Hey all!

I’m back from vacation. Left sunny 85-90 degree weather and came home to rain, clouds and 50 degrees. Brrrrr!!! It’s taking me a bit to get acclimated to the cold again!

I’ll share more about my trip tomorrow, complete with pictures, but today I want to show you the new cover for MARKED (the first in my upcoming Eternal Guardians paranormal series)!!!! My editor sent me the final yesterday.

And here’s the back cover blurb:

THERON – Dark haired, duty bound and deceptively deadly. He’s the leader of the Argonauts, an elite group of guardians that defends the immortal realm from threats of the Underworld.

From the moment he walked into the club, Casey knew this guy was different. Men like that just didn’t exist in real life—silky shoulder-length hair, chest impossibly broad, and a predatory manner that just screamed dark and dangerous. He was looking for something. Her.

She was the one. She had the mark. Casey had to die so his kind could live, and it was Theron’s duty to bring her in. But even as a 200-year-old descendent of Hercules, he wasn’t strong enough to resist the pull in her fathomless eyes, to tear himself away from the heat of her body.

As war with the Underworld nears, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

***
So…what do you think?

Over the weekend I rented Jason & The Argonauts. It’s an older movie – ca. 2000 – about Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. As I’m in the middle of my own Argonaut series right now, I’m heavily immersed in Greek mythology, so I was really looking forward to watching this movie.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was long (over three hours) and dry, and the romance between Jason & Medea left me yawning. But it was an interesting portrayal of the quest and for research reasons, I’m glad I watched it.

Now, what I’m REALLY looking forward to is the new Clash of the Titans movie, which releases March 2010. Here’s a brief synopsis:

In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world.

Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

This sounds like my kind of movie. And I’m pumped because it comes out just two months before the launch of my new Eternal Guardians series and the first book, MARKED. Hopefully it will have people talking about Greek mythology and pining for more.

What movies are you looking forward to?

This is my favorite week of the year. Back-to-school week. One Gremlin started school today, the other two go back tomorrow. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love my Gremlins dearly, but after an entire summer at home with me, they are more than ready to get back to school and I am more than ready for them to go. This summer especially has been a rough one since I was so sick and didn’t really start to feel human again until August. The poor Gremlins have had a loooong boring summer filled with too many of mom’s doctor appts and forced “rest and recovery”. In fact, as I was telling the DH last night, I don’t even really feel like we HAD a summer.

To close out the summer we spent the holiday weekend with friends at their cabin in the woods. The Gremlins got to go fishing and swimming and just had a great time. I relaxed sans my laptop and enjoyed my last weekend of freedom. From here on out I’m on a tight schedule as I work to finish my 2nd paranormal book which is due in early December.

So before I take off for the day and dive back into writing, I thought I’d share some great emails I got this weekend. This came from a reader and really made my day:

“Wow. What a ride [STOLEN FURY] was for me. For years I have read Nora Roberts, Kathleen Woodwiss, Anne Stuart and had about given up finding something of great quality romance to read anymore. By accident, I bought Stolen Fury for a beach read and I am blown away. Only now to find out there are two more. I am in heaven. Thank you so much. I [am] now one of your biggest fans. Will be sharing this book with several people.”

This one is from Christine, in a comment she left on the blog here. I’m highlighting it because the post is down a ways and it was such a great comment, I thought it needed to be repeated:

“LOVE the back cover art that Leah made for MARKED. It looks fantastic!

Even better is that amazing book quote from Angie Fox! Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of the first paranormal romance authors that I fell in love with and Patricia Briggs is my favorite UF author (I just LOVE her Mercy Thompson series)—so Angie’s describing something I’d absolutely love, I’m sure! Can’t wait for May!”

Thanks so much, Christine. I’m so happy to hear you’re looking forward to the Eternal Guardians Series. (BTW, I forwarded your comment to Angie and she was thrilled it resonated with you!)

And finally, this one came from Daniel Boucher, (www.thenovelblog.com) who wrote an article about me and my books that will be printed in the October edition of the Toronto Main Street Magazine. He wrote about his low expectations regarding romance, and how he felt after he read STOLEN FURY:

“When I finished, I can honestly say that I was taken aback by what I’d read. All my preconceived notions of what romance novels were about (I was thinking trashy) had been tossed out the window. Instead of “trash” what I read was a fast-paced-page-turner that held my attention throughout, with sex scenes that made even a grown man like me blush. The tension Elisabeth created with both the action and love scenes were hypnotizing to say the least.”

When I have a link for the full article, I’ll post it here, but in the meantime…isn’t that a great quote? I just love it. Hearing from readers (and reviewers) has been a real high for me, and not something I thought I’d get so excited about. But it’s very very cool when people contact you to tell you how much they love your characters, their world, and your books. So keep the comments coming! They definitely inspire me.

Okay…gotta get to work now. I’ve left my hero in a cold forest tracking the bad guys. How about the rest of you…are you loving this week as much as I am?

