Book Blog – Page 59 – Tawdra Kandle

Authors, Readers and Boundaries in this Brave New World

February 19, 2015 No Comments

I’m an indie author, and proudly so. I can’t imagine making this journey any other way, because it works for me. It doesn’t mean it’s anyone else’s best choice, but it’s definitely mine.

That being said, it’s not difficult to see the shifts in the landscape of publishing, both positive and negative. I love being in control of my own career. I can publish as much or as little as I choose. I can have the book covers I want, and I can write the characters and story lines I want. I’m my own boss.

Some of the negatives have been slow to develop, but they’re here. I’ve noticed that some readers–none of mine, who are perfect in every way–but some out there have begun to feel that they have the right to dictate to authors what they should and should not write. . .which book should be written before another one. . .which character should live and die.

I’m not sure why exactly this change has come about, but I have a theory. Once upon a time, authors were reclusive creatures. You might write a letter to a favorite author, or you might meet her at a book signing, but there was rarely time or opportunity to share your own take on her plot lines. But here we are in the 21st century, where most authors are on social media, have email addresses available to the public and often post very personal information. Readers feel closer to authors. And in one sense they are; I like my readers very much, and I enjoy what they share with me. As I’ve said before, my readers are perfect. But I see it, and I’ve heard about it.

I like feedback, and I welcome readers’ input. But there is a line. The characters may live out in the book world, but they were born in my head, and that’s where all the magic happens. I’m sorry if some of their actions or decisions aren’t what all readers want, but that’s how it happened, I promise you.

I think the inimitable Nora Roberts captured this perfectly in her recent blog post. It’s called, appropriately enough, Bite Me.

I’m not Nora, I’ll never be Nora, and I would never, ever dare to suggest that I know anything about what she’s experienced. But I see the trend, and not just with the lovely Ms. Roberts. I see it creeping in everywhere.

I’m not unsympathetic. Heck, if you want the full truth, in the course of my reading lifetime, I wanted Bella not to turn into a vampire (or have a baby, but that’s another story), I wanted Dumbledore not to die, I wanted Claire not to leave 18th century Scotland, and I wanted Rhett not to walk out on Scarlett. But I understood that the story wasn’t mine, and I had to accept the decisions of the author.

(Now, when it comes to a TV show, like, say, How I Met Your Mother, all bets are off. The real ending was not what we saw last spring. I’m sure of it.)

The bottom line is that writers have the right to control the destiny of their own characters without influence or harassment from others. It’s one of our job perks. And if you mess around with us, no worries. . .we’ll just write you into the book. And probably kill you off. Horribly.

😉

Book Blog, Promotion and Publicity

Your Next Best #Erotica Read

February 13, 2015 No Comments

So you read the book.

Saw the movie.

What now?

We have the perfect answer.

In fact, we have fifteen perfect answers.

Join us as we share with you what to read after Fifty Shades.

Oh, and count on some naughty fun and some giveaways, too.

Fifteen hot authors bringing you stories with sizzle and heart. . .

It’s just what you need.

Kick-off Facebook Event

Friday, February 13th 2-10 PM EST

Want to check out some of this steamy goodness?

We’re offering a FREE sampler book here.

Meet the authors. . .

Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and three equally special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, and a lover of romance. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very active imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

Follow Lia here: Website/Facebook/Facebook Fan Club/Twitter and sign up for her newsletter.

Colette Gale is the pen name of an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who’s written more than two dozen novels in a variety of genres. Her books have been translated into more than eight languages worldwide, and are regulars on the bestseller lists.

Follow Colette here: Facebook/Twitter

Layla Wilcox is a native New Yorker. She writes about strong women who like all things hot: weather, food, and men–and not necessarily in that order.

When not writing erotic romances, Layla enjoys watching entire seasons of old television series on Amazon Prime while eating homemade vegan pizza, followed by dark chocolate.

Follow Layla here: Facebook/Twitter/Google Plus and sign up for her newsletter.

Juli Valenti grew up in a small town in Arkansas, known for Wal-mart, which is no longer small but is still known for the grocery store. Lucky for her, she didn’t retain an accent, despite her overuse of ya’ll when talking. She currently resides in sunny Florida with her husband and two young boys. If her world wasn’t crazy enough, she also works a full time day job, as well as owns her own editing company (Juli’s Elite Editing).

Follow Juli here: Facebook/Website

After many years spent onstage mouthing the words of other writers, Jenna Barton found her voice while playing with an online community of mouthy broads. Writing down her own stories proved to be far more satisfying than dodging the human and inanimate hazards that come with backstage life, and it alleviated the need to walk and talk and gesture while inhabiting 89.37% of someone else’s reality.
Mostly settled into a life of carpool lanes and checkout lines, Jenna happily resides in suburbia with her husband and their two children. Sadly, there are no drooly, furry, corpulent lapdogs at Chez Barton. For now. For. Now.

