Win Prizes with Tess's Troubadours!

Hi Fierce Friends!
You know, one of the hardest parts of being a writer, for me at least, is managing the business side of things. Contracts and such are handled by my agent, but marketing falls squarely on my shoulders. The questions are always the same – should I advertise in Romantic Times? Online? Send out emails? When you have limited funds for advertising, it’s hard to make a decision. Magazine ad rates are expensive! When HIGHLAND ROGUE was about to come out I went in on an ad with another author in Romantic Times and still paid $580! And that was for a third of a page! But it was in color and Highland Rogue did well. Was it because of the ad? Who knows?

Before the internet, one of the best ways to get the “word” out on your books was “word” of mouth. Small bookstore owners would recommend books to their buyers, friends would pass books to friends, etc. Well, now there are few small independent bookstores, but people still talk to each other (albeit by email and messaging!) and the timeworn tradition of recommending a book to a friend is still alive and well, thank goodness!! And after all, it is YOU, the READER, who makes or breaks an author’s career, who puts them on the Bestsellers List. It is ALL OF YOU WHO WIELD THE POWER!! Now, don't you feel important? Well, you should, because you are!

With this in mind, oh Mighty Ones, I have begun a new kind of advertising for my new book, HIGHLAND REBEL , which will debut in March. A kind of advertising that truly relies on the goodness in all of YOU! A goodness that WILL be rewarded! Here’s how you can reap the benefit of helping me spread the good word ---

Join Tess’s Troubadours by sending an email to me at tessmallory@yahoo.com. Put Tess's Troubadours in the subject heading and you are automatically one of my Troubadours! (To be one of the first ten who win a book, you must post on a message board, more on this below!) This is a fan-based group and their sole purpose in life (well, in the group) is to help me promote my book! Why should you do this? Well, because you love me and my books, I hope, (smile) but also because your kindness will be rewarded! Here’s how it works –

During the month of February, Tess’s Troubadours will visit romance site message boards and talk up my books in general and my new book, HIGHLAND REBEL , in particular. Every time you post on a message board and mention HIGHLAND REBEL , just copy the URL and send it to me at tessmallory@yahoo.com and your name will be put into the Big Drawing I’m going to have on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day! If your name is drawn, you’ll receive an autographed copy of my book, a Celtic tri-spiral necklace, AND a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble, AND other goodies!

AND the FIRST TEN people who send me URLs will receive an autographed copy of HIGHLAND REBEL !

As a stalwart member of Tess’s Troubadours , you do only as much as you want to do, but the more posts you make, the more times your name is entered in the contest! (Please note, a post is considered the entire thread of conversation made on the message board, not the individual comments). Help me fight back against outrageous advertising prices! Wield your sword of Readership and conquer in the name of romance!

If Tess’s Troubadours proves to be a success, the group will continue through the months ahead, with a drawing to be held every month!

NOTE: Because I need to make this a real, competitive contest I need to have at least ten entries during the month of February from you, my Readers. Not ten entries apiece, just ten different people entering as a Troubadour! The contest won't happen without Ten "Active" Troubadours!

And remember THE FIRST TEN PEOPLE TO SEND ME POSTINGS GET A FREE, AUTOGRAPHED BOOK!

So join and post and help HIGHLAND REBEL zoom to the top of the Bestseller’s List AND if your name is drawn, you'll get great stuff for yourself! I’m counting on you, dear Readers. Please visit my fan-based myspace site and please add me as a friend at www.myspace.com/tessmalloryfanspace..

Remember -- YOU MUST ACTUALLY POST ON A MESSAGE BOARD AND SEND ME THE URL TO RECEIVE A FREE BOOK (First ten only) AND TO BE ENTERED IN THE CONTEST!

Don’t forget – Love is Timeless! Keep Writing, Keep Reading, Keep Loving!

Melissa Mayhue gives us A Highlander of Her Own

I'm happy that Melissa Mayhue is visiting with us today to tell us about her new book, just released, A Highlander of Her Own! Welcome, Melissa and congratulations! Please tell us what your new book is about. (What a magical cover!)

