Birthday Winners!

First, I want to thank everyone who stopped by my blog during the last week. I got swamped with regular life and didn't manage to come back and comment (which I normally try to do :( ). I hope some of you will stop by on Tuesdays (starting again next week), which are my regular blogging days here. I also hope you all took advantage of the great sale on Saturday--I know I did :)

Now, to what you really want to know, we'll start with the winner of GunShy...

Nay Nay!!!!

Congrats! If you're around to comment, you can let me know if you would prefer PDF or EPUB format, otherwise, I'll be sending you an email today.

Next up, the $5.00 gift certificate from Evernight Publishing...

Anna Keraleigh!!!!

Evernight has your email, so you should be hearing from them soon.

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for, the grand prize winners...

Uh...

I've been scooped on this one. *sigh* To find out if you won the grand prizes, you need to go to Evernight's blog. Congrats to the winners here (and there), and Happy Birthday, Evernight!

Happy Birthday Evernight Publishing

As a mom, my kids' first birthdays hold a special place in my heart.

My son wanted nothing to do with his cake. He didn't want to touch the frosting. We had to dunk his fingers in the frosting and actually smear it on his face for him so we could get that required first birthday picture. To this day, he still doesn't eat frosting--he scrapes it off cake.

My daughter, on the other hand, was a sugar-junkie from the beginning. The main reason she had so little frosting on her face was because it all went in her mouth. It's at the point where the two of them basically split cake when we have it. He eats the cake, she eats the frosting.

Saturday, October 1, is Evernight Publishing's first birthday, and I can't wait to see how the party turns out. If you've paid attention to the books they put out, I'm pretty sure Evernight is going to be the kind of toddler that savors every delectable bite of that cake...and you can bet it'll be rich and chocolatey.

With this party on the horizon, it is my pleasure to announce that I've signed my third contract with Evernight. The follow-up to last year's holiday story, Yes, Alana, There Is a Santa Claus, will be included in this year's holiday anthology. Making the Naughty List will be part of this year's anthology Stockings and Suspenders.

This story follows a different narrator, an elf named Daisy. She's not exactly your stereotypical elf. Brady picked her off the streets of Detroit years ago, and now with him dating Alana, she feels left behind. So, Santa sends her on a mission of the utmost importance. She needs to get a man named Gage Thomas off the naughty list...by whatever means necessary.

So, in celebration of Evernight's birthday and my new sale, I'm giving away a copy of my latest Evernight release, GunShy. (I'll be choosing a winner on Friday.**** CORRECTION: The contest runs through the weekend. Winner will be drawn on Monday!****)

And... Evernight is also going to choose a winner from commenters here for a $5.00 Evernight gift certificate.

AND...every time you comment on one of the birthday blogs, you're entered for the grand prizes as well.

In order to enter for all of those goodies, just follow my blog and post a comment (and don't forget to include your email). It's a birthday party, so tell me your favorite memory of a birthday, favorite party game, favorite kind of cake... I'm pretty open as long as it has to do with birthdays :)

Oh yeah, and on their birthday, Evernight will be marking down ALL of their books, including GunShy, by 75%! That means even if you don't win, you can still get it at a great price.

Just a Thousand More Words Please

Word counts are the bane of many writers. Your first novel is over 100k? You might want to look at some trimming. Under 70k? Only if you're writing middle grade or younger. There are guidelines all over the internet on what constitutes a good word count for just about any genre of fiction. That's not what this post is about though.

One of the greatest things about digital publishing is beyond the "are you insane, even Tolkien was smart enough to make three books!" word counts, digital publishers are embracing all kinds of lengths. In fact, the first piece I had published was Of Course I Try at barely over 5k. Over the course of the next seven months, I released one around 10k, another between 15 and 20k, another at about 33k, and my YA which clocked in at just about 86k. I loved every one of those projects.

