Something Wicked

Valentine book giveaway!

2012-02-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! Hope you're having a good one, and I'd like to try and make it even better by giving away some awesome paranormal new releases. These are books that I've read and enjoyed this month.

The Guardian by Margaret Mallory
After years of fighting abroad, Ian MacDonald comes home to find his clan in peril. To save his kin, he must right the wrongs from his past . . . and claim the bride he's long resisted.

Warrior Betrayed by Addison Fox (no relation, which is too bad because she's awesome)
As Montana Grant struggles to lead her late father's company, her estranged mother suddenly reappears, spouting nonsense about Mount Olympus, immortal warriors, and curses. But after an event that puts the company's future-and Montana's life-at risk, she decides to take her mother's last but of advice.

The Legend of Michael by Lisa Renee Jones
One of an army of human soldiers injected with alien DNA, Michael is a legend within this new race, split between good and evil. Untamable, he has walked on the dark side and returned to the light. Feared and misunderstood, he leaves everything behind, including the one woman destined to be his mate.

Just post and let me know what you've been reading and which book you hope to win! Contest ends next Tuesday.

Dreams

2012-02-10T03:13:00.000-08:00

I have dreams. Big dreams. I've had them for a long time and over the last five years, they have slowly disintegrated one by one. I probably should have given up. There were moments when I felt like I couldn't lie to myself another day and convince myself to hang on because things were going to change, things were going to work out.

Instead of getting better, they kept getting worse. Even when I thought they couldn't get worse, they did. But I kept fighting. I kept trying new tactics. Sometimes, I even gave up, then an hour later, I'd be back at it again.

People told me to give it up for good. To walk away. That it wouldn't be so bad to pack it in and move on. People I loved told me that, but those words tasted so bitter when I tried them on myself. I knew that these weren't simply dreams. They were my soul, my life, my being. To give up would be to chisel off a part of my soul. I realized that I had to keep trying until there was no blood left to wring out of the stone.

Three months ago, I got the final blow. I was out of chances. There were NO OTHER OPTIONS.I cried. I anguished. I asked the universe why this had to happen. I asked for help. And then I was shown one more thing to try. One more chance. Three months ago, I committed to this new course of action. I decided to give it my all, to give it one last heroic effort.

Three months have gone by. I am laying groundwork. There's no victory yet. No paved road. No beacon of light up ahead to reassure me of my path, but I'm not slowing down. I don't allow doubt. I don't allow hope to fade. I don't allow myself to judge. Doubt, judgement and despair interfere with dreams and destroy opportunities. For the first time in my life, I'm succeeding at keeping those destructive thoughts at bay. Fear of failure, worry about what will happen if I don't succeed, second-guessing each choice--I'm not giving them room. For the first time in my life, it's me & hope, me & determination, me & excitement. We're all alone now, without all the negative words eating away at us. See? A victory already.

I have six more months to make it happen. Six months until the stone is dry. Six months until the window of opportunity is officially closed. I'm giving it every damn ounce of my soul. I'm going to do it this time. This time, I AM GOING TO MAKE IT.

Check back with me in six months. I'm bringing the champagne. We have a date. Rock on, girlfriends.

Free Stuff

2012-02-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hey, my life has been crazier than normal lately—long story. I missed posting last week and I don’t have a lot of time this week. (Company is coming in about an hour and I just finished cleaning my entire house! Never do today what I can put off until tomorrow…unfortunately my tomorrows are catching up with me!) However during this cleaning frenzy, I have discovered numerous advanced reading copies of THE TROUBLE WITH WITCHES and WITCH HUNT (Books 3 and 4 of Ophelia and Abby.) Anyone want one? If so post a comment telling me which one and I’ll send out at least five copies of each. Call it the “Shirley’s Cleaning Out Her Closet” Giveaway!! I’ll announce the winners next week.

That’s it for now—I will be here next Thursday!

Best,
Shirley

What's a Book Launch Without a Party?

2012-02-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Even though the new Pepper Martin mystery, "Wild, Wild Death," has been out for about a month, I've been biding my time with a book launch. With Valentine's Day right around the corner and poor Pepper's love life in its usual state of chaos, I figure this is the perfect time.

Join me! This Saturday, February 11, from 12-5 at:

Something Different Gallery

1899 West 25th Street

Cleveland

You'll get a chance to meet the nicest people in Cleveland and take a look around their stunning art gallery. Of course, I'll be there signing copies of "Wild, Wild Death" along with the other seven books in the Pepper Martin series and "Button Holed," the first of my Button Box mysteries. Have a glass of wine, pull up a chair, and we'll talk books.

If you can't make it to the event and you'd like a signed copy of any of the books, call:

216-696-5226

The gallery will not only ship, but gift wrap.

See you there!

Immortally Yours: Cover released

2012-02-07T17:07:00.001-08:00

Hey, guess what? The cover for Immortally Yours was released today and I'm posting it here first. How about them apples?

This is the new book that is coming out at the end of August. It's a dark comedy/urban fantasy about a group of paranormal MASH surgeons and frankly, I think it's the best book I've written to date. I absolutely love this one and want it to come out tomorrow. Since that is unlikely to happen (boo), I can at least bring you all the cover.

Oh and the summation as it stands right now. I'm not sure this is the exact copy that will appear on the back of the book, but it is the latest version I have and I'm sure it's pretty darned close:

From bestselling author Angie Fox comes a thrilling new series about ancient gods, modern love, and one star-crossed couple who could use some divine intervention…

IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE GODS…

No one patches up the incoming wounded like Dr. Petra Robichaud. Recruited by the gods for her uncanny medical skills, she’s the best M*A*S*H surgeon in the army. Along with a nosy guard sphinx, vegetarian werewolf, and other paranormal paramedics, she bandages soldiers who are built like Greek gods (literally.) But when one sexy immortal ends up on her operating table—half dead and totally to-die-for—Petra’s afraid she’ll lose her patient and her heart…

NOTHING IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN LOVE

Commander Galen of Delphi is one gorgeous but stubborn demi-god. When his spirit tries to slip out of his fatally wounded body, Dr. Petra has to slip it back in—unwittingly revealing her ability to see ghosts. Now that Galen knows her secret, he’s convinced she’s part of an ancient prophesy. If the oracles are right, Petra could lead Galen’s army to peace. And if he seduces her on the way to hell and back? Heaven knows—all’s fair in love and war…

Super Bowl Winner: Buffalo Chicken Crack Dip

2012-02-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday, everyone!

Did you catch the Super Bowl? Wow, that was a nail biter until the last seconds! But a great game overall. Not a lot of interceptions or craziness like in a lot of games. I'm not a NY Giants fan, but congratulations to them! ;)

For the Super Bowl party my family attended, we were in charge of the fruit tray and nacho dip. Getting the tray was the easy part. You can pick up any of those at decent-sized store. For the chip dip, I wanted something fun. Memories of Bunco night with other moms reminded me of an all-time addicting favorite: Buffalo Chicken "Crack" Dip. And there is a reason why it's referred to as a crack dip. There is just something addictive about the taste. I don't know what ingredient makes it so evil!

Normally, I make this dish in a glass pan, but I needed to keep it warm over the party so I used my crock pot. At first, I was concerned that folks might prefer salsa or something less hot, but as we prepared to go home I noticed there wasn't much left at all. :D (Which I didn't save because I knew I'd eat it later!)

So what recipe did I use for my crock pot winner?

I got this recipe from food.com and made a tiny change or two.

3 Rotisserie Chicken Breasts Chopped and Shredded (You can use canned chicken.)
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup blue cheese dressing
1 1/2 8oz packages of cream cheese (I used Philly fat free.)
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 pinches of cayenne pepper
1 cup shredded cheese

Mix all the ingredients together. It will look quite mushy. Add them to the crock pot and set it on low for two and a half hours. It will melt into gooey happiness.

In the beginning, I set it on low for an hour, but as the time got closer to when we should leave, I set it on high and added a layer of cheese on top.

So what food did you eat on Super Bowl night? Anything yummy? Toss ideas my way for next year.

Note: I haven't heard from last week's winners: Linda Henderson - The Dragon and the Pearl and Simply Kayla - The Paris Affair. I'll be giving you some Coveted Swag as well so shoot me an email!

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today . . .

2012-02-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

OK, so not exactly 20 years. Not today, anyway.

Actually, it was 20 years in January since I published my first book.

Just writing that makes me sit back and think, "Wow." Like all anniversaries, for me, this is a time of reflection. What have I done in 20 years? Well, it goes something like this:

I’ve written and published

10 historical romances

4 contemporary single-title romances

4 category romances

7 YA novels

1 children’s book

5 Cooking Class mysteries

8 Pepper Martin mysteries

1 Button Box mystery
　
Whew! No wonder I’m so tired most of the time!

Which doesn’t mean I’m ready to slow down. The next Button Box mystery ("Hot Button") will be out in June and Pepper Martin #9 ("Supernatural Born Killers") will be a September release. I’m currently working on "Panic Button" and as I mentioned a while back, I’ve got a new series starting soon. I also have news about another sale that I’ll talk about once all the details are hammered out.

Publishing today looks nothing like publishing 20 years ago. Then, we never dreamed of e-rights or e-books or the kind of self-publishing that’s so common now. But one thing remains the same: telling stories. And hey, getting paid for it!

All in all, it’s a pretty darned good way to make a living.

Nook? Kindle? What should I get?

2012-01-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to me...well, almost. It's coming up and my husband just asked the dreaded question: what do you want? I never know. Books? More books? I think he gets tired of that. So this year, I'm thinking about asking for an e-reader. But I have no idea what kind to get.

I've been on the Nook website. Loved the Nook color. But then started wondering if it would be too hard for a tech phobe like me to update and whether it does a lot of the same things as my iPhone. So I looked at regular Nook. That was really cool. Then I looked at the Kindle Touch. But I'm used to turning pages, so would the regular Kindle be better? Or maybe back to the Nook. And Sony has an e-reader too. I haven't even looked at that.

Then again, I literally have nine bookshelves in the house, all full of books I love. When is enough enough? Ha! Okay, that's funny. Totally disregard that.

So those of you with e-readers: What do you have? What do you like about it? And what would you ask for if you had a birthday around the corner?

Three Winners Monday

2012-01-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday, all!

It's a gorgeous day here in St. Louis. I'll take a sunny sky and a nice wind any day over the chilly weather we've had lately. It's so nice outside that I've opened the windows and let some of that fresh air inside.

So how was everyone's weekend? Mine was productive. I'm working on a new project and it's been keeping me on my toes as of late.

So, now to the fun part! I have some winners to announce. If you're a winner and I don't have your contact information, shoot me an email here:

Linda Henderson

Simply Kayla

Lady Damonayde

Thanks for your kind comments on my trading cards. I'll be giving them away at the RT Convention in Chicago and I'll have several more contests coming up. Stay tuned.

Everyone have a great week!

ICE Winners!

2012-01-27T06:07:00.000-08:00

Thank you for all your entries and excitment about the ICE contest! We had 34 entries, which meant 3 prizes! YAY! The winners are:

Skyla11377
Princessrose
Rosean

If you three winners could email me from my website, www.stephanierowe.com or on facebook with your email addresses and let me know whether you want the Nook version or the Kindle version, I will send you your prize!

For all those who didn't win, I have a bunch of books coming out over the next few months, and I'll be hosting lots of giveaways for those books, so there will be plenty more chances to win! Plus, ICE was just discounted by 40% (save $2), so now is a good time to treat yourself until the next chance to win rolls around!

Happy Friday!

Stephanie

Conference Season

2012-01-26T04:28:00.000-08:00

I’m still in the grip of the winter doldrums that I mentioned last week. However there is a glimmer of excitement beginning to glow. Why? Conference season is coming up! Personally, I love going to them and if I had unlimited resources, I would attend far more than I do. It’s always a hard decision to decide which ones to attend and which ones to pass by. As it stands right now, I’m booked for two—the first annual Romfest in Gatlinburg, TN and sponsored by author Trista Michaels; and the second is back to Louisville, KY for Fandom Fest.

Romfest is going to be a blast. Sherrilyn Kenyon is the keynote speaker and a special guest is forensic anthropologist, Dr. Bill Bass, founder of “The Body Farm” located at the University of Tennessee. (Note on Dr. Bass—I attended one of his presentations a few years ago and it was fascinating. He walked the crowd through two of his cases and explained how he came to his conclusions. Since “Bones” is one of my favorite shows, it was right up my alley!)

Fandom Fest was great fun last year and I expect the same this year. In addition to the literary track, they also have guests from the world of gaming, film and media, and comic books. The guest of honor this year is Bruce Campbell from “Burn Notice”. (Anyone remember “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.”? Loved that show, too!) Since the conference covers a lot of pop culture, the attendance is huge—around 4,000 last year and I expect they’ll have more this year.

But setting aside all the razzle-dazzle, the special guests, my favorite part of these conferences is still meeting the readers and catching up with some of my author buds! It’s wonderful seeing old friends, making new friends, and just generally getting charged up about this crazy profession in which I’m involved. I always come home exhausted, but thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to meet and know such great people.

How about you? Has anyone else started making their plans to attend conferences this year? There’s a lot of great ones out there—Malice, Bouchercon, Murder and Mayhem in Muskego, Festival of Mystery, etc.—how many are you attending?

That's all for this week--see you next Thursday!

Best,
Shirley

And the Winner Is . . .

2012-01-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I posted a message about a contest. I now have a winner! It's

Lori Y

Lori, send me an email:

casey@caseydaniels.com

And let me know which of the Pepper Martin books you'd like. There's a blurb about each on my website:

www.caseydaniels.com

Since I'm also Kylie Logan, author of "Button Holed," you can also choose that book.

Thanks, everyone, for playing along!

Zombieland comes to town

2012-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

Something happened last week that still has me grinning every time I think about it. "The Run for Your Lives" Zombie-infested 5K is coming to St. Louis.

Now I've been stalking this race for awhile. They've been doing it in lots of other cities for the past few years. And the website cracks me up.

Basically, this is a 5K obstacle course where zombies try to "eat" you. Now this not being the actual end of civilization as we know it, the zombie threat is more to your ego. Each runner is given a race belt with flags. And similar to flag football, the flags can be torn off until none are left. At that point, you are a zombie. You can still run the race because, you know, it takes a bit for the virus to transform you. But you have to admit, it will call for a lifestyle change.

Someone took a chest-camera video of the race in Alexandrea, Virginia last year. Cracks me up every time I watch it (which is too much according to my daughter).

So if you're a runner or if you think you might be chased by zombies some day, check it out. And if anybody wants to run from zombies with me, we're getting a team together for the 3:00 p.m. wave on August 18 in St. Louis. Sign up for Team Fox. We'll be plotting our survival strategy and getting some cool t-shirts. I'll also bring a box of Twinkies for the end (Zombieland fans will know we need them).

Shawntelle's Swag

2012-01-23T07:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday, everyone!

It's been a busy week so far. I've been glued to the computer working on new projects and barely had time to come up for air. In addition, I've had other fun projects cooking in the pot. Swag for COVETED! It took me a few months to finish the designs and then get everything printed and made. But I finally got them done and now I can show them off to you.

First of all, my Romance Trading Cards:

And here is all of them with the backs and the front shown.

Next, I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time out to read an excerpt of my book and pre-ordered it. As a debut I've appreciated your support and hope you love COVETED as much as I do. <3

To celebrate finishing my swag, I'm having a giveaway of two great books I snagged from a book signing this weekend. Jeannie Lin's THE DRAGON AND THE PEARL and Eileen Dreyer's BARELY A LADY. I think I'll even add in a third e-book into the mix, a new release from last month from contemporary author Kristi Lea, THE PARIS AFFAIR. For the three winners I'll toss in the COVETED goodies you see above.

I'll pick the winners next week. Just leave a comment!

E-Release Day for ICE (and a book giveaway!)

2012-01-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

(I'm giving away at least one copy of ICE and maybe even the complete set of SOULFIRE books so read on to find out how to enter! The more entries, the more prizes so pass the word! Contest closes 1/26 midnight. Winner(s) announced here Friday 1/27!)

What do you see when you look at Alaskan bush pilot Cort McClaine? A hunk-o-burnin' love? A rugged man who thrives on danger and adrenaline? A resourceful survivor who has been on his own since his parents crashed and burned when he was seventeen?

Yeah, Cort has all the goods, pretty much. He'll take off in the worst weather to go rescue someone who needs saving. He'll fly all night to search for a missing climber. He'll do whatever it takes to support his business partner, or anyone else who matters to him.

Cort is entirely under control.

Except that he's not. In truth, he's a man on the edge. An adrenaline junkie who's been cruising through life, trying to fly fast enough to stay ahead of the nightmares haunting him. Things are closing down on him, though, and he's headed for a crash and burn if he doesn't get himself together.

The last thing he needs is for his worst nightmare, the personification of his haunted past, to climb into his cockpit and force him to face everything that's been ripping him apart for so long.

Too bad for Cort, that's exactly what he gets when Kaylie Fletcher hops into his plane.

Unfortunately for Kaylie, Cort is everything she can't afford. With his high-risk life, he's exactly what she has been running from since she was sixteen. All she wants is to be back in Seattle, in the safe life she carved out for herself, a life where no one else that she loves has to die.

