Category: Writing Life

Book Week in Review: Barbara Vey, Lady Jane’s & the RT Con

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With PW Blogger @BarbaraVey at the RT BOOKLovers Convention Book Fair.

This past week was rather…full. Or better yet, replete with lots of great opportunities to meet and interact with fellow writers and readers in both Milwaukee and Chicago.

Kicking off the fun fest was PW blogger Barbara Vey with her first Annual Readers’ Appreciation Luncheon in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. More than 200 readers and 38 authors including Cathy Maxwell, Roxanne St. Claire and Yours Truly congregated at the Oak Creek Community Center for a lovely catered luncheon. Heather Graham gave the fun keynote talk, regaling us with true tales far stranger than any fiction.

Tempting cupcakes by author Dianna Love.

More than 38 author-donated raffle and door prizes were awarded including my “Tote of Tempting Treats” filled with an ARC of the Tempting audiobook and other goodies. Lastly, the guest authors signed our for sale books. Didn’t make it this year? No worries. Barbara’s already set the date for next year’s luncheon: April 27, 2013, location TBA. Indeed the sell-out event was so successful that next year’s will require an even larger venue. Way to go, Barbara!

 

Then it was off to Naperville, a Chicago suburb, for my guest reading at our satellite Salon, Lady Jane’s Salon Naperville. Founded by romance authors Tracey Devlyn and Adrienne Giordano in February 2012, the Salon is held every other month in the loft of Le Chocolat, a lovely local chocolate patisserie and coffee bar in downtown Naperville.

My table at Barbara Vey's Luncheon.

Just a few months’ old, the Salon already boasts a robust following of romance readers and writers. The April 10th event hosted five guest authors: Laurie London, Traci Hall, Tracey Devlyn (reading her romance debut, A Lady’s Revenge, Book #1 in the Nexus series), Cherry Adair, and yes, me, reading from Tempting. To learn more about the Naperville satellite and “Celebrate Differences,” the recipient charity, visit their website.

 

Another Tempting tote was a charity raffle prize at Lady Jane's Naperville.

Last but in no way least came the RT BOOKLovers Convention. Highlights of the con included the Thursday E-Book & Graphic Novel Expo, workshops and panel talks by authors representing every Shade of Gray (so to speak) of romantic fiction, a mind boggling array of theme parties and costume events, and of course the renowned giganormous Saturday Book Fair, open to the public as well as convention attendees.

But there is indeed no place like home. After a week of glamor–or at least makeup, “real” clothes, and daily hair washings–I returned home to New York on Sunday evening pleasantly weary and wonderfully… replete, happy and blessed to be back to this writing life of sweat clothes’ wearing and copious cat cuddling and sitting down every day to write the books of my heart.

At the RT Book Fair with @LenGunnModel, Mr. Romance 2011

April Lady Jane’s Salon

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Join us for our next Lady Jane’s Salon as we welcome spring with guest authors Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cara Elliott and Suzanne Brockmann reading from their latest releases. Event sponsor: Little Black Dress Vodka.

Admission: $5 or one donated romance novel. Net proceeds support an end-of-year donation to a NYC women’s charity.

Lady Jane’s meets on the first Monday of the month unless otherwise noted, 7-9PM, at Madame X (Top Tier).

Guest authors’ books available for sale and signing on-site.

Please note our new website at www.LadyJaneSalonNYC.com.

Never been to a Lady Jane’s Salon!?! Check out our latest press goodness in STARRING NYC.

 

March Lady Jane’s Salon

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Join me for this Monday’s Lady Jane’s Salon on Monday, March 5th, 7-9PM at Madame X. Along with hosting, I’ll be reading from Tempting and sharing the Salon stage with three great guest readers Lisa Dale, Kate McMurray, and Sarah MacLean.

Admission: $5 or one gently used paperback romance novel to benefit a NYC women’s charity.

Cash bar with $5 drink specials.

Salon ends at 9PM.

Amazon, IPG & My Men of Roxbury House

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Earlier in the week, Amazon and the Independent Publishers Group (IPG), a Chicago-based book distributor that provides print and electronic books to retailers such as Amazon, broke off contract negotiations. The sticking point has to do with the terms impacting profit margins for e-books. Those who care to can read more about the situation as reported by the New York Times blog.

Amazon has removed all its Kindle order links for e-books distributed by IPG, including those for my Men of Roxbury House trilogy: Vanquished, Enslaved and Untamed.  Note: the print versions of all three books remain available for purchase on the site.

