I'm taking a break from blogging here, perhaps for a wee while, perhaps longer, perhaps permanently. I will continue to blog each month with the Silhouette Desire authors at eHarlequin and at To Be Read and I hope to see you there. Also, my recently madeover website includes a News page which I will update regularly once I learn the software. I think that about covers everything, but if there's ever anything you want to know or share, email me. There's a contact link on my website. I really do love to hear from readers.

Labels: other blogs, website

I'm giving away a copy of the May 2009 UK edition of Tycoon's One-Night Revenge at To Be Read this week. This edition is a 2-in-1 with Leanne Banks' Bedded by the Billionaire. To be included in the draw, visit TBR and comment on any (or all) this week's posts. Easy as!

Labels: book giveaway, other blogs, Silhouette Desire, Tycoon's One-Night Revenge

22 Desire authors are blogging at eHarlequin, every week day with bonus content on the weekends, starting today with Maureen Child. There'll be book giveaways and loads of author chat. See you there!

Labels: book giveaway, Maureen Child, other blogs, Silhouette Desire

...or that would be typealysing in my part of the world.

Saw this on Argh Ink and thought what could be more fun than analysing your blog's personality. Sit down over here, Bronz Blog, and make yourself comfortable. I have a few questions about your childhood... I ran thsi address through the Typealyzer a week or two back and then again today. Two different results BUT both were in the same sector of the chart which shows the dominant parts of the brain used during writing. Which parts? That would be the thinking (logic, maths), practical, and sensing (order, habit, detail.) Nothing happening in the intuitive or feeling sectors for me, no sirree.

Got me there.

Labels: myer briggs, other blogs

If you've been thinking about an eReader for Christmas (or just because) but can't decide which is the best for for your needs, check out the excellent articles at Dear Author. The first compares dedicated eReaders and the second looks at multifunction tools such as PDAs, iPhones and mini PCs. I'm still happy with my PDA which doesn't stop me windowshopping and wanting all the new gadgetry.

I don't need a mini PC. I know I don't. The pic is a miniHP which I absolutely Do. Not. Need. Just. Because. Of. The. Prettiness.

Labels: Christmas gifts, eBooks, eReaders, other blogs

To coincide with the Australian release of my first two books, In Bed With The Boss's Daughter and Addicted To Nick, as a Bestseller Collection, I'm blogging today at Down Under Desirabelles. My topic: the changes I've seen in the seven years since my first book was published. Come and say hello, join the conversation, and earn a chance to win a copy of this duo.

The book should be available in Australian and New Zealand bookstores this week, and is also available at eHarlequin Australia.

Labels: Addicted To Nick, Down Under Desirabelles, In Bed With The Boss's Daughter, other blogs, Silhouette Desire

Contemplating Reading Records at To Be Read. Come say hello, go in the draw to win a book.

Labels: giveaway, other blogs

Fellow Aussie Harlequin author and friend Trish Morey recently returned from the most splendid envy-inducing adventure, touring Europe and the Middle East with her family. If you fancy yourself in envy green, do check out her blog and this guest appearance. The pictures are all kinds of gorgeous. Plus she's giving away two of her equally gorgeous books.

Labels: giveaway, other blogs, travelling

That's the new subtitle for To Be Read the group blog written by members of the 'Published Authors Special Interest Chapter' (PASIC) of the Romance Writers of America. Cool title, huh? It's the result of a contest held to find a name fitting the blog's purpose and I have to say that deciding on one from the list of splendid suggestions was very difficult. Much discussion and many polls later and this is the result.

TO BE READ: So Many Authors...So Little Time.

We figured that most readers have a TO BE READ mountain; it goes with our obessive must-have-books nature. Monday through Friday, the authors at TBR talk about books, writing, reading, romance, and life. Along the way we hope to add to your To Be Read pile, both through suggested reads and through the book giveaways we host each week. Every Sunday a new contest is announced. One lucky winner is selected each Saturday from all the comments made during the week.

My advice: bookmark TO BE READ and visit often. Bring your friends and let's talk about books!

Labels: giveaway, other blogs, reading

I've taken a short intermission in my lessons-learned-from-conference series (a weekend away, which did nothing to help me recover from post-conference lurgy!) but I will resume in a day or two. Recently I've posted about audiobooks at 2BRead and more on conference at the shiny new Down Under Desirabelles blog.

Labels: Down Under Desirabelles, other blogs

I don't know how this happened, but I've managed to find myself with four blogging dates in three days. All include opportunities to win stuff, so check them out.

