Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 172

The Darkest Hour… Giveaway…

Soooo…last week, I mentioned I'd read No Place to Run by Maya Banks.

For those who haven't read the books?  Want to try the first one?

It's been one year since ex-Navy SEAL Ethan Kelly last saw his wife Rachel alive. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt over his failures as a husband, Ethan shuts himself off from everything and everyone.

His brothers have tried to bring Ethan into the KGI fold, tried to break through the barriers he's built around himself, but Ethan refuses to respond… until he receives anonymous information claiming Rachel is alive.

To save her, Ethan will have to dodge bullets, cross a jungle, and risk falling captive to a deadly drug cartel that threatens his own demise. And even if he succeeds, he'll have to force Rachel to recover memories she can't and doesn't want to relive—the minute by minute terror of her darkest hour—for their love, and their lives, may depend on it.

I'm giving away an unsigned copy of The Darkest Hour…book 1 in the KGI series.  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and tell me what you're reading.  Give away open across the globe, and reminder…if you enter, as per my disclaimer, that means you've read my disclaimer. O.o  So if you haven't, you might want to.

Standard, abbreviated run down…

don't post to twittersweeps or sweepstakes sites-if this happens, I reserve the right (and likely will) to end the contest without awarding the prize.  This annoys me.  These contests are for readers and visitors, not contest patrols.
it's your responsibility to check back and see if you've won-I don't notify the winner.
One entry per household
Open across the globe
You must enter via my blog, not goodreads, facebook, etc
For the rest… read the disclaimer .

Sigh… I hate lousy customer service…Chicstar

PSA for my twitter friends… since I tweet-shop so much and with the holidays coming up?  Well, I dunno if you wanna order from Chicstar.com or not.

That was one place I'd previously done a lot of tweet-shopping, but I just had a LOUSY customer service experience.

I'd ordered this gothic fishtail skirt-I loved it.  I was going to need get the waist taken in and I've only worn it like three times-it's not really something you can wear to just go grocery shopping and it's not really child-wrangling clothing, either.

But it's excellent for date night… or booksignings.

And I had a booksigning on Saturday.

On Friday when I went to go iron it?

One of the metal grommet loop thingies?  It was coming out of the seam and the ribbon was loose, too.

Now again… I've worn this thing three times.

So I emailed customer service at Chicstar.  It's a private business and generally, the customer service at those places?  Stellar.

Not so much here.  I was told… "t seems that this skirt doesn't fit you well, so when you wear it, it was splited, such this condition, i'm afraid that we can not refund your money."

Um… wrong.  It fits me pretty damn perfectly, save for the waist, where it's loose.  They can't make that determination by looking at a picture.  That sort of thing can also happen if the stitching isn't solid.  And the lower loop where the seam is ripped?  Nooooo… it didn't fit me poorly there at all.  That was below my big butt, thanks.

And I didn't want a refund.  I would have preferred them be willing to replace it, as the skirt should have held up for more than three damn wearings, and none of them were longer than a few hours.

Anyway… long story short?  The customer service doesn't seem all that hot.  Those who saw me tweeting about this place?  You might want to do your shopping elsewhere, folks.

Authors and reviewing.. should they, shouldn't they…

You know…any time I'm told I shouldn't do something, my natural inclination is to do it and do it now.

But… yes.  I realize this is one of those 'situations' that authors often find themselves in.

Do we review a book?  Is it right?  Is it kosher?  For the longest time, I know a lot of authors were saying No.

Straight up-I don't review books.  That's been my policy for the longest time.  I'm not a reviewer.  Now I'll tell the world when I love a book, yes.  But I don't review.  And I only discuss books I've enjoyed (either mostly or a lot).  That's my policy.  Just mine-I don't care what other authors do, as long as they don't attack another author.  Yes, when they trash another author-the author, not the fricking book, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. When an author trashes another author and I see it?  I've even been known to speak up over it… imagine that… I'm vocal, what can I say?

