Welcome to Jubilee

It’s spring in my native Texas. Actually, this year, spring showed up two months ago and it’s already hit the eighty-degree mark in my neck of the woods. We have short sweet cotton-candy springs, interminable oven-hot summers, nostalgia tepid autumns and a single sharp snap of winter. 

But right now, it’s spring. The peach trees are flush with delicate pink blooms. Yellow daffodils push up from the brown earth. Bluebonnets propagate across my lawn along with dandelions and clover. Bees buzz. Crane flies float. Thin mosquitoes hunt for blood. Redbirds shower in the fountain, flipping their wet heads like shampoo models, proud in their scarlet glory. Mockingbirds call from the lavender crepe myrtle, trilling their cache of stolen songs until long after midnight. Mama and Papa Buzzard build a nest in the elm tree.

I step outside and breath deep the scent of hyacinth and trumpet vines that smell like Bit-o-Honey.  My Aussie shepherds tussle, showing out for me. Buff Orpington hens chase bugs in the flowerbeds. Angus cattle graze in the field behind my house, their chewing rhythmly hypnotic. A dual axel pickup truck, known around here as a dually, pulling a gooseneck horse trailer rumbles by on the road. The cowboy behind the wheel smiles and waves. I wave back.

This is home.

THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE is the first book in a new series, featuring Jubilee, Texas. Jubilee is a fictional town, but it’s based on my hometown of Weatherford, Texas, which is the Cutting Horse Capital of the World. We are also the Peach Capital of Texas. Peaches and cutting horses and a friendly hometown atmosphere. That’s what we do best.

With this new series, I’m letting you into my home and into my heart.  Many things in this book are fictionalized versions of things that have happened to me. I’ve met people like the characters in this book. They are as real to me as my next-door neighbors. Welcome to Jubilee. I’m so happy you could join us.

Tell me a little bit about your hometown. Do you still live there? What’s the weather like? What does your town/city do better than any other place on earth? Post a comment for a chance to win a $25.00 gift card to Amazon. I'll pick a winner tomorrow afternoon, March 27th, on release day.

Lori

http://www.loriwilde.com

***Lori's winner is Runner10!!  Congrats!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your details!  Thanks.***

Grandma and the Prince - Part 34

<--Mona in shocking pink; my
mom in emerald green; Aunt Dede (Grandma El's
sister) in pale blue -- taken at my
wedding reception

Jack was tall, lean, dazzlingly blond. One of those "golden boys" you read about but never see in real life. He had an equally dazzling dog, a Weimaraner named Ursic, and the kind of career that used to exist only in Jackie Collins's novels.

He was a photographer who worked with the legendary Francesco Scavullo in Manhattan at the dawn of the 1960s and he was my Aunt Mona's first post-quickie-marriage-and-annulment romance.

And what a romance it was! It isn't often that a girl of my era gets a front row seat to something so adult and exciting, but the summer I turned ten I definitely got lucky.

I've said before that Mona was definitely her mother's daughter. (If Grandma El been born two generations later, she could have ruled the world.) She had guts and ambition and a fearlessness that sometimes got her into trouble. She also fell in love fast and hard and when she did, all of that "I am woman, hear me roar" power suddenly morphed into American Geisha. But that's for another story on another day.

Anyway, it's the summer of 1960 and Mona and her friend Helen are about to open their own real estate agency on Broadway in Elmhurst, Queens. It's a relatively daring venture for two women in their early 30s. (Women in business was still a disconcerting concept for many people.) Sounds great, doesn't it? Only problem was, Mona and Helen decided to open their business directly across the street from the real estate office of Henry C. Reilly . . . the man they'd worked for until three weeks before their Grand Opening.

But nobody was thinking about Henry at the Grand Opening. There was champagne and balloons and music courtesy of the small record player in the corner of the room. Grandma El was there and Aunt Dede, my parents and I, Helen's friends and family, and Jack.

Now this was the first time I'd laid eyes on him and let's just say I was totally smitten. Goggle-eyed, tongue-tied, head-over-heels smitten by every single thing about him. Even his dog seemed more golden and glamorous than normal dogs. To be honest, I can't remember a single word he uttered but if I close my eyes I can still see his lazy smile, the twinkle in his blazing blue eyes . . . and the way my aunt turned downright kittenish when he was around.

Let me tell you, this budding romance writer was totally enthralled. Which probably explains why I stalked them that afternoon. I didn't miss a thing. The way they looked at each other, the furtive glances, the quick touches. I took it all in, tucking the details away for future reference.

Which is how I ended up seeing my first real life, deeply romantic, they're-not-my-parents Hollywood kiss.

The party was winding down. Grandma El was starting to pick apart the paint job and we all knew it was only a matter of time until the serious criticizing kicked in. My parents were ready to leave but I needed to use the bathroom before we did.

