Out and About in the Hunter Valley!

by Anna Campbell

The start of this year has been full-on writing for me. All that computer interaction has made Anna a very dull girl indeed. So I was really looking forward to a couple of days down south with my very dear friend and critique partner, Annie West, at the beginning of April. 

Annie lives in a very beautiful part of the world, Lake Macquarie in New South Wales. That's the lake behind me in the photo to the left of this paragraph. As you can see, we had lovely weather for my visit!

Her house is set amongst towering gum trees and I love watching the birds that visit - lorikeets and cockatoos and rosellas and other assorted natives.

So I thought I'd share a few photos and a few memories of my writerly visit. Annie herself blogged about my visit in April here at Tote Bags if you'd like to see some more pics: http://www.authorsoundrelations.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/joys-of-sunday-drive-annie-west.html 

Most of these photos were taken on the Friday of my visit. When Annie and I were unpublished, we both promised that once we sold, we'd take the other one out to lunch every time we had a book accepted. This lunch was to celebrate the acceptance of Annie's wonderful GIRL IN THE BEDOUIN TENT so she picked up the tab, bless her. We're at Milano's Restaurant, right on the edge of the lake. Gorgeous setting and lovely food and wonderful service.

I took pictures of the desserts. Aren't they spectacular? Annie's was the delicious chocolate looking thing and I had a very rich banana pudding concoction.

Are you feeling hungry? I've just had breakfast and I'm salivating!

Another lovely thing about being on the lake is that you get to watch the fishermen and the walkers and the prolific bird life. We saw black swans and gulls and cormorants who perched on the boat rails to dry their wings. I love it when they stand there like silhouettes!

It's always such an affirmation of the paths we've taken when we get together for one of our author lunches. The next one is  at the Gold Coast during the Romance Writers of Australia conference. My turn to pick up the tab for MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION!

Because I hadn't seen Annie for ages, we both had presents to deliver. Below, you'll see a shot of me clutching some goodies - I think I went home with a heavier suitcase than the one I arrived with! It was like Christmas all over again.

Don't mistake that we just played ladies of leisure on my visit. In between all the highjinks, we did a stack of serious critiquing work. We speak often on the phone and email like fiends, but there's something special about face-to-face sessions. So inspiring. I always come home with a million new ideas.

We brainstorm new stories, talk about writing problems, discuss issues with works in progress, dissect the wider writing industry and how any changes (lately there's been lots of changes!) affect us.

It's always wonderful for me to have such an in-depth session on my career and work. I hope Annie feels the same! I know I always feel very lucky that we hooked up together at my very first Romance Writers of Australia conference.

If any of you are aspiring writers and wondering whether attending a writing conference is worth the expense, take the chance. You never know who you might meet!

We also celebrate good news. Writing tends to be a fairly solitary occupation - after all, you're sitting on your own at a computer getting those words down. There are days when the only 'people' I talk to are the characters in my head. And while naturally those characters are excellent company, it's nice to raise a glass with someone flesh and blood. I dread to tell you quite how many bottles we empty when we get together. I think our livers are grateful that there's a recovery gap between each visit! Annie had recently won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for her sublime PROTECTED BY THE PRINCE so we raised a glass to Alaric and Tamsin. Hic!

Speaking of livers, for ages, we've been talking about visiting the vineyards up in the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's premier wine-producing areas. We had a lovely drive over the weekend up the valley and in the process, visited a couple of vineyards and some historic small towns.

The photo on the left shows the goodies we picked up at Tyrrells Winery, one of the oldest in the area. The views from the vineyard were beautiful - check out Annie's blog to see them! And yet again, the weather blessed us. It's been a wet year in Australia; I've learned not to take the sunshine for granted.

It was also great fun when I was down to catch up with super-talented Harlequin Mills and Boon Romance author Michelle Douglas. We had an uproarious get-together at a coffee shop down near the lake.

I love this fun photo of the girls. They look so happy holding up Michelle's latest book THE MAN WHO SAW HER BEAUTY.  Michelle made that very groovy tote bag Annie is holding up. Isn't she clever? I can't even cut wrapping paper straight so I'm in awe of anyone who does crafty stuff.

So have you been out and about lately? Tell me somewhere nice you've been!

Knitting versus reading--Kandy Shepherd

Knitting—that was the topic of conversation when I met with friends last week for lunch.

They’d all taken it up—some after many years. Not for fashion or economy—the hand-knitted garments would cost more in yarn than a purchased one. No. My friends are all knitting for pleasure and relaxation.

I can knit—after a fashion. Simple combinations of plain and purl on large needles are within my skill range—though I freak at the thought of a cable! Years ago, bedridden recuperating from an operation, I found knitting a therapeutic way to pass the time. A very nice sweater resulted.