Melissa: A Highlander of Her Own is my fourth book in the award-winning Daughters of the Glen Series. Fifth in the series, A Highlander's Destiny, is scheduled for January 2010.

Blurb for A Highlander of Her Own:

TEXAS, PRESENT DAY. Ellie Denton’s world has spiraled out of control. A strange new birthmark, animals talking to her, and her mother’s ex-husband laying claim to the family ranch have her thinking life can’t get more complicated. But Ellie doesn’t know the birthmark’s connection to her Faerie ancestors. Complicated takes on a whole new meaning with her innocent wish to find her true love.

SCOTLAND, 1304. Caden MacAlister has more trouble than he can handle. With his brother held for ransom and the laird missing, the last thing he needs is another problem. But the Fae have other plans.

A mysterious woman shows up in his stables, sent by Faerie Magic to find her true love. Fighting his attraction, Caden insists she’s meant for one of his brothers. With his history, he has no desire for a woman in his life—especially a woman sent by the Fae.

Only the magic of the Fae can determine whether Ellie will find a Highlander of her own...

Vonda: Sounds awesome! What inspired you to write this story?

Melissa: After 'meeting' Caden in Soul of a Highlander, I wanted him to have his very own Happy Ever After. I also wanted to begin to address some of those women everyone was worried about at the end of Soul... the ones who'd suddenly, without any prior warning, found themselves with strange powers and the Mark of the Royal House of Fae.

Caden and Ellie's story sprang from there!

Vonda: What is your favorite thing about this story?

Melissa: I love the heroine in this story, Ellie Denton! She really spoke to me as I was writing the book. Oh...and the dogs! Their personalities are loosely modeled after my own dogs, so, they were fun to write, too.

Vonda: How cool! I love animals in stories. Can you point us toward an excerpt?

Melissa: The excerpt is actually from Chapter two - it's where the reader first meets Ellie and gets a glimpse into all her problems.

Excerpt

Vonda: Fantastic excerpt, Melissa! Everyone, please go check out this scene. I can't wait to read this book. I found Ellie incredibly likable and I really want her to find true love and solve her problems. Thank you for being here with us today and sharing your wonderful story!

Time Travel Anyone?

Ever since the around the age of four, I’ve delighted in putting the stories in my mind onto paper or electronic media. Escaping to fantasy worlds. Creating fictional characters. Letting my imagination take flight and transport my characters and me to exotic and enchanting places. Many times I wish I had kept the journals in which I wrote as a child. While most of my stories have leaned toward Literary and Women’s Fiction (including Romance), most of my childhood tales trended toward Fantasy. Truly, those adventures were more otherworldly and surreal than what I currently write. But my reading preferences have always been varied and practically run the gamut of everything available on bookstore shelves.

In the recent past a friend asked me if there was any genre or sub-genre I enjoyed reading but which I had never written. Didn’t take me long to respond. Science Fiction and Time Travel. Two of the genres to which I turn during contemplative times and breaks in my own writing are Science Fiction and Time Travel. Countless episodes of the original Star Trek played on my family’s television in years past, and I marveled at the way my mind conjured so many “what ifs” and “hows” as those voyages aired. English, Composition and History were always my favorite subjects, but the Sciences were hot on their heels. Though I've written multiple manuscripts, I haven’t yet been spurred to plot a Time Travel or Science Fiction novel. So many have mastered these genres, most especially Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L’Engle. The tales those two authors told totally engrossed their readers and nudged them to consider the existence of alternative universes and scientific breakthroughs. They created characters whose conflicts and thought processes mirrored and stimulated those of readers. In essence, they achieved the closest thing to perfection with their plotting and stories. I’ll always remain grateful to my parents and teachers for introducing me to these authors and so many others over the years. Reading, and reading often, is a pastime all writers should learn to tap as their best resource for recharging their own creativity. Will I ever write a Time Travel novel? Probably not. But I will continue reading them.

