January Special/Contest from Regina Paul...

I wanted to make sure I posted here about a special/contest I'm running for the month of January. If you've never purchased a copy of my Native American romantic suspense and Amira Press Around the World of Romance Winner, Destiny's Choices, January is the month to do so! For a blurb and exerpt, visit reginapaul.com

Anyone who purchases a copy of Destiny's Choices during the month of January will be entered into a contest to win a free copy of every book I publish in 2009. Keep in mind that I already have two books contracted for 2009, and it's only January 1st! All you have to do is forward a copy of your confirmation e-mail to me at tiwatz@yahoo.com that you get from Amira Press when you buy the book and you'll be automatically entered. Some lucky winner is going to get free books for a year, so buy your copy today!

My Destiny's Choices Squidoo Lens...

Yup, I've decided to join the ranks of those who squidoo! I had a little time about a month ago and decided to see what all the hallaboo about making lens was. Well I found out, it's because it's fun! I really enjoyed making mine and I suspect I will be making more before too long, the darned stuff is downright addictive! Anyway, the neat thing about making a lens, was that I made it for my book Destiny's Choices, which allowed me to put some really cool exerpts, my book trailer and all sorts of goodies all in the same place. So, if you want a one stop shop about my book, this is the place to go! So be sure and go check out my Destiny's Choices Squidoo Lens when you have a minute, you won't be sorry. :-)

News from Regina Paul...

This weekend has been very busy for me, that's probably true of all of us. Lately I've been working a full-time job, and then doing my freelancing on the side which of course includes working on my books as well as creating covers for other authors, writing articles and posting to my blogs. Sadly the last couple of weeks though I had very good intentions I didn't make it to post to this blog. So, hopefully, this post will make up for it with our loyal readers who the entire group here is very happy to have!

I spent yesterday creating a book cover for a friend of mine for her book A Place for Ida, and then today finishing up the last minute details. Finally this afternoon I managed to get a monthly newsletter out for May. That made me absolutely ecstatic since I had missed April what with everything else going on. I'm thankful for having loyal readers and patient ones at that. If you haven't already signed up for my newsletter Regina's Universe, I hope you'll consider doing so, not only for the free reads of which there are plenty, but for the articles, exerpts, news and other fun stuff!

I've posted a new desktop wall paper in the Gallery on my website. I'm working towards making these more of characters from my books, rather than just random art, although there will be the occasional random piece from time to time. This one is my vision of Tiana Slickpoo from my Native American Romantic Suspense Destiny's Choices.

I have a new contest posted for the month of May that may be of interest to those who enjoy getting promo items. It is for a large promotional package of goodies a few of which will be bookmarks, desktop wallpapers (different ones than on my website), e-books and who knows what else! Check out my website for further details.

That's it for now! Hope all is well with you and yours! :-)

Destiny's Choices gets 4.5 Roses!!

Wow! I'm so psyched today, okay I admit it I've been psyched for a few days now! LOL Red Roses for Authors/Reviews gave my Native American romantic suspense Destiny's Choices 4.5 Roses. This was one of those unexpected reviews that comes like a thief in the night and surprises you. I am ever so grateful to Morna for the delightful review she did for Destiny's Choices, thank you Morna! :-)

This review is well worth checking out as are the others on the Red Roses for Authors website. So, if you were looking for one more reason to get your copy of Destiny's Choices, well here it is folks! You can read the review here.

For those of you who are wondering if there is going to be more in store for James and Tiana, the answer is a resounding YES! I am working on a sequel tentatively titled Destiny's Decisions, and of course there is my holiday short Destiny's Holiday which you can still win a copy of by visiting my website and participating in my current contest! So stay tuned, there is more to come.

New stuff on my website...

Well, Kayleigh isn't the only one highjacking Pat's day to post! LOL Here I thought I'd be one of the ones who posted faithfully on her day, and oopsss this is the third week that I've posted late. Oh, well with all the deadlines I've been dealing with lately, it's a wonder I know what day it is! LOL

I added the new desktop wallpaper mentioned in last week's post, so if you want to get a larger version of "Communion" the picture with my elf Ayana and her pet dragon, you can find it here.