Right now, however, I'm working on a contest entry and realized that I've grown so used to the "any word count is a good word count" mentality that I really had a hard time with the 5-7k word limit. Like...really hard time. The first story I started for the contest is already well over that count and isn't close to being done (BTW, TriggerHappy won for band name for that particular story, tentatively titled GunShy). So, I set it aside and tried again. At first I wondered if I could possibly make this new story stretch to 5k. I just didn't think there was enough there (of course it doesn't help matters that it's a brand new genre for me, so a lot of guessing and O.o was involved in the writing). Then, once I crossed 5k, I had an "oh shit, I only have 2000 words left to play with" moment.

I finished it, and it's within the word count requirements. I'm really not sure if the ending was rushed though. I have less than 200 words to play with to make it the best it can be and that scares the crap out of me.

The funny part in all this is I used to do writing challenges with 1000 or 2000 word total limits all the time. Meeting 5-7k should be a breeze. But it's not. Not if you're out of practice at least. So, I'm sitting here tonight, dreading the feedback I'm going to get from my betas. I want them to be hard on me because I want it to be good...but I don't want it to suck because I don't have it in me to make another attempt at this by the deadline.

Oh yeah...there's a deadline. What the hell was I thinking? Oh, I remember. It was an excuse, just like those old challenges, to try something new and push myself out of my comfort zone. Yeah. I think I left that behind well over 7k words ago.

So what about you? What word counts do you write in and do you find it hard to switch it up? Or do limits make you happy since you know exactly what you have to work with and how close you are to done?

Who is Spencer Pierce?

When I set out to create my characters, I usually have a pretty good idea of the type of person they are and what they look like. Backstory and quirks and that sort of thing are where the real work comes in. But the basics usually fall into my head fully formed. That was definitely the case with Spencer Pierce, captain of the Dark Hawk in Badlands.

The first thing about Spence is that he isn’t a big guy: muscular and strong sure, but more on the skinny side (wiry is the nice way of putting it). And then there are his eyes. Spencer’s eyes are one of his most telling features. No matter what kind of front he puts on for anyone, his eyes are haunted and speak of a past he’d rather forget. Right around the time I was “casting” Spencer, White Collar came on TV. Matt Bomer fit in a lot of ways, but he just didn’t have that dark edge I wanted for Spencer—he was too “cute”. It didn’t take long to realize the guy I kept seeing when I pictured Spencer wasn’t playing a nice guy on TV. He was playing one of the most deliciously sarcastic and bloodthirsty vampires on TV. Ian Somerhalder is very much the physical embodiment of Spencer Pierce. Of course, if they ever made a movie of Badlands, he’d have to bring a haunted past to the character of a really nice guy. Is he that good of an actor? Hmm…

But as for the character, that’s all Spencer. The closest thing in most of my TV/movie watching to a dirigible captain are from science fiction, in particular spaceship captains give the best parallel. But if you look at most of them, you’ll see some trends.

-       Star Trek

• Kirk is a devil-may-care ladies’ man. (So very not Spencer)


• Picard is straight-arrow, proper and…yeah (Love him, but not Spencer)


• Janeway’s uh…a girl (honestly, this is when I got bored with Star Trek and stopped watching)

-       Star Wars

• Han Solo is a smuggler and a cad. Sure he turns into a great guy, but he starts out as kind of a jerk (Not Spencer)


• Lando Calrissian takes us right back to Kirk.

Sigh. Spencer’s his own breed of guy. But then I thought, what about someone who’s close? Surely one of those captains would be able to sit down and have a drink with Spence without trying to rob him, kill him, or take his woman. Not really. The only ones who wouldn’t probably wouldn’t have a drink with him in the first place.

I could think of one guy who would though. Sure, he’s a smuggler and he’s got attitude to spare. However, he’s not the kind to start off with aggression nor is he the kind to shit on a fair deal. So, if you recognize a little bit of Malcolm Reynolds in Spencer, there’s a reason for it. They aren’t the same character by a long stretch, but I like to think they’d get each other and maybe even be friends.

In addition to the contest that is going on with this post as part of the treasure hunt for The Romance Studio, I'm also offering a digital copy of either of my Blood Kissed stories to a random commenter here (winner's choice of Of Course I Try or The Ghost of Vampire Present).

