Mating Season Makes the Top Ten at Amira Press!

Well, I'm more jazzed than I can say. When I looked at one of my publisher's websites, I discovered that Mating Season, the anthology that has my story No Place to Run in it has made #7 on Amira's main top ten list and #2 on Amira's paranormal list. I'm pretty sure this book is going to sell enough to go to print, so it's very encouraging to see that it has made these lists.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Mating Season, then now is the time! It has some very lovely stories that are geared towards just about every taste I think. There is one contemporary Native American story (mine of course) and then one interracial by Dahlia Rose, and two paranormal romances, one by Brenda Steele and another by Dorian Wallace.

Here are the blurbs for each story, enjoy! There's a link at the bottom of the post:

No Place to Run - Regina Paul Lin Chen carries a strong bloodline from the Bunun tribe. On the run from an abusive ex-husband, she has left her native Taiwan hoping to draw her ex away from her family. Driving through North Dakota, she encounters a winter blizzard which forces her to stop on the Standing Rock Reservation. There she meets Kyle Little Eagle, a medicine man. While, it isn’t long before they are close, her ex is not far behind. Can Lin overcome her fear of men and let Kyle help her? Can love and a mutual connection to the spirit world prevent her worst fears from being realized?

Flights of Fancy - Dahlia Rose (Interracial) Spring not only brought flowers and sunshine. But it got Tate Hildebrandt outside on a ladder to paint his sexy landlady's building. He fell off the very same ladder after hearing a sexy conversation with him as the star. He looked up to see the woman of his naughty dreams, Fancy McKee. Fancy owned and ran Fantasy Cakes an erotic bakery that was the only one of its kind in Merry, North Carolina. From the time Tate met this gorgeous woman he had the urge to sample her lips like one of the cakes she made. When she decided to take care of him after his fall, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to finally make his move. But with Fancy there is more than meets the eye. Can the new love they found survive the stigma of a small town mentality?

Midnight Shift - Brenda Steele Lori lives in an alternate world of humans and shifters. The two barely get along, and recent laws made to track the shifters' movements have not helped relations at all. Lori, a human, with no ambition other than to work at a bookstore that serves nocturnal shifters meets arrogant tiger shifter, Chase who is a college professor. Under normal circumstances, Chase would not look twice at a human, but the fact that he is days from entering his mating season is playing havoc with his senses. Now, not only can't he hide his claws and his furry ears in public, he cannot stop hunting Lori. Despite political unrest in their city, Chase will make Lori his lover.

A Hare's Breadth - Dorian Wallace As part of a shape shifting family and having a witch as her best friend, Robin’s life is by no means normal. Things are about to take an exciting yet dangerous twist when a band of Italian gypsies make their way into her life and her heart. Will the man that saved her from being killed bring Robin more peril and heartache than he intends, tearing them apart or cementing them together forever?

4.5 Red Roses for 'Bronze Lightning'

I'm thrilled with this 4.5 Red Roses review for my historical romance, BRONZE LIGHTNING! Here's what Linda Sole says: (Thank you, Linda!)

"Bronze Lightning by Lindsay Townsend
Siren-BookStrand
March 2009
ISBN: 1-60601-273-8
Pages: 356
Krete, c 1562 BC
Isle of Stones – Kingdom of the Atterians, 1561 BC

Sarmatia is the Bull Rider in the sacred rites. It is her place to help the children go through the rite so that they may become adults. She has always been content with her life but that is about to change with a chance meeting, a meeting that will end up transforming her view of life.

Fearn has always been a healer. It is his ability to heal that has made his name know far and wide. He has come to Krete to heal the king. Traveling to Krete has given Fearn the chance to meet Sarmatia, which has changed his life.

Fearn has found the one woman that he wants to spend his life with. Before he can do that he needs to make sure his people have a healer when he is gone. He goes home with the promise to Sarmatia that he will return for her and that they will be together. Once home he finds opposition to his leaving his family and the people. As he is about to leave having trained a new healer the unthinkable happens and the king dies. Now being part of the royal family Fearn must be tested along with others to see who will be the new king. Wanting no part of ruling the people Fearn nonetheless takes the test to show his good will. The one thing Fearn never saw coming was inheriting the crown. Now the only chance he has at happiness is if Sarmatia is willing to come to him on a several months long journey and giving up the life she has always known.

