Today, I'm thrilled to have the fabulous Patti O'Shea here to talk about her new novel Edge of Dawn, the subject of deleted scenes (I'm interested in your thoughts on this subject, too) and, yay! giving away a copy of the first book in her Gineal series, In the Midnight Hour. This is a great series, so if you haven't read it yet, here's your chance!

Let us both know your thoughts in the comments.

Also, if you don't leave a way to contact you via your comment profile or leaving an email address, then please commit to checking back on or before Monday, July 6 to see if you're the winner of Patti's book.

Take it away, Patti!

Before I get started, I want to announce that to celebrate the June 30th release of EDGE OF DAWN, I'm giving away a copy of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first book in my Light Warriors series. A winner will be randomly drawn from all those who leave a comment.

I was having a hard time coming up with blog topics, so I put the question out on Twitter: What would you like to see an author talk about? Among the responses was the suggestion that I discuss scenes that were deleted from EDGE OF DAWN. Cool, I thought! It's like DVD extras, but for my book!

There were two scenes that immediately came to mind, but for this blog to make sense, I need to explain. I write paranormal action/adventure romance and my current series is about a society of magic users and more specifically the troubleshooters whose job it is to fight demons and other evil beings. The Gineal remain hidden from humans, but work to keep us safe just the same. Logan, the hero in EDGE OF DAWN, is one of these troubleshooters and he's assigned to protect a woman, Shona, who doesn't know she has suppressed magical abilities. His bosses want it to stay that way, too.

But back to the two deleted scenes. The first was the original opening where Logan is at a Sunday barbecue at his parents' house, and during dinner, he gets a call-out to fight a dark-force creature. I had this scene partially written, but abandoned it because 1) it was boring. Sure, I enjoyed watching Logan's interaction with his brother, sisters, and parents, but no one else was going to share my fascination. 2) the call-out part of the scene was repetitive for people who'd read the other Light Warrior books. Maybe most wouldn't remember, but some readers would and I knew I was repeating myself. I hate to do that.

The second scene that isn't in the book was never written, but I had it playing in my head for most of the period in which I was writing the book. I imagined it would come later in the story, when Logan was emotionally committed to Shona even if he wasn't aware of it yet. I saw him bringing Shona home to meet his family and their interaction with her. I saw how protective he was of her, but his family was welcoming. And they were curious because Logan had never brought any other woman home.

Again, it was more family dynamic stuff, but I think I could have made that aspect of the scene work. Why did I opt not to write it? There were a few reasons. The biggest was the timing in the book--it just never fit in anywhere. The other reasons were logistical. Logan is supposed to keep the fact he can do magic a secret from Shona, so he can't use his transit spell to bring them from Seattle to Chicago in a matter of seconds and a plane ride means more than just one Sunday dinner. Having them spend a weekend in Illinois would bring the suspense to a screeching halt. It would be like yelling "time out" in the middle of the book.

You might have guessed from reading this post that I'm really into the relationship between my characters. I'm always fascinated by the male/female pull between my hero and heroine, but in EDGE OF DAWN, I also found myself held rapt by Logan's family and how they all related to each other--which is probably why I wanted to write so many scenes exploring this. But it was Logan's ties to his twin, Kel, that grabbed me hardest and wouldn't let go.

Logan only has a few scenes with Kel and only mentions him a couple of times, but wow, I was hooked fast. There was love, and worry, and frustration, and teamwork, and all this other good stuff. These two are close, but much to Logan's frustration, Kel is trying to put distance between them and he doesn't know why. It seemed natural that when I finished Logan's story, I started Kel's. And this was fascinating, too--I was able to see the family dynamics from a different perspective. Fun for me!

BTW, just so you know, I did sneak in a family barbecue scene, but put it in the epilogue where it doesn't slow down the pace of the story.

So let me ask y'all a question. Keeping in mind that most authors (okay, I mean me) cut scenes because they don't work, do you like to see those deleted scenes on their websites? Are there any other things you particularly like to see on writers' sites about a book or its characters?

Labels: contest, free stuff, Guest Blogging, Patti O'Shea

I'm interviewed at Morbid Romantic where you can also enter a contest to win a copy of My Forbidden Desire.

Participating Sites:

• Readaholic


• booksoulmates


• A Journey of Books Check out the review here


• Debbie's World of Books


• Yankee Romance Reviewers


• This That and the Other Thing


• Drey's Library


• Undercover Book Lover - June 29


• Bookin' With Bingo - June 29


• Marta's Meanderings - June 29


• My Guilty Pleasures


• Starting Fresh


• Bloody Bad, a Book Blog


• Must Read Faster - June 29


• Love Impossible - June 29


• Seductive Musings - June 29


• Review From Here - June 29


• Books and Needelpoint - June 29


• Wendy's Mindingspot - June 29


• Maria's Space


• Carol's NotebookJune 29


• Horror and Fantasy Book Review - June 29


• Darby's Closet on My Space - June 29

Labels: free stuff

Just a quick note to say I'm working on the page proofs for Indiscreet so I have my head down getting through those. Plus too much day job stuff bleeding into my real life and eating up my evenings. Sigh so I am behind in everything now and getting paid less for more work. Should Not Compute. But it does, sadly.

Am also woefully unprepared for RWA in July. However, good news is that I'll be at the Literacy signing July 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm so if you're in the DC area, come by!

