Robin L. Rotham's Blog, page 8

So Much For Enjoying Autumn On My Deck!

Okay, so much for enjoying autumn

on my new screened deck...





It's those damn Asian beetles again--hundreds of them!

They're squeezing in around every single screen,

and fewer and fewer find their way back out every night.

I can't even open a window to let them out!



And those little fuckers BITE!



What would YOU do?

September Contest Ending Soon!

Remember, I'll be announcing the winner of a $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of any one of my books on the 30th, so get your entry in by the 29th!



Just email me (robinrotham@yahoo.com) and tell me which supporting character (or characters) from Carnal Compromise you think might be the main character (or characters) in Carnal Compensation. You don't have to be right *grin* but you have to name character(s) who are actually in Carnal Compromise. 



To give you a little hint about one of them, I'm going to post a fun little excerpt from Carnal Compromise, available now at Samhain Publishing:





"Well this is a new wrinkle."




AJ woke with a start to find Ryan standing beside the bed, his thumbs hooked in his jeans pockets, his brown eyes sparkling with amusement.




Ryan!" AJ jumped at the sound of Mandy's voice in her ear. The woman was curled up against her back with an arm around her waist—or she was until she struggled out from under the covers and jumped off the bed like it was on fire.




"What are you doing in here?" she asked breathlessly.




"Well I poked my head in to say goodbye but Dad was all alone."




"This isn't what it looks like," she started.




He grinned at her. "That's what they all say."




"Ryan!" Mandy grabbed up her robe and put it on over her flannel nightgown, her cheeks bright red. "It's not!"




AJ felt her own cheeks heat and wished there were some way to slip out of the room unnoticed.




"It's no big deal," Ryan said, putting an arm around his mother's shoulders. "Chemistry is chemistry. You can't help who you're attracted to."




Mandy looked like she counted to five before she said, "Ryan Dean Stivers, I'm going to spank you!"




"Come on, Mom—I'm twenty-four, not four. You can stop hiding now."




Mandy narrowed her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"




"It means I have a pretty good idea what goes on around here when Brent and Joe come to town."




Her eyes widened in shock.




Ryan shrugged. "Like I said, chemistry is chemistry. I'd have to be blind not to see it between all of you." Then he added with an unrepentant grin, "And I've read Carnal Deliverance."




"Oh my God." She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her blazing cheeks. "You promised me you wouldn't read my books!"




Ryan laughed. "It's okay, honestly. I wouldn't want to watch or anything but I kind of enjoy knowing I have the swingingest parents in the universe."




AJ giggled and he sent a speculative glance her way.




"Say, Mom, I really don't have to get back until tomorrow. If this isn't what it looks like, you wouldn't mind if I ask AJ out tonight, right?"




AJ instantly looked away, going hot all over. It took every ounce of determination she possessed not to dive under the quilt Mandy had tossed aside. Surely he wasn't serious! She was ten years older than he was.




Mandy smacked his abdomen with the back of her hand.




"What?" he laughed again. "She's cute."





Okay, that's all the clue I'm going to give you so hurry and enter!

Thirteen Photos of Our New House!

Okay, so I've posted the bottom five of these before, but most of you probably haven't seen them so I thought I'd post them again. What do you think?  Would you stop in and utilize our guest room the next time you passed through Nebraska?




1. The front of our house. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. *grin* Grass seed was just planted today and the new sprinklers are busy trying to germinate the seed.

 







2. The back of our house. The screened porch is on top. That blue tank on the bottom is the old water pump, which the sprinkler guys were supposed to haul away today and forgot.







3. Mr. Robin's side of the office.







4. My little corner of the office.







5. Our lovely bedroom, with room for nightstands on both sides.







6. A slightly different view of our bedroom

because I love it so much.







7. Our en suite master bathroom whirlpool tub.







8. Our shower and, hidden beyond, is the nice high toilet.













9. Going into the guest room.







10. King-size bed in the guest room.















11. Our screened porch, from the dining room door.









12. Dining room.





13. Kitchen.







Bonus 1: Our fireplace.





Bonus 2: Our livingroom.





Bonus 3: Our livingroom from the other direction.

I Posted A Goodreads Review!

Because a few people are following my reviews on Goodreads, and because I'm pretty new to to the site and haven't posted any reviews, I went ahead and added one today that I posted on my blog a while back. In the future, I'll do it the other way around -- post it on Goodreads and have it feed to my blog.



But anyway, since I've started the ball rolling, I wanted to let everyone know up front that I'm going to review just the books that I really love. Not books by my friends or critique partners or pimp-pals. Not books that I really hate or am indifferent about. Just the books I buy because they sound like something I might enjoy.



Why, you ask? Several reasons.



FIRST, I personally prefer to know the reasons why I should read a book, not the reasons why I shouldn't. I want to know if it contains elements I tend to enjoy. If I start reading a good review and notice it focuses on, say, action and a tight suspense plot, I know that's probably not the book for me. If a good review says the characters are amazing, the sex is squirm-inducing and the love story made them laugh and cry, I'm pretty sure that's the book for me.



