Friday Fun Facts: Don't Forget to Enter for that $50 Gift Card!

TGIF, everyone!
Don't forget, any comment on a blog post this week wins you another chance for the $50 Barnes & Noble gift card I'm giving away at the end of this weekend. yesterday Romance Addict posted a lovely review of Beacon of Love, and today Queen of the Night is hosting me.

Please drop by and thank them for having me! Oh, and if you've read Beacon of Love and wouldn't mind leaving a review, I'd be forever grateful! Thanks so much, readers. And a Happy (early) Mother's Day to all mothers out there, especially mine!

Writers' Wednesday: More Blog Posts!

Hi, everyone! Yesterday I blogged over at The Romance Studio about where some of the ideas behind Beacon of Love came from. I always think it's fun to see (and share) how authors develop their story ideas :)

And don't forget that you can win a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card this week just by commenting on any of the blogs that are hosting me during my review tour! Yesterday All in One Place hosted me, and today it's Teena in Toronto! Please drop by, visit, and thank those lovely hosts for having me :)

Monday Mentionables: A New Release and a $50 Giveaway!!

Happy Monday!! It's the official release day of my new contemporary romance, Beacon of Love!

I'm thrilled to share my "baby" with the world and hope you'll love it as much as I do. And to help celebrate, you can follow my review tour this week for multiple chances to win a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card!!

All you have to do is leave a comment on any blog post along the tour - I'll update this blog with the links each day, as well as add them to my sidebar. Today, Kaisy Daisy's Corner is hosting me...please drop by and say hello!

TGIF: The Promise of Paradise is FREE Through the Weekend!

Happy Friday, everyone! Through the weekend, The Promise of Paradise is FREE over at Amazon - grab yourself a copy if you don't already have one. It's been doing well on the Free Lists, too - as of last night, it was #47 on Contemporary Romance and #261 overall. Not bad, considering all the free Kindle books advertised every day :)

So please spread the word - and don't forget that I and some fellow romance authors will be reading, speaking, selling, and signing tomorrow, Saturday May 4th, from 2-4 pm at the Newburgh Free Library in Newburgh, NY (the Town Branch, which is located in the Newburgh Mall at 1401 Rte 300). Love to see you there!

Beacon of Love is Now Available!!

Well, I'm super-excited to announce that my BRAND NEW contemporary romance, Beacon of Love, is available a whole week early!! Here's the cover and blurb; if you want to read more, click the cover to go straight to Amazon and take a peek inside!

Welcome to Lindsey Point, Connecticut: suspicious of outsiders, loyal to tradition, and absolutely devoted to its local legends.

Enter Sophie Smithwaite, travel show host, in town to film an episode about Lindsey Point’s haunted lighthouse. But digging into the story of a tragic murder-suicide and love gone wrong reveals startling connections to Sophie’s own past. When a gorgeous local handyman fills in behind the camera, Sophie’s life gets complicated by more than just her family history.

Part-time paramedic, handyman, seasonal Santa-Lucas Oakes does it all--except get attached. He’s still reeling from the death of his best friend ten years ago and the more recent infidelity of his ex-fiancee. Yet despite Sophie’s big-city nosiness and her insistence on chasing long-dead ghosts, he’s drawn to her.

But mixing with an outsider means questioning people and traditions Lucas has always defended. When a series of attacks seem to be connected to Sophie’s investigation, both Sophie and Lucas must decide if they are willing to risk everything to uncover the town’s secrets...and their own. 

Monday Mentionables: New Blog Posts, New Releases, Newburgh Library Here I Come!

Happy Monday, everyone! Just a few quick things to mention today: first off, last Monday the hero and heroine of The Promise of Paradise were chatting it up over at Read Your Writes Book Reviews. If you missed it, here's the link. (And P.S. authors - this is a fun way to promote your books that's a little bit different than the average blog post).

Also, my long-time writing friend Marianne Sciucco has just released her first novel, Blue Hydrangeas, about an elderly couple dealing with the wife's descent into Alzheimer's. Not a light subject, but certainly one worth giving attention to. You can check out the beautiful cover and read more about it right here.

And finally, just a reminder that I and some of my fellow romance authors will be reading, talking about romance, and selling & signing books this-coming Saturday, May 4th, from 2-4 pm at the Newburgh (Town Branch) Library in Newburgh, NY. This branch is located right inside the Newburgh Mall, which means you can do a little shopping before or after you visit us! (Just a heads-up for anyone on a tight schedule: I'm the last reader of the group, which means I'll be up around 2:45). Address: 1401 Route 300, Newburgh, NY 12550 Hope to see some local fans there!

