(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Cordelia has sworn she’ll abstain from looking into Michael’s future—particularly when the image in the gilded smoke of her divination mirror shows him half naked. Yet she can’t resist watching the sexy rascal slowly running his hand down his ribs, over his abdomen, flicking open the button on his jeans with a little flourish like a magician performing a trick.
She’s Trying To Resist.
Respectable wise woman Cordelia restrains her secret water nymph sensuality with the Celtic symbols painted on her skin. But Michael’s powerful fairy glamour leaves her breathless, off balance, struggling for control. When Gwyn ap Nudd, the Welsh King of the Underworld, steals away Michael’s infant nephew, Cordelia must work with him to save the child. But how can she trust her instincts with Michael tempting her to explore the hidden elemental depths of her nature and insisting that she believe in the power of…The Phoenix Charm.
When Jillian was a little mongoose, she loved crayons. She drew with crayons. Wrote with crayons––she even melted them together and made her own colors: burnt sienna and cornflower swirl. But she grew up conflicted. Should she aspire to artist or writer?
She solved the problem by becoming an advertising creative. And her career did seem to take off, winning many national awards including the Clio and the New York Art Director’s Club Gold. What more could she ask for? Create her own world? Become goddess of her own universe? Yes!
So, she began to write fiction. She wrote and wrote and learned to do a lot of rewriting, until she finished her first manuscript. Then she wrote another. Last July, she completed her third novel, THE YARD MAN, which finaled in a number of regional RWA contests as well as the Golden Heart. She has recently finished a companion novel, THE SEDUCTION OF PHAETON BLACK.
Jill lives in Southern California Wine Country. Her son has currently moved back home and returned to graduate school. (An excellent use of one’s time when unemployed.) She has a dog named Terrible Margaret (Maggie) and a horse named Bronson, who also lives with her (in the barn, anyway).
Gillian’s 2010 Golden Heart manuscript is THE YARD MAN, which finaled in the Romantic Suspense category:
Set in late Victorian London, Scotland Yard detectives have never been as wickedly sexy or as brilliantly clever as Zeno Augustus Kennedy. Brilliant, troubled, and wildly uninhibited in the bedchamber, he is an enigma of the first order. Having lost his mistress, killed in a horrific blast perpetrated by Irish dynamiters, Zeno has struggled for years to forgive himself for not preventing the bomb attack. Just as the memory of his explosive past begins to ease, the young widow Cassandra St. Cloud moves in next door.
After six months of marriage and nearly three years of mourning, Cassandra is more than ready to purge off her widow’s weeds and begin life anew. An artist by temperament as well as training, she is not only eager to paint again but entertains the idea of a romantic escapade, something discreet but rather daring. Having an amorous and famous detective for a neighbor proves to be more than tempting, especially when her affaire with Mr. Kennedy catapults them both into a perilous adventure.
I asked Jillian to tell us a little about herself. Here’s what she had to say:
1. How long have you been writing? As an advertising creative I have written ad copy for years, but as a serious fiction writer about four years.
2. Did you always want to be an author or is this something you fell into later in life? I always wanted to be a storyteller. I originally thought the logical progression of my career would move from advertising creative to commercial film production to features. But I am very happy with the turn I made four year ago, to novel writing.
3. What do you do in your other life?
I work as a freelance advertising creative, which gives me the flexible kind of schedule I need to pursue fiction writing.
4. Who are your favorite authors?
Phillip K. Dick for his androids. Lewis Carroll for Wonderland, Diana Gabaldon for Jamie Fraser, J. M. Barrie for Peter, Loretta Chase for Sebastian, Frank Herbert for spice pilots and sandworms. Can I mention filmmakers? Hitchcock, Coppola, Coen Brothers, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton. I enjoy storytellers who incorporate a sense of darkness poignancy and play in their writing. And huge imagination!
5. Do you have an agent? Been close to signing once, and another agent, who has rejected me twice, continues to leave a door open. Since I write cross-genre, I may have to get offered a publishing contract first, then find an agent to represent me!
6. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Living in Quebec City, Canada or Dunkeld, Scotland writing a new series of eccentric, historical/paranormal/suspense novels.