During my moments of pondering and plotting, I often mull what it would be like journeying back to some of my favorite periods in time. The Jazz Age. The Civil War. Antony and Cleopatra’s Rome. The Salem Witch Trials. The Summer of Love. Although I am a woman who totally embraces creature comforts, the history buff in me would relish an opportunity to travel back in time to witness firsthand the happenings of the historical periods previously listed. During my beloved mother’s bout with cancer, a battle she unfortunately lost, I longed for a chance to see into the future. To learn of medical breakthroughs that would save my mother’s life. I also wished I could have traveled back in time and perhaps spotted any clues as to my mother’s illness before it became inoperable and terminal. The futility of my yearnings was evident at the start. But the writer and wonderer in me granted those thoughts a rapt audience.

While leisurely soaks in fragrant bubbles, steaming mugs of espresso and cappucino, running water, electricity, internet and automobiles are fabulous, I would be willing to trade them for a time in order to explore yesteryears and future decades.

Readers, if you had an opportunity to travel backward or forward in time, to shun the trappings and creature comforts of our modern-day society, would you?

In the event you find this blog post a bit serious-minded, I’ll switch things up a bit and put this to you. What if the world/time period you had a chance to visit offered the bonus below? If you were guaranteed a return to your real, current world after a short time, would this make you consider a journey forward or back in time, or a journey to a world not yet discovered?








Wishing you all many happy reading moments,

Shawna Moore
TORMENTED -- Ellora's Cave (MUST-READ from Dark Angel reviews)
ROUGHRIDER -- Ellora's Cave Exotika
HELLE IN HEELS -- Ellora's Cave Exotika
TO HELLE AND BACK AGAIN -- Coming in 2009 to Ellora's Cave
Shawna's Myspace
Helle's Myspace

The Gee Spot

It's new cover time! I recently got the cover for my Red Sage Presents story, The Gee Spot, a reunion tale with a kinky twist. As always with Red Sage, I love the cover. The man on the cover is a perfect representation of my hero, A.J. I'm not sure about the release date for The Gee Spot, probably some time in the fall or winter of '09, so I'm including a short excerpt from the story. Enjoy The Gee Spot (or your own g-spot for that matter).

“Our last award recipient of the evening, Ms. Hayley Grant, single-handedly established The Gee Spot.”

The room erupted in laughter as Hayley’s cheeks grew warm. She clenched her teeth to hold her smile in place. She didn’t understand why his words affected her so deeply. She’d encountered every double entendre known to mankind. Why did she suddenly feel like a schoolgirl caught with her mom’s vibrator?

Jones waited for the chuckles to subside. “The Gee Spot, of course, is the hottest line of sex toys on the market. The company does most of its business online but has boutiques in London, Paris, and Rome, and has even arrived in Middle America with a new shop in a Kansas City mall.”

Hayley relaxed her grip on her napkin and exhaled as Jones reeled off her company’s impressive sales statistics. “Please give a round of applause to our fifth award recipient, Hayley Grant, the woman who insists on quality testing every item she sells.”

The blood thumped in Hayley’s ears, drowning out the applause. Who the hell did he think he was? She thought this recognition tonight would give her parity with the legitimate businesswomen in the room. A.J. Jones just skewered that with his insulting jokes.
She pushed away from the table and stumbled to her feet. The unsteadiness of her gait owed nothing to her five-inch heels. After tripping over the first step to the stage, she squared her shoulders. She’d tell A.J. Jones to take that award and use it as a butt plug. Her heels clicked across the stage until she faced him.

His gaze, hard beneath half-lidded eyes, tracked up and down her body. Power hung about him like a mantle, but she stoked the burning embers of her anger to prevent her from melting into a puddle at his feet.

While he handed her the award, a crystal pyramid, he extended his other hand. She gripped it in her best ball-breaking handshake and ground out through clenched teeth. “How dare you make a fool of me?”