SECOND, negative reviews often focus on personal hot buttons and neglect the other aspects of a book that might be more important to readers without the same hot buttons. Take me, for example -- I'm a stickler for the finishing touches --that's where books can either shine or fall flat for me. Half-assed editing really pisses me off, no matter how original or exciting the overall storyline is. And then there's the formatting thing... (I'm particularly looking at you, publishers who are digitizing print backlists.) For me, reading poorly edited and/or formatted books is like buying a Filet o' Fish in the McDonald's drive-thru and finding the buns aren't lined up with the fish, the tartar sauce is leaking out one side and half the cheese is stuck to the box. Sure, the bun is soft and fresh, and the fish is hot and flaky, but the presentation is a disaster and it's really a mess to eat. Same with a book. The plot may be pure genius and the characters totally lovable, but if the publisher doesn't care enough to even look at the finished product, why should I?



See? Big hot button for me, obviously. But a lot of people aren't bothered by, and often don't even notice, egregious grammar, spelling, punctuation or formatting errors. They care more about the ideas in the story than the execution and would just roll their eyes at my pickiness.



THIRD, I don't want my pen name adding any undue weight to a negative review. Not that I'm such a big-name author, but you just never know and I'd rather be safe than sorry.  If I have a strong negative reaction to a book and think the author and/or publisher needs to know about it, I'll find some other way to alert them. I've been known to email publishers about books that surprise me -- either happily or unhappily. I've also posted a grand total of maybe two negative reviews on publisher websites under my real name as a public service to other prospective buyers. But I only do that in extreme cases where I feel readers are being misled by the book's description and are apt to be as angry as I am about it.



FOURTH, as the old saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. Negative reviews often pique readers' curiosity and make them buy a book they might not have otherwise, which would hardly be my objective in writing a negative review. So why bother?



FIFTH, as with all things in life, I want to accentuate the positive. I totally believe what goes around comes around, and I don't want to be sending out a bunch of negative energy.



FINALLY, and probably most importantly, I don't have any training in literary criticism, as the best reviewers do (I'm looking at you, Dr. Sarah Frantz), so I'm not always able to pinpoint exactly what it is that bothers me about a book, much less verbalize it. I can tell you my gut reaction, but that isn't necessarily helpful to an author and I think it should be. The only reason I like to read a well-written negative review of a book is to learn from it to my own writing. If I can't write an insightful, thought-provoking negative review, I need to leave that job to the pros.

Carnal Contest!

Yes, I'm holding another contest, and especially those of you who've read (and hopefully enjoyed) Carnal Compromise will want to enter. But first you need a little background information.



Copied from my home page, which I just updated last night:



Okay, rather than start with my usual rundown of what's happened since the last time I updated, I'm going to kick things off with a bit of swearing. G*##%@ @*$&%^# %@* @@#!!!



Why am I swearing, you ask? I'll tell you why -- I was so happy to FINALLY have one series wrapped up with the release of Carnal Compromise, and then a couple of days ago, I got an email from a fan that knocked my writing plans on their proverbial ass. (Yes, Colette, I'm looking at you.) All right, yes, those of you who read my posts regularly know that at one time, I'd planned on there being three books in the Carnal series, but I got so sequeled out, I scrapped the plans for the final book. And I thought I was going to get away with it, too...



But then along came Colette, asking for another, and hell if I didn't realize that, despite my best intentions to slam the door on that series, not only had my muse left it wide open, but he'd set up all the characters with a precision I can only stand back and gape at. I may not have wanted to write a third Carnal book but my muse certainly did. (He sends you his undying gratitude, BTW, Colette -- from me you just get a long-suffering sigh.)



And thus Carnal Compensation is reborn and will now be competing with Amorous Overnight for my Dec 1 deadline. My instinct is to flip my muse the bird, but my CP says I have to give him strokes even for ideas I don't like or else he won't give me any more ideas, so... *grudgingly* Thank you, muse.



To "celebrate" the birth of another book in my brain, I've decided to make my September contest more of a challenge. I'll be giving away the winner's choice of a download or an autographed print copy of any one of my books AND a $10 Amazon gift card. And like I said, this one is more of a challenge, meaning you'll either have to have read the book or do some research. Just email me at robinrotham@yahoo.com and tell me which supporting characters from Carnal Compromise you think might be the main characters in Carnal Compensation. You don't have to be right *grin* but you have to name characters who are actually in Carnal Compromise.



The drawing will be held and the winner announced on September 30, so be sure to enter by September 29, 2011.



Good luck to you all!

Thirteen Lines from Carnal Compromise

Since Carnal Compromise was recently released (and spent 10 whole days at #1 on Samhain's bestseller list!), I thought I'd give you more of a sneak peek by posting thirteen of my favorite lines.