But as in any good romance novel, all is not lost, not unless we let it be. You can still purchase  my trilogy e-books through Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store, Apple’s iTunes, Google Books, Sony’s Reader Store, and other online retailers. And Kindle Fire users can download the titles by using almost any e-reader app and purchasing the EPUB and PDF editions from the aforementioned retailers. Below are the direct order links:

Vanquished for Nook

Vanquished for iTunes

Vanquished for Google Books

Vanquished for Sony

***

Enslaved for Nook

Enslaved for iTunes

Enslaved for Google Books

Enslaved for Sony

***

Untamed for Nook

Untamed for iTunes

Untamed for Google Books

Untamed for Sony

And of course, Tempting, republished this month as a digital-first book, remains available everywhere. 🙂

Some days we have to work a little harder for our Happily Ever After but the rainbow at the end remains just as bright.

Hope

New Contest! Victorian Goodness Galore

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To celebrate the digital release of my Victorian-set TEMPTING as well as February as Valentine’s month, I am launching a new contest now through February 29th.

To qualify, you must:

–Purchase one ebook copy of TEMPTING, currently available on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and ARe for just 99 cents.

–Leave a comment here (as in this original blog post, not on Facebook etc.) with your ebook order confirmation number for TEMPTING included. A simple, “Just bought it!” with the order confirmation number will suffice although longer comments are of course welcome. 🙂

Prizes: one signed copy of one of my back list paperback romances (winner picks based on availability) and a signed copy of my buddy and fellow Lady Jane’s Salon Co-Founder, Leanna Renee Hieber’s delicious Gaslight Era New York City-set paranormal YA, DARKER STILL.

Other deets: Contest closes on February 29th at 12:00 midnight EST. One prize winner will be randomly selected and announced on or close to March 1, 2012. Books will be mailed out as soon as I receive your mailing address information (off-line, of course!) and verification of TEMPTING e-book purchase.

Happy Month o’ Hearts & Flowers,

Hope

Tempting’s Second Chance at Love

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Anyone who’s read my romance novels, historical or contemporary likely knows how I adore second chance at love stories. The opportunity to get things right the second time around, what’s not to love?

First published by Berkley/Jove in 2002, TEMPTING was nominated for a RT BOOK Reviews Award for Best Unusual Historical and was featured on NBC’s Today Show. I also received a lovely cover quote from Susan Wiggs, one of my favorite authors. It was…quite a year!

It is with the greatest pleasure that I release the “new and improved” digital-first version of TEMPTING. I say “new and improved” because I’ve had the leisure—and additional decade of writing experience—to edit the book so that it more closely reflects what I always meant for it to be.

The book of my heart.

To celebrate February as the host month for Valentine’s, and to thank my readers for more than a decade of loving support, I am offering TEMPTING for just 99 cents now through February 29th. The book is available for purchase on Kindle, Smashwords and All Romance Ebooks (ARe). (Nook version coming soon!)

I hope you enjoy TEMPTING, Christine Tremayne and Simon Belleville’s unusual love story. Please look for their very special cameo appearance in VANQUISHED, the first in my Men of Roxbury House Victorian-set trilogy. For now…

Happy Month of Hearts & Flowers,

Hope

Lady Jane’s Third Birthday Bash, Oh What a Night!

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Lady Jane's Salon Co-founders, Leanna Renee Hieber & Hope. Not pictured, co-founders Ron Hogan & Maya Rodale.

M/our Lady Jane’s Salon, NYC’s first and only monthly romance reading series, turned the Big 0-3 last night, and we pulled out all the stops and then some to celebrate Her Ladyship’s special night.

Guest authors were S.b. Sarah Wendell, Lauren Willig, and Eloisa James!

As in previous years, we made our annual End of Year donation to Women-in-Need.

Chambord Vodka champagne cocktails were the perfect way to toast three very sweet years--and counting!

We also took the opportunity to congratulate our three satellite salons in Denver, Raleigh-Durham and, most recently, Naperville (Chicago area). The latter launches tonight, February 7th. Congratulations ladies–and gentlemen!

Chambord Vodka sponsored the event with fun promo giveaways–iPhone caddies, mints, and hats–and complimentary cocktails served for our birthday toast.

Thanks to our guest authors and attendees, to my Salon Co-founders Leanna Renee, Maya and Ron for making Lady Jane’s an event to which I never fail to look forward, to Chambord Vodka for being a great birthday sponsor, and lastly (but in no way least-ly) to Amy, Karen, Alex and the great staff at our beloved host venue in Soho, Madame X for three great years–and counting.

Guests & Co-Founders take a bow. From left to right, Sarah Wendell, Eloisa James, Lauren Willig, Alyssa Montoya of W-I-N (foreground), Ron Hogan, Leanna Renee Hieber & Me!

Year #4, here we come!

Hope

 

 

 

 

A LONG FATAL LOVE CHASE & Lady Jane’s

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A hasty, ill-advised marriage to a fiendish rake, a doomed devotion between a handsome young priest and the lovely, desperate girl he’s befriended…

No, not Collen McCullough’s THE THORN BIRDS but A LONG FATAL LOVE CHASE by Louisa May Alcott.