Badlands Release Party!

For those of you who didn't know, Badlands was actually the first story I sold (way back in June :P). At the time publication seemed so incredibly far off, but then it was February and the date just kind of snuck up on me. So here we are on release day, and I hope all of you will rush out to Carina Press and buy a copy this week (assuming you didn't already pre-order).

And considering I'm all over the blogosphere this week with guest spots and such, I'm not going to do a huge post here. Instead, I'm going to ask that you stop by one of the other places I've been in recent days. There's a huge list on my last post, but I'll narrow it down for you...

Feb. 25 - Manic Readers with a guest spot about the inspiration behind Badlands

Feb 27 - Para-Posse for Six Sentence Sunday

***Feb 27 - Katie Reus's blog with a guest spot about danger and secrets***

***Feb 28-Bea's Book Nook for an interview.***

***March 1-Featured at the Carina Press blog talking about strong female characters***

***March 2- Tia Nevitt's blog with a post on how I developed the matriarchal monarchy of the Badlands***

However, before you go chasing me down, you should know that the ***s next to some of those posts are important. In celebration of release day, I'm offering up not one, but two digital copies of Badlands. Here's the twist. You can enter at any of the starred blogs and/or here. If I remember correctly, on the other blogs, you need to tell me about a strong woman in your real life (Double check on the blogs though because I may have done something different on one or two :P)

With that in mind, what I want to talk about very briefly here is inspiration. If you went to Manic Readers, you'll get the low-down on where all the seeds for the story came from, but first and foremost was the piece of artwork that inspired the character of Ever. Without seeing that picture, this story would never have happened.

So to enter contest HERE, I want you to tell me about something specific that has inspired you in some way (this doesn't have to be writing inspiration, it could be just an inspiration to do with life). The key is to be specific--I want to be able to bask in your stories for a few minutes :)

Tuesday Teases: Happy Birthday Skyla!

The wonderful, beautiful Skyla Dawn Cameron (editor at Mundania Press) is celebrating her birthday today. (If you want numbers, talk to her, I'm not spilling.) Instead of asking for gifts though, Skyla is doing things a bit different. As a major animal lover, she's asking you to give a gift to your local animal shelter. In return, she's giving away a bunch of stuff. Click here if you want to know how to enter and what's up for grabs (a digital copy of "Of Course I Try" is part of the mix.)

She also asked that we post our pet adoption stories today. While most of my pets have come from a shelter of some sort or the other, our most recent addition, Zeus, came from an ASPCA adoption event at a local pet store. Like Skyla, if I go into the actual shelter, I want to bring everyone home.

When we adopted Zeus, we already had a senior dog, Bailey. She was kind of an oddball. She loved puppies, but wasn't really fond of other dogs. So when we made the decision to add to the family, she got the deciding vote. Everyone was kind of stuck on the idea of a puppy, and we found a couple at the event we liked (she had turned her nose up at everyone she'd met before this particular adoption). Once we picked her up from home and brought her to the store though, she made it pretty clear she was over the puppy thing. She wanted nothing to do with them. At all.

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Then there was this kind of dopey, goofy German Shepherd mix that had glommed onto us. He was about a year old and neutered but that was really all the information they could give us (the ASPCA had rescued him from a kill shelter in Ohio). The moment he went nose to nose with Bailey, I knew we'd found our guy. Her tail went a mile a minute and her posture was all sorts of relaxed. We took them outside to walk together, and it was like they'd been hanging out for years. Zeus came home with us that day.

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For about a week, there were little power struggles between the dogs. Then they seemed to work it out that Bailey was alpha inside, and Zeus was in charge outside. I remember trainers telling us it didn't work that way, that because Zeus was male, she'd defer to him. Obviously they'd never met our crazy kids.

While Bailey'd reached an age where she was content to lie around and just play in spurts, Zeus was boundless energy. When he wants quiet time, he hides by me, lodging himself under my desk when I'm working or between the couch and coffee table in the evenings. In a lot of ways, he became my shadow.

