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Denise A. Agnew
Louise Allen
Nina Bangs
L.A. Banks
Terri Brisbin
Jaci Burton
Dianne Castell
Linda Conrad
Sydney Croft
Janelle Denison
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Barbara Dunlop
Susan Grant
Laura Griffin
Julia Harper
Elizabeth Hoyt
Larissa Ione
Myla Jackson
Lydia Joyce
Julia Justiss
Alison Kent
Julie Leto
Sarah McCarty
Patrice Michelle
Liddy Midnight
Shelley Munro
Kathleen O'Reilly
Tessa Radley
Joanne Rock
Melissa Schroeder
Jan Springer
Shannon Stacey
Susan Stephens
Tawny Taylor
LaConnie Taylor-Jones
Stephanie Tyler
Shiloh Walker
Tracy Anne Warren
Lauren Willig
If I Were Your Woman by LaConnie Taylor-Jones

By AR Fun
March 11th, 2010
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About the Book

Tinsel Town is about to learn a few lessons from a Southern doctor with the courage to win the heart of a man who swore no woman ever would

If it doesn’t have a scientific basis, Dr. Laney Olivia Houston doesn’t believe in it —and that includes love at first sight. But she meets Raphael Baptiste. One encounter is all it takes; and she realizes her life is changed forever.

Jazz musician, Raphael Baptiste is no stranger to women or their beds. When an illness strikes, his life is thrown into turmoil. But a quiet Southern belle sees beyond his past and bitterness. She sees a man who could love. . .

By LaConnie Taylor-Jones

· Red Rose Publishing
· March 2010
· ISBN: 9781604356083

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Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of this book. Winner will be notified tomorrow and announced on this post as soon as possible. Print books will be shipped with Amazon Prime to United States addresses only. eBooks can be sent to everyone.

Read an excerpt after the break!

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Fun With Dick and Jayne by Delilah Devlin

By AR Fun
March 9th, 2010
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About the Book

He didn’t know the nightly peepshow was just a naughty invitation…

Garrett knows what he’s doing can get him into trouble, but he can’t help himself. Every night, as he arrives home, the blonde across the alley gets busy with her boyfriend with the blinds open. He’s spent the past two weeks getting an eyeful and falling deep into lust.

But when Garrett sees a man in a black ski mask sneak into his sexy neighbor’s bedroom, he doesn’t know he’ll be the one captured.

Jayne has a nice life with a nice lover who sees to her every need, but she’s still drawn to the lonely man across the alley. She’s been sharing her deepest fantasies with him from afar, but is ready to up the stakes. When she talks Richard into enacting a dangerous scenario, everything works out as planned. Only Garrett’s not happy about being played. And he’s got reservations because she already has a lover and he’s not into threesomes. Guess she’ll just have to convince him otherwise.

By Delilah Devlin

· Ellora’s Cave
· March 2010
· ISBN: 9781419927317

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Leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of this book. Winner will be notified tomorrow and announced on this post as soon as possible. Print books will be shipped with Amazon Prime to United States addresses only. eBooks can be sent to everyone.

IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN by LaConnie Taylor-Jones

By LaConnie Taylor-Jones
March 8th, 2010
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There’s absolutely no doubt the publishing world has transitioned into the digital revolution. But have readers and authors totally embraced e-books as the new wave of reading?

Before the release of my first e-book, If I Were Your Woman, I was one of those die-hards who flat-out refused to purchase anything other than a traditional print book.  So never in my wildest dreams did I think one of my titles would end up in e-format. And truth be told, I was somewhat apprehensive about the idea at first.  My saving grace is the belief that a good story is a good story, whether it’s in electronic format or on paper.

So, which do you prefer? E-books or print books?

Until next time - stay well and be blessed,
LaConnie

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What To Do . . .

By TellTale
March 6th, 2010
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Congratulations to Armenia who won Shiloh’s book!

by Shiloh Walker

So what is a writer to do when the bad guy doesn’t want to be the bad guy? That’s the dilemma I had to face when I was writing the first of the Rafferty brother books, FRAGILE.

You see, there was only supposed to be the one book. Luke’s book. Quinn wasn’t going to get a book, because in Luke’s book, Quinn was supposed to be the bad guy. You know… the bad guy, the guy who doesn’t get the girl, the happy ever after. He suffers, we smile. All is good.