On July 24 I'll be at the Hachette booth at Comic Con San Diego signing 200 free copies of My Forbidden Desire so if you're there, drop by. When not signing I will be looking for Alexander Skarsgard and all things True Blood related. I'm only there for the day. I'll post better time info when I have it.

Labels: Comic Con, Indiscreet, My Forbidden Desire, RWA Nationals, signing

Today, I'm hosting author Sheila Curran who has a wonderful new book out, Everyone She Loved. A book to read, folks, and summer is the perfect time!

About Sheila Curran - in her own words

While I'm essentially the same person you can read about from my 2005 ABOUT THE AUTHOR page, I’ve had a recent brush with a somewhat rare form of tonsil cancer.

Oddly, my tonsils were removed when I was ten. Apparently however, there was enough of a molecular launch pad to set off a chain reaction that began with surgery (a breeze) followed by radiation therapy (best not mentioned in polite company) and ended with a rather anti-climactic convalescence from the effects of having one’s mouth, tongue and throat fried, refried and blackened for good measure. Smoothies and soups. Smoothies and soups. Repeat as necessary.

While this experience has eroded my opportunities for food evangelism and martini drinking, it has certainly reinforced the truth of my final things you might want to know about me, in 2005.

I have been kept alive, literally and figuratively, by the affection and support of my family and friends, whose sum total is my proudest boast and matters much more to me than my bank balance or intelligence quotient.

About the Book: Everything She Loved

A wise and triumphant novel about powerful bonds among four women who’ve come of age together only to discover that – when it comes to the essentials – life’s little instruction book will always need revising.
Penelope Cameron, loving mother, devoted wife and generous philanthropist, has convinced her husband and four closest friends to sign an outlandish pact. If Penelope should die before her two daughters are eighteen, her husband will not remarry without the permission of Penelope’s sister and three college roommates. For years, this contract gathers dust until the unthinkable happens. Suddenly, everyone she loved must find their way in a world without Penelope.

For Lucy Vargas, Penelope’s best friend, and a second mother to her daughters, nothing seems more natural than to welcome them into a home that had once belonged to their family, a lovely, sprawling, bed and breakfast on the beach. This bequest was only one of the many ways in which Penelope had supported Lucy’s career as a painter, declaring her talent too important to squander. But now, in the wake of a disaster that only lovable, worrisome Penelope could have predicted, Lucy has put her work on hold as she and Penelope’s husband, Joey, blindly grasp at anything that will keep the girls from sinking under the weight of their grief.

With the help of family and friends, the children slowly rebuild new lives. But just when things start to come together, the fragile serenity they have gained is suddenly threatened from within and the unbreakable bonds they share seem likely to dissolve after all.

In this moving and uplifting novel, Sheila Curran explores the faith one woman placed in her dearest friends, the care she took to protect her family, and the many ways in which romantic entanglements will confound and confuse even the most determined of planners. A story about growing up and moving on, about the sacrifices people make for one another, about the timeless legacy of love, Everyone She Loved is, above all, about the abiding strength of friendship.

Reviews and Buying The Book

You can read reviews of Everyone She Loved at her website

If you'd like to buy this wonderful story you can find several links to sources at Sheila's website.

The Interview

Q: Tell me a little bit about the book.
Four women, friends since college, live in a charming southern beach town. One of them, Penelope, has more money than God. Which may be why she insists on playing the deity from time to time. Despite her beauty and inherited wealth, she becomes preoccupied with what might happen to her husband and children if she died. So she talks her husband into signing a codicil to her will. If she should die, he won’t remarry unless the new wife (and more importantly) mother, has been approved by her sister and three best friends. Years go by, the codicil gathers dust, and more than its share of hilarity, until the unthinkable happens and everyone she loved must find their way without Penelope. Simply told, it's old money in the New South, romantic confusion, legal entanglements, and the unbreakable bonds between four women -- and a man.

Q: If your protagonist were to wake up one day with a super power, what would that super power be?
She would be able to change the electro-magnetic field of the earth so that all weapons were useless and all bullies became physically helpless.

Q: Would your villain (or antagonist) prefer to be Emperor Ming The
Merciless or Darth Vader?
Darth Vader. Because his backstory is so complicated, it makes the hero's actions carry more emotional weight.

Q: What do you consider the heart of your story? That is, what is the issue or emotion that propels things forward? Spill your guts on this one.
The story is about how those who are in mourning often battle guilt. They sometimes sabotage their own well-being out of that guilt. It's about how fragile we are as humans, at least those who are emotionally connected, and that connection can both weaken us against people who don't share our sentiments, and also strengthen our powers to bounce back.

Q: If you were in charge of casting the movie adaptation of your book, who gets the call?
Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy) or Liam Neeson could play Joey Adorno. Jessica Sarah Parker or Kyra Sedgewick could play the interloping nutritionist. Penelope Cruz or Holly Hunter would be great as Penelope. Lucy, Kate Winslet, Scarlett Johannsen, or Catherine Keener, who played Harper Lee in Capote and the love interest in 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN. Martha: Frances McDormand, Cameron Diaz or Ellen Barkin. Susannah: Sandra Bullock, Tea Leoni or Kate Hudson.

Q: Is there a scene you cut from the book that you kind of wish you
could put back in?
Not in this one. In my first novel, set in England, my first line was Diana Lively is naked under her shiny yellow Mac. My editor at Penguin told me that too few Americans would understand that Mac is short for Mackintosh, or raincoat. So we changed the line to Diana Lively is naked under her bright yellow raincoat. The reason she's standing there in her shower, wearing her raincoat is because she's phobic about insects and has just discovered her pre-schooler with a packed of "Walking Stick Insect eggs" her brother has sent away for in the mail. Originally, the infestation was head lice but my friend Jane Ulrich told me lice are too "icky." I trusted her, but I hated to lose the head lice because they provided such a perfect contrast for the opulent living conditions at her husband's suite in the Oxford colleges.