But to just read a book, then review it and discuss the points that didn't work?  Discuss…not get ugly.  FYI, crap like… how did this shit get published, or OMG, I do better than this comes off as ugly…and um… kind of bitter, too.

A fair review, though? Fair…honest?  Focusing on the issues and the plot and the characters?  Is that a problem?  Well, this is just me… but no,  I don't see the problem-for me.

Maybe this is more a romance land thing.  Yes, romance land is inundated with that 'play nice, say nice, be nice' mind set.  I don't always care for that mind set.  I prefer honesty and fairness and courtesy, and yes, you can discuss the aspects of a book that didn't or won't work for you and still be courteous.

We are all different and we aren't all expected to love the same thing-whether we write or not.  Whether we write romance or not.  Whether we write erotic or not, or suspense or not…whatever.

Everybody has different tastes and we are all entitled to that.

And here's the kicker… not only are we entitled to it, it's a damn good thing we all have different tastes…because if we didn't…since publishing kind of reflects what the reader wants, and we all are readers, as well, if we all wanted the same thing…um.  Well.  Wouldn't the bookstore be extremely boring?

Now…we've established we're all going to have different tastes…right?  And if not…since it's my blog, lets just say for the sake of argument, we have.

Should we be allowed to discuss fairly those different tastes?

Well.  Yes.  Assuming the author is willing to:

Deal with the consequences (should there be any)
Do it in a professional manner

Now, I'm talking fairly.  As in the author focus on the book.

If the author/reviewer is using the review to attack another author?  Well, then, all bets are off.  That's unprofessional, it's stupid, and I've got no patience for stupidity.  Those who try to be cute and pretend it was about the book, when it wasn't…well, it's obvious.

But if an author focuses on the book? If the author is fair?  Willing  to deal with the consequences?

What consequences?

Well… if you're giving a negative review to a very popular author…many of them do come with some vocal readers…some of them (the vocal readers, not the authors, although there also very vocal authors who are a whole different ballpark) do take exception to anything less than glowing reviews.  And when I say less than glowing?

I've seen people get attacked over giving a 4 star review to one author's book.

I personally have had people take me task *in person, not online* for not loving one particular author's series as much as I used to.  When all I said was…I fell behind…I'm just not enjoying them as much…and I had people lay into me.

Now…if those vocal types are the authors who get their panties in a twist?  Um…well, sorry.  That just makes them look like asses,

Back to the subject at hand.

Yes.  There can be consequences, but I don't think those consequences should come from the author side.

Why?  Because damn it, unless the author doing the review is being nasty… what is the problem? We're entitled to an opinion and the author doing the reviewing will face enough flack just for stating a polite… "It doesn't work for me".

We all want to be taken more seriously, folks.  And one of the biggest detriments to romance is this crazy… We must be nice, say nice, look nice, act nice crap.  Maybe this is my inner tomboy coming out, but that's such a girly copout.

How about… we Be Fair.  Act Fair. Be Honest.  And be willing to accept the consequences…?

December's Featured Title… His Christmas Cara…

I guess I've always liked bastardizing things…

His name was Eben Marley…Ebenezer, to be exact, and for the longest time, he'd lived exactly as the famous scrooge from the old Christmas story.

Well, almost exactly. Eben had two great loves, making money and making love to women.

He did little more than work, and take as many women as he could, trying to forget the one woman who'd walked away from him.

Then Eben met someone who was finally able to break through the ice around his heart. But then he pushes her away.

Now, on Christmas Eve, he has one night, one last chance to make it right.

Excerpt…

"So, Jacob… Have you forgotten where I live?" he asked casually, mentally tallying up a mark against Jacob. That's one. He gave his employees three chances when they fucked up. And three only.

"No, Mr. Marley, I remember where you live," Jacob said softly, flashing him a dazzling grin in the rearview mirror. "It's just…time, I suppose…that I do what I'm here for."