And now, in Jillian’s own words…
I’VE GOT MAIL. FROM COUSIN DICK.
Every morning, still in pajamas, with coffee mug in hand, I wake up my computer to check e-mail. This is always a thrill, as New York is three hours ahead, and I have query letters out. I ready my index finger above the delete key, punch through a number of advertisements––and yes, I admit, I often trash my own cousin Dick’s daily e-greetings, without opening them.
Dickey likes to send/forward chain e-mail greetings to everyone in his universe of cyber friends. I’m sure you have received one of these. They often have cartoon drawings in them or funny jokes. Dick makes sure I know they are funny because he tells me so at the start of every e-mail by using a little animated emoticon. Sometimes these chain letters are made up of fantasy billboards or bumper stickers, which often involve Viagra jokes and loads of cornball sexual innuendo, or they can be political and offensive in nature––you know the ones. Anyway, these e-greetings circulate all over the internet. I hesitate to use the word viral, because I refuse to forward any of them……..except…….for this one e-greeting I happened to open and read the other day.
This one actually had some relevance to my daily writerly workload. When the e-mail came, I had received two requests for a new manuscript, one from a contest judge and one from a QL, which caused a week of furious edits/rewrites. Arrrgggh!!! Generally, one of the last things I do, is take a look at how I have used the senses––sound, sight, smell, taste, touch. Which brings me back around to the humorous (?) e-mail of the day. In a way, this odd little piece of prose reinforced the importance of using all the senses. Here is the unedited, (dreadful amount of tell) unexpurgated version, compliments of my cousin Dick:
A new Supermarket opened in Elk Grove, California. It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh. Just before it goes on, you hear the distant sound of thunder and the smell of fresh rain.
When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience the scent of fresh cut hay.
In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks and brauts.
In the liquor department, the fresh, clean, crisp smell of tapped Miller Lite.
When you approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.
The bakery department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread & cookies.
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Today is another Two-Fer…two authors, two books, two great prizes!
First up is Phyllis Bourne!
Phyllis’s upcoming release is OPERATION PRINCE CHARMING, which hits store shelves Tuesday, July 27th!
Detective Hunter Coleman has a lesson to learn. A lesson in etiquette. At least that’s what his suddenly wealthy girlfriend thinks. Now that he has to entertain socialites, Hunter is going to have to brush up on his p’s and q’s. This detective’s next assignment is a “Manners Makeover” at the Spencer School of Etiquette.
But Hunter finds he is more interested in his lessons than he thought he would be. Actually, it’s his teacher, Ali Spencer, who has caught his interest. All he seems to think about is smudging her perfect lipstick with long, hot kisses and upsetting her practiced poise with the most improper proposals. With his fiancée out hunting bigger game, Hunter realizes that good manners are no match for basic instincts, and he’s got all the charm he needs to win the woman he really loves.
Barbara’s latest book is SUNRISE IN A GARDEN OF LOVE AND EVIL:
Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana, from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls in the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O’Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed…
No, I’m not talking about reading bones or I-Ching coins or anything remotely woo-woo, although that would probably be more appropriate, seeing as I write paranormal romance, and my characters have a whole slew of strange abilities.
I’m talking about foreign languages. I love words—probably one of the reasons I write—and I love them in any language. Just recently, I visited Montreal. It’s a wonderful city, especially in the summer. I lived there for several years, and I miss hearing French spoken all around me.
And I love reading the signs. When we’re riding in the car, I read sign after sign out loud. Danseuses nues (nude dancers). Moi, Toi, et Café (fabulous place for breakfast and café-au-lait). Donnez du sang. Donnezla vie (Give blood. Give life). And all those lovely saints-name street signs: Saint-Jacques, Sainte-Catherine, Saint-Urbain. I love the way French rolls off my tongue, but it’s disconcerting for whoever’s sitting next to me, because they keep thinking I’m talking to them.
Nope. I’m just reading the signs. Last time I visited Germany, it was much the same. My German is much worse than my French, but not understanding what I’m reading doesn’t stop me. I love the sound of words, and I’m always happy to learn new ones. When I first moved to Atlanta, I missed the foreign-language signs, but now there are Spanish signs to read all around me.
