LOLCATS Friday

When I was a member of the editorial team for the Romance Writers of Australia's monthly newsletter, the very wonderful Eleni Konstantine use to send me the best lolcats to add to my page of writerly snippets. I loved those pics so much! I really miss not using them. And since I have a few spare I thought I'd post them over the next few Fridays. Just so everyone can see how clever Eleni is!!!

RWAus Top 15 Favourite Covers

This year is the 20th anniversary of the Romance Writers of Australia. To help celebrate, the RWA held a 20 Years of Romance Covers contest, where authors submitted their fave book cover from the last 20 years. There were so many gorgeous covers! The results have just come through and I'm delighted that Captive made the top 15!! The full list of finalists can be found here. The winner will be announced at the RWA conference in August.

Go Bren and Morwyn!!

Hot Doctors & Fever Cure

All this week my good friend Phillipa Ashley has been chatting about hot doctors over on her blog to help celebrate the release of Fever Cure from Samhain. Today I'm partying with Phillipa and sharing one of my fave movie doctors - can you guess who I chose?! Pop on over and join in the fun, we even have photos!!!

Phillipa will be popping over here some time next week but to whet your appetite here's the blurb for FC!

The road to heartbreak is paved with honorable intentions…

After a year dealing with her mum’s health scare and the end of a bad relationship, Keira Grayson was looking forward to kicking up her heels at her best friend’s wedding. Until she kicks off her (spare) knickers in front of the trifecta of perfection. Tom Carew. Son of an earl, honorable doctor and possibly the hottest man on the planet.

One look at Keira’s delightful embarrassment, and Tom’s hormone meter spins off the charts. Trouble is, his bags are already packed to return to the jungles of Papua New Guinea. He has patients waiting—and amends to make for a terrible choice that left devastation in its wake.

They both reason that indulging in a one-time dinner date won’t hurt…until their inhibitions melt away in the heat of their lethal sexual chemistry. Leaving Keira wondering if a sizzling fling is just what the doctor ordered, or another prescription for relationship disaster. And Tom fighting a battle against inner demons that could shatter both their hearts.

A Cucumber Break

I made the deadline for my latest book and sent it to my lovely editor at 5 pm last Wednesday (deadline day!). Talk about cutting it fine. That's the one good thing about the 12 hour time difference between here and New York!! It's just as well I had no choice but to hit Send since otherwise I would've gone through the entire book yet again.

So, after crashing for a couple of days and using up an entire cucumber on my poor sore eyes, I thought I'd have a week or so to tidy up the house and clear my desk. But by Friday afternoon I started getting that twitchy feeling. The one that's a prelude to me sliding into a grumpy, cantankerous witch (because in real life I'm not like that at all!!) It's like a mild anxiety attack hovering beneath the surface and it always hits me when I'm not in the middle of writing something.

Despite not having the faintest clue last Wednesday on what I should write next, by Sunday a heroine had taken up residence in my mind and refused to leave. Unfortunately, considering the hero who's her perfect match, it's impossible for her to be in the next book. Not that this fact shut her up, incidentally. So I've spent the last few days frantically trying to coax my next hero's soul mate into revealing herself. I hope she doesn't take too long because I'm itching to start writing again!

I never did get around to clearing off my desk either!!!

Ancient Historical Summer Beach Reads

My lovely writing friend, Alli Sinclair, has listed her top ancient historical Summer Beach Reads over at her blog, Novel Adventurers and I'm completely thrilled that she's included both Forbidden and Captive! If you love ancient historicals then pop on over and check out her fabulous list!

Galactic Burn

Congratulations to my good writing buddy Mel Teshco on the release of Galactic Burn today! Can't wait to read it :-) Check out this scorching blurb:

Humans have been almost wiped out. Only a few females are recovering from the devastation. The same deadly virus annihilated the female population of a mighty alien nation and their three kings—Dar, Ezra and Maddox—are looking for one special female, Lillian, to capture and seduce.

 

Though Lillian survived, she has no memory and struggles with the fact that three alien men have become her lovers. One by one, they take her, make her burn for release and satisfy her every sexual need. She craves their touches, their kisses, their comforting embraces while forming strong emotional bonds with each. Lillian is falling for her sexy aliens and agrees to become their life mate in a special ceremony—her three males will make love to Lillian as all the surviving alien males watch.

But, as the ceremony nears, Lillian begins to remember. The aliens lied and covered up the horrible truth. Their happy, new life together might not be possible after all.

Forbidden at Sizzling Summer Reads

The contest to win a copy of Forbidden is up on The Romance Review site now if you want to join in - you have to scroll down a little way to get to my question. The answer is up on my website in the excerpt for Forbidden - and here's an additional hint, it can be found on the second page of the excerpt!

