Sizzling Summer Reads Party July 1 - July 31

http://www.theromancereviews.com/event.php

Okay all you romance lovers and paranormal fans who just can't get enough, you have got to check out the Sizzling Summer Reads Party over at The Romance Reviews blogsite. Over 400, yes, that's 4 times 100, authors and publishers are giving away great prizes! There are games to play and points to rack up, so go on over and get started! Personally, I love the match game with all the cool covers :) Good luck, hope you find some new authors/novels that you can fall in love with. Happy reading :)

Where to Draw the Line: Romance vs. Erotica

In honor of the release of my second novel, Betrayal Bites - yes, release date is today! - I decided I wanted to delve into the discussion of when a novel is categorized romance, and when it's slapped with the label of erotica. Personally, I think I write romance, and there's always heavy paranormal elements to it. But then I got to thinking, maybe what I write could be considered erotica? I mean, if a love scene is built up to, and then the big 'penetration experience' is missed or only implied, that's considered romantic, right? I've begun to think that's no longer the case. While writing Betrayal Bites, I have to admit, my goal was to make the reader want to go and find their lover and go at it, I wanted to make the reader so hot they had to do something about it ;) Is that erotic? I don't think so. For me, and how I look at my writing compared to others, well, I think the best way to look at it is if there is penetration, fine, still romantic, but the inclusion of toys, and I'm not talking to pain inducing kind in the BDSM novels that are now rampant in the top sellers' lists, I'm talking stimulation toys, 'enhancing' items that help explode one's level of pleasure they experience during love play, now that's erotic.








Because today is a big release day for me, I wanted to also include the back cover blurb for Betrayal Bites, available at www.soulmatepublishing.com, and amazon and BN.com in the next few days!







Blurb: Sydney Sedrick, cursed with the powers of the Selected, is monitored by the vampires and werewolves who covet her abilities to rid the city of one another. Sydney receives a summons to attend the Blood Rites Ball, an Elder vampire ceremony to determine her fate. The Midwestern Werewolf Pack demands her loyalty, while Blake, the heir to the wolf pack, is adamant she is his life-mate, meant to be together, forever. To make matters worse, an insider is betraying the vampires, leaking information to the rogues, who want Sydney dead.

For The Love Of A Gypsy Lass - by - Juliet Chastain

Greetings, fellow romance readers and writers. I am in the middle of writing a series of short stories called Gypsy Lovers. One has been released and more to come each month. These are sexy 99-cent novellas, set in the Regency period about Gypsies and the English men and women love them.

I wanted to do some stories in which totally inappropriate, culturally, and socially mismatched men and women find love together. I've always been fascinated by the Romani people, Gypsies, who for a thousand years traveled around Europe and were very separate from, and often despised by and even persecuted by, the people among whom they lived.

A Proper Lady's Gypsy Lover is available at Breathless Press!

Amazon
All Romance eBooks and at many e-book stores

For Love of a Gypsy Lass will be released soon and available as above

To learn more about upcoming stories or about me: julietchastain.com While you're there, check out my other short romances: The Captain and the Courtesan and The Cry of the Wolf. You can also find me on www.facebook.com/JulietChastain or Twitter@julietchastain


In the first book, A Proper Lady's Gypsy Lover, we have Lady Lucy-Ann who is a hellion. She does not want to be a proper lady although her relatives require it. What she wants is to roam free and swim and fish and ride astride. And most of all she wants to be with her childhood sweetheart the handsome Gypsy, Liberty Wood. Liberty is the caring kind of man who will do anything for the people he loves, but he's also a gambler, a horse trader, and an adventurer. Of course, he adores Lucy-Ann but is a totally unsuitable suitor.


In the second book, For Love of a Gypsy Lass, we have a bored-out-of-his-skull English nobleman, Lord Harry Beresford who has simply had it with his luxurious and dull existence and the noble and dull ladies he is supposed to court. He falls hard for an itinerant Gypsy singer called Talaitha Grey. He assumes she can be easily seduced by his wealth and prestige, but to his surprise she's not the least bit interested in any of that—although she is, against her will, attracted to the man behind it all.

Somehow these characters must find their way to happily ever after—and they do so in unexpected ways.

And Thank you Juliet for taking time out of your very busy writing schedule! Can't wait to see what's coming next!

Effective Dialogue Tags by Ann Montclair

I have a problem. I like dialogue tags. Why simply “he said,” “she said,” when he can “shout,” “aver,” “repudiate” or “concur”?