Q: Do you have a sample chapter posted?
Please go to my my website to read the first chapter. I dare you not to want to read the rest!

Q: Tell us why your editor is the best editor ever in the universe.
Because she picked up a nobody like me. Her other writers are Jodi Picoult, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor and Jennifer Wiener. And she took a chance on me! Plus, when I didn't like the first cover they sent, she actually listened and had the new one made. Plus, she's got a knack for cutting out superfluous and self-indulgent prose. PLUS, she came up with the title, and I think it's a gem. It's short, sweet, and can be understood on so many levels.

Labels: Authors, Interview

One of my main strategies for making time to write involves ignoring other stuff. Housework, errands, shopping. That kind of thing. It's a brilliant method, if you ask me. The clutter doesn't really go anywhere, and you'd be surprised how little underwear you actually need if you do laundry often, which I do because I only have one set of gym clothes and a 14 year old currently digging a hole to China in the field.

The downside to this otherwise successful method is that eventually circumstances become dire and one simply MUST clean, buy new underwear and more shampoo.

My friends, that is my situation today. It's not going to be pretty.

Please keep me in your thoughts.

I will meet my minimum, though.

Labels: The ignorance method, writing process

Just in case anyone is wondering, backlist is books a writer has written that are not current releases. They may, or may not, still be in print. When a reader, such as myself, finds a new-to-her writer and likes what she read, that reader may well go in search of the writer's back list. As, for example, what I did when I discovered Mary Balogh. I went off and read as many of her titles as I could get my hands on. I did the opposite when I read J.R. Ward's Dark Lover. The book store had the first three titles, but I didn't want to buy all three when I didn't know if I'd like the first one.

So off I went to read Dark Lover. I went back to the bookstore the next day and bought the other two, profoundly relieved that 1) my not-so-romance friendly store even had the titles and 2) that no one had bought them after I was foolish enough not to buy them right away.

Backlist is important to a writer's career because it gives new readers a feeling of depth about a writer. When they find a writer they like, they go looking for backlist. Despite all the hoopla we hear about frontlist (books that are selling for the first time now), publishers make money off of backlist titles. They've already paid for the publication process. Reprinting, as I understand it, is certainly cheaper than starting new. And with some backlist titles, they may have warehoused copies, if the book has remained in print. And for original sales of backlist, the author eventually gets some money flowing her way, too.

Authors, as most people probably know, are not paid for used book sales. Which completely makes sense, in our system. Most authors, being avid readers themselves, understand about buying used -- it's much cheaper and who doesn't want to be cautious about shelling out $7 or more per book on authors who are unknown quantities?

My very first two books (Passion's Song and Stolen Love) are years and years out of print and will never be reprinted. They are only available used and that's if they can be found in a UBS.

My other titles, however, are more recent history. Lord Ruin and The Spare (2002 and 2004 respectively) went out of print for quite a while. But in the last year and a half, they've been reprinted and are available for sale new. I'm guessing that's mostly online sales, since I've not seen either title in a bookstore as new. I only found out about new copies being sold when I was on Amazon one day and saw that those titles said there were new copies available to be shipped right away.

What this means is that I have a backlist. And now I've seen mentions of people looking for and reading my backlist after reading a more frontlist title.

Huzzah!

Obviously, I hope people buy new, but even if they buy used, I end up in their thoughts about writers whose new books they'll want to buy. Which is pretty cool, if you ask me.

Here's looking at me having even more backlist one day. Along with more frontlist, of course.

Labels: backlist, books

Ranting about Literature

Today I saw a little blurb that suggested Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse was the best beach read ever. To which I immediately said, WTF?

There's just so much wrong with that statement, which yes, I do realize was meant partially in jest. But what's behind that jest? Nothing less than the usual insulting dig at commercial fiction and the readers thereof-- actual beach read books, which I hope we can agree are books you can take to the beach and read to forget your problems or simply enjoy an exciting story. To suggest that To The Lighthouse is a beach read is simply absurd. It implies that people who read actual Beach Reads are somehow so silly and harebrained that we have to be led down the path to literature because otherwise Beach Readers would never know about Virginia Woolf.

And then there's To The Lighthouse itself. This book is not an easy read. It takes concentration and exquisitely careful attention to the prose. I once said To The Lighthouse is a cubist novel and it is. If offers a perspective that shifts and feels uncomfortable and forces you to struggle to give shape to what you're reading. You are forced to see the world and The Novel itself in a whole different way. It is a tour de force. But as you learn how to follow the shifts and make new shapes from the prose, a new world opens up.

To The Lighthouse is NOT a beach read. And guess what? I've read To The Lighthouse and I've read actual beach reads and I get value from both. I bet I'm not the only one.

True Blood

Last night I watched the season 2 premier of True Blood, the HBO series based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. Which, by the way, I loved.

Then I heard about a controversial opinion that in the final scene of the episode, Eric Northman bites the penis off a hapless redneck who has done vampires wrong. Could that be so? I know other appendages were, er, removed (an arm, seen in silhouette), but was there actual biting off of a male member? Well, upon review the scene and doing my best not to be distracted by the obvious fact that my One True Love Alexander Skarsgard has been working out, I can only conclude that, well, yes. He did do that.