Still love this cover to bits!!!

Two Wonderful Little Words: The End!

Today, about five minutes ago in fact, I type THE END on my current book. Hooray! what a relief. I feel like I've been writing this book all year! (probably because I have, more or less!!) Now it just needs a good polish and as it came in at almost 103,500 words I need to cut back to 100k, so that should be fun. Ha ha, or not!

But although it feels like I've been writing this book forever, when I checked my diary I realised it's been five months and two weeks. Considering this includes a complete rewrite of 70k I guess this isn't too bad after all. On the downside I suppose this also means I have no more excuses not to clear the mess that is my desk!

Sizzling Summer Reads!

Here in Australia we're in the depths of winter (it's cold and wet as I write this!!!) but happily I'm joining in a sizzling summer party over at The Romance Reviews during the month of July!

All month there's going to be fab contests with awesome prizes and the chance to chat with amazing authors. I'm over there on 11th July with an easy-peasy question to be in with the chance of winning a copy of Forbidden. The answer to the question (you'll have to pop over to TRR on 11th to discover what it is!!!) can be found by reading the excerpt of Forbidden on my website (told you it was easy!)

All you need to do to join in the summer fun is register at TRR and that's it! I hope to see you over there on Monday 11th July!!

Vengeance Born - Stunning Cover!!

My good friend Kylie Griffin has just unveiled the cover for her debut fantasy romance from Berkley Sensation - isn't it completely gorgeous? It hits the shelves on 7th February 2012. I'm so looking forward to reading this series. Congratulations, Kylie!!

VENGEANCE BORN: A Novel of the Light Blade
There is no mercy in the demon realm. No escape. In this place of desperation and conflict, anyone who is not pure bred is virtually powerless. Until an unlikely champion is born…

Annika, half-blood daughter of the Na’Reish King, longs for more than her tormented life among her father’s people. Conceived in hatred and bred as a tool of retribution, she’s gifted with a special talent that can heal as well as destroy.

With the Na’Reish vastly outnumbering them, Kalan, a Light Blade warrior, knows the future of humankind depends on him alone. Incursions into human territory and raids for blood-slaves by the Na’Reish Horde have increased. As Chosen-leader, he faces the task of stopping the demons—and convincing the Council of aging Light Blade warriors that change is necessary for survival.

When Annika learns Kalan is a prisoner in her father’s dungeon, her dream of escape seems within reach. She agrees to free him in exchange for his protection once they reach human territory. Now, marked for death for helping him, Annika must learn to trust Kalan as they face not only the perilous journey to the border but enemies within the Council—and discover a shocking truth that could throw the human race into civil war…

Halo - Reloaded

A lot of authors are now self-publishing their out of print backlist titles, and I'm very excited that my friend, Amanda Ashby, has just made her debut romance, You Had Me at Halo, available on Kindle! How cute is that cover? And at $2.99 it's a bargain! Here's the blurb:

 When Holly Evans wakes up dead at the tender age of twenty-two, she's pretty sure things can't get any worse (especially since her boyfriend was about to propose to her with a diamond ring the size of her knuckle). But Holly's wrong and it turns out that she's still got some mortal baggage to unload before she can walk through the pearly gates, which is why she's being sent back to earth to get things sorted out.

Problem is that when she lands in the body of computer geek, Vince Murphy, she discovers that instead of having left the building, Vince is still very much alive (and remarkably unimpressed at the idea of sharing with a dead girl). So now Holly has to sort out her unresolved baggage in the next forty-eight hours while stuck in the body of a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. And if she doesn't? Well, let's just say that she's probably not going to like the alternative.

And here's the cover to Michelle's In a Treacherous Court - I meant to post it up yesterday and completely forgot. Seriously, this head cold has a lot to answer for!!

Juicy Bits

Eleni Konstontine had her short story, Dragon's Quest, published on the Antipodean SF site, in issue 156. I love the dragon!! And if that isn't enough juicy goodness, recently, Eleni also voiced the podcast for Dragon's Quest and you can listen to it here Antipodean SF Yay, Eleni, you clever girl!!

More goodness comes in the form of a great Goodreads contest from my friend, Michelle Diener. Michelle's debut historical novel, In A Treacherous Court set in the court of Henry VIII comes out in August, but if you're in the US you can enter the GR contest here to be in with a chance of winning one of 10 copies that are up for grabs. The contest runs until 11th July. Good luck!!

Skittles and a Fairy Bad Day

Huge congratulations to my dear friend, Amanda Ashby, as her fabulous YA Fairy Bad Day hits the shelves today!