His large hand engulfed hers as he squeezed back, but it didn’t hurt. Instead his firm grip sent a river of sweet honey coursing through her veins. His eyes dropped to her chest, which rose and fell. Her traitorous nipples hardened and poked against the silk fabric of her dress.

A smile curved his full lips, and Hayley drew in a quick breath. He knew. Some sensor in his eyes tracked every response in her body.

He dropped her hand and placed his fingertips on the swell of her hip, one finger, like the hot iron of a brand, resting on her bare back. He nudged her against his body so they could face the camera together.

As his fingers skimmed down her hipline, no doubt noting the absence of panties, edible or otherwise, he ducked his head, his whisper caressing her earlobe.

“How dare I? Just my way of getting even with Hayley Grant, bitch princess of Monroe High School.”

Ellie Marvel & Megan's Choice... an unusual erotic romance

Today I'm talking to Ellie Marvel about her new book out from Red Sage Presents.

Megan Malone, the quadrant’s fastest zip ship pilot, is overworked, overtired and craves the surf, sun and sex of a paradise planet vacation. When her employer receives an urgent commission from the government requesting Megan’s services on a diplomatic mission, she’s all set to refuse--especially when she finds out her domineering ex-lover Yusef Gunnen will be part of that mission.

Nicole: Welcome, Ellie! You have a new and unusual book out this month with Red Sage (with a sexy cover.) Congratulations! Please tell us about Megan's Choice and what makes it different from most erotic romances?

Ellie: Megan's Choice is a futuristic erotic romance with a space ship pilot heroine. That part isn't unusual, but the fact it's structured like a choose your own adventure story is a bit out there. In a good way, I hope. At the end of each scene, the reader gets to tell Megan what (or who!) to do. I noticed Red Sage had described it in some promo material as "One Story--Nine Endings!" and I think that's pretty cool.

Nicole: Wow, that is amazing! You are so creative! Do you have reviews you could share with us?

Ellie: None for Megan yet. I'm busily trying to rectify this error. If any interested reviewers are reading this, for example...

Nicole: Come on, reviewers! Please help Ellie out! What was the most difficult thing about writing this story?

Ellie: Fine-tuning the continuity from thread to thread almost did my editor at Red Sage and me in. Seriously! I wanted the story to be believable and fleshed out no matter which path was chosen, so all the heroine's story arcs had to be hinted at in earlier scenes but not so much that the story could only have one possible resolution. IE, no guns on the mantel unless each story arc could deal with the gun in some fashion.

Nicole: You're a brave lady for tackling such a complex project! I admire you! What is your favorite thing about this story?

Ellie: I loved how easy it was to write. This may seem to contradict the previous question, but writing the rough draft of Megan was like playing a highly entertaining game. What should happen next, this or this? Oh, heck, how about both? The story really became about Megan as a character and how she responded in various situations, situations I might not have been able to put her in believably if I'd stuck with a linear plot.

Nicole: Easy?? I'll take your word for it. :) It certainly does sound like fun! And so is this excerpt.

And here is a very interesting age 18+ excerpt. (Wonder what Megan will do when a hot guy shows up?? Decisions, decisions.)

Where to buy.

Thanks for being our guest today, Ellie! This has been fun!

Friends are Like Books -- You Can Never Have Too Many

Recently I received a wonderful post-Christmas present. A present that will last longer than anything purchased in a retail store or online. Why is this? Because my present came in the form of a friend. A childhood friend I haven’t seen since high-school graduation. She and her lovely family were visiting relatives in our hometown and spending a week, and this gave us plenty of time for catching up on life and happenings over the years. Over coffee and chocolate we revisited lots of happy times and planned future get-togethers. Many laughs and some tears later, goodbyes were said and their plane took off. Good news and great moments come in many ways, but the times spent with friends are priceless and precious and far too few. As my friend is an avid fiction reader, we also chatted about books we’ve read countless times, some often enough we could recite certain passages as though we’d written them. While she’s read volumes of Shakespeare so many times the thought of her “classic” passion makes my head spin, I spoke of my fondness of the writings of Fitzgerald, Harper Lee and Tennessee Williams among others. We agreed those collections of novels are possessions with which we’d never part. After all, we’d read them during times of pregnancy, losses of loved ones, road trips, family vacations—events running the gamut of our girlhood and womanhood. We’d no more lose these books than we’d toss our favorite shoes, handbags, chocolate and coffee out for the trashman. Our books grew right along with us and often lifted us from sorrow or transported us to a more comfortable place when the world around us closed in at an alarming pace.