Except that was a lie. I'd noticed that Mona and Jack had disappeared into the storeroom a few moments ago and the storeroom was adjacent to the bathroom and . . . well, you get the picture. I cautiously, slowly let myself into the storeroom and there they were. My tiny dark-haired aunt and her tall golden-haired lover were wrapped in each others' arms looking for all the world like the hero and heroine of one of the romance novels I was still twenty years away from writing. It was a full-on Hollywood moment. She was on tiptoe, her arms wrapped around his neck. He was bent low, one large hand splayed across the small of her back, the other thrust deep into her dark, shiny curls.

I stood there, unable to move or think or even breathe. I swear to you I could almost hear bells going off somewhere in the distance although, given the fact that we were located next to the bus station, it was probably the B-52. They had no idea they were being watched. (They probably had no idea they were still on this planet, to be honest.) This was really happening and I was the lucky audience.

It wasn't a movie. It wasn't a TV show. It wasn't a Broadway play. This was real, grown-up life in all its glittering, glamorous, thrilling glory and I was totally captivated by the possibilities.

I was only ten years old but I knew that when I grew up, I wouldn't settle for anything less. I wanted sparks. I wanted electricity. I wanted love and romance and all the excitement that came with the package.

And I also wanted the happy ending that eluded Mona right up until the end.

To be continued. . .

* * *

Leave a comment and you'll have a chance to win a signed book! Winner to be announced next month.

Congratulations to my five winners from last month's post. Please email me at barbarabretton AT gmail DOT com with your mailing info and I'll ship out your signed book ASAP.

1. marybelle
2. Pat Cochran
3. chris bails
4. Kaelee
5. franalokas
   

* * *

PS: I'm Barbara Bretton and you can find me here and here. And don't forget Twitter and Facebook, too. If you're looking for a couple of short, inexpensive e-reads, please check out my novellas, THE MARRYING MAN and I DO, I DO . . . AGAIN. They're both from my Harlequin backlist and currently available at Amazon for 99 cents each. Check them out if you have a moment. I think you'll like them.

Building a heroine...

To write their story you will have to know your characters intimately. For this, you need to do more than fill out a character worksheet with all their physical characteristics, their birth sign, their place in the family hierarchy, the names of their siblings. — from Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance

My new book, started at the beginning of the year, has a ready-made heroine (always a help!) Sorrel is the younger sister of Elle Amery – the heroine of Tempted By Trouble – so I know quite a lot about her before I start. She’s tall, willowy, with dark red hair and a wicked sense of humour that she does her best to keep strapped down.

She’s totally focussed on her career, determined to be a success and to never have to rely on anyone else. To never be poor. (She’s been there, done that…) She was a student when we last met her, taking a business management degree and determined to make her first million by the time she’s twenty-five.

Her sister’s creation of Scoop!, an ice-cream events business, gave her big ideas and by the time Elle is ready to take a back seat and concentrate on being a mother, she is ready to take over the management of the business and propel it out of the local, small business category and into the big time.

But it takes more than a driving ambition to make a heroine. She has to be someone your reader can empathise with, someone with those little failings, weaknesses that we all have. She has to be human.

Sorrel has always had style — she’s an expert at spotting classic bargains in charity shops and wearing them like a model. The budget isn’t as tight as it once was, but she’d still rather hunt down a great “previously owned” find in the local Oxfam shop, or on eBay than shop in the local high street (one of the suits she finds gets her into trouble from the word go). For clothes, that is. 

Shoes are something else and the minute I saw this pair of gorgeous Mui Mui sandals, I knew she would live on bread and water for a month in order to have them.

What heroine weakness would make her your natural best friend? 

What would you give up your lunchtime chocolate bar, your double skinny latte, for?

I’ll put all the comments in a hat and draw one on Monday. The winner will get the book of her choice from my backlist.

To eRead Or Not To eRead, That Is The Question

I have to admit that I’m a little hesitant to try authors who are new to me if I don’t have a recommendation from a friend first.

So you can imagine how hesitant I am to try out a new way of reading. Yep, I’m talking about ereaders. When ereaders first came out, I was convinced I’d never need the things.  I already had a computer, laptop, and smart phone.  My job (writing) requires that I put an awful lot of time into staring at a screen. Why would I want to stare at a screen when I read for fun?  I do understand the draw of an ereader: it’s light, it carries hundreds of books, and you can adjust the text size for those tired-eyes days.

But really?  I’m a paper-in-the-hands kind of gal, and I disliked the idea of my book running out of batteries, or breaking and costing me big bucks to replace.  I’ve had friends and family let me hold their Kindles, fondle their Nooks, and stroke their iPads (this is starting to sound naughty!)  So I do think the gadgets are really cool and I love that the book reads like a book.  Still, I wasn’t convinced I needed an ereader.

Then someone off-handedly remarked, “Oh, and when I’ve finished the book in the middle of the night and want to read the next right away, I touch a button and the book appears in my hands.”