My Current Obsession

Did you read the paragraph above? No, not To The Lighthouse. Alexander Skarsgard. I have it bad. Really bad. It's embarrassing and mostly I'm not even embarrassed.

In other News

I have begun receiving my candy of the month from the brilliant Hank Phillippi Ryan and guess what? Since I won it in Brenda Novak's diabetes auction (ignore the irony! It's for a good cause!) I'm in the club all by myself. And I'm not sharing. Sorry.

Not really.

Also, I finally worked my way out of my earliest dead end in a Work In Progress (WIP) ever. Chapter 4, for crying out loud. But now I'm out of it and things are looking pretty good.

I'm not due for another episode of Writer's Neurosis for another 6 chapters at least.

So, who else loves Alexander Skarsgard?

Labels: books, chocolate, literature, The Next Paranormal, True Blood, writing

I guest blogged at Magical Musings. My post is Can Writing Be Taught And Why I Think That's the Wrong Question Check it out of articles about writing interest you.

The blog Nobody Asked Me had very nice things to say about My Wicked Enemy and My Forbidden Desire. Scroll down in her list of May Reading to find me. Among others things she opined:

My Forbidden Desire: It's edgy, irreverent and has ambiguous characters as the H/H. Can't wait for the next installment. My Grade = B+

MY WICKED ENEMY I'm looking for every Carolyn Jewel book I can find now. My Grade = B+

In other news, I'm working on The Next Paranormal and finishing the synopsis for what I hope will be The Next Historical

My son and a friend are out in the field digging holes. Very deep holes. Intense holes. They are working hard and don't know it. Too bad we don't actually need holes dug. The Border Collie is in heaven. She loves to dig holes, too. I believe they are sharing tips and advice.

I should be working. Will go do that now.

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy, The Next Historical, The Next Paranormal

Today I was over at the Risky Regencies blogging about Regency era Ottoman Empire. Check it out!

Also, here's part of a great review of My Forbidden Desire by Lori Sears at The Romance Reader's Connection

4 1/2 stars!

Ms. Jewel has another winner with this latest release and I can only hope that there is more to come!

Oh, yes!

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, reviews, Risky Regencies

Saturday mornings are my absolute favorite, especially if I get to sleep through them. Alas, not this Saturday. I had a rather large day job implementation that required my early rising after working most of Friday evening. All things considered, the project went remarkably well.

Today my son goes to his cousin's birthday party and then in the evening leaves for a red-eye to Washington DC with his eighth grade class. I'll need to do some last minute shopping for that. And then what will I do with myself during an entire week with no youngling?

In between all that, I have to start seriously working on The Next Paranormal. The synopsis for The Next Historical is essentially done and out to readers so I don't have to stress about that anymore. Good news! And if you're reading between the lines, yes, I will be writing more paranormals even though I can't officially say so, it's unofficially official enough that I have to get cracking as of a couple of weeks ago.

In other good news, and pretty much all thanks to Twitter, I won two things in Brenda Novak's diabetes fund raiser; Lunch with Barry Eisler and Candy a Month from Hank Phillippi Ryan. (Twitter reminded me I should go bid on something, so I did.) Then I won a True Blood poster, coming to me directly from HBO's PR office and THEN I won a free ad from the Catanetwork folks! I also got an ARC of Lisa Unger's Die For You and an ARC of Jaci Burton's Taken by Sin.

If you're not on Twitter, how come? Because I also found out on Twitter that Dear Author has My Forbidden Desire as a Recommended Read for June. Woot! Also woot!, MFD made bookscan at 62, which means it's one of the top 100 romances.

If you all would go buy the book (please!) maybe I could move up the list and hit the top 50.

Name that Heroine!

The Next Paranormal will be about Durian, and his heroine needs a name. Everything is subject to change, but she's about 26 or so, scrappy, dresses on the punk side, short dark hair with with purple streaks. She might change colors to lime green or something just to tweak Durian. In the proposal, I called her Shelby because for some reason I thought that might work and when I realized it wasn't going to, it was too late to change it. In chapter one, which I am in the middle of completely rewriting, she is wearing orange high top sneakers.

Here's the short list of names:

• Piper


• Zoe


• Mischa


• Pilar


• Willa


• Antonia

Mischa is the front runner at the moment, but see below. And now, my request: Got any good ideas for a name? I keep a spreadsheet of cool names and note which ones I've used in which books, so here's an opportunity 1) vote on the list of candidate names and/or 2) help me add to my list and maybe even come up with the name I end up using (if you do, full credit in the acknowledgments) by suggesting your own character names.

A few parameters:

• Her name can't start with D since the hero's name already starts with D.


• Her name probably shouldn't start with M either since Maddy is a major secondary character who is likely to get some page time


• Other starting letters that probably won't work: K, A and X.


• ethnic names are completely welcome and probably privileged

Leave your suggestions and votes in the comments. Thank you.

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, Names, The Next Historical, The Next Paranormal

I'm over at Patti O'Shea's blog pimping My Forbidden Desire and giving away a copy of My Wicked Enemy. So check it out. Leave a comment.

The day before I was over at Riskey Regencies making my debut appearance as a member of the blog. I'll be blogging about all kinds of stuff, including things I learned about the Ottoman Empire.

In writing news, uh, I need to get on the stick. That dang synopsis for The Next Hisotorical needs to be done so I can start on The Next Paranormal.

So, off to it, peeps.

