Have you embraced your inner pink?

Well fall has arrived here in Ottawa Canada. The trees are changing colors and the weather is getting colder. That can only mean one thing, October is here. I have to say I love October. Why? Well its perfect weather for runs, but also because its Breast Cancer month. Yep I’m wearing my pink quite proudly this month.


Some of you might not know this but my debut release DEADLY SECRETS is an official sponsor of the American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF). This is a fantastic organization. They do so much for women who are fighting breast cancer and their families. Also they provide free mammograms for women who couldn’t otherwise get them, and as we all know early detection is the best way to kick this disease to the curb. Check them out at http://abcf.org/

Now the reason why I chose to become a sponsor for the ABCF even though I’m not American is because of a good friend of mine and fellow LBF Books author, AB Wallace. She fought the disease twice. She one the first battle, but miserably lost the second one this past spring. We used to have long email discussions about her battle and treatments. I was her cheerleader and an ear when she needed to vent. She often mentioned that the medication and treatments she needed to take were really expensive. She didn’t know what she would have done had she not been able to get the mammogram that found the cancer in the first place.

Last year when I ran the Run For The Cure in my home town, AB had just been diagnosed with a relapse. So I found that run to be hard and tears made their way down my face as I ran among other runners. This year I ran in AB’s memory. I feared I would cry the whole time, but I didn’t. I felt as though we were doing the run together. What an amazing feeling.

When my book was released nearly two years ago I decided I wanted to do something. Getting published has been a dream of mine for many years. So I decided I wanted to do something to help others with it. That’s the reason I decided to donate all my royalties to breast cancer and to get my book a sponsor for the ABCF. Do I think my royalties will make a difference? Help find a cure? Probably not, but if it helps one woman find her cancer in its early stages then it was well worth it.

Want to know about DEADLY SECRETS? Well it’s a romantic suspense that takes place in Canada. Here is the blurb,

PHILIPPE LAFRANCE is a well known reclusive writer whose life is suddenly thrown upside down. The grandfather he never knew existed dies. Throughout his own investigation, Philippe learns that his family has kept secrets from him, deep, ugly secrets. A killer is murdering the men in his family. First his father then his grandfather have succumbed at the hands of another. This murderer is trying his utmost to keep secrets buried. Bereft, Roxanne St-Clair is left to manage a restaurant when the only person who ever mattered to her, her foster parent and mentor, is murdered. She puts her life on hold to find his killer and bring him to justice. Thrown together by circumstance and a mutual goal, Philippe and Roxanne fight their attraction and team up to find the killer, bring him to justice and unearth the truth. To stay alive, they must keep one step ahead of the assassin in order to prevent him from killing his next target, Philippe. Will they succeed in bringing to justice this killer before Philippe becomes his next victim? Will they be able to deal with the truth behind all the secrets?

If you’d like to read an excerpt or view my trailer check my home on the net, http://www.leeannburke.com/books.html

If you want to help me, the ABCF and help fight breast cancer pick up a print copy or ebook. If you want to make a direct donation to the cause please think of donating to the ABCF directly http://abcf.org/ .

If you can't afford to donate this year, that's fine, just think about wearing something pink in honor of all these warrior ladies.

She's Back

That's pretty much how I've been for the last month - although maybe without the glowing eyes.  At least the hubby hasn't mentioned them.  Allergies or a cold that won't die.  Can't figure out which.  Both equal massive foggy brain troubles.  Good thing I'm not a surgeon.  Who knows what I'd accidently cut off.   I doubt a patient would accept  - oh, well, you didn't need two of those anyway.  Especially if it was a guy.

(And hope I'm allowed to use that pic on my blog.  They were all there for downloading and I see them on FB all the time.  But - if you read about a little aging writer being dragged off to jail for misusing pix on the net, pray for me.)

That's only one reason I haven't blogged recently.  Lost my little book with all my passwords.  Yes, I know I could've changed my password and got on here but I didn't think of that.  Nor did it occur to me to call Leeann who handles the guest bloggers and has the password.  No.  I got fixated on finding the *!#* book.  Took a couple of weeks.  It was in a box.  See, when I'm writing, or running off to conferences or talks or meetings as I've been for the last few months, I tend to let things slide around the house.  Then, of course, company decides to come.  Cleaning up for company usually means stuffing a lot of things in a bag or a box and putting it in the basement so that things look tidy upstairs and I can actually see a few surfaces to dust.  Little password book got stuffed in a box.  Still, upside is I found a lot of things in my search for it.  The old - Oh, so that's where that went - happened a lot.

