Book Lovers Buffet Sale-3 days only!

Please join us May1 - 3 for a big spring sale! We have a huge bouquet of books - 175 romance novels included. Each is on sale for three days only, for 99 cents. Load up! You won't gain a pound!

Our genres range from Contemporary to Erotic, and everything in between. Mystery, thriller, YA, Historical and Paranormal. You're sure to find something you like. You can check it out here: Book Lovers Buffet Sale.

Please check out our contest page. We're offering $400 in gift certificate prizes! You can enter the contest using Facebook on our site Contest page. Or if you want entries into the contest via Tweets or Facebook, please check out my website for the rafflecopter link here.

The book I'm offering for sale is Eclipse of the Heart.

Amanda Thompson is offered her dream job as a junior executive at a Manhattan venture firm. The terms are a little vague, but she has a seriously ill sister to provide for, and her new boss is a seriously attractive man. Failure is not an option, so she'll keep her eye on the prize, and her heart and body out of the mix…despite the boss's overly personal interest in her.

Logan Winter is a hard-driving business tycoon who likes his sex life hot and his emotional life cold. His new high-end call girl is a little different from the ordinary bimbos who fill the role. That's okay, since he's ready for different. Even discovering the mistake that's been made is okay, because he knows how to get what he wants…and he wants Amanda.

Excerpt:

"I’m not attracted to you!" Amanda's breath strangled in her throat as she fought a moan. She'd known it was a mistake to allow her new boss, Logan Winter, to book them into the same hotel room, even if it was a two-bedroom suite.

"Are you sure about that?" Logan asked.

His tongue licked her lips and her mouth fell open, without any decision on her part. He swept in, and this time he kissed her hard. So hard she had to kiss him back. So hard that their tongues couldn't avoid tangling. So hard that it was only natural for his arms to sweep around her and crush her to him.

She tasted whiskey on his tongue, smelled heat on his skin, and heard murmurs of approval in his throat.

No, she wasn’t sure about anything. Except the fact that she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be thinking about twining her legs around his waist, or falling back on the plush sofa and turning it into a bed.

 His mouth moved down her neck as he pressed kisses both hard and tender to her. He bit her where her neck met her shoulder, just as his roaming hands feathered over her breasts. Her purse fell to the floor, and the thump registered a wake-up call.

 "Logan," she said, struggling to repeat the words. Lie or not, she had to say them to stop this dangerous madness. "I’m not attracted to you."

 He released her just enough to look down at her. "So why are your nipples hard?"

"Because you’ve been manhandling them!"

His half smile showed, though his face looked a little strained. "Yeah, technically I suppose they have been handled by a man. With great pleasure."

"I've had a long day." If she didn't get out of this room, she might grab him. "I'd like to retire to my room. Will you need me tonight for work?"

He raised his brows. "Yes, I will need you," he said firmly. "Perhaps you’d like to change into something more comfortable?" He glanced at his watch. "Shall we say half-an-hour?"

"Fine." She suppressed a sigh. He had told her this would be her first night on the job. "Though I don’t need to change," she added. "What will you want me to do?"

His gaze, which had been lingering on her breasts, snapped to her face.

"Amanda, you’re a sharp woman. Right from the beginning I liked that about you."

She took a step back. "Your point is?"

"Look, unless you’re wearing a plaid skirt and knee socks, the ingénue approach isn’t my thing."

"The ingénue approach?" He’d reduced her to a parrot.

"The dumb, innocent act. Even in the right outfit, it wouldn’t be my first choice."

"I …" She opened and closed her mouth. Words failed her. Had she taken a job with a pervert?
Damn! It had seemed so perfect! "What are you talking about?"

"Are you new at this?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at her. "Because I’ve told the agency I want only experienced women. And no games."

"You know exactly what my experience is. And if you don’t like to play games, then stop speaking in riddles. Just tell me plainly what you want."

"Fine." He jerked his hand toward her. "Get undressed."

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Vanessa Holland has a FREE book for you!

Yes, you read that right. Vanessa Holland's amazing and beautiful romance novel is now free for everyone to download from Amazon in Kindle format. I have read it twice and loved it both times.

 Click the cover below and grab yours before this offer ends.

A night of passion has forever bound Jenna Morgan to a man she thought she would spend her future with. Instead, he dumped her with barely a word of explanation and left the state. Three years later, she’s a single mom struggling to provide for her son and young sister, and harassed by an obsessed stalker. 

