Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Research

When I research setting in my Romano and Albright series, I do a few things. I scope the streets of NY City on Google maps street view; I call a friend to check the subway stops for me; I watch movies and television shows set in NY; and I’m close enough, that occasionally I take jaunts down to the city to do some real foot work.

That’s the best part.

I’m about two hours northeast of the the city, and a busy mom/wife/writer—so dashing down to Manhattan is harder than one might think. Also anyone who has been to NY knows it’s wicked pricey, so when I go, I have to make it count.

Last March I spent a full weekend by myself in The Village. I was there for a gathering of soap opera fans and the actors who portray gay characters in a few international soap operas. It was loads of fun. There was a bit of celebrating, a lot of conversation, a bevy of fabulous cocktails, and there were plenty of new friendships made.

While I was in town, naturally I researched my Romano and Albright series. Caesar Romano works just off of W. 4th Street, and his hot PI boyfriend is never far behind. How fortunate that the entire event I attended was right there!

It was clear and cool when I walked historic Christopher Street. I hung out in Washington Square. I rode the subway to Rockefeller Center, I went to the mom ‘n pop groceries and drank cold Perrier, I lost my phone and an earring in a cab and drank too much at the Stonewall Inn. Best of all, I ate pasta at Lupa on Thompson Street. Have you been? Best Italian food ever, even Caesar’s Pop, Rocco Romano, would agree.

I took pictures. I took matchbooks. I did leave the condoms in the bowls on the tables (Stonewall). I took my favorite notebook and wrote in my hotel room, in the coffee shops, in the bars, and I saw The Village through the eyes of my favorite character, Caesar Romano.

I’m not a very good armchair traveler—I’m a hands-on kind of gal and because I write about places relatively close to home, I’m lucky enough to trek to those places myself and really explore.

Catch Me If You Can by LB Gregg is available now.

www.lbgregg.com
lisabea.blogspot.com

Feral Hunger—Now Available!

I’m thrilled to announce the release of Feral Hunger.

I had a great time writing this one because I brought back some of my favorite characters.

When we first met Vlad in my novel Feral Passion he was enjoying his new life as a vampire. He was a bit of a player, a bit of a cad and just ripe to have his carefully constructed façade rearranged by the love of a good woman.

In short, I thought he really needed his own story.

I hope you enjoy it!

Vlad the Impaler? Don’t make her laugh…

Vlad is un-living proof that even a shy guy with the unfortunate name of Leslie can remake himself. Vampire, cad, player, he embraces it all without a pesky thing called a conscience. Until he receives a “special delivery” on his doorstep. A woman on the brink of death. One look at the sexy blonde, and his inner Leslie—his long-forgotten conscience—moves him to do the right thing and save her life.

One minute Jaelyn is enjoying a night out at a club. The next, she’s under a brutal vampire attack. Adjusting to her new life as one of them is hard enough without the added charm of Vlad’s grumpiness with the whole situation.

Instead of sending Jaelyn on her merry way, Vlad gives in to another totally uncharacteristic urge—to solve the mystery of who assaulted her, and why whoever it was dumped her at his place. There must be a connection, and it surely can’t have anything to do with their budding attraction.

But delving into a dangerous vampire underworld could remake their undead lives once again. Permanently.

Warning: Contains hot and heavy coffin action.

Now available:
http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/stephanie-bedwell-grime

The damsel in distress

When I first started writing The Forbidden Chamber, I’d been reading some of the old gothic romances. You know the ones I mean. The ones where the lonely and gorgeous heroine is stuck in an old mansion and the rich, darkly handsome, Byronic hero just might be out to kill her. That, or he’s innocent and yet strangely guilty appearing. And he doesn’t treat her nicely at first. In fact, he’s practically boorish!

Why Rejection with Feedback is a Good Thing

Let’s face it: rejection sucks. There’s just no other way to put it. All writers hate to get those form rejections. I know I do. Whenever I get one of those, I wonder what’s wrong with the story, why didn’t that editor like it, what could I have done differently? Maybe my query letter was awful… maybe it’s my story… maybe it’s just that it wasn’t a good fit. Or maybe something else entirely.

It’s hard to know what to do except to keep querying when receiving those form rejections. That’s all you really can do until you get some kind of feedback from a rejection that really tells you what the strengths and weaknesses of the story is.

I was lucky in that I recently received a rejection with detailed feedback on the story. The editor gave me all sorts of insight into the characters and the worldbuilding. No, my query letter didn’t suck. What a relief! Right?