But I haven’t knitted for years. No time! And I haven’t learned to embroider or cross-stitch either—skills I greatly admire and would love to master. My mother and grandmother were expert at both. In fact I see needlework and knitting as examples of womanly arts that have survived generation after generation.

But not inherited by me. I can sew using a machine. And I love to cook. But if I have any spare time I want to read.

Reading is my pleasure and relaxation. I want to read books—both traditional and e-books—magazines, newspapers, journals, even the back of cereal packets if all else fails. Fiction, non-fiction—I just want to read!

How about you? Do you manage to juggle a reading addiction with another hobby or craft? Or are you like me? Please share your story!

Leave a comment to win a free download of my e-book Something About Joe. Be sure to include your email address.

 Something About Joe is available for just $0.99c at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other e-retailers.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.

www.kandyshepherd.com

IMAGE CREDITS

Knitting

© Shcheglov | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos ; Old books © Mietitore | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos;

Reading in bath 

© Duey | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Telling It in Pictures by Fiona Lowe

My husband is a pretty good photographer. Let me qualify that. He is an awesome scenic photographer. Take him anywhere and he will capture the essence of the place he is standing with his camera. People photos? Not so much. I have an 'aim and shoot' for that and even so, we're lacking in family photos. I took us to a professional photographer a few years ago. Hmm, must be time to do that again. But I digress, back to the scenic photos.

We have a huge wall in our kitchen and on it we 'cycle' many of his photographs, six at a time. (sorry, I can't seem to take the photo without a shadow from the skylight)  The photo wall is a fabulous talking point when visitors come. We get them to guess where each of the six photos have been taken. I'm wondering if you can?

It might be a tad tricky but the top left is a picture of terraced rice paddies in Bali, the deck chairs are Blackpool Pier in the UK, the middle top is Maine in fall,  and underneath is the stunning Peyto Lake in the Canadian Rockies. The top right is one of my favourites and hard for you to see but its fall in Wisconsin...red barn, turning trees, harvested hay and a trip of still green corn. Gorgeous!  

So it was a logical progression with all these great photos to use them on my new website.  I'm thrilled with the way each book has its own banner, using a photo that represents where the book is set. For instance, Career Girl in the Country is set in Western Australia and here is Sturt Desert Pea taken on the side of the road in WA.

Boomerang Bride, my RT, RITA® and RuBY nominated book is set in Wisconsin so of course, I had to have a red barn!

My most recent Medical Romance, Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom's Redemption is set in Sydney, Australia and we gave the banner a new twist. Here it is...we are standing next to one of the Opera House sails with the distinctive bridge in the distance.

I hope you enjoy the photos and that they enable you to get a feel for my stories. Meanwhile, I'll work on my dear husband to take a photo of me with my RITA® pin! Maybe if I dress up like a tree, it might help!


How do you display your photos?

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch. A current RITA nominee, you  can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

In the Foothills of the Pan . . . and other mysteries of life

This past week my husband and I had the great pleasure and good fortune to host two visitors from Russia. 

As members of The Friendship Force for years we have both traveled occasionally to stay with other families in various parts of the globe.  And we have hosted visitors in our home for a week or two at a time.

My husband loves the idea because he says the experience makes people real individuals not faceless millions and promotes world peace. I say it makes people real individuals and gets me to clean my house.

In  other words, everybody wins. 

This past week we had a mother and son as our guests. The son was nineteen. His mother didn’t look much older, but she was the age of my children.  She was an accountant. He was a university student.  Neither of them spoke very much English.  The two members of the family who spoke English – the father and other son – stayed home.

No problem.   My husband speaks about half a dozen words of Russian. I know two: “thank you” and “good-bye.” 

The first one got a big workout. The second one I didn’t use until Sunday morning when they left. But I didn’t want to use it then. I was so sorry to see them go. We’d had such a wonderful time with them.

We took them along the Mississippi River, showed them the high points (geographical and cultural) of our town.  We visited local museums and shops.  I had to teach one day so my husband took them canoeing. 

I cooked them Mexican food (native to my California roots) and they cooked us borsht (no translation needed, I’m sure) and golsbki which are stuffed cabbage rolls (and which I learned the Armenian name for, which doesn’t sound much like golsbki, but  at least it starts with a G, and that’s as close as I can get using the tools at hand). 

Suffice to say, it was a meal to remember. And we will be dining on them for the rest of the week as she left us such a big batch.  They were wonderful.

I actually learned quite a few Russian words this week. I also decided it would be a language I could really learn if I lived long enough. But in the meantime, I will make do with what I  can.  And we are now connected on Skype, so we can stare at teach other and smile if nothing else.