My problem started about a third of the way through the book…Luke’s book, yes. Quinn? He was suffering, all right. This shouldn’t have been a problem. It was going as planned—he was the bad guy. He wasn’t going to be the happy-go-lucky sort.Shiloh Walker's Fragile

But I was kind of suffering, too. Because he also wasn’t the bastard I needed him to be to make him the bad guy. Plus, his twin… the hero of the book, Luke, he wasn’t too keen on how I was painting his brother as the bad guy. And the more I tried to make Quinn the bad guy, the harder it was to write the story.

Fine, I tell them. Have it your way, but the story isn’t going to work out—there isn’t anybody else who can be the bad guy, and we need a bad guy. It’s a suspense, remember?

Yeah, yeah. Well, it turns out… I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Quinn couldn’t have been the bad guy, because it turns out he had this core of strength I wasn’t prepared for. Yeah, so he was a little bit crazy there for a while, but a lot of us dance on that thin edge every now and then. He brushed a little closer than some of us, but then he had a darker time than many people. He pulled himself back, got himself together, and both Quinn and Luke turned out to be right. Quinn wasn’t bad guy material.

But that didn’t mean I was planning on giving him a book.

I wasn’t. I just…wasn’t. Even though I was told people would ask for his book. And uh… yes, that did happen. It wasn’t anything I had planned.

And then I had to start making the plans, because the questions about Quinn started coming almost as soon as I finished Quinn’s book.

I can do this, I figure. I mean, I figured out how to undo the mess I’d made out of the first book, right? And I conveniently forgot the headaches I had over that book before I finally stopped fighting them, before I stopped fighting the story.

So here I am, mapping out this plan for Quinn’s story. He’s what I’d call a tarnished knight and what he needs more than anything else is somebody he can save…makes sense. He’s somewhat damaged already because the one woman he’d actually had feelings for died and he wasn’t able to save her—if I put somebody in his life for him to save, maybe that can get him on the road to healing. Right?

Makes sense.

So I create this heroine. She’ got a quiet inner strength, but she’s not a fighter. She’s his complete opposite. She’s soft, she’s gentle…and now that I think about it? He would have terrified her. Anyway. I had this perfect plan. And a third of the way through the story?

It died on me. Can’t figure out the problem. Banging my head. Then I take a good hard look at the heroine and have one of my soon to be famous HEAD —> DESK moments. She is the problem. It’s not that she’s a bad heroine. She’s actually a pretty good one—she’s got room to grow, room to become a strong heroine. I may yet use her in a book.

But she was all wrong for Quinn and because I was trying to make her work? The book was stalling.

So there I am, deleting half of what I had written—and at this point, some work had already gone into the blurb…and the fact that I had gone and dumped most of the story? Well, the blurb no longer worked. They had to start from scratch… kind of like I was doing. And the story was due in…oh, three months, I think?Broken by Shiloh Walker

Oddly enough, once I dumped the story and started working on this new one? It started moving. I don’t even remember exactly where the idea for this new heroine came from. She was just sort of… there.

She was stronger—she had some weaknesses, some vulnerabilities, but she was also a fighter. She might find herself hip-deep in trouble, but she’d also be perfectly capable of getting herself out.

And more—she wouldn’t run from Quinn. He has a lot of darkness inside him and some of that is going to haunt him for a while. What he needed was somebody who wouldn’t just understand that darkness—but somebody who could walk with him through the darkness. She can do that. The heroine I’d originally given him? No. No way. She might try, but that kind of darkness…she isn’t ready to face that kind of darkness.

This story ended up taking on a lot of twists, a lot of turns, but once I’d figured out who needed to be in the story—and who didn’t—it was amazingly easy to get it written, and I swear, I can almost see the brothers smirking at me, too. Laughing at me. After all, I had to nerve to try to control the story in both books.

Quinn’s story is Broken—it’s one of the few stories I didn’t have to beat my head against the wall while trying to think up a title. He’s broken in the beginning of the story, damaged in so many ways. His heroine Sara has damage of her own and getting these two souls together took some doing. But it was worth it. If you’d like to read an excerpt, you can find one here. It’s now available in stores.

***

Leave a comment by Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 6:00 a.m. CST to win a copy of Broken. Book will be shipped with Amazon Prime to United States addresses only.

Settings…real or made up

By Dianne Castell
March 5th, 2010
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I’m getting ready to start two new series. I love this part of writing, getting the characters together, giving them personalities though sometimes I wonder why I bother as they develop their own as the story unfolds. At least I give it a shot, makes me feel better and the illusion of being in control. 

But besides the characters there’s the setting. Where to put these series? Do I make up a place in a certain local or do I use a real place. Any of you who have read my books know I love Savannah and set three books there. My Hot series…Hot and Bothered, Hot and Irresistible and out in May Hot Southern Nights.