But I have accomplished a few things in the last few months.  Got my next Murray (HIGHLAND PROTECTOR) tale into my editor, the copy-edits done, and the page proofs back to them. Came up with ideas for the next vamp tale and the Wherlocke one.  Now supposed to be working on that next Wherlocke tale.  Found the conferences fun but exhausting, as always.  Also found that the more expensive a hotel the more expensive the internet hookup and the worse it works.   Put a lot of miles on the little HHR.  Drove a lot of places.  Saw a lot of the country and not always the prettiest parts.  Survived the heat wave that locked itself over the NE for so long this summer.  Barely.  Have almost finished organizing my library.  Half the stuff in the basement has been sorted out - thanks to losing the password book.

And now I should be hard at work on that Wherlocke tale.  But - there's that foggy brain issue still.  So I'm doing up spreadsheets of all the charcaters in the stories, plus the ones in the Murray books, plus the ones in the vampire novella ones.  It's got to the point I can't just go back and look through the books in the series - most certainly not the Murray one - easily.  And the little character card I write up for each book doesn't have the info I'm always looking for.  So going to get it all on the computer.  Listing the important stuff like appearance, psychic gifts, relation to main character, age, etc.  Should make life easier.  Make for fewer oopsies, too, that one then has to spend time fixing.

Yet, Sir Argus Wherlocke is calling to me.  I've got him stuck in a prison with the heroine 'thinking' about looking for him to save him.  Think he's getting really tired of being tied naked to a cold bed in a basement.  Keep hearing him saying - "Excuse me!  Naked, cold, tied up.  Want to do something about this, woman?"  Now that fall is here(with it's beautifully cooler weather) and a little of the foggy is easing in the brain, I will have to answer that call.  That and the fact that my deadline is in December.  If he calls me 'woman' again, however, think I might allow the bad guys to pound on him a little before he gets rescued.

Five Things I Learned about Love and Life from Bethany M’Doro by Teri Barnett

Every writer has heard about characters that come to life. You know, the ones who take over your novel and dictate what should be going on with them? I honestly never believed that stuff. Of course, when I was first told this, I was also a sporadic storyteller, flitting from one project to the next.

And then I found my focus and started writing. I mean, seriously writing. No longer toying with words here and there, but really digging in. And that’s when it happened. They actually did start informing me about who they were and what they wanted. This is where Bethany M’Doro comes in. She’s the heroine of my latest publication by LBF Books, Shadow Dreams.

Bethany is a strong woman, fiercely protective of her daughter and the people she loves. She’s also a healer and takes special care of those who hurt. Here’s what she taught me about love and life during the course of writing her story in Shadow Dreams:

1. Be Strong

I suspect this will sound like a cliché, but there truly is beauty in strength. A woman who carries herself with confidence and the knowledge that she really is ‘all that’ is infinitely sexy. Ask any guy. They’ll tell you the same.

2. Go after what you want

Having dreams is great. As a matter of fact, I find it’s essential to my very existence. And one of my dreams is living a life in love. Bethany has taught me that if this is what I want, then I need to go after it. After all, no one owns my life but me.

3. Take a Risk

Love isn’t for sissies. If you really care for someone, suck it up and let them know. Yes, there’s always the chance they may not return the feeling, but how are you going to know if you don’t put yourself out there?

4. Follow your Instincts

There’s an old saying, the heart knows what it wants. For Bethany, it’s her gut that tells her when something is right or wrong. She feels it deep in the very essence of her being. She makes her decisions and goes forward without looking back. She does not second guess herself. If ever there was a lesson I needed to learn, it’s this one.

5. Open your Heart

Keeping an open heart is perhaps the hardest – and greatest - lesson for me. When the heart is closed, there’s no way for love to find its way in. Believe me, I know this from experience. So what did Bethany teach me? To stand tall with my shoulders back and face the world head on. When you lead with your heart, everything else falls into place.

