Kathryn Shay Winner

One more winner….again, so sorry this is late!

Winner of Kathryn’s post is…………………..

Greta!!

Congrats Greta!

Please email me your snail mail addy to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces) so we can get the prize out to you. Enjoy!

You have until Wednesday, June 4th, to send in your info or another name will be picked on June 5th.

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Kendra Leigh Castle Winner!

I think I’m losing it with all the end-of-the-year stuff the girls have going on at school. I was just reminded that I never chose a winner of Kendra’s post. So sorry!

The winner of Kendra’s post is…….

Crystal B.!!

Congrats Crystal!

Please email me your snail mail addy to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces) so we can get the prize out to you. Enjoy!

You have until Wednesday, June 4th, to send in your info or another name will be picked on June 5th.

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Sydney Croft Winners!

More winners! The winners of Larissa and Steph’s post are….

Adh!!

&

Amelia!!

Congrats ladies!

Please email me your snail mail addy to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces) so we can get the prizes out to you. Enjoy!

You have until Monday, June 2nd, to send in your info or another name will be picked on June 3rd.

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Angie Fox ARC Winner

Hope you’re all having a fantastic Saturday! I’m getting ready to head out to a neighborhood block party/barbeque but before I leave I wanted to post the winner of Angie’s post.

Winner is…..

Bonnie L.!!

Congrats Bonnie!

Please email me your snail mail addy to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces) so we can get the prize out to you. Enjoy!

You have until Monday, June 2nd, to send in your info or another name will be picked on June 3rd.

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A lonely bookcover….

Can you believe it? I only heard from one winner after announcing the bookcover winners and I even gave them a couple more days given that this week started with a holiday and still no email with an address of where to send their prize. So you all know what this means? I’m announcing a new winner!

The new winner of the bookcover is……..

StacyS!

Congrats StacyS!

Please email me your snail mail addy to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces). You have until midnight on Sunday, June 1st, to send me your address.

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Angie Fox Guest Blogging

Hitting the road with a gang of geriatric biker witches

Or: How I sold my first novel

Sometimes in writing, like in life, you have to toss out what you know and just have fun. And boy did I learn that the hard way. I’ve always been an avid reader, so I thought I understood exactly what I needed to do to write a book of my own. I outlined, I planned, I made stacks of colored note cards. And I wrote three mysteries that didn’t sell.

Just as I was about to start on mystery number four, I realized something – I didn’t want to write another mystery. I wanted to write a funny paranormal. And worse, I hated outlining, and planning and I wanted to shove those cute, colored note cards into the wood chipper.

I opted for the compost heap instead. Then set out to build my own world where I could make up my own rules. I fell in love with the idea of a preschool teacher who is forced to run off with a gang of geriatric biker witches and The Accidental Demon Slayer was born.

Instead of a 20-page plot outline, I had a 5-page list of ideas, one of which included “but little did they know, all the Shoney’s are run by werewolves.” Instead of following the rules, I broke a few. Instead of ending my writing sessions thinking, “Is this good enough to impress an editor?” I ended them thinking, “No. I didn’t not just write that. I did not just make my character defend herself with a toilet brush and a can of Purple Prairie Clover air freshener.”

I giggled my way through the book and had a complete manuscript in five months. The book sold less than a week later. Who knew that by chucking my plan, I’d achieve my goal? And I think what I learned applies to more than just books. There’s something to be said for relaxing, having fun and following your instincts. Life is too short to do anything else.

The Accidental Demon Slayer is scheduled to be released from Dorchester on July 29. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can win an Advanced Reading Copy right here. One lucky commenter will win an ARC.

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A Visit with Sydney Croft

Summertime Means Hot Nights…and Dark Desires…

Summertime in the South invokes images of sitting on porches drinking mint juleps. Of fishing off the end of a dock in a bayou. Of making love to the sound of a lazy fan, while the humid night breeze washes over your skin.

These are the images that inspired the stories in Hot Nights, Dark Desires, an erotic anthology by Eden Bradley, Stephanie Tyler, and Sydney Croft (who is actually Stephanie Tyler and Larissa Ione, so Stephanie has two steamy stories in this book!)

Larissa: So Stephanie and I are here today (thank you, Fatin!) to discuss our stories in the anthology, or to talk about the steamy South, or about whatever pops up, but in general, we suck at coming up with blog topics. So I decided to just ask Stephanie some questions. About the South. Or whatever pops up. Okay, Steph, you ready?

Steph: You want me to say yes, don’t you?

Larissa: Well, yes. If you lived in the South, where would you live?

Steph: Africa. Isn’t that south? Stop looking at me like that…okay, probably New Orleans.

Larissa: Let me get you a map. Or should we talk about Ecuador in front of all these people? Ahem. Okay, back to the questions. What Southern food have you always wanted to try?

Steph: Biscuits and gravy.

Larissa: You’ve never tried biscuits and gravy???? Are you serious? That was like, a staple I grew up on. Like, OMG, you’ve never tried French fries?

Steph: You’ve never tried French fries? And for the record, you had the same Ecuadorian issues.

Larissa: For the record, I did not. Can’t prove it, anyway. Unless you saved those emails. You know, the ones where my husband called us both idiots. So…ever had a mint julep? I’ll buy you one at RWA, if not. You bring the migraine meds.

Steph: I’ve had a mint julep! They’re quite minty…stop looking at me like I’m a moron.

Larissa: But it’s such a natural thing to do! Okay, next question. What’s your favorite Southern-set book or movie?

