WIN A KINDLE!!!

Want a chance to win a KINDLE? Well, here's your chance. Decadent Publishing will be at Coffee Time Romance (http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/) all day on February 1st. They'll be giving away a KINDLE with 6 preloaded books. So don't miss your opportunity to walk away a winner!

WAVES OF INFINITY COMPETITION

Here is the first competition for 2011 that I am running! It's timing coincides with the release on the 15th of January of Waves of Infinity.

So, what is the competition, I hear you ask? Well, simple. Tell me where on Earth you would like to go if money was no object! It can be anywhere, from Antarctica to the Sahara. You tell me where your ultimate holiday destination and you could win a copy in PDF format of Waves of Infinity.

Competition will close next week on the 1st of Feb when my next release is due! So get commenting.

Happy Monday

Well, here it is, Monday again. They say time flies when you're having fun, I just must have missed out on the fun part. Work has kept me awfully busy lately. I haven't had much free time for anything else. I did do a little writing, though. Yay!

Thanks to my good friend, Gracen! She's such a doll! She helped me brainstorm an idea for a new story and I started writing a little on it. Not much, but a little. I can't believe how hard it is to get back into writing when you haven't done it for a while. I knew it would be hard, but I am a writer at heart, and I will always be one. There's no denying it. No matter how much time has passed, I will always come back to it. But, that doesn't change the fact that I feel like a brand new writer, needing to relearn everything I had already learned in the past. Maybe it's not that bad, but it feels like it. I'm second guessing every single word choice. *shakes head* Well, I'm sure I'll get past that once I get further into it. At least I hope so.

One of my biggest problems is that I'm a plotter. I've tried it both ways, but plotting I must do. It's really hard for me to plot out a whole story before hand. I do so much better when I have someone to talk it out with. Help me brainstorm and tell me if my ideas are stupid or not, because many times they are, lol.

I've heard many pantsers say that they wish they could plot because it would keep them from having to backtrack when they've run off course. I can see how that would be true. And, that may have been my problem when I tried it before. I would get part of the way through, usually about a third or so, and then get stuck, unable to move forward. Probably because I've written myself into a corner and needed to back out of it.

So, how do you write? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you tried both ways? Which do you think is harder for you? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Decadent Publishing Merges with ROCK BAND Run Devil Run!!

BIG NEWS FROM MY PUBLISHER

DECADENT PUBLISHING

Decadent Publishing announces the release of a Paranormal-romance fiction anthology rooted in rock ‘n roll and ripped straight off the Sunset Strip.

Run Devil Run, an L.A.-based rock band well known locally for their dynamic live performances, diverse musical talent, and humorous video antics has lent their faces, titles and lyrics as inspiration for a five-book series with the publisher. The stories are penned by popular and award-nominated authors Rachel Carrington, Mari Freeman, Susan DiPlacido, Valerie Mann and Becca Dale, and will be released first in ebook format, then later in print.

“I’ve seen RDR play live several times and they are impressive. When this idea came to me, they were a natural fit. Paranormal romance lends itself easily to the Rock vibe,” says Heather Bennett, Co-owner of Decadent Publishing. “Customers who buy the series off our site will be treated to a free download of the coordinating song so they get the whole multi-media experience.”

Mari Freeman writes,” Music has always influenced my writing, but creating a story, characters and an entire world based on the lyrics of a song has been one of the most unique experiences. The collaboration between Decadent Publishing and Run Devil Run has found a creative way to take that musical influence and share it with readers. Read the book, get the song that inspired it. That rocks!”

Remarks Jackie Joyride of Run Devil Run, ”The fact that our music could inspire authors of this caliber to bring characters to life, I mean, it’s a thrill for us. It’s been great working with Decadent Publishing and to see these stories come together around our music…it’s an ego boost for sure!”

To visit Decadent Publishing click HERE to go to their website.

My apologies!

I want to start out with an apology. I’m sorry I’ve been gone for so long. I know it’s been too long, but it seems like every time I’ve tried to write a post, I’ve lost the ability to even put together a decent post. I’ve tried and tried, but it was really useless, which this post may be as well.

