Dani Collins's Blog, page 61

#SampleSunday – More Than A Convenient Marriage

Hello all,

I’m traveling for my day job thus missed #ThursdayThirteen. I was going to write 13 items to pack when traveling in a hurry. I should do it now, but I’m already yawning so will get my excerpt up and blog more once I’m home. I’ll have photos from this trip, so please check back in a week or so to see them.

Meanwhile, we left Adara and Gideon each thinking the other is having an affair. If you haven’t read the first two excerpts, they’re here:

Cover Reveal
More Than A Convenient Marriage?

Here’s the excerpt:

~ * ~

Her heart gave a kick. Gideon rarely got angry and even more rarely showed it. He certainly never directed dark energy at her, but his accusation made her unaccountably defensive.

She told herself not to let his jab pierce her shell, but his charge was a shock and she couldn’t believe his gall. The man was banging his secretary in the most clichéd of affairs yet he had the nerve to dog her all the way to Greece to accuse her of cheating?

Fortunately, she knew from experience you didn’t provoke a man in a temper. Hiding her indignation behind cool disdain, she calmly corrected his assumption. “He has a wife and new baby—”

Gideon’s drawled sarcasm cut her off. “Cheating on one spouse wasn’t enough, you have to go for two and ruin the life of a child into the mix?”

Since when do you care about children?

She bit back the question, but a fierce burn flared behind her eyes, completely unwanted right now when she needed to keep her head. The back of her throat stung, making her voice thick. She hoped he’d put it down to ire, not heartbreak.

“As I said, Lexi assured me you had appointments in Chile. ‘We will be flying into Valparaiso,’ she told me. ‘We will be staying in the family suite at the Makricosta Grand.’” Adara impassively pronounced what Lexi hadn’t said, but what had been in the woman’s eyes and supercilious smile. “‘We will be wrecking your bed and calling your staff for breakfast in the morning.’ Who is cheating on who?”

She was proud of her aloof delivery, but her underlying resentment was still more emotion than she’d ever dared reveal around him. She couldn’t help it. His adultery was a blow she hadn’t seen coming and she was always on guard for unearned strikes. Always.

Somehow she’d convinced herself she could trust him and if she was angry with anyone, it was herself for being so blindly oblivious. She was having a hard time hiding that she was trembling she was so furious, but she ground her teeth and willed her muscles to let go of the tension and her blood to stop boiling.

He didn’t react. If she fought a daily battle to keep her emotions in reserve, his inner thoughts and feelings were downright non-existent. His voice was crisp and glacial when as he said, “Lexi did not say that because it’s not true. And why would you care if she did? We aren’t wrecking any beds, are we?”

Ask me why, she wanted to charge, but the words and the reason stayed bottled so deep and hard inside her she couldn’t speak.

Grief threatened to overtake her then. Hopelessness crept in and defeat struck like a gong. It sent an arctic chill into her, blessed ice that let her freeze out the pain and ignore the humiliation. She wanted it all to go away.

“I want a divorce,” she stated, heart throbbing in her throat.

For a second, the world stood still. She wasn’t sure if she’d actually said it aloud and he didn’t move, as though he either hadn’t heard, or couldn’t comprehend.

Then he drew in a long, sharp inhale. His shoulders pulled back and he stood taller.

Oh God. Everything in her screamed, Retreat. She ducked her head and circled him, aiming for her car door.

He put out a hand and her blood gave a betraying leap. She quickly tamped down the hunger and yearning, embracing hatred instead.

“Don’t think for a minute I’ll let you touch me,” she warned in a voice that grated.

“Right. Touching is off limits. I keep forgetting.”

A stab of compunction, of incredible sadness and longing to be understood, went through her. Gideon was becoming so good at pressing on the bruises closest to her soul and all he had to do was speak the truth.

“Goodbye, Gideon.” Without looking at him again, she threw herself into her car and pulled away.

~ * ~

Watch for a chance to win a signed copy of More Than A Convenient Marriage? on Goodreads. The contest starts October 15th.

Okay, have a great week. Mine will be busy. I’ll check in as time allows.

The post #SampleSunday – More Than A Convenient Marriage appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – More Than A Convenient Marriage

On the heels of learning Friday that the third book in this series has been accepted (look for it in June) I’ll post another snippet from this, the second book.

See the first sample, the opening pages, here. This comes right after that, switching from Gideon’s point of view to Adara’s.

I’ll try to keep this up the next few weeks, but I can’t promise. I have to go out of town for the day job and I have a rather heavy deadline Nov 1st.

