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!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Hearing from the readers
By Pat Cromwell
One of the things I like most about being a writer is hearing from people who have read my book, Behind Blue Eyes. One fan in particular has sent me several emails about my first published work. I love the way she expressed herself and the encouragement in her words. I especially love the fact that she understood the hero. Her kind words made my day!
Excerpt from Behind Blue Eyes
"His gaze slowly wandered from her doe-like eyes past her patrician nose, to her full, luscious lips. Her skin was the shade of café au lait and he imagined that it felt just as smooth and tasted just as sweet while still bold and strong. Just the way he liked it. Without conscious thought, his eyes perused her body and he saw in her something he had purposely denied seeing in the past. He saw a desirable woman; Seine had grown up.
Then she moistened her lips. It was an action so innocent and one he had seen her do on many occasions, but today it took on a completely new meaning. Curiosity gave way to an emotion that he had clamped down on years ago - need. A simple swipe of her lips with that perky little tongue and he knew he was lost. He wanted to characterize what he was feeling as nothing more than a reaction to a sexy girl, but he could not. Of the women he’d known, and there had been plenty, not one had ever affected him like that."
Check out Behind Blue Eyes today and drop by my website for snippets of my future releases, works in progress, etc.
Happy Reading!
Pat Cromwell
http://www.freewebs.com/patcromwell/
Behind Blue Eyes at http://www.amirapress.com/
One of the things I like most about being a writer is hearing from people who have read my book, Behind Blue Eyes. One fan in particular has sent me several emails about my first published work. I love the way she expressed herself and the encouragement in her words. I especially love the fact that she understood the hero. Her kind words made my day!
Excerpt from Behind Blue Eyes
"His gaze slowly wandered from her doe-like eyes past her patrician nose, to her full, luscious lips. Her skin was the shade of café au lait and he imagined that it felt just as smooth and tasted just as sweet while still bold and strong. Just the way he liked it. Without conscious thought, his eyes perused her body and he saw in her something he had purposely denied seeing in the past. He saw a desirable woman; Seine had grown up.
Then she moistened her lips. It was an action so innocent and one he had seen her do on many occasions, but today it took on a completely new meaning. Curiosity gave way to an emotion that he had clamped down on years ago - need. A simple swipe of her lips with that perky little tongue and he knew he was lost. He wanted to characterize what he was feeling as nothing more than a reaction to a sexy girl, but he could not. Of the women he’d known, and there had been plenty, not one had ever affected him like that."
Check out Behind Blue Eyes today and drop by my website for snippets of my future releases, works in progress, etc.
Happy Reading!
Pat Cromwell
http://www.freewebs.com/patcromwell/
Behind Blue Eyes at http://www.amirapress.com/
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Cover for ENCHANTED BEAUTY!
Feast your eyes on the cover for ENCHANTED BEAUTY! WOO-HOO! I'm still on the new cover high. LOL The cover for Enchanted Beauty was created by the talented Alex DeShanks! I'm very pleased with it. :) Enchanted Beauty is a full length fantasy paranormal romance coming soon from New Concepts Publishing!
Here's the tag line and blurb:
ENCHANTED BEAUTY BY MARLY MATHEWS
Annabelle Hawthorne-Morton is a beauty with a mysterious past—Lord Malachi Hawthorne is the beast that will touch her heart—she will heal his tortured soul and he will bring the light back into her dark world.
Annabelle Hawthorne Morton hails from an ancient mystical line—even though she herself has not been endowed with the mark of magic that the magic-kind of Thaliana are born with. Despite this, she aspires for magical greatness, and while performing a spell the enchantment backfires in her face, robbing her of half her sight. But it doesn't take her long to realize that within a few months she will be completely blind. When her father enrages the local lord and he's imprisoned for his crimes, Annabelle must muster her courage and save her father from the beast's wrath.