Monday Mentionables: A Sneak Peek at my WIP

I've been taking a break from revising the sequel to Beacon of Love and revisiting the Young Adult book I drafted last summer. It's funny - people ask where story ideas come from, and here's the truth about this one: I was sitting in the hair salon trying to think of the oddest combination of story ideas I could come up with. I knew I wanted to write a YA, but I wanted it to be different. I thought, OK, what about Shakespeare set it in an alternate universe? That's different, right?

And that was how What You Will was born. I'm calling it "Twelfth Night meets Fringe," because that's as much of a description as I can manage right now. I wrote about 50K words over the summer and then left it alone. When I opened the file again about a month ago, I was happy to see that I actually had something to work with, and I didn't hate everything on the page (LOL). It's been really refreshing to look at a new project, especially one so different from the contemporary romances I've written the last few years. I like writing in first person present tense, and I like trying to capture the teenage voice.

It's fun and different and we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, here's a blurb and the opening scene. What do you think?

When seventeen-year-old Shane is transported to an alternate universe as the result of the September 11^th attacks, she decides to either find a way back to Earth or, failing that, a way to transport her twin brother to join her. But part of Shane's plot involves disguising herself as a male and taking an internship with a powerful young politician she soon develops a crush on. When he asks Shane to send romantic messages to a gorgeous entrepreneur, she must decide whether she’ll reveal her true identity to the guy she's falling for, despite the risk of losing her internship and her chance to investigate the innermost workings of her new world – and any chance of finding home or her brother again.

September 11, 2001

 Every single part of me hurts.

My arms, my legs, my back, my feet, my head. My toes. The hollows in my ankles. Nerve endings in my earlobes I didn’t know I had. I have this weird feeling like I’ve been broken apart and put back together again, but wrong. I try to open my eyes, but all I see is black. All I can remember is a few fragments of color. A clear morning. The bluest sky. My cigarette burning down to my fingertips because I’m staring above me and thinking I’ve never seen a plane fly so close to the earth.

Then nothing except this God-awful pain. What happened?

The plane hit me.

That makes sense. I saw it above me. I saw it turn over and then nose-dive toward the ground.  I should be dead, fried into a million tiny pieces. Or if I'm not dead, then I'm so badly injured I’m in shock. I blink once, twice, look at my fingers and wiggle them in front of my eyes. I press two of them to the soft spot of my neck and wait to feel a pulse. My tongue darts out and licks my bottom lip. I don't feel dead. I move one leg, then the other, then all ten of my toes, and glance down to realize my leather boots are gone.

Someone touches me, and I flinch.

 “Hey.” The voice is gravelly, almost not a voice at all. But when I turn my head to the left, I see a man lying next to me on the ground. His face is covered with ash and blood and I wonder if I look the same.

 “Hey,” I croak in response.

 His fingers clutch my arm, and I flinch again. Where are we?

Friday Fun Facts: Pre-Order Beacon of Love!

Hey, check it out! You can pre-order my new book, Beacon of Love, over at iTunes!!!

Oh, in case you missed it, I blogged this week with both Christy McKee and Rachel Brimble - love for you to stop by :)

And my writing friend Liz Matis blogged about using the promotional emailer service BookBub - a good read for anyone who's self-publishing and exploring different marketing avenues.

Have a great weekend!

Writers' Wednesday: In Honor of Boston

I'm blogging today not as a writer, but as a runner. And, to be honest, as a member of the human race whose heart is broken after the attacks on the Boston Marathon Monday.

I have been running, and racing, for almost 20 years. When I write that, it's hard to believe. I'm not as fast as I used to be (not that I was ever that fast), and I don't run as many 5Ks and 10Ks as I used to, but I still lace up my running shoes and head outside a couple of times a week.

I've run in about every kind of weather imaginable, on every terrain imaginable, in a variety of cities and towns and states and races everywhere from 1 mile to 26.2 miles. I know what it means to struggle through the last few hundred yards to the finish line, and I know how it feels to stand on that finish line and cheer for the runners crossing it, because I've done both well over a hundred times in the last 2 decades.