~ * ~

Adara averted her gaze from the end of the drive where the sun was glancing off her rented car and piercing straight into her eyes.

The grounds of this estate were an infinitely more beautiful place to look anyway. Groomed lawn gently rolled into vineyards and a white sand beach gleamed below. The dew was off the grass, the air moving hotly up from the water with a tang of salt on it. Everything was brilliant and elevating.

Perhaps that was just her frame of mind, but it was a refreshing change from depression and anxiety and rejection. She paused to savor the first optimistic moment she’d had in weeks. Looking out on the horizon where Mediterranean blue met cloudless sky, she sighed in contentment. She hadn’t felt so relaxed since… Since ever. Early childhood maybe. Very early childhood.

And it wouldn’t last. A sick ache opened in her belly as she remembered Gideon. And his PA.

Not yet, she reminded herself. This week was hers. She was stealing it for herself and her brother. If he returned. The gardener had said a few days, but Adara’s research had put Nico on this island all week so he obviously changed his schedule rapidly. Hopefully he’d return as suddenly as he’d left.

Just call him, she cajoled herself, but after this many years she wasn’t sure he’d know who she was or want to hear from her. He’d never picked up the telephone himself. If he refused to speak to her, well, a throb of hurt pulsed in her throat as she contemplated that. She swallowed it back. She just wanted to see him, look into his eyes and learn why he’d never come home or spoken to her or her younger brothers again.

Another cleansing breath, but this one a little more troubled as she turned toward her car again. She was crestfallen Nico wasn’t here, not that she’d meant to come like this to his house, first thing on arrival, but her room at the hotel hadn’t been ready. On impulse she’d decided to at least find the estate and then the gates had been open and she’d been drawn in. Now she had to wait—

“Loverboy not home?”

The familiar male voice stopped her heart and jerked her gaze up from the chevron pattern in the cobblestones to the magnificence that was her husband. Swift, fierce attraction sliced through her, sharp and disarming as always.

Not a day passed that she didn’t wonder how she’d landed such a smoking hot man. He was shamelessly handsome, his features even and just hard enough to be undeniably masculine. He rarely smiled, but he didn’t have to charm when his sophistication and intelligence commanded such respect. The sheer physical presence of him quieted a room. She always thought of him as a purebred stallion, outwardly still and disciplined, but with an invisible energy and power that warned he could explode any second.

Don’t overlook resourceful, she thought acridly. How else had he turned up half a world from where she’d thought he would be when she’d taken pains to keep her whereabouts strictly confidential?

Fortunately, Adara had a lot of experience hiding visceral reactions like instant animal attraction and guilty alarm. She kept her sunglasses on and willed her pulse to slow, keeping her limbs loose and her body language unreadable.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with a composed lift of her chin. “Lexi said you would be in Chile.” Lexi’s tone still grated, so proprietary over Gideon’s schedule, so pitying as she had looked upon the ignorant wife who not only failed as a woman biologically, but no longer interested her husband sexually. Adara had wanted to erase the woman’s superior smile with a swipe of her manicured nails.

“Let’s turn that question around, shall we?” Gideon strolled with deadly negligence around the front of her car.

Adara had never been afraid of him, not physically, not like she had been of her father, but somewhere along the line Gideon had developed the power to hurt her with a look or a word, without even trying, and that scared her. She steeled herself against him, but her nerves fried with the urge to flee.

She made herself stand her ground and find the reliable armor of civility she’d grown as self-defense long ago. It had always served her well in her dealings with this man, allowing her to engage with him even intimately without losing herself. Still, she wanted higher, thicker invisible walls. Her reasons for coming to Greece were too private to share, carrying as they did such a heavy risk of rejection. That’s why she hadn’t told him or anyone else where she was going. Having him turn up like this put her on edge, internally wind-milling her arms as she tried to hang on to unaffected nonchalance.

“I’m here on personal business,” she said in a dismissive tone that didn’t invite discussion.

He, in turn, should have given her his polite nod of acknowledgment that always drove home how supremely indifferent he was to what happened in her world. It might hurt a little, but far better to have her trials and triumphs disregarded than dissected and diminished.

While she, as was her habit, wouldn’t bother repeating a question he had ignored, even though she really did want to know how and why he’d followed her.

No use changing tactics now, she thought. With a little adherence to form they could end this relationship as dispassionately as they’d started it.

That gave her quite a pang and oddly, even though his body language was as neutral as always, and his expression remained impassive as he squinted against the brightness of the day, she again had the sense of that coiled force drawing tighter inside him. When he spoke, his words were even, yet she sensed an underlying ferocity.