Sorry to be so boring. I'll try to do better next time.

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, pimping, The Next Historical, The Next Paranormal

My Forbidden Desire

Check out my website page for My Forbidden Desire where you'll find lots of great information, links to reviews, my book trailer, an excerpt, links to various places to buy and more information about the characters in the book.

Oh, and you should know, too, that My Wicked Enemy is available as an eBook for $1.99 -- from Amazon, Fictionwise etc, so if you haven't read it, here's your chance to get your feet wet for a very modest investment.

Reviews

4 1/2 stars and a Top Pick from Romantic Times

Jewel's darkly perilous and sizzling world is back in a second installment that pits mortal enemies against each other. Her excellent characterization makes each of the players intriguing, which adds richness to the exciting plot. Brava to Jewel for delivering pure and exhilarating entertainment.

Janine, at Dear Author: B+
My Forbidden Desire is a sexy, engrossing read, one that I really enjoyed. The action is fast at times but not so fast that there aren’t also some wonderful slower moments in which Xia and Alexandrine become intimate, and I don’t mean just physically.

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, reviews

Even though it's Monday and I'm in a grumbly mood, I have good news to post. I'll make it quick because I have to leave in a bit to take the progenic unit to a meeting.

Romance Book Scene has an interview with yours truly with a contest to win a free book. Check it out! You have until June 14 to answer the question and be entered in their contest.

Go win a book and say Carolyn sent you!

More good news is that tomorrow is not only NOT Monday but also the official release day for My Forbidden Desire.

Now I'm off. Have a great evening and a fun Tuesday!

Labels: contest, Mondays, My Forbidden Desire

Today, I interview debut author Judi Fennell. All I can say is Mermen rock. Read on, and check her out awesome contest, too!

About The Author:

Judi Fennell has had her nose in a book and her head in some celestial realm all her life, including those early years when her mom would exhort her to "get outside!" instead of watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie on television. So she did--right into Dad's hammock with her Nancy Drew books



These days she's more likely to have her nose in her laptop and her head (and the rest of her body) at her favorite bookstore, but she's still reading, whether it be her latest manuscript or friends' books.

A three-time finalist in online contests, Judi has enjoyed the reader feedback she's received and would love to hear what you think about her Mer series. Check out her website at www.JudiFennell.com for excerpts, reviews and fun pictures from reader and writer conferences, and the chance to "dive in" to her stories.

About the Book

In Over Her Head
Sourcebooks, June 2009
ISBN # 9781402220012

When Erica Peck, one terrified-of-the-ocean marina owner, finds herself at the bottom of the sea conversing with a Mer man named Reel, she thinks she's died and gone to her own version of Hell. When the Oceanic Council demands she and Reel retrieve a lost cache of diamonds from the resident sea monster in return for their lives, she knows she's died and gone to Hell.

When they escape the monster and end up on a deserted island, she amends her opinion - she's died and gone to Heaven.

But when Reel sacrifices himself to allow her to return to her world, she realizes that, Heaven or Hell, with Reel, she's In Over Her Head.

What people are saying:

Nora Roberts? Danielle Steel? Much acclaimed romance writers should step aside. There is a new romance writer in town and she is certainly causing a great splash with her debut novel, In Over Her Head.
-- ABibliophile.com

I truly found a pearl in my oyster when I read this delightful tale. I was surprised how good of a book In Over Her Head is. It is extremely well-written, the storyline flows and I was hooked from the first page.
-- LongAndShortReviews.blogspot.com

IN OVER HER HEAD is a delightful, quirky blend of humor, adventure and passion. All in all, this is a fast, fun read and a great way to spend a snowy afternoon or a sunny day at the beach.
-- Lynda K. Scott, Star-Crossed Romance

In Over Her Head is a heartwarming, but action-packed story of two people-one human and the other of the seaworthy body-joined together in an adventure. I enjoyed this story immensely.
-- Dawn M. Ekinia, Armchair Interviews

A delightful underwater adventure... full of good-natured humor and fun. A strong first effort by a promising new talent.
-- Romantic Times

A playful debut... sincere wit.
-- Publisher's Weekly

Contest

To celebrate the release of each of her books, Judi Fennell and the Atlantis Inn (www.AtlantisInn.com) and the Hibiscus House (www.HibiscusHouse.com) bed and breakfasts are raffling off three romantic beach getaway weekends. All information is on Judi's website, www.JudiFennell.com

The Interview

1. Tell me a little bit about the book.

When Erica Peck, one terrified-of-the-ocean marina owner, finds herself at the bottom of the sea conversing with a Mer man named Reel, she thinks she's died and gone to her own version of Hell. When the Oceanic Council demands she and Reel retrieve a lost cache of diamonds from the resident sea monster in return for their lives, she knows she's died and gone to Hell.

When they escape the monster and end up on a deserted island, she amends her opinion - she's died and gone to Heaven.
But when Reel sacrifices himself to allow her to return to her world, she realizes that, Heaven or Hell, with Reel, she's In Over Her Head.

2. If your protagonist were to wake up one day with a super power, what would that super power be?

Heh. I think Erica would love to be able to fly. That'd get her out of the ocean in a flash if a shark showed up. The fact that it's also the superpower I'd love to have could be totally coincidental. But probably isn't. Alternatively (or both!) if your protagonist were to wake up one day with an intense craving for something, what would the craving be? Kajiki - swordfish sushi. Paybacks are a bitch.