I think part of the horror that comes from Monday's attack is not only knowing that it can happen anywhere, to anyone, when we're least expecting it, but that this one happened in a place that is meant to celebrate life and health and activity. There is no protection when you're running, no umbrella or sunshade or wheels or anything at all to ease the motion of simply putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. It is you and the road. That's it. You are vulnerable to wind, rain, traffic, other runners, your own pain, blisters, sun, and yes, bombs planted by people who have hate in their hearts the likes of which we cannot imagine.

I weep for those lost and injured on Monday. I also am eternally grateful for those who stepped in and comforted, healed, and helped in the moments and hours and days following the crisis. That is, after all, what you do when someone falls, when someone stumbles as they're running - you steer them back or pick them up and help them cross the finish line or hold them when they need you.

I hope that - I know that - those in Boston and around the country will continue to move forward, put one foot in front of the other with the strength and determination and optimism that comes from living in this country and from belonging to a fiercely determined and proud community that calls itself runners. I am sad, but I went out yesterday to run and I will continue to run, to race, to travel to big cities and small towns and foreign countries because I will not live, or run, in fear.

Run. Walk. Pray. Love. Connect. We need to remind each other, not only in these moments of sadness and loss, that we are there for each other, always, cheering and pulling each other to the finish line.

Monday Mentionables: Congrats to the Winner!

Happy Monday, everyone! First off, a great big congratulations to CatherineLee, who won a $25 iTunes gift card just by following and commenting on my blog tour for The Promise of Paradise over the last 2 weeks. Thank you Catherine for all your great comments and questions - much appreciated!

There are more chances to follow and win coming up in the next couple of months as well, and I'll make sure to share those links with you all :)

One of those opportunities will be on my Book Blast Tour hosted by Black Lion Tours. They've created a fantastic page and banner for Beacon of Love, which you can see right here (and sign up to host, if you have a blog and are interested!). While I find their tour packages a little pricy for my budget, their "Blast," which I'm doing, is totally reasonable AND includes that gorgeous banner they made for me! So if you're an author looking for some publicity, give them a try. So far, they've been lovely and professional to work with.

On another note, has anyone read Amanda Hocking's YA trilogy? I'm thinking of getting the first book in the series. Thoughts? Reviews?

Writers' Wednesday: Pitch Your Book at Savvy Authors!

Hey writers, just a quick mention today:

Savvy Authors is hosting a slew of agents and editors this week over at their website, all of whom are taking pitches for material!

Click here to find out more. 

Monday Mentionables: Learning to Take a Deep Breath from Hugh Howey

I read a terrific article over the weekend in Writers Digest, about self-published success story Hugh Howey. I hadn't heard of him, but apparently he writes sci-fi and had a breakout with his novella (series) Wool. Long story short, he ended up winning agent Kristin Nelson and signing a contract with Simon & Schuster for print rights only, while keeping his right to self-publish digitally. This is a huge deal because it's almost unheard of. Big New York publishers traditionally want all the rights they can get: digital, print, audio, movie, foreign...

But apparently Howey held out because he didn't feel a burning need to grant those rights (he was making upwards of $150K a month in royalties from his self-pubbed works, so I guess he could afford to be choosy). He wanted to secure a "hybrid" deal for himself in part to break ground for other authors to do the same - which I think is oh so cool.

That's not the part of the article I liked the most, though. This is the paragraph that stood out for me:

"...maybe you're earning $20 or $50 a month with the six or seven titles you have out there, and you're busy writing your next work. You're not thinking about landing an agent. You're not writing query letters, you're writing stories. And meanwhile, your ebook sales might be paying your cable bill...Instead of having your manuscripts in a drawer or in self-addressed, stamped envelopes, you have them out there where readers can find them, and maybe one of them will take off..."

Something clicked for me when I read that, a reminder that we should be writing because we love it, not because we need to pay bills with it or because a contract/editor/agent is breathing down our necks for the next manuscript or because a genre is bursting with new works and if we don't keep up then we'll somehow lose our chance to publish...well, ever.

His words reminded me that I need to take a deep breath and worry a little less about when my books are coming out, when I'm finishing the next one, whether anyone will want to sign it, how I'll promote the backlist along with the new release and...

Yeah. Deep breaths. And remembering why I love to write. Thanks, Hugh Howey. I needed that.

Friday Fun Facts: Covers, Covers Everywhere!

Got a "Favorite Cover Alert" for The Promise of Paradise (a nice review, too!) at my blog stop today, Flirting with Romance Reviews:

And my writing friend Liz Matis just released her new novella, Real Men Don't Drink Appletinis. It's a steal at $.99. Check it out!!