After leaving home three years ago to run his aging grandfather’s ranch in Texas, Sam Strickland returns to Tennessee to discover a child he didn’t know existed. He thought he was saving Jenna’s future when he left home, and left her behind. He never dreamed he’d return to see a child with eyes the same shade as his own - and Jenna in serious trouble. 

Sam thinks his only dilemma is whether he can earn back the trust of the woman he loves and commit to the responsibility of fatherhood. But Jenna’s life is more complicated than he could have imagined and he finds himself involved in a dangerous situation that could threaten his new son’s life.


Amazon Reviews

"What a refreshing, new, romance love story! You are immediately drawn in to the excitement and romance of a young couple sorting out their lives. The sense of family values are so important to Sam and Jenna...it makes your heart have that warm fuzzy to read about Sam and his young son." ~Susie

"If you love good story telling and relatable characters, look no further than Bound to You" ~TF Smith

"This book is unpredictable and each chapter presents a new and interesting twist to the storyline. So glad I read it and would encourage others to read it as well." ~Ka7e28

"It didn't take but a few pages into, "Bound To You," for Jenna Morgan and Sam Strickland to grab you. I assure you, this is a page turner, with no place to stop until you get to the end." ~ jrf59

"Once I started reading, I couldn't stop, literally. This book is a page-turner. The characters were so real and likable, I felt they were friends I'd known forever. The hero, Sam, was so easy to fall in love with. He has his issues and flaws (that's what makes him real), but he's what dreams are made of. Plus, he's incredibly hot and gorgeous! This author really knows how to put heart and soul into a book. She is an expert with beautiful descriptions, three-dimensional characterization and intense emotions. It is an amazing book!"~ n22v

My Soul's Dark Journey into Night -- I mean Rewrites

Hello Fierce Friends,
Bet you thought I had disappeared into the dark void called DEADLINE HELL. Well, you were right. That's exactly where I have been. The thing about writing a book and actually turning it into your publisher is that, well, that's not the end of it.

After 1 - 4 months, your editor calls and tells you everything that's wrong with it and everything you screwed up. Which is good, because no writer worth her salt wants a book to go to press in less than perfect condition, right? This is the time in the process where your editor can tell you what she didn't like about the details over which you have opened a vein nightly.

My editor always has great suggestions and observations, so when she sent me my rewrites, I eagerly read her thoughts. In this case, my editor felt that my characters needed tweaking. After thinking about it, I agreed. They needed a little slapping around by their Creator (me). No problem, I can handle this. And, oh yeah, she doesn’t like the ending. And the rewrites are due back in a week.

Now, let me pause to say that if I had a normal life, this might not be a problem. But I don't. My life is a roller coaster of fast-paced ups and downs, sparks and surprises, the likes of which you have never seen, usually punctuated by sudden crises on the level of a devastating volcanic eruption. So okay, one week.

After informing my editor that there is no way in Hades that I can change the ending in a week, I proceed to spend the next week doing the rewrites. I do not sleep. I do not eat. I do not watch All My Children or The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I write. I agonize. I change my book.

Okay, so the rewrites are finally done, with no loss of life or limb. I send them into my editor. Whew. That's done, right? Ah, not so fast grasshopper. You see, now I must wait with baited breath for the copyedits, which is when my original manuscript is mailed back to me with indescipherable little bits of code written all over the pages in blue or green pencil (as well as suggestions as to how I can make my writing better by implementing some of their word choices and italicized nouns).

I have two weeks to do the copy edits, which is more reasonable, if you have a normal life, which, as I indicated above, I do not. But I plow into it, determined to finish by the deadline. Now, let me pause here and explain that this is only the second book I have written for this publisher, and my previous publisher didn't supply copy edits. At that house, I got rewrites and that was it until the galleys arrived. So, as you can imagine, I was not, shall we say, knowledgeable about how to approach showing the changes in the pages of the manuscript. And unfortunately the MS didn't come back with a manual, just a brief note that said I "could" write on the pages of the manuscript. So I did.

I go without sleep. I go without food. I go without my daily soap. I go without The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Boston Legal, and Big Bang Theory. I am a good girl. 450 pages later, my writing hand is a pretzel, and the copy edits look like the aftermath of Sherman's March to the Sea. (Quick -- how many of you know this historical reference? Who was Sherman? Why did he march? Where was the sea? Why was the sea?) I'm almost finished, and the day before my manuscript is due, I get a call from my editor.

