February 17th, 2010 — Erotica, G-I, Guest Blogger, Paranormal, Supernatural
by Eliza Gayle, guest blogger and author of Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
To be honest it was a fast and furious trip. Despite my love for reading and my early adventures in fanfic, (although I had no idea the fact I was writing sequels to Star Wars movies was called fanfic back then) I had not really given much thought to becoming a writer.
From the very beginning it’s been all about romance. I used to hide in the corner of the library devouring Rosemary Rogers as a pre teen and eventually wound my way to Nora Roberts. I’ve never been a reader of Horror of Science Fiction so it wasn’t until Sherrilyn Kenyon started writing the Dark Hunters that I realized paranormal romance was awesome. I fell in love with Valerius and that was it for me I was hooked. I sought out more books to read and I kept my library hopping for quite a while. Then two things happened that changed my life.
I picked up a copy of the Romantic Times magazine and I found Ellora’s Cave. My first EC book was by Lora Leigh and I swear my eyes were probably bugging out of my head. I kept turning to my husband with that OMG, deer in the headlights look. I even commented to him “They can write that? Wow!” Yes, I was truly oblivious to erotica until that moment. Somehow I’d made it into my thirties unaware. But I loved it and the wheels started turning. I wanted to write some but I didn’t have a clue even how to get started.
This is where the Romantic Times magazine comes into play. I came across the advertisement for the 2006 RT Convention in Daytona, Florida where they offered a pre-convention beginner’s writers course. That was only an hour away from my childhood home and my mother had been bugging me to come for a visit anyways so why not? I took that course with Judi McCoy who I will credit forever with starting me on this crazy path that I love so much. Her realistic approach to the business is awesome and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
I returned from that trip in May of 06 and sat down and began writing a story about shapeshifters in the North Carolina mountains. I finished it in September and put it away. I needed some distance from it before I began edits and I had a short story idea I was dying to write. The short I finished in two weeks and sent it off to two publishers. The first rejection came and I sent it out again. The story sold a few weeks later and thus Eliza Gayle was born and it’s been crazy ever since.
That very first manuscript? Well, I poked it and prodded it here and there until in late 2008 I finally got serious with it. It needed a lot of work but I couldn’t let go of the premise. After a few name changes and a couple of other hurdles that book is now called Lucas and is my latest release and the first in the Black Cougar Trilogy.
Here is the blurb:
Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
Kira MacDonald is in trouble. Plagued by false visions and erotic dreams of a man she’s never met, she fears losing both her psychic powers and her sanity. The cure? Finding and bonding with her mate. The stubborn red-haired warrior might not want one, but fate has other plans, plans that include her rescuing Lucas Gunn.
As the Guardian of his shape-shifting clan, Lucas Gunn lived a quiet, solitary life. Until he was kidnapped, examined, and tortured. Now imprisoned, his only tie to the outside world is the memory of his dreams and the passionate woman who appears nightly in them. He thought she was nothing more than a vision. Then she came for him.
An uneasy alliance, a mating call that won’t be denied, rituals that must be honored, and unrelenting enemies who will stop at nothing to get what they want. It all comes together in the first of Eliza Gayle’s sensational Black Cougar Series. Passion and Pride. Duty and Danger. In the end, there’s really only one choice…for Lucas.
The link to read an excerpt is http://elizagayle.net/books/lucas
Buy: Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel
Follow me on Twitter @elizagaylebooks
Or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elizagayle
Online Stores
November 27th, 2009 — Guest Blogger, Jane Austen, M-O, Regency
by Kathryn Nelson, guest blogger and author of Pemberley Manor
.
Of all of the dozens of sequels to and adaptations of Jane Austen's work, none, including mine, claim to approach her extraordinary style and ability to delight and endure, but I see my book as an entertaining adjunct to her work. The reader is quickly drawn into a maze of confusions and missteps which leads them, Jane Austen style, to a happy ending - or does it?
From a review by Laura Boyle in the Jane Austen Regency World Online Magazine:
Scenes of marital felicity between Darcy and Elizabeth abound and are explored in a delicate and tasteful way. Sometimes heartbreaking and often humorous, the story will keep readers intrigued to the last... "
I recently heard a writer interviewed who said he doesn't like to read, and doesn't have time for it anyway. I can't wrap my mind around either of those thoughts, and when the two are put together, I'm lost. If I didn't read, I don't think I would write. My writing is the product of being poked and prodded by things I've read or heard into a new direction of thought. Every answer creates a question for me.
I have to admit that writing a sequel to someone else's story is taking that concept a bit further than I ever imagined. The writing of Pemberley Manor was an obsession that took hold of me after watching the BBC/A&E production of Pride and Prejudice in 1995. Jane Austen's works seem to call out for sequels unlike any other author I know. The works of other great authors often call for adaptations, interpretations, modernizations. Austen has garnered more than her share of those too, but no other author living or dead has, to my knowledge, inspired as many direct sequels - continuations of the lives of her characters - as she has.