Follow Jenna here: Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/Tsu

Jayne Rylon is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She received the 2011 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Indie Erotic Romance. Her stories used to begin as daydreams in seemingly endless business meetings, but now she is a full time author, who employs the skills she learned from her straight-laced corporate existence in the business of writing. She lives in Ohio with two cats and her husband, the infamous Mr. Rylon. When she can escape her purple office, she loves to travel the world, avoid speeding tickets in her beloved Sky, and–of course–read.

Follow Jayne here: Facebook/Twitter/Tsu/Newsletter
Online Shop – Autographed Books, Ebooks and Reading Apparel

LILI VON is the pseudonym of a bestselling contemporary and paranormal romance novelist. But Lili has a naughty little secret. She loves sex. She reads it, she writes it and if she’s lucky, she gets it. Soft or hard, fast or slow, hot or wild.

A thirty-something married woman, Lili likes erotic stories with substance. She believes in sex with a connection. The stories she writes are about unique couples in unconventional situations.

Follow Lili here:

Find Lili online: Facebook/Twitter/Website/Newsletter
Email: LiliVonWriter@gmail.com

Emma Fallon is a southern girl with a penchant for long nights under the stars with hot men. She writes and reads erotic romance and has a special weakness for historical erotica. She can be enticed to do just about anything. . .as long as there’s chocolate involved.

Follow Emma here: Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Website/Amazon/Newsletter

K.M. Scott is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of erotic contemporary romance. In love with sexy, intense, unforgettable love, she writes stories that stay with readers long after they finish her books. Under her Gabrielle Bisset name, she writes erotic paranormal romance too for readers who love the supernatural in their sexiness. K.M. lives in Pennsylvania with her teenage son and a herd of pets (she can’t say no to strays).

Follow K.M. here: Facebook/Twitter/Website/Newsletter

Ava Branson is a native Floridian, born and raised. She grew up in a boating family on the Atlantic coast and had sand between her toes from birth. A ten year span spent living in Colorado taught her a love and appreciation of the mountains, but the ocean called her back home and Florida is where she settled raising two children and any number of cats.

When she’s not writing (which is rare) she’s thinking of stories to write (which is always) and just hopes to be able to share a fraction of the countless romances she has dreamed up with readers.

Follow Ava here: Website/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest

Michelle Fox lives in the Midwest with her husband, kids, the occasional exchange student and two, sweetly disobedient, dogs. In her spare time, she’s been known to shake her bon-bon at Zumba, make spectacular cheesecakes, hoard vintage costume jewelry and eat way too much ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Karamel Sutra for the win!).

Follow Michelle here: Blog/Michelle Fox FB Group/Michelle Fox FB Page/Twitter/Tsu/Goodreads/Newsletter (free read for new subscribers)

ARIANNE RICHMONDE IS THE USA TODAY bestselling author of Stolen Grace, and the Pearl Series books: Shades of Pearl, Shadows of Pearl, Shimmers of Pearl, Pearl, and Belle Pearl – all full length novels. The first three books in the series are also available in one trilogy bundle/box set as The Pearl Trilogy. She has also written The Star Trilogy – a Hollywood romance – Shooting Star, Falling Star, and Shining Star. And also Glass- a provocative short story, which is currently being extended as a trilogy, The Glass Trilogy. Book 1 Shards of Glass, is available for preorder, releasing Feb 17th.

She lives with her husband and coterie of animals in France. She loves to travel and meet people and is thrilled that her books have touched readers from all parts of the globe.

Follow Arianne here: Facebook/Twitter/Website/Goodreads

Lyra Parish loves to write, glamp, and sing obnoxiously loud at the top of her lungs in the shower. Sweet love stories (along with the dirty ones) make her gush. She is a firm believer that a person can never have too many cups of coffee, cats or happily ever afters. When she isn’t busy writing, she can be found sipping various beverages from her non-alcoholic drink buffet, pimp slapping excel spreadsheets, or riding her bike. Lyra lives in Texas with her glassblowing, guitar-playing hubby and black cat named Nibbler.

Follow Lyra here: Twitter/Facebook/Website

USA Today bestselling author Chelle Bliss is an American author who writes stories about real-life scenarios with fantasy Alpha males. Her works include humor as well as steamy sex.

Follow Chelle here: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Newsletter

Eve Adams has been writing erotic fiction since the days of original sin. She believes that love is love, exploring sex and relationships between men, women and everything in between. Queen of Hearts is the first book in the Four of Hearts series. With Eve Adams books, you get temptation on every page.

Follow Eve here: Tumblr/Facebook/Twitter

Book Blog, Promotion and Publicity

Cover Reveal

February 13, 2015 No Comments

Releases March 30, 2015 – Available NOW for PreOrder!

Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
| Smashword

Sometimes the road you’re on is just a detour to your heart’s
destination…
Kay Rawley has plans. She might be the second child of an earl, but she wants a life away from her
father’s estate in New Durma. She wants a life apart from her family’s name. Becoming a lawyer was a
bright, shiny object she just couldn’t resist grabbing. Her classes are complete, and all she has to do is
pass the bar to get permanent employment at the Dallas law firm where she’s been interning for the
past year.
Kay’s been on Audrick Van Buren’s radar since the day she walked into his classroom two years ago. That
admiration only grew when she came to work for his firm. But if there’s anything he recognizes, it’s a
woman who’s driven–and Kay is definitely one. It’s all he can do to keep his distance and allow her the
chance to come into her own. What Van doesn’t know is that someone else is watching Kay, too, and if
he doesn’t step between them, that person might not only derail her career but threaten her very life.
Things aren’t always what they seem, and Kay’s about to learn that the best laid plans are
so much better when they go astray.