“I can see how personal it is. Who is he?”

~ * ~

More Than A Convenient Marriage is available for pre-order on Harlequin.com. It’s a 2-in-1 with No Longer Forbidden? so good value.

It’s also available for pre-order on Amazon: US | CAN | UK

The post #SampleSunday – More Than A Convenient Marriage appeared first on Dani Collins.

Thursday Thirteen – Things To Do (Financial)

Ugh, you’re going to hate me for this one.

Every year we get the call from the people who administer the group retirement savings plan for my day job. Every year I send my husband, but this year it didn’t work and I had to go. So, to share the pain, here are 13 things we should all be doing for our financial health (and probably aren’t.)

Write a Will (or update it)
Remortgage (or lock in to a good rate. They’re going up, people.)
Life insurance (if you don’t have some, get some. If you have some, get a quote from a competitor.)
Retirement Savings (Figure out how much you’re gonna need and how much the government will give you.)
RRSP (in Canada) (If you’re not contributing, set one up. If you are contributing, increase your contribution.)
Shred old documents. (Make a stack of the folders, files, statements, and other documentation from ten years ago. Burn, shred, or otherwise permanently destroy.)
Funeral arrangements (Do your family a favour and communicate your wishes and ensure they’re funded. I’m going for LifeGem.)
Education Planning (RESP in Canada) (Got kids? Get money from the gov’t by setting up one of these.)
Disability Strategy (no, I don’t have one either. I’m just trying to clean off my desk and came across all the papers she gave me. Gah.)
Budget (I use You Need A Budget. I do not use it properly. I try to use it as small business software to track my writing expenses. It is not the best tool for this, but I like it for the day to day banking and can’t be bothered switching. If you have a great small business for Mac suggestion, I would love you forever if you tipped me off.)
Figure out how much you need to make off of your writing in order to quit your day job. (Okay, that’s a #NoteToSelf)
Submit receipts (Do you have some, like for prescriptions or something? Are you forgetting that’s money to you if you go to the trouble of mailing them in? How about that rebate on snow tires? Just do it!)
Quit buying lunch (Another note to self. I do this too often then wonder where our money goes. It’s a small daily expense until you add up a month’s worth and hate yourself. Make a PBJ, for heaven’s sake.)

I know, I know. I’m not jumping on any of this myself. It’s a drag and costs money, but it’s important. Make an appointment with one person about one of these things, even if it’s just your spouse to talk about that lunch thing.

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Thursday Thirteen – Tips For Beginners

I recently received an email from a new writer asking for some tips for beginners. I thought, What a great idea for a post! (Thanks Ally!)