When she gets a call that the last of her family has gone missing on Denali, Kaylie must head to Alaska to find out what happened to them, a trip that forces her to face the life that nearly broke her ten years ago. With her ruggedly sexy pilot tempting her with long looks and devastating kisses, and a dangerous stalker tracking them, Kaylie's safe little existence is shattered in an instant. Suddenly, she's on the run, she's fighting for her life and for answers about her missing family, and she's struggling desperately to hold onto her heart before Cort can shatter it forever.

Join Cort and Kaylie as they fight for their lives with a passion that will either destroy them both forever, or give them each a chance to finally live the life they were meant to live.

Interested to read more about Cort and Kaylie? Here's a brief excerpt from ICE:

Kaylie's hands were shaking as she rifled through her bag, searching for her yoga pants. She needed the low-slung black ones with a light pink stripe down the side. The cuffs were frayed from too many wearings to the grocery store late at night for comfort food, and they were her go-to clothes when she couldn't cope. Like now.

She couldn't find them.

"Come on!" Kaylie grabbed her other suitcase and dug through it, but they weren't there. "Stupid pants! I can't—" A sob caught at her throat and she pressed her palms to her eyes, trying to stifle the swell of grief. "Sara—"

Her voice was a raw moan of pain, and she sank to the thick shag carpet. She bent over as waves of pain, of loneliness, of utter grief shackled her. For her parents, her brother, her family and now Sara—

Dear God, she was all alone.

"Dammit, Kaylie! Get up!" she chided herself. She wrenched herself to her feet. "I can do this." She grabbed a pair of jeans and a silk blouse off the top of her bag and turned toward the bathroom. One step at a time. A shower would make her feel better.

She walked into the tiny bathroom, barely noticing the heavy wood door as she stepped inside and flicked the light switch. Two bare light bulbs flared over her head, showing a rustic bathroom with an ancient footed tub and a raw wood vanity with a battered porcelain sink. A tiny round window was on her right. It was small enough to keep out the worst of the cold, but big enough to let in some light and breeze in the summer.

She was in Alaska, for sure. God, what was she doing here?

Kaylie tossed the clean clothes on the sink and unzipped her jacket, dropping it on the floor. She tugged all her layers off, including the light blue sweater that had felt so safe this morning when she'd put it on. She stared grimly at her black lace bra, so utterly feminine, exactly the kind of bra that her mother had always considered frivolous and completely impractical. Which it was. Which was why that was the only style Kaylie ever wore.

She should never have come to Alaska. She didn't belong here. She couldn't handle this. Kaylie gripped the edge of the sink. Her hands dug into the wood as she fought against the urge to curl into a ball and cry.

After a minute, Kaylie lifted her head and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were wide and scared, with dark circles beneath. Her hair was tangled and flattened from her wool hat. There was dirt caked on her cheeks.

Kaylie rubbed her hand over her chin, and the streaks of mud didn't come off.

She tried again, then realized she had smudges all over her neck. She turned on the water, and wet her hands...and saw her hands were covered as well.

Stunned, Kaylie stared as the water ran over her hands, turning pink as it swirled in the basin.

Not dirt.

Sara's blood.

"Oh, God." Kaylie grabbed a bar of soap and began to scrub her hands. But the blood was dried, stuck to her skin. "Get off!" She rubbed frantically, but the blackened crust wouldn't come off. Her lungs constricted and she couldn't breathe. "I can't—"

The door slammed open, and Cort stood behind her, wearing a T-shirt and jeans.

The tears burst free at the sight of Cort, and Kaylie held up her hands to him. "I can't get it off—"

"I got it." Cort took her hands and held them under the water, his grip warm and strong. "Take a deep breath, Kaylie. It's okay."

"It's not. It won't be." She leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes as he washed her hands roughly and efficiently. His muscles flexed beneath her cheek, his skin hot through his shirt. Warm. Alive. "Sara's dead," she whispered. "My parents. My brother. They're all gone. The blood—" Sobs broke free again, and she couldn't stop the trembling.

"I know. I know, babe." He pulled her hands out from under the water and grabbed a washcloth. He turned her toward him and began to wash her face and neck.

His eyes were troubled, his mouth grim. But his hands were gentle where he touched her, gently holding her face still while he scrubbed. His gaze flicked toward hers, and he held contact for a moment, making her want to fall into those brown depths and forget everything. To simply disappear into the energy that was him. "You have to let them go," he said. "There's nothing you can do to bring them back—"

"No." A deep ache pounded at Kaylie's chest and her legs felt like they were too weak to support her. "I can't. Did you see Sara? And Jackson? His throat—" She bent over, clutching her stomach. "I—"

Cort's arms were suddenly around her, warm and strong, pulling her against his solid body. Kaylie fell into him, the sobs coming hard, the memories—

"I know." Cort's whisper was soft, his hand in her hair, crushing her against him. "It sucks. Goddamn, it sucks."

Kaylie heard his grief in the raw tone of his voice and realized his body was shaking as well. She looked up and saw a rim of red around his eyes, shadows in the hollows of his whiskered cheeks. "You know," she whispered, knowing with absolute certainty that he did. He understood the grief consuming her.

"Yeah." He cupped her face, staring down at her, his grip so tight it was almost as desperate as she felt. She could feel his heart beating against her nearly bare breasts, the rise of his chest as he breathed, the heat of his body warming the deathly chill from hers.

For the first time in forever, she suddenly didn't feel quite as alone.

In her suffering, she had company. Someone who knew. Who understood. Who shared her pain. It had been so long since the dark cavern surrounding her heart had lessened, since she hadn't felt consumed by the loneliness, but with Cort holding her...there was a flicker of light in the darkness trying to take her. "Cort—"

He cleared his throat. "I gotta go check the chili." He dropped his hands from her face and stood up to go, pulling away from her.

Without his touch, the air felt cold and the anguish returned full force. Kaylie caught his arm. "Don't go—" She stopped, not sure what to say, what to ask for. All she knew was that she didn't want him to leave, and she didn't want him to stop holding her.

Cort turned back to her, and a muscle ticked in his cheek.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other. She raised her arms. "Hold me," she whispered. "Please."

He hesitated for a second, and then his hand snaked out and he shackled her wrist. He yanked once, and she tumbled into him. Their bodies smacked hard as he caught her around the waist, his hands hot on her bare back.

She threw her arms around his neck and sagged into him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against him. With only her bra and his T-shirt between them, the heat of his body was like a furnace, numbing her pain. His name slipped out in a whisper, and she pressed her cheek against his chest. She focused on his masculine scent. She took solace in the feel of another human's touch, in the safety of being held in arms powerful enough to ward off the grief trying to overtake her.

His hand tunneled in her hair, and he buried his face in the curve of her neck, his body shaking against hers.

"Cort—" She started to lift her head to look at him, to see if he was crying, but he tightened his grip on her head, forcing her face back to his chest, refusing to allow her to look at him.

Keeping her out.

Isolating her.

She realized he wasn't a partner in her grief. She was alone, still alone, always alone.

All the anguish came cascading back. Raw loneliness surged again, and she shoved away from him as sobs tore at her throat. She couldn't deal with being held by him when the sense of intimacy was nothing but an illusion. "Leave me alone."

Kaylie whirled away from him, keeping her head ducked. She didn't want to look at him. She needed space to find her equilibrium again and rebuild her foundation.

"Damn it, Kaylie." Cort grabbed her arm and spun her back toward him.

She held up her hands to block him, her vision blurred by the tears streaming down her face. "Don't—"

His arms snapped around her and he hauled her against him even as she fought his grip. "No! Leave me alone—"

His mouth descended on hers.

Not a gentle kiss.

A kiss of desperation and grief and need. Of the need to control something. Of raw human passion for life, for death, for the touch of another human being.

And it broke her.

Cort and Kaylie must both overcome their haunted pasts in order to survive, something that many of us must do. What have you had to overcome to get where you are today? Or what are you still working on? Leave a comment, and be entered to win one a copy of ICE in either Kindle or Nook format (your choice). For every 15 comments, I will add another copy of ICE to the pot, up to five books, so spread the word to increase your chances! How cool is that? And if I get 100 comments, I will also give away the whole set of SOULFIRE BOOKS to a grand prize winner (ebook or hard copy).

Check out the original cover of ICE from the paperback version and compare it to the new one. Which do you like better?

ICE was originally published in 2009 in mass market paperback by Dorchester Publishing. This it its first publication in electronic format, and it has updated content and fantastic new cover art.

BIO: Four-time RITA® Award nominee and Golden Heart® Award winner Stephanie Rowe is the nationally bestselling author of more than twenty published books with major New York publishers, including HarperCollins, Grand Central and Harlequin. Stephanie has received starred reviews from Booklist and high praise from Publisher's Weekly. Stephanie writes romance (paranormal, contemporary and suspense), teen fiction, middle grade fiction and inspirational non-fiction. A former attorney, Stephanie lives in Boston where she is actively working on her next projects, which include CHILL, the second book in her Alaska Heat romantic suspense series (Feb 2012), and the launch of her new dark paranormal series The Order of the Blade, which will be launching in February and March with a trilogy. The next Soulfire book, SEIZE WITH YOUR KISS, will be out in Summer 2012. For more information on Stephanie, visit www.stephanierowe.com.

Winter Blahs

2012-01-19T05:25:00.000-08:00

I’ve got the January blahs. I can’t even blame the weather. It’s not been too bad—no subzero temperatures; no major storms to keep me shut inside—but never the less, it still seems like my “get up and go” has got up and went! So many things that I could (should?) be doing, but I can’t get motivated.

What have I been doing while in my slug mode? A LOT of reading! In fact I’ve been averaging two to three books a week all month. Since I live 40 miles from the nearest bookstore and going to our local library would require wearing something other than sweat pants, they’ve been e-books—mostly of the $2.99 or less variety. (I did spend over $10 on one, but to tell the truth, I’ve been a little disappointed in it. I’ve also learned to try a sample first to see if the book is to my taste.) On the plus side, I’ve discovered several authors whose work I’ve really enjoyed.

So just in case there are any other fellow slugs out there, I’ve decided to share some of my favorites with the caveat that these are the ones that appeal to my taste, but maybe not all.

Here’s a few on my list:

THE VAMPIRE FOR HIRE series—J.R. Rain
A young mother is bitten by a vampire and must learn to cope with her altered state. (No, she doesn’t sparkle, but does discover some unusual talents.)

THE LAURA CARDINAL series—J. Carson Black
Thrillers with a bit of the paranormal thrown in for good measure.

OUT OF TIME—Deborah Truscott
A time travel romance with endearingly quirky characters and snappy dialogue.

THE CAPTAIN LACEY series—Ashley Gardner (Jennifer Ashley)
A set of Regency mysteries featuring Captain Gabriel Lacey.

THE BARBRA MARR series—Karen Cantwell
Mobsters, monkeys, and murder plague suburban housewife Barbra Marr.

THE DULCIE O’NEIL series—H. P. Mallory
Creatures from the Netherworld exist side by side with humans and it’s up to Regulator Dulcie O’Neil (who happens to be a fairy) to keep them in line.

THE STACY JUSTICE series—Barbra Annino
Murder, magic, and a little romance—need I say more?

How about you? Anyone want to add to the list? I expect to have about two more weeks of “slugdom” left and I’m always looking for a good read!

That’s it for this week—have a good one and see you next Thursday.

Best,
Shirley

Woe is Me...Or at Least My Computer

2012-01-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

Having computer problems again. Won't even try to explain. Let's just say it's like something out of a 21st century "Gaslight." Is someone trying to drive me crazy by deleting files? Making my screen blip and having my manuscript disappear when it comes back on?

It's been a long week!

In the meantime, found out that the email link on my website isn't working. That's right, the one I told you all to use last week to zip me an email from the new site. If you sent one, sorry, it never arrived. You can try again by emailing:

casey@caseydaniels.com

New and Improved . . . Finally!

2012-01-11T07:37:00.001-08:00

Who said it would be easy to get a new website up and running?

Well, actually, that’s exactly what a lot of people told me when I announced that my old website (as much fun as it was) was getting stale and needed updating.

"No problem," so many of my friends said. "Piece of cake. Web designers are everywhere."

Oh yeah?

Nearly a year into the search for someone who could re-design the site at a price that didn’t make me scream, I am happy to say I finally have a new, updated website.

Hurray!

Stop by:

www.caseydaniels.com

There’s a button there for sending an email to me, and if you do that before next Saturday, January 21, you’ll be entered in a contest to win one of my Pepper Martin mysteries. In your email, just let me know which of the books you’d like. You can check them all out.

On my new website.

Real life writing

2012-01-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

I know TV is not real life. Rarely do 20-something "Friends" live in expensive New York apartments. Forensic teams don't usually drive Hummers. And most families don't have a Fonzie living in an apartment above the garage (yeah, yeah, I'm dating myself).

So why do I expect a show about a writer to be true to life? I don't. I shouldn't. Yet every Monday night, when my husband and I sit down and watch Castle, I say the same thing, "He's never going to hit his book deadline if he keeps trapsing around like that. He's not even worried about it."

To which Jim replies, "It's a TV show."

Of course, I ignore him.

Sure, Castle is researching by following the police, but that doesn't get a book finished. They did sort of address it once last season when Castle was behind on a deadline. His editor's response was to whisk him away to a house in the Hamptons for the summer. There, the editor doted on him for three months while he wrote his book.

Come to think of it, maybe Castle is not so crazy to ignore those deadlines.

"It's just a TV show," Jim says again, well aware of my deadline-induced chocolate habit. And the fact that he had to resist the urge to re-locate any of the yellow post-it notes that papered the house a few weeks ago. He also ended up fixing dinners for the weeks leading up to my recent Jan 1 deadline. Being a smart man, he tends to let those things slide.

Still, I look forward to Castle every week. It's a lot of fun. The characters (to me, the most important part) are great. And it makes me wonder - who else has a job that's not quite the same as TV? Dish. I'd love to know.

Guilty Pleasures

2012-01-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna reveal a guilty pleasure of mine. If you've seen a few of my tweets, you might already know about it...

If I could watch great drama for hours on end, I'd do it. I hate to admit it, but I love a good cry from a great well written television drama. In the past, I grew up watching Young and the Restless and watched it until a few years ago. (I even faithfully watched it in college.) That's until I got turned on to watching Asian dramas. In particular south Korean dramas. It started a while ago--maybe a year, but I watched one show on dramafever.com and after that I was hooked. I loved how well-written the shows were. It was so different compared to what I watched in America. The differences were obvious but they added to the appeal: different language, different settings, different culture and so much more. But the one obvious thing that never changed was family relationships, friendships--even love between two people who just could get their act together to stay together. It was in those shows that I watched and watched--and then shortly afterward got in a good cry. It was awe-some! I was so tired of the same plotlines on American daytime television. I hate to say it, but on most days I felt like I'd seen it all before. Oh wow, gal A is now hooking up with guy B since she's already married guy B's brother before. I guess that isn't awkward during family dinners... ;)

Not too long ago I even found a k-drama based on the movie Overboard with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. That is one of my favorite movies ever and to see it as a k-drama was even more fun! It was fresh, it was different! (I only cried once, but that's okay!) If you'd like to see it, search for Couple or Trouble k-drama.

So, now that I've revealed one of my guilty pleasure, do any of you have things you love to do to de-stress or enjoy yourself? I've always wondered if I'd enjoy something like knitting or sewing as well.

Hold Me If You Can Launch Day!

2012-01-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to announce that third book in the Soulfire series, HOLD ME IF YOU CAN, is officially on the shelves! It's a darkly funny paranormal series with plenty of sexy moments, hunk-a-licious tortured warriors, and some added bonuses that you will just NOT be expecting…

For those of you not familiar with the series, here's a quick intro!

The Series:

The Soulfire series is about a team of immortal warriors who have recently escaped from the Den of Womanly Pursuits, after 150 of torture and sensitivity training by Death's grandma. These hardened survivors can, much to their dismay, wield a pair of knitting needles as well as they can vanquish a demon with a sword. Not that they will admit that. Ever. Denial only goes so far, however… If a man's got a talent with a curling iron, he can hide it for only so long…

KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK (BOOK 1)

In KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK, an intractable warrior teams up with a cursed spitfire to rescue his best friend from Death's hot-blooded Grandma, in a high-octane and deliciously sexy romance, in which Death takes on a whole new meaning. It's the launch book for my new Soulfire series, in which tortured, refined and highly dangerous warriors tap into their sensitive side to save themselves, the world, and if they're lucky, the women they team up with.

TOUCH IF YOU DARE (BOOK 2)

In Touch if You Dare, Jarvis Swain is an immortal warrior with a talent for French braiding, who is also the Guardian of Hate. He's on the fast track toward succumbing to the hate in an explosion that will be not-so-good for the world at large. His only chance to save the world? Get some love from his wayward brother, Cupid, who is more interested in his new future as a Death's premiere assassin than spreading love and goodwill. Jarvis's only chance? Teaming up with Reina Fleming, Death's tender-hearted assistant, who will either bring him to his knees or save him forever.