Wrong. I was crushed. Almost. I read through the comments, set them aside, and then came back to them a few days later and realized the editor was RIGHT. I got insight into the story from a different perspective and when I thought about it, digested the information, I realized that THAT was what I needed to do for the story. It suddenly all made sense!

I was grateful to the editor for taking time out of her busy schedule to write me a four paragraph rejection letter. I emailed her back with a heartfelt thank you. I’ve since begun rewriting the story. It’ll take me a few months but at least I feel as though I’m on the right (write?) path now. I’m not giving up on this story yet!

Michelle Miles writes hot contemporary romance and is currently rewriting her fantasy romance as well as working on an historical/time travel. To find out more about her and her books, visit her website.

Giving the last devil his due

Hey y’all, Beth Williamson here. The last three years I’ve been hanging around with devils. They’ve teased me, tortured me, possessed me and even lured me. Now I can say that I’ve given the last devil his due.

The Art of Procrastination

This morning as I sit at my desk, clicking key after key on my keyboard and surfing every possible site known to humankind, I have decided to write a blog about the one thing I am an expert on: the gentle art of procrastination.

See, even as I write this, an annoying voice in the back of my head is telling me I should be working on my latest manuscript and not messing around with blogs. But that voice has forgotten who it’s talking to. It’s forgotten that I am the master of doing everything except the one thing I should be doing.

Let me catch you up to date with what I’ve done up until now.

I drop the kids at school and seat myself at my desk at about 8.45am with every intention of writing. But I just have to check my emails first and clear my inbox.

Done.

Then I have to check in with the various Yahoo Groups I belong to. Okay, so I don’t like spending too much time at Yahoo groups, especially when I’m working on a book as it wastes precious time, so I simply visit two. Unfortunately, one of these has about 100 messages to wade through. Most of them do not pertain to me, but I read them anyway. Just in case.

Whoops. Quickly have to check email again to make sure no one has responded.

Then something vital pops up. See, I’ve been contemplating going to RT in April next year. It’s a thought. A desire. Nothing definite. But all at once, it’s urgent I check out ticket prices. So, four airlines later, and one trip to Travelocity, and I have all the price comparisons I need. But wait. I best send them to everyone else in Australia who mentioned they may be going to RT. Even the ones who aren’t thinking about going to RT. And maybe to my friends who aren’t even writers because some of the prices are pretty damn good, and maybe, just maybe, one of them has decided, out of the blue, to go to Los Angeles in April next year.

Quick visit to my email to report on ticket price findings, and then I open my current work in progress. I have to work!

Whoops, hang on. I haven’t checked my blogs today. Off I go. Then, once I’m online anyway, I better just check my stats on Amazon. Oh, and why don’t I Google my name, see what comes up that hasn’t already come up on the last 3 879 654 searches I’ve done.

Back to book, because I have to get some words down.

{{Slap}} Twitter. I haven’t check my Tweetdeck. Better run.

You know what? All of this is hungry work. Now I feel the need for some breakfast and a coffee. I bring the food and drink back to the office with me because I can’t afford to eat it in the kitchen and lose all my precious writing time.

But hang on. It’s hard to concentrate on the book when I’m eating, so I’ll just quickly check my emails again. And my Tweets. Oh, and remember, I have to blog at Samhain!

Which is why, almost two hours after sitting down to work on my book, I still have not entered a single new word into that document.

If you would like any tips on how you too can avoid doing the one thing you absolutely have to get done today, email me! Email now! I’m just looking for another excuse not to get back to that book.

Jess

BTW – if you’re looking for a reason not to work, here are some fun sites to check out:

international Heat
Down Under Divas
My blog
My Website

NEW RELEASE: JACK (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 2)

Okay, so now I’m going to spill some secrets about the writing of JACK that I hope don’t get me whacked… here it goes…

Desperately Seeking...

Some of you will look at this post and realize that it’s a repost of something I posted on my blog last week. But I know a lot of people don’t see that, and a lot of people like to know specifically what some editors are looking for. So, here ye be. =)

1. Foodie books a la Lousia Edwards. I love her “A Recipe for Love” books, and I’d love to see some contemporary foodie books. And when I saw foodie, I mean I want the details. I don’t want books that contain food. =P If you don’t know anything about being a chef, catering, how a restaurant runs, etc. then you probably shouldn’t even think about writing a book like this. =)

2. Harry Potter with a twist. I love the world Harry Potter is set in, I love the wizardry, I love the fantastical story/stories. I would LOVE to see something like this, only with adults instead, since Samhain is currently not accepting any YA materials. And when I say adult, it doesn’t mean add a bunch of sex scenes into it. No, that’s not want I want. Heck, there doesn’t have to be any sex in it at all, but it needs to have romance in it. Come on, you can do it.

