Welcome to Autumn

Welcome to Autumn!

Fall is actually my favorite time of year. I love the crisp, sunny days and the way the leaves turn color. Then there is Thanksgiving and Halloween--two wonderful holidays!

I'm not fond of the fact that it means winter is almost here, but I enjoy autumn for what it is--a time of change, endings and new beginnings. I know that for most folks the time of great change is on January 1st, but for me it's always been fall.

Maybe it's the throwback to when September meant going back to school, meeting new friends and starting a new school year. My school days are long behind me now, but I fall is always a hopeful time of year for me.

I'm upbeat and excited about the possibilities of life. Two weeks ago I started a plan to try and find some balance in my life--not an easy task. So far, I've managed to work some form of exercise into my life almost every day. That's a big step forward.

How do you feel about the onset of fall? Are you looking forward to it or is another season your favorite?

Win a FREE download of Beaudry's Ghost!

In honor of the upcoming sequel, A Ghost of a Chance, EroticRomanceWriters.com is giving away a FREE download of my award-winning paranormal Romance, Beaudry's Ghost.

How to win? Click here! Drawing will be held Sept. 22, 2008.

Casinos, serentipity, and writing ..

I'm blogging today from offsite -- I'm out of town and logging in via the hotel's wireless. Having a great time. I'm at a casino with some friends and we're brainstorming books, eating, drinking, and gambling. I've lost $7 so far in 2 hours of gambling, which I think is pretty good. Last night was Native American night at the buffet so there was bison, elk, venison on the table, as well as wild rice, etc. All EXCELLENT fodder for one of my books in which the hero and heroine go to a funeral dinner of a Native person and sample the food.

Ain't it neat how serendipity happens?

Must go -- doing a bit of gambling before our morning 'session' starts!

Now out in paperback!

Just in time for the holidays, a book guaranteed to be a terrific Christmas present for your friends who love reading paranormal stories. And at $7.99, it's a great deal -- a trade paperback book for the price of a mass market one.

Lander's Moon By Eden Robins

Free-spirited healer Selena Alvarez has a thing for bad boys. Yet she never imagined spending her Christmas vacation running through a snow-blanketed forest from a violent and abusive boyfriend, or being saved by recluse Lander Paletsos, a hunky shapeshifting immortal with an attitude. Snowbound in Lander's castle in the woods, they soon discover whether a beautiful healer's spirit is enough to mend the heart of a deadly beast.

Paradise Designs By Ariana Dupre

Tara Simms is determined to create a new beginning for herself this holiday season. She's purchased a new condo on Miami Beach in the ultrachic Paradise Designs Resort and Spa where there is no chance of paranormal activity. She's looking for a new man and thinks that David Blake, the lead realtor at the high-rise, is a good prospect.When Tara sees the spirit of a murdered woman enter her condo she freaks out. David offers his protection and his apartment. Together Tara and David must solve the murder and help the spirit into the light.

Vampire's Christmas Carol By Karen McCullough

Can Christmas Eve be any more fun? On her way home, Carol's car slides into a ditch in a deserted area. The only available shelter is already occupied…by a vampire.To Michael, Carol is the bait in a trap. In an effort to hold on to his soul, Michael has resisted the urge to drink human blood for almost a century. Now he hovers between human and vampire. If he doesn't drink human blood before the night ends, he'll die. Carol is pure temptation to him, the Christmas present from hell…or heaven.

Order your copy here!

Posted by Karen McCullough

Quiet, conservative Lily Summers owns and operates the local flower shop. She also has a secret—she writes erotic romance.

Carson Granger has wanted Lily for years and when he stumbles onto her secret, he seizes the opportunity to get closer to her. Lily has a list of erotic fantasies she wants to research.

Carson offers himself up for reasearch, but he also has an agenda of his own—one that ends with them together forever.

Lily Blossoms is available today from Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

The Romance Studio just gave Lily Blossoms a 5 Heart Review. Here's a snippet of what reviewer Dee Dailey had to say:

"N.J. Walters takes a woman's fantasies and turns them into reality in this really erotic novel...worth reading again and again and again!"

Drip, drip, drip

Some days I wonder if I even deserve to be called an author.

My latest work in progress is going slowly. Understatement. Between family stuff, illness, day job, and the summer doldrums, that last glob of ketchup is sliding out of the bottle faster than the words are moving from my brain into my word processor.

That doesn’t mean I’ve made no progress at all. It’s just that it’s in such small dribs and drabs it’s hard to see that I’m getting anywhere. Yet the book I’m currently writing is actually at 60,000 words on its way to a projected 75,000.

I keep track of my daily word count and from that I can see that I’ve been working on this book for eight months now. My daily word counts are pathetic. Four hundred words some days; two hundred, six hundred. A couple of good days I went over a thousand each day. Some days, less than a hundred.

Yet even at that pace I’ve managed to write four-fifths of the book.

I think the point isn’t that it’s going so slowly. The point is that it is going. I may not get much done each day, but I keep at it. I keep chipping away. And even at a few hundred words a day, a new novel is emerging.

-- Katherine Kingston

Life comes at you fast

Anyone know those Nationwide commercials where...well, life comes at you fast?

That's sort of the way it is around here. I blink and it's into next month. I yawn and it's the next year. I can't believe we are over half way done with 2008. Almost over 3/4's done.

I made some resolutions back in January. To be kinder to me. To do things for me. And I think I'm doing pretty well on those. I've done a massage to reward myself for writing. I'm going to volunteer at the SPCA.

I had another resolution to fulfill. Start querying agents. That one I really need to work on this fall. The book is finished, though it needs some cleanup.

It's time to get busy!

How's everyone else doing on their resolutions for the year?

Mechele Armstrong aka Lany of Melany Logen
http://www.mechelearmstrong.com
http://www.melanylogen.com

An old book in a new skin: the orphan finds a home

The first book I sold (as Every Rose Has Its Thorn) is now out in print (as Candy, Corpses & Classified Ads).

This was my Triskelion orphan, so I'm especially pleased it's finally out. I got the contract offer on Sept. 5, 2006 and it's just now seeing the light of print. Yay!

Here's the blurb and buy link (http://tinyurl.com/5rwqqq)

When JT McCord jilted Molly Lawford she survived and moved on to marry twice. But her first husband died and her second husband ran off with a hairdresser. Molly gave up on romance and settled down in Tangle Butte, Minnesota, as a small town reporter.

Now JT is back in town as the Chief of Police. His first official act is to investigate how Molly's thought-to-be-vanished husband turned up buried next to the septic tank in Molly's back yard, dug up by a neighbor's marauding pig.

Molly sets out to solve that mystery with the help of Mr. Sex's Ladies (her book group), her newspaper editor, Tarot reader and some color-sorted M&Ms. If she can survive a couple of attempts on her life she might find the love of her life—all because of a pig and some plumbing.