Teri Barnett is a writer, artist, and designer currently living in Indiana. Her publications include Through the Mists of Time (a historical time travel romance) and Shadow Dreams (a paranormal historical romance), both published by LBF Books/Lachesis Publishing. For more information, including where to find her novels, please visit her on the web at http://www.teribarnett.com/.

Hero – You’ve met your match!

I’ve written a historical romance anthology for Berkley. It’s rather scandalous. My summer debut, AWAKENED BY A KISS, is a Fiery Tales collection – steamy retellings of three classic fairy tales in the one book. I love it when historical heroes are sinfully seductive bad boys.

In AWAKENED BY A KISS, I’ve created three of them.

There is something about seeing an unrepentant rake fall hopelessly in love with the heroine that I find downright delicious. And in AWAKENED BY A KISS they do fall for them – hard.

Yet, what kind of woman can totally turn a seasoned roué and steal his heart? I paired off very different women with each of the men in these three Fiery Tales. Three women with different backgrounds and personalities, yet their impact on these rakes is the same. Poor heroes, they didn’t stand a chance. These lovely ladies are unlike anyone these gorgeous men have ever met – and much to their surprise, they’ve found their perfect match.

In the first Fiery Tale in AWAKENED BY A KISS, Sleeping Beau, the hero is rather an infamous rake – the handsome bastard son of the King. Legitimized by His Majesty, Adrien is treated like royalty. A night of raw passion with a mysterious woman has haunted him for five years. When at last he spots his mysterious seductress, he wants to know everything about her. Heck, he just plain wants her. It was supposed to be simply a torrid affair. But it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. Everything about Catherine de Villecourt inspires tender feelings as well as hot desire. This beautiful woman is a widow. Born into the wealthy middle class, she was married off to a Count and trapped in an unhappy marriage until the scandalous death of her husband.

It’s not just Catherine’s beauty that affects our hero Adrien, but her quiet strength, too. And the problems she’s had with her father are something that Adrien understands all too well. He’s had nothing but difficulties with his own powerful sire. She is a painter, a sexual soulmate and his one and only heart’s desire.

The second Fiery Tale, Little Red Writing, has a very passionate heroine. Anne de Vignon is a writer. A woman who feels strongly about the telltale stories she writes about powerful courtiers under the nom de plume Gilbert Leduc. Born into

minor nobility, she doesn’t have much by way of social influence or financial means. What she lacks in social standing and wealth, she makes up for in her drive to seek justice for women against the powerful men who inflict suffering on them. Without recourse, these women were forced to endure whatever hardship, humiliation or heartbreak came their way at the hands of these men. The ambitious Count of Lambelle, Nicolas de Savignac, is a member of the King’s private guard and eager for promotion. His investigation into the identity of the mystery writer is supposed to be the means to his promotion in the Guard. He never expected passionate Anne would move him or touch his heart and leave him torn between love and duty.

Imagine being the favorite daughter of the King. It’s an enviable position to be in, right? Wrong. In the Fiery tale, Bewitching in Boots, Elisabeth must be vigilant at court. She sees the constant intrigue, the dishonesty and corruption as men and women vie for the King’s favor, willing to use her, or worse, harm her younger sister, if she isn’t careful. The only man who is honest and true is the former commander of the King’s private Guard. When Tristan is forced to spend time with the smart, strong Elisabeth, he sees her not as a spoiled royal brat, or a coquette, but as a sensuous woman whose loyalty is as great as her love.

AWAKENED BY A KISS – A Fiery Tales Collection

Berkley Sensation

BY Lila DiPasqua

ISBN: 978 - 0425235560

AUGUST 3RD, 2010

Three classic fairytales—“Sleeping Beauty,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Little Red Riding Hood”—cleverly retold with enough sensual twists to prove wickedly ever after does exist…

Author’s website: www.LilaDiPasqua.com

Excerpt of AWAKENED BY A KISS – http://www.liladipasqua.com/awakenExcerpt.htm

QUESTION: What’s your favorite fairy tale heroine? One random commenter will win a signed copy of AWAKENED BY A KISS. The contest will end Aug 20th and the winner must live within US or Canada.

