It's Easter Monday 'DownUnder' which is a public holiday. Many people get five days off over Easter..that's a big break and the retailers know it. For a month before Easter the junk mail is FULL of camping equipment sales and DIY sales. In the past we've done both of those things. We've often painted bedrooms, completed a big garden project. We've also gone camping. This year we took a road trip to visit my cousins in South Australia...the state next door. 

We also used it as an opportunity to visit Adelaide University. My eldest son will be off to uni/college next year and he's keeping his options open and we've been visiting quite a few places! It was also a chance for him to get more kilometres/miles under his belt driving because where we live he has to have driven 120 hours before he can sit his driver's test.


It was great catching up with family and seeing the cousins playing together.  I was able to share my exciting news with them and I want to share it here with you too!  Two weeks ago, I woke up to hear my iPad going ping, ping, ping. I stumbled out into the kitchen and read, 'Congratulations on your #Rita12 nomination.' My heart almost stopped and I automatically looked toward the phone to see if the message bank was blinking. Had I missed a phone call in the middle of the night telling me this news? 

Somehow I managed to get my fingers to work and I found the RWA list and yes, there under Single Title Contemporary Romance was my name and next to it was Boomerang Bride. I rang Angela James, the Chief Executive Editor of Carina Press and she told me I was the first Carina Press author to be nominated for a RITA^®  SQUEE!! For those of you who don't know about the RITA^®,  it is the Romance Writers of Amercia's award for published authors. My peers had read this book and deemed it worthy of being nominated.


This is a really special nomination for so many reasons, including the fact this book took a long time to find a home. It shares my love tor Australia and my love for the USA. It combines all the wonderful things about small towns in both countries and I just loved writing it. To read more about it including the song that inspired it, click here.

To celebrate my nomination, I'd love to give away an eBook version of Boomerang Bride.  To be in with a chance to win, tell me how you celebrated Easter this year. Remember to leave your email address in the comment in case you win!  

If you'd like to buy your own copy of Boomerang Bride it is available as a physical book and and an eBook

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequinand 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 RT Book Reviwers' Choice Award nominee, you  can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Boomerang Bride is available now from Carina Press,Amazon Kindle, Nook and all other online book stores

Spring has sprung! :: Anne McAllister

I live in the upper midwest where winter is a well-known phenomenon.  Some years it actually seems as if our four season are Winter and June, July and August. 

I like snow as much as the next person, but some years even I say, “Enough!”

Not this year. This winter I often found myself looking out at the white stuff and saying, “Is this all there is?”

Mind you, I was NOT complaining. I was merely voicing the same incredulity that almost every one of my neighbors was expression as well.  We had winter – of sorts. But we had absolutely nothing to complain about. It got down to zero a handful of days. Never more than two at a stretch (two is NOT a stretch, believe me).  And it snowed. Now and then.  Periodically.

So, yes, there was winter. But really, a perfect winter. Just ask all of us – minus the people whose income depends on ski resort earnings.  We were happy as clams.  Happier even.

And then, round about the first of March, came spring.

Color us amazed.  Surely it won’t stick around, we said when the temps hit 60.  Surely we’re imagining things we said when the temps hit 70 two or three days in a row.  Is the thermometer broken? we asked when one day mid-March it hit 83.

These are unusual temperatures for Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.  But not unheard of. Except for the fact that they seemed to stick around. It didn’t get below freezing for weeks. 

My husband actually had to break down and MOW THE LAWN – three (count ‘em. He did.) times in March alone. And once so far in April.

But we’re not complaining. 

Not just because it was a relatively short, relatively mild, relatively free-of-feet-of-snow winter. But because it is the most beautiful spring I’ve ever seen.

The scilla came up through the grass mid-March. The daffodils were blooming right on their heels.  The tulips are everywhere. The lilacs are gorgeous, as are the red bud trees and the flowering crabapples and the Jonathan and Beacon apple trees in our yard.  The whole town looks like an ad for a seed catalogue.  Mind-boggling.

Is it global-warming?  I hope not.  Is it the rare and beautiful spring that we so often don’t get because of fickle weather patterns?  A happier thought.

All I know is, I’m glad I got my book finished so I can go out and bask in the sunshine, walk the dogs and pretend that it’s going to last and last and last. 

I love it.

My mother, fiercely determinedly loyal Californian that she was – and who lived for nine years of her life in Iowa with her teeth clenched -- would have said, “If you LOVE IT SO MUCH, why don’t you move back to California where it’s like this all the time?”

To which I can only answer, “Mom, it’s wonderful because it’s unexpected and unlikely and more than we deserve. And you never really appreciated California until you lived in Iowa, either, did you?”

What’s the weather like where you are?  Making you happy?  Hope so!

Anne’s current book, Savas’s Wildcat, a Harlequin Presents Extra, is out this month. 

Savas’s Wildcat is set on Balboa Island in California in March, where it rained throughout most of the book. Well, not every day, but a lot.

Just saying . . .

Full Circle? - Marie Treanor

Lee, many thanks for inviting me to blog here again!

So, does anyone remember the publishing world just a few years ago? The days when e-book publishers were sneered at, and self-publishing carried a huge stigma?