HOLD ME IF YOU CAN (BOOK 3)

Nigel Aquarian is the only warrior who is entirely at peace with his softer side. Give him a sketch pad and some markers, and he's happy. But those that giveth taketh away, and Nigel suddenly finds that his art has become deadly to those he loves. Without his art, Nigel has no outlet for his darker side. He has to find a way to regain control before he kills everyone he loves, and the only woman who can help him is Natalie Fleming, a passionate woman with a talent for chocolate, demons and maybe, just maybe, his salvation. If, of course, they don't kill each other first.

We're giving away free copies of HOLD ME IF YOU CAN to commentators on two different blogs today! Stop by Book Monster Reviews or the Casablanca Authors blog and win!

Looking for more Stephanie Rowe? It's going to be a big year! Late January will include the re-release of the first two books in my Alaska Heat series, ICE and CHILL. Late February will showcase the launch of my new dark paranormal series, The Order of the Blade, which will be released as a trilogy throughout 2012. Summer will bring book #4 in the Soulfire series, SEIZE WITH YOUR KISS. Later in 2012 I'm so excited to announce that a new Immortally Sexy book will be released! To keep track of all the new books coming out, hop on over to my website and sign up for my newsletter.

New Year's Unresolutions

2012-01-05T04:35:00.000-08:00

So…how’s everyone doing with those pesky New Year’s resolutions??? Or did you make any this year? Personally I decided to do something different this year for two reasons—1. I very seldom follow through with my resolutions, and 2. I thought of a friend’s favorite saying…”it’s never a mistake as long as you learn something.” As a result instead of making a list of what I will do, I’ve made a list of what I won’t do! Things that taught me a lesson or mistakes that I don't want to repeat.

Here’s some of the top ones:

1. I will not pressure wash my house. (If you remember the post about it, that cleaning project led to repainting my entire house!)

2. I will not attempt to make petit fours and decorate them two days before Christmas. (Don’t ask!)

3. I won’t waste my time thinking about “if only’s" (ie. “if only this would happen”; “if only that would happen”).

4. I won’t offer advice to my grown children unless solicited. (It seems this past year, I’ve started out a lot of my sentences with the words, “if I were you.” They haven’t complained, but they’ve got to be getting sick of it by now—I know I am! *g*)

5. Along with #3, I won’t ignore the small things that make me happy. (Favorite quote: “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”—Robert Brault)

And last but not least,

6. I won’t wait until the middle of May to finish the next “Jess” book!!! (the deadline is July!)

I don’t know—maybe following through with a list of “things I won’t do” is going to be just as hard as following through with a list of “things I will do”! Maybe 2013’s will contain only one entry…”I won’t make lists!”

One last thing—I need to announce the winners of the SHADOW TALES gift certificates! Diane P. and Barbara E.! Let me know 1. If you have a Nook or a Kindle; and 2. Your email address. Send that information to me at Shirley@shirleydamsgaard.com and I’ll send your gift certificates.

That’s all for this week—I hope 2012 brings much joy and success to everyone! See you next week.

Best,
Shirley

New Year, New Book!

2012-01-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I can’t think of a better way to kick off a new year than with a new book. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce the publication of "Wild, Wild Death," book #8 in the Pepper Martin mystery series.

I’m always excited about sharing one of Pepper’s adventures with readers. After all, she’s the world’s only private investigator for the dead. That means there’s always something interesting (and possibly dangerous) happening in Pepper’s life, and always a ghost tagging along for the fun.

This time, it’s a trip to the great Southwest with long-dead Wild West star Chester Goodshot Gomez along for the ride. You see, Pepper’s been downsized from her job as a tour guide in a historic Cleveland cemetery, and she’s got some time on her hands and is looking for a little excitement. It’s a perfect example of Be Careful What You Wish For, when an odd package arrives along with a ransom note. Cute and scruffy paranormal investigator, Dan Callaghan, has been kidnapped and if Pepper doesn’t bring Goodshot’s bones to New Mexico–and fast–the kidnappers say he’ll be killed.

Of course, in Pepper’s world, kidnappers are the least of her problems. Figuring out what to wear to a body-snatching is the first. After all, she’s convinced she’s going to end up getting caught, and she wants to look good for her mugshots.

"Wild, Wild Death" takes Pepper to New Mexico and southern Colorado, a part of the country where I’ve spent some time. Like me, she’s bowled over by the beauty of the area, and intimidated by its wildness. If that was all she had to think about, it wouldn’t be a bad little get-away, but once she arrives, the bones gets stolen, and bodies start dropping like the desert temperature once the sun goes down.

Pepper has to deal with kidnappers disguised as aliens, a too-hot-to-handle Pueblo police chief and one clever murderer–one whose idea of boot hill has nothing to do with Jimmy Choo.

Life on Ice

2012-01-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I took my daughter ice skating. Now there is nothing remarkable about that unless you consider that she has never been on ice skates and I have not been in the last 10+ years. It may be closer to 15 years since I tried to get on the ice. And when I did it last time, I was not good.

I remember the laughing of my friends, the polite smiles of those who had to skate around me when I wiped out and was laying there, spread-eagled on the ice. I remember those jerky little kids who would skirt around me, effortlessly, as they missed my head by about two inches and sprayed that fine icy snow.

Yes, I remembered.

So I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to stop by the ice rink yesterday. We were out to see the Science Center and it's in the middle of this big park. There are ball fields, archery ranges, tennis courts and, yes, an outdoor rink.

In all fairness, it was a good idea. The air was crisp, they had a big fire going outside the rink and it smelled amazing. Steinberg Rink is this 1920's-era building in the middle of this wide, old copse of trees.

We laced up with confidence. We headed out to watch the zamboni as it finished. My daughter was excited and so was I.

Then we stepped onto the ice. Boy, is that stuff slick. We both wiped out almost immediately, right where everyone else was getting on. I had flashbacks of the ice skating trips of my youth. We scrambled up as the little kids did swoopy things around us, leaving us in their ice dust. We made it half-way around, half-clinging to the rail, before my daughter realized. "We're really not good at this. Both of us." She seemed fairly surprised, as I have been in the past, when these type of things don't always work out. I was glad she'd gone in confident, and tried to talk her off the wall.

She was not so keen on that. She'd seen what happened to me most of the time I got too far from the side - wipeout. She asked me if she'd fall and I wanted to lie. But I told her: Yes, if you get off the wall, you will fall. But you don't get off the wall, you won't be able to skate.

She thought about that. And watched me wipe out shortly after. We made it the rest of the way around the rink. She never did get off the wall and that was okay. But on the way home, she had a thought that made the whole trip worth it. She said, "Skating is kind of like everything, right?" I wasn't sure what she'd meant, but said, yes, it was kind of like life. She agreed and said, "Next time, I'm going to get off the wall."

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

How was everyone's New Year's celebrations? Fun I hope! I spent New Year's eve with family friends. We had a great dinner and played card games and such. Would you believe I played Zombie Fluxx? It was hard to get at first, but after a few hands it was rather fun! You basically have a deck with action, goals, and lots of zombies. Some cards give you goals in order to win. Other cards tell you actions you must do for every turn like pick a certain number of cards, swap cards with others, and more. I personally like the keeper cards! Naturally you have the can of gasoline, the bat, sandwiches, and a chainsaw! (I mean what else would you need during the zombie apocalypse--other than a sandwich?)

When the clock struck midnight we toasted the New Year with champagne and had french silk pie for dessert. (OMG I heart French silk pie.) Overall, it was a great night.

For those interested, I do have a giveaway going on over at Magic & Mayhem Writers for Nadia Lee's THE LAST SLAYER. I'm picking a winner on Wednesday if you're interested. Just leave a comment there.

So, I'd love to know what everyone did for New Year's. On most years I hung out at home and watched The Twilight Zone marathon on the SyFy channel with my family.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-28T07:22:00.001-08:00

My wishes to you and yours for a safe, healthy and peaceful new year!

Holiday Shopping on a Budget Can Still Be Fun!

2011-12-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Tralalala! It's the holidays! What does that mean? It means family, home-cooked meals, and lots of celebration with so many people you love…. Uh, oh… how many people? SO MANY? Wow, that can be daunting to think of buying gifts for so many loved ones, especially in a tight economy. It's a difficult choice, because it's such a great feeling to give someone a gift that makes them light up, but at the same time, we have budget constraints. How do you manage the conflict? Some families do a secret Santa, so that each person only has to buy one gift. That definitely helps with the budget, but that robs of us the joy of giving to everyone else.

This year, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I wanted to give presents, good ones, and I also needed to keep my budget in a reasonable place. The first thing I did was allot a specific amount for Christmas presents, a limit I could not exceed. And then, I looked up "resale shops" on the Google, and I got shopping.

I hit three Goodwills and three other resale shops in two afternoons, and it was amazing. I found so many great gifts for those I love, and I am so excited for them to open their gifts. Yes, not everything is brand new (though some of them are), but everything I bought is perfect. Here's a snapshot of some of my awesome finds:

Six Barbie movies for my five year old daughter, who is in a huge Barbie phase right now. I will save some of the movies for her birthday or other events, so now I have a stash. Cost: $.99 each.
A tall gorgeous ceramic vase for my mother, who has a special fondness for that kind of pottery. It looks brand-new, and it absolutely perfect for her. Cost: $6.99
A fairy and princess shower curtain which looks new. I will use it to make a canopy for my daughter's four poster bed (the bed I slept in when I was growing up). Cost: $.99
A book from 2002 from the company that my bibliophile step-dad used to work for. His name is listed in the front for working on it. Cost: $.99
A cookbook on grilling veggies for my vegetarian sister-in-law who just moved into her first house last week. Cost: $1.99
A package of seven brand-new scrapbooking scissors (the 8^th pair was missing), for my crafty daughter. Cost: $.99
A book on living life without worry, for me, because I need it (I already starting reading it, and it is priceless in the value it is giving me). Cost: $1.99
Hand-painted, brand-new wooden trivets for the kitchen for my mom. Cost: $.99 each.
A "world's best grandpa" mug for my stepdad (picked out by my daughter). Cost: $.99
A NBA regulation basketball for my ex (picked out by my daughter for Daddy). Cost: $3.99
A brand new (tag still on) stuffed animal for my two year old niece. Cost: $1.99

The list goes on and on! I found so many perfect gifts for those I love, and I can't wait to see their faces when they open their gifts. They will be thrilled, and I will feel the joy of giving to those I love, and I won't have to lie awake stressing about having spent money I don't have. Everyone wins, and the spirit of Christmas is exactly what it should be: alive and well.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

In time for Christmas!

2011-12-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

Finally…a long awaited project is finished! I’m pleased to announce the release of an e-book, SHADOW TALES—A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES. And just in time for Christmas, too! It took several people to pull this together—Penny Marsh to design the cover, Debi Murray to copyedit, and Abby Reilly at Dystel and Goderich Literary Management to do all that pesky formatting and uploading! I’m very pleased with the results and I hope you will be too. It’s available right now at Amazon, will be soon on Barnes and Noble and Scribd.com, then after (maybe before) the New Year, it will be available on Sony and Apple.

Here’s part of the book description:

“Get caught up in the world of a mother who’s desperate to make a new life for her children and who’s willing to do just about anything to achieve it. Join a young woman as she searches to uncover a secret that’s been buried for over a hundred years and is “dying” to be told. See Christmas through the eyes of a widower, alone for the first time until he receives a surprising visitor. Meet a journalist who gets more than she bargained for while she hunts down the story that will make her career. As an added bonus, included in this collection is the short story that began The Ophelia and Abby Mystery Series, The Gift.”

To celebrate, I’m giving away two SHADOW TALES gift certificates—one for Amazon if you have a Kindle; and one for Barnes and Noble if you have a Nook. (I’ll figure something out for everyone who uses Sony or Apple later.) Leave a comment about your plans for Christmas and I’ll announce the winners next week.

Everyone have a very Merry Christmas and I’ll see you next week. (I’m off to make and decorate 70 petit fours for Christmas Eve…don’t ask! *g* This has got to be one of my crazier ideas!!)

Best,
Shirley

2011-12-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

This year, Christmas crept up on our household, jumped out of the dark corner where it hides for most of the year, and caught us all off guard. We are never the picture of perfectly organized holiday bliss, but this year . . . well, the tree is up and as many of the decorations are out as I’m willing to handle, but the place is far from clean and organized. Shopping? Not done. Wrapping? Ditto. Baking? I never do, so that’s one chore I don’t need to worry about.

Still, with all the craziness, I know we’ll have a good holiday. We’ll see friends and family and really, that’s what it’s all about.

That, and the memories.

As I worked decorating the tree this past Sunday, that message really hit home. Box after box of ornaments came down from the attic. Some, I peeked in and put right away. Others required a little more digging through and a little more thought. But with some ornaments, there was no question. Of course, they had to go on the tree. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

The ones I like best are old pictures we’ve put in small frames and things we’ve brought back from vacations. But my all-time favorites are without a doubt the ornaments my kids made when they were young.

An aside here: my children are both adults now, and so these ornaments have been with us for years. There’s a picture of my daughter (then 6) and my son (just a couple months old) on Santa’s lap. The poorly cut out stocking with a picture of my daughter–maybe 11 or 12-- looking awkward and uncomfortable in front of the school camera. There’s a small white paper plate that my son cut the center out of and stuck green tissue paper on to make it look like a wreath. The popsicle sticks glued together in a triangle with two googly eyes added. Yes, it does look like a reindeer.

So in addition to saying Merry Christmas to all of you, I want to say something else this year to every teacher out there who works with his/her students on holiday ornaments. You’re making a mess of glue and tissue. You’re making a small something that parents and grandparents can unwrap and ooh and aah over. And you’re making memories. Thank you.

Angie's Christmas winners

2011-12-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks for playing today! I loved reading everyone's responses.

The random number generator has been fired up and the winners of The Real Werewives of Vampire County are: halfbreedramos, kathy miller, missytigergrad, alainala and vanillaorchids. If that's you, just email me at angie@ angie fox.com with your snail mail address and I'll get those books out to you!

Angie Fox's Merry Christmas book giveaway!

2011-12-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season for fun and, well, the Fox clan started early last night. The idea hatched during dinner. One person suggested it...another person chimed in and pretty soon we were all rushing for the tree to open early Christmas presents.

We did just one each. It was a neat surprise and I liked that every gift was appreciated and, in the case of the kids, danced around. Sometimes, when you get too much at once, a bit of the excitement for each goes away. That's my excuse, anyway.

And it has me thinking - why not dig into some holiday book giveaways? I can't guarantee these goodies will show up on your doorstep before Christmas (and certainly not before Hanukkah) but they can be a fun, post-holiday treat.

So give us a shout-out. Post your favorite/least-favorite thing about the holidays and you're entered to win one of five copies of The Real Werewives of Vampire County!

Naughty & Nice Book Signing Giveaway Winners

2011-12-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday, all!

I hope your weekends were productive! I had a bit of a sinus cold so I tried to get some relaxing in!

Now on to our winners!

ENTICE ME AT TWILIGHT
by Shayla Black
WINNER: Sheila

EXPLOSIVE
by Beth Kery
WINNER: ChrisBails

MY CURSED HIGHLANDER
by Kim Killion
WINNER: Gail

MAXIMUM TEMPTATION
by Annmarie McKenna
WINNER: Qwill

Congrats to the winners. I'll email you shortly. If you didn't list your email just use my contact form to shoot me an email!

Thanks to everyone for entering!

Shawntelle

The Iterations of a Cover

2011-12-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

I recently published my first middle-grade fantasy, and I had the pleasure of working directly with the cover artist, who hand-painted the cover for the book. It was quite an interesting process watching the cover evolve from the rough art to the finished product, so I thought it would be fun to share the stages.

The story is about a twelve year old girl named Penelope Moonswoggle, who is the only person in her entire town who can't ride a dragon. She's an outsider, an outcast, and if she doesn't figure out how to ride a dragon by Saturday, she'll be booted from the town. No one believes she can do it, no one except Penelope and an old, homeless gnome named Farkle. The story is Penelope's journey of finding a dragon she can ride, a personal quest that teaches her about believing in herself, about the power of true friends, and how to be strong when the world thinks you're going to fail.

To do justice to this story, we really needed a cover that showcased this amazing dragon that is her guidepost on her journey. Merripen is a magnificent, iridescent purple dragon with a personality that is so endearing and brave. My only instructions to the artist were to bring that dragon to life.

Before we begin, please remember that all these images are copyrighted to the artist, Pete Davis, and cannot be copied, redistributed or anything like that.

First up, I'll show the initial draft of the dragon. When I saw it, I immediately loved the vibrant colors (the way he brought the color purple to life was astounding) and the the energy of the cover, but, I thought the dragon was a little scary and not endearing enough for twelve year old girls. What do you think?

Next up, the artist worked to give Merripen some of that charm and warmth that he has in the story. In this image, his mouth has been changed to give him that subtle smile, his eyes were colored green and given pupils, and his snout was rounded and he was given a goatee and some horns. This was also our first attempt with lettering. At this point, we thought it looked pretty good, and I thought Merripen was delightful.

We were literally about to pull the trigger and go live with this cover, when we starting thinking that the font didn't look very blended with the cover, and there was a sense that the cover wasn't quite finished. We decided to try a banner, and change the aspect ratio of the cover so it was the shape of a novel and not a picture book (because it's not a picture book!). We tried many different banner iterations with different fonts styles and sizes, different banner placement, but we couldn't get one that felt quite right.