Happy weekend, all :)

Wrtier's Wednesday: A Little Scandal Here, a Little Rogue There...

Did you get a peek at yesterday's blog stop over at Crazy Four Books? We had a great discussion about whether or not you would stand by a loved one involved in a scandal. Would you lend support no matter what? Would you try to escape it all? Would it matter if the person was innocent or guilty? Check it out and share your thoughts!

Also wanted to give a shout-out to a brand new published author from my local RWA group, Elf Ahearn, whose Regency romance A Rogue in Sheep's Clothing, released this week. Check out this yummy blurb and cover:

In Lord Hugh Davenport’s opinion, women of the ton perpetually hide behind a mask of deception. That’s hard for Ellie Albright, the daughter of an earl, to swallow – especially since she’s disguised herself as a stable hand to get back the prized stallion her father sold to Hugh to pay a debt. If Hugh learns her true identity she’ll lose the horse and her family will go bankrupt. Somehow, though, losing Hugh’s affection is beginning to seem even worse.

Already only a step away from being snagged in her own web of lies, Ellie’s deceit threatens to spin out of control when Hugh’s mother invites Ellie and her sisters to a house party. Now Ellie has to scramble to keep Hugh from knowing she’s the stable girl he wants to marry, while simultaneously trying to win his trust as herself. Can she keep her costumes straight long enough to save her family? And even if she does, will it be worth losing his love?

Monday Mentionables: A Vacation and Blog Tour in Review...

I'm back from vacation! And yes, it was just what I needed: sun, sand, and time away from it all. Even better, in Key West I had a chance to see Robert Frost's cottage and Ernest Hemingway's house - all I needed for some new writing inspiration :) I didn't DO any writing, though, just some reading and relaxing. Here are 2 of my favorite pictures from the week:

Giving love to one of the 45 cats living in the Hemingway House (all 6-toed, all descended from Hemingway's original pets) 

My side of the family together for my husband's birthday - while on vacation!!

Also...I just finished up a blog tour with Reading Addiction Blog Tours, and if you followed along with me, you know I was talking all about "5 Things" in many of my guest posts. In case you missed some of them, though. here were a couple of my favorites:

5 Favorite Vacation Spots

5 Favorite Hero-Heroine Moments in my Books

I got some fabulous reviews along the way, so I want to give a shout-out to everyone who hosted me and read The Promise of Paradise and took the time to write kind words about it. Among my favorites:

"This book was an unexpected gem...I connected with the characters and even the minor ones were deep enough to be memorable." (T's Bookish Moments)

"Both characters come alive and leap off the pages with witty dialogue and interactions, you can feel the electricity in the air as the sparks of attraction for each other simmers below the surface...With drama, twists and turns, and quirky secondary characters, The Promise of Paradise is an enjoyable romance story that will leave you satisfied." (Jersey Girl Book Reviews)

Believe it or not, Goddess Fish is hosting another tour for me starting today, but this one's strictly reviews, no guest posts or wise or witty (or otherwise) words from Yours Truly. I'll  post the tour stops over on my sidebar later on today, so you can visit with me and see what others have to say. The grand prize for this one is a $25 iTunes gift card to one random commenter, so check in and chat with me!

Friday Fun Facts: Spring Break!!

Happy Friday! I only have one Fun Fact to share today, and that's the fact that today (well, tomorrow) officially begins my Spring Break! Ooh, it's been a rough winter, both with the weather and the workload at school, and I am soooooo ready to relax and escape!

P.S. - Don't forget that my blog tour continues through next week - follow, comment, and earn chances to win a $25 Amazon gift card!!

Writers' Wednesday: Links for Writers & A Lovely Review

Happy Wednesday, everyone! First off, just a reminder that my blog tour for The Promise of Paradise is going on right now, and yesterday featured 2 fun stops: the first, at Gimme the Scoop, was all about 5 quirky things about Yours Truly - and the other, at Readholic's Reviews, was a lovely review that called the book "a sweet wonderful romance."

Follow along with me - all my stops are linked on the sidebar, and every time you leave a comment, you're entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. How can you go wrong?

Writers, here's a heads-up for you: first, there's a Free Webinar offered by author Gary Kawasaki titled "How To Become a Best-Selling Author" TONIGHT from 6-7 pm EST. (This info was sent to me from Women-on-Writing, a website I trust and visit regularly.) Might be worth checking out. Click here to register.

