Giveaway tomorrow!

Since I’m not known for my patience, there are several duplicate books laying around my desk. One is VIKING UNCHAINED by Sandra Hill. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love me some Vikings and can never pass up buying one of Sandra’s Viking books. 🙂 I’ve got a post going up tomorrow with a chance to win my extra copy. See you then!

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Roxanne St. Claire Book Winners!

We have a couple of winners! The winners of Rocki’s post are….

Kimmy L.!!

&

Wendy!! (seejanescore blogger)

Congrats ladies!

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

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Shari Anton Book Winner!

We have a winner! The winner of Shari’s post is….

Azteclady!!

Congrats Azteclady!

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

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Jasmine Haynes Guest Blogging

Other People’s Lives

Thanks so much for having me as your guest. I’m excited to have Berkley releasing Show and Tell today, the second book in a trilogy that began with The Fortune Hunter, which won the Holt Medallion for erotic romance. To celebrate the release of Show and Tell, I will be doing a drawing from amongst the people who comment on the blog for an autographed copy of The Fortune Hunter. So be sure to comment!

A lot of people ask me how much of my writing is true. I guess they mean how much is autobiographical. Hah! I don’t think so! I couldn’t possibly have experienced all the things I write about. Readers wouldn’t want me to, because then all they’d be reading is MY attitude about everything. And that’s where I start looking at other people’s lives. Maybe it’s just someone I overhear in the coffee shop. Like today. As I was waiting for my critique partner, I was seated next to a lady trying to talk her friend into selling Mary Kay cosmetics. Or maybe it was Avon. I’m not sure. She was relating how her husband had been angry that she wasn’t “contributing to the household”, then she found Mary Kay (or Avon), and it saved her marriage! And gave her self-esteem. And she loved helping other women feel good about themselves. Which is all very good. Except that somehow, she sounded like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman from the fifties. There was an edge of desperation in her voice. She was trying too hard. Maybe she was afraid her husband was going to leave her for a younger woman. In my mind, I was making up a whole back story for this woman.

And that’s what writers do. At least I do (maybe I shouldn’t speak for any other writers!). I observe and extrapolate. I listen to other people’s stories and incorporate. I get what I call the “ooh” feeling. I hear something and inside I go “ooh, that is so cool.” I got that “ooh” feeling about an incident a friend related to me. At the end of a long day on a business trip, he arrived at his hotel, checked in, and was on the way to his room. As he passed a closed door, he heard noises. A woman. She was obviously feeling pretty darn good at that particular moment, and loudly expressive about it, too. Ooh, I thought, wouldn’t that be a fun way for my hero in Show and Tell, Scott Sinclair, to meet Trinity Green? He overhears her in the room next door! For my version of the tale, read an excerpt of Show and Tell on my website http://www.skullybuzz.com.

And just remember, when you’re at the grocery store or a coffee shop or the doctor’s office, there might be a writer observing you! I’d really love to hear any little tidbits you might have observed or overheard. Care to share? One of them might appear in a book, too (with permission, of course)/

Fair Play, the third book in The Fortune Hunter trilogy arrives sometime in April 2009. I also have anthology coming out in December 2008, Unlaced, with stories by three other great writers, Jaci Burton, Joey Hill, and Denise Rossetti. In addition to Jasmine Haynes, many of you know me as Jennifer Skully, writing over-the-top (hopefully hilarious) romantic mysteries, and as JB Skully, I’ve created the Max Starr psychic mystery series. Readers can learn more about all my pseudonyms at http://www.skullybuzz.com.

And don’t miss my contest with lots of free books and lots of winners, going on now at http://www.skullybuzz.com/contest.html

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