Trick or Treat?!

Happy Halloween!

Yes, that is me. LOL

Well, that's it... my anniversary party is over. Sniff. But, as with all great parties, there is the inevitable gatecrasher. And this party is no exception.

Trying to blend in, sipping a cheeky gin and tonic, is the marvellous Raven McAllan with a deliciously, devilish giveaway. So, if you didn't win in the previous giveaways, and you're over 18, you have one more shot at winning!

Click here for full details

Release your inner devil and pay the price. Was a year of hot sex worth the humiliation to come?

For over a year, Livvy woke up sobbing, hot, bothered, and reaching for something. Sael was the something, but he had a secret, one that would make or break them, and could well cost him his existence.

Find out more about the book here...

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This contest is open for seven days, closing November 7th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced within 48 hours. Don't forget you can tweet about the giveaway daily to increase your number of entries and thereby increase your chances of winning.

Good luck! 

And so, onto the winners!

Giveaway #1

The Monster of Fame by Aimée Duffy

Winner: John Storey (tweeted about giveaway) - claimed

 

Giveaway #2

Any book from The Shalean Moon series by J. Lilley

Winner: Shona Mummery (tweeted about giveaway) - claimed

 

Giveaway #3

Holiday Affair by Annie Seaton

Winner: Eli Yanti (tweeted about giveaway) - claimed

 

Giveaway #4 - part 1

The Eclipse of the Blood Moon featuring Doris O'Connor

Winner: Katrina Day-Reilly (tweeted about giveaway) - claimed

Giveaway #4 - part 2

Just Vamps featuring Doris O'Connor

Winner: Elyzabeth M. VaLey ('yes please' basic entry)

Giveaway #5

The Italian Inheritance by Louise Rose-Innes

Winner: Alaine Batty (Facebook fan of Aurelia) - claimed

Giveaway #6

Lady Myddelton's Lover by Evangeline Holland

Winners:
1) Tiffany O'Connell ('yes please' basic entry) - claimed
2) Shantea ('yes please' basic entry) - claimed
3) Riana Alcelinia ('yes please' basic entry) - claimed
4) Fiona Marsden ('yes please' basic entry) - claimed
5) John Storey (Follow @AureliaBRowl) - claimed

Giveaway #7

A Vengeful Affair AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card

Winner: Shona Mummery ('yes please' basic entry) - claimed






Congratulations to you all and thank you to everyone for taking part.

Please can all winners now EMAIL ME to claim their prize.

(Email aureliabrowl@gmail.com if link doesn't work)

The Road to Publishing: Cover Art

Did you see the big reveal earlier?

I was so excited when my cover art landed in my inbox. It is fabulous with a huge, great capital F.

So, just in case you missed it on my News page, here you go...

Out December 2012

Do you like it?

Facebook Fail

I truly didn't see it coming, but the time has come for me to start weaning myself off Facebook - unless they change their latest operational set-up. Whilst Facebook continues to be free - technically - only a small percentage of updates are now visible to your friends unless you choose to pay a supplement to promote it.

And I'm not just talking about Facebook pages here, it affects personal profiles too. Last night I shared a link, and was offered the chance to 'promote' it in return for £3.03. The night before, I shared a photo of my daughter on my private profile but hardly any of my friends or family actually saw it, which of defeats the object of having it.

Read this blog for more info...

So... it's time to start using Twitter and Google+ more instead, both of which are free to use. If you haven't added me on Twitter yet, I'm @AureliaBRowl.

As for Google+, I've been on there for a while but didn't really use it, except to +1 links, my blog in particular, so it's going to be a bit of a steep learning curve. I have also discovered Google+ Pages, much like FB pages, so have set a page up and created a shortcut to it to make it easier to remember until  custom URLs are available to all. You can find me at http://plus.aureliabrowl.com .

Anyway, I am slowly migrating across but there will be a transition period whilst most people still reside on Facebook. I will always have a presence on there but it time for me to be far less dependent on it.

A sad day indeed...

Party Guest #7 - Carmen Falcone

Can you believe a week has flown by already, bringing us to the last day of my anniversary giveaways? If you're a regular on my blog, today's guest will be familiar to you already...