I do. I remember rejecting out of hand my husband’s idea that I should self-publish and I didn’t even know what an e-book was! That was only about eight years ago. But I did investigate e-books and – wow!  The sheer breadth of imagination there took my breath away, and I had to have a go myself. I wrote and sold several romances to various e-publishers, mostly paranormals with a touch of futuristic, fantasy, suspense, humour - wherever my imagination took me, and it was fun!

Then in 2009 I was approached by a distinguished literary agent, who speedily got me a three book deal with New York publishers NAL. I couldn’t believe my luck. It was like a vindication. Those three books were the Awakened by Blood vampire romance trilogy: Blood on Silk, Blood Sin and Blood Eternal, and I was thrilled to see them out there. I still am!

And yet what’s my next big project? Returning not only to the world of e-books but to the once-rejected idea of self-publishing!

Nowadays, of course, you see well-established and highly successful authors taking the self-publishing route, and e-books have grown enormously in popularity from the days I first heard of them. So, over the next year or so, with my agent’s support, I have two, if not three series I plan to release in this way – the first, Blood Hunters, is a sequel series to Awakened by Blood and the first book, Blood Guilt should be out next month. For the rest, I just did what e-books always encouraged me to do – followed by imagination.

So have I come full-circle? Sort of, I suppose, but the circle keeps expanding as the publishing world changes out of all recognition. To me, my new ventures seem bright and new and exciting and I can’t wait to see where they take me!

What about you? As readers, do you prefer e-books or print books? Or like me do you read a mix? Are you as happy to read a self-published work as any other, providing the author and the story appeal? 

Let me know and I’ll put your name in the hat to win a download of any of my currently available e-books (except the Awakened by Blood trilogy which unfortunately I can’t get hold of in e-formats!). You can check them out on my website, www.MarieTreanor.com. Good luck!


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

The Times, They Are A-Changin’

Before I landed a great NY agent, and a book deal, and published books, and fans, and all that comes along with all of the aforementioned, I never used to watch television. I didn’t watch TV because I didn’t have time. I worked full time, was a wife and mother, and used all my spare time (ALL my spare time) writing.

These days, I’m still a wife and mother, but I now write full time. What that means is that I actually have a modicum of spare time. (Not much, but some, and hey, some is better than none, right?) My husband and I both work from home (which is awesome, I must say), and in addition to our daughter, we also have three dogs (aka The Canine Death Squad) and three cats (aka The Killer Kitties). The pets are really USED to having both Mommy and Daddy at home. Meaning that when my husband’s done working and I’m taking a break between my afternoon writing and my nighttime writing, we tend to stay at home. Because the pets are lonely without us. (Or so they tell us and we tell ourselves.) So nowadays, we actually watch some TV.

As anyone who’s known me for about 5 minutes is already aware, I’m a huge fan of “Castle”. I’m also a big fan of “Dancing with the Stars” and now “The Voice”. Believe me, DWTS and The Voice being on at the same time is really giving the DVR a workout. But I digress…

I bring all this up because a couple of seasons ago (the Kirstie Alley season), one of the stars on DWTS -- upon learning that they were going to have to learn two new dances and then do a bonus round, in one week -- said to her professional dance partner, “They just never let you get comfortable, do they?”

It’s true, and part of what makes DWTS so fun to watch, but it’s also true in real life. Lo these many years ago now, I got a wonderful job that required one big thing -- move my family from Los Angeles, California to Phoenix, Arizona. It was a change we were a little worried about, and we didn’t want to leave California, our friends, or, worst of all, our family. But it was the best thing in the world for us, and for me in particular, as I wouldn’t have started writing if we hadn’t moved here.

This also holds true in terms of writing a series. If you want to keep things fresh, fun, and interesting, you can’t let your characters get comfortable.

I write the Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books/Penguin. When it all started (Touched by an Alien), Kitty discovered that the Roswell rumors were true, but with a twist -- the aliens were here to help us, and as a side benefit, they were all gorgeous. As the series continued, Kitty got further into Centaurion Division and discovered that there was a lot of bad out there, both internal (Alien Tango) and very external (Alien in the Family). She also got engaged, and then married. Then the ultimate life change a person can go through happened (Alien Proliferation).

But, for me, that wasn’t enough. Sure, I’d taken Kitty’s life and turned it upside down. She’s gone from marketing manager to superbeing exterminator to the Head of Airborne for Centaurion Division. She’s gotten engaged, married, and given birth. That’s a lot of change.

The changes have been fun, and Kitty’s been up for every one of them. So, I had to ask myself -- what would Kitty and Company do if they were faced with a change that sounds great, but puts each and every character out of their comfort zone? What about a change none of them really want, but know they have to accept?

In my newest release, Alien Diplomacy, which hit the shelves this past Tuesday, April 3, Kitty’s no longer the Head of Airborne and killing superbeings for a living. She’s now part of the Diplomatic Mission for American Centaurion, representing an entire race that’s hiding in plain sight. Kitty and her alien husband, Jeff Martini, no longer live in Arizona and New Mexico, but have had to relocate to Washington, D.C. Even worse, Kitty and Jeff, can no longer do what they both enjoy -- kicking evil bad guy butt -- because they’re public figures.

Not that this will stop the bad guys from scheming, or Kitty from doing her best to save the day with hairspray and rock ‘n’ roll. But now she’s got to do it diplomatically.