But the truth is, we learned a lot about each other through the week.  And in doing so, I also learned just how smart my Smart Phone is. I also learned that besides being able to translate Italian magazine articles that catch my eye (can you say, Raoul Bova?), Google Translate really helped me be able to communicate with our new friends.

Between the Smart Phone and the iPad (now christened the “aypad.”) we did quite well.

I wrote things in English on my regular American keyboard. Then I hit “translate” and amazingly, in barely a nanosecond, there was what I’d said translated into Russian in their Cyrillic alphabet. Of course it helped if I used words that didn’t have several meanings. Don’t try “lead mine” if you want anyone speaking Russian to understand you.  I finally resorted to Google images and a picture of a miner for that concept. 

But on the whole we managed to make ourselves pretty well understood.

They used the “aypad” to write on a virtual Cyrillic keyboard in Russian and then it translated  their words into English. Almost always it was, if not, perfect at least reasonably understandable.

There is only one sentence that she wrote that I’m still struggling with. I can’t reproduce the whole Russian sentence here because my Cyrillic handwriting leaves a lot to  be desired, so I am not even sure of the letters I copied down. But the translation of her question came out: in the foothills of the pan if you do not put the stew?

Say what?

I tried breaking it down word by word. No luck. 

I think the key is in the word: foothills. But I’m at a loss. We were cooking at the time, so the stew and the pan seem like they are probably right.  But whichever way I tried dealing with подгорит , it always came out foothills.

I'd welcome a coherent translation from anyone who wants to take a stab at it. 

The first one to come up with a reasonable translation I’ll send a copy of my latest book, Savas’s Wildcat, to. Or one of the old ones in Russian, as you can obviously read it!

All in all, it was a great week.  I highly recommend it.

If you want a way to come to terms with the rest of the world as “real individuals” take a look at Friendship Force and learn more about what they do. It might inspire you to travel on an exchange with them or host visitors from another nation.

And, like me, you might get the added benefit of a clean house!

On the other hand, maybe yours is already perfectly clean. If so, you can enjoy the visit even more because you won’t be exhausted from cleaning by the time your guests get here.

Serial lovers by Paula Roe

There’s much excitement happening in my world this week!  First, I’ve been hard at work editing my latest book, A Precious Inheritance (October 2012), which is number four in Harlequin Desire’s brand-new “The Highest Bidder” Series (you can see the first book – Guilded Secrets by Maureen Child - here)   

The other good news is Harlequin Australia are reissuing the fabulous Diamonds Down Under six-book series in May and June in two three-fers. Squeeee!!!  Here’s the brand-spanking new cover, plus blurb from my story, Boardrooms & A Billionaire Heir 

"I'm a man you sleep with, not fall in love with."

Jake Vance was danger in a designer suit, a charming corporate raider. When he set his sights on Blackstone's, Australia's richest diamond dealers, Holly McLeod's primary assignment was as his assistant; her secondary was as a spy. To her amazement, she learned her dangerously sexy boss was the long-lost Blackstone heir. And then Jake did the unthinkable: To save his new company, he proposed marriage...an intimate one...to her!

This story was only my second published book, so understandably, I was pretty nervous come publication date.  I needn’t have worried: it garnered some great reviews, plus a nomination for Romance Writers of Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year award :-D   Even four years on, I still love my hero and heroine, Jake and Holly, who were a dream to write.  In fact, I love all the stories in the series, not to mention the authors, whom I’d known for years before publication.  We had such a great time brainstorming our stories, how to connect them, swapping pertinent paragraphs and devising some beautiful ball gowns :-) And as an author, it’s always a thrill when you see your characters mentioned in another book.  Makes them feel more alive, I think.

Which leads me to my question - do you read series?  And if so, do you prefer the same characters (like JD Robb’s Eve and Roarke) or linked/family stories, like Day LeClaire’s Dante series?  What do you like to see in a series?  What do you hate?  (yes, I will file this information for future use!)  One commenter will be the lucky winner of a copy of my June release, the 2^nd book in the Diamonds Down Under series.

Want more of Paula?  Visit her at http://www.paularoe.com (to read all about her books) like her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/paularoefanpage (and keep up to date with what’s happening) and follow her on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/paulawrites (to live vicariously through her exciting, thrill-a-minute life*)    *excitement and thrills not guaranteed. 

Presents

One of the questions I’m most often asked  about the American editions of my books  is –

In  Harlequin Presents (Or Harlequin Presents Extra)  does that ‘Presents’ mean  presents as in a gift – a birthday  present – or Ta dah! Harlequin  Presents – as in ‘ we present to you . .