Yes, I am delighted to announce that my final giveaway is from Carmen Falcone, and it's one not to miss. Carmen is not only offering a copy of A Vengeful Affair (that I rated 5 out of 5), the lucky winner will also walk away with a $25 Amazon gift card too. Talk about going out with a BANG!

Click image for full details

Rich people get away with murder every day, but Vivian Foster intends to make billionaire Javier Rivera pay for what he did to her best friend—and how better to destroy a money-grubbing bastard than to sabotage the merger that means everything to him.

Javier Rivera would never hurt a woman much less kill one. But when he catches a gorgeous corporate spy in his office, he knows he can’t let her go—not when even a hint of scandal could ruin his career. Until the merger is signed, he’ll keep her close, even if he has to shackle her to his wrist. Literally.

But the closer Javier gets to Vivian, the more he wants her, and the more time she spends with him, the less she believes he could ever be a killer. Now Vivian and Javier have to discover the truth…and Vivian has to win the trust of her worst enemy.

Click HERE for an excerpt

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 31st at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced later the same day.

Don't forget you can tweet about all of the giveaways daily to increase your entries and your chances of winning.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #6 - Evangeline Holland

Something now for fans of historical romance. Today's giveaway gives you not one... not two... but FIVE chances of winning!

Click image for full details

Lady Myddelton’s Lover (short novella) – set in 1907. Aline, Countess of Myddelton is a very proper widow whose friends feel she has mourned her husband long enough. Their surprise birthday gift of a secret lover backfires, for the man who appears to seduce the propriety out of her is her husband’s much younger and very tempting heir. But Richard, long in love with her, cannot stop with just one touch, or one kiss, and he vows to make Aline his by means fair or foul.

Click HERE for an excerpt

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 30th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

Don't forget you can tweet about all of the giveaways daily to increase your entries and your chances of winning.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #5 - Louise Rose-Innes

It's no secret that I have toyed with the idea of self-publishing - and fully intend to in the future, becoming more of a hybrid - so today's giveaway is from self-published contemporary romance author, Louise Rose-Innes.

Today is the release day for her brand new novel, The Italian Inheritance, and having read the first chapter, I look forward to reading more. Louise is not only a brilliant author, she is also a marketing guru and offers advice on her website and blog, well worth a look.

Click here for full details of giveaway

After discovering a letter written by her mother shortly before her death, Anna Crawford, a London-based maternity nurse, decides to travel to the Italian island of Capri in search of her father. What she doesn’t expect to find is that she’s heir to a vast family fortune. She’s even more surprised when the suspicious trust attorney questions her very identity.

Rafael Vialli has a suspicious nature – it’s the reason he became a lawyer. He blames his rough childhood. It may also have something to do with the fact that in the months since Giovanni Albertosi’s death, he’s been inundated with opportunistic women claiming to be his client’s missing heir.

Can Anna prove to Rafael that she really is the legitimate heir? And can Rafael trust enough to award her the inheritance… as well as his heart?

Click HERE for an excerpt

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 29th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

Don't forget you can tweet about all of the giveaways daily to increase your entries and your chances of winning.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #4 - Doris O'Connor

It's time to heat things up in here so if you're under 18, look away now LOL. For everybody else, you are in store for a treat with not one, but two giveaways on offer.

Self-proclaimed 'glutton for punishment', Doris has a huge family yet still manages to find the time - and energy! - to write several books per year as well as hang out on Facebook and Twitter. I haven't yet worked out how she does it but I know there's lots of coffee involved. Anyway, enough from me, let me hand over to the lovely lady herself...

Thanks Aurelia for inviting me to help celebrate your first year. Happy Anniversary to you J

I have two Halloween themed releases this month, both involving some deliciously naughty vampires, and I am giving away one copy of each anthology.

I've always been fascinated by things that go bump in the night. As an only child my overactive imagination had me cowering under the bedcovers, convinced the monsters would come and get me otherwise. And we all know that monsters can't get you under your duvet—right?

In The Eclipse Of The Blood Moon, my heroine does wish she could just hide from her nightmares that invade her reality, but those nightmares are all too real. It is up to her mysterious neighbor Drake to save her from the darkness.