Lord Malachi Hawthorne, Earl of Markham has been horribly disfigured during a magical battle. His sister betrayed him—and now her curse has put him into his own living hell. Believing that the outside world will revile him for his monstrous appearance, he retreats to his enchanted castle. He is determined to make Annabelle's father his indentured servant, until he meets Annabelle. He quickly decides that she is the one that might finally set him free from his living hell, and knows he must have her as his own.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
~Marly
Edited to add: I just found Enchanted Beauty's cover on the sneak peek page over at New Concepts Publishing! I'm thrilled!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The Many Emotions of An Author
Creativity is a strange thing. A blessing, a curse, a form of insanity... It's a fascinating truth that many creative people are at best odd, and at worst just plain nuts. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out why that is, since a good portion of my life before I found my niche was passed thinking I was cuckoo bananas. After all, normal people don't spend hours, days, weeks, living entirely in their heads, do they? Normal people don't find the stories they create in their minds more interesting than real life. And normal people certainly don't talk to themselves in order to work out bits of dialog amongst their characters. Hell, do normal people even think up characters?
Since I'm not a normal person, I couldn't tell you.
You've heard me talk about "suckitis" before, that crushing fear of failure that often comes following the completion or release of a new book. You'd think I'd feel accomplished, proud, happy. I do - for a while. Then the apprehension sets in.
Case in point: Leading Her to Heaven is now available in print. It's the first book of mine to get to print. When my copies arrived on friday, I went through a range of emotions and activities. I cried. I giggled like a maniac. I sniffed the inside. I flipped through the pages. All expected.
Then the weirdness set in. Looking at my book now, I feel...weird. It's been available in ebook format for over a year now, and has been well received. But the suckitis has hit yet again, and I didn't anticipate it this time.
Another thing I didn't see coming: I'm actually a bit embarrassed by the sex scenes. My gravy, I used the word "cock" a lot in this book. For some reason, it's different to see it in print than on the screen.
Overall, I'm exceedingly happy to finally be in print - there's a sense of accomplishment and vindication - but right now, I just feel...weird.
My publisher has given me a deadline (at my request) of May for Reckless Liaisons. I'm hoping that being under the gun will help me get my ass in gear so that I can begin writing again, and stop thinking about the weirdness.
KJ
Since I'm not a normal person, I couldn't tell you.
You've heard me talk about "suckitis" before, that crushing fear of failure that often comes following the completion or release of a new book. You'd think I'd feel accomplished, proud, happy. I do - for a while. Then the apprehension sets in.
Case in point: Leading Her to Heaven is now available in print. It's the first book of mine to get to print. When my copies arrived on friday, I went through a range of emotions and activities. I cried. I giggled like a maniac. I sniffed the inside. I flipped through the pages. All expected.
Then the weirdness set in. Looking at my book now, I feel...weird. It's been available in ebook format for over a year now, and has been well received. But the suckitis has hit yet again, and I didn't anticipate it this time.
Another thing I didn't see coming: I'm actually a bit embarrassed by the sex scenes. My gravy, I used the word "cock" a lot in this book. For some reason, it's different to see it in print than on the screen.
Overall, I'm exceedingly happy to finally be in print - there's a sense of accomplishment and vindication - but right now, I just feel...weird.
My publisher has given me a deadline (at my request) of May for Reckless Liaisons. I'm hoping that being under the gun will help me get my ass in gear so that I can begin writing again, and stop thinking about the weirdness.
KJ
Sunday, February 3, 2008
IN OUR DREAMS
Have you ever had a dream that haunted you? Maybe you knew it meant something you needed to know, something of great portent, but you couldn't figure it out. So you thought about it often and wondered if it was a sign sent from some other world. How disappointed would they be if you didn't get it?
I had been missing a pair of earrings that were very dear to me. My mother had died recently and I was frantic to find them. I had worn them the night she died. I was twenty-seven years old and not ready to take on the world without my mother in it. I felt that, if I could find them, I could find a little piece of her spirit somehow and that might bring me peace.
A few months after her funeral I had a dream. She came to me there in that place between the living and the dead when all our defenses are down and the channels are open. She whispered to me. "You'll find your earrings in your coat pocket. That's where you put them the last time I saw you."
The following morning I felt stupid to believe that dreams come true or that spirits might find a way to speak with us in our sleep. None-the-less, I looked in my coat pocket--and there they were. I had worn that coat the night she died and found it too painful to ever wear it again.
