The HEA Cafe

Archive for February, 2008

Join us this Wednesday night from 9pm to 11pm EST for our first ever Valentine’s Day Party Chat. This is a holiday to celebrate love and since we’re all lovers of romance, it’s the holiday for us!
There will be prizes, including a box of Godiva chocolates and a sterling silver pair of gemstone earrings! Get ready to party and chat with our author guests on Wednesday night!

And some of our author book doorprizes,

We hope to see you there!
Link to the chat room,

http://www.rwaonlinechapter.org/chat.htm

~Marly and Jenna, RWA Online Chat Divas

I was just sitting down the other day, thinking about this upcoming year. It’s hard to believe how much is going on in our writing career! I didn’t really realize until I started to look at book covers and such just how many anthologies, novels and short stories we have coming out. Since I don’t often actually sit down and promo our books here, I thought that perhaps it was time.  So, here we go!

The first book is a charity anthology titled DREAMS & DESIRES 2. It hit the virtual shelf on February 1st. It’s available as either an ebook or trade paperback. Freya’s Bower has always been a champion of women’s issues and this anthology is no exception. Here’s the details: 

“By purchasing this collection, you can help turn someone’s nightmare into the pursuit of dreams. Every year, four million women are assaulted by their partners. At Freya’s Bower, we want to do our part to bring this statistic down to zero. To this end, all net proceeds from every Dreams and Desire anthology purchased will go to a battered woman’s shelter. Through education and support, we can make a difference.”

Included in the volume are stories by: C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp (us!) Jenna Bayley-Burke, Amanda Brice, Shannon Canard, Sela Carsen, Rachelle Chase, M.E. Ellis, Jenny Gardiner, Gemma Halliday, Candace Havens, Zinnia Hope, Babe King, Susan Lyons, Sarah Salway, Rhonda Stapleton, Bebe Thomas, Emily Veinglory, Lois Winston, and Shaunna Wolf. Here’s a link to order if you’re so inclined:  http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/347/1/ 

Next up is a non-fiction that I was pleased to be able to contribute to. Everybody loves dogs. They’re faithful, devoted and often clowns. DOGS, edited by John Cali celebrates the strange, the wonderful and the weird (I’ll add that my story is one of the “weird” ones. LOL!) Here’s a little about it:  In this book, you will discover these, and many other, wonderfully warm true dog stories: The miniature schnauzer who returned from the dead to protect his family. The Belgian sheepdog who kept his sleepy human companion from crashing his car on a lonely deserted highway. The part Labrador mixed-breed who saved her mistress from the fangs of a venomous copperhead snake by taking the bite herself. The sheep dog who kept a faithful, five-year vigil for his dead master. The Scottish terrier who sees ghosts. These dog tales will warm your heart and stir your soul. They will bring you joy and tears. These beguiling canines will inspire and uplift you with their antics, their comedy, and their love for humans. In this world, which sometimes seems so dark, dogs light up the darkness with their love and courage. They offer us a reason to rejoice and to feel good about ourselves — a reason to celebrate life and the lives of all creatures great and small. Again, this is available in either ebook form or trade paperback. Pick one up for the dog lover in your house! http://www.booklocker.com/books/3316.html  It’s also available at Amazon and B&N.com, but is probably quicker through the publisher’s site.

Our next Sazi book will hit the shelf on March 7th. TIMELESS MOON finally tells the story of Josette Monier, the older sister of Sazi council member Antoine Monier. Josette, sometimes known as Aspen, is a centuries old bobcat shifter who was blessed (or some would say cursed) with seer talent. But she got ALL of the seer talents at once, so she can see the past—called “hindsight,” the future—known as “foresight,” and events in the present in far-flung locations—”remote sight.” Time has no meaning to Josette, because the entire stream of time flows through her head every minute. To be around other people is to be in pain, because she sees their entire life, their death, their birth, and all events between. As a seer, she guards the Sazi’s future and protects their past and her visions have never failed her.

Until now.

Lately, she doesn’t see herself in the future. Her husband, who she believed to be long dead, is back among the living, and all the other seers are being slowly killed. And for once in her long life, she hasn’t got a clue WHY.