It wasn't long after Zeus came into our lives that Bailey's health started going. I think she'd been holding out until she knew we'd be taken care of. She had a year with Zeus when things were pretty good, but then she developed heart problem that required a pace maker and a spinal condition that got worse and worse as time progressed. This past February, when her therapy stopped helping, we finally made the decision to let her go.

Zeus was the glue that kept me strong for my kids. He held me up when I wanted to fall down and cry. Even now, as I'm writing this, he's here with kisses and his goofy doggie smile.



A long time ago, I said I never wanted a male dog.

Of course, back then, I hadn't met Zeus.

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Happy Birthday, Skyla!

Special Monday Post: WINNER!

I want to personally thank everyone who took the time to read and comment on the interviews PJ Schnyder and I did with each other. And for those of you who answered our questions, you made me smile.

So late last night, PJ and I got together, gathered up all the comments and mixed them up. Random.org gave us a number and that number gave us a winner. I explain all this just so you know it has nothing to do at all with her sucking up to me by picking one of my favorite men.

:P

Anyway, congratulations Heather! You've won digital copies of both Heart's Sentinel and "Of Course I Try". Please send me the email address where you want the books sent and we'll have them whisked your way via the magic of the internet.

Super Saturday!

Apologies for the delay in getting this up, family stuff on the other side of the state kept me busy until now. There are a couple things going on today.

In publishing news, the first round of edits on Badlands is done. I finished the read-through and will be sending it sent to my editor momentarily. This is the point where I ask everyone to cross their fingers for me that she's happy with what I did.

Second, my friend, Mr. Romance Jamie Ungaro is in this competition for a role on Mad Men. It's a walk-on, but as a model and aspiring actor, it's a foot in the door. There's only a couple weeks left in the first round of voting, but if you could help him out and vote, that would be awesome. You can vote once a day until September 6, when it goes to other judges. Here's the link to vote for him: http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/browse/detail/LE6QKM , and if you're interested in knowing more about Jamie, there are a couple recent interviews here and here

And finally, the moment some of you have been waiting for. Last night ended the launch party contest. There were a couple last minute entries, and I would like to thank everyone for entering. A special thanks to those of you that bought stories from Decadent (especially mine, since I'm greedy like that). We're a new company, and word of mouth is huge at this point, so if you read a story from a Decadent author and liked it, please spread the word. In fact, Amazon reviews and blog reviews will help us out a lot.

Oh, yeah, you want to know who won. After gathering comments and receipts, I listed all of them in the order they came in, then used random.org to pick our two lucky winners. First winner gets first dibs on the books, second winner gets the other.

The first number pulled belonged to… Jessica Peter! Jess, please toss me an email with your mailing address and your preference of books.

The second number belonged to… Bea! Please send me your mailing address.

Thanks again everyone!

Tuesday Teases: PJ Schnyder

My dear friend, PJ Schnyder and I decided to do our interviews with each other a little differently than normal. Instead of sending each other questions where we would have all the time in the world to fill out answers (read: answer "correctly"), we decided to do our interviews live in tandem over instant message. We had a great time, and if you follow us on Twitter, you may have noticed we gave each other a little bit of grief. It's all in good fun though. PJ's novel, HEART'S SENTINEL was released from Decadent Publishing on August 6, here's a little about the story.

Born human, Mackenzie never wanted to be a shapeshifter. After a shifter stalks and brutally Changes her, she runs to the jaguars of River Gap pride for protection from the stalker still searching for her, to come to terms with the attack and learn to control her new, powerful cougar body.

Adam, a River Gap Sentinel, is assigned as her guard and mentor. Well aware of his strength and how new she is the shapeshifter world, he holds himself back from the flames of primal desire she ignites. But, to survive the stalker, they both need to first battle their pasts and learn what it truly means to be the sentinels of each other’s hearts.

Sounds good, doesn't it? And now, onto PJ herself!