Whoa, Nelly. Cue the lights and bells and angels singing!  No waiting. No having to make an extra trip to the store, or order on-line and hope the post office doesn’t leave the package in the rain. I could have any book I wanted, literally, at my fingertips, at any time of day or night. And if I was looking for a new author to try, I could sample their work before buying.  Hello, heaven.

Now this is the part of the story where I tell you I ran right out and bought an ereader. Um....yeah...I didn’t. Remember how I said I’m hesitant to try a new author without a recommendation? Apparently, that’s also how I feel about ereaders too! While I do love the idea of having one (and will probably buy one) I am still, for the moment, a paper-in-the-hands girl.

How about you?  Are you an ebook reader, or a paper book reader, or both?  Have you tried a new author lately that you like to recommend to friends?  And if you do recommend an author do you share by giving an ecopy or paper copy of the book?

Today I’d like to share my urban fantasy series set in Portland, Oregon, by doing a fun giveaway!  If you’ve never read the Allie Beckstrom series and you win, I will send you the first three books of the series, signed (that’s MAGIC TO THE BONE, MAGIC IN THE BLOOD and MAGIC IN THE SHADOWS).  If you have read the Allie Beckstrom series and you win, I will send you the last three books in the series, signed (that’s MAGIC ON THE HUNT, MAGIC ON THE LINE and MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY--which won't even be in stores until April.) I’ll mail international.

Just leave a comment here about a favorite book you recommend or whether or not you like  ereaders or paper, and the winner will be chosen (and posted) Tuesday, March 27th.

Oh, and I suppose I should mention something about the books!  Here’s the back cover description from the first book, MAGIC TO THE BONE.  If you want to check out the other books or read excerpts you can find them on my page at www.devonmonk.com

MAGIC TO THE BONE

Using magic means it uses you back, and every spell exacts a price from its user. But some people get out of it by Offloading the cost of magic onto an innocent. Then it’s Allison Beckstrom’s job to identify the spell-caster. Allie would rather live a hand-to-mouth existence than accept the family fortune—and the strings that come with it. But when she finds a boy dying from a magical Offload that has her father’s signature all over it, Allie is thrown back into his world of black magic. And the forces she calls on in her quest for the truth will make her capable of things that some will do anything to control…

***Devon's winner is Mary Anne Landers!  Congratulations!  Please send your details to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com!! Thanks***

A Pin is Worth a Thousand Words

I just discovered Pinterest and I am totally hooked!

So what is Pinterest?  It’s a social media site where users primarily share images rather than text like on Facebook and Twitter.  Every Pinterest user has a set of virtual bulletin boards where they can electronically pin images.  When you first sign up, you are provided with a set of themed bulletin boards to get you started, but you can totally customize your set of boards by renaming them, adding new ones, and deleting ones you don’t want.  They even start you off with a set of people to follow based on your interests.

The nice thing about Pinterest is that each image links back to the site the image was pinned from.  I try to pin pictures that are from websites rather than places like Tumblr, so that the image owner is credited and the information about the image is passed on, too.  When I click on an image, I want to find out more about it and I assume my followers do, too.

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I started up.  As an author, I had gone into this with the idea of pinning images of my books and hoping to reach new readers that way. When I went into Pinterest and was presented with a wide array of images, however, I soon became totally absorbed in clicking on images that captivated my attention.  There were pictures of beautiful places, inspiring or funny quotations, fancy cocktails (like cake batter martinis-yum!), fun party treats (like vodka soaked gummy bears and cupcakes that look like tea cups), healthy (and not so healthy, but yummy) recipes, fashion (I love the dress that looks like a Monarch butterfly), useful tips for the house—and yes, there were book covers, too.

I set up boards for my books—a different board for my contemporary erotic books, for my other erotic books (futuristic, fantasy, shorter fiction, etc.) and my steamy (rather than erotic) romances.  I also set up a page for special offers I have available.  Since I have a lot of friends who write books, I started a board with books by my friends (like Julianne MacLean, Sharon Page, Vanessa Kelly, and new author, Coreene Callahan) and I’m still building that board.

It was fun watching the repins start, and soon people started following me.   Someone started repinning my book covers.  Every repin and every new follower was exciting.  I started looking around at other author’s boards.  Some authors set up boards for the research they’re doing on books, which seems like a great idea.  (I haven’t done that yet.)

Once I was all set up, I let myself just enjoy being on Pinterest and following what interests me.  I’m a little surprised to find that I seemed to focus on fingernails and polish.  I’ve always been a bit funky when it comes to nails and hair.  When my oldest son was in Kindergarten I started dying my hair fuscia, than later purple, sometimes blue, and more recently, vivid red.  (My son is just graduating from university now, so you can see I’ve been doing that for a while.)  I’ve always tended to play around with different nail colours.  It used to be really hard to find colours like blue in nail polish, and even black, but I’d manage and I’d use several colours or layers (especially with glitter).

