Winners from my blogoversary!

Hey everyone. Thank you to all the wonderful authors and all those who took part in my 1st Blogoversary! I am now going to announce the winners. So without further ado: 

$50 Book Depository giftcard winner is MARY!!!

Signed copy of Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione is KARLA VOLLKOPF!!!

Copy of either Deadly Heat or Deadly Lies by Cynthia Eden is LISA DUNICK!!! 

Please contact me within 48 hours via email, to claim your prizes. Thanks again to everyone who entered. 

While your here you may want to know that H.P Mallory has all her ebooks on sale for 99 cents! If you haven't read them, then now is the time to grab a copy of each. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. This is only for the next 4 days so you better hurry.

Day 11 - Guest post by Adrian Phoenix

My First Hurts-So-Bad-It-Must-Be-Love Crush

I didn’t know love hurt. That it was a constant, yearning ache, one that would tie my heart into knots, one that would saturate every thought with him, and make me think of him with every breath I drew. He’s breathing too, right this very second. Does he think of me? Has he even noticed me? We both gotta breathe, sure, but I can pretend we’re breathing together.

Oh. My. God. Thirteen sucks. Thirteen is when you discover the meaning of bitter-sweet and gawky and heartsick. (And the rest of your family discovers the meaning of self-absorbed, brooding, and melodramatic and you can agree on one thing: thirteen sucks.)

I would babble about this boy at meals, every word spilling from my lips was all about him, My mother dismissed me as boy-crazy, and while crazy was accurate since that was how I felt, I was only crazy for one boy.

I was in eighth grade in junior high school and his name was John. He had dark hair and dark eyes and seemed so mysterious. He was quiet and usually traveled around the school with an entourage of two male friends. He wasn’t one of the popular boys or a jock or even an outcast. He was a regular boy and I thought he was the cutest boy in the universe. I would’ve delivered up my heart on a platter (still quivering) if he would’ve even looked my way.

We often took the same short cut home across the field after school, and I would trail behind him and his friends. I would study every toss of his head, feel weak at the sound of his laughter. I think all I really wanted from him was to just look at him, to be near, to be able to laugh with him and maybe, just maybe, hold hands. I don’t think I even thought about a kiss, just his company and holding hands.

One day, he dropped a glove as he walked home and, heart pounding, delirious, I picked it up. I took it home, thinking I would give it to him in class the next day. I could only hope I wouldn’t faint while doing so.

I never found the courage to give him the glove. I think a part of me never intended to. I kept it under my pillow. A keepsake. A promise. A way to be close to him. I often wished I could walk up to him, smile, and say, “Hey, John” and make him look at me with the same yearning I felt twisting like ivy around my heart whenever I walked past him without a word or a glance, my cheeks blazing as if he could read my thoughts. (Hopefully not about the glove hidden beneath my pillow!)

I pined over John for a long time. Wrote maudlin poetry and moped. A lot. I think I’m fortunate no one in my family smothered me in my sleep (with the glove). LOL. During the year of my crush, John said hello to me once and smiled. I blushed so hard that I’m surprised I didn’t burst into flame. I stammered something, probably, “Uh.” But the unrequited love affair of the century began to wane when John was asked to read aloud in class. As he struggled with each word in the book, I realized he didn’t read much. Well, okay, we could around that. But when he pronounced Chicago as chick-a-go, I knew we were doomed.

I never had a crush as intense and painful and (one-sidedly) romantic as that one. I don’t think I would’ve survived another. My family would’ve made sure. LOL.

And speaking of firsts:

You can read a chapter from the first book in The Maker’s Song series. Here’s a link to a sample chapter of A Rush of Wings.

And the first book in my Hoodoo series. Here’s a link for the first chapter of Black Dust Mambo.

Thanks so much for having me! It’s been a blast. You can also find me at:

Website My blog Facebook Facebook Fan Page Twitter MySpace Goodreads

Dante's Club Hell Forum

Dante's Club Hell Yahoo Group

Pocket After Dark

Day 10 - Guest post by Tracey O'Hara

Since this is Strange Candy’s first anniversary I was asked to talk about one of my big firsts. Now I could think of many first things. My “first” time, which was totally forgettable. My first love who I married, who also fathered of my first child (and my second). Or I could talk about my first book, or my first cover, of my first release.

Instead I decided to talk about another “first” I embarked on this year with my husband, we bought our first house.