Then the artist had a stroke of brilliance. The story is a fantasy, a trip to a magical land of wishes, uniforms, dragons and so much more. What if we used a banner that gave that feel? That moment is the moment that changed that cover forever, and took it from good to amazing. He decided to handpaint a banner and make it old-school and worn in appearance. The result was magic.

At this point, our last task was to decide what color banner to use, what color font, and how much to warp the text so it looked like it was waving with the banner. The final result is below.

Is it brilliant? The process of creating this cover was a fantastic experience of going back and worth and working as a team, feeding off each other's suggestions and using those to prompt new ideas. It was a fantastic experience, and I used the same artist to create the cover for my next book, which is a non-fiction book of essays about getting through the tough times. As you can see, it's a totally different book, and a totally different feel, but it's still brilliant. I think that's the sign of true artistic genius: when you can create such different feels and products, and still make them work. The artist is already at work on my next book, and I'm so excited to see what we come up with!

What would you do?

2011-12-15T03:05:00.000-08:00

Something kind of interesting happened to my oldest daughter last weekend. While Christmas shopping at Target, she decided to peruse the books and look for LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Sure enough, she found it in “The Emerging Author” display and decided to take a picture, but here’s where it gets a little surreal. She had to wait until a couple of women finished looking the book over and then watched as they placed it in their carts. And it did feel a little weird to her—to see two complete strangers buy her mother’s book, and with no prompting from her!

Personally I’ve never experienced that situation. In the many times I’ve been shopping for myself in bookstores, I’ve never witnessed a stranger purchasing one of the books or ran into anyone with a copy in their hand. To be honest, I’ve always wondered what I’d do if I did. Would I say anything to them? What if I started with the innocuous question…”So…how do you like that book?” then didn’t like their answer? Would introducing myself as the author come across as being conceited? Would the person with the book feel like they’re being put on the spot and required to say something nice whether they wanted to or not?

How about you? How would you feel if you were standing in the check-out line and the person next to you suddenly said, “I wrote that book.” Or if you were in an elevator or an airport with a book in your hand and a stranger asked you how you liked their book? Would you be pleased to meet the author, or would it make you squirm a little?

And no, my daughter didn’t say, “Hey, my mom wrote that!” to the two women making the purchases! She just stood there quietly watching then took her picture.

That’s all for this week—btw Christmas is only ten days away (not that anyone needs reminding!). I hope everyone is having a great holiday season and I’ll see you next week.

Best,
Shirley

2011-12-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

OK, readers and writers alike, I need your help.
I have finally started writing Button Box mystery #3 (tentatively titled Panic Button) and as usual when I begin a book, I’m walking a crazy tightrope. What to tell. What not to tell. How much background to give away. How much to tell about the books that have come before.
Back when I was writing romance, this was never a problem. Each book was a stand-alone and while some characters might recur from book to book (I did a series of books like this for Harlequin American), each story and each romance was independent.
Not so with mysteries.
So far, I’ve written five books in the Cooking Class series, nine in the Pepper Martin series and like I said, this is the third for the button series.
And each time, I find myself asking the same question. How do I get into the book, provide the background I need and at the same time, hook new readers but not make the ones who’ve already read the other books roll their eyes?
That’s why I’m asking for your help.
When you read series books, what do you like to see? Do you like fairly detailed recaps of the stories that have gone before, or just hints? Do you need a refresher about who’s who and what’s what in characters lives, or would you rather learn all that stuff new in each book?
There’s a fine line between background and boring. I need your help to figure out where it is.

Naughty & Nice Signed Books Giveaway

2011-12-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

Did you miss the Naughty & Nice Book Signing event that was held earlier this month in Saint Louis, Missouri? Well, Wendy Drew, the owner of Rose's Bookhouse and I want to give four readers a chance to win one of the books the authors signed at the event. (Image to the right: author Beth Kery and several readers.)

If you didn't hear about event in the Publisher's Weekly, Beyond Her Book blog post, fifty readers from all over the Midwest came out to Rose’s Book House sold out event in O’Fallon, Missouri to meet erotic romance authors Shayla Black, Beth Kery/Bethany Kane, Kimberly Killion, and Annmarie McKenna. The adults-only Naughty & Nice Book signing offered an opportunity for readers to not only chat and party with authors, but there were adult-themed door prizes, drawings for gift baskets, and other fun surprises.

In a week I'll pick the four winners so just leave a comment for a chance to win one of these signed books, some author swag from the event, and some Romance Trading Cards from Kim Killion:

ENTICE ME AT TWILIGHT
by Shayla Black

EXPLOSIVE
by Beth Kery

MY CURSED HIGHLANDER
by Kim Killion

MAXIMUM TEMPTATION
by Annmarie McKenna

Author Shayla Black signing books for readers.

Authors signing books.

Naturally this topic brings a fun question to mine: Who's your favorite author of sizzling romance? Any great books you read this year that you'd recommend to other readers?

Are you interested in attending next year? Be on the lookout on the Rose's Bookhouse website!

Good luck with the giveaway!

Top Seventeen Reason to be Happy During the Holidays

2011-12-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

Everyone says you're supposed to be happy during the holiday season. And in that same breath, everyone says, "Damn, it's hard to be happy during the holiday season." Too much to do. Too much pressure to feel good. Too much pressure to make everything perfect and sparkly and cheerful.

I've spent some holiday seasons in a big funk. I've some holiday seasons when I was in a good mood. Guess what? The holidays are way more fun when I'm loving every minute of it. So, I've decided to make a list of the top 17 reasons to be in a good mood this holiday season..

1) The vacuum cleaned managed to pick up almost half of the pine needles that came off the tree. I can almost walk barefoot without being stabbed!

2) My daughter is actually willing to go clothes shopping for new party shoes. Nothing like dressing up for Santa to motivate a five year old!

3) Frosty. Was there ever a sexier hunk of snow than that guy? I be thinking not.

4) Christmas cookies. Or, more importantly, the FROSTING for the cookies that can either be (a) put on the Christmas cookeis or (b) eaten right out of the bowl. I vote for (b).

5) Sparkly stuff. I mean, let's get real here. Does anyone ever get tired of things that glitter, sparkle, twinkle and glow?

6) The book The LittlestChristmas Tree by R.A. Herman. Get it. Read it. You'll cry. You'll hug your kid. You'll remember what Christmas is all about. Seriously.

7) Santa hats. Put one of those puppies on your head, and you can be a jolly elf ready to spread good cheer to all the little kiddies. Or you can be a very naughty little girl… It's so nice to have options…

8) The ability to manipulate your kids by telling them that Santa knows if they've been bad or good, so they better be good for goodness sake.

9) Hanukah. Food, family, friends and gold coins. Did I mention the gold coins? Oh, wait, they're not real? Damn.

10) The song, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I love you, Grandma, but that song is just too damn funny.

11) The Christmas Cancan by Straight No Chaser. You've never heard these guys? They are awesome. Seriously. Brilliant. Gifted. And, to top it off, they are a story of perseverance, believing in your dreams, of why you should always keep the good energy going out into the world because you never know when it's finally going to pay off.

12) The 12 Days of Christmas by Straight No Chaser. I know, that's two spots for the guys, but if you want this video, too, you're realize why they really had to get the double accolades.

Publish Post

13) Book covers like this one that can really put you in the...ahem... "holiday" mood. Yeah, that's it. A holiday mood.

14) The smell of freshly cut pine trees. Yes, you get sap stuck to your fingers. Yes, there is pine needle carnage galore. But honestly, when you shove your face into that holiday wreath on the front door of your neighbor's house after too many glasses of eggnog, doesn't it smell awesome?

15) Having an excuse to get your hair done. Seriously. What if you actually got invited to a Christmas party? You couldn't go with bad hair, right? Gotta go get those highlights. It's your holiday duty.

16) Bells. Bells. Bells. How can you be in a bad mood when you get to hear bells all day? The best thing to do for bell lovers? Get those $5 holiday bell earrings at Target, put them on, and then twitch your head back and forth all day so they are constantly ringing. Everyone will love the music you bring into their day, and no one will think you're strange or have a weird head tick. Really. I swear.

17) Freedom to eat whatever you want and indulge in all the bad habits you want, because you'll start all the good behavior on January first when your New Year's Resolutions kick in. These next few weeks are your last hurrah! Indulge! Splurge! Enjoy!

Christmas Memories

2011-12-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

Like Angie and Casey, I should be writing…the next “Jess” book is due in seven short months! But am I? Nope—I’ve been crafting.

Here’s how it all started—my oldest daughter mentioned how much fun she had as a kid making candy canes out of pipe cleaners and beads with my mother, and gee, wouldn’t it be great if I did the same thing with my three oldest grandsons??? Okay, I thought, I can do that and we did—bought the pipe cleaners, 2,000 red and white beads, and made about 25 candy canes. But I forgot one little thing—in my family “simple” is never enough, “more” is always better. And after all, who can decorate a tree with only 25 candy canes? What about wreaths and snowflakes? It was back to the craft store where I cleaned them out of three different kinds of beads and both silver and iridescent pipe cleaners.

The wreaths weren’t a problem, but little fingers had trouble handling the beads I’d bought for the snowflakes. One had to twist and turn each bead in order to shove it down the stem of the pipe cleaner and the kids just couldn’t do it, so here I was with all these beads and pipe cleaners and no snowflakes. There was nothing left to do but make them myself. And I did—last Saturday—worked on them for NINE hours! One package of pipe cleaners and nine hundred beads later (yes, I counted!) I had thirty fairly decent snowflakes.

And you know something? I kind of enjoyed it. I put on Christmas music and, as I worked, thought about my own special memories of Christmas’s past. When I was a child…the bubble lights on our tree and how they fascinated me; the fudge my mother made every year. When all the kids were at home and the traditions John and I created for them. The last Christmas we had when John was in the hospital. Some of the memories were sad, but most were happy, and I thought about how lucky I am to have my kids and grandchildren live so near to me and the amount of time I get to spend with them. Many women my age aren’t that fortunate.

And who knows—maybe forty years from now, my grandchildren will be sitting with their grandchildren, making ornaments, and one of their special memories will be of beaded candy canes and Christmas wreaths? I can only hope so!

Btw—their tree in the family room (see picture above) turned out great! It actually looks better than the tree in my living room!!

That’s all for this week—have a good one!

Best,
Shirley

Roots

2011-12-07T06:32:00.001-08:00

I fully intended to blog about writing today. For the past couple weeks, I’ve been plotting book #3 in the Button Box mystery series, and I had a lot to say about how different the plotting process is from the actual writing of a book, and how I wish I could put the Muse on permanent retainer.

But something happened yesterday that (to me at least) is so amazing, I knew I had to put talk of plotting aside.

Yesterday, I visited my Uncle Ted.

My father came from a large family (14!) and Uncle Ted is the brother born two years after my dad. He never married, he lives alone, and recently, he had surgery. We’ve been visiting every few days, taking easy-to-reheat meals and checking in on him. The good news . . . at 88, Uncle Ted is vital and energetic. He feels well and is recovering quickly.

When we stopped in yesterday, I brought more than just meatloaf, I also took the notebook where I keep notes about family history (I could go on and on, and promise I won’t; I’ll just tell you that I’ve been doing genealogy for about a year now and it’s fascinating). Uncle Ted lived with my grandmother and grandfather, I figured if anyone knew things about the family, he would.

Let me back up here and say that all four of my grandparents came to this country from Poland near the turn of the 20th century. This, of course, makes researching the families something of a challenge. It also means when my grandparents were alive, they weren’t very forthcoming about their pasts. For one thing, there was a language barrier. For another, they were here in the US now, and they put their pasts behind them. They were Americans, and proud of it.

Once I pulled out the forms I use to fill out names and dates and such, Uncle Ted went and got his own scrapbook of family history. He gave me photos of long-dead relatives to scan, and even the fancy certificates my father’s parents were presented when they became citizens.

Then he pulled out a small, battered book.

It’s maybe three inches by four, with the kind of plain cardboardy cover you see on cheap old books in antique shops. It’s got maybe 20 thin pages in it and call me imaginative (OK, yes, I admit it!) but as soon as he pulled it out, I knew it was something important.

It is. The passport my grandfather used to come to this country in 1913.
In Polish, grandfather is dziadzia (pronounced jaja, hard j) and my dziadzia was a man of few words. His passport is written in Russian Cyrillic letters and I can only hope that someday, I will find someone who can translate it for me. Even without being able to read it, though, I know so much.

Dziadzia came to this country through Ellis Island, a 26-year-old man who’d never attended school and who left his wife and young children behind to follow him later. He came on a ship called Roon and traveled in steerage.

And the whole time, this little passport was with him.

I am truly in awe of the millions of people who had that kind of courage. Do we have a national holiday to celebrate our immigrant ancestors? We should. They were amazing people, and they continue to inspire.
　
　
　
　

Let the reindeer games begin

2011-12-06T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hey all, I'm writing to you from the sweetest smelling house on the block. We're into full holiday baking mode here at Chez Fox. My husband thinks it's a reaction to a big book deadline coming up, but I told him not to analyze too much, lest his sugary treat supply is interrupted. Haven't heard a peep since.

Sure, I'm working to finish the second Monster MASH book, but creativity takes on many forms. We're baking our family favorites, and then other goodies just because they're fun to look at - and to eat.

Like how about those reindeer cupcakes? I saw this picture and have to try to make them. The only thing I can't figure out is the googly eyes. Marshmallows? Icing? Hmm...

Is everyone else baking this year? If so, what are you making?

When a Reader Loves a Book

2011-12-05T06:51:00.001-08:00

I've got a fun tale to tell. A family member of mine right now is reading a well-known series: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. He loves sci-fiction and fantasy. When he finds a book he enjoys, he reads it voraciously. I bought him the first book and kept my fingers crossed that he'd like it. I've watched the series on HBO and enjoyed the plot and the characters. I hoped he'd have the same excited feeling. Things were going great as he plowed through the first book. He actually asked me to buy him the second one when I made another trip to the book store.

That happy feeling though came to a halt when he got close to the end... I'm not giving out spoilers! For those of you who haven't read the book or watched the HBO series--well some bad things happen to good people. (And some bad people get what they deserve too!) After getting close to end, my family member tersely informed me that the author was mean (he had much less polite words) for doing those things to the characters he really liked. All I could do was sigh and say, "Some things are tragic. It's just a book."

Naturally, for a reader who's deep into a story/series, that's not enough. As we invest our time in a story, we want conflict to keep us reading, but we also don't want our characters to fall on really, really hard times. There's nothing wrong with the harsh realities of life--it's what gives me those, "Holy moly, they really went there and did that" moments. It's those gotcha moments that make a book memorable and shakes you awake from the mundane ones. But I'll be the first to say it would be really hard for me to see my favorite character maimed, killed, or harmed in a way that affects my reading experience. I want to stay on the journey with them and not wonder if I'll need chocolate ice cream to pick me back up after each chapter. (Although that doesn't sound half bad per chapter for even a good book...)

A Game of Thrones is a little over 800 pages. That is a lot of time to invest in a universe and I wouldn't be surprised if I got a little miffed if something bad happened. But the series is selling well and there's one thing I do know: finding out what happened to the characters we like in the next book is a temptation that cannot be denied. :D

And even though I was told that he didn't want to read the second book--A Clash of Kings--I noticed the book I bought had been taken out of the bag and has somehow disappeared... I guess a reader can forgive in the end when they love a book. ;)

Authors Everyone Should Know?

2011-12-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

Last week I was checking out recommended articles online and came across one from Esquire Magazine. The headline went something like this…“Twelve Authors Everyone Should Know” and, of course, it immediately caught my attention so I clicked on the link and read their list. It was as follows:

Saul Bellows
Raymond Carver
Cormac McCarthy
Zadie Smith
William Faulkner
Flannery O’Connor
Stephen King
Graham Greene
George Orwell
Philip Roth
Norman Mailer
William Shakespeare

To be honest, I’m only familiar with about half of these authors. Not a huge surprise—my taste in reading definitely tends toward what I suppose one would call “commercial fiction” not “literature”. However what did surprise me was that only two authors on the list were women. Okay, I get that Esquire caters to men and the article didn’t explain what the criteria was in order to make this list, but come on…they couldn’t have come up with a couple of more women who’ve contributed to the world of literature? (My thought after reading this list…what about Harper Lee?? She won a Pulitzer for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and in my opinion, you can’t get more “literary” than that!)

So what do you think? If you were making a list of authors everyone should know, what female authors would you add to that list?

That’s it for this week—I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week! I’ll see you next Thursday.

Best,
Shirley

Announcing . . .

2011-11-30T05:33:00.000-08:00

Call me superstitious (I’m not really, just careful), but I didn’t want to say anything until it was officially official. Now that I have my contract in my hot little hands, I can finally announce the sale of a new mystery series!

It’s called the League of Literary Ladies and is set on South Bass, the biggest of the Lake Erie islands. Main characters are three neighbors who are "sentenced" to be a book discussion group by a magistrate who’s tired of hearing their complaints against each other and convinced they need to sit down, talk, and get to know each other.