Write. This is the most important part of being a writer. Anyone who is writing regularly is a writer. Anyone who is riding a bicycle instead of writing is a cyclist, not a writer. If you want to be a writer, write.
Figure out what you want to write. Fiction or non-fiction? What do you like to read? Mystery? Romance? Aviation Disaster Mysteries? (I have two friends who will get that joke and only one may actually read my blog.) Go ahead and be bold with a new genre about trolls (which is not that new, apparently it’s a thing now) but recognize that you may have a steeper road than most to sell your work if it’s really, really new.
Read in your genre, especially if you haven’t sold there yet. It seems self-evident that this would be a good idea, but you’d be surprised how many people think, “I’ll start out in erotica, even though I haven’t read any, because it sounds easy and this is my ‘starter’ book.”
Recognize that there is a difference between being an writer and being an author. This is kind of my own distinction, but I like to make it because I spent decades afraid to call myself a writer because I wasn’t selling. If you write, you’re a writer. If you have a book on the shelf, you are the author of said book. I am now Dani Collins, Romance Author. I am and always was a writer.
Recognize the difference between being a writer and a publisher. In today’s world you can be both by indie-publishing your manuscript as a book. As few as five years ago, this was called vanity publishing and it was looked down upon because, it was thought, those who wrote well enough would sell to a ‘real’ publisher. Today a handful of people have made scads of money publishing their own work, so now self-publishing makes you a bad-ass. It also makes you a publisher. You need a lot of ancillary skills to be a publisher that go beyond the ability to write a good story. For instance, you need to know how to copy edit words like ‘ancillary’ and know that it’s being used correctly, otherwise you look like a cheap-ass publisher who doesn’t care about the quality of their product.
Take pride in the quality of your product. Write down your own expectations of a book. What do you like in the stories you read? Humour? Angst? Proper punctuation? Do everything on your list when you write your own book.
Learn. Learn from reading, from online blogs and articles, from craft books, from conferences and workshops… If you have never taken any How To Write courses, start looking for whatever is affordable for your situation. I wish I could teach you in thirteen steps how to write, but it’s actually a lifelong study that I too am still learning.
Tools, Not Rules. This should be up around No.2. While you’re absorbing everything about grammar and structure and character development and setting and motif, you will hear a lot of You Musts. You must Show, Never Tell. You must get the hero and heroine together on Page 1. You must vary the beginning of your sentences. I have just broken that rule for two reasons: to demonstrate my point and for humorous effect. If you read about how to write jokes, you’ll learn the power of three. I repeated something three times and mocked myself on the third one. According to some, that’s funny. By the same token, I do not write out the GMC structure of my manuscripts prior to sitting down to write them, but for a few years I did and now I kind of do that in my head, especially if I get stuck. It is a tool I pull out when I’m wondering why my romantic conflict withered on the vine. Tools, not rules.
Be selective about who you show your work to. I love my husband. Based on early, marriage-threatening experiences, I do not show him my works-in-process. I gave him a signed author copy of my first book, but I don’t care if he reads it and I don’t want to know what he thinks. I don’t like anyone to see my computer screen while I’m writing. I don’t like strangers to read my grocery list and use code if I need feminine supplies…  Okay, this has become more of a confession of my neuroses than actual advice, but seriously, having the wrong people read your words can be damaging to your process. It’s super exciting to poop out your first manuscript and very natural to want everyone to love it as much as you do. Your mother might wax poetic, but that might be a biased opinion which can be as damaging to your progress as someone who is too critical. Proceed with caution, find some writers on your level, ask around about some contests that offer anonymous, constructive feedback, and always keep writing because that’s how you develop confidence in your own voice and content.
Expect rejection. I have over a hundred, well over, from agents and editors. I still get revision letters that feel kind of like rejections because you send your work in believing it’s perfect and get back a list of ways to improve. Sometimes your book genuinely doesn’t fit what they print. Sometimes they’re leaving for vacation and didn’t even crack the first page. You have no control over this, it will happen, do not feel singled out, personally attacked, or alone. It sucks, but you’re in good company. Keep writing.
Write because you love it. If you want to write to make a million dollars, you can do that, but it will take a lot of work. Exactly as much work and educational investment as it would be for you to become a doctor or an accountant or an astronaut. You can do anything you want to if you are willing to put the time and effort in. Even at that, see No.10. There will still be some slap-downs and disappointments. Publishing will make you crazy. You cannot control your progress up that ladder. Writing, however, is yours. If you love it, then do it. If you want to publish, do that too, but don’t let it ruin the writing side for you.
Cultivate a good balance between your writing life and your real life. I’m currently so drowning in writing commitments it’s not even a joke anymore, but I know I’ll be righting things by the end of the year. My family knows this and therefore I am still married, otherwise I think I’d be asked to leave, even by the cat who just looks at me with those eyes. Really? No time to admire this dead bird I brought you? Where are your priorities? But I digress. From a physical standpoint (sitting, actually) writing can be very hard on you. Walk. It’s generally an interior pursuit. Go outside. It’s a lonely pursuit. Network with other writers. Writing is also a draining process. You need to fill the creativity well with other experiences so you can come back and know exactly what curry smells like or how that guy laughs or what the heck these smart watches are that are going to be turning up in books from now on.
Evoke emotion. You’ll notice none of my points so far have been about craft. There are far smarter people out there who can teach you the mechanics of writing. I am an expert on staying sane through twenty-five years of rejection. However, one craft tip I will impart involves the importance of evoking emotion. Now, I’m no brain surgeon so I can’t give you exact terminology, but I recently learned that the part of the brain that holds longterm memory is stimulated by deep emotion. Incidentally, it’s also the part that processes scent and does so most keenly during pre-adolescence. That’s an aside. The take-away here is that if you want your stories to be memorable, they should stimulate emotion in your reader.

I should now do my best to evoke some emotion in you, Dear Reader, so you will remember this fabulously interesting blog. However, my creative well is dry and, more importantly, my stomach is empty. Yes, I am alone and hungry.

That bird on the deck is looking promising, actually…

 

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#SampleSunday and Cover Reveal

I’ve been a bad #SampleSunday-er, I know. I’ll call it a summer break and try to get back into it.

One of my problems is that my most current release, Shared Whispers, is actually an anthology of short stories. If I sample too much from Heart Of A Rebel, my contribution to it, I’ll wind up vampiring the entire story and I’m pretty sure the publisher, Champagne Books, would frown at me for that.