Well, as diplomatically as she can. Which, since it’s Kitty, probably isn’t going to win her any Decorum Awards. But, hey, that’s part of her charm, and that I refuse to change.

Being newlyweds and new parents is challenging enough. But nothing’s ever easy for Jeff and Kitty Katt-Martini, particularly not when they have to switch from being superbeing exterminators and Commanders in Centaurion Division to mastering the political landscape as the new heads of American Centaurion’s Diplomatic Corps.

Kitty’s brand of diplomacy and lobbying isn’t quite as smooth as Jeff’s—Washington parties, lobbyists of all stripes, and politicians from all states and countries present challenges a well-stocked iPod and quirky sense of humor aren’t always up to handling. But when a shadowy assassination plot and a new set of anti-alien conspirators are identified, Kitty’s the diplomat for the job—in between “Mommy and Me,” “Diplomacy for Beginners,” and the dreaded “Washington Wife” classes.

As explosions, assassination attempts, and murders pile up, the question shifts from “who’s the target” to “will we all survive to see next week”?

    

Armed with only their wits, and dressed to kill, it’s up to Kitty and the Diplomatic Corps to stop the bad guys from unleashing mayhem on all the world’s leaders. But will Kitty trust the right people, at the right times, or will going her own way prove deadly—not just to her, but to her daughter, Jamie?

So, what’s been the biggest change you DIDN’T want to have happen that turned out to be the best thing in the world for you?

One commenter will receive a copy of their choice of any of the first three books in the series (Touched by an Alien, Alien Tango, or Alien in the Family), signed and personalized. Open internationally. Contest is open through Friday, April 13, 2012.

Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, AZ), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing. She also writes under a variety of pen names (including G.J. Koch, Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to rock music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She can be reached through her website at www.ginikoch.com.

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

Where Do You Draw The Line?

But first I want to say, it’s so nice to be back here at Totebags!  Lee, thank you for the invite to come back.  J

So, the line I’m talking about is the sexual comfort level line.  As a writer who uses her real name, my line has always been: if my children would be ashamed of me if they read it, then I won’t write it.  At the time of my first sale, my youngest child, a son, was 15, his brother 18, my youngest daughter 21 and her sister who was 24.

When my first book hit the shelves back in January 2006, it was a sexy hot cop novella.  I remember writing that story, and having to go back and delete and rewrite certain lines.  I did it because even though my kids knew I wrote hot stuff, and were 100% on board with me using my real name, I knew, my boys especially, would be uncomfortable if I went where the characters wanted me to go.  So I pulled back.  In my subsequent stories, I pushed a little. When I felt I went too far, I pulled back, and sometimes it wasn’t enough for my editor and she pulled me back some more. 

Then I sold the Blood Moon Rising, lycan trilogy to Berkley Heat.  My editor had no boundaries, and neither, I was soon to discover, did my lycan.  I did however find myself pulling back in book one, BLOOD LAW. Old habits die hard.  But, I did have a breakthrough with BLOOD LAW, because to date it was the smokinest hottest book I had written.  But when I started writing BLOODRIGHT, book two of the trilogy, the hero of this story, Lucien Mondragon, was having none of my vacillating about what was and what was not too far.  He kicked sand into my staunchly defended line and laughed at me. 

Oh, Lucien, you are all things wicked. 

I knew this!  I knew it in BLOOD LAW. I knew it when I began BLOODRIGHT, and I knew he was not going to let me look over my shoulder and second guess him.

Sigh, and Falon. As I, she was like, Ok, fine, but only because it’s you, Lucien, and because we all know how you are, will I go along with it. But don’t-“

That devil shushed her to silence.  And with that wicked grin that melts icebergs, he extended his hand to us both and well- you’re going to have to read BLOODRIGHT to find out where he took us.

But I can tell you this, my girl Falon and I learned a thing or two.  One, if you have two consenting adults and what they do behind closed doors isn’t going to hurt anyone, then it’s ok to go for it.  And two: when you’re with someone who doesn’t share your own uptighness, but promises to take you to a place you’ve never been before, you’d be a fool not to go!

So, I let go.  I allowed my characters to dictate where and how deep their line was drawn instead of making that decision for them.  It was liberating as an author, and as I wrote those certain scenes in BLOODRIGHT, I vowed to never ever, ever allow my own personal line determine what anyone in real life or in my fictional work should and should not do.  Because at the end of the day, it’s none of my business.

My children are older, wiser and far more accepting of the world as we know it.  I didn’t give them enough credit.  Or maybe I did then, but things are different now.  While I won’t encourage them to read this trilogy, if they do, and raise an eyebrow or shake their heads, I’m just going to smile and say, “The characters made me do it.”

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

How about you, where do you draw your personal line?  I'm giving away a copy of BLOOD LAW to a lucky commenter!

***Karin's winner is Barbara!  Congratulations!  Please email your mailing info to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com.  Thanks!***

April Flowers

We’ve recently had a bit of a cold snap, but the drop in temperature hasn’t stopped the early display of blossoms in my garden.  It’s a rare Spring when the forsythia, a cherry tree, waves of daffodils and early tulips are all on show in my yard, and, boy, am I enjoying it.

I’m a gardener—in case you couldn’t tell.  True, as the years go by, I expend less time and energy on plants that need to be coddled, gravitating instead to native perennials and those that seem to thrive with neglect.  These days, it’s more a case of thinning out than adding new.