There’s more to the concept, of course, but I’m going to keep the details secret. At least for now. I can tell you that book #1 is tentatively titled "Mayhem at the Orient Express" and that it looks like it should hit shelves summer, 2013.

I can also say that I’m thrilled to have an excuse to visit the islands again. Haven’t been there for a couple years, but you can be sure that once the ice breaks up on Lake Erie this coming spring, I’ll be jumping on the ferry and heading over to dig into South Bass Island history, and its secrets. I sure hope that one particular winery is still open, the one with the lovely front porch and the excellent sangria. Served in pitchers.

Ah, the things authors must endure for their art!

How I write, or at least how it happened today

2011-11-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just discovered it's Tuesday. For those of you who knew that already...well done!

I've had a little tunnel vision lately due to this new book I'm working on. This is the second book in the paranormal MASH series that's coming out next year. It's been a blast to write, and now that I have a lot of books under my belt, I'm seeing a pattern emerging in how I approach the work.

At the start of a book, I know exactly what needs to happen. May not know how to get there right away, but the idea is solid. Then the early chapters are all about expanding on that idea and making it richer. Again, I know how to do that.

A lot of writers aren't clear on the middle part of the book. I'm good there. But at about chapter 15 or 16, of every book I write, my outlines will start to say things like, "lots of cool stuff happens," or "hey, what if all the Shoneys were run by werewolves?," or in the case of this current book, "hopefully somebody gets laid."

Now for the record, I really do hope my main character gets some. She's been through a lot so far in this book, and frankly, I owe it to her. But as an author, I need a bit more to go on. So I did some brainstorming with my crit partner and we came up with a wicked cool idea that should really make this book sing. I'm loving it. Too much. To the point where I forgot it was Tuesday.

I suppose that's better than forgetting about the weekend, or dinner. I never forget a meal. So anyhow - happy Tuesday! I hope yours was great. It was a lot of fun on this end.

A Writer's Thanksgiving List

2011-11-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

I was going to put together a Writer's Thanksgiving list of things to be thankful for, but as I started to write it, I realized that a list simply about writing was incomplete. I'm a writer, but I'm also a mom, and a daughter, and a partner and an athlete and everything else, so my list instead will simply be A Stephanie's Thanksgiving List.

I am thankful for (and these are in no particular order, and they don't even begin to encompass all the things I am thankful for):

1) My amazing, beautiful, smart, sassy, creative daughter. As a mom, there is no greater joy than seeing the laughter in my child's eyes and knowing she is happy. My road to becoming a mom was long and tough and I wouldn't change a minute of it, because those beautiful brown eyes that look at me every night while she whispers "I love you, Mommy," are a part of my soul, the part of my soul that was simply meant to be. There was no other path that I could have taken to be a mom, because my path was meant to lead me to her.

2) My ability to love, an ability that was deeply buried for a long, long time. It's safer to shut yourself down and not love, but life is empty without it. When you let yourself love, you can hurt so much more, but the gift of feeling that love in your heart, and feeling the love from others is worth all the risk. I've hurt alot more in the last four years than I did in the two decades before that, but by God, I have sailed the heavens and had more wonderful hugs and more magical moments in the last four years than I ever had before. I wake up with a good feeling in my heart, the feelings that tell me I'm alive, not dying in my shell. Love, baby, love. That is what it is all about.

3) My total goofballness. For most of my life, I worked hard to file off my sharp edges, to be appropriate and dignified, to act responsibly. But as I've gotten older, that dignity has slowly worn off, and I now allow myself to be as free as I want to be. I sing with my daughter in the grocery store, I do the "I'm a hot tamale" dance in the dressing room when we're trying on clothes, and I don't hide my innate klutziness. I make people laugh. I make myeslf laugh. And life is better with laughter. My daughter says all her friends think I'm crazy, and that they think I'm so cool. What better lesson for my daughter to learn at a young age, that it's okay to be yourself, no matter how much of a goofball other people might think you are.

4) My ability to think. Life is tough, writing is tough, we can be our own worst enemy, and sometimes your only tool to survive or to succeed or to suprise yourself is your ability to step back, analyze the situation and then create magnificence.

5) Friends. What is life without friends? Oh, sure, we can survive on our own just fine, but to have pepole who care about you when you're down, who laugh with you when you're up, who remember to buy your latest book, who lighten your mood simply by being themselves... it's a beautiful thing. I moved cross country four years ago, and I had to leave behind all my friends and start over. It took time to rebuild, but as I look around me now, I am so grateful for the friends that have come into my life. Hugs to everyone!

6) My ability to rebound. Life is never easy. It's full of challenges, and hiccups and disappointments and twists and turns, and sometimes you have to really dig deep and change your viewpoint or your direction in order to survive. My life has been particularly full of challenges for the last four years, but each time I thought I'd been defeated, I somehow managed to pull myself together and redirect. That is a huge gift, and I am so grateful for that, because nothing is worse that feeling like it's simply time to give up.

7) My health.

8) My brother. For many many years, I lost connection with my brother, but since I moved back, we have connected and built a friendship that is far beyond anything we ever had even as kids. It's such a gift to look in my inbox and see an email from him, or to look my phone and see a voicemail from him. I love him, and I know we have built a new foundatoin that will last us forever. I feel like I have found my brother for the first time in my life, and it is such a gift.

9) The man who loves me. It took me 42 years, including divorce, single parenthood, and lots of heartache, but just when I'd finally given up and decided to go it alone, he found me. And it is the most beautiful, most precious, most amazing gift, worth everything in the world. Sometimes, when we've been down the tough paths or through the rough times, that is when we are finally able to truly see and appreciate the things in our lives that are so wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T04:23:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Wishing you a joyful, peaceful day. Join me in boycotting those retailers who are forcing their employees to work on the holiday. Bet you won't find any executives behind those cash registers tomorrow!

We need a book Friday

2011-11-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

Is anybody else a Black Friday shopper? I am. Sort of.

I love the deals and the crowds. I love the holiday music and spending a day getting a jump on shopping. The only problem is that it starts so early. 3:00 a.m.? 5:00 a.m.? Hmm...I get the concept of showing up super early at Target or the mall, but can't quite make it there in real life.

Still, I pour through the ads. I think of what I'd do if I was motivated enough get there early. Then I sleep in and show up at around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. It's still early (sort of). It's still fun (yay) and all of the basic sales are still going on.

Now if bookstores had big Black Friday sales...that might be different.

Thankful for Books and Corsets :)

2011-11-21T07:03:00.001-08:00

As of Friday I turned in a round of edits for KEPT! It was a fun ride so now I get to relax and enjoy some good books. Right now I'm giving in to my inner geek and I'm reading WWW:WAKE by Robert Sawyer. But after that I've got some good one coming in the pipeline. I got an early copy of Amanda Bonilla's SHAEDES OF GRAY! She got a Top Pick and a 4 1/2 star review on RT Book Reviews so I can't wait to read it. Another book which I just happened to stumble upon was WHEN SHE WOKE by Hillary Jordan. I read the opening and was hooked. It's essentially a re-telling of The Scarlet Letter--but in the future! Here is the premise:

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.

A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith a love.

Isn't that neat? I couldn't wait to read it after I read a few preview pages. I've got a whole week to relax and read for the Thanksigiving holiday! Of course, I have a few freelance projects, but well, a break or two to read never hurts. ;)

So, on to the cool part. On Friday I celebrated Hot Damn Design's one year anniversary at their masquerade ball. I work with Kim Killion as the developer behind their Wordpress, Facebook, and other advanced projects. It's been a great and successful year so a celebration was definitely warranted. If you recall, Angie and I bought some corsets a month ago. Would you believe they both showed up on that very Friday?? Can someone say perfect timing? Angie looked amazing in hers and I had a blast. Here's a shot of me in mine:

It was quite an experience to get into it. Arranging the corset was the easy part. Tightening it as a newbie was another story. I tried to grab a few of the drawstrings in the back, but I couldn't tighten it properly. Thank goodness I got some help once I arrive at the party. Author Jennifer Jakes was kind enough to further tighten me up. LOL And boy did the corset feel so much better afterwards. :) I even managed to eat at bit while wearing it. If anyone's thinking about buying one, I highly recommend it. Angie and I bought ours from Draconas Creations and I love the quality of the product.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

WICKED on Something Wicked

2011-11-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

This has been a busy week—my birthday was this week and my two daughters took me out to dinner and then to a performance of WICKED. I had a great time. Not only was it wonderful spending time with my girls, but WICKED was fantastic. I’d not read the book and this was my first exposure to the new take on the old classic.

It was interesting. I managed to deduce who would become the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow in advance. Plus I also saw parallels between what was happening in Oz and the rise of the Third Reich. And whether or not it was the intent of the author, to me the theme was the fact that sometimes perceptions have little bearing on the truth. During the intermission, I of course shared these pithy observations with my girls, to which my youngest daughter rolled her eyes (particularly when I mentioned the Third Reich) and asked why I couldn’t just sit there and enjoy the musical.

But I was enjoying the musical. While my daughter’s enjoyment stemmed from seeing and listening to music that she loves being performed live, mine came from trying to figure out what would happen next and what point the story was making. We were both having fun, but approaching it from a different perspective. We were viewing the same performance, but through our own filters.

I think this is really true when it comes to books, too. I write a book drawing from my own life; my own feelings; my own perceptions yet when it’s read, the person reading it is seeing the story and the characters through their eyes not mine. How they relate to that is based on their life experiences. And to be honest, there have been instances when I’ve been amazed at what a reader picks up on between the lines. Sometimes it’s something I intended, but many times it’s not.

And that’s okay. I don’t care what assumptions the reader makes. The only thing that’s important to me as the author is that the reader enjoys experiencing the story.

So did Mr. Maguire intend to write about intolerance and false perceptions in WICKED? I don’t know—I’ve not read any interviews where he discusses his work. After watching or reading WICKED, did anyone else come to the same conclusions that I did? I don’t know the answer to that one either. But again—does it matter? As long as I enjoyed the experience, and that I certainly did!

That’s it for this week—we’re still running the LOVE LIES BLEEDING contest on the Jess McConkey—Author Facebook page and we’re getting close…73 “likes”! Only 27 more to go and we’ll do the giveaway!! Have a good rest of the week and I’ll see you next Thursday.

Best,
Shirley

A Blast from the Past

2011-11-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

Actually, it’s more like 11 blasts from the past.

You see, last week, I sent off the first 11 books I ever wrote (including "Earthly Delights," pictured above) to Amazon to be digitized and put up on Kindle.

An interesting exercise. First of all, I had to find copies of the books. Yes, I had them all, but gathering them took a little digging. After all, the first book I published will be (gulp!) 20 years old this coming February.

That done, I turned to a project my agent asked me to complete. Send her a list of all the books and include:

Title
Genre
Author’s Name on Cover
Comparable Authors
A Blurb About Each Book

And again, it sounds easy, but it definitely wasn’t. A blurb about each book? After all these years, I didn’t even remember character names, much less what each book was about. I skimmed, I read, I even looked up reviews online. Some of the stories floated back at me through the mist. Others, I barely remember at all.

That project done, I turned to covers. Choose a template, choose a color, choose an image.

Whew!

The books–eight historical romances and three young adult horror--are going to be part of Amazon’s White Glove Program, and I’m eager to finally see them available.

Maybe one of these days, I’ll even get a chance to read them. I wonder what surprises await me!

COVETED Cover Flat

2011-11-14T07:41:00.001-08:00

Happy Monday all!

I would've posted last Monday, but the Friday before last I experienced the joy of hard drive failure... It was quite a painful experience and I highly recommend that you backup items you find valuable. What pretty much happened was I was in the middle of working and then I got the blue screen of death. Not long after, I tried to reboot, perhaps hoping I'd see Windows boot back up. Well, my computer never came back. Even after running restore software for like 3 days straight, I only got a few files back. Most of them weren't that useful either. LOL

At least the good news is that I have something fun to reveal--the cover flats for COVETED. Right now I'm editing the second book in the series, KEPT, which thankfully wasn't lost during my hard drive fiasco.

Another thing: Sharon, if you could send me an email? You won my last giveaway and I want to make sure I send it your way!

The Girl Friend's Guide to Boys--Which Covers Do You Like Best?

2011-11-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

In 2004, after writing eighteen complete books, nine partials and after receiving over 130 rejections, I finally wrote the book that opened the door to the world of being a published author. My teen romance, PUTTING BOYS ON THE LEDGE was the culmination of years of hard work, failure and determination. It was that moment when I finally created that magic that I'd been working toward for so long, when I finally wrote a book that was so beautiful that it made my heart sing, the book that finally got a publisher to make my dreams come true. It was my triumph, and my pride, and it always has been.

Several month ago, I went back and reread PUTTING BOYS ON THE LEDGE, and I blown away by how good it was. It's seven years later, and I'm such a better writer than I was back then, so I was expecting to see that it wasn't that strong. But you know? It was still magic, it was still amazing and my heart was delighting in the adventures of four friends, as if I were reading it for the first time. There was something really amazing and sepcial about that story, and about that series, and if I wrote it today, I doubt I could write something as special as that book, as that series. Two of the four books in the series were RITA award finalists, winning those slots against adult books, because they were that special... and they still are.

These books, this series about four best friends as they find first love and navigate through high school, is the kind of romance we read as teens. It's sweet, it's heartwearming, it is the true magic of that first kiss. It's about honestly and loyalty, and it's about learning to discover the power within each of us. I call them my girl power books, because they're about how amazing and how special every girl is inside, no matter how different she feels she is from everyone else.

So, it is with the most tremendous excitment that we are relaunching this series as ebooks, under Stephanie Rowe, my real name. They were published before the days of ebooks, and their print shelf life is long gone. I still get emails from girls who find them in libraries, and they want to know how to find the rest of the series. And now, they can. You can. Everyone can. Yay!

Take a minute. Read one of these books. Be transported back to the magical days of first love, first kisses, and friends that take you to buy your first thong. Share these books with the teens in your life who are tired of the books otu there today, the ones that are so dark and full of the violence, drugs and sex. Help the teens you know discover that a wonderful book can empower them, and make them feel good at the end.

So, which covers do you like best? The 2004 Stephie Davis covers, or the 2011 Stephanie Rowe covers? Let me know!

Interested? Follow the links below to take a peek! Excerpts will be up on my website shortly!

Putting Boys on the Ledge Amazon, B&N
Studying Boys, Amazon, B&N
Who Needs Boys, Amazon, B&N
Smart Boys & Fast Girls, Amazon, B&N

Which Came First?

2011-11-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

Recently, along with my youngest daughter, about 10 of her friends were in town to work on a project relating to her church and she thought it would be just great if they all came to my house for dinner. They would get to see her family home, meet her mother, and get a home cooked meal. At least that’s the way she pitched her idea to me at the time, and since I’ve always had an open door policy when it came to my children’s friends dropping by, I agreed. (Not a big deal—three pots of chili and a pan of cornbread fed everyone.) And it was fun—I’d not met any of the close knit group she hangs with since moving into her own apartment in Des Moines, and they seemed to be a very nice group of young adults. Later that evening, one of her friends made the comment to my daughter that her mother was quite a raconteur.

When related to me, the comment made me realize something—most of the writers I’ve met are raconteurs. Thinking back on the conferences I’ve attended and the panels I’ve either served on or watched, most of the questions asked are usually answered by the author with an anecdote. Even when authors are simply hanging out, the stories flow as quickly as the beer (or drink of choice, depending on the particular author.) Personally, I love it—I not only like telling stories, but it’s fun listening to them, too. And they’re usually followed by a great deal of laughter.

This brings me around to a question—kind of a “which came first…the chicken or the egg” thing—is the telling of anecdotes a natural extension of writers spending their days putting words on paper? It’s what they’re comfortable with. Or did the stories come first? Is it something that they’ve done all of their lives and now they're sharing them with a larger audience? What do you think?

One last thing—the marketing team at William Morrow has offered to run a contest on my Jess McConkey—Author Facebook page. Our goal is to hit 100 “likes” and once we do, all those who’ve hit the “like” button will be eligible to win one of the five copies of LOVE LIES BLEEDING that they’ve offered as a prize. So if any of you or your friends are interested, please check it out.

That’s all for this week—have a good one!

Best,
Shirley

It's always funnier when it happens to someone else

2011-11-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Last night, my husband came home and showed us a video that I thought would terrify the children. It was from the Jimmy Kimmel show, where Kimmel asked viewers to tell their children that they had eaten all of the Halloween candy while the kids were asleep.

Kimmel said he was surprised at the reaction from most of the children - tears, mainly. I wasn't. I'd be crying too. What I was surprised at was the reaction from my kids. They thought it was hilarious. But would they if it happened to them? Maybe we need to find out next year.

Attention Buckeye Readers!

2011-11-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but it’s the first week of November and that means this Saturday is Buckeye Book Fair.

Not familiar with the event? It happens every year in Wooster, Ohio on the first Saturday of this month, a literary/book fair that features nearly 100 authors and many more eager readers.

Buckeye is Ohio’s premier book event and the location is perfect, just about mid-way between Cleveland and Columbus. Festivities start at 9:30. There’s plenty of parking, plenty of books, and authors who are eager to meet and greet readers.