Editor/Author Relationship, a first-timer’s perspective by Lexie Craig

First thing I think any author needs to do is to actually have a conversation with your editor. Face-to-face or over the phone, I think it is important that you, as a writer have a voice conversation with the person in charge of helping you to shape your masterpiece. You just need to find a connection with them because the next few weeks, you’re going to be spending a lot of time together, and like most partnerships, it works a lot better if you don’t want to kill each other.

Next thing I suggest is to be prompt, but thorough, in your responses to them, though I don’t think this will be a hardship. You want this to go as smoothly as possible for both of you, so they do the work and then you do, making sure to look it over with an eye towards perfection.

I cannot overstate this part: THE EDITOR IS NOT OUT TO GET YOU. THE THINGS THEY SUGGEST, THEY HAVE REASONS, AND INDEED ARE PAID, TO DO SO. YOU ARE MARRIED TO THE CONTENT AND THE SPIRIT, BUT NOT EACH INDIVIDUAL WORD. Pick your battles and fight it out accordingly. The editor is not out to hurt your feelings or make you feel inferior. The editor is just as invested in putting out a good product as you are, because, and this is a big one, if the piece produced looks shoddy or haphazard, they look bad. THE OVERALL CONTENT OF THE BOOK IS THE PRODUCT OF BOTH OF YOUR WORK AND REFLECTS ON BOTH OF YOU, EITHER WELL OR POORLY ACCORDINGLY.

A brief note, you will get tired of looking at your work. By the time it goes to the editor, you’ll have looked it over several times and be pretty confident of your work. You will be surprised by what the editor finds in terms of missed typos, unclear thoughts (or things that are clear in your mind but not on the page), and incomplete plot-points. This is an exercise in ‘stand and deliver’, and you can do this, so long as you realize that the end result will be awesome.

I was very lucky in that I had a very experience editor in Karen Adams. What I write is not a genre she reads, and so her entirely fresh perspective made me work harder to make it make sense. She was super thorough, and as such, I felt pretty confident when I sent my MS back to the publisher after 1 major and 2 (or was it 3?) line edits.

Now that Imminent Danger is finally out, I’m happy and excited about it, but most of all, I’m confident about the presentation of it, because I know that a lot of time and effort was expended in making it the best possible story in the best possible condition it could be.

Armed with this knowledge, I’m pressing on with my second novel and, like always, hoping for the best and working hard to make it so.

For more information about Lexie and her books click here

Top Ten Author Promotion Missteps by Marcia James

To paraphrase an advertising adage, "Only 50 percent of promotion works, but no one knows which 50 percent." So it pays to understand your PR options, as well as how to avoid undermining your promotional efforts. The following is my personal list of author promotion missteps.

10. Sending too many book excerpts -- or the same excerpt too many times -- to reader loops. Also "drive-by promoting" on reader loops.

Even in promotion, there can be "too much of a good thing", so be aware of how many excerpts and blurbs you send to reader loops. You want readers to say, "Oh, look, another fun book excerpt from Anne Author!" vs. "Oh, no, not another book excerpt from Anne Author!" Also, readers enjoy interacting with authors vs. being treated as a target market. So if you don't have time to participate on these loops beyond posting book excerpts and blurbs, consider picking just one loop and developing reader friendships on it while promoting your books.

9. Bad-mouthing people (especially those in the publishing industry) and other authors' books.

Snark might seem popular on certain blogs, but what you say online can haunt you forever. It's best to follow the old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

8. Making things difficult for readers: a hard-to-navigate website, hard-to-read text, no printable book list, no purchase link by your website's book blurb/excerpt, etc.

Readers appreciate being able to easily find information about your books and how to buy them. Is your website simple to navigate and read? If you have a reader e-newsletter, can they see how to sign up to receive it? If you have a book series, does your website list the books and their order, so readers can read them in sequence? Is there a clear "purchase link" next to your website's book blurbs and excerpts?

7.Not using an email signature -- and not putting title CAPS in URLs.

Making things easy for readers pertains to more than just websites. Do you use an email signature? Most email programs make it simple to set up a signature. It should include your website URL as an active link, so readers don't need to copy-and-paste your URL into their web browser. The email signature can also include things like your tagline, the title of your current or next release, contest wins, etc. But check the loops you're on to see if they restrict email signatures to three lines. And remember that other writers are readers too, so use email signatures on your writer and reader loops.