Click for full details

When the blood moon coincides with Halloween, the forces of darkness unite to wreak their evil spells. Will this All Hallows Eve bring joy or sorrow? Curses abound and destiny calls, as a vampire watches over his human. Devils atone to the moon, and shifters hunt their mate on land protected by a powerful white witch. An angel takes human shape to protect the gypsy girl he loves, and a black widow hunts her prey in human form.

In these five chilling and sexy tales, is love enough to break the cycle? Or is all lost under the orange glow of the menacing sphere in the sky?

My other Vamp related offering is my story Living The Dream, part of the Just Vamps Anthology. Two vamps are better than one, right?

Click for full details

Everyone knows that happy ever afters only happen in fairy tales. Real life is cruel and painful. Bianca may wish for the two hunks in the shadows to notice her, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen—until Halloween that is.

When Sister Maria insists that Bernhard and Archie escort Bianca home, the events that follow can only have been a dream. The hottest sex she's ever had cannot account for the changes Bianca sees in the mirror. Vampires aren’t real, right?

Why do I write vamps? I blame the old Dracula movies I used to watch through a crack in the door, when I was supposed to be asleep. My vamps are a lot sexier, and noble, and rather tortured, mind you. I do love a tortured hero!

Happy Halloween J

Doris

Find out more about the books here...

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 28th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

Don't forget you can tweet about all of the giveaways daily to increase your entries and your chances of winning.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #3 - Annie Seaton

Day three already so shake off the winter blues (yes, I know it's only Autumn but it's been freezing and wet here in the Peak District) and indulge yourself with this contemporary romance, today's giveaway prize from my third special guest, Annie Seaton.

Annie lives 'down under' and regularly makes me feel jealous by talking about the surf and sand she can see from her window, as well her adventures with Bob the Dog. Not only is Annie a fantastic writer - with Holiday Affair doing very well in the Amazon rankings since its release - she is also a pretty awesome editor, with  a 100% track record of getting an author's work published once she's got her hands on it. Not bad huh?

Click here for full details

Nothing more than a holiday fling…until he moved in next door!

Staid professor Lissy McIntyre believes that choosing a mate should be based on common sense, not runaway passion. And Lissy would certainly never pick a rolling stone like Nick Richards for long-term love. But a red-hot, tropical romance? Oh, yeah. He’s got a body just made for sinning and his sizzling kisses leave her senseless.

When Nick blows into town, he’s stunned to discover that his no-nonsense new neighbor and co-worker is the same sultry creature he seduced for one night of forbidden island pleasure. He’s unaccustomed to staying in one place for long, but he just can’t seem to keep his hands off the multi-faceted Lissy. Will Nick break loyal Lissy’s heart or will she be the one woman he simply can’t walk away from?

Click HERE for an excerpt

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter (just remember to click the green button each time).

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to paste the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 27th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

Don't forget you can tweet about all of the giveaways daily to increase your entries and your chances of winning.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #2 - J. Lilley

Onto day two and this one is for my young adult fans.

As I've mentioned on here before, this series is quite possibly my favourite shifter series.

I am also honoured to count the author as a friend, thanks to the internet, so without further ado let me introduce you to The Shalean Moon series by J. Lilley.

  

  

Click here to find out more out about the books

The Shalean Story...

In the mists of time, when Scotland was its own land, and clans loved and fought, depending on the season, the harvest, and their laws, the goddess Shalea took her place amongst them.

No ordinary ruler, but one with exceptional talents, to have and hold her own clan together, to form and change those who had talents unknown to the Clans. She drew these people together, and thus was formed The Shalean Sept.

For centuries they lived peacefully and prospered, until their peace and harmony was threatened by those who understood nothing of their ways. Dion, a young boy of the countryside took a vow to protect Shalea, to ensure the goddess lived and with her, her ideals, even though he knew nothing of her world. His ideal was justice. To seek peace and prosperity for his land. To do so he risked his life for hers, and thus Shalea was saved.

In appreciation, Shalea gifted him with powerful abilities, enabling him to sense other people's fears and emotions deep inside himself, and to speak to those chosen with no words passing his lips. This they called sensing or projecting. To shift. To change from human to leopard. And to pass these gifts to those he felt worthy.

In time Dion met and married a young follower of Shalea, and passed his gifts to his family. In such manner was the Sept's success ensured. Peace and harmony. Until now.

***

They had been called together, all young, all knowing they were different, none knowing how.

