A hot, fun, MUST read!

Roxanne St. Claire's first book in her new Guardian Angelinos series came out this week and if you love a good romantic adventure story and a hot, wounded hero, you should check it out. Just to whet your appetite, Roxanne has posted a free prequel to the book on her website - it's a great way to get to know the characters!

Do you like when authors do free reads? I think they're great. It's like when you spend $30 at the Clinque counter and end up with a free make-up bag stuffed with sample sized goodies.

Go check out her freebie and tell me what you think!

Speaking From Beyond the Grave

It's October, so when you read the title of this blog post, you thought I was talking about some paranormal phenomenon, right?

Wrong. I'm talking about the latest #1 Amazon bestseller, a book that hit that spot in preorders. The book doesn't release until November 15, and the author's been dead for 100 years.

In honor of the centennial of his death, the University of California Press is publishing "The Autobiography of Mark Twain," an uncensored, rambling, and supposedly hilarious look at his life. Samuel Clemens (Twain's real name...1835-1910) left specific orders that his memoirs were not to be published until he was loooooooooong gone and everyone mentioned in them were, too.

So he was free to speak his mind without offending anyone.

On CBS Sunday Morning, Twain scholar Roberty Hirst referred to the book as "partly a journal, partly a diary, and partly recollection. So yeah, I think of it as a kind of blog, a blog without a web."

Twain's memoir would have been very unusual for his time period, but actually feels kind of modern. It's not a chronological story of his life from birth to old age, but rather a "random meandering." Rather than picking up pen and paper or a typewriter, Clemens dictated to a stenographer. Hirst describes it as "daily dictations over four years, about whatever he found interesting that day."

Hmmm...sounds a lot like a blog to me.

And just think about it. How cool for people to care about your totally random ramblings from more than 100 years ago?

Pretty awesome marketing, too. He had to know that the buzz alone would drive sales.

Clemens planned carefully for a centennial posthumous release. Jules Verne (1828-1905), who was popular around the exact same time, did not.

Verne's "Paris in the Twentieth Century" was written in 1863, but not published until 1994. He'd only intended to put it in a vault for 20 years, per his publisher's suggestion, but then forgot all about it. His publisher didn't want to release it at the start of his career, because the grim distopian view of the future it painted was thought to be a potential turnoff to his readers.

(The heroine in my 2008 Golden Heart nominated manuscript, "Party Like It's 1899", finds a copy of Verne's lost book in a used bookstore in Paris and it magically transports her back in time. I won't tell you any more, because I hope to sell that book some day.)

Anyway, whether the work was lost or intentionally held back, the idea of posthumous publication so many years later is just thrilling. To have people so interested in what you wrote more than 100 years ago? Wow!

Win Some Steampunk Love

Miss Bramble And The Leviathan is officially on sale!!! You can get your copy here. Buy one for yourself and one for a friend! Nothing says I care like steampunk. ;o)

If you like a chance to win a copy, stop by Meljean Brooks blog today and leave a comment.

Here's the book's blurb:

The last thing she planned to steal was his heart.

The Company. Military institution, protector of Praeton and the nation of Grand Isle. Dirty rotten thief.

When Pandora Bramble steps aboard the Company’s premiere airship Daedalus it’s not for the exclusive VIP tour. It’s to secure proof that the Company stole the regulator valve her father designed—even if it means tearing the engine apart. Foiled by the unexpected appearance of a handsome crew member, she despairs of ever getting another chance—until he kisses her.

Captain Theolonius Hatch, sentenced to engine room duty for refusing to take part in the Company’s fleet week activities, never dreamed a woman like Pandora existed. Her brains match her beauty, a combination that adds up to more trouble than he ever expected.

As Pandora allows Theolonius to sweep her into a whirlwind courtship, her wildest dreams come true. As do her greatest fears, leaving her to decide what matters most. Loyalty…or love.

The clock is ticking.

Warning: This book contains airships, mechanical owls, women who are good with tools, men in and out of uniform, steam generated by engines and people, and some hot carriage scenes.

Now go forth and purchase! Or comment! Or both!

Caught Up In The Net

Recently I signed up for one of those freebie "who is searching for you" trials out of pure curiosity. I'm still getting the same "someone is looking for you" email alert with the same four searches listed: a female of X age in Y location, etc. I recognized all four, which was reassuring. Ahmed signed up and got a big chuckle out of it-- he signed up with the name he uses on the internet, which is a slight variation of his actual name.

Several people who know him "online" had googled the name thinking to get all kinds of... what? I hope they weren't too disappointed. He got a huge charge out of it.


With the recent movie all about Facebook's founder, and with nearly daily alerts about some scam or another, I guess we should all be careful. I am a Facebook fan, but I don't play the interactive games, or take the quizzes, or respond to "somebody answered a question about you" alerts. I've never seen one posted by somebody who knew me well enough to answer a question about me, but I am flattered anyone cares. As long as it all stays fun, we're good.

Twitter and Facebook can suck a lot of time, though. And message boards start to get addictive. And these days you can't just shut off the computer... we've all got apps on our phones, or stand-alone devices, or... well, too much access, maybe.

