An unscientific poll… and a prize!

I had some blog troubles yesterday, so I am late getting my post up.  Sorry about that!  But to make it up to you, I’m running a contest.  🙂  More on that in a minute…

I am so ready for some sunny days.  This cold gray stuff is getting me down.  We were in Gatlinburg for part of the weekend.  Got to see Anna and Chris for a bit – they had brought their youth group from the church in Murfreesboro…

Charles took a few of them on a hike to Baskins Creek Falls… as you can see, it was almost completely frozen over.  I really wanted to go… it is only 3 miles, but my hubby laid down the law and said “no”!  My knee is lots better (post surgery), but I still have trouble on uneven ground, so I guess he’s right.  Doesn’t mean I have to like it!    🙂

 So here are the deets on today’s contest.  There are no right or wrong answers… this is a poll.  You may only give me your top answer for each question (even if you like both)… but if you want to elaborate, that would be great.  All these questions are in relationship to romance novels – of course!  I’ll leave the poll up until Sunday evening – I’ll draw a name from all the commenters around nine that evening EST, and I’ll post the winner on the loop. I’ll also try to tabulate the poll results and announce those.

 Here are the questions you need to answer to be entered…

1) Historical or contemporary

2) Reality or fantasy

3) Serious or funny

4) Kids or no kids

5) 1st person or 3rd person

6) Explicit or tame

7) Series or stand alone

8) 350 pages or 500 pages

9) City setting or rural

10) Tortured hero or tortured heroine

The prize has three parts – a pink long sleeve “Kiss Me” t-shirt (size XL) from Old Navy – this is more like a real shirt, so it’s not huge.  Next – a cute stretchable heart bracelet, and last but not least, a “Girl on the Go” mini travel kit.

 There you have it!  I know this will be hard for many of you, because you’ll want to say – well, it depends.  🙂  But for this poll to work, you can only give me you TOP answer.

I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Janice Maynard

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Counting Down!

Six Days!!!!

That’s how long until Cosmic Sex is available.  Woooo-Hoooooo!!!!! 

I really enjoyed writing this book.  Kia is a warrior without a war.  She lives on Nerak, the perfect planet, so of course there would be no wars.  When her cousin Mala leaves in search of something not quite so perfect (Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind), Kia knows she’ll have to bring her cousin back.  A wrong turn and a smelly truck driver put her on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas and in the middle of an undercover operation….and sexy Nick Scericino.  Let the battle of the sexes begin!

You can read an excerpt at: http://www.authorkarenkelley.com/cosmic.html

Have a Great Day!

Karen Kelley
Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind
Romantic Times Reviewer Choice Award finalist!
Cosmic Sex   January 29, 2008   Brava
www.authorkarenkelley.com
www.myspace.com/authorkarenkelley

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Favorite…and not so favorite…Themes

Are there some book themes that are auto-buys for you?

A topic that no matter who writes it or how crappie the cover you think ah-ha, it’s one of those and I have to have it now! And you start reading  while you’re still in the store, then you’re sitting on the floor and people are giving you the evil eye and tripping over you and you don’t care. I’ve been there.

I’m a sucker for love and laughter especially mixed with suspense. I’m okay with love and laughter on its own as long as it doesn’t drift into characters being stupid to get a laugh. That happens a lot and I hate, hate, hate stupid characters. They’re supposed to be heroes and heroines for Pete’s sake! Stupid doesn’t work.

And suspense by itself doesn’t work for me. So often it drifts into the gruesome or morbid or dark and I hate all those things too. But I love a good mystery. So, if you put the two together it’s an auto buy for me.

And I love, love, love cowboy themes and Southern themes. Not always an auto buy but sure makes me look twice. ‘Course if there’s humor involved then it’s a must-have and if there’s humor and suspense and in the South, well dang, girl!

And that brings us to what themes you won’t read no matter how many of your friends insist this is the best read ever! I cannot read horror no matter who writes it. Scares me to death, can’t sleep, double lock all the doors. After reading In Cold Blood I put heavy furniture in front of the back door for weeks! My husband and kids thought I was nuts…that’s because they didn’t read In Cold Blood!

And I can’t do vampires. I know, I know…there are lots of vamps out there that are humorous and have mystery but the neck biting thing just grosses me out no matter how gorgeous the neck-bitter is.

 http://www.romantictimes.com/books_themes.php

Here’s a link to RT’s theme page where they list the themes and the books that best represent the theme. They even talk about what is the appeal. Very fascinating stuff.

So, chickies, the question is…

What is your fav theme that you auto buy and what is the one theme that makes you squirm when you just think about it? I’ll give away a Hot and Bothered tote from the answers.

Thanks for playing!

Dianne Castell

www.DianneCastell.com

DianneCastell@hotmail.com

    

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Who Reads Romance…

UPDATED TO ADD… The Survey was temporarily down… fixed now!  If you haven’t taken it, please do! 

*copied from my personal blog*

Naturally, if you’re here, it’s most likely because you do read romance… I doubt my blog appeals to many, if any, outside the romance community.So I assume you do… but who are you?If you’ve been reading some of the articles & blogs that have popped up about the plagiarism issue recently, then you might have noticed that… as always… there’s a stigma associated with the romance genre. FYI~I generally don’t worry about the stigmas. They are there, getting mad doesn’t change it.

And besides… we know the stigmas are generally wrong.

You know the ones

• trashy
• full of nothing but sex
• only bored housewives read them
• smart women don’t read those
• women only read them because they dream about being the heroine
• they are some shameful secret to hide

Did I miss any of the important ones?