"Why are we here?" Leira Parde spoke to no one in particular. "I want to be at home, under the duvet with chocolate and a good book. Not in this draughty old school, on a Saturday morning wondering if I've been caught with my phone in school or eating gum on the school bus or something, and this is the punishment."

Her brother Brios laughed. He'd had much the same reaction a year or so earlier.

"You'll find out soon enough, here's dad, oops Patriarch now."

Marok Parde, dad or Patriarch depending who you were and where you where, entered the room, his wife and Matriarch close behind.

The old school was tiny, just one room, high windows with a view to the sky and above. With them all inside, there was little room to look up at the vista, but to know it was there was comforting.

"Our gods and us. " The greeting was as commonplace to each and every person in the room as 'hi'. They repeated it, and waited.

"Each of you know a little of our past; today it is time to learn of your future. To rejoice in your Shalean selves, to learn soon, you will all progress to the next level of your lives. To sense and shift.

"As you grow and become adult, you will become true Shaleans, to sense and project your thoughts, to shift and become your other self. To be Shalean, to be Leopard. To learn your role in life, in the Sept, and how to develop that role for the good of all.

The room was filled with a silver haze.

"Listen with your hearts, and hear all I say."

'This is our protection, our Shimmer Zone. For as we shift and reform our bodies, we need to give thanks. For these gifts.' The voice was in each and everyone of them, soft and loud commanding and reassuring.

The mists dissolved and instead of the man stood the cat.

"Watch and learn, and remember, you use your gifts wisely, for the good of Shalea." The leopard left the room silently, his fur rippling his rosettes proud.

"Wow." Leira said eventually. "So that's the next step eh? So when will it happen?"

"To each person, when the gods decree." Brios answered. "When thus you accept and agree our creed.

***

And so it was.

On the night of The Shalean Moon, they were called and accepted their fate. Shifted and ran with the Sept to celebrate their Shalean selves.

One boy, not yet a man, but on the cusp, accepted his gifts with a smirk. To him they meant power. His power. To him, Struan Scott, they were a means to an end. The end of Shalea as they all knew it.

Click HERE for an excerpt

Hopefully you're getting the hang of it already - have you remembered to re-tweet yesterday's giveaway too to gain more entries? - so today, one of lucky reader will win a book from The Shalean Moon series, in your choice of digital format.

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter.

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to past the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 26th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

If you are having any technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Party Guest #1 - Aimée Duffy

Okay, let's get the party started!

I promised you special guests and giveaways, so here we go...

First up, is the lovely Aimée Duffy, who I have known just shy of a year now - almost since I became Aurelia as it happens.

October 14th was a very special day for Aimée as it saw the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, The Monster of Fame...

Click for full details of giveaway

Can the voice of an angel heal a tortured soul?

Annabelle MacIntosh enters a reality singing contest to save her family from their mounting debt. Miles Oliver, celebrity judge and the owner of the biggest record company in the UK, doesn't think she has what it takes. She sings like an angel, but when she performs all he can focus on is the terror in her eyes. It's a look he knows only too well. After the pressure of fame destroyed his wife, Miles swore he'd never let the same thing happen to anyone else. Driven by the guilt he's carried for years, Miles tries everything in his power to make sure Annabelle doesn't succeed, because he doesn't believe she'll survive it.

Annabelle needs that prize money, and she's determined to win it. As she fights to make it through each round of the contest, an attraction begins to develop between the two adversaries. The longer Annabelle remains in the competition, the deeper her attraction grows to the man who's trying to prevent her from reaching her goal. Can she convince Miles she's strong enough to fight the fame monster and win?

Click HERE for an excerpt

If you love reality TV shows, you will love The Monster of Fame and one of you lucky readers could be walking away with your very own copy...

How to enter...

To enter, just select 'Yes please, I'd like to enter' in Rafflecopter below and hit the green button - simple as that - however, you can also gain additional entries by leaving a blog comment, following the links to 'like' or follow' on Facebook and Twitter.

And here's a tip... you gain a double entry bonus for tweeting about the giveaway (ignore the bit where it tells you to past the URL - I'll know if you've tweeted the link) and you can do this every day, potentially giving you fourteen additional entries and boosting your chances of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Terms and Conditions

This contest is open for seven days, closing October 25th at 12:01am EST, and the winner will be announced on October 31st.