I've also added a new contest for February. January's contest for a copy of my holiday sequel to Destiny's Choices, Destiny's Holiday, went so well that I decided to have a second contest. This is for those of you who didn't have a chance to take advantage of the special to get this sequel for free when you purchased a copy of Destiny's Choices over the holidays. While you can read Destiny's Holiday on its own, you will understand Tiana's world better if you read Destiny's Choices first.

Oh, and there's a brand new newsletter out! To get access to your copy, sign up for Regina's Universe. Oh, and you get access to all sorts of other freebies as well including a serial Native American reincarnation romance called Soul Memories, so be sure and sign up today!

Happy New Year!

Well I can say with confidence I am now over my holiday blues that I seem to always get the first few days after Christmas and that sometimes lasts until after New Years Day. I am finally excited about the new year and have several goals that I hope to complete. My biggest thing is that I sometimes have so much I want to accomplish that I end of feeling overwhelmed and sometimes don't accomplish as much because of this. However, this year my main resolution is to do my best at living in the moment. I know I'm not the only one who gets so caught up in what is happening two days or a week from now that I don't get accomplished in this moment what I'd like to. I hope to change that this year, it's not easy since as a society we tend to look more to the future and what we'd like for that than for the now, but I'm going to seriously work on it.

I've made some great head way on Doomed to Be Charmed over the holidays, and hope to have that book completed by the end of January, the beginning of February but since I'm working on that whole living in the moment thing I'm not going to worry about it if it's a bit later. LOL

I also plan to complete The Keepers of Eternity, a time-travel Native American romance that I've been working on for a year or so, and the first novella in The Children of Khartar: Leilani's Flight. Finally, I've started another sequel to Destiny's Choices that takes place a year after Tiana and James get back together, ideally this will also be completed within the year. With luck and a little more living in the moment I'll accomplish these goals.

Do you have any special goals for 2008? Feel free to share them with us by commenting on this post. :-)

The after holiday blahs...

I know I'm not the only who gets them, but I'm suffering from the after holiday blahs already. There's always all that wonderful buildup to the main event Christmas, and then once dinner has been eaten, and the presents opened, and the last Christmas special watched, and a few days go by, and then there is such a feeling of let down sometimes. Maybe I wouldn't be having it so bad but then to top it off I discovered I got scammed today by one of my freelance clients. Man there is nothing I hate worse than a scammer, and I don't care what kind they are! In this particular case I responded to an ad on Craig's List for a short editing job. I've never had any problems with Craig's List or any clients from there. Anyway, I was contacted by the client who provided me with the document to be edited, and then after responding to one e-mail, she dropped off the face of the earth. After there was no reply to my providing her with the first draft, and a second e-mail requesting that she let me know if she received the first draft e-mail, I began to get suspicious. Since I have other clients whose projects I could have been working on, as you can imagine I was not a happy camper. A quick check to the ad on Craig's List found that it had been flagged as a scam. I decided I needed to find out more about this person and did a reverse address search on her address only to discover that the address she had given me did not exist.

Of course at that point all I could do was e-mail Craig's List, give them the information that I had and hope that they are able to keep this person from scamming anyone else in the future.

The truth is there were a few red flags that had I been paying more attention I would have noticed and not even bothered to reply to the woman. One was that the e-mail was not personalized, the second was that there was no To: on the e-mail which can mean that it has been sent to more than one person, the third flag was that the notes she sent me were clearly written by someone for whom English is a second language and yet in her e-mail she wrote perfect English. In addition, she had seperated a lot of the sections with XXXXXXXX which when I began looking at examples of scam e-mails that Craig's List had, I discovered a log of them had this trait. Finally she wanted to me to give her my mailing address and to pay me via check or Paypal. I chose the Paypal option as this is the easiest and most expedient way for me to be paid.