I do have a new Presents/Modern coming out in December, however. Since I was sharing the cover for the Modern release, I decided I should start putting up teasers from the book too. Here’s the setup:

More Than A Convenient Marriage? starts with Adara going to look for her brother, Nic (the hero from No Longer Forbidden?) Adara’s husband, Gideon, thinks she’s meeting a lover. She’s convinced he’s having an affair with his PA. (Neither is cheating, don’t worry!) But in the beginning, they’re pretty testy with each other.

Here’s the opening pages in Gideon’s point of view:

~ * ~

Gideon Vozaras used all his discipline to keep his foot light on the accelerator as he followed the rented car, forcing himself to maintain an unhurried pace along the narrow, island road while he gripped the wheel in white-knuckled fists.  When the other car parked outside the palatial gate of an estate, he pulled his own rental onto the shoulder a discreet distance back, then stayed in his vehicle to see if the other driver noticed.  As he cut the engine, the AC stopped.  Heat enveloped him.

Welcome to Hell.

He hated Greece at the best of times and today was predicted to be one of the hottest on record.  The air shimmered under the relentless sun and it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet.  But the weather was barely worth noticing.

The gates of the estate were open.  The other car could have driven straight through and up to the house, but stayed parked outside the gates.  He watched the female driver emerge and take a moment to consider the unguarded entrance.  Her shoulders gave a lift and drop as though she screwed up her courage before she took action and walked in.

As she disappeared between imposing brick posts, Gideon left his own car and followed at a measured pace, gut knotting with every step.  Outraged sweat stung his skin.

He wanted to believe that wasn’t his wife, but there was no mistaking Adara Vozaras.  Not for him.  Maybe her tourist clothes of flip-flops, jeans chopped above the knees, a sleeveless top, and a pair of pigtails didn’t fit her usual professional élan, but he knew that backside.  The tug it caused in his blood was indisputable.  No other woman made an immediate sexual fire crackle awake in him like this.  His relentless hunger for Adara had always been his cross to bear and today it was particularly unwelcome.

Spending the week with her mother.  This ain’t Chatham, sweetheart.

He paused as he came alongside her car, glancing inside to see a map of the island on the passenger seat.  A logo in its corner matched the hotel he’d been told she was booked into.  And now she was advising her lover where to meet her?  Walking bold as you please up his million-dollar drive to his billion-dollar house?  The only clue to the estate’s ownership, the shields welded to the gate, were turned back against the brick wall that fenced the estate from the road.

Gideon’s entire body twitched with an urge to slip his reins of control.  He was not a poor man.  He’d got past envying other men their wealth once he’d acquired his own.

Nevertheless, a niggle of his dock-rat inferiority complex wormed to life as he took in what he could see of the shoreline property that rolled into a vineyard and orange grove.  The towering stone house, three stories with turrets on each corner, belonged on an English estate, not a Greek island.  It was twenty bedrooms minimum.  If this was the owner’s weekend retreat, he was an obscenely rich man.

Not that Adara needed a rich man.  She had grown up wanting for nothing.  She had a fortune in her own right plus half of Gideon’s so what was the attraction here?

Sex.

The insidious whisper in Gideon’s head formed a knot of betrayal behind his breastbone.  Was this why she hadn’t shared that stacked body of hers with him for weeks?  His hands curled into fists as he tried to swallow back his gall.

Dreading what he might see as he looked to the front door, he shifted to see down the drive. Adara had paused halfway to the house to speak with a gardener.  A truck overflowing with landscaping tools was parked midway up the drive and workers were crawling like bees over the blooming gardens.

The sun seared the back of Gideon’s neck, strong enough to burn through his shirt to his shoulders, making sweat pool between his shoulder blades and tickle annoyingly down his spine.

They had arrived early this morning, Adara off the ferry, Gideon following in a power boat he was ‘test-piloting.’  She’d been driving a car she’d rented in Athens.  His rental had been negotiated at the marina, but the island was small.  It hadn’t surprised him when she’d driven right past the nose of his car as he had turned onto the main road.

No, the surprise had been the call thirty-six hours ago when their travel agent had dialed his mobile by mistake.  Ever the survivor, Gideon had thought quickly.  He’d mentioned that he’d like to surprise his wife by joining her and within seconds, Gideon had had all the details of Adara’s clandestine trip.

Well, not all.  He didn’t know who she was here to see or how she’d met her mystery man.   Why was she doing this when he gave her everything she asked for?

He watched Adara’s slender shoulder fall.  Disappointed.  The bastard wasn’t home.  Grimly satisfied, Gideon folded his arms and waited for his wife.