If you are having technical difficulties when trying to enter, please email me.

Good luck!

Did You See the Newsflash?

If not, you might want to pop by my website and subscribe to my News page, nudge nudge, wink wink. Anyway, this was yesterday's big announcement...

Anniversary Celebrations with Giveaways Galore!

On the 18th October 2011, I made the conscious decision to 'be' a writer.

One of the first things I did was create my alter-ego. Before I could change my mind, or talk myself out of it, I created a Facebook page and launched Aurelia B Rowl onto the unsuspecting world.

A year already!

All I can say is that the last twelve months have flown by!

I cannot tell you how chuffed I am to have a publishing contract already in the bag, especially as it was for the first piece I completed. I am learning so much all the time, and I have no shortage of ideas for future stories either. To be honest, I have more than I can handle and I need to learn how to prioritise.

The writing community I have become a part of is second to none, almost like a family, looking out for one another and offering support, celebrating each other's achievements. So much so, I had no shortage of volunteers when I floated the idea of commemorating my first anniversary.

Big announcement time...

The week-long celebration begins now!

Over the next week, I will be introducing you to some of my fellow authors and giving you the opportunity to win every single day.

With contemporary romance, young adult paranormal, historical romance, erotica, and more, there is something for everyone. So... get your gladrags on and join me on my blog from Wednesday, when I kick off the party with my first special guest, complete with a fantastic giveaway.

The Road to Publishing: Edits

Sunday morning saw the arrival of my first round of edits.

You can probably imagine my trepidation at opening the MS Word document, waiting as it loaded and filled my screen.

Yikes... track changes... lots of them. As well as a lot of yellow highlights. And then there were the editor's comments. Gulp!

First things first, I read it all through from start to finish - the track changes and comments, not the manuscript - to see where I had 'gone wrong' and to try and figure out just how much I had to do.

Which was when I got a rather pleasant surprise - being called 'a delight' by my editor should have given me a clue but hey, it's my first time and I wasn't sure what to expect. Upon closer inspection, I realised it was all minor things, like curly apostrophes instead of straight ones (which I really need to find the checkbox for). Aside from a few 'awkward' or 'run on' sentences, my biggest problem was repetition; you don't want to know how many sentences started with either 'he' or 'she', or how many times I used 'but'.

The content itself? No problems it would seem... WOW... can you imagine my happy dance yet?

So, the first thing I did was accept the track changes for all the niggly, silly things. Great... job done. No issues there. Then it was back to the beginning to work through the modifications required... not quite as straightforward, trying to find different ways to open a sentence without using he or she all the time. I did it though, fixing my awkward or run on (overly complex, long-winded) sentences as I went through.

A last read through and it was all done so I sent it back to my editor, but then my round two edits appeared in my inbox too. There were only a few track changes though, taking no time at all and I sent them back straight away. Sometimes there can be third or fourth round edits but apparently my writing is 'very tight' and I'm done.

Now it's been passed over for 'line edits', whatever they are, and that should be the final tweak for my book. After that, I'll need to nail down the blurb and my author bio etc, and hopefully get a release date. All I need now is my cover art and I happen to know it is with the cover artist and should be done this month.

It's coming together very nicely indeed, even if I do say so myself.

Time out... and Dilution?

Almost a week since my last post and there's not really very much to update you with.

Obviously it was my birthday last week so I took a few days off (and reminded my husband what I look like again LOL) and caught up on some reading. We seem to have formed a tradition where we all go to Chester Zoo to celebrate my birthday and this year was no exception so off we trundled off, membership cards in hand. We enjoyed glorious weather for the entire day, hooray, and to think Little Miss was not even nine-months old when we first went.

There's no word on my publishing journey to report, although I can expect my first round of 'proper' edits any time now. I get the feeling it will be a fairly quick turnaround so if I disappear off the face of the earth for a few days, that's why. There's also been a delay with the anthology I submitted a story for as Allie A Burrow, so no news there either.

As for the reading... I raced through The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins last week and WOW! If you don't follow me on Facebook, you'll have missed my initial reaction. If you've not read these books, I can happily recommend them, I've even suggested hubby reads it seeing as it is now being used in classrooms.