"Remember we talked about changing the ending?" she reminds me. Yeah, that was the change I couldn't do in a week, I remind her. Well, it's gotta be done. But the four days I'm given to REWRITE HALF MY BOOK is not enough time, for some reason that I can't explain.(Maybe it’s just me, I mean, go figure.)

So like any professional, I do what I must. I calmly, maturely, solemnly, call my agent and FREAK OUT!! After listening to my threats to hold the manuscript at gunpoint until I get more time, my agent (actually an angel on special assignment from Heaven) assures me she will help me. And she does, because, luckily for me, that's what she does. She helps me.

I get another week. And so the marathon begins. The new ending involves rewriting major plot points, which retroactively affects earlier parts of the book, and it is a grueling dissection. I feel very much like Dr. Frankenstein when he tried to stitch together different body parts and still end up with a living, breathing human being. Unfortunately, Dr. F ended up with a living, breathing monster, and as I worked all night, every night, (I did sleep a couple of hours a day) I began to fear that my creation would eventually end up being chased by villagers wielding pitchforks too.

Fortunately, this is not the case. Turns out my editor knew what she was talking about. The changes made the book better, stronger, snappier, sexier, and now with less carbs! Not that the woman at the mail stop would believe that. You see, I found out that I was supposed to "insert" major changes (changes of more than a page) into the actual manuscript. So my 450 page manuscript ended up being about 700 pages with all the changes. (Don’t worry – once they take out everything I crossed out, it’ll be back to 450.)

Quick now, for extra credit, does anyone out there know how much it costs to overnight Fed Ex a 10 pound manuscript to New York? In the immortal words of Danny Kaye in White Christmas, the price lies "Somewhere between 'Ouch' and 'BOING'"

As I slathered the outside of the box containing my precious manuscript with tape, the woman who worked at the mail place assured me that I didn't need to do that. She had placed one strip of tape across the top and one across the bottom, and that, she told me, would hold it "just fine".

I had the sudden mental image of my package being tossed between two husky Fed Ex guys and one of them fumbling the catch. The box hits the ground, bursts, (due to a lack of tape) and the pages of my manuscript are scattered across the floor of the Fed Ex receiving center in St. Louis, Missouri. The two guys are scrambling to pick up all the papers, when suddenly, the huge door at the end of the warehouse-like building begins to open. The two Fed Ex guys freeze as beams of sunlight shoot into their dark little piece of personal hell, and a tiny breath of air touches the edge of one paper. Then another. Then--whoops--it's a Midwest twister, whaddaya know, and it sweeps into the warehouse, picks up the pages of my manuscript (and the Fed Ex guys) and carries them out the doorway and into oblivion.

I turn back to the mail lady with a grim smile. "I'll feel better with a little more tape," I tell her. She smirks. I resist the urge to deck her. Instead, I concentrate on making sure the box containing my masterpiece is more secure than Mona Lisa in the Louvre. It's done. I breathe a sigh of relief, and then bite my lip as the smirky woman takes the package from me and tosses it into a bin where other, lesser taped boxes reside.

I walk out the door and blink. The sun is shining. There's a nice breeze. Not a twister in sight. My book is finished. I can live again. I go home. I begin to breathe, slow, deep breaths that fill my lungs. A tentative smile crosses my face. I open my laptop and check my email, just for fun, you know? Nothing pressing anymore. Oh, look, there's an email from my editor.

"Dear Tess," it reads. "Got the manuscript. Thanks so much. When will you have the next book finished?"

I stare at the computer. Slowly I log out of my email. I shut down my laptop. I close it. I pick up the remote control to the TV. I turn on my Tivo. 5 unwatched episodes of The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I click the remote. Sarah Conner is kicking some Terminator butt. I smile.

**If you would like to make Tess Mallory's Painful Journey Toward The Completion of HIGHLAND REBEL all worthwhile (she does it all for you!) help her become a best-selling author by pre-ordering her newest book at amazon.com **

Are You There Yet? -- Setting a Story

Why do we read works of fiction in our spare time? Two reasons are for pleasure and for escapism. A novel is comprised of many parts. There are the characters, a literary cast of leading and supporting folks whose journeys, loves, losses and conflicts we eagerly anticipate. If one were dissecting a story, the plot would serve as the framework around which a story is constructed. Another aspect of story is the tone conveyed, and this runs the gamut from upbeat to angst-ridden. Today my focus isn’t on the people, conflicts or tones that comprise a story but rather on the place. Setting is the story element that grants us escapism and fantastic fictional voyages. Allows us to have the sense of being there with the characters and experiencing their surroundings.