Of course, there are many other kinds of signs. Astrological signs. Oracles. Signs in the heavens. Crop circles. Signs of the times… What kinds of signs do you like seeing, writing, or reading about?
To be entered into today’s drawing (two winners will be chosen!), answer Barbara’s question in the comment section of this post.
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Today is another Two-fer, only it’s a special Two-fer! My guest today is:
Lauren Dane!
The talented Lauren Dane has two releases this month, and she has generously donated two books to the prize list. Which means…two awesome books to share with you and two fabulous winners!
First up: INSATIABLE (which is available now!)
Desire is the most dangerous sensation of all.
With tensions between the Federation and Imperial ‘Verses rising, one woman may hold the key to victory. The dangerous mission to smuggle her out of Imperial Territory falls to Daniel Haws and his team, the ultra secret Phantom Corps. This elite squad of the Federation Military is the only one trusted and skilled enough to remove her from under the watchful eye of her father, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial ‘Verses.
Carina is used to wearing a mask. Her father and his men think her little more than a pretty prize to be won by a man more ruthless than the rest. When he announces his intention to marry her to one of his henchmen, a man known for his cruelty, Carina knows she has to move as soon as possible to get out. But getting secret information to the Federation has served her well for years and she appeals to them for help.
She expected rescue from a man who’d been her enemy. But she wasn’t prepared for just how intense her attraction to Daniel Haws would be. Born as adversaries into different ranks, and on the run for their lives, they now need each other to survive–by holding on to the only thing they have in common: a growing desire that is dangerous, irresistible, and insatiable…
He has the one thing she never thought she deserved. A place to belong…
At long last, Kendra Kellogg has found her sister—but she’s no closer to filling the gaps in her past. The magick that brought them together makes them targets for dark mages intent on finishing what started with their mother’s murder.
As if her life wasn’t chaotic enough, in barrels the one thing she doesn’t expect, Max de La Vega. He’s six-and-a-half-feet of cocoa-brown alpha male. He’s strong, intelligent, sexy and intense. Everything she’d wanted in a man. And he scares the hell out of her. Still healing from a disastrous past relationship, she wonders if she’ll ever have that kind of forever.
The next in line to run his jaguar jamboree, Max is unused to hearing “no”. Once he knows what he wants, he assumes he’ll get it. And he wants Kendra. She deserves happiness and it’s his mission to give it to her.
When dark mages attempt to steal her magickal energy, Max’s cat agrees with the man—Kendra is his to protect and he will stop at nothing to keep her safe. She can push him away as hard as she likes, he’s not going anywhere.
Both books sound great, don’t they? To be entered into today’s drawing, answer this simple question: Tell me one thing you learned by visiting Lauren Dane’s website.
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Last 5 people who had something to say: Terri - Fedora - Julie swaney - Linda Henderson - Lindsey Ekland -
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Farrah’s newest series is centered around a fictional NFL football team, which, as an admitted sports fanatic, is right up her alley. Here’s the blurb for HUDDLE WITH ME TONIGHT, which releases on September 1st:
All Paige Turner wants is to be taken seriously as a journalist. The entertainment columnist and blogger extraordinaire gets more notoriety than she planned when her scathing review of NFL superstar Torrian Smallwood’s memoir sparks an online confrontation. But that’s nothing compared to the sensual heat that tackles her when she meets the heart-stoppingly sexy athlete face-to-face…
Torrian can’t let Paige derail his dream of a new career as a restauranteur. Even if the sassy, sultry writer is making America’s favorite wide receiver yearn to be on the receiving end of her desire. And with a reality TV cook-off propelling them into the spotlight, Torrian can no longer hide his passionate secret goal–to build a future with the woman who’s making an end run around his heart…
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Today is another Two-Fer! Which means two more great books, two awesome authors and two more fantabulous prizes to give away!
Up first we have…Beth Williamson!
Beth’s latest release is UNBRIDLED, which released just this month from Berkley Heat. In Beth’s own words:
“Hot erotic romance, cowboys, sex, emotion and an HEA. What else could you ask for?”