To let everyone know where I’ve been, I’ll try to explain. 2010 was the worst year of my life, and I was none to sorry to see it go. My husband had a massive heart attack and was placed in ICU. He was very lucky to have survived. His kidneys shut down and he had to have dialysis. After about a month, he was released to come home. We got to spend about a month with him at home before he passed away in July.

Since that time, I have been unable to write anything. I’ve tried countless times, but I never got farther than a couple of sentences. I’ve gotten myself in a pretty deep depression. Anyway, I’m trying to dig myself out of it. I never realized just how hard that was to do. But here I am, desperately wanting to get back into my writing, and having to fight just to get a few words down. I’m at a loss as to where to even begin. I’m going to try my best not to desert you all again. I hope you can understand that I never meant to do that.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that I am here and trying to get back to my writing self. Hopefully it will start to creep back into me sooner rather than later. If anyone wants to crack the whip on me, please feel free. I’m definitely needing some extra motivation, because I can’t seem to muster up much. I look forward to talking to you all soon.

Sierra

Erotic books dominating the epub industry

With my internet going crazy, I decided to go to the library to check my books. The lady behind me said, "Nice book covers, huh?" I said thank you. She looked so surprised to know that I wrote the books. LOL We got to talking and showed her my publisher eXtasy Books, Red Rose Publishing, and Cobblestone Press. Her comment was, "Wow, lots of erotic books." I told her there are different genres available in those publishers and not only erotic books. Again, her comment was, "Yes, different genres, but looks like erotic books are the big seller."

Is she right? Are epubs selling more erotic books than a traditional romance books? Is this the reason why there are so many new epubs popping nowadays? Everyday, I get emails from different yahoo groups I belong to and most posts are about hot m/f, f/f, threesome, bdsm, m/f but steamy hot with an open door sex. So could the lady be right? Can you say that epubs are surviving because of the erotic books? Are there epubs out there that are selling more sensual contemporary or mainstream?

What do you think?

Tierney O'Malley

Busy... not writing.

So I need to write a blog post since it is the lovely Wednesday. I've been racking my brain trying to think of a blog post. Something interesting. Something writing related since we all either write books or read them. Something great. But nothing came to mind other than the fact that I'm NOT writing. I don't mean this blog either. When I have the time to work on my ms, I can't. My writing time comes so far apart that I can no longer connect with my characters or the story. I have a few books in the works and each story is one I had been passionate about when I first started. I just don't have the time to reread the ms which is driving me crazy. I want to write. I need to write. I can't write.

My goal for this week is to put a solid effort in to get back into the swing of writing. Check back next week to see my progress.

If you have any ideas to overcome this, feel free to pass them on to me! I'd love to hear 'em!

Talk to you soon,
Wendy Ely

Coming Soon....Circle City: Lord of the Wolfen~Book I

On the edge of civilization, there is a place called Circle City, Alaska. The last town before the Yukon Flats gives way to frigid desolation. When Zoe O'Brien, a secluded widow, kills a crazed mother wolf and saves the only cub from sure death, she ignites a war between the Wolfen Clan and the Kontar Clan. The wolf people have been enemies of the dog people for centuries and the cub she takes in is heir to the Wolfen throne. Taken prisoner by the Wolfen for murder and kidnapping, Zoe is forced to see and do things with creatures she never knew existed, held against her will in a world she both desires and fears.