3. Would your villain (or antagonist) prefer to be Emperor Ming The Merciless or Darth Vader? Why? (If you've never watched Flash Gordon, feel free to Google or substitute the villain of your choice.)

Darth - Ming ruled a planet. Darth has a bigger focus; he wants every universe out there. Ceto has a bone to pick with The Gods and she wouldn't mind having more power than them.

4. What do you consider the heart of your story? That is, what is the issue or emotion that propels things forward? Spill your guts on this one.

Reel's realization. I didn't see that one coming, and, no, I'm not giving it away here. But it touched me when I wrote that scene. There's one line in there that just took my breath away when I wrote it about being a son and a father.

5. If you were in charge of casting the movie adaptation of your book, who gets the call?

I laugh when I get this question because I hadn't really thought about it until I had to start doing promo because everyone asks it. Matthew McConaughey's character in Failure to Launch inspired Reel's devil-may-care attitude, and he does look like him and I think Matthew could do Reel really well. I love Sandra Bullock playing opposite Matthew, and her character in Two Weeks' Notice -- the chattiness and sarcasm to cover her insecurities - would play well with Erica.

6. Is there a scene you cut from the book that you kind of wish you could put back in? (Feel free to include a URL to it, it you have it posted on line.)

Nope. Everything I wrote is in there.

7. Do you have a sample chapter posted?

I have an excerpt at: http://judifennell.com/IOHH%20Excerpt.html

8. Tell us why your editor is the best editor ever in the universe.

Because she loved my story enough to buy it! And the next two in the series on proposal. Seriously, she and I had formed a great relationship through industry functions and she wanted to make something work for us - when this came across her desk, it was the right one.

Labels: Authors, Interview

Whew. I think I've fixed the last of the known pesky issues with the new website. Score one for me for tracking down the issues.

Today, I sent out my newsletter announcement for the release of My Forbidden Desire with a special contest for subscribers only. So, if you don't subscribe, you might want to click on over and subscribe.

I've almost finished my promotion stuff for the release. I have a few more guest blogs coming up.

So far, I've been these places:

• I do Not Want to Wait... for a fun interview with me.


• Pub Rants. This is my agent's blog. My post is about backstory, which you might want to check out if you're interested in articles about writing


• Fresh Fiction where I muse some more about supernatural reproduction.


• The Chatelaines for a pretty comprehensive interview with me by the always wonderful Jennifer Ashley

Uh, what else?

I have read ALL of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books and also watched the entire season 1 of the HBO series True Blood. Wah! I have to wait for the next book and for season 2 to be on DVD.

And how odd, but when I saw still pictures of the actor who plays Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), I thought, meh. But when he was on screen? omg. I thought my iMac was going to 'splode. How oh how am I ever going to wait for Eric and Sookie? Those guys over at HBO are mean. I have since seen other stills of him that hint at his epic hotness. But not the one of him on Wikipedia. Not to mention all the other websites made it insanely hard to grab a pic to show you so I gave up because it's getting late and I'm tired.

I have not cleaned my room and things are getting desperate. Must do something about that. Later.

Is anyone else hooked on Sookie Stackhouse? In my case, that would be specifically hooked on Eric. What are you hooked on? I'm always looking for crack-a-licious books.

Labels: more stuff, My Forbidden Desire, stuff

Here it is! Please let me know what you think. One person has said she had trouble with the audio so I'm interested to know if anyone else has the same issue.





Is everyone else looking forward to the weekend as much as I am?

Labels: Book Trailer, My Forbidden Desire

Check out my blog post at Fresh Fiction where I'm talking werewolf reproduction. Leave a comment there, make me look super popular, and have a chance to win a copy of My Wicked Enemy so you'll have a complete set after you rush out to get your copy of My Forbidden Desire.

This post is a kind of a companion post to Vampire Reproduction

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Labels: books, My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy, vampire reproduction, werewolf reproduction

There's all kinds of release. For example, yesterday I released my new website to the world. It was a lot of hard work, but doing the implementation myself was the only way I could afford a designer of the caliber I wanted to hire. All that's left now is tracking down the errors I made, so if you see any, let me know.

The official release date for My Forbidden Desire is approaching so I am busy getting my promotion in place. Whew, hard work!

Today I went out to cut sweetpeas. If you don't cut them, they stop flowering, so this is a burden to be borne. There are now 4 huge vases in the house, all of them stuffed full of sweetpeas. I took some pics too, and as I was saving off the pics that came out, the sweetpeas released their lovely scent through the house. I could have sworn my pictures smelled like sweetpeas.

A bucket of sweetpeas.

And here's our sweetpeas, before I cut them. It's not the greatest pic, but you can see the row and how pretty it is.


I love sweetpeas.

Labels: flowers, My Forbidden Desire, Release

I have today and tomorrow off the day job and since Monday is a holiday here in the USofA, that's five days off. Ahhhh.

And yet, so much to do.

• Finish implementing the new website


• Finish the proposal for The Next Historical


• Promo for My Forbidden Desire - many commitments made

Those are all really big complicated things, so I need to get cracking.

Also, opinions welcome on this one: would you be excited if I decided to give away an iPod Touch for a contest prize? Just a thought.

Off to work.

Labels: contests, My Forbidden Desire, The Next Historical

First some writing related news - I've seen a very early draft of my book trailer for My Forbidden Desire and it's going to rock. Watch this space...

I will shortly, I believe, have some very happy news. Heh. Heh. Watch this space.

I have no contest ideas yet for the release of My Forbidden Desire and I guess I need to get cracking on that. Watch this space.