My editor taught me this simple lesson. The more complicated the dialogue tag, the more the author is telling not showing. In fact, she believes no dialogue tag is the best dialogue tag. It should be clear from what is being said who is saying it and how.

‘“I don’t care about you,” he frostily declared before exiting the room.’ is better as ‘”I don’t care about you.” His shoulders rose as he inhaled sharply, turned his back, and strode out the door.’

The first way tells, and the second way shows. Big improvement, huh?

I love big, fancy, complicated words. Being a professor, they are my cache, my favorite currency. But if my reader needs a dictionary to read my book, I’ve failed. I can expound in the classroom, but in my novels, I have to be clear, concise, and evoke emotion. And since frustration is not what I’m after, the fancy dialogue tags had to go.

If you read my newest book, you’ll see I’ve learned her lesson…well, almost learned it anyway. I’m a work in progress, and I hope as time goes by, my writing and my stories get better and better.

Ann’s latest book is One Wet Summer

Maura Fields loves her uncomplicated, independent, single life, but things quickly change when a summer vacation opens the door to an unexpected world of passion and desire. Wealthy Savannah hotelier Ben Driscoll had his playboy lifestyle upended when his ex-wife died, entrusting him to care for their daughter—a child he sequesters and vows to protect from future heartache and disappointment. Can the wall Ben has built around his heart withstand the assault from the intriguing, beguiling Maura, or will it crumble, leaving him vulnerable to the undeniable attraction and unbridled need to make her his own?



One Wet Summer is available at--

Musa Publishing

http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=285

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/One-Wet-Summer-ebook/dp/B008600R6S/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337956948&sr=1-1

All Romance ebooks

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html

Please visit her at http://www.annmontclair.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnnMontclairFanPage

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/AnnMontclair


Ann, thanks again for taking time out to visit my blog today, I absolutely love your discussion on dialogue tages! Great tips from a great author :)   Can wait to read One Wet Summer!

Knee Deep - Jolene B Perry - New Release Blog Tour

Thanks for stopping on my blog today, I know how busy it can be with a new release, can you tell me a little about Knee Deep?

Knee Deep Summary
Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.
Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does.
Sawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

Here's a post from Jolene about her writing experience:
Sometimes a story is more personal than you expect it to be.

I read an article in an online newspaper that talked about the YA books coming out that year which dealt with abusive relationships.
I'd part mapped one out a while back, and thought maybe I'd work on it - all evidence that the market had just gotten an influx of them didn't sway me the way it should have…
The more I wrote in the story, the more personal it became.
I was not ever hit by my boyfriend in high school. He never screamed and yelled at me - though I heard him trashing his room a few times when I left after an argument, and he didn't hesitate to show me when he was pissed about something.
He'd pick fights with me over the phone and hang up, knowing it meant I'd sneak out to "straighten things out."
There was one really horrible night with him that I'd blocked from my mind for a long time, that I remembered when I was writing, so I used it.
I see these cases my husband talks about with women who are beaten and bruised and making up excuses and going back over and over. One ended in murder a couple of weeks ago. A case my husband will be prosecuting when it goes to trial.
The abuse story I told is nowhere near that dramatic, but so much of Ronnie's story was mine. WAY more than I realized while I was writing it. When I got to the end, and started writing down the parts of her story that were real (I always do this for my author site), I realized more and more how much of me was in that girl.
I stared at my computer screen in shock.
I had one of my best friends, who was a guy, who I shared more with than I probably did to most of my girlfriends - (like Luke from Knee Deep) and a boyfriend I'd known since I was a kid (like Shawn from Knee Deep) And I felt this draw to my boyfriend, only because I'd known him for so long, not because we really had anything left in common.
I felt more like I was stuck in this relationship, and didn't even realize I didn't want to be there until I visited a friend in college and saw how much more LIFE was out there. It was just that the idea of this one person had been in my head for way too long.
And where did I end up? Married to the best friend.
People talk about writing what you know, and then talk about keeping yourself out of your books. But you know what? I KNEW that situation - and I know I'll get some bad reviews (like you always do - ESPECIALLY when you tackle a tough topic) that are going to say that Ronnie's actions weren't believable.
But here's the thing - I told her story, the best way I knew how. Ronnie's reactions with pieces of my truth. And there are some drastic differences, but there are also some startling similarities. So, to me, Ronnie's actions were completely and totally understandable.
And that's the story of how Knee Deep came to be.