Hi, PJ, and welcome to Ramblings and Romance. I know, I know, you've been here before, but that was always as a guest. This time, you're the vict... I mean, star of the show. Yeah, that's it. So what can you tell us about your path to publication with HEART'S SENTINEL? Was this written specifically for Decadent?

*blink* Yah. Don't think I didn't catch the "victim" part of it. >_> Heart's Sentinel was written last year and a submitted to one of the Miss Snark's First Victim Secret Agent Contests. It took first runner up. While the Secret Agent ultimately declined Heart's Sentinel, she provided valuable feedback. I took the manuscript through another revision round, finding great beta readers along the way *wink* (She means me, because we're just tight like that.) When Decadent Publishing opened for submissions, I sent Heart's Sentinel.  Lisa Omstead responded with a request for the full almost immediately.  I was ecstatic when I was offered a contract.



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HEART'S SENTINEL is just the first in your TERRA'S GUARDIANS series. What do you have planned for the human and shifter inhabitants of your world?

The world of Terra's Guardians is post-apocolyptic. Humans and shapeshifters come from a common ancestry prior to the Cataclysmis Wars. They are mutually threatened by mysterious hunters. Each new addition to the Terra's Guardians series will feature a new couple, a new romance. But the threat of the hunters will continue and readers will learn more about the hunters as the stories continue. (Psst... you could add some stuff about Red's Wolf here) The next story in the Terra's Guardians series is Red's Wolf, set to release August 30th with Decadent Publishing. It's a novella with a fairy tale flavor to it and I hope readers will enjoy.

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I know you requested Mr. Romance 2009, Charles Paz, to be on the cover of RED'S WOLF since he looked like Jason, the love interest. Can you tell me what went through your head when you saw he was also on the cover for HEART'S SENTINEL? (Side note: I love asking questions to which I already know the answer. Makes hearing what someone says when it's public all the more interesting :P)

It's true. I confess. The hero of Red's Wolf did look like Charles so when Decadent picked up the novella, I added a little note in the book cover questionnaire requesting him. He's an unsigned, free agent but he was coordinating with Decadent during the kick off and I thought it would be great. Heart's Sentinel had been entered as part of Decadent's submission contest and was awaiting the outcome, so I saw the cover art for Red's Wolf first. I had a *squee* moment when I found Charles on the cover of Red's Wolf. Then the cover art for Heart's Sentinel was sent to me and I had an OMG moment. Yup. I'd won the submission contest for the novel category, including the generous prizes associated. There was a tiny panic moment as I realized I'd need to tweak Adam just a bit to stay consistent with the cover. Overall, I'm delighted with both my covers and I'm told by other authors they've done the same in the past.

You and I had the pleasure to meet Charles at the Romantic Times convention this year. Then, through his own involvement with them, he went and introduced the two of us to Decadent Publishing. Basically, he was fairly instrumental in us signing with them and he's been a topic of discussion between us more than once. Right now, I want the first three words that come to mind when you think of your cover model.



OMG. In fact, Charles was sweet enough to call into my online interview with Franny's BlogTalkRadio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/frannyarmstrong/2010/07/28/welcome-to-frannys-write-talk-tuesdays-at-9pm) and if you were in the chat room you could see people in the chat room all typing: It's Charles. Then all you saw me type was : OMG

So those are your three words? Oh my God?



Hey, you asked what 3 words came to mind FIRST

Haha fair enough. We'll go back to something writing-related. What are you working on right now? Is it part of the same series or something different entirely?

It's a good thing I'm a multi-tasker because I'm working on several WIPs. I've got a steampunk novella in the works for the holidays as well as the next full novel in the Terra's Guardians series. I've also got a completely new novella out for beta read *stares*. (hey, I told you I would as soon as I had time to breathe)

We've mentioned, and then laughed about, the idea of co-authoring something. But, if you could work with any author on a project, who would it be and why?