So what kind of plants do I have?  I live in central New Jersey in a wooded area, and so I have a shade garden.  My aesthetic is “natural”, which requires more work than one might imagine.  Believe me when I say there’s a fine line between a free-flowing tumble of plantings and utter chaos.  As for trees, I have a wonderful array of maples and wild dogwoods.  My shrubs are much as you might expect: rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris andromeda, hydrangeas and hollies—all those wonderful acid-loving varieties.  My perennials include mounds of Lenten roses, deep-purple columbines, hostas of every stripe (literally), black-eyed Susans, lobelia syphilitica, daylilies, spiderwort, foxgloves and scented geraniums.  I could go on, but I must stop somewhere.  And just to round things out, I move outside two palm trees and plant begonias and cherry tomatoes in large pots on the deck.

Each year brings something new, sometimes delightful, sometimes not—tulips that haven’t shown their petals in years suddenly pop up, or a random deer evade the black-mesh fence and enjoys a feast of daylilies.  Either way, I always say it’s hard to be depressed in the face of such changing beauty. 

So, are you a gardener, too?  Tell me what you plant, what you love about your garden, and what frustrates you.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Oh, and by the way, my new release from Harlequin Superromance, The Company You Keep, is also out in April—a bouquet of love that’s a perfect accompaniment to my spring garden.

Tracy
www.tracykelleher.com

Hockey Hero, Anyone?

It’s no secret that I love sports and the heroes who thrive in the world of sports. I’ve written race car drivers and baseball players, coaches and managers, sports agents and now – hockey players.

My new pair of releases – this month’s ONE MAN RUSH and May’s HER MAN ADVANTAGE – both feature hockey heroes. I had so much fun writing these tough and driven athletes who play an incredibly physical sport.

If you’ve watched much hockey, you know the speed at which this game moves. These guys fly on skates and they do so for an hour during each game. And it’s not enough to shred your quads reaching top speed on ice. Hockey players also fend off big hits and they carry sticks while they battle it out for the puck. They take pucks to the face, sticks to the face, and sometimes, another player’s fist to the face. It’s not a sport for the weak.

As a writer, I liked playing with the idea of someone that mentally and physically tough being vulnerable to love. It’s the same dynamic that makes us swoon when we see a big, burly marine cradling a child. While we admire a man’s brute strength, we like it even better when we know he can temper it.

 

So it goes for the hero of this month’s release, Kyle Murphy. He’s a power forward and as tough as they come, but when the matchmaker heroine walks into his life, a huge vulnerability opens up in that he-man armor. What makes it more fun is that he doesn’t know it right away.  It’s fun to see him try to fight the inevitable.

What about you?  Do you love a jock hero?  What kinds of heroes—or hero professions—are auto-buys for you? I’ve got a signed copy of ONE MAN RUSH for one random poster!

Joanne

http://www.joannerock.com

***Joanne's winner is LisaGKendall!!  Congrats!  Please email your mailing details to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com!  Thanks!***

How Not To Take An Important Call

Once a year, Romance Writers of America (RWA) sponsors two major contests: the RITA awards for published authors and the Golden Heart awards for unpublished authors. Every year around the end of March, RWA announces the finalists for the two contests. The majority of RWA members are sitting at their computers early in the morning, watching as the names of the finalists show up at the RWA website. I certainly planned to be seated at the computer watching while the names appeared, but my plans went slightly awry.

Let’s back up to the Friday before the big event. I checked into my favorite hotel for the weekend in order to write uninterrupted. On Sunday night, a friend sent me a direct message on Twitter. She said she dreamed that I finaled in the RITAs. I scoffed and messaged her back: You Were dreaming. In a second tweet, I added: I’m managing my expectations—below sea level.

I knew the competition in the Regency Historical category and didn’t think my two books stood a chance against those heavy hitters. I’m fairly new, and my third book HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE just came out. I just felt any hopes otherwise were unrealistic under the circumstances.

Monday morning dawned, and I checked out of the hotel early so I could go home and watch the announcements. I drove out of the parking lot and my car decided to stop—as in it wouldn’t move. Not even an inch. At that moment, I just knew this day was going to stink like swamp water. I called the dealer to haul off my car, and then I called mom to rescue me.

After I got home, I couldn’t wait to boot up my computer. Then the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and didn’t recognize the number. I picked it up, and when I didn’t hear a voice right away, I hung up.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

Yep, a few minutes later, the phone rang again. The same name showed up on the caller ID. Puzzled, I answered it. A very nice lady said her name was Lorraine Heath and that she was calling on behalf of RWA. I held my breath and started shaking.

She told me that I triple finaled in the RITAs. I teared up, and only Lorraine knows what crazy stuff came out of my mouth. J Then I booted up the computer and got deluged with congratulations.

The Deets: HOW TO MARRY A DUKE finaled in Best Regency Historical and Best First Book. HOW TO SEDUCE A SCOUNDREL finaled in Best Regency Historical. And I still can’t believe it!

Have you ever gotten surprised after having low expectations? Tell me about a time when you unexpectedly got really great news. Leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE (US & Canada Only)

HOW TO RAVISH A RAKE

SCANDALOUS DESIRES . . .