 

On Pinterest, I noticed some nice pictures of nails and I repinned them, then explored the boards they were pinned from.  I kept finding more and more beautiful nails, and fabulous nail polishes.  The great thing about Pinterest is that the pictures link to the original site where they’re posted, so I wound up on blogs where I explored even more pictures and how-to videos and retail sources.

     

Okay, so now I have to worry that I might be going overboard, but it’s fun and I find it’s feeding my creative side, which is always good.  Also, I found that the pictures of nails I pinned started being repinned a lot!  One went to over 40 pins within an hour.  Clearly, other people like pretty nails, too!

The pictures I’ve included here are some of my most repinned pictures.  The first three are from chloesnails.blogspot.ca (I really love her blog!), the fourth is from mysimplelittlepleasures.blogspot.ca (she has some great how-to videos), and the last is from nailside.blogspot.ca.

Now I’m toying with the idea of doing a manicure to match each of my books and posting them on a board on Pinterest.  I had hoped to have one ready for my new story, Virtual Love, which was released a few days ago, but things went awry.  So feel free to follow me on Pinterest to see what I come up with!

And speaking about virtual boards, what if you could live out your fantasies in virtual reality?  That’s what my story, Virtual Love is about.  (Okay, I had to get a reference to my new story in here somehow!)

Control is what Jerette seeks when she enters virtual reality … until she is pursued by a mysterious stranger who infiltrates her sessions, turning her deepest desires into reality.

I had a hard time deciding whether to publish this as Opal Carew or under my pseudonym, Amber Carew, which I use for my stories that are not erotic.  In the end, I chose Amber because although it is very steamy, it’s not quite as explicit as my Opal stories.

For those of you on Pinterest, please share with us what you like to follow, what types of things you typically repin, and maybe what kind of boards you’ve set up.  If you aren’t on Pinterest, what do you think you’d be most likely to repin?

One lucky person who leaves a comment will win a free copy of Virtual Love (ebook).  Also, I am giving away an on-line jigsaw puzzle featuring the Virtual Love cover to everyone who leaves a comment.  (Bonus: when you complete the puzzle, you get a code for 50% off the cover price of Virtual Love at Smashwords.com.)  After you respond, please send me your email and the username you used for your comment to OpalCarewFreeStuff @ gmail.com with the subject: “March Totebags Blog”.)

If you’d like to follow me on Pinterest, click here:  http://pinterest.com/opalcarew/ 

Thanks for reading,

Opal

Links for pictures:

Cake batter martini

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/07/cake-batter-martinis

Teacup cupcake

http://www.marthastewart.com/275211/cutest-cupcakes-2008-contest-winners/@center/276944/cupcakes

Butterfly dress

http://ashfieldhansendesign.blogspot.ca/2010/01/butterflies-are-free.html

Nails – black with green rays

http://chloesnails.blogspot.ca/2011/01/ask-and-you-shall-receive.html

Black with two-tone flowers

http://chloesnails.blogspot.ca/2011/03/sexy-cami-you-all-need.html

Black and blue – matte finish

http://chloesnails.blogspot.ca/2011/03/williammeet-flakieand-some-shopping.html

Black with silver starburst

http://mysimplelittlepleasures.blogspot.ca/2010/12/notd-star-of-bethlehem-water-marble.html

Black, red, white

http://nailside.blogspot.ca/2012/01/fancy-clouds.html

***Opal's winner for the copy of Virtual Love is Vanessa D!!  Congratulations!  Please email your mailing info to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com.  Thank you!!***

A Different Kind of Angel

Ideas about angels vary widely throughout mythology, religious doctrine, and popular media. The Bible (in its many versions) describes everything from the winged variety (six wings each, to be exact) to fantastical beings that look like wheels with eyes embedded all around their rims. In artistic works, angels are essentially depicted as winged humans. In literature and the movies (or on television), they run the gamut from robed and white-winged, residing in a celestial paradise, to wingless and ever-present among humans. So what is the common factor? Is there a common factor?

In most instances, angels are portrayed as having been sent to aid humans in some way, whether it’s to protect us against an imminent threat (the movies Legend and Constantine) or as messengers sent to help us see the error of our ways (movies Michael, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story). Essentially, angels – with the exception of the fallen ones – have existed solely to lend a helping hand and there has always been a clear delineation between the “good” ones and the “bad” ones.

It’s right about here that my dark urban fantasy series The Grigori Legacy veers from the norm.

I did a tremendous amount of research into angel mythology while building the world for Sins of the Angels and Sins of the Son, and the same four questions kept recurring in my writerly brain. (1) What if angels were never supposed to interact with our world at all, except to maintain some kind of status quo where the fallen angels were concerned? (2) If the line between good and bad can become blurred for humans, why not in angels, too? (4) What if they had free will? And (3), if humans had been created in the image of God and we turned out to be less than perfect, who was to say angels weren’t equally so?