Hell hath no fury like Alex Finley…
For as long as Alex could remember, life had taken everything from her. Her father had abandoned her and her dying mother, only to return upon her death to reclaim the family’s Wyoming ranch—with a new wife. Alex’s rage drove her away to Los Angeles to live with a man who could never satisfy her.
Only after ten years does she come home—and she hits the town with a vengeance, unleashing her pent-up lust on willing cowpoke Connor Matthews. But she’s in for several shocks. It turns out that the ranch is now a resort, that her late father split the estate between Alex and her young step-brother, and that Connor—the bucking bronco she wants in her bed—is running the place.
Now, Alex is torn between accepting a new family, and a lover who can give her everything she needs—or selling out to a smooth-talking neighbor and leaving the past behind her. But only when her life is on the line does she realize what she desires most of all…
Delilah has a brand new series starting from HQN next winter. The first book in her Scandal Series, PRELUDE TO A SCANDAL, hits store shelves in February, 2010. Here’s a sneak peek:
Having been raised in the jungles of South Africa, assisting her father in the study of mammal copulation, Lady Justine sweeps back into London to embark upon her coming out. She soon discovers animals are far more civilized than the men surrounding her.
When her father’s observations are made public, proving buggery is natural to the animal kingdom, all of London is in a huffing outrage, including His Royal Majesty. Her father is imprisoned and slapped with outrageous penalty fees they simply cannot pay.
Lady Justine becomes willing to trade her good name and her place in London’s gossip hungry society to secure her father’s release. There is only one person she knows she can trust: her father’s patron, the duke of Bradford. A dashing libertine, yes, but one she passionately adores for his unwavering kindness, wit, humor, and a willingness to support her father’s studies when everyone else had laughed her father off. To her astonishment, the duke of Bradford is not the same man. His newly marred face hides a scandal that is about to test them both…
These are obviously two very different books, with two very different covers, but they’re similar in that they’re both scorching hot romances. What are your favorite type of covers – guys alone, girls alone, or sexy couples – and does your cover style preference change from one romantic subgenre to the next?
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions. And don’t forget to scroll down for today’s GH Spotlight too!)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
My guest today is the very awesome and extremely talented…
Juliana Stone!
Hey everyone! So glad to able to help celebrate Elisabeth’s latest release, ENTWINED! The summer is heating up folks and today I’m going to talk a bit about heat and how opposites fan the flames!
In honour of Elisabeth’s release I’m offering up an e-arc of my next book, His Darkest Embrace. This is the second story in my Jaguar Warrior trilogy and it features a sexy shapeshifter, Jagger Castille. He’s all dark edges and predatory grace, a true creature of the night. Little does he know he’s about to meet his match. Here is the blurb:
A solitary hunter with no regard for the human world, Jagger Castille is a shifter living on the edge. It will take the woman who calls him enemy to give him a reason to live.
Jagger is a creature of the night—Skye Knightly soars in the sun. Natural adversaries, they have been joined by destiny in a mission entrusted to Skye’s family centuries ago: Nothing less than the salvation of the Earth.
Wounded and bitter, Jagger sought escape in the solitude of the jungle, driven by a need to disappear forever… until a mysterious shifter who calls to his soul and feeds a yearning long forgotten, pulls him from his dark path. A courageous warrior, Skye’s passion is equal to Jagger’s own—but can she trust a man on the edge? A man whose secrets are as devastating as her own?
Each is the other’s sole hope for survival. But a dark and twisted truth is leading them toward the ultimate sacrifice for a love they may never live to claim.
You like? These two are not only opposite in colouring, in their beliefs and culture, one is an eagle shifter while the other is a jaguar! And yet as the two of them are thrown together and have to learn to trust in order to survive, well hell, do the sparks ever fly!
What is it about couples who are complete opposites that make them so incredibly interesting? Thanks for playing along and I can’t wait to see your replies!
(Don’t forget Juliana’s offering up an e-arc in the prize list of her upcoming book HIS DARKEST EMBRACE – yowza! look at that cover teaser! – and a signed cover flat.)