Okay, I want more! Here's more from Knee Deep, check it out!
My front door opens. “Hello?” Shawn calls.
“In here!” I say back. Suddenly this feels weird. Why would this feel weird? This is just what happens when one of us is stuck at home. Why would today be any different? But my heart’s beating against the inside of my ribs, trying to tell me this is different.
Luke scoots away from the couch. Does he feel it too? That maybe him and me hanging out alone for the day might not have been the best idea?
Shawn steps through the hallway and scowls when his eyes meet mine and then pass to Luke. This shouldn’t be a big deal. Except...I’m so stupid. I was just thinking how I needed to make Shawn’s life outside of his house less stressful, and part of me knew it was weird that Luke was here without Shawn. I thought it, and did nothing. But again, it is just Luke.
“What’re you doing here?” Shawn asks. His dark eyes fix on Luke.
“I figured you’d be here, man.” Luke stands up. “It’s like we always ditch together, right?”
Romeo and Juliet kissing in the pool on the TV screen probably isn’t helping anything. Maybe Shawn won’t notice, or maybe it’s just sending my heart into crazy flutters because this tension between Shawn and Luke and, I guess, me, is happening during the most romantic scene of the movie.
“Uh, I don’t know.” Shawn’s still scowling, his brows pulled low and his jaw tight.
“You would’ve hated it,” I say. My eyes catch his, but his are as black as his mood seems to be. I’m so stupid. Why did I have to let Luke stay?
“Yeah, maybe.” Shawn’s narrowed eyes go from Luke to me, back and forth, as if judging the situation. Really? What did he think could possibly happen between Luke and I? Even if this is suddenly on my top three ‘most awkward moments’ ever. I can’t even think about what the other two might be. Maybe I’ve just found number one.
“Romeo and Juliet all day.” Luke laughs, but I know him well enough to see he’s trying really hard to be relaxed. His shoulders are too stiff, and his normal stance is too rigid. I wonder if Shawn sees it too. “Guess I’ll leave you two alone.” Luke’s trying hard to keep his voice light.
“Yeah.” Shawn has yet to return Luke’s smile. “I almost never see my girl anymore.”
It’s like I’m on the edge of my seat, tension pinpricking every part of me. I’ve never seen Shawn like this.
“Well, I should get my ass to rehearsal anyway.” Luke gives Shawn a friendly pat on the shoulder before heading outside.
I don’t watch him go. My eyes are on Shawn, trying to figure out what to expect next.
"What the hell was that?” His sharp gaze is now pointed directly at me.
to the side, trying to be relaxed. “It didn’t seem like a big deal this morning.” Maybe if I play it off as nothing Shawn won’t be so mad. He knows Luke and I are friends. No big deal, I tell myself again. But I don’t know if I’m trying to convince myself or Shawn.
“Was he here when we were texting?” he asks. His voice may be low, but not in a good way. It’s low in a way that makes him sound like he’s past the edge of reasonable anger.
My body’s screaming for me to take a step back, which makes no sense. This is Shawn. My Shawn. “No.” But I’m weakening by the second, almost shaking inside. His jaw tightens again.
It was as I remember, and dread fills my chest. “He got here as I sent my last one.” Is that bad? Good?
“And you didn’t think to tell me? What the hell is that?”
I jump at the sharpness of his voice. Shawn doesn’t need this stress. I know this. I reach forward to put my arms around him. We just need to hold one another for a minute, then it’ll all be fine.
He stops me, grabbing my arm—hard—just above my wrist.
“This is not okay.” His jaw is set.
“Hey.” My voice shakes. My body shakes. I’m actually scared of Shawn for the first time ever. I jerk my hand once, but he tightens his grip...impossibly tight. My lungs can’t pull in a breath; there’s just not enough air in the room anymore. “Shawn, you’re hurting me.” He can’t mean to hurt me. He can’t.
His face is stuck in a sharp scowl.
“He’s your friend.” My voice is crying. I want to try and pull my shaky arm out of his grasp again, but I’m afraid to; he’s squeezing so hard. Tears are hot against the back of my eyes, threatening to spill over. How would you feel if I spent all day with some chick?” The words come out as angry spit from between his teeth.
I open my mouth to answer but can’t, the lump in my throat has taken over. All I can think about is that I need to find something to say so he’ll let me go. Some way to get the air through my throat to form words. “It’s just Luke,” I plead, sucking in a breath.
“Whatever.” He throws my arm back at me, turns, and walks out the door, slamming it hard behind him. My body jumps at the sound.
I stumble backward onto the couch. I’m like a leaf battered about in the wind. Nothing’s working right. I need to sit. Normally I’d run after him, but I have no idea what to expect. And I’m afraid. Of Shawn.
He’s never been that way before. Ever. He’s moody and particular, but this seems...extreme. I’m cradling my wrist with my other hand, afraid to look at any possible damage. It hurts to move it. What just happened here? How did it happen?
It’s like there suddenly must be something fundamentally wrong with the universe. But the TV’s still on. My house looks normal and quiet. I’m still breathing, but Shawn, my Shawn, just hurt me. Lying down seems so anti-climactic, but I can’t bring myself to do anything else.
When Juliet realizes Romeo’s dying the sobs take over, and I pull my knees to my chest as if making myself smaller will somehow dull the pain.
It doesn’t.