Ultimately this translated into one lovely, potential-filled question: What if you took imperfect angels, forced their interaction in a world that was never supposed to know of their existence, returned their free will to them, and then placed impossible choices in their paths? For one Toronto homicide detective, the answer is the unraveling of her entire life…and a race to prevent Armageddon itself.

I do so love what if questions… :)

Linda

http://www.lindapoitevin.com

Dipping My Toes into the Steamy Waters of Romance by Jenny Gardiner

My friend, author Maggie Marr, recently invited me to help launch the release of her romance novel Can’t Buy Me Love by celebrating romance on her blog. I had to laugh when Maggie asked me to be featured as part of her “Spring Into Romance” theme, because I’ve found myself as a novelist to be at times adrift somewhere in that multiple-personality world that straddles commercial women’s fiction, chick lit and romance. Often times women's fiction doesn't fit in a particular category, which makes it harder to find a home for the book. And while my novels sometimes have been slotted as romance, I don’t regard myself as a straight-out romance writer in the same way that someone who writes category romances, for instance, does, perhaps because I don’t exactly write uber super steamy romance scenes (I’m too much of a weenie, because I think my teen kids would about kill me if I did). My nomadic genre-straddling was a problem for me when I published books with New York publishing houses-- I think the conundrum of where to shelve my books in a bookstore occasionally confounded the powers that be.

Over the past two years I’ve been able to enjoy a career as an indie author, publishing my work digitally direct to Kindle, Barnes and Noble, the iBookstore, Smashwords, and such, and have grown to love the freedom this provides me. For instance, there was a time when you really had to focus on one specific genre to “brand” yourself, which makes sense on many levels--find readers who like you as an author of historical romances, for instance, and they’ll follow you far and wide and buy/read all of your historical romances. But I tended to be all over the map, with non-fiction memoir, creative non-fiction, women’s fiction, chick lit, I even pitched a self-help book to my agent which I was told I could only sell to a New York house if I had a profile on a national level as an expert in that field. Natch. Oh well. And yeah, lurking in my laptop were a couple of straight-out romances as well, books I figured at some point I’d publish but only once I’d gotten my brand established enough to be able to veer away from it and not leave the “professionals” in New York to wonder what to do with my books.



But with indie publishing, I’ve been able to publish my novels and get them to readers. With the beauty of digital, I can categorize them to reach various audiences, and leave it up to the reader to decide if they like this book enough, maybe they’d like to try another of my novels as well. So that meant I was able to dust off those lurking romances and bring them out into the light of day (and, um, er, yeah, my kids might not be too thrilled, but more on that in a minute). And the thing about my romances is they’re a little too edgy usually to fit in the normal traditional publishing confines of “romance”, so all the better that I can publish them myself and let my audience figure it out! The first romance I published, ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE, is a lighthearted story of a woman tired of waiting for Mr. Right to come along. She wants kids, so she takes matters into her own hands (turkey baster, anyone?!). Unbeknownst to her, she’s then hired to be the photographer for her “donor’s” high society wedding. Mayhem ensues, etc.



My next romance, COMPROMISING POSITIONS, could almost be accused of being romantic suspense, but not really. It’s about a woman determined to get hired for a public relations job on Capitol Hill despite rampant sexism working against her. When she lands her dream job against her boss, the press secretary’s, wishes, it’s only because her other boss, a Viagra-sated Senator, wants to add her as another notch on his bed board. Sparks fly as my heroine falls fast for her press secretary (yeah, he falls for her as well) while having to dodge the aggressive moves of the horny Senator. Embezzlement, corruption and yet more mayhem ensue ;-). Oh, and those steamy sex scenes? Yep, I sucked it up and tried my hand at it (I’d originally written this book to enter into a contest sponsored by a New York Times bestselling author in which hot sex scenes were a must). I just decided to not tell my kids it’s out there. Oh, and I published these two novels under the pseudonym Erin Delany. Well, sort of. Jenny Gardiner writing as Erin Delany is more like it. Everyone asks me why I did it this way and I figured it made sense. Readers of women’s fiction are not always interested in migrating to romance, so I didn’t want to confuse those readers into thinking these were straight-out women’s fiction, but romance readers are often happy to straddle those lines, so I wanted them to be able to find my other books if they enjoyed these two romances. Make sense?

Anyhow, so I guess I am a romance writer. Well, sort of, at least sometimes. I like to say I'm a varied author. Whatever it is, I am definitely still a crazy mixed-up kid in publishing. But the great thing nowadays is that this confusion can work in my favor, rather than being a detriment. I hope you’ll go check out these books, as well as my others: #1 Kindle Bestseller SLIM TO NONE, American Title III winner SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER, WHERE THE HEART IS, ANYWHERE BUT HERE, WINGING IT: A MEMOIR OF CARING FOR A VENGEFUL PARROT WHO’S DETERMINED TO KILL ME, and I’M NOT THE BIGGEST BITCH IN THIS RELATIONSHIP (a humorous anthology of dog stories in which I’m a contributor).