A cold chill ran through Eben at those obscure words. "You're my driver, that's what you're here for. Now take me home, if you like your job."

Jacob chuckled, a deep, rolling laugh that probably invited others to laugh with him. "This job? Driving you around? No—I don't care for it, in particular. Wouldn't be a bad one, heaven knows it's easy enough. Except you have got to be the coldest man I've ever met in my life. And it's been a long one."

Eben's eyes narrowed and he said, "Jacob, you are pushing it."

The driver laughed. "Boy, you are the one who's been pushing it. And you're too damned stupid to even know it, all that money, that brain of yours…shoot, you're even a good-looking kid," Jacob mused, shaking his head slightly as he took an exit that led even farther away from Eben's home. They were close to Louisville Metro's city limits now, and home was a good twenty miles away.

"Why, thank you. Now turn this fucking car around, take me home and I'll cut your check. Your final one," Eben snapped, furious.

Jacob continued on as if Eben hadn't spoken. "Smart, rich, and you're good with people, when you want to be. Yet you're concerned with one thing, and one thing only. Yourself. But that's okay. That's why we're here. To open your eyes. Hold on."

Eben opened his mouth to bellow…but Jacob wasn't there. The front seat was empty.

"Mother fuck!" Eben shouted, diving over the seat in a desperate attempt to catch the steering wheel.

The car smashed into something, and Eben went flying through the windshield. How odd…it didn't even hurt…

Damn it…why now? he wondered and then blackness—

~*~

Damn it, she was so sweet, so hot… Eben groaned as she levered up away from him, laving his cock with one last gentle stroke of her tongue before she crawled over him, one knee on each side of his hips.

I could fuck her for the rest of my life and never get tired of her, he thought mindlessly.

A soft, silken voice purred into his mind, then why did you send her away?

He jerked awake, viciously, abruptly, his cock throbbing against his belly, pulsating and aching like a bad tooth. His heart was pounding hard and heavy. And he hurt.

Oh, hell…he hurt. As the dream fell apart around him, Eben grew aware of just how badly he was hurting. And not just his swollen dick, either.

Head pounding, gut churning, body screaming at him in protest, Eben lifted his head, trying to see around him. Too damn dark… What in the hell had happened?

He'd been dreaming, that much he knew. Dreaming about Cara. Again.

But what had happened? Where in the hell was he? Not at home, that was for sure. And why the hell couldn't he see anything?

Jacob…driving… Where in the hell had he been going?

The pain in his head rose up, damn near drowning him, overwhelming the heat from the dream. As the lust-induced fog started to clear, Eben became even more aware of his pounding head. He pressed a hand to his temple, hesitantly, almost afraid he'd find his skull split open. But there were no bumps, no cuts, no wetness that might indicate he was bleeding.

And he could feel his body. Could move—although he sure as hell didn't want to.

What had happened? He didn't remember anything beyond climbing into the car with Jacob—

Jacob had been driving—shit, where in the hell is he?

But it was so black, he couldn't see. It wasn't even the black of night. It was the black of a cave, deep in the depths of the earth, the total absence of any light. "Jacob?" he tried to call.

But his voice was barely a whisper. Licking his lips, he started to pat his pockets. There was a light on his cell phone… He could use it to find Jacob…

Memory rushed back and he froze.

Shit.

Jacob had disappeared. Right in front of Eben's eyes, right after the man had said, Hold on.

"Son of a bitch!" Eben groaned, fisting his hand and slamming it down…and down…and down… There was nothing under him. No bed, no ground, no rock floor. Nothing.

And as his mind tried to wrap itself around that concept, he started to fall.

A harsh curse escaped him, his body tensing with fear. Arms flailing, he tried to grab onto something, to anything. But there was nothing there.

And still, he continued to fall, his clothes flapping around him, his hair streaming into his eyes, the wind striking his face.

