eBook Reading and Writing

We’ve got the hot authors from Phaze Books to chat with you Monday at Realms of Love. Skylar Sinclair, Stella and Audra Price and Sapphire Phelan will share their writing, thoughts and cranberry relish recipes with you at 9 PM EST/ 6 PM PST Monday, November 19. I hear there’s a give-away planned, details in the chat.

The chatters and authors at Realms of Love are a fun, friendly group. Ever wonder what chats are about? Stop on by and say “hi.”

Author: Skylar Sinclair
Bio: Skylar Sinclair is your typical California girl. She is a multi-published author that loves to spin otherworldly and fantasy tales,with sexual heat. Skylar has many personas, and writing is just one of them. She loves to hear from her fans and can be reached at
skylar.sinclair@yahoo.com.
Book: “Purr For Me”
Blurb: Halloween provides the purrfect backdrop for shifter Panteara to assume her sleek, feline form. Mingling at a wild party, she’s looking for casual passion, but gets more than she bargained for when she meets another of her kind. Alpha lion Rourke is looking for a mate, and sets his sights on the lovely she-panther. Enjoy this sweet holiday treat fromSkylar Sinclair.

Authors: Stella and Audra Price
Bio: Stella and Audra Price are sisters who have always shared their love of writing, even as children. Now in their twenties, they have created a complete world from the voices in their heads which they have deemed the Eververse. They both have similar interests in makeup, horror movies, dogs and a love of a good bottle of wine; they rarely disagree, unless it’s over the last glass of that wine.

They live in a small converted farm house which is home to their menagerie of animals including 10 huskies, three cats; a fish called Claude, Linusthe English bulldog, Zorro the king of beasts and Stella’s very Evil “the Moo.”

They can often be found at their local wine club, tasting various vintages and bringing the finest home with them. Both are avid adventurers and loveto accept any new challenge that’s offered to them.

Audra: Although relatively young, Audra has enjoyed her fair share oflife. Now engaged to her “high school sweetheart” she hopes to be married in 07. She’s a fully qualified make-up artist and enjoys meeting newpeople. Audra has been showing and racing her huskies, competitively sincethe tender age of eight.

Stella: Stella, the more experienced of the two sisters, has done manyexciting things in her life. She’s been a model, an ice cream slinger, acustom designer, and a tour manager. Throughout this all, art has alwaysbeen an integral part of her life and she excels in sculpting, even though her drawing skills are somewhat lacking. Her knowledge of Star wars andLord of the Rings Trivia remains unparalleled. She is a voracious readerwho loves movie quotes and video games.

You can check out their website at www.stellaandaudra.com.
Book: “Wishbound” (print)
Blurb: Together for the first time in paperback are the first stories in the Price sisters’ sizzling Duvall, Inc. series: Wishes and Glamour !

Author: Sapphire Phelan
Bio: Sapphire Phelan is an author of published erotic and sweet paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction romance. She lives in Chesterfield, Virginia with her husband and their two cats, Ripley and
Bast. You can find out more about her at her website:
http://FantasticDreams.50megs.com and MySpace at
http://www.myspace.com/SapphirePhelan. Or join her newsletter at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sapphirePhelansParanormalNewsletter.

She admits she can always be found at her desk and on her computer, writing. And yes, the house and husband sometimes suffers for it!

Book: “Beast Magic”
Blurb: They came from two different worlds.Ramses was a werelion. ShanaTory was human. The Dreaming foretold them as soul mates. So Ramses tracked her down in America, and when he found her, made her his and brought her back home with him to the South African Bushveld. But others from his pride, led by one evil lioness, do not want them together.Besides their lives, will their love survive the coming war?

Aspen Mountain Press Authors November 26

We’ll have a bevy of writers from AMP with us November 26. Join Jeanne Barrack, Maura Anderson, Michelle Hasker, and J.M. Snyder for a Black Monday Chat (that’s what she called it). Jeanne will chat about the upcoming anthology Babes in Toyland II and Maura will share with us tidbits about Del Fantasma: Texas Tea, Michelle will chat about her Plain Brown Wrapper release, Kate’s Muse and J.M. will chat about the storm of new releases she’s had and will have at AMP!