~ * ~

More Than A Convenient Marriage is available for pre-order on Harlequin.com. You save a buck if you order now AND it’s a 2-in-1 with No Longer Forbidden? So if you haven’t read that, you need to. It’s the first in the Makricosta series. Click to buy now. I’ll wait here.

If you’re in the UK, given the pattern I’ve seen to date, More Than A Convenient Marriage? will likely be on sale on the M&B site in early November.

It’s also available for pre-order on Amazon where you save a bit if you buy now: US (save 50 cents) | CAN (save 30 cents) | UK (no discount)

I hope you’re as excited about Adara’s story as I am to share her with you. She breaks my heart and Gideon is to die for. I’m currently revising their brother Theo’s story. He needed a special heroine and I’m pretty sure I found her in Jaya and just wait until I get to Demitri. He’s a brat, but I won’t get to write his story until sometime next year. Too many other commitments!

Happy Sunday.

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Thursday Thirteen – Great Lines

I’ve been wanting to do this post for a long time. I’ve taken a stack of random grabs off my Keeper shelf and put together a list of great lines from 13 of them. They’re not all killer lines standing alone, but they clench around your heart when you’re reading the story.

In no particular order:

“Gentle he would be, denied he would not.” – Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
“She had sold her cameras for the same reason he had mistrusted her: money.” – Elizabeth Lowell, The Danvers Touch
“I’d have killed Bobby Lancaster in a heartbeat for you, so don’t you ever say I don’t love you!” – Linda Howard, MacKenzies Mountain
“She’s the third member of this–this farce we call a marriage.” – Robyn Donald, Smoke In The Wind
“I realized that within minutes of your walking out of this cottage, darling.” – Jayne Bauling, Wait For The Storm
“I don’t know what damage that bomb blast did to you, but you can’t have forgotten Charles died nearly six years ago.” – Stacy Absalom, Ishbel’s Party
“Kill him when you want him!” – Laura Kinsale, Flowers From The Storm
“I was stupid and careless with you and it won’t happen again.” – Nora Roberts, Daring To Dream
“And in that moment, Gabe finally saw the child as himself, instead of as a reflection of Jamie.” – Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Dream A Little Dream
“I want that boy to stay with me.” – Tell Me Lies, Jennifer Crusie
“I’m beginning to think it doesn’t make a difference.” – Victoria Leigh, Catch Me If You Can
“He looked at the hand she’d held and flexed his fingers, remembering the sense of holding something precious and not wanting it to slip away from him.” – Emma Darcy, Marriage Meltdown.
“Finding the words, speaking them without breaking down, was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done, but he had to be strong for her.” – India Grey, The Society Wife

Bonus: “So while we’re having this heart-to-heart chat, Libby,” he continued, “why don’t you explain to me why some of the lousiest sex in my life was the best you ever had?” – Anne Stuart, Wild Thing

I could go on….

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Printable Book List

As promised, I am posting my list of titles currently available or scheduled. This does not include the four additional books I have submitted or contracted to write. I’ll add them when they’re official. Why yes, I am plowing ahead with my plan to dominate the romance publishing landscape.

Predictably, when I tried to paste my perfectly formatted table into my website, it went into cardia arrest and jumbled all my tab settings. Print a PDF of my booklist here.

This is all for now. We despots can’t stand around bragging about our accomplishments. We have to keep pressing forward by writing proposals and finishing those books we’ve committed to turn in.

I am loving the number of planets I have in virgo right now. It’s helping me get caught up on so much!

Title                  Released                  Published in            Print/Digital

Harlequin Mills & Boon

No Longer Forbidden? (Makricostas – Book One)

Modern                  Jan 2013                   UK & Oz                  Both

Presents                 Dec 2013                  USA (2in1)              Both

Proof Of Their Sin

Modern & Presents                  Jul 2013                   UK, USA, India & Oz                  Both

More Than A Convenient Marriage? (Makricostas – Book Two)

Modern & Presents                  Dec 2013                   UK, USA (2in1), India, Oz        Both

A Debt Paid In Passion

Modern & Presents                  Feb 2013                   UK, USA, Australia                   Both

 

Champagne Books

The Healer                  Mar 2013                  All platforms                 Digital

Shared Whispers (Anthology, various authors)                 

Sep 2013                  All platforms                  Digital

 

Indie Published

Hustled To The Altar                  Oct 2012                  All platforms                  Both

 

 

 

 

 

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Shared Whispers Re-released

You may remember my contribution to the anthology Shared Whispers.

Initially it was Kindle only, but was picked up by Champagne Books earlier this year and today they released it on all digital platforms, which is totally awesome.