My favorite reason for writing historical and paranormal romance deals with setting. The fact I have a chance to recreate bygone eras and create otherworlds is extremely satisfying and often finds me staying up late as my mind sifts through the creative possibilities.



Of all the wonderful and interesting places to set a fiction novel, New Orleans ranks as my favorite. Each time my husband and I have visited the Crescent City, I’ve filled steno tablets with notes referencing the glorious architectural feats and historical details. What visit to this Louisiana getaway is complete without a ride on the St. Charles streetcar? From the moment we stepped out of the front entrance of The Pontchartrain Hotel, the melodic bell’s clang-clanging filled the air. While day-tripping, we soaked up the lively atmosphere on Bourbon Street, visited Voodoo shops and the tomb of Madame Laveau. Simply standing there in St. Louis Cemetery #1 evoked a sense of spirit—not only of those past but also of the indomitable spirits once possessed by those who lay in eternal rest. As a result of our last visit to the cemetery, the idea for my upcoming historical erotic romance, TORMENTED, came to mind. One evening found us strolling parts of the vibrant city and learning about the macabre Madame Dephine LaLaurie and some of the more sinister souls who once lived there. The following afternoon, for a truly breathtaking experience, we ventured into The Garden District and admired the Queen Anne Victorian, Italianate and Greek Revival mansions. Massive oaks stretched their wooden arms toward the sky, and their plentiful leaves whispered at us in passing. Yards bloomed with crape myrtle and magnolia, and fresh-mowed grass filled the air with its crisp-green perfume. Of course, all of our outdoor activities sparked an appetite. The Vieux Carré has always amazed and satisfied us with its fantastic cuisine. Mornings found us browsing the French Market and stopping by Café Du Monde on Decatur Street for delicious cups of café au lait and mouthwatering beignets. Whether you enjoy a muffuletta or some crawfish etoufee for lunch, be certain to save room for some of the cuisine available once the sun heads toward setting. Hearty buffets at the Court of Two Sisters (enjoy their Jazz Brunch on Sundays) or sumptuous steak dinners and Banana’s Foster at Brennan’s. And if you happen to have a craving for sweets and other delectable fare, dine at The Cheesecake Bistro. In the evenings, we walked along Magazine Street or enjoyed a carriage ride through the city.



A winsome Boston socialite—Eve Morneau—falls victim to a venomous beetle’s bite. Her healing and sexual awakening are placed in the hands of a New Orleans physician, Charles Galletiére, whose unconventional means of curing her malady lend themselves to unbridled passion and abandonment of her former ways of life. Immortality comes at a cost to the innocent woman, and her Christian soul might be left hanging in the balance.

As I type this message in a town quite far away from New Orleans, my desire is piqued to return to the delta and place that has served as a setting for several of my novels, some of which are unpublished. Here’s to you all having many journeys to fabulous places and exotic worlds over the course of your traveling and reading lives. As they say, Laissez les bon temps rouler…Let the good times roll.

Wishing you all many happy reading moments,


Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER -- Ellora's Cave
HELLE IN HEELS -- Ellora's Cave
TORMENTED -- Coming soon to Ellora's Cave
Shawna's Myspace
Helle's Myspace

Western Romances -- The Cowboy Way

Whether reading Zane Grey or Linda Lael Miller, cowboys and the Western way of life make for some of the best stories. Rugged heroes have always been my favorites in romance fiction. Something about those salt-of-the-earth types and how they live as hard as they love. Go to the greatest lengths to ensure the safety of loved ones. Fight for justice. Ride like the wind. Oh, and they are often quite easy on the eyes. Whether cowboys and rodeo heroes are roping, riding or ranching, they keep us turning the pages to find out what they love doing once the dust is cleared, the saddles are hung up and the chaps are off.

Roughrider blurb --

Rabid curiosity clashes with criminal minds and escalates the drama in the small Texas town where love and loyalties are harder won than any rodeo trophy.

Kimberly Taylor is a successful Western outfitter who deserves a worthy man to take her mind and body off the demands of her business. Jack Dodson has had his moment in the rodeo spotlight and decides he’d rather seek a more stable occupation. Kimberly needs something and someone to shake up her mundane existence. Breathe some excitement into her life. She finds fulfillment, drama and more when she tackles Jack on her own sexual terms.