Second, BookBub is a marketing service that indie-published authors might want to take advantage of. A fellow author recently took out an ad with them and saw TREMENDOUS sales as a result. Worth a look, in my opinion.

Happy writing!

Monday Mentionables: Blog Tour Starts Today!

Happy Monday! I'm sooooo excited because my first blog tour for The Promise of Paradise starts TODAY! And this is a fun one for a couple of reasons: first, the theme is "5 Things..." which means every stop that isn't a review or an interview is a post where I'll talk about 5 Things About My Life. What things? You'll have to visit me to see! And second, I'm giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one commenter from all the comments left on this tour. Visit me at each stop, leave a comment, and each one earns you another entry!

Come and join me, starting today, over at Reading Addiction Blog Tours for a Meet and Greet. The next 10 days of tour stops are listed over there on the right sidebar. See you on tour!

Writers' Wednesday: Talking All About Blog Tours!

Welcome writers! Today I want to chat (briefly) about blog tours. They are definitely one of the popular ways for writers to talk about and promote their books, especially new releases. They can consist of anywhere from 5 - 50 blog stops, over the course of a few days or a few weeks, where an author chats about her book, or provides excerpts, or answers interview questions, or provides her book for a review for said blog.

Lots of work, yes, but it can pay off with sales in the long run. Wondering where to start? One of my local RWA chapter members, Wendy S. Marcus, presented on this very topic last weekend, and rather than summarize her many helpful points, I'll give you her link to a blog post she wrote about it.

A couple of things to keep in mind, if you're thinking about a blog tour:

1. Organization is key! You'll need to keep track of the blogs you're visiting, the posts you're writing, when they'll be posted, and whether you'll be stopping in that day to respond to comments.

2. It's time-consuming. Blog posts are typically anywhere from 300 -1000 words or more. That's a lot of time to write an original, witty, reader-catching posts (and you don't want to reuse posts, because many readers will follow you from stop to stop).

3. Consider hiring a person or organization to help you. There are many virtual assistants who can help plan a blog tour for you, as well as blog tour companies who will take care of every last detail. They vary in cost, and I make no claims about any of these (except the first, as noted), but here are some places to start looking around:

Goddess Fish Promotions - This site is owned by the folks who also run The Long and the Short of It, and they are also personal friends of mine. Having given that disclaimer, I find them professional and very, very organized in their tour offerings. They work hard to target blogs that will appeal to your genre of reader, and they check their blog partners regularly to make sure posts are up and people are commenting.

Reading Addiction Blog Tours

Black Lion Tours

Virtual Book Tour Cafe

Jar o' Marbles (this one's a virtual assistant rather than a blog tour company)

OK folks, happy writing and happy touring! And don't forget, I have not one but TWO tours coming up in the very near future...and I'll be giving away goodies on both of them. Hope to see you on tour!

Monday Mentionables: Check Out All These Links!

Happy Monday, everyone! Just a few things I'm mentioning today:

1. Tomorrow's a double-header day for blogging: I'll be at both The Romance Studio AND at fellow author Mae Clair's blog. Please drop by and visit with me if you can!

2. Interesting links & articles from this month's Romance Writers Report:
~If you're an author, are you making the most of your Author Central Page at Amazon? It's a free service and a great place and way to showcase not only your books, but your reviews, your Facebook or blog links, and more!
~A few up-and-coming websites that writers can use to promote themselves include Togather, Libboo, and Writer.ly (on a side note, I'm interested to hear from anyone who's used them - I have yet to check them out in detail)
~Using the in-house publicist at your publishing house is a great (free!) way to build buzz about your name and reach out to partner with someone to market yourself even more. Don't be afraid to ask for the publicist's name and contact info, if you don't already have it, and send an email to find out how the two of you can work together.

3. Interesting links & articles from this month's Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators issue:
~Animoto is a web application that can help you produce your very own book trailer!
~Smilebox is a fun way to create photo collages, release announcements, and more, that uses videos, photos, music, etc. to appeal to your computer-based crowd of readers.
~Swoon Reads is a brand new YA romance imprint from the Macmillan Publishing Group that will be soliciting manuscripts and then using a reader recommendation system to choose which get put through for actual publishing consideration (side note: I tried signing up yesterday and had trouble submitting the form. If you're successful, let me know).

I'll be talking about blog tours on Wednesday, sharing info from our local writers' group meeting over the weekend as well as some of my own experiences, so stop by if you're a blogger or a reader or a writer who's interested in hearing more. See you then!