Down and down, until his descent finally seemed to slow, and his clothes stopped flapping. That was the first sign that he might be slowing down—his clothes drifting loosely around him, his hair blowing around his face instead of slapping and stinging his skin and eyes.

A few moments later, his feet landed on the ground. Eben blinked. There was light now, bright blinding light, where moments before, there had been none. It grew brighter and brighter as he stared into it, until, like the sun, it eclipsed, and the light softened.

Now a warm, amber glow cast its light on everything.

Finally able to see, Eben turned and looked around him. He was in a room. Or he thought he was, although there were no doors, no windows. And when he looked up, trying to see where he had fallen from—just a ceiling, a domed, smooth shape that stretched maybe twenty feet over his head.

Bad enough that he'd fallen, now he couldn't see where he'd fallen from. He could have handled that. And he could have figured out how to explain his being in this room, although there was clearly no way out. Like he had been put in a box as the box was being constructed around him.

Yes, he could handle that. Figure it out. Deal with it.

But the soft laughter that was echoing through the room, that was a little harder to understand.

Because he knew that laugh.

And the person it belonged to was dead.

In ebook @

Ellora's Cave | Nook Store | Kindle Store | Kobo | Borders Ebookstore

Print @

Borders | BAMM | B & N | Book Depository | IndieBound | Amazon | Powell's

The last and final (sob) Stardoc…

Sniffle.

Okay… I had a pointed reminder that some people were wanting to hear from me on the last and finalllllll *sob…sniffle… noooooo* Stardoc book.

Dream Called Time.

What can I say about this book?  Other than wailing over the fact that it ended…well, I guess I can say that I think SL Viehl ended it beautifully. Now, bear in mind, she took some serious fricking risks here. But oh…how she ended the series?  It left me with a smile.  It left me happy.  It left me thinking that this was a fitting end to this series… these characters that I loved so much, Duncan, Marel & Cherijo, who had been through so much would have exactly what they needed to be happy…each other.

Am I happy with it?

Oh. Hell. Yes.

Okay…I'm getting ready to do something drastic…

Actually, several somethings…well, not terribly drastic, in the long run.

But still.  Anyway. This concerns Goodreads.

I'm going to be going through and removing all my friends and I won't be accepting new friend requests from here on out.  I want to keep the account because I like having the venue there for readers, I've got the blog feed there, and yeah…hey, I'm a reader and I like being able to keep track of some books.

But I'm spread too thin.  Lately with things like Goodreads and Facebook, it's almost like I'm keeping up with two extra websites, email addresses included.  Social networking is great for that networking thing, but if a writer isn't careful, it can eat up way too much time and it's gotten to that point.

I hope those who keep up with me through these sites understand this isn't about me not wanting to be accessible-I'm still here at my blog, I've still got my email through my website-people can still contact me.  Just not through Goodreads. I just can't keep up with everything and still keep up with my deadlines.  And in the end, the writing does have to come first.

Thanks in advance for understanding and for your support.  My brain just can't handle much more.  It's about to explode and then begin leaking out of my ears…

O.o

UTA: Those who do have questions and stuff…I've recently just added a new page…an open FAQ where you can post questions if you can't find the answers either thru the FAQs, the What's New links or various book links above…my admin, Nicole and I will both be addressing questions posted and it might take a few days, but this is will be much easier and more streamlined way for me to handle things.

If You Hear Her

I'm getting excited.

I heard from editor K @ Ballantine that they were starting to work on the ideas for the covers for the first book in my romantic suspense trilogy… gasp… first trilogy ever… so excited.

And I think I should share an excerpt.

This is from book one…and I just LOVE this excerpt.

~*~

Not a good idea, slick, he told himself.  Trying to talking himself out of that idea, he decided to stop by the store.   His last grocery store run, he'd been distracted—and without a list.  Today, he was still distracted, and still without a list, but one thing he'd realized he needed was deodorant so he made himself stop before leaving town.