You might wonder how this story came about. One day I happened across an older Western movie about cattle drivers. I mused about a man and woman who’d never explored their attraction to each other. During their younger years, they shared a friendship but never dared admitting or acting on their basest desires together. Couldn’t wait for the first commercial to play before I started jotting notes about Kimberly and Jack. Roughrider is about Kimberly's sexual odyssey. By returning her to Mesa Junction, Texas, I put her directly in the path of her ultimate temptation. It's been ten years since her last visit to the Dodson family, and she decides it's time to slay some sexual demons. ROUGHRIDER is all about finding that special person with whom you can share some of your most intimate secrets and indulge some of your wildest sexual fantasies. Kim knows she'll always have a friend in Jack, but she wants more. And the only way she'll ever find out if he feels the same way is by revisiting a certain Texas town.

If you enjoy romantic stories pivoted by sex and suspense…

Click here for more information and a ROUGHRIDER excerpt

Click here to watch the book videos and to read another excerpt and reviews

Wishing you all many happy reading moments,

Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER -- Ellora's Cave
HELLE IN HEELS -- Ellora's Cave
TORMENTED -- Coming soon to Ellora's Cave
Shawna's Myspace
Helle's Myspace

Books Adapted for the Big Screen

As an author, one of my greatest joys is reaching the end of a story I'm writing. Lots of other events in life are as special, but typing a story’s final paragraph is something I always celebrate. While the characters are moving through their tale, and when they’re talking, those action scenes and words play out in my mind as a movie. During the writing and revision process, I deconstruct the choreography and read aloud the parts spoken by the characters. I’m totally immersed in their world.

Over the years, many fabulous novels have been adapted for made-for-television movies and big-screen presentations. Rare are the times when a book’s author also writes the movie’s script and the movie version often differs from the novel to some degree. My favorite novel-to-movie adaptation is REBECCA by the gifted storyteller, Dame Daphne du Maurier. I read the novel a year or so before seeing the movie starring the stellar acting talents of Sir Lawrence Olivier, Vivian Leigh and Dame Judith Anderson. Mrs. Danvers, the story’s villain, is the epitome of evil and will always remain my favorite novel and movie villain—followed closely by another superbly-written villain, Hannibal Lecter in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Both of these novels translated well on screen, and my kudos to the screenwriters who made this happen.

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation? How does this adaptation compare with what you, as a reader, visualized for the story line, setting and cast of characters?

Feel the heat in erotic fiction,

Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER -- Ellora’s Cave
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave
Shawna’s Myspace
Helle’s Myspace

Instinct

As a woman who’s always been more into planning than spur-of-the-moment, I recently put my resolution to remain flexible into play. Several months earlier, hubby and I purchased tickets to a comedy event. Almost daily, we chatted about the upcoming concert. Since the venue is several hours away, we agreed on arriving early and enjoying the sights of the city. No planning in advance, except for purchasing the tickets.

Fast forward to the week of the performance. Nothing that happened in our working week dampened our moods. We were ready for Friday night. Anticipation buoyed us and boosted our energy levels. Two days before to the concert, my closet doors remained closed in the event I became tempted to pull a couple outfits from the racks and ask his opinion on a favorite.

As happens with all good moods, they eventually reach an end point. Conflict delights at barging in on a woman before she’s out of her pajamas. The morning prior to our getaway, I brewed the coffee and turned on the television. The Weather Channel delivered the awful news. A winter storm would sweep into our area overnight. A call of icing doesn’t bother me when I’m watching NHL games. But the notion of driving on slick roadways doesn’t thrill me in the slightest.

Despite the dismal weather prediction, my hubby remained confident all would be fine and we’d no need for alarm. My writing day beckoned and I gladly heeded the call. I played among the plotting sheets on our living room floor and steered my thoughts away from the approaching storm. After about an hour I took a break and enjoyed a mug of green tea while curled up on the couch. The remote control lay nearby on the coffee table, but I resisted picking it up and rechecking the weather. Hubby’s reassurances played in my mind. Before half of the tea was gone, pleasant warmth tracked from my neck to my toes. Warmth I couldn’t attribute to the tea. Something stirred deep inside me. Many link this sensation to their gut, but I don’t. My instinct is settled somewhere else, and I’m not concerned as to its pinpoint location. The fact instinct has served me well in cases where I’m apprehensive sustains my faith in the well-hidden predictor. Instead of sipping, I gulped the rest of my tea and returned to the story plotting. All would be fine. My instinct and hubby were right.