Barbara’s childhood dream was a house big enough to have an entire room devoted to books. As an adult she’s surpassed that goal, a personal library that fills a room and a half. She’d say two rooms, but she managed to squeeze her writing desk and computer into one of them. In between childhood and adult, she graduated college with degrees in both Biochemistry and Computer Science. Even she didn’t know that behind all that science a writer lurked until a few years ago. She’s always been a joiner, and currently she’s a member of several RWA chapters, including Chicago North, WisRWA, Rose City RWA and YA RWA. Currently she primarily writes YA, and PULL, her debut YA novel comes out in October, 2010. But she also writes Mainstream with Romantic Elements. Her Golden Heart novel in that category is DAMAGED GOODS.
In addition to finaling in the Golden Heart, DAMAGED GOODS also finaled in the 2009 Finally a Bride contest and the 2009 Golden Opportunity Contest. Her YA novel, PULL has won both the 2009 Golden Rose contest and the 2009 Finally a Bride contest and finaled in the 2009 Reveal Your Inner Vixen contest.
To learn more about Barabara, visit her at the following locations:
Website – http://www.babinns.com
Twitter – barbarabinns
Facebook – Barbara Binns
And now here’s a blurb about DAMAGED GOOD, her Novel With Strong Romantic Elements…
Eric Bolan stops on his journey back to the home he fled years earlier to help Lucinda Marie escape her life as a small town prostitute. Lucinda never expected to find herself falling for anyone, but as she travels with Eric she begins to believe that both redemption and love are possible. Then she discovers his secret, an obsession that includes a heritage of violence placing both her and her mother’s lives in danger.
I asked Barbara to tell us a little about herself. Here’s what she had to say…
1. How long have you been writing?
Discounting an attempt at a mystery novel in my early twenties (and having found an old copy of that “epic” I totally discount it) I’ve been writing seriously for four years.
2. Did you always want to be an author or is this something you fell into later in life?
I’ll say I fell into this. I always loved reading. Whenever I felt unhappy at the ending of a story I’d make up a new and better ending and created sequels to all my favorite books inside my head. Until the day when one character who’d lived inside me for more than a decade demanded to be released. I picked up a pen and wrote Damaged Goods to shut her up.
3. What do you do in your “other” life? (Day job, family, etc.)
I’m retired!! Means I get to sleep late and do a lot of volunteer work and help out at my church. It also means I get to write.
4. Who are your favorite authors?
How much space do you have? My extensive list of favorite’s includes: Historical romance – Georgette Heyer, Sci-fi – Robert Heinlein and Andre North, Paranormal romance – Kresley Cole and Sherrilyn Kenyon, Horror Steven King, Suspense – James Patterson and Karen Rose, Mystery – Dick Francis and Tess Gerritson (Yeah for Rizzoli and Isles the new TV series based on her creations), YA – Sharon Draper and Tanita S. Davis, Contemporary romance Brenda Jackson and Linda Howard. Literary – Jodi Picoult. As you can tell I’m pretty much genre neutral as far as reading is concerned. I love anyone with a good story.
5. Do you have an agent?
Yes, I signed with Andrea Somberg from the Harvey Klinger agency in January. She was the final judge for my Young Adult novel, PULL in the Golden Rose contest, asked for the full which I sent the next day, and five days later she asked to represent me. In March she presented the story to WestSide Books, in June we signed the contract and PULL will be published and available at your local bookstores in October, 2010.
6. Where do you see yourself in five years?
To paraphrase Browning, a woman’s reach should exceed her grasp, else what’s a heaven for? So I’m out for the brass ring – topping the NYT bestseller list in five years or less. Seriously, I’m hoping to be a multi-published author of both YA and Adult fiction with a good and loyal following.
And now, in Barbara’s own words…
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
Not easy advice for Alice. Not easy for writers.
Recently my editor at WestSide voiced her discouragement over manuscripts with strong beginnings and compelling middles that faltered at the end. After spending hours at home reading the most recent one (9-to-5 is a myth in the publishing world) the ending failed to fulfill the promise of the start and she was forced to reject the book.
Which left me thinking: what are the ingredients that make for a compelling ESE – Emotionally Satisfying Ending? The kind of ending that makes readers seek out an author’s backlist and yearn for the next release, that sends them gushing to their friends about their new favorite author?