ManLove Authors Chat December 3

The engaging and witty Claire Thompson will chat with you December 3 at Realms of Love. More guests to be announced!  

Romance writers Betty Hanawa and Cassie Ryan join Lizzie T Leaf in the romance author chats at Realms of Love Monday June 11 at 9 PM EDT/6 PM PDT.  

Betty will tell us about More Than She  Asked. Here’s a little bit about her:

Betty Hanawa had two highly rated, lovely, sensual contemporaries published with Triskelion Publishing when her publisher and her editor kicked her out of her comfort zone. To her surprise, she discovered they were right. She now writes paranormal erotic romances, filled with snarky humor that frequently slips into the ironic. Her books are receiving high praise with new books being eagerly anticipated. Her aunts are delighted with her success. Her children are embarrassed to discover their mother knows about sex.  She really enjoys being the scandal of her small town.

Cassie has Ceremony of Seduction coming from Kensington soon. Let’s learn a little about Cassie:

Cassie Ryan tried her hand at erotic romance after critiquing so many for Brit Blaise and devouring favorite erotic romance authors like Cheyenne McCray and Jordan Summers.  It became almost a ‘see if I can do it’ type of challenge for her.  Never one to turn down a challenge, she jumped in with both feet.  She created a world where an ugly duckling finds out she’s the future queen for a race of otherworldly witches who thrive on sexual energy.  It takes the Prince of her erotic dreams to show her how to save a planet she never knew existed.  The partial story was requested by several different houses, and after attending RWA Nationals in 2005, Cassie sent off a query to Audrey LaFehr at Kensington who was just starting the new Aphrodisia line.  Fast forward to March 2006, Cassie had been busy writing books as her alter ego and hadn’t gotten around to finishing the book with the working title Seduction of the Klatch, and had figured her submission had been lost in the bowels of the Kensington slush pile.  Then suddenly, she was contacted by Kensington and asked if she could turn her world of Klatch witches into a three book series.  The correct answer, of course, was YES! 

Lizzie will update us on Twice a Virgin (maybe she’ll even explain it). Lizzie says:

I’ve loved books since I opened the first one. My dream was to write them myself. Of course life has a way of throwing us a curve ball, and the writing became a distant memory, lost in the hectic day to day world of family, job, laundry and housework. When the twinkling ember did spark, it was usually doused by someone demanding their share of my time, and me allowing it to happen.
But life does seem to go full circle. The desire to put the stories that continued to play in my head on paper emerged stronger than ever, and at a time in my life when there was someone encouraging me to do it. Now I’m living my dream; creating stories to share with others. I hope you enjoy them.
My other hobbies, gardening and baking, are now taking a back seat, and as for housework…what’s that?

There will be give-aways! Join us Monday for some fun chat with some writers of hot erotic romance.

We have a huge amount of respect for JM Snyder. JM works hard at the craft of erotic romance writing as well as the business of writing. She is unpretentious and willing to help.  

In this article JM Snyder Shares Writing Business Lessons . She’s talking from experience here:

How did JM learn promotion?

I began devouring any and all information I could find on self-promotion. iUniverse had a wealth of articles available to new authors, covering everything from book signings to sell sheets to press releases. I read them all, took them to heart, and began a direct mail marketing campaign that targeted gay/lesbian bookstores around the country. With my subsequent releases, that campaign seemed to work — I received small royalty checks on a quarterly basis…

What did JM do that allowed her sales to “skyrocket”?

Then the editor at Aspen Mountain Press, an up and coming e-publisher, contacted me about re-publishing my novels as e-books. I was skeptical — the books were currently available in electronic format, but I had seen nothing in my sales figures to suggest co-venturing with a publisher. For one, I currently made 80% off all sales, and the standard e-book publisher’s royalty rate of 35-40% paled in comparison. But the marketing person in me decided to take a chance, and sent the publisher a book I planned to self-publish. I negotiated to keep the print rights, and the book was released in both paperback and e-book formats simultaneously.