Well, the answer is that the real way to pronounce it is as in that second version – the ‘we present to you . . .’ but today  I’ve been thinking about the word  in its other sort of meaning – the presents that come gift-wrapped and we give to people for their special days.   There is a reason for this -  May is a month when several people I love have their birthday . My dear friend and wonderful writer Michelle Reid just had her special day and  in a couple of weeks my eldest sister has her birthday,  Oh, and tomorrow is my own birthday. No, you can’t ask which one – I was a child when I started writing -  honest!

So of course I have been dealing with the gift sort of presents for  a few weeks now. (My sister lives in Tasmania so I had to buy/wrap and send her gift a while back.) I like choosing presents for people I care about – I like thinking of what they enjoy, what interests them, what sort of things they might like to treat themselves too but perhaps couldn’t afford or  might think was a bit too extravagant to indulge in.  But I’m  pretty hopeless about  thinking about gifts for myself.

I just had a  conversation with my husband and my son and a couple of friends – could I . . .l well, no really, I couldn’t come up with any suggestions of what I’d like for a birthday present.  I’m lucky, you see – I  have the perfume  I want, the  bath and body luxuries that I was given for Christmas and  I haven’t been able to use up because of the renovations we had in the house for the last three months  – it’s hard to use up bath essences or oils when you don’t have a bathroom that’s working for some time, let alone a bath!  And  jewellery?   Well, really I don’t want a lot of jewellery – I mean how much can you wear at one time?  And I recently treated  myself to the one really special piece that I wanted  because my latest novel – The Devil and  Miss Jones – is my 60^th published title.  So I bought myself this necklace to celebrate.

But after a rather difficult year just behind me – with family ill health, bereavement   . .. and then all those renovations – messy, dirty, noisy, but worth it in the end – I  come to this birthday knowing deep down that really I have all I need or want.  My husband is now  well after a health scare, my son and his partner are happy and settled, my family  - there are more sisters than the one in Tasmania -  are all fine.  Even the  cats, two crazy Maine Coons are happy and healthy and revelling in the fact that  Spring is back and they can roam in the garden and climb the trees.

And  thinking about this reminds me why I write romance. It brings me back the that opening and the ‘Harlequin Presents ‘.   Because the truth is that if we have someone to  love and care for us then we have everything we need. That’s why I write romance and, I think, why people love to read it. We love to think that there will be someone special, a real true hero (or heroine) for each of us. Someone who really is a lover in all senses of the word. And that’s why I write the lovely life and love-affirming books I do. To show how important  love is in the world and in our lives.

So in a way the Harlequin Presents   books are those very special gifts too.

My DH has just gone into the living room with some wrapping paper and a bag containing . . . well, I don’t know what, but I have strict instructions not to go in there for a while! So  it looks like he found something that needs wrapping for  tomorrow.  As I said, I really am very lucky.

And because I’d like to share my special day and the celebrations with the wonderful readers who have helped me enjoy this special career  - because without my readers  buying my books I  wouldn’t be able to keep writing – I’m offering a giveaway with this post to someone who comments.

I’d love to know which of my backlist of books you’d really like to read.  If I was sending  you a Present  from Harlequin Presents (or Presents Extra) then which one would it be?  Have a look at my web site  if you need inspiration but just let me know which title you’re missing from your collection – or that you really fancy reading – and I’ll  get Charlie the Maine Coon to pick a winner who’ll receive a book from the backlist I have in stock. (I don’t have any of the really older books -  the ones that date back to 1986 when my writing career really began but I’ll offer you a choice of the ones I do have!)

Thank you all for sharing in my celebration.

The Devil and Miss Jones is out in  Presents Extra - and still available iN Mills & Boon Modern too. In Australia it's the lead book in the special Motehr's Day Pack so that means it's helping with anoyther sort of celebration too. 

 You can keep up with all my news on my web site, and the latest happenings are over on my personal blog.

It took some time to find Charlie and get him to pick the winners, but now that the rain has started he's back inside!  And he was hungry so he has picked more than one winner!
The winners are -
Lory Lee
Squiressj
and
JenB
Suqiressj  and Jen - I have copies of the books you have chosen (Lept for Her Baby and The Return of The Stranger)   and Lory Lee- I don't have any copies of One Night in Madrid because that is a 3 book  anthology - but I will send you a copyu of the book Spanish Billionaire,Inocent Wife which is my book in that collection
Please all winners send  me your postal addresses to kate AT kate-walker.com
And thank you all again for the birthday wishes!