Oh, and to show you how I love to jump all over the place, writing-wise, I'll be publishing a collection of humorous essays in the next week or so. Here's a preview of the cover:

The Unconventional Wedding - by Natalie Anderson

Wedding Accessories image by Rosen Georgiev,
http://www.freedigitalimages.net

I had the great privilege of going to a wedding in the weekend. I love going to weddings - such happy, fun, exciting occasions! It is such an honour to be there and celebrate with the happy couple :)

I'm always fascinated and delighted to see how people stamp their individuality on their weddings. Some might have a very original wedding dress - the most unusual, and frankly gorgeous, wedding frock I've seen was a purple one - a big full skirt in a luscious purple with flowers hand-painted around the bottom of it. It was stunning!

Others, like the wedding in the weekend, have a bridesman instead of a bridesmaid (and a groomsmaid instead of a groomsman); they might have music that reflects their taste, or the bride might make her entrance in the side-car of a motorcyle...

Then there's the venues - from church to garden to sports stadium to tropical-island-beach. I know couples who've gone to Vegas and given that I live in New Zealand, this wasn't a 'spur-of-the-moment' decision! Others have gotten hitched on the top of a mountain having been helicoptered in.

Wedding Cake image by Rosen Georgiev.
http://www.freedigitalimages.net

When I got married I was a traditionalist - it was the old stone church, big white dress and Rolls Royce to ride in for me. I loved it. But I confess I had a few moments of a 'beach elopement' fantasy going!

Now, as a romance writer, I ADORE getting to dream up the weddings for my heroes and heroines. Not that many of my books end up with a marriage - often its an engagement, or a declaration of commitment, but that doesn't stop me from envisioning what their wedding might be like. So much fun! In one book where I did describe the wedding, I had it as a surprise - the hero carts the heroine off for a weekend and it turns out he's organised the whole wedding (and it's actually a fairly traditional one) - and she's thrilled because she's always done all the 'organising' for everyone else, and she's very happy in this case she didn't have to! She could just enjoy it.

But I do love to gawp at weddings - if I'm out on the weekend and spot a ribboned car, then I'm rubbernecking to try to catch a glimpse of the bride! And I love it when you see something unique, or a twist on convention that reflects something about the happy couple...

So, to be in the draw to win a copy of FIRST TIME LUCKY? comment below and let me know some of the most unique or unconventional things you've seen at weddings!


EDITED TO ADD: the draw is now closed and the winner is Chrisbails! Thanks so much for sharing wedding stories with me everyone! :)

I'll draw a random winner from the commenters on Wednesday 21 March and edit the post to let you know!

USA TODAY bestseller Natalie Anderson writes fun, frisky, feels-good contemporary romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon and Entangled. With twenty books published, she’s also been a Romantic Times Award nominee & a finalist for the R*BY (Romantic Book of the Year). She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with her husband, four children and what feels like a million ducks.

Find out more at her website - and be sure to sign up to her newsletter while there, as she has subscirber only treats on offer! She's also on Twitter and Facebook.

Milk’s Just The Beginning…

As a long-time romantic, avid reader, and now published romance author, I’ve never liked the adage that encourages us to reject the cow for free milk.   On the one hand, I get it.  In marketing terms, a person can devalue a product by giving it away.  However, can you really devalue something that no one knows about?

If you searched the web right now, you’d find several authors giving away free books.

Here’s the thing.  Writers want readers to give our stories a try.  In fact, our characters live and breathe by this notion.  But give our stories away when we’re trying to make a living writing?  Does that make sense?

Writers, like most creative people, are a complex combination of innovative energy and debilitating insecurity.  We agonize that our words are not good enough.  Yet on some basic level, we believe readers will enjoy our stories.  When we give  them away, we aren’t devaluing our story, we’re shouting to the world that we have something of major value, something that if you just tried, you might love.  Love enough to read our other books.  Love enough to buy our other books. Love enough to keep reading and buying our books throughout the years. 

In a marketing article I just read, the author encouraged that: “When your product or service is superior to the competition you are going to need an effective way to get the word out and educate potential customers and clients.”

Put another way: “The world will not beat a path to your door for an insanely great mousetrap. In fact, the better your mousetrap, the more difficult it is to get people to embrace it because it is so different from what people are used to.”-- Guy Kawasaki

And as far as that old cow goes?  The cow has so much more to offer than free milk, and anyone who doesn’t recognize that is just plain short-sighted.

1. A cow eats grass then produces manure, which fertilizes the grass
2. The manure is used to fertilize fruits and vegetables
3. The cow eats more grass, which has now been fertilized
4. The cow produces milk and cream (in addition to…well, you know, but let’s focus on that milk), which makes ice cream…and enhances our coffee…and produces cheese and cakes and yogurt and… well, you get the picture

So really, why limit yourself to free milk when the cow is offering you so much more???