URLs aren't case sensitive, so reinforce your pen name within your URL by using title CAPS. For example, it's easier to see my pen name in my URL if I type it www.MarciaJames.net vs. www.marciajames.net. And sometimes title CAPS can avoid unintentional connotations. An example of this is a consignment store named Children's Exchange, whose URL was www.childrensexchange.com. Title CAPS would have prevented any misunderstandings in that example.

6. Treating readers, bookstore personnel, librarians, etc poorly.

I'm always amazed when I hear of authors pulling diva acts at booksignings or snubbing other writers at conferences. Successful marketing includes positive word-of-mouth, so why give the people you meet a reason to tell their friends and family how unkind you were? Booksellers don't hand-sell the books of authors who were a pain at a booksigning. And librarians don't recommend books by someone who was difficult when doing a library presentation. Years ago, I attended the booksigning of a New York Times bestselling mystery author. He was so abrupt (read "rude") to readers, I never bought another one of his books.

5. Discounting the importance of networking.

Power-schmoozing can pay off with contacts who can introduce you to their agent or editor, give you a cover quote, join you in co-promotion efforts (like a group blog), include you in multi-author booksignings, etc. The phrase, "It's who you know" is as pertinent in publishing as it is in every industry. Obviously, extroverts enjoy networking more than introverts, but shy authors can network online through reader and writer email loops.

4. Not Googling pen names and taglines before using them; and spending more on logoed PR items because you're buying them to promote one book vs. your brand.

These two seemingly different missteps are connected under one concept: originality. Obviously, if you Google the pen name and tagline you'd like to use, you'll be able to determine whether or not another author has the same or similar name and tagline. Years ago, when I decided on the pen name "Marcia James", I did a search to see if there were other romance authors with similar names. I found Eloisa James and Stephanie James, who wrote very different stories than I did. So I locked in my domain name. Now, almost ten years later, there are so many authors with James in their names, I made lemonade out of the lemons by interviewing a different one each month for my James Gang feature (http://www.MarciaJames.net/James_Gang.html). ;-) So while you can't predict who might have a similar pen name or tagline in the future, you can try to make yours as unique as possible today.

Uniqueness is also a good thing when it comes to your logoed promotional items. For example, I give away thumbcuff keychains (over 7,000 and counting) as part of my "Hot, Humorous Romances" author brand. The keychains represent both my law enforcement protagonists and the racy sex in my stories. Because I'm promoting my brand and not a single title with these thumbcuffs, I can order over 1,000 thumbcuffs at a time and save a lot on the bulk order. Last summer at the national Romance Writers of America conference, three people came up to me to tell me they were sorry they hadn't gotten any of the thumbcuffs I'd put in the Goody Room. Why is that important? Because I hadn't put any thumbcuffs in the Goody Room. Another author had bought them to promote a single book that had handcuffs on the cover, but a number of the people who noticed the thumbcuffs thought they were from me. So it would have been more cost-effective and memorable for that author to purchase in bulk a PR giveaway that would become associated with her brand.

3. Choosing to do PR options you hate or are ill-suited for.

No one author can possibly take advantage of every promotional opportunity available -- even with the help of a publicist or a PR site, such as AuthorIsland. So why choose to do those things that are outside your comfort zone or areas of expertise? Instead, use criteria such as your personality, skills, and book specifics to determine your best PR options. This is a core element in my online promotional workshops (including the one I'm presenting August 15-28: http://www.MarciaJames.net/Schedule.html). For example, I'm an extrovert and love power schmoozing, so networking is one of my chosen promotional options. I'm also a technophobe who would hate learning how to design a website, so I hired a Webmistress (Karen McCullough, http://www.KarensWebWorks.com/) to create mine. I'm not saying, for example, that a shy author shouldn't try to develop networking skills; I'm simply saying that authors have limited time and resources, and it pays to use them wisely.

2. Not having a professional, often-updated website.

A website is often considered an author's #1 one promotional tool. Make yours as professional as possible, with interesting, new content to entice readers to visit often. Like many authors, I have a website contest that draws readers to my site. You can also offer free reads, interviews, a blog, book plates and other giveaways, recipes, games, photos, etc.

1. Spending all your free time on promotion vs. writing your next book.

Each book you write brings you new readers, so prioritize your time to allow for more writing than promotion. Social media sites, like Facebook, can be fun but incredible time drains. Protect your writing time so you'll have products (your books) to market during those times you allot for promotion.