Excerpt from Circle City
The guard busted in again. “Come on, Wolfie. You’re on.” The bastard sneered. He held the door open for her with a fat cigar jabbed between his meaty fingers. Rosemary waved the smoke away with her hand as she ducked beneath his arm.
The chanting was now a drum beat of male’s voices. Her head hurt. She fought the rage building within her.
“Wolf girl! Wolf girl! Wolf girl!”
The guard walked her to the back of the stage and pointed to a long wall of silver streamers.
The entrance to the stage.
She peered around the corner of the waving streamers and saw a sea of dog men, all of them with short, cropped hair, pumping fists wildly. There was a giant cloud of smoke hovering above the crowd. She coughed. And the place stunk of rum. She had no idea the dogs were into island drinks. Odd.
“Go on, Wolfie.” The guard chuckled and gave her a shove forward.
She stumbled in her three inch heels and walked toward the streamers.
Oh holy Seraphina, protect me.
Tossing her blazing red hair behind her, she walked through the streamers, feeling each one tickle her shoulders and then fall off, reminding her there was no turning back. The crowd went wild. The dogs rose to their feet, hooting and hollering, whistling so high she had to shake her head several times. Didn’t that hurt their damn ears as much as hers?
Nickleback’s Rock Star blasted over the speakers. Her heart thumped in her chest as she danced over to the pole and jiggled her ass.
Totally clueless. With both hands, she grabbed the pole and swung herself around. Hey, this wasn’t so hard. She arched her back, kicked her leg into the air and tossed her head. The men went wild. Blazing hot lights heated her skin in an instant. Sweat trickled between her breasts. She licked her lips when a drop threatened to fall from them. Just that one move had them whistling that damn insane high pitch again. She grimaced and shook her head, pressing her hands onto her ears. The whistling grew louder, piercing her eardrum, stabbing her brain until she thought she’d scream. She turned to run off stage and just when she headed for the wall of streamers, she saw two dog men standing there, their beefy arms crossed, shaking their heads no.
She heard a loud pop. Wet warmth filled her ear. She screamed, fell against the stripper pole and slid down, her legs falling into splits. The dog crowd howled and whistled like mad. She squeezed her eyes shut. Just when she thought she’d die from the mind numbing whistles piercing her like icicles to the brain, it all stopped. She felt the vibrations of footsteps on the stage before she heard them. Dread washed over her. What could silence the crowd like that? A crowd of drunken, horny Kontar weren’t easily controlled or so she thought.
The footsteps stopped at her side. She knew someone was standing there but she was too afraid too look. And her brain was still buzzing, recovering from the whistle torture. The blazing spotlights were shadowed. From beneath her closed lids, she knew a figure was hovering over her.

Where I've Been

Since receiving my Roku unit for my birthday, I've been sitting in front of the damn television in the living room watching streaming downloads from Netflix. I'm addicted. It's bad. Really bad. For my writing that is. But it's good to watch all my old favorites.

Dave and I have placed in our instant queue all the movies and series we enjoyed as kids and have been living on a steady diet of those sci-fi and fantasy series we loved as adults.

Who here remembers Kolchak: The Night Stalker? OMG!! When I found the complete series on the sci-fi section I almost had a complete melt down. I watched that show faithfully every week as a kid. It scared the beejezzus out of me at the time, but now as I watch it as an adult I see the quirky campiness of it and love it for an entirely different reason.

The first series I watched from pilot to last available season on was Eureka! For some reason, I didn't catch this series when it first started and only picked it up in the middle of the third season. So, having the Roku to watch it from the very beginning in marathon sessions was amazing. Love that show, though I have to say for a town full of geniuses they have an awful affinity for creating end-of-the-world catastrophes.

Now, Dave and I have moved on to Farscape and Hercules: The Legendary Jouneys. So much fun, I can't even begin to tell you how much I've enjoying this.

The only problem I can see is that not all of their titles are immediately available for streaming, though if you look up a movie or series in their search engine, if it's not there it will show up in a day or two as a "suggestions for.." section.

So, if you don't see a great deal of new books from me in the near future, that's why. Blame my love for seeing all these awesome shows over again. As I'm having a hard time keeping them in background only.

-Kate

Waves of Infinity: Jan 15!

Here is the cover of my upcoming release, Waves of Infinity! What a great design. Thanks, Angela!

E-Publishing: The Cream Will Rise by Kris Tualla

I received another email through an author group yesterday: someone is starting an e-publishing company. It seems like everyone is starting an e-publishing company. Why is that?

Because publishing e-books is free and easy.