Today, you can download several of my books for free on Amazon. 

·         Paranormal romantic suspense novel:   Chosen By Sin (Para-Ops #3) (ends 3/18)

• Contemporary romance novel: This Magic Moment (ends 3/18)
• Contemporary romance novella: Wild For Him (ends 3/20)

For a limited time, you can also download more awesome books at www.freepartay.com

Next time you see a cow, or an author self-promoting despite how painfully shy she is, give it or her some love!  They’ll appreciate it—as I appreciate all my wonderful supporters.  Thank you!

Please comment on this blog post to be entered into a $10 Amazon gift card giveaway.

Bio: Virna DePaul is a former criminal prosecutor and now national bestselling author of the Para-Ops Novels.  She also writes contemporary romantic suspense for Harlequin Romantic Suspense (It Started That Night, May 2012) and HQN (Shades Of Desire, June 2012).  Sign up for her mailing list for access to her monthly writing “cheat sheets” and reader contests.  www.virnadepaul.com

Virna's latest release is Chosen By Sin, Book 3 in the Para-Ops Novels, which you can purchase in paperback (or download the e-book for free for a limited time) at Amazon.  Find out more at www.chosenbysin.com

Chosen By Sin:

 

The longest life isn’t always the happiest one…

Five years after the Second Civil War ends, humans and Otherborn—humanlike creatures with superhuman DNA—still struggle for peace. To ensure the continued rights of both, the FBI forms a Para-Ops team with a unique set of skills.

For now, werebeast Dex Hunt serves on the Para-Ops team, but his true purpose is to kill the werewolf leader he blames for his mother’s death. Biding his time, Dex keeps his emotional distance from his team members and anyone else he might care for, including a mysterious vampire he met in L.A.

As a doctor, vampire Jesmina Martin has dedicated her immortal life to healing others. As a scientific researcher, she’s trying to prolong life spans, in particular those of her adoptive dragon-shifter family and the werewolf who saved her as a child. Her greatest hope lies with Dex, a werebeast she believes can gift immortality to others.

Only Dex knows nothing about his gift or the fact Jesmina wants to harness it. After a passionate night together neither expects to see the other again. Weeks later, they are reunited in France and forced to acknowledge a fragile miracle—a new life struggling to survive. At the same time, they must stop a group of rebel shape-shifters hoping to unleash every demon in hell. But before Dex and Jesmina can save their child or the world, they must relinquish their secrets, face their fears, and open themselves to love.

***Virna's winner is Michele L.!!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your info! Thanks!!***

A Year of Firsts

Thank you Lee for having me back on Totebags! The last year has been a real rollercoaster ride, not only on the writing front, with a lot of new things on the horizon. I thought it’d be fun to share a few of the “firsts” in this post!

I’ve always been a cat lover (could be something to do with me being a Leo and a Tiger?) but after moving to Australia at the end of 1998 for one reason or another we never did get around to adopting any. Until last year when two gorgeous kitties dropped into our laps and reminded me of all the adorable reasons why I’d always had cats in my life since I was three years old. Last October saw the arrival of our first litter of kittens. Sadly, of the four only one survived—our darling little Theo, seen here just a few days old. He’s now five months old and a complete terror!

Another new experience happened at the suggestion of my fabulous Berkley editor. She wanted me to stretch my writing in a new direction and my Archangel series was contracted, kicking off with Archangel of Mercy on 4^th December 2012. Because these books are so different from my Ancient Historical romances by Christina Phillips, we decided I needed a new name to go with the new genre. And so Christina Ashcroft was born. It’s been a mad whirlwind setting up a new website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, but a lot of fun too. I’m popping back to Totebags in November to chat more about my gorgeous fallen Archangels, so stay tuned!!

As I obviously didn’t have enough on my plate with all of the above(!) I also decided this would be the year I’d dip my toe in the self-publishing waters. I got the rights back on the second novelette previously published by The Wild Rose Press and this month sees the re-release of Touch of the Demon by Christina Phillips, a 10k word futuristic fantasy, available at Smashwords and Amazon, for $0.99.

But I’ve saved the best till last :-) Next month is another first for me—when my first grandchild is due. Excited doesn’t even cover it!

Do you have a memorable “first” to share, or story about a fave kitty/canine? 

Christina is an ex-pat Brit who now lives in Western Australia with her husband and three children. She is owned by three cats who graciously allow her the occasional spare moment to write hot paranormal romance and historical romance for Penguin/Berkley Heat. She loves to chat with readers and you can catch up with her on Facebook and Twitter or join her Christina Phillips Newsletter for all the up-to-date info on her books.

