Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Yesterday was about ME today is also about me

Granted I didn’t do high profile promo for Taken Unaware, my new book at Samhain, but I’m more interested in reading other people’s books at the moment.

Yesterday I went to the bookstore for the first time in a long time and noticed how exotic it felt to wander the shelves. In less than a year, my book-buying habit (read: addiction) has shifted dramatically. These days I find almost all my books online. I usually go my local Barnes and Noble to pick up the paper copies of books that aren’t available online, but I’ve really cut back on using the bricks and mortar as a place to find my reads. Browsing in the bookstore is an extravagant experience reserved for special occasions. We avoid regular visits to keep the impulse buys down (mine and my kids’). Sort of sad.

Celebration

One of the questions they asked me at this interview was how do you celebrate new releases. The obvious answer: Chocolate. And I realized I need a better ritual, or at least a more finely tuned Happy Release Day celebration.

Chocolate’s a good start, of course. But this raises the question of which sort do you consume for which genre release? I suggested dark chocolate for the gothic romances. Heady, liqueur filled chocolate fits erotic romance. Maybe that spicy jalapeno chocolate for menage books?

Not the Scheduled Blog Entry

me: Listen kid, I have to blog.
kid 3: You promised to turn on the sprinkler and you told me I couldn’t do it because last time it went in all the windows and—
me: okay, okay.

five minutes later…

me: oh, jeez, who left the gate open! The dog is gone! Damn! Let’s go get the dog. Tell the neighbors.
neighbor: Your dog came into my house.
me sorry! thanks!
kid 2: I need a ride now.
me: Oh, look, I left the window of the car open. Dagnabit, the seat’s all wet.
Grab a towel. One for me too, please? Let’s go.

fifteen minutes later, back home again. . . phone rings.

The Good (never mind the bad and the ugly)

Yesterday I was feeling glum about the whole romance rioting world. (Romancelandia is a society, anyway. . . Okay, a town maybe. A village, all right?)

Then I opened an email reminding me that it’s just about time for the auction. That’s the ticket, find the good news. In less than five minutes I found four examples of romance writers doing good in the real world.

It Can Happen To Anyone

I’m glad that the whole bushwa about plagiarism is dying down, and that black-footed ferrets got the last word via Paul Tomle.
Yet the stolen ideas fairy is still in business, prancing around and creating suspicion.

Yesterday a friend sent a slightly indignant email—she’d spotted some idea theft. She’d watched an episode of Beauty Shop (a show I didn’t know existed) and she described a scene at the end of an episode when a woman in horrible disarray rushes into the shop needing a makeover because she is supposed to be in a wedding in three hours.

My friend complained that she had just that morning read a book with the exact same scene. A woman in horrible state needs a make-over because her wedding is in a few hours. My friend asked, “Think the author saw Beauty Shop? Probably.”

My response? “Not necessarily.”

Ack! ACK! The BoD

The Blue Screens of Death has hit! Again. Curse you, Dell.
It’s chilling the way that thing pops up so calm and so blue. It’s inhuman.

The trouble started last week when I used my laptop like a laptop. I traveled with it. Silly me.

The Knight's Challenge

What I love about these stories (and I got to read them all) is that each interpretation makes sense, but other than the basic facts of scales and maybe a snout, they’re nothing alike. The dragons, I mean.

The dragons are selfish, selfless, noble, wise, slightly stupid, careful or reckless. I enjoyed them all—especially newcomer Nina Mamone’s story.

I based my own dragon on the stories I loved as a kid. I think a covetous, dangerous, powerful and basically solitary creature can be a lot of fun.

Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of The Knight’s Challenge

The Winner? Me me me

A couple of years back I ran a contest called “What Kind of Contest Do You Like to Enter Contest?” I had a lot of answers—over 200—which I decided meant that the meta-contest was a success.