For one of the series it’s back to Savannah. I love the people there and the culture and the local. I had one reader tell me she felt as if she visited Savannah she could get around the city just fine as she knew the streets, restaurants, hotels, historical houses and best places to shop.

The other series I’m starting is in Texas and I’ve made up the small town. Eagle Ridge, Texas. This is fun too. I get to find neat names for the diner and beauty salon and the hardware store. And I name the parks and creeks and streets.

So my question to you today is… Which setting do you prefer? Do you like to read about places that already exist or are fictional towns more to your liking?

I’ll pick a winner for a signed copy of Hot and Irresistible and a Hot and Irresistible T-shirt.

Anyone wanting an envelope of goodies from me send me your snail address.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs, Dianne
DianneCastell@hotmail.com
www.DianneCastell.com

Leave Me Breathless by HelenKay Dimon

By AR Fun
March 4th, 2010
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Congratulations to Chelsea B. for winning a copy of this book!

About the Book

According to Judge Bennett Walker, trying to kill him is a dumb idea. They might make him wear a big black nightgown to work, but it covers a lot of muscles, and he’s definitely packing beneath it. He’s also an ex-prosecutor and an ex-GI Joe. So when his brother brings in Callie Robbins to protect him, Ben has a few issues. First, he doesn’t need a bodyguard. Second, she’s a 130-pound girl—more smoking hot than smoking gun. And third, what if his body wants her guarding the night shift?

Callie has no problem brushing aside Ben’s disbelief. She left the FBI to escape the boys’ club, but she can be deeper undercover and twice as lethal as any beefy John Doe. As for whether someone’s after Bennett or not, the death threats and car bombs look pretty convincing to Callie. Of course, she might get distracted, sitting inches from the sexiest judge in DC for ten hours a day. Keeping him safe is no picnic. Keeping it professional—that might be impossible.

By HelenKay Dimon

· Kensington Brava
· March 2010
· ISBN: 0758229070

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The Art of the Facebook Status

By Joanne Rock
March 3rd, 2010
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Recent comments from: · Chelsea B. · Colleen · Joanne Rock


As a writer, I’ve taken a special interest in seeing what effect digital media has on language, writing and communication in general. When email first became a popular way to communicate, I watched with interest as the speedy medium wreaked havoc with our ability to restrain ourselves. No longer did we have the luxury of rethinking an angry letter penned at three a.m. since once you hit send, you were committed. Unlike the real life mailbox, there was no retrieving the thing.

Lately, I’ve watched Twitter cull our thoughts into soundbites, with posts condensed as ruthlessly as classified ads to make every word count. Likewise, I’m intrigued by the Facebook status, something near and dear to my heart since I’m a bit of an FB fan. I believe there’s an art to a good status post in the same way there’s an art to a good pen pal letter or an engaging email. And while Facebook gives you more characters to play with than a tweet, I still say you need to use them wisely because who’s going to read your status if it’s a mile long? On the other hand, if all your posting is hi, goodbye and the like, you’re not attracting any attention.

And I’m moving forward on that assumption—that we want attention for our Facebook status. Your status is the snippet of you that goes out into the world on your friends’ home pages, the quickest window into your world. If you want those friends to stop and chat with you, you obviously need a good conversational ice-breaker.

I’ve noticed a few things that attract attention. The birth of babies. Promotions. Good news in general. Everyone will take time to share a “good on you” post when you’re flying high or when it’s your birthday. But sometimes those posts generate a tame collection of hurrahs and don’t really invite chat and commentary.

What does? Intriguing observation. A moment to let visitors see the world through your unique lens. Quirky moments. The funniest or most offbeat thing that happened to you in a day, whether it was locking yourself out of the house in your bathrobe or using regular dish detergent in an automatic dishwasher.

At least, these are my favorite status posts. I love to hear my friends’ voices and nothing brings them to life more quickly than a glance at their day, through their eyes. I hear one friend’s dry wit, another’s raucous sense of humor, and yet another’s relentless optimism.

It’s fast, it’s fun, and it lets me feel like my friends are close at hand. On the best days, it allows me to invite those friends into my home to hangout for a little while. Even the die-hard letter writers of the world like me can appreciate that.

*Are you on Facebook? Do you troll your friends’ status updates every day like me, commenting on the things that attract your attention? Or do you use it more for one-way communication to alert the world at large to what’s going on with you? Talk to me about how you use your FB page or that all-important status box, and I’ll give one random poster a signed advance copy of my April Blaze Historical, THE CAPTIVE, which just rec’d a Top Pick from Romantic Times.