Steph: One of my favorite books in the world is Gone With The Wind…and coming from me, I know you’re going to find this hysterical, but the descriptions just always stuck with me. Reading that book always makes me hungry. Oh, and I also love this novella called Shadow Play, by this new-ish author called Sydney Croft…

Larissa: Ooh, I love Sydney Croft! Is that bad? Narcissistic? Don’t answer that. But do answer this. Where did the idea for your novella, Night Vision, in Hot Nights, Dark Desires, come from?

Steph: You ask a lot of questions. Like my mother does. Anyway…hmmm, the idea really came to me from two things – I wanted to write about a hero named Bat, for a specific reason I can’t tell you BUT if you read Night Vision, you’ll know and I love the movie Road House. Now here’s one for you – do you know where Eden’s idea for her novella, The Art of Desire, came from? (I do!)

Larissa: Um…is it because she likes tattoos? Because she’s not nearly as wussy as I am. But I do have a tattoo!

Steph: Me too!!! Three of them! And yes, it’s because she LOVES tattoos, so her novella features a heroine with a tattoo fetish, and, as you know, it’s awesome 🙂 I’m so excited about this anthology – it feels like just yesterday that we sold it, but at the same time, it feels like we waited forever for its release!

Larissa: It does! But now that it’s out, we’re celebrating, and we’re giving away two copies of Hot Nights, Dark Desires to two commenters! So just leave a comment, maybe tell us what you think of when you think of the American deep South. Thanks so much for coming out to play with us today! And thank you Fatin, for having us!

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Eden Bradley Book Winners

We have winners! Eden has picked the winners of her post and they are….

Angie-la!!

&

Azteclady!!

Angie-la wins a copy EXCLUSIVE and Azteclady wins an e-copy of BREAKING SKYE.

Congrats ladies!

Please email Eden at eden_bradley @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with your snail mail addy (Azteclady you just need to email her so she can send you the e-copy) and make sure you put “Blog Winner” in the subject line of the email. Enjoy!

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Bookcover Winners

We have winners! 🙂 The winners of the bookcovers are…..

Ann M.!!

&

Penney!!

Congrats ladies! Please email me your snail mail addys to mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces) so I can get them out to you. Hope you enjoy them!

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Kendra Leigh Castle Guest Blogging

Okay, I admit it. I have a tendency to trip over stuff. Lots of stuff. Toys, furniture, my own two feet…nothing is too big or too small for me to get my feet unwittingly tangled up in it. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that in writing my debut novel, Call of the Highland Moon, I stumbled over the story idea just like I do everything else. This time, however, I wasn’t left with a bruise that looked like a purple sunrise. Which is good, because if writing left bruises, I would be in some serious trouble.

It all started with a name. Or rather, a big, sexy Scottish werewolf who needed a name. I’ve always loved the supernatural, so when I started out with this book the hero was the clearest thing in my head. Well over six feet tall, longish wavy brown hair, and a slashing scar across one golden eye. He tapped his foot impatiently and looked at his watch a lot while I hemmed and hawed over his future (alpha heroes can be like this). What part of the Highlands was he from? What was he doing in America? Who was his family? I pondered, and he tapped his foot. Finally, I had a first name for him: Gideon. Naming a werewolf after an angel made perfect sense to me. And no, I didn’t hit my head during all of that falling over stuff. Not much, anyway. Still, I knew the last name was the key. It would tell me where his home was, at the least. The very least, as it turned out!

I started digging around on the internet, hunting for pages about Scottish clans so I could get overviews and find one that might fit. Lucky for me, there’s a lot of Scottish pride out there, and people take a great deal of interest in preserving the history of their clans. I had plenty of information to stumble through, if I so chose. However, the very first site I hit was the only one I needed to make a decision. It was about a clan that had a history dating back to the very founding of Scotland, that had once resided in the remote Western Highlands, and that had kept, for a time, the legendary Stone of Destiny upon which all the kings of Scotland were crowned up until the 1400s, when it was (supposedly) taken by the British. My imagination caught fire. The remote location was ideal for the seat of the werewolf pack, and I just knew I was going to be able to work with anything called the Stone of Destiny. Turns out I was right…and Gideon MacInnes it was. It also turned out that he was the future Alpha of his pack, guardians of the mysterious Stone, and that his vacation to America was about to be rudely interrupted by a power hungry cousin and some lackeys who would stop at nothing to get their hands on his birthright. Then came Carly Silver, proprietor of Bodice Rippers and Baubles, with her biting wit and romantic heart, and the rest is history.

It’s funny how inspiration works. The smallest thing can set of a chain reaction in your head, and suddenly you have a story. Fortunately for me, inspiration is a thing often stumbled into, even by the non-clutzy! I hope everyone who reads what happened when I gave Gideon a magical, ancient relic and a secluded, ancient pack that guards it without truly understanding what it is enjoys reading the story as much as I enjoyed creating it. Call of the Highland Moon is a combination of my memories (the snowstorm in Northern New York that delivers a wounded Gideon into the arms of a shy and beautiful bookshop owner), my dreams (the Stone of Destiny, coveted by enemies both Earthly and otherworldly), and the fun facts and ideas I only ever seem to find when they get tangled up in my own two feet. Not that I mind…falling into a story is my favorite thing!

Kendra

www.kendraleighcastle.com, www.wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com

***Don’t forget to leave a comment! One reader will receive a copy of CALL OF THE HIGHLAND MOON.

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