Honestly, I love you lots, but the first person on my list would be my little sister. (Um, duh, hence us laughing about the idea of writing together!) The two of us are very different, and yet, the meeting of our minds is a very quirky interaction.  She already helps me round up plot bunnies, but just imagine what an actual manuscript would be like if we co-authored? I write romance, she reads yaoi and a step beyond that, she reads some pretty shocking fan fiction.  I'm thinking the heat level of the book would shoot past my current stories and right into steaming hot. There's no telling where things would go: M/F, F/F, M/M...all of the above? On the other hand, if we did write together, neither of us would ever be able to look our parents in the eye again. And yet, our Uncle Gary would probably find it hysterical.

SPEED ROUND

Boxers or briefs?

Boxer briefs (nice copout) they look best under clothes and are ever so gropable



Great abs or great ass?

I can't have both? LOL. Abs.

Dimples or no dimples? (Smiles, people, just because it comes after the ass question doesn't mean you should leave your mind in the gutter.)

*blink* don't think I've minded one way or the other. Not a bonus point, boys, but not a hit either.

Sex or conversation? (Yes, you may return to the gutter now.)

A little encouragement During sex is hot. (Yet another copout. You disappoint me.)

Muscles or Brains?

Damn. Gotta have both. Sorry, I can't settle for too much of one with a lack of the other. (Dude, seriously? That's four out of five. We need to work on your decisiveness.)

Okay my copout answer friend, anything else you'd like to share with my readers?

Not copout, just truth. I'm picky/greedy that way. Heart's Sentinel is currently available with Decadent Publishing and look for Red's Wolf later in the month.



Awesome. Thanks, PJ, just be aware that the next interview will be held at gunpoint and you will have to choose :P



You can also find PJ online at www.pjschnyder.com





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As a special surprise, PJ and I have teamed up and are going to give one lucky commenter (from all those who comment on either or both blogs) a copy of BOTH our stories. You'll receive one entry for answering PJ's question here, and one for answering my question at PJ's blog. Entries close on Sunday, August 22, then we'll pool all the responses, choose a winner to announce on Tuesday.



What PJ wants to know to enter you in the contest is this: "Which of my WIPs you'd like to see first: steampunk holiday story, the next story in the Terra's Guardians series or the completely different sci-fi romance?"

Launch Party!

So, I kind of promised a giveaway a while back. Things got crazy and I kept putting it off. But I signed contracts with two publishers this summer, and that deserves a celebration. So I thought there was no better time to start it than the eve of my first sale going live for Decadent Publishing's launch. Yes, people, it's tomorrow. Go to www.decadentpublishing.com and buy my story. Or buy someone else's story. Hell, buy a lot of stories!

In fact, I'll give you a little incentive to buy. I've got a couple good old-fashioned paper books to give away.

First up, from the woman ultimately behind me becoming a published author, I give you...



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A signed copy of Made to Be Broken by the wonderful Kelley Armstrong.

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Next up, early this year, I needed a book to break me out of my reading funk. This one did it.



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A signed copy of Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry.

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If these were digital copies, I could send them anywhere, but as of right now, I don't have the cash to mail physical books wherever I please, so I need to limit this contest to residents of the US and Canada. I love the rest of the world too, but shipping is just insane.

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So, to win one of these lovely books, there are a couple things you can do.

1) Comment. Simple, I like comments. They make me happy. So tell me something fabulous that will make me smile. It can be anything from a funny story to a great joke to which Decadent release you can't wait to read. (Worth 1 entry)

2) Buy my story from Decadent. Send me a copy of your receipt at selestedelaney(at)gmail(dot)com (thanks, Laura, for reminding me I needed to put that in here). At this point, I'm flying a little blind, but based on my own previous e-book purchases, it should say what you bought on it. (Worth 3 entries -- because it's my blog and I can do that :P)

3) Buy any other stories from Decadent. Same deal with the receipt. (Worth 1 entry for every title purchased.)

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I'd love for you to tweet, facebook, etc about the contest, but I'm not sure how to keep track of all that, so it won't get you anymore entries. It will, however, get you my deepest appreciation :)

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I'll let this run until Friday, August 20 and announce the winners in the post on Saturday the 21st. First winner drawn gets their choice of titles, second winner gets the remaining book.

So, get to commenting and shopping, and let the game begin :)