Amy Hardwick has one last Season to shake off her wallflower image and make a love match. If she can’t, she’ll set aside her dreams of romance and return home to a suitor who can provide security—if little else. What she doesn’t count on is the inappropriate—and irresistible—attention lavished on her in a darkened library by rake extraordinaire Will “The Devil” Darcett . .

 DEVILISH DELIGHT

 When Will is caught in a tryst with the ton’s shyest miss, he knows he must offer for her hand. Yet Amy is not the shrinking violet she seems to be. Passion lies beneath her prim exterior and Will is eager to release it. But winning Amy isn’t simply a matter of seduction; first, Will must convince her that he’s mended his wicked ways . . .

Vicky Dreiling is a confirmed historical romance junkie and Anglophile. Frequent business trips to the UK allowed her to indulge her passion for all things Regency England. Bath, Stonehenge, and Spencer House are among her favorite places. She is, however, truly sorry for accidentally setting off a security alarm in Windsor Castle. That unfortunate incident led her British colleagues to nickname her “Trouble.” When she’s not writing, Vicky enjoys reading, films, concerts, and most of all, long lunches with friends. A native Texan, she holds degrees in English literature and marketing.   


***Vicky's winner is Renee!!  :)  (Please note you must reside in the USA or Canada in order to receive this prize!)  Send your mailing details to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com as soon as possible!  Thanks***

Back to Normal . . .With Kate Walker

Last month I told you all about the chaos I was living in.  There was the work on the kitchen,  the wall knocked down, the new space crfeated, the new cupboards and fitments, the flooring ..  . It was all at perhaps the craziest stage this time last month and  the Babe Magnet and I were feeling very close to the end of our tether as we began to wonder whether it would ever be finished.

And that was before they started work on the bathroom.  . .No shower, no toilet upstairs, no water a lot of the time . .   and the noise, the dust, the mess. . . I was actually heard one morning saying was it too late to say that I'd changed my mind?

But today I sit here  - at last  - in peace and quiet. The kitchen is finished, the bathroom installed, the builders  have packed up therir tools and departed, the last skip of subbish has been taken away and we can pause, draw breath and look around us.  We've  actually been able to cook a meal again after weeks living on microwave food or salad. We've been enjoyin having showers and baths again  in the lovely new bathroom. The cats - Flora and Charlie - have decided that they're not leaving home after all. What started out looking like this  (left) now looks like this (right). (We were still in the middle of cleaning and sorting when I took that picture!)

Already the memories of the cold and dirt, the non stop noise are starting to fade, and all we can remember are some of the trickier bits -  as we sit back and enjoy the final result, the lovely new creation that is so much better than we ever anticipated. It's very much  - as someone once said - like giving birth when  you soon forget all the pain and struggle because the ened result is so worth it.

Or the way I feel when a new book is finally on the shelves in the bookshops, and no matter how much I had to struggle with it, no matter how many rewrites, revisions, tweaks there were to do, I always look at this brand new novel and think it's a lovely book - one of my favourites. No matter how much I may have cursed it, or muttered that it just wasn't working - that maybe I should scrap it -now I'm glad to see it  finally appear and I forget all about the  struggle to get it done.

So perhaps it's appropriate that just as I'm sitting back and enjoying the new kitchen, and the bathroom,  I'm also celebrating that other moment of feeling the achievement of having my latest brand new book out in Presents Extra this month.  The Devil and Miss Jones is published on April 4th - next week. And  that sort of feeling is happening with this one too.   I know I had  some revisions to do on this book. I know there were tweaks and tightenings and general reworking that my editor asked me to do - but as always I can't quite remember them.  The book is  complete,  it's out there ready for readers to try it.  My 'baby' is born and I just hope that everyone loves it as much as I do.

UK readers really seem to have enjoyed it - there are several 5 star reviews on the Mills & Boon web site   and one reader said :

This is a little gem - everything a Modern M&B should be which had me wanting to cheer at the end!
So I'm hoping that American readers will take my sexy Argentinian hero Diablo  and his Miss Jones to their hearts as much as the UK readers have.

And now that I have time to breathe  and to enjoy the publication date of this latest book, I'd like to celebrate with you - and I'm offering a signed copy of The Devil and Miss Jones as a giveway on this blog today.

Spring has sprung - at least it has here with the sun shining and Easter just around the corner so why don't you tell me what you're looking forward to for the holidays? Will you be having afamily get togther? Or eating far too many chocolate egss?  Putting bunches of daffodils all over the house? Or just curling up with a great book? (Which one is next on your TBR list?).

Let me know and I'll get Charlie the Maine Coon to pick a winner from everyone who comments.

Me? I'll be choosing colours and painting all the walls - and the ceilings - and the woodwork . . .


And Happy Easter to everyone when it comes - I hope you have a lovely time.

The Devil and Miss Jones is published in Presents Extra on April 4th . You can keep up with all my news  on my web site, and the latest  happenings are over on my personal blog.


So - Charlie has picked a winner and the name he chose is - Chrisbails! Christine please email me kate at kate-walker.com with your postal addrss and I'll organise your prize for you. Everyone else - have a  fabulous Easter holiday.

The way things work...

Thanks, Lee, for inviting me to blog here at AUTHOR SOUND RELATIONS. I really appreciate the forum you’ve offered, especially since I’ve got a new book coming out April 1!