Next, for you horror fans, I’ll be having a short story called ERROR 404: PAGE FOUND (and yes—I’m aware that’s wrong. That’s sort of the point… ) appear in the World Horror Convention program. It’s set in the Cthulhu mythos, with a whole new twist. If dark and scary is your thing, join us in Salt Lake City, March 27-30. http://www.whc2008.org/ 

Cie and I have also signed up for some other anthologies that will probably hit the shelf later in the year. You’ll be seeing our name a LOT this year, and we really hope you’ll like some of the interesting things we’ll be doing.

Finally, we just got our cover for our August book, the last in the Thrall vampire trilogy. TOUCH OF DARKNESS and just HAVE to show it off! I really think this is the artist’s best effort yet! We’re really excited about this book because it ends the series so wonderfully. We really think fans are going to LOVE it!

So, that’s about all for us for the moment. It’s just amazing to us that everything’s happening at once, with so many more things to come. Well, back to work on the next book. Hope to see you all soon at one of the upcoming conferences.

Happy Valentine’s Day next week! May you swim happily in chocolates and roses.

I volunteered to be a homeroom mother for my son’s kindergarten class this year and I’m in charge of planning the Valentine’s Day party.  In addition to buying cards for his entire class, my son wants to buy something special for his girlfriend.  Yep, his girlfriend, in kindergarten, and he’s already learned the way to a girl’s heart is through gifts.

Or is it?

My husband routinely forgets our anniversary and he believes Valentine’s Day was created by Hallmark.  He thinks cards and flowers are a waste of money and says no restaurant can touch my cooking, so romantic dinners are out.  The last piece of jewelry he bought me was my wedding ring.

According to romance novels, he’d be a loser but I would have to disagree.  When I got sick, he took over cleaning the house.  If he doesn’t work on Saturday, he gets up with the kids and lets me sleep late, even if he’s just come off nights and has only had four hours of sleep himself.  He rubs my feet every night when we sit on the couch and not only rents romantic comedies for me to watch but sits beside me and watches them without complaining.

He’s doesn’t confess his undying love daily but when he stares at me with that special look in his eye, I know I’m cherished.  The little things he does day in and day out mean more than the big romantic gestures heroes are known for in our stories.  He’d flunk out as an alpha hero but he makes the grade as a husband.

What’s the point of this blog?  I wonder if we’re setting unrealistic expectations for men.  The only man I ever dated who bought me expensive gifts, took me out for romantic dinners and swept me away on faraway vacations I ended up getting a restraining order against.  Real men are more likely to order takeout from the closest steakhouse, buy the most expensive, but ugliest, piece of jewelry in the store and spend a fortune on hothouse roses that have no smell or appeal.  

When we compare the men in our lives to the characters in the books, our real life loves are bound to come up short.  Of course, fiction is about fantasy but do we really believe there are men out there who act like our heroes?

I’m a romance writer and long-time reader and proud of it but I sometimes wonder if the stories we write end up making our readers long for something or someone they’ll never find and maybe even make them unsatisfied with the person they’ve chosen.  Maybe I’m wrong.  What’s your opinion?

Join us this Thursday from 9pm EST to 10pm EST for our new releases chat of the month! Kate Pearce will be in the spotlight for the hour, and she’ll be talking about her latest release, Roping The Wind!
We hope to see you there!

~Marly

It’s my day to blog, and while I’d love to sit here and type fabulous and uplifting comments about writing and life in general, I can’t.  The Devil’s Daughter (pictured here) is due to be released in less than 2 months, and I’ve been furiously writing the sequel, Dancing with the Devil, due out in December.  I’m this close (picture me pinching my finger and thumb together) to finishing. . .I can smell it. . .and I’m consumed by that feeling of pushing through until it’s done.

Nothing else matters, not food, not drink, not the kids. . .LOL. . .okay, well, I’ll stop to feed and water them, but that’s it.  It’s full on until the last word is written, so please excuse me for doing a drop and run, but if I stop now, I’ll lose my momentum and then the next time I blog here, you’ll have to listen to me whine. 

Here’s to happy endings!!