!

I’ll be at the Pflugerville Public Library in Pflugerville, Texas, this Saturday, February 9, from 2-3pm  to chat with readers (and give away a few copies of Release Me!).

Hope you can make it!

Here’s the blurb:

Romance Readers Social February 9

On Saturday, February 9 love is in the air with a Romance Readers Social at the Pflugerville Public Library, 1008 W Pfluger Street from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Join other romance novel enthusiasts for readings, paperback swap and photo booth fun. Confirmed authors include April Kilstrom, Julie Kenner, and Patrice Sarath. Planned games include Match the Romance Novel Cover to the Title and Create Your Own Romance Novel Title. By filling out an “author passport” guests can enter their name for drawings for gift cards, gift baskets, and Longhorns basketball tickets. For the paperback swap, people can bring their own books to swap with others at the event and the library will also have a few boxes of romance book donations to give out!

 

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.

 

What’s Romantic to You? A $10 Gift Card? Come Join the Hop!

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and that means it’s time for all sorts of romantic fun.

Now, romance can be soft and gentle, it can be hot and steamy, or it can be wild and crazy. (And so many permutations thereof.)

I’m thinking that this post is going to go with hot and steamy.

A dessert pot of fondue and a plate piled high with strawberries is both steamy and sexy (and hot!).

 

 

And my current book, RELEASE ME, is sizzling hot (and it’s in it’s third week as a NYT bestseller, and it just landed for it’s fifth week on the USA Today list … yay!)

Did I say the book was hot?  Well, it is.  But not as hot as the hero, Damien Stark! “5 of 5 stars – Oh.My.God. Where do I start? Damien, that’s where.” In Love With Romance

But, of course, curling up with a book is a solitary activity.

If you want to get all romantic and snuggly, maybe curl up with a movie (and your sweetie).  I ran across this blog post recently of Movies to Get You In The Mood.  Check it out!

And, of course, if you need romantic paraphernalia, Amazon has pretty much anything … and delivers to your door!

Before you hop on to the next stop on the hop, be sure to enter the contest for a gift card! Rules are in the Rafflecopter (if you can’t see it or the Linky for the next stop on the hop, refresh your page. Glitches happen!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Great USA Today and New York Times bestseller list news for Release Me!

In the “documenting for posterity” category, I just have to shout out on the blog that Release Me is now in its third week on the New York Times bestseller list  and its fifth week on the USA Today bestseller list!

Thanks so much to everyone who’s read and raved about the book!  I am so, so excited!

(And now I must print this page for my scrapbook …)

Claim Me is available for pre-order now. It will be released in July and is already on the Kindle erotica bestseller charts!

Erotic Romance Novels: Superior to Mystery and Fantasy Novels? The Evidence is In!

As most of you know, I write in a variety of different genres.  But which one is the “best”?  Hard to know, right?

Do my Julie Kenner books win?  Suburban fantasy like my Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom books? Paranormal romance like my series of superhero romances?

Or maybe the dark, paranormal romantic suspense books that I write as J.K. Beck?

Or does erotic romance win the toss?  Books like my current book, Release Me, written as J. Kenner?  

According to today’s guest blogger, Release Me wins big.  Read on to find out why!

Did you know that the most popular genre of fiction is romance? I was kind of surprised. I know I love it, but I figured mystery or fantasy would come out on top. While they didn’t rank first, they still came in as second and third.

However, thanks to books like Fifty Shades of Grey, which actually won the UK Book of the Year for 2012, romance novels continue to rank as number 1.

So as an attempt to keep our favorite books in the coveted spot, I developed this tongue and cheek list of the top seven reasons why reading a romance, specifically an erotic romance novel, is better than reading a mystery or fantasy novel.

7. Reading an erotic novel can help you start talking dirty in bed, whether it just inspires you or you read pages from the book to your partner. Reading a mystery novel can teach you all of the words to your Miranda Rights, which can sound really sexy if said while you’re riding your partner.

6. Erotic novels can provide you with new role playing ideas for your bedroom, while a fantasy novel can teach you new ways to interact with life on other planets, you know, for when you go on that summer vacation to outer space.

5. Reading an erotic novel can help you refocus on your attention on your relationship and therefore improve it, while reading a mystery novel can help you become paranoid and skeptical about your partner’s whereabouts.

4. Getting into a great erotic novel can help you learn about yourself, whether it be about what you want in the bedroom or how to get yourself off (because hopefully, it’s making you do a lot of that.) A fantasy novel, despite their tendency to contain sex scenes, is less likely to lead you to Adam & Eve for a little personal fun.

4. Reading an erotic novel is the female equivalent of watching porn, since women are turned on mentally and men are turned on visually. Reading a mystery is the female equivalent of watching Elliott Stabler (of SVU), which ok, let’s be honest, that’s like watching porn, too. I suppose we’re even there.

3. Erotic novels can put you in the mood, which means you’re more likely to have sex and sex helps you sleep better. So if A + B = C, then erotic novels can help you sleep better. Mystery novels on the other hand can freak you out and cause you to do anything but sleep.

2. Romance and erotic novels have been found to actually make people happier, because they tend to have happy endings, whereas fantasy novels are far more likely to make you worry about a giant asteroid destroying our planet.

1. Reading an erotic novel can put you in touch with your sexual side, while reading a mystery novel can help you tap into your serial killer tendencies.

So, if you were thinking about picking up a mystery novel next, think again. Think about your well-being, your relationship, and your sleeping habits. They all lay in the balance of your next read. Don’t mess it up!

So, readers, what do you say?  Is today’s guest right?  Does erotic romance win?  What’s the best genre out there in your mind?

P.S. - my current book -- Release Me -- is still on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Color me psyched! Have you got your copy yet?

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

XXOO

--J.K.