1. She wouldn't have the least idea what to do if guys like them took her up on the unconscious offer in her eyes, and he'd just as soon it stayed that way.



2. But if he voiced that opinion in the wrong place, to the wrong person, he'd have the ACLU, the IRS, the SPCA, NASA and every other alphabet soup organization under the sun up his ass—assuming he still had an ass after Mandy and Brenda were through with him.



3. More than once since she'd moved in with them, she'd woken having an orgasm and lain there in horrified stillness until Joe's snores reassured her that she hadn't cried out.



4. Those two were just like the steers she used to work on her daddy's farm, young and stupid enough to hump just about anything, whether it moved or not.



5. But the fantasy of him rushing to her side, yanking the dildo out, and drawling "Here, baby, let me show you how a real live man fucks" right before he jumped her was just too delicious to resist.



6. He knew damn well Brent wasn't any more in love with AJ than he was, but it was nice not to be the only one with his nuts in a knot over her for a change.



7. It was a sad day when both the people he wanted to fuck would rather get themselves off.



8. It wasn't hard to spot AJ in a booth near the front—her silky white-blonde hair stood out like a beacon in the sea of comb-overs and seed caps.



9. Not to mention that locking the door would feel like she was making a formal announcement: Do not disturb—masturbation in progress.



10. Without breaking eye contact, Brent unlocked his knees and sank slowly to the carpet, making it clear every inch of the way that this was his decision to yield, his desire rather than Joe's strength or Joe's will that was taking them into these uncharted waters.



11. "What you are is the first woman who's ever made me wonder what your tongue tastes like, and how your breasts feel, and if your hair is as soft as it looks, and how you smell when you're excited."



12. When Brent and Joe shuffled in behind Hake and the three of them stood there together looking like an underwear ad, she screamed with merriment, rolling over and holding her sides.



13. Lowering her head, she engaged him in a lush, sprawling celebration of kiss, letting him know with every press of her lips, every slide of her tongue, and every thick, thuddy beat of her heart how very much she appreciated him.



Bonus: And suddenly she wanted to claim that look, to own it and never give it up. Now she knew how Superman must feel having to take off his tights, put on his nerd glasses, and hide who he really was from the world most of the time.



So what do you think? Does this whet your appetite for smut and/or humor? :D

Perfect Man Event!

Hey, everyone! For the past couple of weeks, Day Dreaming and Scorching Book Reviews having been holding the Perfect Man Event over at their blogs. Cowboy Week begins tomorrow -- isn't that an awesome poster?



And LOOK! Down toward the lower right-hand corner -- there I am!  Brent Andersen, one of my sexy-dirty heroes from Carnal Compromise, has been chosen to compete for the Perfect Man crown, and he'll be interviewed next Tuesday on Day Dreaming!



There'll be prizes -- and a few surprises -- so stop in and give us your ideas about the perfect man.

From the Files of WTF?!...

Vivian Arend tweeted this story last night and I just had to share.



Bull Semen Forces Closure of Interstate Ramp



Notice the semen's destination -- TEXAS. I find this highly amusing in light of TxDOT's lawsuit over the "graphic sexual content" in author Christie Craig's rather tame romance novel Don't Mess With Texas. It's a good thing that Greyhound spilled its load prematurely in Tennessee -- if it had spilled in Texas, the TxDOT might have filed suit...or issued a ticket for littering.



So what are you scratching your head over today?

First Border in New House!

I've been putting off my ten-year-old daughter Jana for a few weeks, but finally today I could avoid it no longer... It was border-hanging time. And as always, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Should have just done it right away -- I wasted a lot more time dreading it than I did hanging it.



Here's Jana's room. She's into peace and kittens -- in case you couldn't tell. :D Oh, and in the bottom photo, the homemade poster by the door is all the cats she's loved and lost. Every time a family cat dies, she draws him/her into the poster. Isn't that sweet and sad? Looks like it's just about time for her to start another one, though I hope not. We're all really fond of Venchie, our current cat. She's the friendliest little cat ever.

Opinions, Please...

Okay, I just received the framed print I ordered online a few days ago, and it's not quite what I was expecting. For one thing, there's a lot more mat than art, which I should have anticipated since the poster was only available in medium and small, while the framed print was available in large. And the mat itself is a lot more yellow than I expected -- when I did a computer simulation on the poster sight, it looked more peachy. (Though it WAS called Gold -- color me silly, but I just thought that meant they weren't very good at naming colors.)



So as a result, the mat matches my new dining room wall very closely. The difference in color is a little more obvious in the photo than in person.



What do you all think? Do you like it that way, or should I have it rematted with the more peachy blush-colored mat I thought I was getting? (Oh, and since you're here, I've edited to add a few requested pictures of the inside of the house.)



My new dining room (we haven't brought the books over yet):







My new kitchen:







My fireplace:







Mr Robin's leather throne and my throne with ottoman:







Livingroom window (yes, we're getting treatments eventually):