Once I realized she was a scammer I really sweated because this scammer had my Paypal e-mail, which in and of itself is not that big of a deal but there are people who have programs that can hack into Paypal and if they have your e-mail they can use these programs to find your password and hack into your account. Yup, really made for the holiday blues today, let me tell you. Needless to say I went into Paypal, changed my password and security questions which is what is suggested and now I will have to hope for the best.

One of the reasons I went into this long post about this is that I would hate to see the same thing happen to someone else. This is the first time I've ever had a problem with a listing on Craig's List but you can bet your life that from now on I insist on a 50% deposit before I even start to do any work for anyone I haven't worked with before and know is trustworthy.

So, that's why I'm here at 3:49 am typing this long post. (sigh) Okay, that's my vent for the day. LOL

Just as a reminder there's still a couple of days left to get the holiday sequel for free when you purchase a copy of Destiny's Choices. If you haven't already, be sure and check it out!

Regina

Exerpt from Destiny's Holiday...

Destiny's Holiday is the holiday sequel to my romantic suspense Destiny's Choices. When you purchase a copy of Destiny's Choices you get a copy of Destiny's Holiday for free! Get your copy today!

Exerpt:

Tiana stepped back holding the door wide. James lowered the tree so it would fit through the doorway and then took it over to the corner Tiana had cleared and leaned it against the wall.

James shook his head and snow flew everywhere.

Tiana ducked and covered her own head. “Hey! That stuff’s cold, watch where you’re shaking it!”

“Sorry.” James grinned. “Some of it was starting to slide down the back of my neck.” He pulled off his coat, and threw it on the couch.

Tiana walked over and picked it up taking it to the hall closet. “I swear I will get you trained to hang up your own coat one of these days.” She muttered beneath her breath.

When strong arms reached around her as soon as the coat was hung, Tiana leaned back into James’ strength. “But it’s so much fun to watch you do it for me.” James teased.

Tiana turned in his arms and arched one brow. “Are you telling me you do it on purpose?”

“Oh definitely. As long as I can see this gorgeous backside walking away from me…” He
grasped one butt cheek in each hand. “I’ll probably keep doing it.”

“Uh huh. I see how you are.” Tiana draped her arms around his neck. “Maybe I’ll just have to give you some sort of incentive to start doing it yourself. What do you think?”

“I think it would have to be a pretty good incentive for me to not want to watch your ass moving in a pair of tight jeans.”

“I’ll bet I could think of something.”

James stroked her rump. “What did you have in mind?”

Tiana reached up and kissed him sliding her tongue along the seam of his lips, her arms tightening.

James pulled back a bit, “So is this what you have in mind?” He murmured.

“Nah, this is just an appetizer.” Tiana smiled then stepped away. “I’ll think about what kind of incentive I can come up with while we decorate the tree. Oh, and I do hope you remembered a tree stand, because I don’t have one.”

Free Short Story from Regina Paul...

FREE SHORT STORY INSIDE WHEN YOU PURCHASE THIS TITLE!

Destiny's Choices tells the tale of Tiana Slickpoo, a Nez Perce
hereditary carrier of sacred objects. When her boyfriend James Waters
decides to attend college out of state, Tiana is wounded by his
leaving. Unable to tell him the real reason she cannot go with him,
she vows to never allow another into her heart. However, six years
later, when priceless tribal objects begin disappearing from the
reservation museum, and her art gallery, fate steps in with the
return of James.

FREE SHORT STORY INSIDE WHEN YOU PURCHASE THIS TITLE!

Destiny's Holiday

Three months after the return of James, Tiana is still learning to
adjust to having a man in her life. What will she do when he appears
with a real Christmas tree instead of the artificial one she sent him
out for? How about when she discovers he's kind of a messy person?
Will she be able to come up with the perfect incentive to make him
mend his ways, or will James do her one better with the perfect
Christmas gift?

Available until January 2, 2008!
Get Your Copy Now!