This is a great way to sample several new and established authors’ works. My short story, Heart Of A Rebel, was an attempt to offer a sense of the world building and romance in The Healer, so if you’re on the fence about buying that, try this and see what you think. They’re both medieval fake-world romance. No dwarves or elves, just a fictional universe with recognizable problems. If you like highlander romances, you’ll probably go for these.

As a side note, you can find a reading guide, a character list, and a map for The Healer here.

Be sure to check in with Worlds Of The Imagination through September as several of the writers from Shared Whispers will be guest blogging to talk about their stories.

Here’s a teensy excerpt:

Vilander found his arms going around Magi’s womanly shape, pulling her close as he absorbed that he was inordinately glad to see her. Despite the chaos the bird had caused, Vilander had been gripped by an urge to laugh from the moment Magi had walked in. She looked the same as he remembered, only prettier.

Her breath clouded against his neck in a suppressed sob and his happiness took a dip into something disturbing. It had been a long time since he’d held a woman and Magi was receptive and warm. She smelled clean and sweet. Her hair tickled his jaw in the way only a woman’s could do. Her breasts flattened on his chest, making him want to cup and test their weight and seek the hardened tips with his thumb and mouth. Her skirts tangled his legs while her limbs trustingly parted for his own.

It was too much to bear. He ground his teeth against his natural reaction. He didn’t have time for a tryst.

And she wasn’t the kind who welcomed them.

You can buy Shared Whispers here:

Amazon | AllRomance | Kobo | Champagne

 

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Should I Blog?

I just read another ‘Blogging Is Over’ post. Actually, it said, “Should writers blog? Probably not.”

Meanwhile, click over to Kristen Lamb’s blog and you’ll see that she does not think this medium is over. In fact she highly recommends that writers blog regularly to keep their writing muscles in shape.

I’m no social media or marketing expert. I am only weighing in with my opinion, but you know what? That’s what blogs are for. I get to say whatever I want and if you are interested, you read to the end. If not, you move on with your life. To those of you moving on now, thanks for stopping by.

So that’s the short answer about whether to blog. The longer question and answer, which I have typically buried (see above re: Not A Marketing Expert) is When Should I Blog and/or Why Should I Blog vs. posting to Facebook or tweeting on Twitter or pinning on Pinterest?

Each of these mediums has pros and cons and thus appeals to different readers. Keep in mind that each human is a different reader several times a day. Sometimes you have time to dig into a topic. Other occasions you’re killing time waiting for a bus. Sometimes you want to interact with the author, sometimes you’re good with being told something from a distance.

Therefore, again in my non-expert and really not very experienced opinion aimed mostly at writers, the following are useful when:

Website:

Your website is your storefront. It’s yours, you own it, and readers like them because they’re a reliable source of information. It’s always in the same place and usually looks pretty much the same so they know their way around. However, you should have enough frequent updates and dusting of the shelves that they know you’re alive.
Including a page for your Blog or News is useful here because it provides Proof Of Life while static info like Current Release stays put for a month or two or longer.

Blog:

Blogging is open-mic night at a coffee shop. People sometimes make a point of finding out what you have to say, others have dropped by accidentally. They may or may not care, agree, or stick around to listen. You may get hecklers.
Blogging is a very useful tool that is very much yours to say what you like. Use it for posts of any length that convey an idea or fresh information about you and your books. Blogs are a great place for excerpts of your upcoming release, behind the scenes stuff about your books, contest details, Day In The Life posts, book cover reveals, a conference you’ve attended, microfiction, or maybe a rant if done in an entertaining way. See below re: branding. I have a great time with Thursday13 posts and they seem to draw a lot of hits.
In my opinion, for writers, blogs are a great place to showcase your voice and prove you can entertain. Some writers get hung up on being an expert about something, usually writing. I personally feel that I’m not uber-brilliant in the literary skills dept.  I leave it to others with much more intelligent things to say to do that job. Today you’re getting something that might be useful to you, especially if you’re a writer, but tomorrow you’re likely to hear about how I’m soooo busy. (Which is another way of saying I’m soooo important, so I try not to post those. Makes me gag at myself.)
Comments: While some people have very active comment sections in their blogs, don’t sweat it if you don’t. I get tons of hits a day and very few comments. Blogs are more a talking to tool, less a talking with. People read it, get what they want (or not), and move on with their day.
Do pimp your blog with links to pages about your books, buy links, and other cool places to visit on the internet . I should hyperlink that last phrase to something, but I’ve been soooo important lately, I haven’t had time to surf. Wait, I just googled that phrase and linked it. What the heck, might as well practice what I preach. But you’ll note that it opens in a separate window. You’ll be sucked back here. Another free tip on successful blogging.