3. Stories with a Pagan theme/character/s. No, not the Harry Potter type of magic. And really not “magic” as people think of it as all. I want to see people following real Pagan and Wiccan traditions. Blessed be. =)

4. The ’60s. I LOVE the 60s. Whenever someone asks me when I feel I should have lived, I always answer the 60s or the 20s. Give me Timothy Leary and Haight Ashbury, Grateful Dead, Janis Jopin, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. Give me Woodstock. Give me the protests. Give me free love.

5. The ’20s. I love the 20s. Prohibition and flappers and gangsters….love it. There is a Purdue Bar in my town called “Harry’s Chocolate Shop” that is just steeped in history. Back during Prohibition, they turned it into a chocolate shop, but there was a trap door in the floor that led to an underground speakeasy. That same trap door is still there in the middle of the floor, except now they use the area for a cooler and storage. All of Harry’s shirts that you can buy say “Go ugly early.” The majority of people who see the shirts or don’t know anything about Harry’s think it’s some sort of drinking slogan. Nope….it was the password to get into the speakeasy during Prohibition. =)

6. Civil War/Underground Railroad/interracial. Oooh, this could really be a good one if done right. Gimme history, give me some hot loving between two people who shouldn’t be together during that time frame. I want to see how love can cross all obstacles…slavery, racism, war. Be aware when you submit me something like this, I’m a Civil War buff. Hint, hint.

7. The ’50s. Ah, the days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best. Where men worked and women stayed home to take care of the kids, clean the house, cook, and have a cocktail tell ready for their master…I mean husband, when they got home from work. Just think of all the neat things you can do with this genre. =)

8. Post-Apocalyptic/Doomsday. Do I really need to explain this one? smile

9. Serial-Killers/Cults/Etc. Did anyone say Dexter? Yeah, that’s what I want, baby. Dexter with more romance. Don’t look at me crazy, it can be done.

Note: One thing about all of the “historical” stuff I’m looking for…do your research and know the time period. I want to read the book and be immersed in that time frame. I want really history in it. That’s extremely important.

VIRTUALLY HERS arrives in print (by Gennita Low)

First, my thanks to Vivian Arend for helping me out of my technical difficulties.

I’m Gennita Low, and I’m so excited about my first Samhain book in print! It’s Virtually Hers and the cover is everything I imagined my hero to be. Kanaxa did a great job!

I’m visual writer, always trying to find the right image in my head. I love to write with lots pictures posted around my area (and yes, this makes the place very messy, but hey, my furbabies make a bigger mess…). One thing that makes my writing job fun is the eye candy research and pictures. For fun, I made a slide show of my now-in-print book, VIRTUALLY HERS, spoofing the All Spice Man ad, you know, the very sexy guy in a towel telling you to just look at him.

Granite Lake Wolves in PRINT

It’s been a long ski from Granite Lake to the shelf of the bookstore, and yet every moment of the journey has been incredible.

February of 2006, my family of four took a helicopter ride into a beautiful part of the Yukon. There we found a small cabin on the edge of Granite Lake. With a ten and a twelve year old, we ice-fished, played cards and eventually skied the 16km out to the Alaskan Highway.

Our son, who refused to leave the ice auger behind, strapped it to his backpack and carried it the entire way out. There is nothing more stubborn than a twelve year old.

It was a couple years later I decided to write a story about werewolves, and the setting of the North was a must. Having traveled through parts of the Alaskan and Yukon wilderness, it was the perfect place for the Granite Lake wolves to find a home.

Wolf Signs released in March of 2009, Wolf Flight in October. Two novellas about the loves and lives of a group of people who just happen to be able to change into something furry. Wolves.

They say the North changes people. It changed my life. Gave me memories I now love to share in my storytelling. Share with you.

Welcome to Granite Lake. Under the Northern Lights there are many things to see and enjoy. Hope to see you there soon.

Warning: Contains nasty Alphas, secret Omegas, and yup—predestined mates. Includes dangerous use of sarcasm and hot wilderness nookie.

~~~

Under the Northern Lights is an anthology of the first two books in the Granite Lake Wolves series. It’s available from MB&M, Amazon , B&N, and BookDepository

Book 3 in the series Wolf Games is available in ebook, with Book 4, Wolf Tracks, releasing in October.

Vivian Arend continues to write about the outdoors, including the ocean, the mountains and the occasional sauna/wilderness cabin. You can visit Romance, Hot and Wild to find out what’s next.