Here's the blurb to whet your appetite:

First, my rightful designation of dragon slayer is STOLEN right out from under me by Curtis Green. Sure, he’s really cute, but that doesn’t give him an excuse.

 On top of that, I am assigned to slay fairies. I know what you’re thinking—how hard could it be, right? Wrong! These menacing beasts with their tiny hipster clothes and mocking sarcasm love taunting me. And they won’t STOP!

  But the thing that tops my list of stuff to ruin my day? That would be the GIANT KILLER FAIRY that I have to hunt down and slay because I am the only one who can see it. There is someone who can help me. Unfortunately…it’s Curtis. 

And here's the excerpt Enjoy! (and if you're wondering what the Skittles reference is all about, they play a Very Important role in the book!!!)

New Website

After months of putting it off I finally bit the bullet and redid my website. It took about five days to build and then another five days to upload it to the web (seriously! It was Very Confusing) And then another couple to fix all the glitches which hadn't shown up beforehand. So hopefully *fingers crossed* everything is working the way it should be now, but it's a bit like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!

Here's the link if you want to have a quick squizz!

And here is a gratuitous picture of Henry Cavill, just because I felt like posting it!! 

The Immortal... Henry!

I'm a bit of a fan of Henry Cavill (Sussex in The Tudors. Need I say more?!) so I was thrilled when my friend, Eleni Konstantine, posted a YouTube clip for his next movie, The Immortals. He looks pretty damn hot in a skirt, that's all I can say!! And his weapons are impressive. I will definitely be checking it out, purely for research purposes you understand because Henry - especially in this gear - is a dead ringer for the hero of my next ancient historical romance!


And here's the trailer. Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day & Killing Your Darlings

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all had a wonderful day with your human and/or fur babies. My lovely children framed the cover of Captive for me and it is completely awesome :-) unfortunately my photo skills are such that I can't enlarge it to show all the details!

I recently heard back from my editor on my current book. She had read the proposal - the first four chapters and synopsis (my chapters are quite short!) and had some excellent insights on the plot based on the synopsis I'd given her. Now, synopsis writing is not my strong point, especially when I haven't even written the book yet. I have enough trouble writing the thing after the book's finished! I don't even look at the synopsis after it's done so the book rarely follows my original ideas. However in this case, although I'd wandered away from the synopsis, the issues my editor pointed out were things I'd intended keeping.

After a mild panic attack (and a late night brainstorming session with the amazing Amanda!) I realized that no only was it all doable, but by doing it would clarify all the sticky bits at the beginning of the book that I'd earmarked as needing to be sorted out. Once again I'm amazed at just how much can be slashed and burned without making the entire plot disintegrate. It's hard to kill your darlings but sometimes it just has to be done!

Happy Firsts at Strange Candy!

Today I'm over at Strange Candy Reviews to help celebrate her first year blogoversary! So in keeping with the theme of 'firsts' I'm chatting about how I felt when I first held my very first copy of Forbidden in my hot little hands! Strange Candy has a fab contest going on from 22nd April to 6th May where one commenter can win a $50 gift card to the Book Depository so if you get a moment pop on over and say hi. I'd love to see you!

Happy Easter and the Great.... What If?

Well, I'm looking forward to the long Easter break coming up! Hopefully the weather will stay fine and my husband can finish off his latest project. Which is... enclosing half of our back garden so the kitties don't go wandering! When we were first married we had two little kittens and one was run over and killed when she was only nine months old. I don't think we've ever got over it. So this way we hope to give them freedom but also ensure their safety. And that's not all, cats go missing on a regular basis round here and I do NOT think it has anything to do with the cats themselves running away.

And in other news, I'm over at Magical Musings today with my good friend Michelle Diener (who writes historical fiction for Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books) In both Forbidden and Captive my heroines have to make life-changing decisions and take a leap of faith. Today over at MM I chat about my own leap of faith in embracing a new beginning in a new land. Would love to see you over there!

Plus - my blogger has changed! It's been upgraded in my absence. Or did I upgrade and just forget?! Wouldn't surprise me!

The Making of a Cover

Tony Mauro, the fabulous artist who illustrated the cover for Captive, is being interviewed today over at Book Lovers Inc where he gives fascinating insights into the whole process from the model shoots to digital artwork. Well worth checking out if you have a moment!

Hot Demons!

I'm thrilled that my fabulous CP, fellow Tiara Girl Amanda Ashby, has sold her next book to Puffin! Here's the scoop from Publishers Marketplace:

Amanda Ashby's DEMONOSITY, in which a sixteen year old girl's life is
turned upside down when she has to protect an ancient alchemist's
relic from two demonknight brothers, one of whom is good and one of
them bad: the problem is she has no idea which is which, to Puffin, in
a nice deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English).