He made it halfway through the store, congratulated himself for not thinking about Lena, but as he stopped in the microscopic health and beauty section—crap, why did they put men's deodorant in the beauty section—he found himself in front of the display of condoms.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Once more, his focus was right back on her, and this time it had nothing to do with the strange mystery of the screams and everything to do with the shape of her mouth, the round curve of her ass, and the weird way he found his heart skipping when she stood close.

It was almost like the way he felt when he'd first started dating Stacy Traynor back in high school—first major crush—that hot, fiery burn of young love.

But the deal with Lena?  It was worse.  Way worse.

Shifting his weight away from his stiffening right leg, he grabbed a box of Trojans and threw them in his handheld basket before stalking out of the aisle.  Fine.  So what?  He'd bought a box of condoms—he already knew he planned on asking the woman out, and if she was half as clever as he thought she was, she'd already picked up on that subtle heat between them, so he was just being practical.

Except he was having a hard time thinking about practical when it came to thinking about sex and Lena at the same time.  It gave him the weird sensation of burning his brain cells—causing little microscopic implosions—he could almost hear the neurons imploding.

FYI…dunno when this will be out yet.  Hopefully 2012.  But I have no real details yet… Covers, other details, etc, will be posted as I get them.

No Friday 56… instead a question…also… SIGNING…CINCY!

Now that I've got somebody silly…er… um… kind enough to help me field questions and such, I was thinking about leaving an open 'forum' sort of for Q&A.  Would probably be a sub-page off of my FAQ.  Note, this isn't going to be a board or anything-I don't even know if I've got enough interest from people to get a board going.

But I do get enough random questions that I thought maybe having an open question board might be nice for people.

What do you think… you all like the idea?  Don't care?  Feedback please???

AND YES, I SUCK… signing in Cincy tomorrow…keep forgetting to post about this.  I know Jules Bennett will be there… dunno who else…????

Saturday

12.4.2010

1-3 p.m.

Barnes & Noble

9455 Civic Centre Blvd

West Chester, OH 45069

FINALLY!!!! BEG ME on the #NOOK

Excerpt

Now you can get it @

Kindle Store | Smashwords | Nook Store

Still don't know about other places like Kobo, Borders, etc… Kobo, sadly, is sllllooooowwww…I'll update when I see them going up.  And remember, you can get the formats you need from Smashwords, and it's really…you can get the info from their FAQs and they are pretty quick to respond to customer service inquires in my experience.

Thanks to all who've been so patient…I appreciate the support & the understanding!  It means a lot.  Since this book has done okay, I'll probably try another project like this in the future.

Beg Me Updates

Okay, so Beg Me still isn't showing up at the other outlets. Bleh.  Generally it gets loaded by B&N faster than this, although I guess the holiday could have thrown things off.

For those wondering why I just haven't loaded it myself to these places-try to understand this is work… a lot of it, and it's work I have to fit in around everything else I'm doing.  Loading it to one place (Smashwords) that does all the work for me, or taking several hours for each avenue (Yeah, it's going to be a couple of hours because I have to change the front matter that I put into each of the books, I have to research & check out their terms of service, etc).

So once I find the info I need on the various venues, like PubIT for instance…and assuming they have acceptable terms (some of the various bookstore ebook platforms do not have acceptable terms,  BTW, not IMO-they don't suit me so I'll wait for them to pick up the book through Smashwords rather than deal direct).

Even after all of this is done, then you often have issues with things like the file getting kicked back and I'm no formatting genius.  Or the cover getting kicked back for some unknown reason (unknown to me which sends my screaming to me graphics lady in a panic).

Assuming their process is simple, and some of them are anything but…hopefully you can see that this isn't just as simple as registering and clicking 'upload'.

But I am watching & *hopefully* it won't be much longer before it shows at B&N.  But um…Kobo, the Sony store, etc?  They are slower than hell.

Now… another couple of reviews…

Smexy Books
The Book Vixen