CrystalFire is the final story in my DemonSlayers series, and since I finished writing the story a year ago, I’m going through the process of putting myself back into that world so that I can recall the details when people ask questions, but that’s the way things work in this business. And since it’s something that readers don’t always know, I thought I’d talk about it a bit.

The best part of being an author is writing the books. The worst part of being an author is writing the books. Go figure, but it’s true. There’s such an amazing element of discovery each day when I sit down to see what my characters are up to, and at the same time, there’s always the fear in the back of my mind that maybe they’re not going to tell me. It’s like, if they don’t let me in on the secret, I’m screwed! So far, they’ve not kept me out of the loop, and all the books I’ve been working on have managed to get themselves written.

But once the story is done and sent off to my editor, it’s on to the next book, and then the next. I had to go back and look at my schedule, but since I turned in the final CrystalFire manuscript last year, I’ve written two novels for my new Dream Catchers series, Dream Unbound and Dream Unchained, four novellas for my self-published Demon Lovers series: Unbalanced, Unbound, Unmasked and now Unleashed, have edited and prepared two of my older titles, 68 & Climbing and Cowboy in My Pocket for self-publishing, wrote numerous blog posts and a gazillion emails and have started another new series. Point being, I’ve not read or been thinking about the book that’s actually coming out, which means I’ve had to go back and reread it to even remember the story!

Hopefully, that will explain the “deer in the headlights” look I sometimes get when a reader asks me about a point in one of my books. My mind is always wrapped around the current project, which, for me right now, is my brand new series, Spirit Wild. This is one I’ve been so anxious to get to—it’s my second generation series about the Chanku, stories that take place twenty-five years after Wolf Tales 12. I’m three chapters into Lily’s story, To Love a Dark Wolf, and I’m having the time of my life discovering Lily as a young woman...but, I really need to talk about CrystalFire and what THIS book is about! Like I said, it’s the way things work.

CrystalFire is nothing like I imagined it would be and everything I hoped for a final book to a series. It’s got unlikely heroes, a horrible threat to mankind (and Lemurian-kind!) and two secondary stories that weren’t even on the radar when I started writing.

But again, that’s the way these things work, and I think you’ll understand what I mean when you read the book. I do have something I’d love an opinion on—you’ll notice is that I write in a lot of different genres. Wolf Tales is erotic paranormal, Dream Catchers is erotic science fiction, DemonSlayers is paranormal, Cowboy in My Pocket is contemporary western humor, 68 & Climbing is contemporary romance and Demon Lovers is erotic urban fantasy. I do them all as me—they’re all written by Kate Douglas. We’re having a discussion on an author list right now about using pseudonyms—what’s your thought on that? Do you want an author to keep one name for all their genres, or would you prefer a different name? Or should it be a different name linked to the original, the some authors do: Joe Blow writing as Betsy Smith? I’d love to take your answers back to my list and let the authors know what you think. AND, for allowing me to pick your brains, three winners will be chosen from those who leave a comment. I’m giving away your choice of a copy of StarFire or the new book, CrystalFire.

***Kate's winners are Denise Z, TinaMaire and Maria E!! Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your full name an mailing address asap! Thanks!***

A scary place to live…

On of the questions authors are always asked is, “Where do you get your ideas?” This isn’t always easy to answer because most writers have very active imaginations, and scenes non-writers see take on a whole new visual when you look at it from the writer’s perspective. For me, ideas come from all over—song lyrics, movies, sometimes even documentaries. But by and large, my ideas come from every day life. Today is a perfect example.

At the moment, I’m sitting in my dad’s pool house, watching my kids (AKA…Gremlins) jumping around in his outdoor hot tub. We’re in Washington and it’s spring break, which means it’s cloudy and rainy and COLD, and to say you couldn’t pay me enough to get out there and soak with them is an understatement. But from the confines of the little pool house my dad built, I have a safe perspective to view the festivities. Or terror…depending on what you see.

There is, of course, yelling (muffled, thankfully, by the pool house walls), screaming, splashing, dunking (even though I told them not to). Most parents would be concerned about safety and their kids damaging something, but not me. No, the writer in me is envisioning Greek myth monsters swimming under the surface, shooting out of the water and releasing a steady stream of fire across the unsuspecting inhabitants on the shore in their cozy little houses. (Yes, that would be me in the pool house!)

I know, that sounds a little psychotic, doesn’t it? But a writer’s brain is often a scary place to exist. When we’re in the car and I’m staring out the window, my husband will often ask me if I’m okay. It’s not uncommon for me to spend hours staring out at nothing, but in my head everything is happening even though from the outside it looks like I’m zoning out. Characters are talking, scenes are taking shape, normal everyday events are twisting and morphing until what’s I see isn’t what’s really there but is what I’ve created in my mind instead.

Sometimes I wish there was a cure for this. My brain is constantly working whether I want it to be or not. But most of the time, seeing the world from a whole different perspective lends itself to exciting stories and unique scenes. And at the end of the day, for a writer, that’s a pretty cool thing. Even if it means a simple, relaxing hot tub becomes a boiling lake of acid and lava. (Yes, that scene is morphing even as I type!)

My latest book is ENRAPTURED, the fourth book in my Eternal Guardians series, releases on April 3rd and was recently named as one of the Top Ten Romances of 2012 by Publisher’s Weekly. To celebrate the book’s release, my publisher is giving away a copy to one lucky commenter. Ask me anything to enter!