We all know that the Act 1 Hook is crucial. So we spend long hours crafting that perfect first line. We take classes to make us better at hooking the reader, work with critique partners and use feedback from contests to make the opening pages zing as we lead our protagonists from their ordinary world into the end of Act 1 Crisis.
Then we roll up our sleeves and tackle the vast wasteland of Act 2. It’s a minefield, so we devote time and energy to keeping those hundreds of pages from sagging and loosing the reader’s interest. With nose to the grindstone (can you tell how I love cliché’s) we check plot points and sub-plots, speed up the pace, vary the setting, and make the disasters our protagonists have to face gut-wrenching. We verify goals and motivations and ensure that conflict rises to make our book a page turner.
Finally we, and our characters, reach Act 3. At this point we often sigh with relief and say “they lived happily ever after.” Mission accomplished, we’re ready to send the manuscript off.
Problem is, sometimes we relax too soon.
Act 3 is usually the shortest act, but it contains a major story checkpoint, the emotional release the Greeks called Catharsis. This checkpoint occurs in the moments when the protagonists, and by extension the reader, exhales. The emotions should reach from the page and grab the reader’s heart, providing him or her with a reward for following along the difficult road. This checkpoint, that may take a single paragraph or several pages, can make he difference between a good story and a great read.
All my favorite books have that exhale moment, that feeling of emotional release. Whether it’s a romantic comedy or romantic suspense, paranormal or historical; no matter what happens in the plot, my favorite are defined by the end of the inner journey. They all give me endings that makes me laugh or cry or just a warm glow of triumph.
How do we as authors give our readers that sometimes elusive ESE. Those strong endings result from the build-up of emotion through every step of the Inner Journey, until the protagonists realize and overcome the character flaws that have kept them in turmoil. The writer’s final job is to provide the moment of release the reader has been waiting for. Done right, a writer leaves readers wanting more–begging and dying for more. And that frequently results in an agent or editor giving you a CALL.
My questions to writers — How do you bring your readers to the point where they feel it’s safe to relax and bring their heart rate back under control? How do you make them yearn for another book just like the one in their hands? How do you keep the reader haunting bookstores looking for more books with your name attached?
My questions to readers — Are there books that give you that exhale moment? What are your favorite books where the ending just won’t let you go?
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Today you get a two-fer! Two great new books, two winners chosen from the comments!
First up: Denise Agnew!
Thanks so much to Eli for including me in her blog! I’m honored. This month I have two books out, Dark, Deadly Love July 13 at Samhain Publishing http://www.samhainppublishing.com/ and Daryk Hunter, the first book in my Daryk World trilogy at Samhain Publishng http://www.samhainpublishing.com/ July 14. Today I wanted to give you a snippet of Daryk World I: Daryk Hunter. This trilogy is my first foray into fantasy romance.
When Magonian archaeologist Ketera Aldrancos’ father is imprisoned, she’s determined to save him. Before she can do so, her ship is wrecked. Water laps at her, a man’s strong arms surround her. His husky voice sooths her. Then she realizes she’s on a foreign beach in the arms of a dreaded Dragonian. A man who looks nothing like the men she’s known. His closeness, his touch sends shockwaves of need through Ketera’s deepest core and shame runs through her. After all, passions are sinful. Dane Charger, a Dragonian Daryk One, cradles the Magonian woman in his arms, He aches to introduce her to the headiest lovemaking imaginable. His eyes flame red and a growl vibrates his throat, conscious that he’ll need to protect her from marauding slave traders led by a vicious rogue who just happens to also be his half brother. Two people whose supercontinents are separated by ocean and two thousand years of prejudice and fear. Two people who may be the secret to saving a race from extinction…
And now, take this taste of Daryk Hunter:
Her father’s execution was scheduled. Soon he would be murdered.
Ketera Aldrancos gasped as she came to full consciousness and reality returned, heartless and sharp.
Icy water lapped at her toes and her body ached with a dull throb. The rushing whisper of the ocean filled her ears and lulled her backward into the darkness as it threatened to return her to blessed oblivion. Rain delicately touched her skin and wind ruffled across her body in a gentle caress. For a moment she almost relented and opened her eyes to see why the elements coaxed her so sweetly.