Friendship is a topic I explore in many of the forty-seven manuscripts I’ve written. In my romantic suspense novel, ROUGHRIDER, Kimberly Taylor seeks out her childhood friend and returns to a town where she hopes to slay some sexual demons. Jack Dodson is a former rodeo champion who’s shifted into a more stable lifestyle and is co-managing a ranch in Texas. He prefers a bit of solitude while Kimberly’s seeking sexual adventures.

Rabid curiosity clashes with criminal minds and escalates the drama in a small town where love and loyalties are harder won than any rodeo trophies.





Click here for a full excerpt and more information



Watch the videos, read the reviews and a steamy excerpt here

Do you find yourself reading certain book favorites again and again? Share some of your most-read novels with us, readers.

Wishing you all many happy reading moments,

Shawna Moore
TORMENTED -- Ellora's Cave (MUST READ from Dark Angel Reviews)
ROUGHRIDER -- Ellora's Cave
HELLE IN HEELS -- Ellora's Cave
TO HELLE AND BACK AGAIN -- Coming in 2009 to Ellora's Cave
Shawna's Myspace
Helle's Myspace

Duchess of Devonshire - A Regency Menage a Trois

I had been waiting to see the movie, The Duchess , ever since it came out last fall. However, as I’m in a house full of men, I didn’t get the opportunity to see it when it was in theaters. So I was thrilled to discover it in my local Blockbuster when I went in to return my previous rentals, Mama Mia! and Animal House.

Before the movie came out, I was already familiar with the story of the Devonshires. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire traveled to Bath where Georgiana, the Duchess, met Lady Elizabeth (Bess) Foster. They became instant friends and confidantes. Upon hearing of Bess’s difficulties with her husband (he was threatening to keep her children from her), Georgiana invited Bess to stay with her and the Duke at their home. What resulted was a ménage a trois that lasted over 20 years and included numerous affairs and illegitimate children.

My love of Regency set romances, especially the novels of Georgette Heyer, introduced me to the Duchess of Devonshire and I began to read little snippets about her on the Internet. So when I heard about the movie, based on the Amanda Foreman book, I was all over that. A friend and fellow soccer mom, also a Heyer aficionado, saw the movie the first week it was released. She loved it. And then she saw it again and made me want to see it even more.

So I watched the movie on Sunday night with my husband, who left the room several times and ended up browsing the Internet on the laptop (I knew I wouldn't be able to drag him to see this in the theaters). I loved it—the clothes, the furnishings, the houses, the hair and the hats! All of the elements of an historical drama were there, but ultimately it’s a story about character and a woman very much a part of her time but trapped by its restrictions. Keira Knightley did an exceptional job as the Duchess and Ralph Fiennes created a very cold Duke, who even manages to elicit a little sympathy. (My friend thought he was very sympathetic, but I won’t go that far. I’ll have to watch it again.)

In an interesting twist, Princess Di was a descendent of Georgiana, and their lives have some eerie similarities. I believe at one point the tagline for the movie was something like, "There were three people in her marriage," which is similar to something Diana said in an interview after her divorce from Prince Charles.

And then to make things even more interesting, I was picking up my son from the library today after school and walked by the table with the books for sale. The very first book I saw was Amanda Foreman’s, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire! So of course I bought the book for one dollar. I’ve already taken a peek, and there are some wonderful photos and pictures in the book. I can’t wait to read it, although I’ll have to await that pleasure while I read my Rita books first. That’s a subject for another blog.