But running a publishing company is not. There are websites to design, submissions to evaluate, contracts to write, ISBNs to purchase, editors and cover designers to hire, royalties to collect and disperse, tax forms on top of tax forms…

So why the rush to jump in? More to the point - why the rush to submit? These new publishers are not any better known than I am. They aren't proven yet and have a TON of promotion ahead of them. As do I. But I'll receive my entire 70% commission from e-book sales, while their authors will only glean 35-40%.

Why do it? Because when someone asks "who is your publisher?" we need an answer.

Otherwise, we fall into that scary void of self-published authors who produce books which are severely sub-standard. From the writing to the editing to the formatting to the covers, these ignorant hopefuls have worked in a vacuum and have no idea how awful their books are. To make matters worse, most self-pubbed writers have gone to vanity presses and spent $500-$5,000 or more to create these disasters.

So being able to answer the "publisher" question is huge. Because it means someone has vetted your work. You were judged worthy enough to hang a reputation on. That means something.

But, what if you really DO know what you are doing, and are capable of getting a quality product out by doing the work yourself? Or, what if you have been traditionally published, but your books are out of print and you have the rights back? What if you just want to release some short stories or novellas to support your traditionally published books?

And you want to whole 70%?

The next best thing to a publisher is a LABEL. Enter Goodnight Publishing, a new website where independently published authors of quality books have linked arms to present a united front to the world. Where authors can enter the name "Goodnight Publishing" whenever asked for their publisher. Where there are no contracts, no relinquishing of rights, no splitting of royalties. Just a traditional façade for readers - and support for indie authors.

Interested? Join us! I went the independent route because I write outside the publisher's boxes: my heroes are Norse and my stories begin in the Missouri Territory then move to Norway and back. And as an editor from Kensington said to me (complete with finger gestures) "Publishers like their boxes."

Is there quality? A Matter of Principle, my January 2011 release (the third book in my historical romance trilogy), garnered 4 STARS and a great write-up from RT Book Reviews. It will take time, but in the end, the cream will rise to the top no matter how it is published.

So. Is it time you found an "outside the box" hero? Please allow me to help.

For every 10 people who comment here, I will give away one free e-copy of A Woman of Choice - the beginning of the trilogy. And, yes. Commenter #11 warrants 2 copies! Comment #21? I'll give away three.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

In February at the end of my blog tour, I'll give away one SIGNED PAPERBACK SET of the trilogy. Here's how you can get in on that deal:
1. Go to http://www.kristualla.com/ and find the "Secret Word" on my home page.
2. Send an email to http://www.blogger.com/ktualla@cox.net%20 with "Signed Trilogy Giveaway" in the subject line. Put the secret word in the body.
3. Comment on any blog at any time in the tour to activate your entry. Each day's blog location is listed at http://kristualla.wordpress.com/blog-tour-dates-locations/

A Woman of Choice, A Prince of Norway, and A Matter of Principle are all available at http://www.goodnightpublishing.com/

A Woman of Choice - Missouri Territory, 1819
A woman is viciously betrayed and abandoned by her unfaithful husband. She is rescued by a widower uninterested in love. In desperation, she becomes engaged to his best friend. One woman, three very different men. Life is about choices.

A Prince of Norway - Christiania, Norway, 1820
American-born Nicolas Hansen has been asked to candidate for his great-grandfather's throne. His new wife Sydney isn't about to let him go to Norway and face that possibility alone. The moment they arrive at Akershus Castle, the political intrigue and maneuvering begin. Can Sydney trust anyone? Will Nicolas resist the seduction of power? Or will he claim the throne for himself? Most importantly: will their young marriage survive the malicious mischief of the ambitious royal family?

A Matter of Principle - St. Louis, State of Missouri, 1821Nicolas Hansen has returned from Norway determined to change the world. But when he runs for State Legislator in the brand-new state of Missouri, the enemies he made over the past two years aren't about to step q
uietly aside. Sydney has made enemies of her own, both by marrying Nicolas and by practicing midwifery. When a newspaper reporter makes it his goal to destroy them, Nicolas must rethink his path once again. But this time, it's a matter of principle.