I have at times wondered if Jane herself is channeling, stirring the pot to see what people make of her couples. Surely she knew that their lives after marriage would be a different story, and if it wasn't her story to tell, it doesn't necessarily follow that she wouldn't have found it interesting to contemplate.
For me, the struggles and disastrous misunderstandings, the unfolding of a deeper understanding between two people, can't really happen until the happily ever after is well on its way. And Jane Austen gives us scant help in judging how this marriage will work. One day, well into the ramble that eventually became Pemberley Manor I actually spent a day copying out the words of Fitzwilliam Darcy to try to make out his character, following Elizabeth 's example when she danced with him at the Netherfield Ball. Taken altogether, Darcy's words in Pride and Prejudice amount to a very few pages, including one disastrous monologue meant to serve as a marriage proposal and one terribly long letter, only marginally better.
In both cases, Darcy admits unapologetically that he persuaded his friend Bingley to stop romancing Elizabeth 's beloved sister Jane. Did he think that would endear him to her? Did she forget that small detail when she visited his estate in Derbyshire and blushed at the thought of being Mistress of Pemberley?
I find Darcy impenetrable, just as Elizabeth did initially. She, in the meantime, uses her arsenal of alternately witty and angry retorts to hide her own feelings, which she surely must have noticed some time before she saw the extent of his property. Right up until the wedding brings everything around right, Jane takes her characters only a small step toward mutual understanding, from shredding one another to a gentle teasing. Their only serious conversation happens during his second proposal, and once Darcy has laid his soul bare, Elizabeth jumps into the breach and begins to joke again.
I'm banking on a difficult marriage here. Nick and Nora Charles meet Catherine and Heathcliff. Take the wedding night, for instance. Darcy behaves in a most ungentleman-like manner, not for the first time, and Elizabeth throws in the towel, leaping to a conclusion in her usual style:
"Mr Darcy, pray allow me to suggest a remedy for your most evident distress. Since our marriage has not yet been consummated, I believe you would find little difficulty in securing the offices of a good clergyman in the neighbourhood to perform an annulment immediately. It can serve neither of us to continue as man and wife when there are so little grounds to suppose we could offer one another any reasonable hope of future happiness. Indeed, it seems certain that our expectations of one another are wholly irreconcilable."
She was not prepared for the anguish that met her eyes when he raised his head.
"Is that your wish, madam?" he asked hoarsely.
Well, of course that's not her wish, or Pemberley Manor would have been a very short novel. I hope I'll be forgiven for treading on sacred ground. The truth is, I just couldn't stop myself. Thanks for allowing me on board. I'd welcome feedback from your readers on the subject of sequels: are they flattering or flagrant abuse of an author's property?
As a special treat Kathryn Nelson is giving away one copy of Pemberley Manor to one lucky person. Enter by answering her question above or asking her one of your own. This giveaway is open to US and Canada readers only. Winner will be announced April 2, 2009.
Originally posted 2009-04-01 05:54:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Online Stores
November 8th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Asia, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, D-F, Estranged, Great Britain, Journalism, Lawyer, Plump/Endowed Heroine, Travel
There was a different reader for this book. It’s something that bugs me when it comes to series and sequels. Same reader please! Tracie Bennett was okay part of the time.
Sometimes I found her Bridget’s voice too harsh. I absolutely hated the mother’s voice; she sounded like she hated her daughter every time she saw her/spoke to her with the sharp hoarse, “HEh-LLooo DAH-ling.” Darcy sounded like a nancy boy instead of a sharp sexy lawyer.
There was more cursing in this book than the first.
The book and the movie are also very different:
- Plus – storyline is better than movie. Go Helen Fielding.
- Rebecca the Jellyfish is the woman after Mark not Rebecca Gilles. The Rebecca in the book is not a lesbian and is truly after Mark. Bridget is not crazy.
- No Daniel Cleaver, which is where the movie is better than the book. Hurrah for mixed up stories and sightings versus giving the wrong slip of paper. Grant and Firth are hot and dorky when they fight.
- I wasn’t a fan of the Gary the builder/fisher sideline. Seemed more like filler.
Bridget finds out not long after she quit her job with Sit Up Britain in September, that upper management loves her. She supplied 68% of the ideas for the year she worked there, that they produced and put on the show. Talk about awesome! Go Bridget. They want to give her a raise, pay her for the months she wasn’t working for them and call it paid leave, and rehire her as a manager something or other, forget the exact title, or as a consultant. Oh and Richard was fired due to personal reasons a month after she quit. Hurrah!
Rating: 3.5 because of reader, 4 otherwise.