Facebook Page:

Facebook is a walk through the neighbourhood. Would you pace up and down your block shouting, “Buy my book?” No, you would smile hello to people, even if they were strangers, ask how they are, listen to their funny story, help them find their lost dog, and generally be polite and friendly. Actually, another way to think about it is Phoning a Friend. Would you only phone to say, “Hey, my life is great. I sold another book!” No, you might open with that if you’re super excited, but most of the time you ask “How are you?” first and sometimes you don’t talk about your writing at all.
A note about Profile vs. Page: I personally have a Facebook profile for friends and family and a separate Author Page for readers to Like. This is a deliberate choice to keep these sides of my life separate, even though they do overlap to some extent. I must have met you in person and want to share news about my family and kids for you to be accepted as a friend. I’m not trying to be exclusive, but they haven’t signed on for the kind of public exposure I’ve chosen so I try to respect that with this little wall. A Facebook Page is a little more like standing in front of your store and talking to the passers-by. You still don’t want to shout, “Buy my book,” but they are looking in the window. You’re allowed to tell them a bit more about what’s inside. Read this for more info on the difference between a Facebook profile vs. a page.
Posting: Facebook is a great place for very short excerpts of a couple paragraphs and very current news (“I just found out my book made the NYT list!”) Also, book cover reveals, contest mentions, and interaction.
Interaction means liking and commenting and sharing. Go back and re-read my bit about telephoning a friend. Be conscious of your brand, go ahead and share news about your writing and books, but be a human who has a life beyond your own self-interest. Don’t you love it when people say, “That’s awesome!” when you post good news? You should do that for other people. Click Like and say, “Congratulations!”
Facebook is also a great place for sharing photos. They are worth a thousand words, you know.
I think of Facebook status updates as a very light blog post. One a day is more than plenty. A few a week is perfect and the rest can be shares and non-writing related fun stuff. Keep in mind that very few people will scroll through your timeline history. They might. Therefore, you should always be conscious and sober when posting. Stuff can come back to bite, but most will see what turns up in their newsfeed, glance, like, scroll, move on.
Why bother then? As with any kind of party, if you’re not having fun, go home and go to bed. The world will not collapse. If you quit thinking of it as work and more of a social event though, you might discover you enjoy it.

Twitter

Twitter is like being at a convention inside a stadium. You might have a booth, but mostly you’re wandering around a crowd doing  a lot of involuntary eavesdropping, not always catching the full story. Remember that others can hear everything you say, so be aware. Again, don’t stand there screaming, “Buy my book.” Interact with strangers, laugh at something you overheard, chime in with a zinger, but be nice.
IMPORTANT: you will not keep up with everything that happens on Twitter. That’s not the point. There are ways to organize your experience so you can make sure you don’t miss certain people’s tweets (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite–google for reviews of the best ones.) But be aware that a lot will happen that you will never know about. It doesn’t matter.
Twitter is a great place for very quick updates about what is going on now. In this way it’s similar to Facebook, but because the posts are so short, you may wind up posting several short bursts–like the visit to the DMV–in real time. You wouldn’t put out eight or ten posts on Facebook about one brief event, but it works on Twitter.
Facebook vs. Twitter: Both? Really? Not necessarily. Again, do whatever works for you, but keep in mind that although the content can be similar, you’re reaching a different reader, not necessarily a different person. Maybe they Like your page and follow you on Twitter, but they are catching your content while in different reading moods. Facebook is a house party, Twitter is more of a cocktail lounge.

Others:

Goodreads, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc etc etc. I have profiles with the first two and you’re right, at some point you have to scream uncle and call yourself maxed out. You don’t have to belong to everything and keep it all up. It’s not possible. I only wrote this post because I felt like I hadn’t blogged in a while and my vaguely opinionated blog post has turned into a pseudo-marketing advice column–for which I do not feel qualified to write. But if you’ve come this far, thanks. I hope you’ve at least been entertained.

Branding:

Keep in mind that all social media activity should at least be brand-concious. It’s great to be yourself and showcase more of your personality in a blog etc. but consider who your readers are in general. If they read your books for the sweet story lines of homespun, good values without sex, don’t pepper your rants with four-letter words.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a wonderful day.

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BlogTalkRadio – Aug 29th

Hear me at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books, Aug 29th, 2013 at 5pm PDT, with Bernadette Walsh.

Don’t worry if you miss the live broadcast. This link will continue to work.

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