1. Tote Bags 'n' Blogs. Come chat about babies in romance.

2. At 2 B Read I muse about my heroes and ask your opinion on whether you want any real in your fantasy men.

3. My Access Romance post is an informal survey on what you would bid on at an on-line auction.

4. At Diamonds Down Under my post lists 6 things we didn't include in the series.

Labels: giveaway, other blogs

No, stop, don't roll your eyes. Don't click on to your next blog stop. This isn't yet more about the making of covers or about my covers, this is a HEADS-UP that the 2007 Cover Cafe Best Cover voting is open. (This is the one that used to be on All About Romance.) I have oohed and aahed over the beautiful covers; I have wrinkled my nose at the ones I think a bit meh; and I've looked at the "worst cover" category and felt for the authors who had no say while also thinking, I've seen plenty worse.

Toughest category to pick my favourite: Alternate Reality. Also contemporary single title had a couple I really loved and found hard to pick between.

Slightly disappointed that the series (category romance) is top-heavy in non-peopled covers. Not saying they're not gorgeous covers, just that I'd have liked to see some variety which included, for example, a gorgeous traditional romantic cover a la Harlequin Romance. I was also going to say, and a Desire (who me, biased?), but after a quick hunt I couldn't find one from 07 that I loved. Same quick hunt revealed these enticing examples from Harlequin Romance without breaking a sweat.

Guess I'm a bit of a fan of the traditional couples after all. :-)

Labels: covers, other blogs

There's a fabulous post at Liz Fielding's blog by a freelance artist who does cover work for Harlequin. I linked to another by the same artist at Pink Heart Society a few months back, but if you missed that one and are interested in the process of how a cover comes into being, go take a look.

Labels: covers, other blogs

This week at Diamonds Down Under, we have a Q&A with Desire editor Diana Ventimiglia. If you're interested in writing for the line, this is a don't miss opportunity to hear what the ed's are looking for AND -- special bonus! -- to go in the draw to win a critique. If you're a reader, there is a terrific book pack gioveaway instead.

Labels: giveaway, other blogs, Silhouette Desire, writing tips

A writing course, a whole week, in Tuscany. Sigh. It's like my idea of bliss. Excuse me while I drift off to daydream a while about courtyards and picnics and Italian food and Alpine views and, oh yes, a little writing as well. I will not daydream about the complete unfeasability of distance and cost and suchlike. Sigh.

Labels: other blogs, writing retreat

Dorchester author, Marianne Mancusi, is a TV producer for her day job, working on a show called Better TV. Recently she and Better TV partnered with Dorchester Publishing to do a story on how a romance novel cover is created, from concept to final product. Haven't watched it myself yet (need to connect some speakers that work because it's really not the same without sound!) but I will. I'm always fascinated by behind-the-scenes stuff and thought I may just share that fascination with some others out there. If you do watch it, let me know what you think.

Labels: covers, other blogs

...a surname for a guy, something strong but distinguished, with a leaning toward English origin if anything. For extra encouragement I'm offering a reward, a choice of books from my backlist, for the name I like best. Contest closes April 12. Disclaimer: I may not end up using the chosen name, but I'll still do the giveaway.

While I'm here, a heads up that I'm blogging today at 2 B Read about the concept of "the eternal present" in books. Would love your input. Comments this week go in the draw to win a desire Duo with includes my The Ruthless Groom.

Labels: 2BRead, giveaway, other blogs, The Ruthless Groom

This is from the press release issued by eHarlequin regarding their reading challenge for 2008. Is anyone here participating? I'd love to see that total reached (and exceeded) so must stop procrastinating, commit myself, and start blogging some books.

In case you haven't read about it yet, here's the deal:

eHarlequin.com is challenging its community members to read an astounding 100,000 books in one year in the 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge. When the reading challenge ends on December 31, 2008, Harlequin will make an unprecedented donation of an equivalent number of books to the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The estimated retail value of a 100,000 book donation to the NCFL by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. is $700,000 U.S.

The stated mission of NCFL is to create a literate nation by leveraging the power of the family. Family literacy helps parents and children form a learning partnership that ends the cycle of poverty and low literacy. NCFL works to find solutions to the literacy crises that build on the family by creating a new cycle of ongoing learning and mutual support. Since its inception in 1989, NCFL has provided leadership to solve the national literacy problem. Through groundbreaking initiatives, NCFL fuels life improvement for the nation's most disadvantaged children and parents. More than one million families throughout the country have made positive educational and economic gains as a result of NCFL's work, which includes training more than 150,000 teachers and thousands of volunteers.

"Recent studies show that people are reading literature less and less," said Sharon Darling, president and founder of NCFL. "This reading challenge not only will provide an important incentive for everyone to read more, it also will greatly benefit the millions of adults who have low literacy--34 million in the United States alone and 771 million globally."

In addition to promoting literacy, the 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge encourages readers to discuss the titles they have read on the eHarlequin.com website in their own blogs. Those participating in the challenge share their thoughts, reviews, opinions, recommendations and progress. Another remarkable and unforeseen aspect to the challenge is that many people who were not bloggers--or who even knew what a blog was--are now passionate blog hosts and are spearheading online discussions in the forums.