But clear, relentless rage rushed in to choke her.
Father.
Everything she loved would perish if she couldn’t—
She sobbed and then heard a rustling, a deep voice. She didn’t understand the language at first—a strange, guttural spilling of vowels.
Seconds later someone dropped onto the sand near her. A deep voice rumbled, husky and soothing. “Who are you, sprite?”
Ah, the language was clearer now. Odd. The pronunciation different, the accent peculiar, but still her language.
A Dragonian. The enemy.
A warm touch glided over the pulse at her neck. She wanted to move, to fight, but her entire body throbbed. She couldn’t move.
The man grunted. Then with strong but gentle hands hauled her upward into his arms. His thighs beneath her buttocks felt rock-hard, his arms powerful enough to shelter her from the ocean and weather.
“Wake,” the man said, his voice rough with command. “You breathe, therefore you live. Come on now, that’s it. Another deep breath. Don’t fade on me.”
She obeyed, hearing the relentless, almost angry demand in his tone. “Where—?” she rasped the word, her throat sore, her voice raw. She coughed and choked.
“Easy. You’re safe. Here. Drink.”
A container with cool liquid touched her lips and she drank with greed, her thirst tremendous and her throat aching for relief. Water, all around her rushing. She remembered the terrible tempest that had swallowed her ship.
“Slowly.” His tone was harsh. “You’ll take ill.”
She sipped until he drew back the container. “More.”
“No. Open your eyes.”
She sighed, the sound resentful to her own ears. “No. I…”
By the god, she ached to the bone with fatigue. The gruff man caressed her hair. His big hand wandered down over her upper arm then skimmed her legs with impersonal attention. With a hot jolt, one piercing thought came back to her.
Father. I must save him.
It took three tries, but her eyelids peeled open.
Her gaze landed on the man holding her. And her breath stopped. He watched her with a strange feral intent. A thick tousle of dark auburn hair cascaded around his broad shoulders. Thick, dark lashes framed eyes as green as a tyrant stone from a mine in Opali. A few days’ growth of red and gold stubble darkened his handsome jawline. His nose was bold, but not obnoxiously so, and his mouth hardened in heavy concern. His long, impressively carved arms were bare, but he wore a strange, hard metal chest plate over his torso. She couldn’t see his legs.
“There,” he said. “What is your name?”
She glanced past his shoulder and saw the ship mast towering upward not far in the distance. Its torn sails flapped in a persistent wind.
She blinked as her vision fogged. She reached up to rub her eyes. “My name?”
His arms tightened. “What are you called?”
Her head throbbed if she thought too hard. “Ketera Aldrancos.”
She sucked in a pained breath. Her ribs ached.
“Easy. You’re ill and hurt. I’ll take you back to the castle.”
A word launched through his lips she’d never heard before, but it sounded like a curse. He eased her onto her back. He stood and withdrew a huge knife from its sheath.
Terror gripped her heart with a sharp talon. He meant to kill her.
Oh god Magon.
She closed her eyes as weakness eased like liquid into her limbs. She felt almost as if she sank into the sand, her body heavy. Heavier. She opened her eyes, desperate to meet her enemy head-on and show him she wasn’t afraid. If she would die, then she’d face her executioner by looking him in the eye. He turned away from her.
She made an effort to move and found her protesting muscles cooperated. She stifled a deep groan of pain as she struggled to sit up and succeeded. Determination pushed her to rally. She wouldn’t die when her father needed her.
From the back her rescuer stood tall and broad-shouldered. His arms coiled with muscle, a long knife gripped tight in his right hand.
Across from him an equally tall, powerfully built man with spiky, short blond hair stood at the ready, an animal spring-loaded and eager to pounce. His ugly face was distinguished by a lightning bolt blue tattoo zigzagging across his right cheek.
“The spoils can be shared by all.” The lightning-bolt man sneered. “By Draconus there are plenty of riches to go around, including the woman.”
“You’re right.” The man who stood near her shifted on his feet. “It’s a shipwreck, but the spoils go to no one. Especially not this woman.”