Monday is a holiday and I have Thursday and Friday off which means for me tomorrow is Friday! Yes, that is happy news, but not the news I was teasing you all with earlier.

Now, on to the thing which has been puzzling me lately, namely,

Everyone knows that vampires aren't fertile, but why not? Seriously. They're self-healing, so seems to me if a person were fertile before he became a vampire (for now let's talk male vamps) then he'd be fertile afterward too. It's not like the sperm would suddenly be non-motile -- vampires can move after all, so there's no reason to think vampire sperm wouldn't also move. Would sperm production cease? Why or why not? According to lore, vampires can cry (blood) though I would ask why cry blood? There has to be water in the vampire's body or they'd all look like Yoda after 10 years in the desert without a soda, so why not cry tears? But I digress.

Seems to me that vampire sperm would not only be motile but it would be preternaturally motile. Those little swimmers would be after that egg like nobody's business. So why don't women get knocked up by vampires and have lots of twins and triplets and more?

Why would the transformation to the vampire leave all bodily functions but fertility regenerative? If a vampire were to lose part of his liver, it would grow back. So long as the heart is not pierced by a stake, a damaged vampire heart would grow back good as new. The vampire body must constantly regenerate itself to its time-of-death state, so they should always start the night with a fresh supply of swimmers.

The whole circulation thing bothers me too. If vampires cry tears of blood, but there's no circulation, how did the blood get there and then get pushed out of the body? There has to be some sort of circulation in place in order for the blood to be absorbed as a nutrient. There also has to be circulation and mitochondria and the like all working in order for the blood to get to all parts of the body to continually regenerate the undead state. I'm willing to accept that their blood pressure is so low as to be considered non-existent if they were humans.

Therefore, if there's circulation, then the whole vas deferens must work and therefore male vampires have to be capable of knocking up a female. Ah, but what kind of female? I submit it can't be a female vampire.

For female vampires, the case is more complicated. If her eggs are still good at the time of un-death, then they would still be good after, but lore says the vampire body returns to its time of un-death state during the day, so a vampire female shouldn't be able to carry a baby to term. But a male vampire should be able to knock up a human female. BUT! That baby would have to be fully human, I think. Unless the transformation to vampire actually changes the DNA. Which I don't think it would.

What do you guys think?

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, vampire reproduction

Have I mentioned before that I am not a hot weather person? 55 and overcast is my kind of day. Today it was 80+. Not good. Plus we went to Sebastopol (not the one in Russia) to play Ultimate Frisbee. I actually was expecting to watch my son and nephew. Two of my brothers and my sister in law came, too. So, I was not prepared with good footwear or a sports bra. For those who do not need a bra, let me just say that running without a sports bra requires reduced speed and/or strange posture. Plus it was too freaking hot. But it was also fun. There were a lot of people there, eventually, for the pickup game and they were very good about having complete beginners there. After that, my son and I went grocery shopping and when we got home from that, his friend called and so a bit later I was driving him out to his friend's house so they could set off dry ice bombs.

His friend lives even more in the boonies than us so the drive there is through country, mostly, which I am sad to say is now a combination of actual farms (which tend not to be neat or pretty) and McMansions built by people who move to the country and then complain about the smell of cow manure and the sound of frogs at night. They want the idea of living in the country without any of the reality. Anyway, his friend called as we were on our way wanting to know where we were. And my son says this:

Dude, we're on our way. We just passed the giant chicken.

And the funny this is, this was a completely true statement. Because, in fact, there is a giant chicken statue in one of the fields along the way. It's a Godzilla sized chicken statue, I kid you not. White with a red comb. It stands there facing the road in its poultry-tudinous majesty, in a rather large field. Unmissable since it is, well, a giant chicken.

I remember thinking that, on the face of it, that was just a very peculiar thing to hear someone say, and yet, I drove on, thinking, yes, we did just pass the giant chicken, so his friend should know we're not far away now. It's a landmark, I suppose, which come to think of it isn't too much of a surprise. A giant chicken kind of stands out wherever you are. Except maybe in the land of giant chickens which may or may not be someplace near us.

Then I came home and read Sookie Stackhouse until it was time to pick up my son. At home I fed him, read some more, took down the garbage and now I'm doing this.

But I did think about working. Tomorrow I actually will. I swear.

Labels: Giant Chickens, The Next Historical, writing

Today I finished Patrick Rothfuss's spectacular The Name of the Wind. The writing was beyond great. There were times I got chills because the prose was so exquisite. He did a wonderful job setting up his protagonist as the brilliant yet flawed underdog.

My only quibble, really, has more to do with the genre (Fantasy) namely, virgin heroes and non-virgin heroines who pay for their sexuality. More on that in a bit, I just want to say that I will re-read this book and try to find it in hardcover. Do not rely on the back blurb to give you a sense of the story inside. The back blurb is horrible. The story is everything Fantasy is supposed to be and more.

Here's the opening paragraph:

It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

I'm green with envy. If you want to know about world building, read this book. The explanations of magic make you think you could go out and do it on your own.

Someone on twitter told me he's now turned in his MS for the continuation. Yay!

So, about virgin heroes and women who must pay a price for having sex. As God is my witness, I will write a Fantasy where that does not happen. You read it here. My working title for my Fantasy, by the way, is Bloodhand. Not sure when I'll fit it in but I will.

I've got to get cracking on the synopsis for The Next Historical. Yeah. Rothfuss derailed me, but I wasn't putting that book down for anything.