Australian Garden Visitors - Annie West



Rainbow Lorikeets

 I thought I'd share something a little different with you today. I looked out my window earlier and saw a group of colourful birds (Eastern Rosellas) gathered on our pergola and realised how unique they are. Australia is full of a great range of birdlife, and other unique wildlife for that matter, which makes life interesting.

As well as rosellas, we get colourful lorikeets and I have to say they're the stars of this piece. Here's a picture I took at my parents' house. As you can see, my parents put out food for them . These little birds are very cheeky and appealing, and raucous in large numbers. In wet weather they congregate near my parents' back door, on the eaves and outdoor windowsills, waiting for feed time. One even flew in one day, to be found hours later perched on the top of their curtains - obviously eager for seconds.


Free for all at feeding time



You'll get a little idea from the picture what a scene they make - always on the move and squabbling even as they make room for each other. I get these in my yard too, flying down from the tall gum trees and filling up on edible fruits and flowers. In addition we get kookaburras (not nearly so pretty but with great character and a terrific laugh), king parrots in vivid red and emerald green that I'm sure is even brighter than the lorikeets, and a whole stack of other winged visitors.

Here's a surprise we discovered one day. Mum and baby ducklings had decided to have their first swim on our pool. Sorry the photo isn't too clear - I didn't want to distress them by getting too close. You can see them gathered on the far side of the pool. I got such a shock when I sat down to work early one morning and discovered this little lot paddling about. Unfortunately I had to go out later and missed seeing how mum got the babies out of there and down to the nearest watercourse.

Their first swim!

In addition to birds we get snakes, including at least one venomous one, but as they're usually after frogs they don't bother us. We have the most marvellous slow-moving and very appealing blue tongue lizards (whose tongues really are blue). They creep through the undergrowth and give me the fright of my life when I'm weeding and think I've found a snake. We have at least two types of possum in our yard and have had a stand off with one who wanted to live in our roof. In addition there are the usual little critters including red back spiders (nasty little things related to black widow spiders) and funnel-web spiders which give me the creeps (yes, they're venomous). But, though it sounds like it could be scary, it's not. I'm glad to say we live pretty well in harmony with our wilder neigbours.

How about you? Do you get visitors to your garden or neighbourhood that remind you of the wider world of nature? Or do you have favourite creatures you haven't seen but would love to?

I'll give away a copy of my latest book to a person, chosen at random, from those who leave a comment.

I've got a new release out now: UNDONE BY HIS TOUCH, and for a change it's set in Australia. No, it doesn't feature flocks of birds or even venomous creepy crawlies. Instead it's got a brooding, scarred Aussie recluse of a hero who steals the limelight. This is my first Beauty and the Beast story and I'm very excited about it.

If you want to read more about it visit me at http://www.annie-west.com/ where you'll find an excerpt and  links to buy it. It's a May release in Australia and New Zealand, and a June Presents Extra in North America. And, to my delight, it recently scored a 4 star review from Romantic Times. 

Blond Heroes

Someone tweeted me the other day, thanking me for the fact that Leo Bailey, the hero of DEMON’S BRIDE, is blond.  She mentioned that blond heroes are relatively uncommon in romance, which made me wonder—why are blond heroes so rare in romance?

Maybe it all goes back to the idea of the 19^th century Byronic hero—the dark, brooding loner, whose hair color reflected his inner turmoil.  If blond meant angelic, then dark hair represented the opposite.  Lord Byron himself had dark hair, and his wild antics and air of mystery made him irresistible to women (and some men).  Byron was a bad boy, and who can resist a bad boy?

Thinking of other heroes in early romantic novels, such as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, we see the dark hero become even more popular.  Perhaps that trend continues on in today’s romance novels.  I know there are blond heroes out there, but I’ve read far more heroes with black or dark brown hair, Lord Byron’s legacy.

I recall reading somewhere that even if the hero in the book is blond, he’s seldom depicted as such on the cover of romance novels because, apparently, blond heroes on covers don’t sell as well as their dark-haired brothers. 

So why did I make Leo Bailey blond?  First of all, I wanted variety in the looks and coloring of the Hellraisers.  Whit, the hero of the first Hellraisers novel DEVIL’S BRIDE, has dark hair, as does Bram, one of the other Hellraisers.  I didn’t want all dark heroes.  Secondly, Leo is the only one of the Hellraisers who isn’t a gentleman.  He’s not just a commoner, but he’s the son of a saddler.  Leo has worked hard to become one of the richest non-titled men in England.  He’s very driven, and bears a huge grudge against the aristocrats who look down on him.  There is an association of the nobility being fair of skin and fair haired, so I thought it would be an interesting inversion to have my lowest-born Hellraiser to be blond.  And Leo is far from angelic—a fact which becomes more and more clear to Anne Hartfield, the impoverished baron’s daughter that Leo weds at the very beginning of DEMON’S BRIDE.  Anne can’t help but be drawn to the contradiction that is her husband, however, and finds in him an unexpected connection that leads to desire, and something more…  Yet Leo’s dark, dangerous secrets imperil not only the new bond between husband and wife, but also the world as we know it.