“Are you saying you’re claimin’ her as your own?” Lightning Bolt asked.
“I’m claiming her.” The man who’d stood over her walked away toward the other man.
Where was her knife? She looked around for her shoulder pack but didn’t see it anywhere. More than anger stirred inside her. Panic rose up to choke her. She couldn’t lose the pack. Her father’s life depended on her keeping the documents within safe.
“What if I say I’ll take her from you?” the other man asked.
“I’m a Daryk One. If you think you can take anything from me, you are mistaken.”
***
Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed this tidbit! Stop by my website at http://www.deniseagnew.com/ for more information on this book and all my other novels. Feel free to sign up for the newsletter and monthly contest.
Denise A. Agnew
And last but not least, Alix Rickloff!
In 1815 London, passion and duty, human and Other collide…
Morgan Bligh has honed her body and her magic into weapons, but she’s always lived by her heart. Yet to defeat a traitor whose unspeakable dark power threatens both her worlds, she must forget her feelings— because her partner in the hunt is wicked war hero Cameron Sinclair. He’s broken her heart once, and from the looks of him, he could do it again…
Cam Sinclair wants nothing more than to forget the horrors he’s lived through. He’s done his duty for king and country, turning himself into an assassin and an outcast in the process. Chasing after a sadistic murderer with a sultry Amazon who hates him seems unbearable. Yet though the beautiful Morgan chafes his every nerve and they’re both in constant danger, he can’t help but wonder if this second meeting is truly a second chance…
To learn more about Alix and her upcoming releases, visit www.alixrickloff.com. And to purchase Dangerous as Sinclick here.
***
Like I mentioned before, I’ll be picking two winners today. To be entered into the prize bucket, simply answer the following question:
If you could only read one romance subgenre for the rest of your life (oh, the horror!) what would it be and why? (And hello? Have you ever seen abs like those on Alix’s cover? Yowza.)
(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions. Also, be sure to scroll down for today’s GH Spotlight!)
To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:
PART ONE : Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.
PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:
Thirty summers ago I spent four afternoons in the movie theater, watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. I loved the idea of a person who searched for hidden treasures that were magical and had MEANING. I loved the supernatural element and the adventure and of course the reunion romance. (Now that I think about it, I’d love to read Indy and Marion’s “prequel.” How did he allow himself to fall for his mentor’s daughter?)
Years later I fell in love with The Mummy. It is still my favorite movie of all time, and I tell my fourth grade students that it’s required watching. (Story structure, you know.)
I never thought I’d write an archaeology-themed book, though. This was a life that was foreign to me—adventure (I’ve lived in the same city all my life) and rough living conditions (my dad still teases me about my need for running water.) But one night I had a dream and it was so compelling I knew I had to write it.
Of course, in my dream, the archaeologists were kidnapped by guerillas. The dh talked me out of that one, saying nothing good could happen to my heroine if that was the case. So I worked on a plot. Why were my characters there? Why were they together? And who was the bad guy?
Working out all that was hard, but the issue that gave me most trouble was—what were they looking for? I knew from the beginning they’d be marine archaeologists. But what were they looking for?
Most of the research on marine archaeology I found was set in the Mediterranean, because history is so rich there. But for some reason I was hooked on a Central American setting, and my brother had the idea of a Mediterranean ship in the Caribbean, to prove that they’d been to the Americas first.
I toyed with the Phoenicians, who were amazing boatmen. In fact, I think I wrote half of the book with that in mind, but it didn’t feel special enough.
A Mayan ship, maybe. But I couldn’t find enough information to make me comfortable writing it.
I checked out tons of books. And I found what I wanted.
This Byzantine box could hold so many different things. I started writing before I knew what was inside the box, and created my own legend surrounding it and three others. I put my own designs on it, and my own meaning into them. And I could find enough information about Byzantine ships that made me believe they could have made it to the Americas.
Now I’m toying with the idea of writing Adrian’s brother Toney’s story. What adventure could I send him on? What discovery would you find exciting to read about? (Or, if you’re braver than me—not hard, believe me—would you like to participate in?)
He’s Pure Temptation.