***

A former junior high science teacher, Elisabeth Naughton traded in her red pen and test tube set for a laptop and research books. She now writes sexy romantic adventure and paranormal novels full time from her home in western Oregon where she lives with her husband and three children. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards, including the prestigious RITA® awards by Romance Writers of America, the Australian Romance Reader Awards, the Golden Leaf and the Golden Heart. When not writing, Elisabeth can be found running, hanging out at the ballpark or dreaming up new and exciting adventures. Visit her on the web at www.ElisabethNaughton.com

***Elisabeth's winner is Dina!!  Congratulations!  Please email your full name and mailing address to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com.  Thanks!***

A Year in the Life of an Author - March

This is the time of year--three months into the year--where I start to say to myself, "Good heavens, where has the year gone?" That and I start panicking about school letting out in about two and a half months. Yikes.

If you haven't been following this series, I am writing a monthly blog here at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs, giving you an inside look at the working year of an author. My first two recaps can be found here:

• January
  
• February

March revolved around two things: writing as many pages as I could and going to Philadelphia for the Public Library Association Conference (PLA). Like most trips, especially when you are going from one coast to another, you lose days just in travel--but I try to make my flights count. I spent the time doing the final read through of an e-pub version of a short story I wrote several years back for the Mammoth Book of Regency Romance.

The nice part about being an author is that a lot of your work is portable. I take notebooks with me everywhere for scene planning, and with the short story, I had it loaded on my ereader. Two cross-country flights gave me the focused time to get Cynders and Ashe ready for publication and I am happy to say it is now available on Kindle and Smashwords. Nook should be available this week.

So it was off to Philadelphia--where I spent a whirlwind day speaking and signing. Three different signings--giving away advanced copies of Along Came a Duke (lucky dang librarians!) and Lord Langley is Back in Town. So you are thinking--two full days of travel crossing the continent for one day of work? Yeah, I know. Crazy. But really fun. The librarians I met were a kick in the pants and I fell in love with Philadelphia. Loved it! What's not to love about a city that embraces its history on every corner. Loved, loved, loved the place. Blogged about my visit here.

And in between all this jet setting, I was writing. Full on, get your pages running, writing. I am now past my difficult part--every writer has their difficult part to a book, whether it be starting, editing or finishing. Mine is the first seven chapters--and from here on out it is a dead run to the end. By the end of Chapter 7, I find that I finally really know my characters and stories. Instead of having the story trickle out, it becomes a river of words rushing toward the ocean. In the late afternoon and evening, I map out with a paper and pen my scenes for the next day, and the next morning, I lay out my notes and just start story telling. I love this part of the book.

After months and months of writing, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the first draft should be done in about two or three more weeks. And then comes April. But we'll talk about that next month.

Oh, hey! If you are bummed that you aren't a librarian and didn't return from PLA with an extra suitcase of books and ARCs, Mondays find me giving away books over on my blog, and if you are looking for a great deal on my new book, Along Came a Duke, the e-version is currently $4.99 on preorders.

See you at the end of April!

Back to TEXAS! by Linda Conrad

I’m thrilled about the start of my brand new series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense called Chance, Texas. The series features rugged Texas men. My all time favorite.

The first book in the series is on shelves in print now (April 1 on Kindle and B&N) Called TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY, the hero is Sam Chance, the oldest brother in the large ranching family. A strong, quiet man of the United States Secret Service, Sam’s job is to guard witnesses in the protection and security program. The one witness that gets to him, running from his protection and changing his life, is Grace Brown. Hiding from the Mexican drug king who kidnapped her, killed her parents and then made her his mistress, Grace wants to become self-sufficient enough to protect her baby son. But she discovers she must also learn to trust Sam.

Finding unique plots and interesting characters is always a challenge. Yet I know those are the very things that make readers happiest. I know because that’s what makes me happiest as a reader and a writer. My favorite settings are in Texas. The romance of the great American West stirs a passion in my soul. I’ve told many of my stories from a western perspective because I think it’s so romantic for a hero and heroine to face challenges from mother nature along with challenges of the heart.

You may not think of Texas as the wild west anymore. Most of it isn’t. But today there are still thousands of acres of ranch land and many wild spots along the border of Texas and Mexico. Chance, Texas takes place on a huge modern ranch and in a small town in isolated west Texas.

I know Texas may not be as chic or sophisticated as a European capital. Nor does it seem as much fun as a place like New Orleans. But there is just something about Texas that fits like a favorite pair of old shoes.

Paraphrasing the state’s travel guide: Texas is so big it feels like a whole other country! Yes, the state does have fabulous sand beaches and big city sights. But what makes it still Texas to me are the gorgeous mountains and rugged desert. The water-carved canyons and bluebonnet-strewn rolling ranchlands. The still isolated and wooly feel of the land bordering the Rio Grande. And the great range lands that somehow feel like they make up the nation’s history.

If it weren’t for Texas where would all the cowboys go? Gotta love those hunky cowboys with broad shoulders and rippling muscles, honed from wrangling all that cattle and riding all those horses.

The contemporary romantic cowboy is more of a mindset than an actual person. He must be tough and hard working, but he must also be kind and honest to a fault. A cowboy is always the good guy. Americans need books about cowboys to remind them that the country is large, but never so large that its people can’t stop and enjoy the world around them the way a cowboy does on horseback.