How strong is Sarmatia? She is about to find out just what she is capable of. She is about to start on a journey that will test her in its own way. One that if she is not careful she just might not survive. Sarmatia is going to find out just how much she loves Fearn as she is tested time and again.

Thinking that once she is reunited with Fearn that all will be well. Now they are going to be able to start their lives together she finds that she is very much mistaken. Some one is trying to hurt them and if they don’t find out who is behind the attacks they just might not be able to have a life together after all. Someone wants what they have and will stop at nothing until they get what they want. There are several people with a motive but which one is conniving enough to get away with the stealthy attacks without being seen. They will have to survive long enough to find the person or persons so that they will finally have the happiness they have tried so hard to enjoy.

This is a remarkable book in that it takes you back in time. It is well written so that you get a glimpse of the world at that time and it gives you a wonderful mystery as to who is behind the attacks and keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. The many twists and turns keep you engrossed as you try to figure out who is behind all the mishaps that keep happening.

I give this one 4-1/2 Red Roses."

Buy details here:

http://lindsaysbookchat.blogspot.com/2009/01/bronze-lightning.html

Best wishes, Lindsay
Lindsay Townsend

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

For any of you who have kids, pets or nieces and nephews, I want to wish you a wonderful Mother's Day.

Sarah McNeal

http://www.sarahmcneal.com/

Heroes and kings

I could look at this famous Burne-Jones picture, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, for hours. It shows one of the romance ideals - the ultimate Cinderella story. King Cophetua, smitten by love for the beggar girl, finds her, offers her his heart and marries her. (Naturally, she says yes!)

It's the stuff of romance, even modern romance. Over and over, the rich, powerful hero 'rescues' the Cinderella heroine: the struggling artist, waitress, actress, secretary. As a myth it's comforting to the man, showing him as a powerful hero figure. Women, too, can enjoy the fantasy of being swept up into luxury - who wouldn't?

I'd love to see more role-reversal of this myth: the queen raising up the beggar lad, the woman of power showering her hero with gifts. Woman not only as care-giver or healer but as bestower.

I don't write role reversal very often, although I did have fun with the ideas in Bronze Lightning, in the relationship between Bride and her young lover.

Here's a role reversal excerpt from Bronze Lightning, where Bride the warrior woman uses her sword in a very original way.

EXCERPT.