But for me it's all worth it. I can keep in touch with family and friends and old co-workers without being on the phone all day. I've never liked the telephone. I always feel like the person on the other end expects me to entertain him or her. Only my absolute most-beloved ones get long phone calls from me or are allowed to place them to me. It's not that I'm wallowing in swamp-witchy hermitage. It's more that I like a quick howdy and a jack-rabbit exit.

So you know... you can always hit me on FB or shoot me a tweet.

The end is near

No, I'm not talking about the Mayan apocalypse. I'm talking about the end of the book I'm currently writing. I cannot wait to finish it. This book has not been a "gimme" for me, it's been a real labor of love at times.

A gimme book, as most writers will tell you, is one of those rare novels that just pours out of you, every character nuance and plot decision coming as seamless as silk. Some writers have never had one of those, some have them periodically, but most writers have had at least one. Ask a writer what their gimme book was and their face will light up and their eyes sparkle with a faraway remembrance. They'll nod and smile and start telling you about it, how it issued forth in six weeks and had no revisions or some such fantastical thing.

I've had one. It's called The Perfect Dish and I wrote the first 60 pages in about five days. It really did spill out of me, so fast my fingers could barely keep up. It was a risky book, featuring an older woman/younger man scenario long before the word cougar had really entered the vernacular. (He's a hot young chef with a recently widowed sister, she's a grief counselor who's meteoric career is suddenly spiraling downward due to her own unresolved issues. Also, he's got a magic cookbook and isn't afraid to use it.)

The Perfect Dish opened doors for me. It proved to people that I could write, that I was growing as a writer and that I was a talent worth noticing. That book got me my agent. It eventually sold, but the publisher closed, leaving the book homeless again. (I've decided to put it out there myself via the Kindle route, but that's a story for another post.) Still, The Perfect Dish was a gimme book that made a difference in my writing path.

Have you had your gimme book yet? What was it? What happened to it? Are you writing it now?

FALLING UNDER excerpt

Do you want a sneak peek at Falling Under? Of course you do!
Please visit the Haunted Halloween event at A Life Bound by Books blog for an exclusive excerpt and a chance to win an Amazon gift certificate.
http://alifeboundbybooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/haunted-halloween-gwen-hayes-exclusive.html

Land Ho!

No, I'm not calling a person on solid ground with a fast reputation a Land Ho (though, that would be kinda awesome...) I'm actually referring Christopher Columbus discovering America.

Today is Columbus Day here in the USA and it is a holiday for many offices. (Mine is NOT one of them... *grumble*)

In honor of Columbus Day, I thought I'd post some little known facts about El Capitan.

1. Christopher Columbus’ name is not Christopher Columbus. It is Chrisoffa Corombo. Christopher Columbus is the English translation of sorts.
2. The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria were not the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Well, the Pinta was but the Nina was a nickname for the Santa Clara and the Santa Maria was known as the Gallega.
3. While Columbus is considered a hero in the U.S., Spain and Italy, he was not well-known during his life.
4. Christopher Columbus never actually set foot on U.S. soil. He landed on an island in the Bahamas.
5. It was not Columbus’ idea to sail across the ocean. It was his brother, Bartholomew’s idea.
6. Columbus was an opium addict, the same drug used in producing modern-day heroin.
7. There is genetic evidence that Columbus and his men brought the sexually transmitted disease Syphilis to Europe.

Syphillis? Gee Chris, sounds like you could be called a Land Ho, too!

Hope you're off work or school today and enjoying something fun!

Falling Under Cover Flats

What you can't tell from the picture:

• The title and my name are foily!
• The cardstock has a softy suedey feel.
• It's so freaking gorgeous.
• I'm a writer so I make words up like "foily" and "suedey".

I will choose three random commentors  to get a signed cover flat. I'll also throw in a bookmark. So as Chaka Khan once said....tell me something good--tell me that you like it, yeah.....


And the winners are:
Lisa Henderson
Reggie Writes
and Gilliene 

Romance Divas' October Bash

Romance Divas is, perhaps, the greatest free resource for writers on the planet. Don't believe me? Ask Writer's Digest! October is going to be a very special month, too! Swing by all this month to suck up the free-writery-goodies, including an amazing live event with Gena Showalter and Kresley Cole in the chatroom: on Thursday, October 28th at 7pm EST.

Be there or be TOTALLY square!!

Remembering September

October is the 10th month of the year (it was the 8th month in the Roman calendar, hence the Octo part of the name that stuck) and one of seven months with 31 days. By now most of us are pretty settled into Fall. Here in Florida, it means we're starting to leave our doors and windows open in the morning and evening to take advantage of the first few cool breezes.

During October we celebrate such things as Columbus Day and Halloween, but also lesser known days like Apple Day, Freethought Day and Leif Erikson Day.

But today, on the first of October, people will look at each other and say, "Where did September go? Can you believe it's October already? It'll be Christmas soon!"

I know where my September went. I wrote 35,000 words that month. Celebrated my dad's birthday. Enjoyed the company of my visiting family. Saw a friend get married. Watched my niece perform in Cinderella. Took a trip with my husband and made some new memories.

All in all, September was a good month and while it did go by fast, it went by packed full of good times. My September feels well spent. How about yours?