Stop by if you can! I'll be there in both my personas, as Casey Daniels, author of the Pepper Martin mysteries, and as Kylie Logan, author of the Button Box mysteries.

For more information, check out the link at:
http://buckeyebookfair.com/

Candy comas and a were wives winner

2011-11-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I'm coming out of a candy coma here to post. Why is it that as a child, I never suspected that my parents would rob my candy stash? And how is it that as a parent, I have to restrain myself to just the kind that the kids don't like? (Baby Ruth - thank you, God). Oh and the half-bag of Snickers left over from the "house" candy we were giving away last night.

But I had to random generate our ultra cool prize winner from last week. mnjcarter wins a copy of The Real Werewives of Vampire County. Woot!

Now I'm wondering if it is too late to carve pumpkins. With the World Series in St. Louis last week, we never got around to it... ;)

Happy Halloween! Bring on the Candy!

2011-10-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to plan out costumes for my three kids. At the store I get to go on a candy buying spree without consequences. Matter of fact, no one looked at me funny when I bought a few more bags than necessary. Hey, the way I see it, I'm keep that store from letting that poor chocolate get old. (I did this knowing it takes a long, long time for chocolate to get old.)

If it doesn't rain or anything else, I'll be taking Mario, from the Mario Brothers, Obi-Wan Kenobe, and a Disney Princess out for some treats. I do remember one Halloween when I was younger with snow, so it will be nice to venture out and then hand out candy!

So, I've got Dots, Snickers, and more to hand out. If you're celebrating this year what do you plan to do? The most important question should be what do you plan to hand out? :D

Me Brave. Really.

2011-10-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

"Everyone is afraid of something...but we are all brave inside. We just have to find that brave part within us." Orange Princess Has a Ball by Alyssa Crown
A few weeks ago, after copious amounts of brainstorming and preplanning, I finally reached the "it's time to write" phase of my new book. And you know what? It was a hellacious two days. I wrote five different opening scenes and every one of them was awful. I wrote pages of notes brainstorming what that scene needed to be. I wrote and brainstormed and wrote and critiqued and dug in with every fiber of my soul until my head finally exploded.

And by the end, after all that work... did I finally have a good scene? Did I finally see light? No, actually I was utterly frustrated, unable to think clearly, and absolutely paralyzed in my ability to handle the story. I was convinced that I would never be able to write this book. That the idea must be inherently, fatally, flawed, and that the brilliance of the idea would never see the light of day because it Just Didn't Work.

I sucked (not just my writing--me, personally, because a writer always has to take failure personally, right). My brain was useless. My talent was vamoose.

So, instead leaping up with a roar of fury, hurling my computer and my brain out the window, I did the mature thing (amazing, isn't it?) and simply turned off my computer and walked away. I knew it was time to throw in the towel, to give myself permission simply to admit failure and turn off the effort.

All day it continued to stress me out, the fact I couldn't get this book started. I mean, I was really letting it get to me.

Then that evening, when I reading to my daughter, we came across the quote listed above. The moment I read that, I stopped, I reread it again, and then one more time. My five year old looked at me, put her hand over her heart and she said

"Mommy, that means that you are brave in your heart."

And as she said that, I finally understood what had derailed me so thoroughly all day. It was fear. Fear of writing a scene that wasn't good enough. Fear of not doing justice to the amazing idea that I had all worked out in my head and on hundreds of pages of notes. Fear of running out of time to get it written. And a fear of failure, failure of gargantuan levels, that I would NEVER figure out how to write that opening scene in a way that was as brilliant and worthy as I knew it needed to be.

F.E.A.R.

It haunts us all the time. It might be a fear of financial shortages. It might be a fear of rejection. It might be a fear of making the wrong decision. It might be a fear of trusting the wrong person. It might be a fear of dying. It might be a fear of not being able to give your children or your loved ones everything they need. It might simply be a fear of making a mistake.

When I started to think about fear, and I took stock of my assorted triggers for feeling stressed or cranky, I realized that almost all of them stemmed from a fear of something. It actually made me feel better to read that little blurb in a kids book, because it made me realize that I'm not the only one walking hand in hand with fear.

I recognized it: I waltz with fear, and I let it win.

Great. So now what? How do you shake it? Well... I read on.

"'Everyone is afraid of something, Kristina," Grandma Soo said, 'but we are all brave inside. We just have to find that brave part within us.''How do you do that?' Kristina asked.
Grandma Soo thought for a moment. 'I think you find it when you need it most,' she said.*
At first blush, I found that an entirely unsatisfactory answer. Hello? I'm paralyzed by fear right now. I'm not seeing that bravery... but then I thought about it some more, and I realized that what the book was saying was that courage and bravery are in there, in your heart, and it's always accessible to you, no matter how much the world seems to be falling apart around you.

If you can just slow down to catch a breath, one breath, and use that strength within you start scraping away at the fear, maybe you can get enough space to think clearly, to take a step, to make one little move that makes you feel better. And then with each step you take, each positive thought you manage to think eases that vice grip fear has on you and makes it that much easier to breathe.

For me, the simple realization that my logjam with the book was based on fear helped ease it a little. I told myself, "There's no reason to be afraid. There really isn't." And that felt better. And then I picked up another piece of writing I needed to work on, one that was easy for me, and I worked on that.

My ability to handle that other bit of writing helped calm me down and restore my self-confidence a little bit. It gave me a little bit of momentum. And I took that momentum and.... did nothing. I didn't try to jump back into the book that was troubling me, because I was still too overwhelmed. But what I did was use that momentum to keep working on my mindset, so when I thought about going back to that other book and felt the panic closing in on me, I was able to say, "You know you can do it. You know it always works out okay." And then those words felt good, and right, and I relaxed a little bit more.

I took one more day off from that book, and I spent it working on other writing projects that were easy, and that I'm good at. More momentum, more rebuilding, hoping and telling myself that, by the next day, I my mind would clearer, and I'd be ready to tackle that troublesome book. I told myself that I might have to write seven more terrible opening scenes, but I would would smile while doing it, and give myself permission to be fearful. I promised that, when things started to implode again, I remind myself that inside me, I already have all I need to manage the situation, or at least my reaction to it, so that I can move forward and deal with it to the best of my ability, instead of bowing under the pressure.

I didn't start working on that scene until ten o'clock the next night. I was so stressed and I knew the only way to deal with that stress was to tackle it. So, I sat down, I wrote several paragraphs on how it didn't matter if it was good, that it didn't matter if anyone liked it, that I was writing just for fun... everything I could think of to take the fear away enough for me to think.

Then, I started to write, and within two minutes, I had the perfect opening scene all figured out. TWO MINUTES. After days and days of struggling, when I finally cleared my head and stopped panicking, the real wisdom was able to come out. I finally became brave enough to write without fear, and that's when it finally worked.

Turns out, Grandma Soo is right. I have that bravery inside me. That means I can do it, whether it's writing or coping with personal issues or whatever. I can do it. I really can.

*Orange Princess Has a Ball, by Alyssa Crowne

Halloween Memories

2011-10-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make—at one point in my life, I was a vandal. From the age of eleven until about the age of fifteen, I engaged in various nefarious acts this time of year. You see once I was too old to dress up and go door to door, begging for candy, the “tricks” in “trick or treating” became much more fun. Armed with our rolls of toilet paper and soap (Ivory works the best, btw) my friends and I would prowl the town late at night hanging toilet paper in trees, winding it around bushes, and writing what we thought were clever messages on windows with the Ivory soap. And no, I never got caught by our local cops…I could run a lot faster back then.

Who were our victims? People we knew—usually hitting any home that housed a certain boy whose attention we were trying to attract and teachers we didn’t like. We never smashed pumpkins, threw eggs, or wrote on cars, the latter of which can ruin a paint job. Nope, we were strictly a toilet paper and soaping windows gang.

Then last but not least, we would then sneak over to our seventh grade math teacher’s house, a woman whom I now suspect really wasn’t all that fond of children, and ring the collection of antique school bells placed about her yard. We’d ring the bells then run like hell. Once I ruined a perfectly good pair of socks skittering over the barbed wire fence circling her backyard. And always adding to the excitement of this act of trespassing were the rumors that her husband lie in-wait with a shotgun full buckshot with which to pepper our behinds. Obviously it was just a rumor—I don’t recall anyone ever getting shot and he would’ve had plenty of opportunities. It was tradition to “ring Elsie’s bells” and this time of year, one could hear them clanging every night!

Ahh, the memories… I can still remember the thrill of ducking through alleys, hiding in bushes, and the way it all made my little adolescent heart beat faster. Back then the true measure of friendship was the friend who stopped to help you to your feet after you'd tripped on an exposed tree root while running willy-nilly through someone's yard instead of ditching you to face the music alone.

Do kids still engage in this behavior? Yup—recently, after Homecoming, the trees along the main drag through town were festooned with strips of toilet paper waving in the breeze. I expect we’ll see more after this weekend.

What will I do if my trees are chosen by phantom TP’ers this year? Grind my teeth and worry about the mess? No, I’ll smile and remember just how much fun it was as a kid watching those rolls uncurl around the branches and maybe be just a little bit envious that my days of lawlessness are past!

That’s it for this week—Happy Halloween!

Best,
Shirley

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-26T06:04:00.001-07:00

Racing out to do a speaking gig at Kent State University, but before I go, wanted to make sure to stop by and wish everyone a happy Halloween!

No secret, it’s my favorite holiday, and my house decorations show it. The place is done up to the spooky nines with all my favorite orange, black and purple things. I’d show you pictures if it wasn’t for the fact that we just had a hideous computer problem that was made even worse by a tech who obviously was in over his head and wouldn’t admit it. Haven’t found my picture files yet, and can’t download any new ones. We’ll get there. Just need to figure out this part of the equation ourselves!

I was thinking about the holiday the other day and wondering why I like it so much. Near as I can figure, it all goes back to those old days when I was a kid and would trick or treat throughout the neighborhood. Back then (no dates given), parents didn’t have to come along with kids. We were free to roam on our own, and being out after dark with a group of friends . . . I think there was something about the freedom of doing that that makes the holiday stick in my mind.

I remember that days before, we’d get together and map out our route. And that night, I clearly remember just itching for it to get dark so we could start on our way. I’d always trick or treat with my best friend who lived across the street. Sometimes, my cousins would come along, too. My grandmother lived just a few houses down from me, and they’d show up to show off their costumes, then we’d head out, a herd of children sometimes with our costumes hidden under winter coats!

We didn’t care. Halloween was a great night to explore and to imagine. It was far less intense then. There were no Freddy characters waiting to jump out at you from the dark. No blood. No gore. It was a time of witches and ghosts and goblins and it was all innocent fun.
These days, we live on a street with no sidewalks and no one comes around trick or treating on Halloween. But I still remember the days. And the freedom of walking around in the dark, dragging the candy bag.

Happy Halloween!

The Real Werewives of Vampire County giveaway!

2011-10-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is fun. The Real Werewives of Vampire County releases today and I have author copies. Woot!

Werewives is an anthology with Alexandra Ivy, Jess Haines, Tami Dane and yours truly. It's been getting some great buzz and it was so much fun to write a story that is connected to the demon slayer world, but definitely off on its own.

In my short story, Murder on Mysteria Lane, a werewolf trophy wife is found dead in Vampire County. Pack-mate Heather McPhee goes undercover to investigate. Heather's never been a mascara-and-manicures sort of girl, but she's willing to learn. Especially with sexy vampire detective Lucien Mead posing as her husband.

I have to tell you, it was a hoot to research this story. I had to watch many, many hours of Desperate Housewives. That show is strangely addicting. My agent tried to also get me into The Real Housewives of Orange County, but those girls were too mean. Give me the fictional housewives anytime.

What about you? Tell us if you're a housewives watcher or not and you're entered to win a copy of The Real Werewives of Vampire County!

*Oh and as a special Werewives promotion, Kindle and Nook copies of The Accidental Demon Slayer are on sale for 99 cents!

Expectations as a Reader

2011-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend! I suppose I could say I had the most epic weekend ever, full of adventures and intrigue. But, alas, I got my editorial notes for KEPT so I spent the weekend in front of my laptop working. I had a nice chunk of notes and the weekends are my peak time to get things done as far as work. So no fun.

On Magic & Mayhem last Wednesday I talked about some of the things I think that are important as a reader that I expect from authors.

Here is a recap of WHAT MATTERS TO ME:

1. Write the best book you can write.

2. If you write a series, then keep me a happy customer by keeping those releases coming out at a decent interval.

3. Keep up with your fan mail and please reply.

4. Answer emails even if they aren’t fan mail.

5. Help me find you and read your awesome books.

Now most of these are pretty much no-brainers. Like any other reader, I've had my fan-girl moments where I've read a fabulous book and I can't wait to tell the author how much their book moved me. Hell, I even emailed an author once after I was bailing my eyes out from reading her work. If you can get me to cry like Niagara Falls, you can expect an email--just sayin'. But when I write that email and it heads out into the void to never return--well, that's kind of disappointing. I do understand that emails can head into spam or get lost, but it would be nice to emails back from authors if you tell them how awesomesauce their work is.

The last one on the list is a bit of a pet peeve of mine since I work as a web developer. Have you ever found a fabulous book at the store and it's book #5 in a series? That person is ALWAYS me! I have some kind of magical mojo to where I always find like the second to last book in a series. Then when I search for that author I discover their website doesn't even list the order or the release dates. A printable list of their releases is no where to be found. I think there should be a rule that if you have more than one book in your series you should make it painfully obvious what the order is on your website. To make things easy, just assume that someone picked up the 5th book in your series and they want to find the first one. :D

In terms of customer service for authors, I really haven't needed to email any of them to ask for a particular book in a particular format. Since I'm a bit tech savvy that hasn't been necessary, but it has made me think critically about the presentation of book formats for my potential readers. Have I offered a link for both the Kindle and Nook? Did I think about potential readers in foreign countries? Authors already have a nice chunk on their plates in terms of promotion, but I think with a few additional details on their websites they can answer a lot of questions with just a few more tidbits of information.

Now, what DOESN’T MATTER to me, but it don’t hurt. ;-)

1. Giveaways are nice, but I’m perfectly happy with the book.

2. Blogs and social media are nice, but they’re not necessary.

I love a good giveaway. It's like an early morning oh-I'm-there-first-gimme-that garage sale. You might find a gem, and hey the cost was low to non-existent in the first place, so why not give it a try? But are they necessary for me to buy a book? Not really. I'm a blurb lover. If you give me a good blurb you're halfway there to snagging me as a reader. Once I get past the blurb, then I read the first couple of pages. If I'm sucked in there, then happiness ensues.

When it comes to social media and blogs, I find them as a great way for me to learn more about the author. I may find out we have common interests and it opens up great conversation to add some fun to my day. But are they necessary to make me want to buy a book? Not really. Although, on most days I really do need a laugh, so group blogs are nice addition to my day. LOL

So my question to you for this week: what are your expectations as a reader from the authors you like? What do you expect or not expect from them?

And now, the winner of my COVETED cover reveal giveway! Thanks to random.org, the winner is Sharon! Congrats Sharon! I hope you like the books that are coming your way.

Cover Fun!

2011-10-21T06:06:00.001-07:00

I just received the final cover for my January book. I'm so excited! What do you guys think?

A Good Day

2011-10-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day! As soon as I finish this blog, I’m signing the contract for a new “Jess McConkey” book and shipping it back to my agent! And right now I feel like a very, very lucky girl. It’s going to be a pleasure to once again be working with my editor, Emily, and the terrific staff at William Morrow.

This event also brings with it a couple of other thoughts: 1. If someone would’ve told me seven years ago that I’d become the author of nine books, I’d have called them crazy! Which leads to Thought Number 2. All well and good with this book…I actually have it fairly well plotted out…but after this one, what about #10? Will I be able to come up with another idea?

This last thought is nothing new; I’ve experienced it nine times now. You see at the beginning of each new book, I’m convinced this will be my final one…that there’s no frigging way I’ll ever come up with a plot for the next one. When this first happened a few years ago, it was kind of scary. Being an author is an important part of my life, and I really would like it to continue. But over these same years, I’ve learned something else—at some point during the writing of this current book, an idea will come to me for the next one. It might be something I see on the news, something I read in the paper, something I see online, or maybe just an anecdote someone shares with me. Whatever the source, it’ll make me start playing “what if” in my head and it’s from that point that a story will be born. I may still experience a moment of panic as I type the words “Chapter One”, but I’ve learned to trust in this process, not stress over what might happen next in my career as an author, and just concentrate on the task at hand by trying to do my best on this book and hitting my deadline!

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could apply that same philosophy to everything??? Do your best and don't worry about what's next?

One last thing before I go—and of more interest than the above ramblings *g*--the winner of last week’s contest…Denise Z! Send me (Shirley@shirleydamsgaard.com) your mailing address and I get it in the mail to you.

Have a good one and I’ll catch you next Thursday!

Best,
Shirley

Life Imitates Art

2011-10-19T06:13:00.001-07:00

I don’t remember when I first realized how much I love cemeteries. It may have been back when I was a kid and walked to my piano lessons every week. There was no piano teacher in my immediate neighborhood and I walked about thirty minutes to get to my lessons. At the time (and no, I won’t say when it was!), no one worried about a kid out on city streets alone.