 

So, tell me, do you like blond heroes in romance?  Or do you prefer tall, dark and handsome?  Who are some of your favorite blond heroes?  I’ll pick one commenter to win a copy of DEMON’S BRIDE (US/Canada only).

DEMON’S BRIDE

The Hellraisers, Book 2

Hell to Pay

Leo Bailey may have been born to poverty, but ruthless business sense and sparkling intelligence have made money worries a thing of his past. It doesn't hurt that the Devil himself has granted Leo the ability to read the future.

But even infallible predictions are a déclassé commoner's trick to some members of the ton. They'll never see Leo as their equal - one good reason to prove himself their better. And a noble marriage is an obvious start.

Bookish Anne Hartfield, daughter of a baron, is hardly the flashiest miss on the marriage market. But her thoughtful reserve complements Leo's brash boldness in an attraction neither can deny. A whirlwind courtship sweeps Anne and Leo into a smoldering marriage before either can believe their luck. But happiness built on Leo's dark powers can't last. Soon, Anne will have to save her husband...or lose her heart.

Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there's nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master's degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series and the paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. She and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, created the steampunk world of THE ETHER CHRONICLES together.  Her steampunk romance, SKIES OF FIRE, is now available from Avon Impulse, and Nico’s steampunk Western, NIGHT OF FIRE, will be available in July. Zoë and Nico live in Los Angeles.

Excerpt   Trailer   Website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr

***The winner is Mary Anne Landers!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing address!***

Elaine Viets: Creating Your Own Focus Group

I wanted a book trailer for “Final Sail,” my new Dead-End Job mystery. All the cool kids have one. Book trailers are good selling tools. Bookstores post them on their Websites or use them in e-newletters. TV and radio stations use them on their sites, too.

Kelly Nichols at LookABook created my trailer. Kelly is one half of the award-winning P.J. Parrish. For “Pumped for Murder,” my tenth Dead-End Job mystery, Kelly made a book trailer that was a 1:50 seconds.

For “Final Sail,” author James Swain suggested I try a shorter trailer. Thanks to Twitter, readers are getting used shorter messages.

My new “Final Sail”  trailer would be only 45 seconds. Since I host a radio talk show for Radio Ear Network, I voiced it.

Kelly worked with this synopsis: Private eye Helen tries to catch an emerald smuggler on a luxury yacht, while she works undercover as a stewardess, serving snobs, scrubbing floors, and cleaning up after a pampered poodle. Meanwhile, Phil investigates a sexy gold digger, Blossom Zerling, who may have murdered her rich old husband.

Kelly put together two sample videos with music. I chose the version I liked. But I figured  I was too close to the subject. The Penguin publicist gave this useful advice: Leave the “call to action” – the Website address and “available in e-book and hardcover” information –  up longer.

Next, I asked for focus group volunteers on various mystery lists. Seven women between the ages of 30 and 50 – my prime readership – volunteered.

The focus group saw things I didn’t.

Helen scrubs toilets as yacht stewardess. My sample trailer had video of a brush scrubbing a toilet. The focus group resounding nixed it. “Makes me want to hurl,” said one woman.

 I flushed the toilet.

Several wondered why the Zerling mansion looked spooky, and asked why a skeleton was stalking the grounds. The Zerlings were given a conventional Florida mansion, and we buried the skeleton.

The sample video had a captain in a pirate uniform. He was cute, but the focus group wondered why he was there. The captain was deep-sixed, along with a hard-to-make-out horde   of emeralds. They were replaced with two rotating emeralds.

Kelly included all ten Dead-End Job covers. “I would like to see your book titles a little slower,” one woman said. “You never know when someone will walk into a B & N and spy a title and remember that it's you.”

Here’s the final version of the “Final Sail” book trailer. Like the song says, I get by with a little help from my friends.  

What do you think?

 Have you ever put together your own focus group?

Joanne Rock: Inescapable Romance

I’m surrounded by romance at all times in my life. It’s not just that I’m married to a great guy, although that helps. (Thank you, Dean!) I have elected to let my home decorating reflect my love of all things romantic. 

At first, I guess I went the romance route with my décor because the experts say our homes should reflect who we are. Communicating my love of romance became simple enough by hanging a few of my book covers on the walls of my office. Pretty and personal, right?