Here's a little about the author:
Jolene Perry's Bio:
Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.
After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible. - Wow, Jolene sure if a busy lady :)

She is also the author of Night Sky and The Next Door Boys.

Here are some cool websites to check out to learn more about Jolene and her new release!
Knee Deep web site:
http://knee-deep-book.blogspot.com/

Knee Deep Twitter hashtag:
#KneeDeep

Knee Deep GoodReads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12987551-knee-deep

Jolene Perry's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002038196677

Jolene Perry's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/JoleneBPerry

Jolene Perry's Website:
http://www.jolenebperry.com/

Jolene Perry's Blog:
http://www.jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com/

Jolene Perry's GoodReads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4944599.Jolene_B_Perry

Tribute Books website:
http://www.tribute-books.com/

Tribute Books Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176

Tribute Books Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Okay, where can we buy your book?
Kindle Buy Link - 2.99$
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XW8JLK/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20

Nook Buy Link:
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=dcSBhG3Rj8w&subid=&offerid=239662.1&type=10&tmpid=8432&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%252Fw%252Fknee-deep-jolene-perry%252F1110433794%253Fean%253D2940014556149

Vampires, Werewolves, or Demons, who's hottest of them all?

In honor of my blog poll that I have just now realized has been closed (hence my wondering why no one was voting) - well, I've clicked enough option on my blog and the poll is officially open! I need to know what floats my dear readers'  -heart pounding, body flushing, tingles all over what do I want to read next - literary boats?

I thought we could go over the options.

Number 1? Vampires, oh my!  and oh, yes ;)
Vampires have their pluses, they are immortal, hello! Who doesn't want to spend forever with their oberly hot honey? They have plenty of time of gain some major financial stability, too, so that's a plus.
On the downside, there is the drinking blood thing, which is not the best diet to have to be on. Also, I'm a sun worshiper even though I burn annoyingly easily.

Number 2: Werewolves.
I'll concede to the fact that the casting director for the True Blood series has done a fabulous job, so 2 of my images are of two of their characters, great job, ladies across the world squee in happy dances every Sunday night.
On the pluses for werewolves, their lives are extended, if not immortal, and they are seriously toned. Have you ever seen an overweight werewolf? No? Me either. So, you can bet werewolves that you read about have sculpted, um, everything.
Now for the not-so-attractive attributes to this species: well, they tend to eat meat, and that's okay, but they don't cook it before they consume it. Have you ever smelled old hamburger meat? Not such a scrumptious odor, and worse, what if your honey would want to give you a big smack on the lips with old blood all over their chest and/or lips?

Number 3 is demons:  Well, I don't know much about them but have been enjoying new reads. Demons, especially hot male demon hunks, tend to be shrouded in mystery, their powers are endless, or at least that's what they want you to think, and they know things about your body that you didn't even know.
The downs? Well, demons aren't from this world, and they usually come forth from, well, you know, that dark sulfur reeking pit from down below, um, somewhere, where humans aren't aloud, unless of course the big bad has some use for them.

So... I need your help! I'm looking for answers about what readers are into and what they would like to see on the books shelves for their next purchase, whether that be at the bookstores or on an e-reader.

Book card designs, I can't decide...

Authors use their imaginations to create fantastical worlds and characters that live in these worlds and interact with one another in such a way that the authors' readers experience theses amazingly crafted realities so that they feel they are in the moment of what they are reading. The time comes after an author gets published not once, but twice, and promo items need to be designed. Don't misunderstand my dilemma, it's a great dilemma to have :) I need to figure out while designing book cards for Betrayal Bites, book 2 in the Sydney Sedrick series, would having both book covers on the front be nore eye-catchy than just one? Need input :)