Buy: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (paperback)
, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (audio)
Buy on Audible.com: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Online Stores
October 24th, 2009 — 3 Stars, Book Review, Bride Stealing, Captain, France, Historic America, Kidnapping, Lisa Kleypas, Pirate, Pirate, Rogues and Rakehells, Seas, Survival, United States of America, Virgin Hero, Widow or Widower
Pirates, good/evil twins, bride stealing, quasi-spinster/virgin widow, quest for justice, nursing wounded hero, and fights to the death. There's not much missing from this set of romantic plot elements. I was left unimpressed. There was too much to juggle and for me to believe without a large suspension of belief. (I know you're thinking it's romance there is always a suspension of belief, but this was a little much.) Only with Your Love is a sequel to When Strangers Marry. We get to see Max and Lysette again this time with kids of their own. As it usually happens with sequels that feature somebody or somebodies from other books, I tend to find more negative in the sequel. It's because I develop preconceived ideas about the original secondary characters [in this case the twins] and I just don't like giving them up or letting them get their own story. Still, the story was well-written, the sex scenes diverting, and the ending neatly wrapped up. If you don't have my hangups about sequels you're sure to find this a wonderful read.
Celia Vallerand is an ex-spinster but still virgin wife of Philippe Vallerand. They are currently headed towards New Orleans from France. Celia speaks little English and is fluent in French. She's also the daughter of a doctor, the perfect companion for the charming Dr. Vallerand. Her delicate beauty and shy nature attracted Philippe from the first. She is well bred and refined, sure to fit in amongst the old blood Creole crowd. Until now he's been happy to accommodate her desire to wait on lovemaking, but he is tired of waiting... unfortunately pirates besiege the ship. Philippe is killed and Celia captured.
On the pirate island, Captain Griffin [Justin Vallerand], watches in disgust as a finely portioned, well bred miss is brought by Dominic Legare to his spoiled sexually perverted brother. She would be dead by morning or broken beyond fixing. Nobody, well bred miss or whore, should have to suffer at that man's hands. When the little miss manages to escape Andres clutches and runs into him, she begs him for help. He would give it of course... but everything changes when she says she's Philippe Vallerand's widowed wife.
Rating: 3 Stars
Originally posted 2009-02-26 15:19:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Online Stores
April 2nd, 2009 — Contests
The winner of yesterday's Pemberley Manor Giveaway is:
Lucky #6 corresponds with Puzzled Princess who wrote:
I think sequels are a pleasant addition to any beloved series! One of the saddest moments for me as a reader is when I get to the last page of a particularly stimulating series. Hopefully, the ending will have left me feeling fulfilled, but even if I am lucky enough to have my desired happy or not ending, the fact of the matter is, it’s over. I find that when I am reading the last book in a series, I slow down and keep putting it off or I try to read just a little bit when I do pick it up to prolong the experience for as long as possible whereas in earlier books, I plow through them wanting to find out the ending of every cliffhanger and the fate of the characters to whom I have grown the closest.
I recognize that on occasion, some sequels are just bad or are interpretations of the characters’ futures which seem blasphemous to “true” fans, but truth be told, everyone probably has a slightly different idea of the characters’ happily ever after so what’s to stop an author for sharing their version with the world?
So thank you, sequel-authors out there, for giving us one more taste of our favorites.
Congratulations Puzzled Princess! I will be emailing you shortly for your mailing address. If for some reason you don't get it please email me at reviewromancenovel@yahoo.com
Check back soon for more great giveaways and contests!
Online Stores
March 24th, 2009 — Links and Challenges, News
It's a tough job but somebody had to do it! This is part two of five for the Top 50 Romance Blog list. Big names and small names and all in between compose the list. Be sure to leave a comment and direct me to any blogs you think I may have missed!
- Dear Author- Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary.
- Desert Island Keepers- The island where women can go to escape their everyday lives. Where their favorite books are waiting and the heroes are naked... (or at least they are in our huts~)
- Erotic Horizon- Books that make you think and books that are heavy on the erotic and big on alpha males and feisty heroines.
- Fierce Romance- Group author blog sharing a few thoughts, ideas, inspirations, motivations, and more on romance.
- Harlequin's Paranormal Romance Blog- Harlequin on their many paranormal books, authors, and imprints and any books that fall into the paranormal romance genre!
- I Heart Presents- A team of fans of Harlequin Presents, many of whom also happen to work at Harlequin.
- Jane Austen Today- This blog explores Jane Austen as we see her today in movies, print, sequels, web sites, and other modern day media.
- Long and Short Romance Reviews- Reviewing long and short romantic fiction one "happily ever after" at a time.
- Lurv à la Mode- A feast for the reading romanticist. All things romance and mainstream scifi/fantasy.
- Lust in Time- We're bringing sexy back...in time! Blogging Bordello for Authors of Hot Historical Romance.
Top 50 Continued:
Online Stores