Of course, real cowboys don’t ride on horseback much anymore. They use SUV’s and helicopters to ride the herds. But the cowboy still stands for all that is pure and true. He’s never on the wrong side. He knows that a job must be done and he’s the guy who can do it. He can stay up all night to finish a job (or make love to his woman) the same way his counterparts did a hundred years ago on the trail. A cowboy never looks for trouble. He’s the man who will take on the bad guys in a heartbeat, but will also go twenty miles out of his way to take a sick dog to the vet. They defend good people who cannot defend themselves. They are honest and polite. And they know how to treat a woman.

Modern cowboys are not all molded alike. They each have their own style, and that style is uniquely suited for romance novels.

In TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY, Sam Chance must go back home to Texas in order to protect his witness and her child. Sam has stayed away from the Chance ranch deliberately, to avoid seeing his own guilt reflected in the eyes of his brothers. But his heart belongs to Texas and that’s where he feels at home. It’s up to him to make Grace see the value in Texas and want to stay there too.

Here’s a small excerpt of the beginning when Sam first catches up to Grace:

Stinging cold rain ran off the brim of his hat and dripped down the back of U.S. Marshal Sam Chance’s neck.

Shrugging deeper into his lambskin coat, Sam felt chilled through and bone-weary. So flipping bone-weary, in fact, that he figured sleeping for a hundred years would make a great way to spend his next time off—whenever that might happen.

But as he stood on the pavement in the rough March drizzle staring through the smudged front window of a run-down highway café, his body got a shot of much needed adrenaline. And suddenly, he had no need for sleep anytime soon.

She was there. Bending over to wipe down an empty table. After searching for the last six weeks, he’d finally found his woman.

The information he obtained from those truck drivers a few days ago had been the key to finding her. They’d said she was working as a waitress in this dingy joint. And there she was.

But look at how fragile she seemed from this distance. He’d never known her to be so thin. And she’d changed her hair color again. He had grown rather partial to the bright red, but he supposed honey-blond was not all bad—if what you needed the most from your hair color was a temporary disguise.
Where was her baby? Did she bring him to work with her? Was the child in the backroom of the café?

Wanting to go to her, to hear her voice again, he fisted his hands at his sides instead and tried to clear his mind.

But he didn’t move. He didn’t as much as blink an eyelash. Focusing his eyes past the left-over Christmas decorations on the window, that were by now looking pretty ratty, he simply gazed at her.

He shouldn’t be here. Never should have started this quest to find her in the first place. He’d taken a leave from his job in order to begin the search. But now that he’d found her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. That she was still well and breathing free air felt like such a relief he could barely think. …..

There you go! Just a little taste of Sam’s journey. From here the story takes a fast turn and becomes a grand adventure right to the end. I think you’re going to love meeting Sam and Grace and her baby. I know I loved writing their story.


So what do you think of books about Texas and ranchers? Like them or hate them? If not cowboys, what’s your favorite hero do today? Leave a comment and three people will win a drawing for autographed copies of the first two books in the Chance, Texas series: TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY and TEXAS MANHUNT!

You can find out more about Linda and sign up for her newsletter at: www.LindaConrad.com or catch up with her on facebook and twitter. http://www.facebook.com/LindaConradauthor 

https://twitter.com/#!/LindaConrad

***Linda's winners are : Laney4, Shelley B and Eli Yanti!!  Congrats, ladies!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your full name and mailing address!***

Doomsday Preppers

Have you seen the show? It's oddly fascinating, all about survivalists who are building and stocking bunkers to see them through the Mayan Doomsday, the zombie apocalypse, or whatever other catastrophe might be on our horizon. Some of them have supplies enough for a few months, some for upwards of a year.

While I shudder at the thought of being stuck in a small underground space for very long, I'll confess to liking that my DH is a low-level prepper, stashing antibiotics, ammo and equipment that should up our chances should a Big Bad happen. Since DH is outwardly a laid-back shop manager, I find his inner Bear Grylls pretty darn sexy.

Because my Nightkeeper series is about the magical warriors prophecized to protect us from the Mayan Doomsday, I get asked a lot whether I think the world is going to end on 12/21/2012. The answer is, “Nope.” However, I do think that when we look back on it, we'll see that lots of things changed during this period (which is how some people have interpreted the Mayan calendar's end).

We're in the middle of those changes right now, and it's not always easy to feel secure. So I say we should do what it takes to make us feel safe (okay, within reason!), whether that's building a bunker or just having some trail mix and bottled water tucked away. What do you think?

If you'd like to learn a bit more about the Mayan doomsday and the brave, sexy men and women tasked with protecting us, check out www.JessicaAndersen.com and the Nightkeeper books, including my upcoming release, MAGIC UNCHAINED (Signet, April 3, 2012).

In the meantime, tell me ... what's in your bunker? Me, I've got chocolate, books by Linnea Sinclair and Lois McMaster Bujold, and Diet Coke. Everyone who posts will be entered to win a random drawing for a signed copy of MAGIC UNCHAINED ;-)

Jessica

http://www.jessicaandersen.com

***Jessica's winner is Maureen!!  Congratulations! Please email your mailing info to totebag@authorsoundrelations.com as soon as possible!  Thanks.  :) ***