Book Blog, The King Series, The Serendipity Duet

Notes from the Asylum: Nell Speaks

February 5, 2015 9 Comments

Our favorite villain from The King Series is Nell. This conversation took place at the asylum where she was placed at the end of FEARLESS. . .before the beginning of BREATHLESS. Take it away, Nell.

Dr. Cramer: Good morning, Nell. I’m glad you could be with me today.

Nell: Oh, yes. Because I had a choice.

Dr. Cramer: You always have a choice, Nell. Let’s talk about what happened in the woods that day in King.

Nell: Why?

Dr. Cramer: Because it’s the key event that brought you here to our fine facility.

Nell: Fine. But you’re not going to believe me anyway.

Dr. Cramer: Try me.

Nell: Okay. It’s your hour, after all.

Dr. Cramer: So you’d had a run-in with. . .(looks at notes). . .uh, Tasmyn. And you were unhappy with the lack of resolution.

Nell: I was unhappy with the lack of the blood sacrifice I’d planned. Amber was meant to die, to give me the power jolt I needed. To prove to Marica that I was worthy of her time, when she’d started paying too much attention to Tasmyn.

Dr. Cramer: So you say. You planned to murder this other girl? This Amber?

Nell: Murder is such an ugly word. I planned to use her to facilitate the blood sacrifice. Yes, her survival would’ve been. . .doubtful. But it never happened because Michael and Tasmyn came flying in to save the day. And it was a little while after that I begin to suspect what Tasmyn can do.

Dr. Cramer: And just what did you think Tasmyn could do?

Nell: I know what she can do. She can read minds. Or hear them. Whatever. So I gave her a red herring–making her think I was going to hurt her precious boyfriend Michael–and she fell for it.

Dr. Cramer: How did she fall for it, exactly?

Nell: She left school early and was heading to the clearing the forest, but I waylaid her before that. I knocked her on the head outside of school, took her to the clearing, and used her for the ritual. It was going to be perfect, because she had power, where Amber had none. I was going to drink deep from what she had to offer. It was marvelous.

Dr. Cramer: But that didn’t happen, either.

Nell: No, because Michael came to her rescue again, and so did her other two friends. I might’ve overpowered them, too–I had Michael on the ground, with my knife at his throat–but that stupid Cara brought her father, and he. . .he did something. He had some kind of power, something I’d never felt before. Anyway, they got me. And then you got me.

Dr. Cramer: Nell, you don’t seem to have any regrets. No remorse.

Nell: I don’t.

Dr. Cramer: How can you hope to progress if you don’t see what you did was deeply wrong?

Nell: I don’t hope to progress. I hope to get the hell out of this place and go finish what I started.

Dr. Cramer: Nell, this is a very secure facility, and I don’t think there’s any way you could ever–gah! What’s that? Fire! (runs to doorway) Security! (turns back to office) Nell, let me—Nell? Nell! Where’d she go? Security!

Featured Villains-

Bonnie R. Paulson – Maria’s come out to Play

John O’Riley – The Valituras

Pauline Creeden – Villian or AntiHero? Brad Harris from Sanctuary

Tawdra Kandle – Notes from the Asylum: Nell Speaks

Jill Cooper –Morach, Interrupted

Enter to win a Stamped Villain Bracelet

& 3 ecopies of

Must be 18+ Bracelet open to US residents and ebook open to wherever you can receive Amazon ebooks. a Rafflecopter giveaway

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blog, Love in a Small Town Series, Promotion and Publicity

Pre-Order Update Here!

January 19, 2015 2 Comments

THE FIRST ONE is coming soon. . .and if you enjoy reading about Ali and Flynn’s story, get ready for THE ONLY ONE, coming in April!

Stay tuned here for the pre-order links.

Meanwhile, you can pre-order THE FIRST ONE now, at Amazon, iBooks and Barnes and Noble.

Ali and Flynn were high school sweethearts. Eager to see the world and leave behind their small Georgia hometown, they’d planned for an exciting new life together after they finished school.

But on graduation day, only one of them hit the road.

Eight years down that road, an unexpected loss brings Flynn home again. He’s a big-shot photo journalist, and he’s made most of his plans reality. But he’s done it alone. Is it too late for his biggest dream to come true?

Ali’s spent those years working hard, raising a daughter and helping her brother keep their family farm alive. Thinking about Flynn and what might have been is a pain she tries to avoid. . .even when it’s impossible to forget.

Flynn’s return brings back feelings Ali thought were long dead and hopes she’d abandoned. Finding their way back to each other will change them forever, opening old wounds and stirring up memories.

Can the first love be the one that lasts forever?

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