Bride entered the house first and heard Fearn behind her draw Sarmatia into a dark corner. 'Goar's in our chamber. Tonight it's yours,' he whispered. He and Sarmatia disappeared.
Bride picked her way round the sleeping royal family and banked-down fire. She could see that the smallest room—really no more than an alcove—was open. A tall figure lurked beside the bed, dressed in loin cloth and jet necklace.
'I'm glad you chose the black amber.' Bride closed the hangings behind her.
'Anything to please. Will you bury me in it?'
So Goar thought he knew her mind. Bride unsheathed her sword, floated its point up to his left shoulder. 'There. The bead was wrong.' She arranged it with the blade tip. 'Now you've seen her, do you think Sarmatia beautiful?' The lethal point trailed down his chest.
'For a woman in man's clothes she's outstanding.'
The fool was brave. The point had reached his lights. The blade side twanged, a gentle reprimand, against the hard flatness of his stomach, and jagged along the top of the loin cloth. Goar hadn't the length of arm to retaliate as the sword stroked along his flanks. Involuntarily, his hips moved.
'Just like a man. Fickle.'
There was no mistaking the satisfaction in Bride's voice. Goar was resentful. The hesitant caresses of his Atterian girls had been nothing as deadly-sensuous as this.
Warmed by his body, the blunter sides of the rapier scraped on Goar's dark-blond leg hairs and glided upwards. Resentment sharpened as the sword mesmerized him. The point touched him intimately, through the cloth. Goar began to sweat. His breathing was like that of one of his girls, in their moment of yielding. He hated the humiliation.
'Hate? You'd kill me if you could.' Bride goaded him.
Goar began to pant. The blunt part of the blade alternated with the narrower tip in a killing parody of a woman's mouth and tongue. Abruptly, both were withdrawn. Goar swayed slightly.
'Here I am—the woman you swore you'd never bed.' Bride's mouth was dry as she dropped sword and tunic by her heels.
Goar forgot danger and his years of turning aside. He stepped forward.
'Wait!'
His potent picture of himself shattered, but Bride wasn’t teasing. Frowning, she picked up the sword and flicked back one of the bed furs. A long black shape struck at her and she recoiled.
The adder spilled over the bed, fell writhing on the alcove floor, followed by a spider. Another dozen huge spiders scrambled over the furs in every direction. Goar caught the adder's tail, whipped it onto the bed, bundled snake and spiders' nest into the biggest fur and carried it to the midden.
Returning, he found Bride almost as he'd left her, except that she'd been sick in the waste bucket. When he touched it, her hand was clammy.
'I didn't put them there.’ Goar didn't insult her by suggesting that the adder and spiders had found their own way into the alcove. 'Did the snake bite you?'
'No. We'd better find Fearn.' Bride choked, her shoulders heaving. This time, she managed to keep the sickness down. 'I don't think that gift was meant for us.' She tried to laugh. 'Unless Sarmatia brought the adder here.'
Neither idea seemed likely to Goar. 'Forget it. A bad joke.' The families had drunk a skinful tonight. Anyone could have dumped their bedfellows into the alcove while he was out at the midden. Goar squeezed Bride's chilly fingers. 'The snake's gone. You can sit down.'
She stared at him with the round eyes of a child. Men or snakes were one thing, but everyone has a weakness. Goar gave his light laugh, suddenly understanding.
'Let's make sure we've no other bedtime visitors.'
Hand in hand they scoured the tiny chamber and shook the remaining furs. Two spiders dropped to the floor and Goar pushed at Bride before she stiffened. 'Into bed with you. I'll get rid of these.'
He didn't kill them. The spiders had made a peace between him and Bride.

News about new books

I feel dreadful because I haven't managed to get on for a week or two and I probably won't for the next few weeks so I am blogging tonight while I have the chance. My latest HMB will be out next month. It is the first of a triolgy and every book has Hanover Square in the title - my publisher's idea. I hope it doesn't confuse readers! The first is A Country Miss in Hanover Square and I've just finished the proofs of the final book so that series is nicely tucked to bed.

On the ebook side I have Dark Ancient Queen going through the editing process with Amira Press and the cover is good. They usually produce good covers. I am terribly busy working on a series of long books for my agent. These are intended for mainstream, and as the first has gone in I may have news before too long.

Apologies to whoever posts today. Hope this doesn't interfere with your posting. I will be back when I can. Best wishes to everyone and I hope my readers enjoy the new Anen Herries book.

The cover is from the second book in the Family Feud book from Severn House.

Love from Linda/Anne

Happy Easter/Passover

Happy Easter/Passover

Whatever you are doing to celebrate the holidays, I hope that you'll have fun and enjoy this day of renewal.

My family is having a luncheon and we're each bringing our favorite foods and enjoy conversation and good eats till we drop. My sister volunteered to work at the hospital today so she doesn't have to bring anything.

I'm going to take a little private time after things settle down and remember those I've lost this year, my friend Joyce, my sister, Marlene whose birthday would have been April 17 and my loving dog Kate. Then I'm going to plan my vacation to Hilton Head that was given as a gift from my buddy, Mike Hinson, plan a garden and start looking for a puppy. It's time for me to go forward with my life and find some happiness again and this is the perfect time of year to do that.

To all of you I wish you a wonderful holiday.

Wishing you happiness to your corner of the universe.

Sarah McNeal

www.sarahmcneal.com

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