Cynthia Eden’s launching her new 30 Days of Demons Contest today. Hop over to her blog for the deets. And FYI…I’ll be there on Thurs. 6/4/09 talking about the demons in my new paranormal series, so stop on by and leave me a comment! There will be prizes!

A couple of weeks ago, Alexis Morgan came and spoke at my local RWA chapter meeting. She was great, had some constructive things to say about finding time for writing in our busy schedules. And she was especially nice to me after her talk when I picked her brain about writing in the paranormal genre. As you all know, I have a new paranormal series starting in May 2010. It follows the descendants of the seven greatest heroes from Greek mythology. I wrote the first book – MARKED – last year, fell in love with the hero and heroine and was very excited about the story. When it sold, I was elated. If it does well it has the potential to be at least seven books, possibly more. Obviously, I really want it to do well!! Now that I’m working on the second book in the contract, though, little issues are popping up, things I didn’t need or have to think about when writing the first book without a contract. Things like…keeping my sexy warriors consistent from book to book, making sure my world building is strong enough and makes sense, differentiating between my Argonauts so they all don’t sound the same.

I’ve never been one for character sheets. Characters come to me fully developed when I sit down to write their books. But this series is different, and a few things Alexis said really hit home for me. We chatted about her strategies, how she uses the hero archetypes to differentiate her warriors, and she sent me some character charts that I printed and have been using. And while it’s all great and has helped and I’m using them (to some degree), I’m realizing that even when I plot or graph out parts and pieces of my book, things never go the way I plan.

Case in point. I’m several chapters into DECEIVED (working title for book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series) and all along I’ve been thinking my hero is a warrior. I IM’d my awesome CP the other night, ready to pull my eyebrows out because my hero is doing anything BUT acting like a warrior. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: I’ve really had it with this guy.
Joan: What’s wrong?
Me: Zander is not acting like a warrior. He’s acting like a lost soul. Nick is supposed to be my lost soul!
Joan: Hm…I hate to break this to you, but Nick is very much your warrior. Didn’t you read the book you wrote?

(Hear me sighing?) Some days, the more I write, the more I’m convinced I know nothing about writing. And yet, at the same time, I know what works for me is not over-analyzing how I get to the end. Sometimes I think writers are so overanxious to label their writing as this way or that, or follow someone else’s directions on how to write that they lose that magical element that makes their writing so unique.

I’m not tossing the charts. I think, for me, they’re a good starting point. And definitely helpful to refer to as I try to recall which Argonaut has which powers and which direction his personality favors. But characters are as unique as real people, and for me, I don’t think I can classify each one into eight basic labels. So Zander may be a lost soul. But I guarantee he definitely has some warrior in him too. (At least that’s what he’s whispering in my ear at the moment.)

Have you ever had a character pull a 180 on you mid-way through a chapter or book? And what do you think about labeling characters?

Yup, that’s me. Big ol’ blog slacker. Sorry to be so MIA. In my defense I’ve been busy. Not like the rest of the world isn’t busy, too, but…ya know how it goes. LOL

So what have I been up to? Let’s see…Page proofs for STOLEN HEAT are done and out the door. Woohoo! I’ve been immersed in those the last week.

Revisions on MARKED are done, and the ms is off to an awesome NYT Bestselling author who agreed to read and blurb it for me. I hope she likes it. (*Says Elisabeth while she chews her fingernails down to the quick.*)

I got news that STOLEN SEDUCTION will definitely be a January 2010 release, so I’m pretty pumped about that. I absolutely love this book. And as much as I love all my heroes, there’s just something special about Shane. (It’s that whole love/hate relationship thing he and I have going.) The art department is already hard at work on the cover, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. The cover should be the same style as the first two books.

Oh! And I think I can announce this (gosh, I hope so since I’m doing it anyway…). The first paranormal is going to keep it’s original title. Book one is going to be called MARKED. And the series is going to be called ‘Eternal Guardians’.

And before I forget…I’m running a new contest. I put the details in my newsletter and will get them up on my website hopefully this weekend, but here it is in the meantime:

In the Mood for Some Hidden Treasure?
Enter my Newsletter Contest to Win Your Very Own Treasure Box!
For every person you refer to me who signs up for my newsletter, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a box of buried treasure. The goodies will be GOOD (and fun), so start spreading the news(letter) and enter. The rules are simple. Just sent the info about my newsletter to your friends. Then email me at elisabeth (at) elisabethnaughton (dot) com separately with the names of the people you referred. For each person from your list that signs up, your name will go in the drawing for the treasure box. It’s THAT easy. A winner will be picked at random in mid-May.

So…aside from all that book stuff, I have nothing else exciting to report except that Nickelback tickets go on sale tomorrow morning, so you can be guaranteed I’ll be on the phone trying to get some good seats. Anyone out there Nickelback fans? My Gremlins know most of their (tame) songs, but I had to put a ‘hands off’ sticker on their new Dark Horse CD. Definitely rated R, this one. (And I love it!) I’m thinking it’s a good Eternal Guardians soundtrack.