But I was so encouraged to see those book covers that I thought I’d take it a step further.  When it came to decorate my living room, I decided to display the kinds of images I never get tired of seeing. Frank Dicksee’s Romeo and Juliet was an easy choice to hang on one wall. I liked it so much I snagged a larger copy of Godspeed by Edmund Blair Leighton to hang over the sofa.

After a few years, I realized that I wasn’t just showcasing who I am by displaying these romantic images. I was also actively inspiring myself. As I sit down to write books, my eye is drawn to these paintings and I end up thinking about story ideas. So I invested in another interesting piece of artwork in a different medium. I love all the images from the Limboug brothers’ paintings for the duc de Barry and I liked that the January image for the Book of Hours is so well populated. There’s so much to see!

If my husband is tired of my romantic decorating aesthetic, he hasn’t said anything yet. I snuck a copy of John Everett Millais’ Apple Blossoms over my stairs. My office is now crowded with Waterhouse paintings and a huge version of his Lady of Shalott. The author in me loves to think about the stories behind the paintings while the homeowner in me enjoys the play of light and color.

**What about you? Did you have a theme in mind when you decorated your home or did one emerge as you collected things you love? Chat with me this week on the boards and I’ll give away a copy of my new Blaze, HER MAN ADVANTAGE, to one random poster. 

Joanne

www.joannerock.com

***Joanne's winner is Eli Yanti!  Eli, please email me at totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing info.  Thank you!***

Blurring Lines and Breaking Rules: UF vs. PNR

I once read that you could differentiate an urban fantasy from a paranormal romance book by whether the heroine a) slayed or b) fell in love the monsters. Really? I honestly don't think this has ever really been true, because even in the early days of UF, when Laurell K. Hamilton was the only big player on the block, Anita Blake was falling in love with monsters. And most of the PNRs I've read feature strong heroines who do their fair share of slaying.

That's not the only so-called yardstick by which to measure the sub-genres. Problem is, many of the other standard guidelines don't work, either. For example, this one: all paranormals have happily-ever-after endings. What about Yasmine Galenorn? She writes steamy love stories, but doesn't guarantee a HEA. Here's another: PNRs have sex scenes. What about Karen Moning's Fever series? Every bookstore I've been in shelves it in the romance section, but the first few books have zero sex scenes. Zilch! And to contrast that, most of the UFs I read have at least a little smexy-time.

Maybe it's not sex, but love. Urban fantasies only feature flings or crushes that eventually fade. The heroine moves from one man to the next throughout the series, which is in contrast to PNRs that feature one soulmate couple per book—the next book in the series moves on to the next couple. Then how do you explain the Night Huntress books by Jeaniene Frost? Cat and Bones are soulmates who star in multiple books, shelved as PNR. Same with Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series—several books feature one couple. On the other side of the fence, Stacia Kane's UF Downside series features a heroine, Chess, who is clearly in love with Terrible throughout the series.

The be-all, end-all sub-genre identifier seems to be this: if you strip away the romance from a book, does the story still stand on its own? (If no, it's romance, natch!) I've tried to apply this measurement to my own series, Arcadia Bell. At its core, the series is a story about an occult magician, Arcadia "Cady" Bell, who runs a demon-friendly tiki bar in Northern California. She has a special sight that allows her to identify Earthbound demons—who, to the average person, look like humans. Each of my books features a supernatural mystery that Cady must solve and fight her way out of. But they also feature a strong, soulmate romance between Cady and an Earthbound demon she falls in love with. There are sex scenes, teasing banter, and romantic adventure. If you stripped away Cady and Lon's relationship from the books, the mystery would stand on its own, I suppose, but it wouldn't be half as interesting. And the first two books have HEAs of sorts—hopeful endings in which the couple is together. As far as slaying goes, Cady and Lon both fight the bad guys, usually together. But Lon is demon, so Cady's definitely in love with the monster.

Arcadia Bell has strong, unique world-building and is shelved in urban fantasy, even though a lot of paranormal readers have picked it up for the romance. But in the end, like many other series that cross the line between these two genres, I think people will continue to read it because it doesn't strictly belong in one place or the other. Because sometimes, breaking the rules can be extraordinarily exciting.

Do you have a favorite series that crosses genre lines?

Jenn Bennett

http://www.jennbennett.com

A Year in the Life of an Author - April

If you've been following my posts (January, February and March), you'll know I've been working towards finishing the draft of my next book, traveling more than usual, and trying to keep up with business. April was no exception, 'cept that it whirled by! I did finally get the draft done. After 5 solid months of writing, the draft for the 2nd book in my new Rhymes with Love series is done.