Written in 1866 a few years before Alcott’s revered classic, LITTLE WOMEN, A LONG FATAL LOVE CHASE was never published in Alcott’s lifetime. Deemed “too sensational” (translation: too risque) by her male publisher, the book was shelved among her private papers for more than a century and only rediscovered and published in the 1990’s.

As a middle school student, I adored LITTLE WOMEN and well, A LONG FATAL LOVE CHASE is not it. Written for serialization to keep the author’s perennially impoverished family of Transcendentalist intellectuals out of the poorhouse, the book is more penny dreadful than great novel. Still, the themes Alcott addresses–stalking, spousal abuse, bigamy, and a woman’s right to independence and freedom–resonate with a raw contemporary clarity.

As the title suggests, A LONG FATAL LOVE CHASE doesn’t end happily. Despite the every other chapter cliffhanger (it was meant to be serialized), the only true suspense is for whom the chase will prove fatal. The hastily pulled together ending answers that with no real surprises, leaving the reader not so much satisfied as relieved. Like Alcott’s heroine, Rosamund, we too are weary and ready for the chase to end.

Still, A LONG FATAL CHASE is worth a read for Alcott fans as well as fans of 19th century “women’s” literature, a literary tradition that still fascinates and inspires us today. For a wonderful paranormal YA Victorian Gothic romance in the tradition of Oscar Wilde’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (only with a happy ending!), read DARKER STILL by my Lady Jane’s Salon co-founder, Leanna Renee Hieber.

And for a fun and informative treatise on romance novels throughout the centuries, check out my other Lady Jane’s Salon co-founder, Maya Rodale’s, new nonfiction e-book, DANGEROUS BOOKS FOR GIRLS.

Speaking of Lady Jane’s, do join us on Monday, February 6th, 7-10PM at Madame X, for Lady Jane’s Third Anniversary Salon. It’s our third year birthday bash and we’re celebrating with our usual lineup of fabo readers including S.b. Sarah Wendell, Lauren Willig, and Eloisa James! Special EOY contribution to our charitable recipient, Women-in-Need. Sponsors: Chambord Vodka (“Pink Your Drink”) and Beatrice.com.

Happy Month of Hearts & Flowers,

Hope

 

Blast from the Past Video

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OK, so I was dutifully reading Google’s new Privacy Policy Alert, an action clearly undertaken to avoid line edits on my Work in Progress, when I unearthed this blast from the past 2007 video interview on my then new book, STROKES OF MIDNIGHT.

The video, made by Pacific TV for the Romance Writers of America NYC Chapter, was shot back in 2007. Like the romance novelist heroine of STROKES OF MIDNIGHT, Becky Stone AKA Rebecca St. Claire, I too was coming to New York City with Big Dreams.

And like my fictional Becky, five years later, I’m happy to report that most of those Big Dreams have come true. So have some new ones.

As for those bangs, let’s just say I’m glad it’s 2012 in all kinds of ways. 🙂

STROKES OF MIDNIGHT is available as an e-book for Kindle and Nook users.

Happy New Year, Happy New Beginnings

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TEMPTING, releasing as an audio and ebook Feb/March 2012.

I’d like to start by sharing one of my favorite quotes by another romance writer you may have heard of, Mary Ann Evans.

“You’re never too old to be who you might have been.” –George Elliot.

You tell ’em, Mary Ann.

2011 was, in many ways the year in which seeds were sewn for me. Among those, I revived a former second writing career as a travel and freelance features writer. Despite getting a late start, I had ten articles published with EuropeUpClose, WETA’s inReads (interview with Nora Roberts) and RT BOOKReviews Magazine (interview with Julia Quinn), to hit the highlights.

Now 2012 is off to a rock n’ roll start. Check out my Step-by-Step Guide to Visiting Peru’s Machu Picchu published just this month by uber savvy travel site, BootsnAll.

On the romance front, my co-founded monthly romance fiction reading salon, Lady Jane’s, will celebrate its third anniversary (and counting) on  Monday, February 6th at our beloved Madame X. Deets forthcoming but for now, know that with Eloisa James and Sarah Wendell (guest emcee) joining us its going to be quite the par-tay!

My award-winning Victorian-set romance novel, TEMPTING, will enjoy a second life early this year as both an audio and digital release. Please check back for specifics including the links.

Lastly, I have a new Facebook Author page, which will soon replace my profile page, fast approaching FB’s 5,000 friends’ limit. If you haven’t already, please take two ticks to “Like” me. 🙂

The winter holiday season may be ended but there’s no reason the “gifts” can’t keep coming. In that spirit, I wish you…

A 2012 filled with fairy tale dreams come true,

Hope