The following morning I awoke earlier than usual, headed for the family den and peeked out the curtain. A glazed front walkway and driveway greeted me. But no chills chased through my body. I tuned into the local forecast and also accessed the online report for our destination city. The temperature was trending upward, and the pink-contrasted portion of the scan was tracking northward on the radar. A direction opposite the one we’d travel.

After a hearty breakfast we hit the highway. From the minute we reached the interstate, our conversation remained upbeat. We reached our destination in good time. Even the brief drizzle of rain didn’t change our mood. Sightseeing. Shopping. Strolling the city streets. Dining at a new restaurant we’ve added to our list of all-time favorites. A spectacular comedic performance ending our day. Though we didn’t arrive home until after three the following morning, we were still laughing and repeating some of the funnier lines from the show.

How many of you have relied on instinct? How accurate has your instinct proven?

Feel the heat in erotic fiction,

Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER – Ellora’s Cave
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave
TORMENTED – TBD Ellora’s Cave
Shawna’s Myspace
Helle’s Myspace

Love at First Sight? Second? Third?

FALLING IN LOVE – At first sight? Second? Third?


The more years I survive, the more I mull certain questions and topics. As an author of romance fiction who’s also married, one of these topics is whether or not love at first sight is actually experienced or simply imagined? When I look back over my dating days, I definitely experienced a physical response and attraction to those guys a good amount of time before realizing each held potential as someone with whom I could fall in love. Of course, my mind and body were also responding to them on various levels including how they conducted themselves with others, addressed me, etc. However, love didn’t enter into the picture at first date or second. I’ve never been one to make snap judgments or rush into anything, but all of the guys I dated engaged me on a mental and physical level. A short time after meeting my husband for the first time, I knew there was a strong chance he was a man I could marry. But I couldn’t say after that first glance, in all honesty, I knew without a doubt he was the man with whom I’d eventually walk down the aisle. We knew each other a couple months before an event occurred that convinced me he was a man who not only cared about my welfare but who would also stick with me through good times and bad. The hardest bit for me to reconcile is that someone can truly, in a nanosecond, meet someone and know that person is the one to whom they’ll entrust their heart—ergo fall in love. Could happen, but color me a bit skeptical as I believe true love takes time to mature into a foundation on which a woman can build the rest of her life.

What about you? Do you believe in love at first sight, or is this merely a fantasy women want fulfilled but is, in actuality, a rarity?

Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER – Ellora’s Cave
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave
Shawna’s Myspace
Helle’s Myspace

In the Hot Seat Over the Holidays

While out and about recently, a shopper approached me carrying two blouses. One was a stunning leopard-print, the other a plainer, tailored style in petal pink. My first impression was that she was going to ask me which suited her better. Instead, she started chatting with me about various topics--including the shopping frenzy over the holidays. Eventually she mentioned the next place on her must-visit list—her favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore. She enjoys reading romance fiction and named several of her favorite authors. At this point I mentioned I write romance fiction—including erotic romances and erotica. We were standing in an area of the store where no one else browsed at the time, and she hung the blouses at the front of a nearby rack. After giving me an abbreviated history of her liberal days during the 1960s and 1970s, she posed a question: “Do you authors actually practice what you put in those books?” She glanced past me, then around the immediate vicinity. “Do you all personally research what the characters do?”

After a brief pause, I responded – “As with the stories I write, I’ll leave the answer to your imagination.” She laughed, smiled and said something to the effect her imagination worked overtime when reading sexually-explicit fiction. We chatted for a bit longer about reading romance novels, wished each other happy holidays, I gave her my business card and we parted company.

What about you? Have you ever been put on the spot? Care to share the “hot” topic and how you responded?

Season’s greetings and steamy readings,

Shawna Moore http://www.grant-moore.com
ROUGHRIDER – Ellora’s Cave
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave
Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/shawnamooreauthor
Helle’s Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/hellehawthorn

Compromising Situations & Interview w/ Carolynn Carey

Today I'm chatting with Carolynn Carey, a wonderful SMRW chapter mate of mine and gifted storyteller. I was thrilled to hear she'd sold her third book, a Regency, and that's what I'm going to ask her about today. But first a little about the author.