That's my list. ;-) As I mentioned earlier, it pays to understand your PR options so you can make educated choices. I have a 300-page Microsoft WORD file on Promotional Options that I give away free to any writer who would like it. To request this file, go to my website's "Contact Me" page and email me. I'll attach the file to my reply email.

Thanks for having me as a guest-blogger today! Happy promoting!

-- Marcia James

Wait – I Dropped my Weapon by R Scott Mitchell

Some find it curious that I should pen a book or two about swordplay and heroes conquering those little nasties that lurk in the corners when I keep a collection of swords myself. It’s not at all that I fancy myself a hero or anything; I simply have an appreciation for the complex dance involved in really good swordplay. A hero can wield his sword with great flair and talent, filling the air with the hum and hiss of razor-steel. A non-hero? Well, they might just drop the damn thing. Or cut themselves. Or worse.

I had intended Black Pawn to be a simple fantasy piece set in a fictional pseudo-medieval era, ripe with castles and war, triumph and tragedy. I could have spun a spell or two here and there but I steered clear of that (well, not entirely). I am always very leery about touching on the ‘pixie shit’ fantasy that so saturates our culture today. (Michael Moorcock used the term ‘pixie shit’ to describe those fantasy elements almost considered cliché now: belching dwarves, elves in the trees and a dragon curled around a pile of gold). Don’t get me wrong – I love that kind of stuff. I enjoy it and I appreciate the contributions that genre made to modern literature. But it is not what I tend to write.

In so much of my writing, I find myself exploring the complex relationships between brothers: the growth and rivalry, the competition, the bonds and the betrayals. I know that this has particular relevance to me as my own brother was born with profound physical and developmental disabilities. The connection that he and I share is an enigmatic one and one that I explore through writing.

This exploration continues in Black Pawn and its forthcoming sequel: one brother is raised in a glorious, wealthy upbringing; the other grows to immeasurable power alone and squandering in the darkness. What draws them together is a combination of the changes in the physical and political landscapes of the continent they inhabit. Both are caught on the tides of war inexorably destined to collide, for the better of one over the other.

I make no claims that what I write is innovative or new in the genre of heroic fantasy. Mine is a new recipe using common ingredients: a new texture and experience on very familiar elements. In Black Pawn, the heroes are those who depend solely on wit and skill to circumvent tragedy and emerge alive and victorious. The villains are those who have access to a dirtier bowl of tricks. They can harness a twisted spiritual power, a quicker fix to get the job done. For I believe this to be true: it is easier to be irresponsible, lazy and downright mean than it is to remain governed by good moral values. Far easier to hit a puppy than to teach it. Basically, it is less of a challenge to be a villain than a hero; hence, my villains have access to a power the others don’t have. Yes, that is magic of a sort. I broke my rule, didn’t I. Oh well.

I continue to write heroic fantasy and historical fiction (I think Joan of Arc is due for an epic retelling worthy of the woman). Writing is my own catharsis and affirmation to examine what could have been, where things are now and where they might go. I write because I have a story to tell, more than one in fact. I draw upon any number of resources: reading, music, discussions and arguments. I am encouraged by those people I know and those I wish I could have known. Even the odd video game has inspired a chapter or two from me.

The landscape of fantasy and speculative fiction is expanding daily. Perhaps as more and more people feel constricted in their own lives, they crave a healthier type of escape. JRR Tolkien, arguably the father of fantasy fiction, might be quite surprised to see how far we’ve come. He might even be a little embarrassed considering he had originally intended his own work to entertain children. Better to remain young and impulsive than to grow up too fast and too bitter, I suppose.

As for my heroes? In Black Pawn, the characters of Windiin, Shander, Kia and Lycien are all heroes of their own. What better defines heroism than the characteristics of fighting for what you believe and compromising for no one? This also means there really is nothing special about a hero since each and every one of us radiates these characteristics from time to time.

Now, just let me pick up my weapon here … there we go.

For a teaser of the novel and other little tidbits I have written, check my website at http://www.rscottmitchell.com/ . Thank you for the opportunity, Ms. Howell – I appreciate it.

R. Scott Mitchell