Tentatively titled, And the Miss Ran Away with the Rake, I really like this book. Love the characters and it has been a fun book to write. Not all books are like that, but this one has--thank goodness! However, as it always is with my drafts--it looks like swiss cheese right now. Missing scenes, no love scenes, and a lot of XXXs where I need to insert . . . something!

On top of finishing the draft, I added into the mix, the kids Spring Break. We headed off to Hawaii to stay with my dear and wonderful friend, Jane Porter and spent an idyllic week on the beach. And that is where is I got the draft done. If you think the writer's life sounds perfect, know this: we always have work hanging over our heads and it goes with us everywhere.

No rest for the wicked.

After returning from vacation, I've had to immediately start prepping for the Washington Romance Writers Retreat, where I am the opening speaker and giving a workshop. These things take time to write and prepare, so the life of a writer is also about being able to shift gears from one thing to another and back to the first. So as I write this, I am once again packing, gathering pages to bring with me to work on, and of course a couple of books to read.

Now one thing of note happened in April that I must share: my upcoming book, Along Came a Duke got a starred review in PW. I couldn't be more proud. This is one of those moments where you take a deep breath and look at the email twice and then say, "Shut the Front Door!"

Here's the link, and for those of you who love digital reads, Along Came a Duke is being offered for pre-sale at $4.99 from Kindle and Barnes & Noble and most every online purveyor of ebooks. See you May 29th!

Food for Love by Natalie Anderson

There's an old adage that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach... whether it's true or not I don't know, but I can say that for me, food is one of life's great pleasures - yes, we women are allowed to enjoy our food every bit as much as men, right?! ;)

And being the chief cook and bottle washer in a family of six, having someone else cook a delicious dinner for me is such a treat - it's more than a meal, it's a gift.

Roxie, the heroine in my May US release FIRST TIME LUCKY?, has been the chief cook and bottle washer for years. For her food has been medicinal more than pleasurable as she tried to help her Grandfather through his illness. And she didn't just cook the food - she grew it. It became a lifestyle and a part of her identity. But now she's about to embark on a new phase in her life - she has a six point checklist and and airplane ticket... But first, there's something she wants from her new neighbour. Only he, Gabe, wants a few things himself... and one night he pushes to make Roxie see that he's more than just another item for her 'to do'.

Roxie eats veggie, so she knows that for Gabe to have made her a meal from scratch has taken real time and effort. It's the kind of effort that thrills her, but also scares her...

“Wow,’ she said, taking in the laden plates on the outdoor dining table. “Not sure the Bolly is good enough for this.”                       

“Don’t get too effusive, it’s only burger and chips.”            

“Not your average burger and chips.” They were home-made bean patties, ripped-from-the-plant salad and freshly dug new potatoes cooked then crisped up something yummy. Her mouth watered, her appetite suddenly screaming. “You cooked all this?”  

“I’m a single man, living alone,” he drawled. “You didn’t think I could cook?”             

“But it’s...”             

“Veggie, I know. Not bad for a beef farm boy, huh?” He popped the cork and poured the champagne into two glasses – frowning when that was enough to empty the bottle.             

She picked up her fork and took a bite of the patty poking out from the toasted roll. Oh, wow. “You really made this from scratch?”             

“Your amazement is insulting.”             

She chuckled, a trickle of warmth flowing back into her chilled body. “I’ve never met anyone who makes veggie burgers like these. From scratch. Not even me.”             

He pulled his phone from his pocket and swiped the screen a few times. “Okay, I got the recipe online. Here.”             

She angled her head to read the page he’d pulled up. “The Heganator?” She didn’t just giggle, she squealed. “Hegan?”             

“Yeah, cool recipes for the hot vegan male,” he turned the phone back to study it oh, so intently. Then he peered over the top of the phone, eyes twinkling. “I think it’s really written by a woman. Apparently hegans like burgers and barbecues.”             

“You’re hot but you’re not a hegan,” she said, almost all her old flirt tone back.             

“But I can cook like one on occasion.”             

“It is amazing. I mean that in a good way,” she looked at him and her teasing smile died. “Thank you.”             

Her heart was beating too hard. She couldn’t remember when someone else had cooked dinner for her. When someone had gone to so much trouble and thought. Someone who bothered to understand what she preferred to eat and not eat. Certainly not her lame ex-boyfriend. The joke died from his eyes too – leaving them warm and gentle and so deep...             

She dropped her knife so she had the excuse to break away from that acute, wordless communication. Surely she was reading the wrong messages. It wasn’t caring she was supposed to see in him, it was supposed to be all carnal. But for a weird second there everything had gone upside down and inside out.

If you had a handsome hero on hand to prepare a lavish feast just for you, what would you have him make?!