My route took me by a city cemetery, and I remember looking through the iron fencing around it and thinking how peaceful the place seemed. I never ventured inside, not because I was frightened, but because I didn’t know anyone who was buried there.

I did visit other cemeteries, of course. One of my grandmothers dragged (and I use that word appropriately) us with her once in a while to clean up the graves of long-gone ancestors. I remember walking to that cemetery, too, and packing a lunch to take along. Food was probably the one way she knew she could keep us quiet and bribe us to help her work!

What I do remember very clearly is when this vague interest in burial grounds blossomed into a full-blown obsession. It will be 11 years this coming Halloween. It was a Sunday, and somehow, I found out that a local trolley company was doing a day-long tour called "Stones and Bones."
Yup, a cemetery tour.

I was fascinated by the history of the cemeteries we visited, and grateful to finally have a chance to stop in at some city cemeteries that are not safe to travel in alone. I loved hearing about the art and the architecture, about the symbolism found in headstone carvings and the hints of family history that can be found in the names and dates etched for all eternity into the stone.

In the last 11 years, I’ve made good use of my cemetery interest. My Pepper Martin mysteries involve a cemetery tour guide and over the years, I’ve gotten to know a couple of the local foundations that work to preserve local cemeteries. Recently, it all came full circle. You see a couple weeks ago, I hosted a tour in a historic cemetery.

It was called Killer Cleveland and on the tour, I took groups of visitors around to "meet" the victims and perpetrators of some local (and very old) homicides. It was a gray and gloomy afternoon (how appropriate) but our intrepid tourists showed up anyway and hiked along with me through the battered headstones. At some of the graves, I told the stories of the macabre murders. At others, re-enactors took over and played the roles of victims–and murderers.

It was a great day, and I know we helped spark an interest in local history. I also know that somehow, the Universe has been pushing me all these years, nudging me to this place where I am more involved in something I find fascinating.

As for that cemetery I used to pass as a child, it’s still there and I’ve visited a time or two. These days, I actually go inside!

What's in a Name?

2011-10-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Good news. We have a title for the first book in my new series. As many of you recall, in addition to the Accidental Demon Slayer series, I'm going to be writing separate books about a paranormal M*A*S*H unit.

When I sold the new series to St. Martin's, I'd titled it The Monster MASH. I thought that was pretty fun - and yes, I have a weakness for campy 1960's monster songs. My editor loved the book, but thought the title could use more of a sexy tone. She asked me what else we could do.

I had to think about that. Usually, the title just comes as I write. I'd done only one other title brainstorm and that was for The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers. The original title for that book was A Girl's Guide to Demon Slaying. And it was an easy switch. We did it in a phone call. Dangerous Book was my second idea, really.

So how hard could it be to re-title the MASH series?

I came back with some more funny titles, like The Truth About Cats and Demi-Gods, and In Stitches. Not sexy enough, my editor said. Hmm...I opened it up to readers, who came up with a lot of the same things I did. "Almost," my editor said to a few of them. That's when I truly realized there's an art to this title business. It's not just about what happens to be amusing or funny at the time.

I was also starting to get a bit desperate. I considered adding a slew of vampires so I could name it Undead...anything. (Just kidding - sort of.) We needed to name this puppy.

Luckily, St. Martin's came back with a title with the word Immortal in it. I thought it was good, and my agent had an idea that everyone liked even better. So now we have a title: Immortally Yours.

Whew. Before I was in this business, I never knew what went into a book title. I still didn't until we had one that didn't quite fit. And that's the great thing about having an editor and a publishing house behind you - we keep pushing until we have something that works well and that everyone likes.

Never again will I take an easy title for granted, or an editor that is willing to work through all kinds of crazy ideas until we find something that fits. Thanks again to everyone who offered ideas during the great title hunt.

The second book won't be this hard, will it? Wait. Let's not think about that just yet...

Werewolves are a Girl's Best Friend

2011-10-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a non-stop whirlwind of activity. Wow! First of all, on Friday I got permission to reveal this beauty:

After waiting so long after announcing COVETED, it's so awesome to have a cover to add icing to the cake. And oh my what a lovely cake. If you'd like to learn more about how werewolves are a girl's best friend, feel free to add me to your Goodreads list.

Not long after my cover reveal I had to get to work. This weekend my RWA chapter hosted the awesome Debra Dixon for her Goal Motivation Conflict workshops. And let me tell you they were such a huge help. I'm plotting out my next two projects and thanks to Debra I moved full steam ahead. If you haven't heard of Debra Dixon, she's one of the publishers behind Belle Ridge Books as well as several fantastic titles including re-releases from Random House's Loveswept line.

I left the workshops a bit early to attend a super fun birthday party and then right after the birthday party the whole family went to a bonfire. Talk about getting up at 7 am and not even catching my breath until midnight. I played--and quickly lost at doubles in ping-pong and The fire-roasted hot dogs and s'mores did make the night end on a high note though. ;)

Since I'm in such a good mood with the release of my cover, I'd love to give away some more goodies! (Cause we know Shawntelle always needs an excuse to get out of the house and go book shopping.

DEMONS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND by Linda Wisdom
L.A. CINDERELLA by Amanda Berry
And of course since I love RTC I'll toss a few of those little guys in there too! I might surprise you with some COVETED swag as well. Who knows?

Since my weekend was non-stop did anyone else actually have a quiet weekend? Can I borrow it for my next weekend?

Fall Frenzy

2011-10-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

What’s that old saying…I’ve met myself coming and going? That pretty well describes my life over the past three months! I’ve traveled around 5,000 miles; redone a bedroom; painted my house; been sporadic in my blogging; and fallen behind on mailing out prizes! BUT I am determined to get caught up!

Not only am I determined to get caught up, but to also organize my life. To precipitate this, I recently purchased a paper shredder and tomorrow the garbage man is going to find 4 bags (maybe 5…I keep finding more “stuff” shoved in the crannies!) of confetti sitting on the curb side. I don’t know whether to be proud of the fact that I’ve gotten rid of that much junk, or ashamed that I let everything pile up. However to be honest, I have found the whole process rather cathartic. In getting rid of all this detritus, I kind of feel like I’m dumping that which is no longer important in my life and wiping my slate clean. It really does give me a new found sense of freedom.

Will it last, or will I fill up the corners again? I hope not. To stay organized would be wonderful and certainly make my life easier. We’ll see how it goes!

I do have one last thing—not really related to my cleaning frenzy—but something I hope you’ll like. As I posted last week, I attended a signing for DEADLY TREATS—the short story anthology edited by Anne Frasier. Well, since Halloween is just around the corner and these are tales about that holiday, I’m giving away a copy signed by all the authors present last week. To have your name entered in the drawing, post a comment about something you do to stay organized. I’ll announce to winner next week.

Got to fly for now—on my way into the big city to purchase file folders and banker’s boxes! (Step 2 in the “let’s get our crap together” project!) Have a good rest of the week and I’ll see you next Thursday.

Best,
Shirley

Short Stories and An Upcoming Long Bus Ride

2011-10-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, all! It's beautiful outside here in St. Louis. :D

I've survived the weekend--after a sinus infection that left me wondering if the pain would ever end. Thanks to the germ factories that are my children, I had a lovely head cold that knocked me out of commission for a bit. Thank goodness I didn't have anything major to work on. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight to see me at the computer looking as ghastly as I did. (It was pretty bad.) I felt like I spent the majority of the weekend counting cracks on the wall.

So right now I'm writing a short story which is a prequel to COVETED. I'm also waiting impatiently to reveal my cover to the universe. It's so awesome and I can't wait to show it off! As far as the short story, it will likely be released after December as a free preview into Natalya's world. I can't wait for you to meet her and experience her adventures--or should I say misadventures. Writing short is definitely a change compared to writing longer books. I love to read shorter stories. Since I'm a slow reader, I get through the book a lot faster. (Which is probably why I have many short stories on my iPad. LOL)

What I am excited about that's coming up next weekend is there will be an Independent Bookstore Cruise here in St. Louis next weekend. I missed the last one in the spring and I definitely don't want to miss this next one. Since Borders has closed, I feel its important to support the local bookstores with our business. By taking the cruise, I get a free introduction to their locations and staff. A win-win for me to snag some good books. Some of the local romance authors will be signing a Rose's Bookhouse: Jeannie Lin, Jennifer Jakes, J.C. Hay, Elizabeth Means, Richard O. Snelson & Angela Sage Larsen.

So, on to the fun part. Who won my Birthday Bash giveaway prize? According to Random.org my winner was LadyDamonayde! Congrats! Shoot me an email through here and I'll send you your stuff once I get your information.

Has anyone read any short stories that they loved recently? (Be sure to pick up Angie's short stories in her anthologies!) I have an e-reader with PLENTY of space. ;) I know Carina Press has a nice little sale going on so bring any suggestions my way.

Courage, Hope & Tears

2011-10-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

J. R. Martinez.

What does that name mean to you? Anything?

To me, it means courage. It means fighting off fear. It means finding a way to believe and be optimistic, even when there is NO DAMN WAY things are going to get better.

See, J.R. Martinez was a regular kid from the South. Like you. Like me. Nineteen years old. Full of life and dreams. Then he joined the military. Seven months later, he drove his Humvee over a land mine and blew up.

A week later, he was a nineteen year old kid who was burned from head to toe, in severe pain. The first time he looked at his mangled face, he decided that he would have been better off if he hadn't survived that fire. He cried. He raged. He lost hope. Just like I would. Just like you would. Because J.R. was a regular kid. Like you. Like me. There was nothing special about J.R.. When his body was destroyed, he broke. Like I would. Like you would. We are like J.R.

What chance of a life did he have at that point? More than thirty painful surgeries lay ahead of him, and that was just to get him to the point of being able to function, not to ever make him look like he did before. Almost three full years in the hospital. Pain. Isolation. More pain. Stares from strangers. What kind of job could he get? Who would love him, let alone marry him, with the way his face was disfigured? This kid, this nineteen year old kid, deprived of life before he had a chance to live it.

Or was he?

As J.R. lay there, in emotional and physical agony, his mom sat down with him. And she told him that the people who will be in his life will be those who love him for who he is, not for what he looks like.

Those simple words, that simple statement, woke something up in J.R. And on that day, for whatever reason, he made a choice. He decided to be optimistic and positive every day. He decided to fight, fight, fight, fight. He decided to overrule fear.

J.R. made this choice when there was no reason on this earth for him to believe things were going to be okay. He made that choice when every move caused him pain, when every time he looked in the mirror, he saw a face that he didn't recognize. Any human alive would know there was nothing to be positive about, nothing to believe in, nothing to look forward to. There was no future, there was no out, there was no light at the end of this tunnel.

But J.R. didn't bother with all that crap. He simply started living, through his pain, through his scars, through his loneliness.

The first that happened for him? A nurse came in and told him about another soldier with burns who had just seen his face for the first time, and had turned out the lights. J.R. went in and spoke with him, friend to friend, person to person, soul to soul. And after he left, the solider opened his curtains back up.

That's when J.R. knew he could make a difference. And therein began the life J.R. came here to live. He has become an internationally sought motivational speaker, he has become an actor, and, having never danced a step in his life, he has become a favorite on Dancing with the Stars, a show where grace and elegance and the beauty of the human body is honored and cherished. He has scars, but all you see when J.R. is on stage is his passion, his courage, and his refusal to let a little thing like burns on half his body stop him from laughing, from loving, from changing the world. J.R. has become an inspiration to all those who are facing a dark period in their lives, a long, endless tunnel of hopelessness. If J.R. can find a way out, if he can figure out how to fight, how to turn his life into something beautiful that gives him joy, then by hellfire and damnation, so can the rest of us.

Thank you, J.R. for giving me the courage to fight, to open myself to whatever and wherever this journey of life is supposed to take me. You are my inspiration. You are a regular person, and yet you have become more. You have taken your life and made it fly. I'm a regular person, too, so that means if you can do it, so can I. So can I.

And to you, the person reading this post: if you have never taken the time to watch a single YouTube video, watch the one below. All of it. You will cry. You will cheer. And you will look at your life and you will have hope and find courage that you never had before.

Deadly Treats

2011-10-06T03:35:00.000-07:00

One of my all-time favorite authors happens to be Anne Frasier/Theresa Weir, so when she asked me to contribute a short story for an anthology that she was putting together, I jumped at the chance! It was great fun writing “Bewitched”(my contribution) and I’m honored to be included in this collection. If you’re looking for the “right” book to put you in the mood for Halloween, please try these tales of vampires, witches, and zombies! Or as the Occult Detective called it:

“…an anthology that delivers and is a perfect companion for those long and lonely nights when the air turns chill and you bury yourself in a blanket on the couch, book in hand."

Also if you’re in the Roseville MN area, several of us (Anne, David Housewright, Leandra Logan, Marilyn Victor, Michael Allan Mallory, Lance Zarimba, Mark Hull, and Paula Fleming) will be signing copies at the Barnes and Noble located in the HarMar Mall. We’ll be there at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

That’s all for this week—it’s time to pack and hit the road! Have a good one and I’ll catch you next week.
Best,
Shirley

Pet Rescue Rides Again!

2011-10-05T05:45:00.001-07:00

by Lauren Vancouver, pet rescuer, whose adventures are memorialized in the Pet Rescue Mysteries by Linda O. Johnston

Hello. I’m Lauren Vancouver. I was here on Killer Characters in January, before the first of my adventures, BEAGLEMANIA, was released. The second, THE MORE THE TERRIER, will be available starting this week.

I have to say that I’m not thrilled to be back. Rather, I’m quite pleased to be blogging here on Killer Characters, but I don’t like the idea of having to solve another murder. But an old friend put me on the spot, so here I am.

Here’s a reminder of my background. I save pets. That’s the most important thing to me--except for my two college-age kids, who thankfully understand how their mother is driven to take care of homeless or abused animals and find them new forever homes. And now there’s also my dear dog Zoey, a Border collie-Australian shepherd mix who helps me at HotRescues.

HotRescues is the wonderful no-kill private pet shelter in the San Fernando Valley that I was chosen to run. It’s fortunate enough to have been founded by Dante DeFrancisco, the wealthy magnate who runs the large pet store chain HotPets, so unlike most shelters we don’t lack for funds.

Now, here’s the problem. My dilemma. In BEAGLEMANIA, I had to solve a murder because I was the main suspect. And no wonder. The guy was an animal abuser. But of course I didn’t do it.

At the beginning of the story in THE MORE THE TERRIER, I make a horrific discovery. My old mentor, Mamie Spelling, who also ran a no-kill shelter, has turned into an animal hoarder! I had pretty much lost track of Mamie after Dante chose me to run HotRescues, since she had been miffed that I was selected instead of her. I suppose her heart was in the right place in wanting to save as many animals as possible, but she had way too many to care for adequately.

Of course I made sure that all those animals were taken into custody by Los Angeles Animal Services, as required by law. But my friend Matt Kingston, a captain with Animal Services, promised to let me know if any were in danger of being “euthanized”--a dumb word for the killing of animals just to make more room--so I could make sure that either HotRescues or another private shelter took them in to save them.

And then Bethany Urber was murdered. She was a very nasty and officious pet rescuer herself who started Pet Shelters Together, an organization comprised of a number of private shelters, and she hounded Mamie to stop hoarding and join. Mamie became the prime suspect in her killing.

The thing was, I was upset with Mamie for becoming an animal abuser. But could I let her get railroaded for a murder she didn’t commit? She was aging and confused, but I didn’t think she was a killer. So, as much as I hated getting involved with solving another murder, I stepped in to try to help.

Solving murders is definitely not my favorite pastime. And I most definitely don’t want to get into the position of being a “murder magnet” like Kendra Ballantyne, the lady friend of the HotRescues’ benefactor Dante. I like Kendra, who’s the protagonist in the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries, but I don’t want to be like her.

Even so, I--well, I think I’ve said enough. I’d suggest that you read THE MORE THE TERRIER if you want to know more.

And, by the way, I wasn’t pleased to learn from the writer who chronicles my stories that another one, HOUNDS ABOUND, is scheduled to be published in April 2012. I suppose that means I’ll have to solve another murder.

Linda O. Johnston writes the Pet Rescue Mysteries, a spinoff from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries. Visit her at www.LindaOJohnston.com, and friend her on Facebook.

Lexi George winners and corsets

2011-10-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I have a confession to make: I am not smooth. For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that by now. But I try. I do. Even still, it has come to my attention that I neglected to announce the winners from Lexi George's So I Married a Demon Slayer giveaway. That's the anthology that also includes Kathy Love and yours truly.

To complicate matters, it seems that neither one of our winners is telepathic. So I shall announce it once and for all - our winners are poisonivyred and host! Congrats! Just email me at angie @angie fox.com, pass along your snail mail and I'll get that info to Lexi.

And if by chance our winners are telepathic and flying under the radar, I apologize for those thoughts I had about the UPS guy this morning. In my defense, he was extremely hot.