Suddenly, my sales skyrocketed…

What does JM Snyder do to drive traffic to her web site?

I track my website visitors carefully, and exploit ad campaigns targeting certain audiences who may be interested in my books. I’ve joined the ManLove Romance co-operative, a group of like-minded writers who pool their resources to afford advertising in print magazines with a large readership. Because I started in fan fiction, I run a banner ad on a popular adult fan fiction site, drawing over 100 hits a week. Not bad for $15 a month.

Everyone can learn something from this article and we thank JM Snyder for taking the time to write it.

Catch JM  Snyder’s Trin, Scarred and Just What the Doctor Ordered at Aspen Mountain Press. Check out JM Snyder’s web site for more stuff.  

Reynardine by Lucynda Storey at Romantic Observer - Reviews

Athena reviewed Lucynda Storey’s Reynardine over at Romantic Observer. She gave it 4/5 on the Enjoy-O-Meter and rated it Hot on the temperature gauge.

…this is the type of paranormal romance that satisfies readers on many levels.  There is the curse to contend with and it is handled well.  Background to it is revealed in small pieces like a puzzle that we are able to put together by the end of the book.  A bit of mystery on whom and why someone would wish for Agnis to fail in having wolves reintroduced to that corner of Ireland also thickens the plot.

For this and other romance reviews check out RomanticObserver.com.

You can buy Reynardine at Aspen Mountain Press.  

The Manlove Authors page is a list of erotic romance authors that specialize in what is often referred to as m/m or slash romantic fiction.

Here’s what Laura Baumbach, the owner of the site has to say:

This Manlove Authors Site is a directory of M/M authors. We have created this site as a service to the many M/M fiction authors as a way for potential readers to locate authors.

If you are a true M/M author (not just a tiny side M/M relationships or M/M/F menages to slip in the trendy gay character in your stories), and are interested in joining the directory, email me at manloveauthors@arkwolf.com.

Laura Baumbach

Some noteworthy authors listed on the site include Laura Baumbach herself,  Lena Austin and JM Snyder.

JM Snyder’s gay romance Trin, can be downloaded now at Aspen Mountain Press.

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eBooksReader stumbled on Racy Li’s blog post today.

In Erotic Romance: Science Fiction’s Forgotten Stepsister Racy shares a couple of interesting observations about romance novels in general and science fiction erotica in particular. I suggest you read the whole piece but here’s a few gems.

Epublishing erotic romance is giving greater economic power to women as business leaders, editors, artists, and authors.

and

Yes, romance has a reputation for formulaic plots, and bodice rippers, and at times, it is deservedly so, but formulas and bad books exist in every genre. Erotic romance with its speculative elements is arguably reaching more non-science fiction readers (predominantly women) than books labeled squarely science fiction.

Are you a woman looking to write, create, publish, succeed? There are some darn good role models out there and it’s a changing world.

Check out Aspen Mountain Press, Loose-Id and Ellora’s Cave. These are women who are making it happen for themselves and those who are willing to invest their time and talent with them. 

ebooks4u has some great posts about erotica for women and the women who make it happen. 

writing, eBook, romantic fiction, erotica writing

Source: Enjoy your trip down storyteller road

After learning a few tips from Todd Stone’s NOVELIST’S BOOT CAMP I had my orders and I was able to complete my mission, or in my case, my novel!!”  Barbara M. Harrison, author of “Feel My Heart,” (Aspen Mountain Press, October ’06).

“Todd has such energy and a terrific ability to connect subject matter with audience. A writer cannot sit five minutes in one of his presentations and not realize that here’s someone who informs, who teaches, and who broadens one’s understanding of the craft.
Novelist’s Boot Camp is something special, a way for new—and established—writers to find a fresh approach to the work of getting a story out of one’s brain and onto paper.”
Lindsay Longford, RITA-winning, bestselling author of 17 books