A lifelong resident of Tennessee, Carolynn Carey has always been interested in the written word and spent much of her childhood reading. Later she received a degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. However, when she tried writing fiction, she discovered that journalistic writing and fiction writing called for quite different skills. She struggled to find her niche in fiction, first writing a contemporary and then switching to historicals. She finaled three times in the Regency category of the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart contest, but it was only after she went back to writing contemporaries that she sold.

A Summer Sentence, which was purchased by Avalon Books, was released in August 2005. The sequel, Falling for Dallas, was published by Avalon in October 2006. And, after having almost given up on Regencies, she sold one of her earlier manuscripts to Cerridwen Press as the fifth book scheduled for Cerridwen’s new Cotillion line that features traditional Regencies. Compromising Situations is scheduled for release as an electronic book on April 5, 2007, with a print release to occur later in 2007. To learn more about Carolynn and her books, visit her web site at www.CarolynnCarey.com (and be sure to type two n’s on the end of Carolynn). And to learn more about the Cotillion line of traditional Regency romances, visit www.cerridwenpress.com and click on the Cotillion banner on the left side of the page.

Vonda: Please tell us about your next release.

Carolynn: In Compromising Situations, Beatrice Crowell is perfectly content living in the country with her parents and her beautiful, brilliant twin sister. But when the twins’ godmother offers to sponsor Beatrice and Chloe for a Season, Beatrice realizes a refusal would break their invalid mother’s heart. So off Beatrice and Chloe go to London, where Beatrice meets her godmother’s son, the handsome and arrogant Marquess of Thayne. Misunderstandings and willful prejudices cause immediate sparks, and Thayne would love nothing more than to dispatch the twins straight back to the country. However, he soon discovers that their presence in London is essential to the dangerous assignment he shares with their disreputable brother and he is forced to do everything in his power to make amends—including engineering a reconciliation between Chloe and the man who broke her heart. Intrigue, misunderstandings, misjudgments, and betrayals land both Beatrice and Chloe in compromising situations with the men they love, but neither is willing to accept the proposals that would salvage their reputations, certain they were made for everything but the right reasons. So how can two Regency gentlemen convince the stubborn young ladies they adore that they want to marry them for love rather than for honor?

VS: Sounds like a fun and interesting story! What element of story creation is your favorite? (Characters, settings, plots, etc.?)

CC: Definitely I would have to say “characters.” While settings can certainly help set the tone and well-drawn plots can hold the reader’s interest, the characters make or break a book for me. In romances, of course, the hero and heroine take center stage, but secondary characters, including the villain, are critical to the book’s success. Secondary characters can often introduce humor or help provide valuable insight into the motivations of the hero and heroine.

VS: What is your writing process or method?

CC: If I had a choice in the matter, I would prefer to plot my books before I begin to write them. Unfortunately (or so it seems to me), I simply can’t do it. I’ve tried various methods for plotting, and I always run into some sort of mental roadblock. Thus, what I’ve learned to do is to identify my characters and put them in a situation that leads from an opening scene into the next scene and so forth. I always know what the ending will be, of course. I just don’t know at the outset how I’m going to get there. One reason I don’t like this method is because it’s possible to write half a book and then discover that you’ve written yourself into a corner with nowhere to go. Believe me, I have more than one partially completed manuscript that will never be finished. But I’ve also learned that I can pretty well count on finishing the book if I’ve clearly identified the hero’s and heroine’s conflict, especially the internal conflict, before I begin writing. In essence, I’d say I’m still refining my method, hoping to find one that’s simple and foolproof. And if I ever do find a process that’s simple and foolproof, no doubt I can make a fortune selling it to other writers. :-)

VS: I'm sure you could! Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?

CC: My best advice for unpublished authors is to persevere. I know that it’s very discouraging to experience rejection, especially after you’ve labored long and hard to finish a manuscript. The trick, I think, is to send out that just-completed manuscript and immediately start on another. If your first manuscript is rejected, you’ll have another in the works, and you will probably be aware that this second one is just a tad better than the first, so you’ll feel a bit more confident about sending it out. And if you’re one of the lucky ones and that first manuscript is accepted, you’ll be in a position to tell the publisher that you’re well along (or have already completed) another. Publishers like to know that you’re not a “one book wonder.”

VS: Thank you for being a guest on my blog, Carolynn! Remember to visit her website at www.carolynncarey.com to read more about her comtemporary romances and new Regency.