Speaking of fun things, Shawntelle and I had a blast this weekend at Archon. It's a St. Louis Sci Fi and Fantasy con. This year, they had corsets in the dealer room and, well, we were hooked. I suppose we could try and claim book research, but mostly, we just thought they were pretty. Shawntelle already posted the shot of us together, but here's one of the corset I bought. This may be the start of an addiction.

Archon Adventures!

2011-10-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday all!

Since it's my birthday and the day I get to post on Wicked Authors, I get to tell you about the fun time I had with Angie Fox over at ARCHON in Collinsville, IL.

I didn't get there until around 3 on Friday afternoon, but the conference was already in full swing. My timing was flawless since I arrived just as Angie was signing books. I got her to sign a copy of MY ZOMBIE VALENTINE. As you can see by the picture below, Angie's very serious when she signs a book.

After that we hung out and browsed the dealer area where Angie signed more books for her readers and I snagged a Pikachu back pack for my daughter and a Star Wars toy for one of my sons.

On Saturday, I had both of my panels with young adult author Cole Gibsen and had a blast! It was great to talk about some of the young adult books I've read and look forward to reading. I even got a few new ones for my never-ending TBR pile. I ate lunch with Angie, Cole, and urban fantasy author Kasey Mackenzie. She's an absolute delight and it was great chatting with her.

Darth Vader and moi

Looks like somebody paid to have this man arrested by Darth Vader and crew! (For 20 minutes anyway!)

Wicked authors trying on corsets. You'll have to wait to learn what we got and what conference we plan to wear them at. ;)

Want to see all the photos I took? Check here.

The end of Saturday went off with a bang with the masquerade ball. I didn't take any pictures, but let me tell you a lot of love went into those costumes. Everyone did a great job of going into character and showing off their work!

I didn't get a chance to go to the conference on Sunday due to a family football trip, but I had so much fun for the two days I got to hang out with everyone!

Of course I couldn't end have a post without a giveaway since I'm about to have an awesome day!

Shawntelle's B-Day Giveaway:

Cheryl Brooks - VIRGIN
Lydia Dare - IN THE HEAT OF THE BITE
Gift Card for a free Loveswept Book
Angie Fox Romance Trading Cards (I wrestled them from her!)
A Little Mayhem Never Hurts - Debut Urban Fantasy Authors Sampler with Me, Amanda Bonilla, and Sandy Williams
(And I'll even add a few more RTC and goodies on top of that!)

I have another giveaway over at Magic & Mayhem for Sandy Williams' upcoming urban fantasy THE SHADOW READER. Just leave a comment to be entered.

Just leave any comment about your weekend went to be entered. Hope you have a great week!

My Kind of Town!

2011-09-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Looking for something to do this weekend? Something educational? Interesting? A little off the wall?

If you’re in northeast Ohio, I’ve got the perfect solution! It’s the Killer Cleveland tour at Cleveland’s historic Woodland Cemetery, this Sunday, October 2.

Join us for a look at the lives and tragic deaths of nine murder victims. We’ll visit their graves, talk about the who-dun-it of each case, and even tell a few ghost stories.

There are two tours scheduled, one at 1 pm and the second at 3, and I’ll be hosting and taking groups of visitors around from gravesite to gravesite. At some of them, I’ll be telling the sad stories. At others, costumed re-enactors will help visitors learn about the victims and the perpetrators.

The tour is sponsored by the Woodland Cemetery Foundation and they’ll have raffle prizes (including a basket of all the Pepper Martin mysteries), refreshments and some surprises along the way.
For more information, check out:

http://wcfcle.org/

On a side note, I’m celebrating week three of "Button Holed" being #5 on the Barnes & Noble mystery bestseller list. Thank you, readers, for making the numbers so good!

Giving an ARC a day this month!

2011-09-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday! I have some fun news this morning. I'm giving away an advanced reading copy per day on my Facebook author page. It wasn't a huge planned thing. But I had this box of ARCs, and I had this new Facebook page and, well, it's kind of that old commercial with the chocolate and the peanut butter. They just go better together.

Now these are ARCs for The Real Were Wives of Vampire County. It doesn't release until October 25, but I've got copies to burn. Just "like" the page and you're entered to win. The book is getting great reviews, too. So, to sum it up - free books that don't suck. Get yours today.

Okay, off to go mud wrestle a different novella. There are a bunch of us contributing to an anthology to benefit Novelists Inc. It's me, Katie MacAlister, Patricia Rice...and a bunch of other authors whose names are on an email somewhere. Anyhow, I'm doing biker witches and wouldn't you know it? They're getting a bit out of hand. So wish me luck and in the mean time, go see if you can snag a free book!

ARCHON here I come!

2011-09-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

This upcoming weekend I'll be in Collinsville, IL for ARCHON, a science fiction/fantasy convention for the St. Louis metro area. It will be held September 30th through October 2nd. I have a blast each year and this will be my first year presenting on some panels. Both of the panels are related to writing young adult books (since I write in the YA genre as well), but I'll definitely have some of my excerpt booklets on hand to give away. My two panels are all on Saturday with YA author Cole Gibsen: There's More To Paranormal YA Than Twilight and Crafting/Plotting Your Young Adult Book.

Angie Fox will be there as well. She has a lot of panels (The Critical First Five Pages, True Blood - Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies, Witches, Shapeshifters, Demons, Werepanthers…What's next!?, Steampunk: Everything Old Is New Again!) and she'll also be signing on Friday September 30th at 3:50 p.m. in the Main Hallway. So if you're in the area come say hi to her and get your demon slayer books/gear signed.

I can't wait to attend another conference. I had so much fun in Atlanta with DragonCon (my first panel ever with Del Rey) and now I get to have some more fun again. (And well the shopping for books and other cool geekery never hurts...)

If you have a chance, I'd love to see you there as well. If you're in a Storm Trooper costume when I see you, I'll completely understand. :) Next week, I'll be sure to post some pictures and have a contest with some of the cool stuff I snagged.

Twitter Spies

2011-09-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night, I organized a Mom's Night Out for all the moms in my daughter's kindergarten class. Out of twenty families, twelve moms came, which was awesome. Who knew there were so many moms beside me who wanted to get out of the house for some quality girl time?

Anyway, I knew only five of the women in attendance, so it was fascinating to meet new people and hear about paths and careers. We had eight different countries represented, and twelve different careers. Let's see, we had neurobiology, pediatric anesthesiology, higher education, a stay at home mom, a medical writer, a novelist and others.

But there was one job that I found particularly interesting, and, when I heard about it, I knew that was going to be the topic of my blog post today.

What was that job I found so interesting and relevant? Well, I'll fill you in…

The gal worked for a company that had developed software to search the internet for mentions of their clients, which were usually big companies. She said that their number one place to find mentions was on twitter. Yes, that's right, there are companies whose business it is to track every single tweet for tweets of interest. I think she said there were something like 98,000 tweets a second worldwide. I can't remember the exact number, but it was huge.

Apparently, companies like Microsoft and American Express (and smaller ones) will pay companies like hers to keep them updated on what their customers are saying about them. Most interestingly, they are often most concerned with people saying bad things about them so they can fix it.

The mom then went to say that with a major company, if you tweet about a problem you are having with them, you will get a response within hours. Their software will find that tweet, filter it, report it back to whoever is in charge of responding, and they will track you down via your tweet and respond to your concern.

When we all expressed surprise to hear then, she told us that when she was trying to get moving quotes to move cross country in August, she couldn't get a response from one of the companies she was trying to get a bid from. She finally went on twitter and tweeted about it. Guess what? Within two hours the company had contacted her.

They also track facebook, blogs, and everything else posted anywhere that isn't protected from public viewing. So, how about that? Sure, we always hear warnings about remembering that whatever you post on the internet can be seen by anyone, but I'd never contemplated it on this level—that within two hours, the object of your mention will know exactly what you said and how to find you to reply.

On the one hand, I think that's so cool. I'm totally tempted to test it by making up a negative tweet about American Express and see if I really get a response. It makes me wonder whether there might be an application for this in the writing world. If a fan tweeted about an author or a book, would they be psyched or freaked out if the author responded personally within hours? And if author started doing that, would it help their sales? Would it help their writing, if they could see every good and bad thing everyone was saying everywhere? Or would it hamstring them until they couldn't write a single word? Is there at point at which customers simply want a place to vent or cheer and they don't want to have to hear back from the object of their discussion? What do you guys think?

And if anyone tests it and gets a response from a company, let us know!

Attention Target Shoppers!

2011-09-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

I had some exciting news this week—around the end of October, LOVE LIES BLEEDING will be carried by Target as part of their “emerging” authors series. Me being the naïve person that I am thought “that’s great—at my age being considered an emerging anything is good, plus it’s an opportunity to reach a whole new group of readers.”

Then I found an old article from The New York Times concerning the impact that being featured at Target can have on a specific title. And here’s a quote:

“Target can sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that is virtually unknown in the rest of the marketplace,” said Jacqueline Updike, director of adult sales at Random House.

Now how do I feel? A little scared (don’t want to bomb!) and a lot lucky for this chance. Will the sales go through the roof? That’s going to take a crystal ball shinier than mine to predict that one, but here’s what I’ll take away from this experience regardless of the results.

Even if the sales don’t rock the world, I’ve been given a shot and who would’ve thunk it six years ago when my first book hit the shelves. If I never would’ve started this adventure in writing, I never would’ve had this opportunity. If I would’ve let fear, uncertainty, hold me back, I wouldn’t have had all the wonderful experiences that have been a part of my life over the past six years. I never would’ve had the chance to meet all the terrific people—other authors, readers, booksellers—that I’ve met during my travels. As I’ve said many times…it’s truly been a trip of a lifetime.

And probably the most important thing this whole deal points out—it just goes to show that you’re never too old to follow a dream. At a time in my life when most people are winding down their careers, according to Target, I’m emerging…and honestly…how cool is that??

That’s all for this week—have a good one and I’ll see you next Thursday.

Best,
Shirley

Another One Bites the Dust

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

It seems these days, Wednesdays are sneaking up on me.

That might be because life is so busy. Just this week, I participated in a cemetery re-enacting event, had coffee with a dear writing friend and helped her brainstorm a new project, had two visits from Sears (a fridge, and we’re on #3, don’t even get me started with that!), had lunch with a former editor, attended a friend’s neighborhood association spaghetti dinner fundraiser.

In between all that, of course, I’ve been writing. Or at least trying. I also read over the galleys for "Wild, Wild Death," Pepper Martin mystery #8 which will be released on January 3.

The galley stage is a funny thing. By this time, an author’s already sent in a manuscript, an editor’s read it and offered comments/criticisms/revision ideas. A copy editor has seen it, too. The CE is the person who is charged with looking for inconsistencies (like does the hero have the same color eyes on page 276 as he does on page 3–yeah, yeah, laugh, but it happens. It’s hard to keep this stuff straight!). Once the copy editor has seen the manuscript, the author gets it back one more time.

This is the moment to make any substantial changes and to look over the things the CE has suggested. I’ve been lucky lately, I’ve had a terrific copy editor whose caught some small but important details that needed tweaking.

Then an author sends the manuscript back.

And all gets quiet.

At least until about four months before the book is set to publish.

That’s when the galleys arrive. At this stage, the book has been typeset and the author is seeing what essentially looks like a book that’s been flattened and copied. This is the time for looking for typos, and for only those changes that are absolutely, positively so important, they must be handled. Why? Because every publishing contract I’ve ever signed specifies that at this stage, if an author changes more than 10% of the total words, the author pays to have the book re-typeset. This makes sense, of course, since given the chance, most authors I know would tinker forever.

For me, the galley stage is also the last time I’ll read my book. I have never, ever read one of my books after it’s published. I’m too afraid I won’t like it. Or I’ll find typos. Or I’ll decide the whole thing is just incredibly silly and I never should have bothered.

Clever person that I am, I do all that in the galley stage. The good news is that I enjoyed "Wild, Wild Death." I haven’t seen it in quite a few months, and I’d forgotten most of what happens. A lot of it surprised me. A lot of it had me wondering how poor Pepper would ever get out of whatever trouble she was in. But she did. I did.

The book is done, and I won’t read it again. But I know it’s ready for the world to see!

Lexi George's book giveaway

2011-09-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

So I was talking to Lexi George the other day, lamenting that I don't have more copies of So I Married a Demon Slayer to give away and she came right back with an, "I do!" And seeing as her story is so fun and witty, I had to invite her here to tell everyone about it (and to give away a couple books, of course).

Lexi writes about small town librarian Bunny Raines, who has waited all her life for a guy like Rafe Dalvahni. He’s gorgeous. He’s attentive. And, while he hasn’t said the ‘L’ word yet, she’s sure he’ll get around to it.

Imagine her surprise on her wedding day when her darling husband informs her that he isn’t a man at all, but an immortal demon hunter with super powers. Worse, the ‘mugger’ he recued her from the night they met was a rogue demon. In order to save Bunny’s life, Rafe had to give her part of his demon slayer essence, which means she’s no longer human.

Of course, Rafe isn’t the only one in this relationship with a secret. Bunny is pregnant. Hurt, confused, and terrified that she might be pregnant with ET, Bunny runs away from the wedding with Rafe in hot pursuit.

Can you say, "yum?" And along with her giveaway, Lexi sent me a recipe for a Dalvahni Demon Hunter. Excuse me while I go mix one up...

Recipe for a Dalvahni Demon Hunter

Start with approximately 225 pounds of prime Dalvahni male, extremely fresh.*

Add four to five gallons of uh uh uh.

Throw in several quarts of pure, undiluted yummy. **

Add a bushel each of unsurpassed fighting skills and tracking ability.

Combine with insatiable lust and zest of virility.

Stir in a large dollop of stoicism and dispassion.

Toss in a generous amount of loyalty and a couple of heaping tablespoons of denial.

Omit the sense of humor, but be sure and sprinkle in a pound of literalism.

Blend with true love.

Fold ingredients lightly together. Stir vigorously for best results. Best served hot.

*Note: Dalvahni males are large in size (in excess of six feet in height), lean and muscular animals. Do not substitute generic or ordinary human males or recipe will not rise.

** Do not substitute imitation flavoring.

*** Warning: Demon hunters are habit forming and slippery when wet.

Just post an "I want one!" below and you're entered to win one of two copies of So I Married a Demon Slayer!

Vanessa Kelly Winner!

2011-09-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

The winner of Vanessa Kelly's giveaway is RebeLovesBooks! Just email me at angie @ angie fox.com and I'll put you in touch with Vanessa.

Out with the old, in with the New

2011-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Today's a busy morning for me. Before I run some many errands my head won't be on straight, I have 1-800-Got-Junk making a visit. That means everything in the house that is horrifically big and gargantuan that is of no use to us must be tossed out.

I find it amazing how much one household accumulates over time. With three kids, I have so many things that worked years ago that barely turn on now. They had great memories associated with them, and for a brief moment, it will hurt to let them go. I'm not one to hold onto broken things though. I actually hate clutter and since I live in a house where entropy seems to be in full effect, today's a happy day. Now that I'm taking a mini-vacation from writing, it's time to tackle the madness which is my home.

Goodbye broken dresser. Have a nice day, trashed mattresses (and those really, really needed to go)! Don't let the door hit you in your happy place broken-tv-stand-where-I-smashed-my-finger-good-God-that-hurt-so-bad! Farewell exercise machine that was sadly broken and hardly used.

Okay, so some of the stuff doesn't have the best of memories, but I feel good to have the load of more stuff off my shoulders. You'd be surprised what a decluttered house can do to brighten the whole place up. :) And now that I have more space, would it be so bad to go shopping?

And now for the fun part of my post today: the winner of the book giveaway from last week. The winner is Na! Congratulations! Yay! Just shoot me an email with your contact information and I'll send you the book with some other goodies I grabbed at DragonCon.

My Socks

2011-09-16T01:11:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Stephanie Rowe. I'm a professional, I'm a career woman, I like people to take me seriously. And these are my socks. They're a little hard to get on (labor intensive, anyone?). They're a wee bit uncomfortable (not a huge fan of material between all my toes). But I love them. L-O-V-E. LOVE.

Why? Because these socks have attitude. They say things I don't always have the courage to say with my mouth or my pen. These socks are about daring the world to tell me I have to conform, and then thumbing my nose at them. These socks are cheerful, bold, high energy--all of the things I wish I was, and so often am not. These socks announce to the world that I am not afraid to be different. That I'm not afraid to buck the system. And even if I am sort of afraid? These socks empower me to do it anyway.

These socks give me spirit, energy and hope on those days when my dreams, even my little ones, seem so far away. So hopeless. Even foolish.

Guess what? Your dreams are attainable and worthy, and you are worthy of having them.

But to get there, you need your special socks. Or your pen. Or your mantra. Or whatever it is that lights a fire of hope and energy under you.

Because you never get anywhere wonderful if you don't have strength, or courage, or attitude. The best things in this world aren't handed to us as we roll out of bed in the morning. You have to fight for them. You have to take risks to get them. Sometimes you have to be far more patient than you want, while still plowing forward with every fiber of your soul. But if you get there...No. WHEN. But WHEN you get there, it will be because you've left a mountain of socks like this strewn in your wake, and because you're pulling on a new pair as we speak.

Stand out. Be bold. Dare to have your dreams, and then dare to fight for them.

These are my socks. Where are yours?