Now off to bed.

Labels: Fantasy, projects, wriitng

Today, (Sunday may 10) is as many of you are no doubt aware, is Mother's day. I had a nice relaxing day mostly. My brothers came over and we sat around chatting for a while. No one believes me but this is true: I measured my son on Friday; he had not grown since February 22. I measured him today because he looked suspiciously tall, and he was, indeed, 1.25 inches taller. Everyone says I made a mistake Friday, but I didn't. He is now 5'9" tall and still 13, and he grew 1.25 inches in two days.

This meant I had to do some quick shopping so that he has more than one pair of pants that fit him (the trusty, next-size-up pants I always buy). Plus he needed some new shirts and a new jacket. Sigh. I am poor now. My Mother's Day was unexpectedly expensive.

Then it was time to take down the garbage, and my son could only find one shoe. Normally, I would just tell him to look a little harder but since there was company, the Border Collie was all excited and one of the things she does when she is excited is pick up a shoe when a door opens somewhere and dash outside with it. Then when the excitement wears off, she drops the shoe wherever she might happen to be at the time the adrenaline rush is over for her. This explains, for example, why there was a yellow rain boot standing in the middle of the driveway when I came home one afternoon. And why one time I found a sneaker in the orchard. There are five acres here and we often find shoes in the darnedest places.

So the missing shoe is actually kind of worrisome. It's Sunday and getting on toward dark and there's school tomorrow and the tallest person in the house has grown out of the emergency shoes that used to belong to his Uncle Matthew. I had visions of having to send him to school in his slippers. They're nice slippers and all, but still. He's only 13 and that sort of thing could scar him for life. It's even possible that the shoe could be in the pond because the other thing the Border Collie does when she's done running around is go lie down in the pond. It cools her off. Which I knew she'd done because I saw her at the sliding glass door in the kitchen dripping wet and with her nose covered with duckweed.

We got back to the house and the search began. Fortunately he found his shoe -- in his room where, I am quite sure, if it had been a snake it would have bit him when he was looking for his shoe before.

I'm reading Agnes and The Hitman by Crusie and Mayer, and finding it wonderfully hilarious.

No writing today. Oops. Didn't get any more done on implementing the new website either. Oops.

So, how was your mother's day? Any stories about odd pet behaviors or kids who grow overnight?

Labels: mother's day, reading, shoes, writing

Friday. I like Fridays quite a lot, especially when it gets to be 4:00 pm and I'm home.

All-in-all a good day. Should be working on my synopsis for The Next Historical proposal, but I'm tired and since I have to get up early tomorrow, I think I'm going to go to bed very soon. Some good things possibly on the horizon, which is all I can say for the moment. Guess I'm a tease. Sorry. (not really).

Tomorrow is my local RWA chapter meeting. I'm very much looking forward to it. Should be fun. They have doughnuts so I think it will be good times no matter what. My favorites are plain cake (a strange but true fact about me) but they hardly ever have those. My 2nd fav are the old fashioned. I plan to eat a doughnut. Possibly two. Three if there's plain cake. From time-to-time I make doughnuts. It's not hard at all. The only trick is getting the oil to the right temperature. Once I made beignets and ooh, yummy!

I have bought my plane ticket for RWA. The fare was dirt cheap. Wow. If you're going to be there, I'll be signing at the Literacy Signing and at the Berkley and Grand Central author signings.

I've mailed off all the birthday bash prizes, so winners, be on the lookout!

I'm mulling over ideas for a contest for the official release of My Forbidden Desire. Hmmm. Must decide something soon.

Yesterday I read Living Dead in Dallas the 2nd Sookie Stackhouse book. I also have the most recent one but have realized I want to read them in order so now I must look to getting all the ones in between -- because from the back blurb of the latest, she has a boyfriend named Quinn which means something happens with Bill -- do NOT spoil it for me!!! and I'm assuming (praying?) something will happen with Eric because I'm a slut that way.

Now I'm reading Something Something Something by Someone or other and I'm too lazy to go find the exact title. Something about race car drivers. It's cute but has a completely ridiculous plot hook. I'd be enjoying it more otherwise.

Speed Brick is on a diet (me, too) and is not happy about the reduced rations. (Me neither, brother, me neither.) He is currently making his displeasure known to me. I'm trying the tough love.

So, what's your favorite kind of doughnut? Am I alone in my love of plain cake?

Wednesday. Midweek. And it feels like it. Sigh.

Work - the day job work - is stressful. The times are stressful.

I'm working on the synopsis for The Next Historical and for all who know me, you understand what that means. Yes.

Synopsis Hell

Mine are terrible. They make my agent cry. Though I think I'm getting better at faking them. As a panster, (seat of the pants writer) all I can do is fake it in a synopsis written before the book. NOTHING I put in the fake synopsis will happen. None of it. It's all fake because I have to write the book to find out what happens and what kind of story I'll have. Confession: I resent the time I spend thinking up stupid stuff that will never happen once I'm actually writing. Someday I hope to be at a point in my career when I won't need to sell with a synopsis.

It's going to be ugly while I work on it.

So far, the vague story is a couple who are friends and have been involved with others and never particularly aware of each other that way. I say never particularly aware because I think that everyone thinks about it in re the people they know of the opposite (or desired) gender. But not necessarily in a way that makes you think it could happen. But we all think about it. Or am I a freak that way?

Think good thoughts for me. But maybe don't mention if you're thinking that.

Labels: Synopsis, The Next Historical