I know of at least (and this is just in my online acquaintances or my circle of friends) a bunch of secretaries/administrative assistants, two doctors, a ton of nurses, four or five lawyers, stay at home moms, bookstore employees & owners, EMTs, paramedics, nursing assistants, pharmacists, salespeople, teachers, website designers, business professionals, small business owners, accountants, department store employees… and yes, some housewives, but I can’t say they are bored housewives.

Kind of a wide audience, huh?

So tell me more… take the survey!

Click Here to take survey

And please… if something doesn’t work, let me know!

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It’s been a while… Thursday Thirteen…

13 Things about me I am 31 years old. I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’m a writer. Sometimes I’m a nurse. I take taekwondo… when the rottens aren’t too sick for me to go. (I’m tired of two months of one being sick, or one teething, or two getting sick…. sigh….) I have three paperbacks (one is an antho) coming out from Berkley this year. I have three coming out next year. I’m very often too talkative for my own good. I’m very often too opinionated for my own good. Someday, the DH and I would like to take the kids to Ireland. Sometime, we’d like to take them to Alaska. I finished up a book for Berkley this week and now I’m having nervous breakdowns. I’ve read some seriously scary crap online this week (and I’m not referring to blogs, messageboards, etc) You all ever seen some of the crap that come up when you try to research street drugs? SCARY! I’ve watched the Truman Show with Jim Carey twice this week. I’m really craving a glass of wine. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Please use Mr Linky for your links

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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Cold Winter Nights…

It’s that time of year, my chickies… time to get between the covers (of a book!) with some hot and hunky men.  Yummy heroes are in season any time of year, but what better opportunity to catch up on your “guy quota”, than by making January your “Men To Die For” month???

I’m planing to read a few more of the “In Death” series and get my Roarke fix.  And I also plan to dig into some of the wonderful historicals in my TBR pile. So many books and men… so little time…

 So tell me ladies… now that the nights are long, dark, and cold, what books are at the top of your TBR pile??

And yes – the photo above is shameless promotion!  The Perfect Ten came out a week and a half ago, and if you have a chance to pick it up, I hope you enjoy it!

And you know I have to talk about my two cutie pies… Christmas was lots of fun with little ones to add excitement!

 Don’t forget to let me know some books that are stacked up beside your bed!

Can’t wait to hear your recommendations…

 Janice  🙂

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My husband laughed when he saw this

He came up behind me right when I clicked submit and when he saw the answer… he laughed.

Now should I be insulted?

You Aren’t Cutthroat

You definitely have ambitions and drive, but you also have integrity. You’ll get where you want to in life, and you’ll do it the right way. For you, the ends never justify the means.

Are You Cutthroat?

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Winner…

Hey guys… sorry, I’m running behind drawing the winner’s name.  The winner of Patrice’s contest is

Crystal who commented

I do believe in fate. I think my husband and I getting together was fate. We knew each other years ago and had lost contact. My brother had forgotten to pay his water bill and my future husband came to collect the money and we were able to reconnect and had a whirlwind romance and got married. It has been almost 5 years now

Crystal, I need you to email me @ shilohwalker@gmail.com

Thanks to all who participated!

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Do you believe in fate? Guest Blog by Patrice Michelle

Fate, Kismet, Destiny…we all call the phrase “meant to be” by many different names, but as much as I like to believe I’m in control, I wonder if sometimes things do happen on their own and for reasons beyond our understanding. 🙂 I’ve written and published eleven books with a small publisher (including a vampire series and a cowboy series). Many things inspired each book: from songs to people to a ring, and yes, even secondary characters, who wouldn’t leave me alone until they got their own books. LOL!

But one story I wrote started out very different from my other novels. You see, I dreamed many parts that I included in the second chapter. A woman had been kidnapped by a man carrying a gun. They were being chased and shot at by other men. She knew the man who took her was very dark natured and could do things a normal man couldn’t do. Even though he’d taken her, he appeared to be trying to protect her as well. It was an intense, action-filled scene and as soon as I woke up, I started writing. In my dream, she intuitively knew he was a vampire. In the book I wrote, she didn’t, not right away. The entire world I wrote about, the characters, their wants, their dreams, their desires, their secrets, even the prophesy that leads them…was all inspired by a snippet of a dream, my wild imagination and my pen moving non-stop as I scribbled a story outline. From that story, two others were born.

So back to that fate thing…the story that was inspired by a dream? That’s the book I sold to a NY publisher. I’m so excited to see Scions: Resurrection finally on the shelves! I hope you’ll check it out if you’re in the mood for an action-adventure novel that features a dark, seductive vampire hero and a heroine who can hold her own. Excerpts and advance reviews are posted on my website.

What about you? Is there some event that happened in your life, even something seemingly small that made you stop for just a moment and wonder…do things sometimes happen for a reason?

I’ll give away a signed copy of Scions: Resurrection to be picked at random. Come on and share some stories. 🙂

Patrice
http://www.patricemichelle.net

~From Shi…. Contest winner’s name will be drawn and posted here in the next few days.  You do need to check back to win!

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Weird books

Heh. It just occurred to me that I have some seriously weird books on my shelves.  If somebody that didn’t know I wrote took a look at my shelves, they just might worry.

Especially the book, Deadly: The World’s Deadliest Everything

That’s definitely the weirdest one, but not the only one.

• Deadly: The World’s Deadliest Everything
• 50,001 Best Baby Names
• Wacky Laws, Weird Decisions and Strange Statutes
• The Writer’s Book of Matches

And would you believe they are all for research?

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