Lisa Dale: Saying So Long To An Old Friend

In my current work in progress, my heroine is a somewhat insecure librarian. And when she’s around the hot Brazilian guy who keeps showing up to get her recommendations on kid’s books, she describes herself like this:

In the library break room, with Vic standing there so tall and built, she’d never felt more librarian-y in her life—as sexy as a set of recently outdated encyclopedias.

In my head, I was imagining the stinky, dusty Encyclopedia Britannica volumes (and they were voluminous volumes) that my parents had squirreled away in the basement thinking “they would be worth something someday.”

That my heroine would compare herself to a bunch of cumbersome, dusty books (in which the information isn’t really updated anymore) seemed perfectly fitting.

But because of a big change in the world this past week, the description became even more pertinent. If you didn’t already hear: Encyclopedia Britannica has quit printing books. They’re officially going online only.

I don’t know about you, but this news made my heart skip.

The EB has been continuously in print since 1768. To put that into perspective, in 1768 Sam Adams was drafting a letter to protest taxation without representation. Boston residents had started refusing to give quarter to British soldiers, who were there to keep the peace.

In 1768, your best bet for mid-week floor cleaning might have been to spread wet tea leaves then sweep them up (I prefer my Shark). To kill bed bugs, you would have doused the whole bedroom in toxic lime powder (today, exterminators freeze the little buggers). A letter to your cousin a few states of might have taken weeks to arrive (and now, email is instant).

So, the EB has been around since the dawn of time. Practically. That it is no longer going to be appearing in print has done a number of my heartstrings. Not because I ever fell in love with a set of encyclopedias, but because of what it means.

In my latest release, A Promise of Safekeeping, the hero (Will) is an antiques dealer and picker. He has a deep reverence for things that are old, dusty, a little broken down. I could see him having two reactions to the news from EB: 1) That’s really sad, 2) Hooray that the price of the printed editions will go up.

My heroine of that book, Lauren, wouldn’t blink to wave the EBs good-bye. She despises clutter and things that don’t have immediate practical function. She and Will are a very good match for each other, though they don’t initially think so (especially since Lauren had put Will’s best friend wrongly in prison).

Years ago, my husband (then a new boyfriend) bought me a gorgeous, compact Oxford English Dictionary. This thing is as thick as the cornerstone of a cathedral, and not less heavy. I wanted it because it had seemed fundamentally necessary at the time. And it was, for a while there. And still is when something I’m working on needs a formal citation.

But these days, when I need to look up a word, or a word’s history, for casual use, I turn to the Web. My Nook will even look up the word for me, and notate it. My OED is being used to press flowers from my wedding bouquet…and honestly that’s as much action as it’s seen in a while.

So what do you think? Good riddance to those bulky, dust-collecting encyclopedias?

Or did you, too, feel a weird little pang to hear they are going away?

Wishing you every good thing,

Lisa Dale

www.lisadalebooks.com/blog

Michelle Styles: Mothering Sunday

This Sunday is Mothering Sunday (aka Mother's Day) in the UK. It is always the Sunday before Palm Sunday (the fourth Sunday in Lent) as traditionally it was the day when people went home to their Mother Church, rather than worshiping where they lived. This normally meant seeing their mother as well and it naturally evolved.
Mother's Day in the US was started by Anna Jarvis in 1912 who sought to honour her mother with a day of peace. In the US, Mother's Day is the second Sunday in May because it is the one nearest to Miss Jarvis's mother's birthday.  Anna Jarvis. Australia started their celebration in 1924 as Mrs Janet Hayden saw many lonely and forgotten mothers in a hospital and wanted to do something to cheer them up.  because the UK already had Mothering Sunday, there was no need for a special day to be set aside.
Other countries celebrate different days which are special to women and mothers. In Muslim countries, this is 21 March as it celebrates the birth of the daughter of the prophet Muhammad.  So the day celebrating mothers depends on the country but thanks to the efforts of several determined people, it is celebrated.
The whole thing confused me when I first moved to the UK. Because I live in the UK, my children do Mothering Sunday. I have to remember to send flowers to my mother on the US Mother's Day. My mother gets very cross if I failed to remember the right day. My eldest son son had this problem last year as he was in the US. I was sent a Mother's Day card in May, rather getting one in March.
Personally I am just pleased to be remembered what ever day it is.
 This is my daughter's first year at university and she made sure she sent me a card and because she was feeling homesick,  she included a letter detailing why I was important to her. It made me cry as  it came from the heart and I was so pleased she had done that. I plan to do the same for my mother come the second Sunday in May.
So whatever day you celebrate Mother's Day, take the time and tell your mother why she is special to you. Not just a card or flowers but why you love her. And if your mother is no longer here, you can still write her a letter and tell her as she does live on in your heart. Your mother will be glad you did.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance for Harlequin Historical. Her next book His Unsuitable Viscountess will be published in August 2012, and then Hattie Wilkinson Meets Her Match in November 2012. You can learn more about Michelle's books by visiting her website www.michellestyles.co.uk