The past couple of days, I've been laid up in bed after my darling children shared their tummy bug with me. First to go down was Widget, then a couple of days later Little Miss went down (spectacularly short, one episode and she was done) and then by bedtime the following day... my turn. I have a notoriously weak stomach, it's partly why I've been vegetarian for over twenty years, so anything like that hits me hard. Sigh. But I'm on the mend again at last.

So what of my writing?

It's all go still, although I'm trying not to get too caught up in any big projects knowing that my edits are due. I've seen a special submission call for novelettes/novellas which has aroused my interest and with a word count of 5-18K words, it should be fairly quick and straightforward. As usual, I've got more projects on than I can manage, so it's a case of trying to prioritise. I also read this blog post today from a respected publishing professional, which has made me want to put the brakes on somewhat.

Fellow writers and readers alike, what do you make of the Diluting your Author Brand article? Perfect sense or balderdash? Is having too many books out at once damaging your writing career and turning off your audience, or is it your best form of marketing? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

And my final thought... good luck to everyone who entered this year's So You Think You Can Write contest *fingers crossed*!!

Carmen's Call to Arms... A Vengeful Affair Giveaway Extravaganza!

A couple of months ago, I shared my review of Carmen Falcone's debut romance, A Vengeful Affair (see here), and now it's time to spring into action and be in with a chance of a fab prize.

So without further ado, I'll hand over to Carmen...

A Vengeful Affair Giveaway Extravaganza!

I’m celebrating three months since A Vengeful Affair was released, and it’s still a Top 100 bestseller on Amazon Kindle’s Romance Series list! Thank you to my readers!

If A Vengeful Affair continues to climb, I’ll be giving away up to five $25 gift certificates (Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes—winner’s choice!). That’s up to $125 worth of prizes, and your help will dictate how many gift certificates will be given out.

So get your sneakers on and let’s climb! A Vengeful Affair is currently at #73, but we can do better!

How can you help?

ü  Copy and paste this post on your blog, and promote it on Facebook or Twitter.

ü  Buy the book if you enjoy sexy romances. J

ü  “Like” my page on Amazon. Tagging would be nice, too!

ü  Leave an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads or Barnes & Noble.

ü  Scream from your window! Well, I’m grateful for the yell, but please be social media savvy. J

Prizes:

If/when A Vengeful Affair reaches #60, I’ll give away one $25 gift certificate.

If/when A Vengeful Affair reaches #50, I’ll give away another $25 gift certificate.

If/when A Vengeful Affair reaches #35, I’ll give away an additional two $25 gift certificates.

If/when A Vengeful Affair reaches #25, I’ll give away one more $25 gift certificate.

Please make sure you enter a comment on my blog when you’ve done any of the things listed above for a chance to win :)

The contest will close on October 15th, 2012 at midnight CDT.

Let’s get the word out!

Until later,

Carmen

Entering my 38th year...

Crumbs, that makes me feel old!

But yes, today is my 37th birthday and I had the delights of supermarket shopping and harvest festival at my son's school to honour it. My daughter and I had a fun, girly morning watching one of my presents, Disney's Cinderella, and she was utterly transfixed by it. I then laughed my head off at the bonus feature of Tangled Ever After, it's been a while since I laughed like that!!

The afternoon was spent helping my little monsters make me a birthday cake. Letting loose a 5 and 3 year old in the kitchen may not have been my smartest idea but it was a lot of fun and it tasted great!

Then it was Indian takeaway of dinner, and there's a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge for when I'm ready for it. And it's probably best to ignore not one, but two boxes of Maltesers with my name on them.

So what does the next year look like? Well...

• It will see my first, and hopefully my second publication, which I'm still waiting to hear from. Ideally, there will be at least one or two more too.
• It will bring in my first three royalty statements, and I hope to continue that one into the many years beyond.
• It will also see my youngest child start at school full-time (definite mixed feelings on that one, in a 'yay' but 'sob' kind of way) which, in turn, will see me step up and embark on my writing 'career'.

The next twelve months will certainly be interesting, and I can't wait to get stuck in...

Reading List: September 2012

The kids finally went back at school, plus I managed to finish a big writing project, so I got to do some more reading - yay! - with more of my new favourite shifter YA series but then I got stuck into a new writing project and the to-read list got ignored.