"Our readers are very passionate," says Jayne Hoogenberk, community manager for eHarlequin.com. They read, talk, think and dream about books 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The median number of paperbacks read in one year by Americans is 12. The median for Harlequin readers is 30. Since we're always looking for ways to inspire and challenge our community members, we wondered if, as a group, they would be able to read 100,000 books in a single calendar year and through our donation of 100,000 books, share that love of reading with others who don't have such easy access to entertaining and engaging literature for women."

The original book challenge was laid down on eHarlequin.com in January 2006 and challenged community members to each read 100 books. Seventy-five community members took up the gauntlet. By the end of the year, 55 of those people had read or exceeded the goal. In 2007 eHarlequin.com challenged its members to read 10,000 books collectively. By year end they had read an astounding 24,440 books. To date 350+ participants have accepted the 2008 challenge. In one week they have already read some 1,000+ books.

"The response of the past two years was so overwhelmingly positive that we had to keep going," states Hoogenberk. "We also knew that we had to up the ante. And so the 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge for literacy was born. Last year we capped the number of participants and still easily surpassed our target. Since the event has generated such positive feedback, and in order to reach our goal of 100,000 books read, we've decided to leave registration open-ended this year."

There are no hard and fast rules other than participants being asked to have at least half of their list be novels published by Harlequin. This allows readers to discover the outstanding breadth of editorial Harlequin has to offer. The other books can be any genre by any publisher. Likewise, all formats--print, eBooks, audiobooks--are acceptable, and readers are encouraged to seek them out and give them a try.

The range and diversity of Harlequin readers is not confined solely to the type of books they read or the medium in which they enjoy them. The online nature of the eHarlequin.com community illustrates the significant power of books to unite readers in a global way. Geographic boundaries have become meaningless in this venture as the challenge brings together readers from countries as varied as Germany, France and the Philippines, as well as Harlequin editors in Toronto, New York and London and Harlequin authors from around the world.

The 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge is taking place right now. More details on how to register and post your first book reviews are here.
eHarlequin.com.

Labels: Harlequin, other blogs

• Today at Tote Bags 'N' Blogs


• Tuesday at All-A-Blog.

And being March 1,
Tycoon's One-Night Revenge is now available in print and eBook from eHarlequin. Other stores, you will have to wait till April to see what devious deeds are on Donovan Keane's mind.

Labels: other blogs, Tycoon's One-Night Revenge

eHarlequin introduced author interview podcasts late last year. The current schedule is two authors per month so already there is a nice backlist (e.g. Susan Wiggs, Susan Grant, Jane Porter, Brenda Novak, Sherryl Woods, Christine Rimmer) and more to look forward to (Maureen Child, Heather Graham, Brenda Joyce, Gena Showalter are scheduled in coming months.)

The latest innovation is a monthly editor podcast where writers can find the latest on what editors are looking for, where readers can hear the firsthand scoop on upcoming projects, and for everyone to learn a little more of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the books we love. The first interview with Silhouette Desire senior editor Melissa Jeglinski and associate editor Diana Ventimiglia is available now. You can listen on your computer or download to your iPod.

I love listening to interviews rather than reading them. Access Romance has a terrific collection. Or if you love the visual along with the audio, then you will get a kick out of Romance Novel TV. (This comes with a warning: Romance Novel TV is addictive and could prove hazardous to your time management health.)

Labels: editors, Harlequin, other blogs, Silhouette Desire

Today is my giveaway day at Nicola Marsh's Be My Valentine celebration. Visit Nic's blog for details of how you can win my prize today and more fabulous prizes every day until Valentine's Day!

Labels: Be My Valentine, giveaway, other blogs, Valentine's Day

Aussie author Nicola Marsh is hosting a fabulous celebration of Valentine's Day and romance over the next two weeks. Mark your calendar to check out Nic's blog on January 31st for details of how you can win a fabulous (what else?) prize pack of romantic reading featuring titles by:

• Liz Fielding
• Jill Shalvis
• Lucy Monroe
• Anna Campbell
• Kate Walker
• Nalini Singh
• Bronwyn Jameson
• Jaci Burton
• Julie Cohen
• Fiona Lowe
• Christine Wells
• Yvonne Lindsay
• Barbara Hannay
• Kate Hardy
• and, of course, our Valentine's hostess with the mostest, Nicola Marsh.

Then visit daily for your chance to win.

Labels: Be My Valentine, giveaway, other blogs, Valentine's Day

...to me today (the 17th) at Love is an Exploding Cigar. I'm talking about (Perrini and) characters who stick with you after you've closed the book. Would love to hear your take.

Labels: other blogs