Maybe it was just a subconscious wish, but I believe it was, in deed my mother, trying to speak to me across the vale to bring me serenity and help me let goe.
In THE VIOLIN, Genevieve has dreams that seem to come true. They will not let her rest. She dreams of John, a man who drownd in two foot of water over seventy-five years ago. Her dreams lead her to the violin and the violin leads her back in time to John. What do her dreams mean? Is there something she's supposed to do? Can she change history?
The answers lie in THE VIOLIN available at www.amirapress.com, amazon.com and Fictionwise or at my website at www.sarahmcneal.com in print or ebook.
I hope you'll drop by my website and enter my contest. I'm giving away a huge basket of delicious goodies including a violin pin that comes in its own little case. There's a picture of it on my website in case you're curious. If you like, you can tell me about a dream of yours.
All good things to your corner of the universe,
Sarah McNeal
I had been missing a pair of earrings that were very dear to me. My mother had died recently and I was frantic to find them. I had worn them the night she died. I was twenty-seven years old and not ready to take on the world without my mother in it. I felt that, if I could find them, I could find a little piece of her spirit somehow and that might bring me peace.
A few months after her funeral I had a dream. She came to me there in that place between the living and the dead when all our defenses are down and the channels are open. She whispered to me. "You'll find your earrings in your coat pocket. That's where you put them the last time I saw you."
The following morning I felt stupid to believe that dreams come true or that spirits might find a way to speak with us in our sleep. None-the-less, I looked in my coat pocket--and there they were. I had worn that coat the night she died and found it too painful to ever wear it again.
Maybe it was just a subconscious wish, but I believe it was, in deed my mother, trying to speak to me across the vale to bring me serenity and help me let goe.
In THE VIOLIN, Genevieve has dreams that seem to come true. They will not let her rest. She dreams of John, a man who drownd in two foot of water over seventy-five years ago. Her dreams lead her to the violin and the violin leads her back in time to John. What do her dreams mean? Is there something she's supposed to do? Can she change history?
The answers lie in THE VIOLIN available at www.amirapress.com, amazon.com and Fictionwise or at my website at www.sarahmcneal.com in print or ebook.
I hope you'll drop by my website and enter my contest. I'm giving away a huge basket of delicious goodies including a violin pin that comes in its own little case. There's a picture of it on my website in case you're curious. If you like, you can tell me about a dream of yours.
All good things to your corner of the universe,
Sarah McNeal
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Blogging over at The HEA Cafe today!
I'm blogging over at The HEA Cafe today, so please stop by and check it out! Leave me a comment and say hi! Just for those that don't know, The HEA Cafe is the blog for the published members of my online chapter, RWA Online where I am currently serving my second term as President.
~Marly
Friday, February 1, 2008
A Shameful Secret
I missed last week. I apologise. My excuse is that I had a big promotion day on, which is no excuse. I thought about it, had to go out and then got caught up in the excitement when I got back. Anyway, I am here this week.
My new book with Amira Press should be out later today. I love the cover, which I have put up for you. A Shameful Secret is a Regency. Hester has shamed her family and her father decreed that she should never be forgiven. She has remained in the country, never going anywhere for some years as a punishment, but now things look as if they may change.
Next week is going to be busy for me. I am going to the RNA Awards lunch on Monday and on thursday to the 100th birthday party for Mills and Boon in London. It should be fun to see everyone and I am looking forward to it
Two days ago I started a new group. It is to link with the Red Roses For Authors/Reviews. I review romance books at RRFP together with some friends and now we have a group to support that, which will make it easier when we do awards because people will be able to vote more easily. We already have several members but I am hoping the group will grow and I welcome new members so please come and join us at
We shall be pleased to see you there, and if you are an author you can promote yourself and send excerpts as much as you like.
My latest book with Severn House - Love Is Not Enough/Linda Sole has been bought for audio, which is very exciting. The extra money is nice and it is good to reach another audience. I don't know if I've told you on here but I have revamped my website - at least my whizzkid did it for me. Pop over and take a look if you wish. I have two other blogs which can be reached through the website. I think that is all my news for now. Love from Linda
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