Now I never knew how time consuming and stressful it is, but it’s also a bit like getting a book published in a way. First there is the idea, then the research, the plotting, the planning, the making it happen and finally the payoff when you have finished and move into the new house.

For years my family has been living in a rented house unsuitable for our needs and our size. I commandeered one of the bedrooms for my office so my adult sons had to share a room which also acted as their games room. I didn’t realise how cramped we had been living until we move into a place where everyone gets a room and there is room left over to set up my office and the boys games room.

So my big first this year is my first house.

Leave a comment and your email to be entered!

Day 9 - Guest post by Erica Hayes

My first manuscript

No, not the first one I got published. The first I ever wrote. Back in the dim, dark nineties when no one had ever heard of paranormal romance or urban fantasy.

I read a lot of big fat fantasy, so that's what I tried to write. It was this rambling tale of a nun, who was also a doctor, who discovers that the gods she's worshipped all her life are actually a gang of demons intent on taking over the world. I was pretty clueless about worldbuilding at the time. I liked the idea of a four-month-long, dark winter, so I put it in the deep latitudes of the south. And I thought it'd be cool if, instead of swords and bows, they had flintlock pistols. So I shunted it out of the Middle Ages into a kind of quasi-Civil-War era. And the romantic hero was a rabid villain who did horrible things to innocent people for fun, until the heroine showed him the error of his ways by driving him insane (literally).

Yeah, it was terrible :) But I had a lot of fun. I revised it about a hundred times. Even submitted it a few places, to editors who sighed at how awful it was and patiently sent me form rejections.

But hey, you've got to start somewhere! And when I look at that manuscript now, the themes that pop out are surprising. Stuff that at the time, I didn't even really know I was writing about.

'Good' and 'evil' as fluid concepts that warp in the eye of the beholder. People who are one thing on the outside and quite another on the inside. Dual personalities, demonic possession, voices in your head, the war against the darkness within you.

Then again, maybe those themes aren't so surprising. I look at my published books, and I see the same things. I write charming demons, evil angels, 'good' as the lesser of two evils. And every single one of my books has characters with twin personalities or voices in their heads. For instance, Joey in POISON KISSED is a shape-shifter with a dark and hungry creature inside him, and Mina is possessed by her magical voice. And Ember, the heroine of my upcoming book BLOOD CURSED, is haunted by the apparition of the stronger, tougher, no-nonsense self she wishes she could be.

Seems I have some deep-seated need to write about insane people! But the idea that writers have a 'core story' – one they tell over and over again, in different forms – is well-known. Mine is 'the darkness within', and I embrace it. It pops up everywhere, whether I mean it to or not. And it started before I knew anything about writing or publishing, way back in that very first manuscript.

Remember: comment and email or you don't get entered. $50 gift card from Book Depository!

Day 8 - Interview with Noah Mullette-Gillman

Welcome to Strange Candy Reviews Noah, thank you for stopping by.

Can you give us a little information about your book/s?

I have three titles available. First, I have a novella called The White Hairs. It’s an unusual story about a white furry creature named Farshoul. The story begins with him participating in a ritual with his people. He is learning how to leave his body and travel in the wind and the snow. When he returns to his physical self, despite what he has experienced, he is told that he failed. He never left his body at all. Farshoul is left with no choice. He has to discover the truth of his experiences on his own, without any help from his society. It’s a gently moving philosophical story.

I then published a short story called The Song of Ballad and Crescendo. It’s available for free on Smashwords (99 cents everywhere else.) This is a love story and a fable. It takes place in a mythical forgotten time when the sky used to be covered with stone and everyone had to whisper so that massive rocks wouldn’t fall and crush them. The story is illustrated with a series of my photographs.

Luminous and Ominous is my first full-length published work. It’s an end of the world horror and science fiction story. Henry Willingham gets three days warning that an alien vegetation has invaded the world. He has to decide which friends he saves and what supplies he gathers. There isn’t enough time. Some terrible decisions get made. Then, after a year or so underground, Henry and two other survivors walk through the transformed ruins of upstate New York, past alien trees and alien animals trying to survive.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Early on, I think I saw all arts as one. When I was a child, there was no real difference between drawing a picture or telling a joke or writing a poem. By the time I got to high school I wanted to write and draw comic books. But I reached a point when I discovered that my real talent, and my real passion was for writing.

I started with comicbook plots, then poetry, then I sang in some bands in Boston and wrote all of my own lyrics. Then eventually I started writing short stories, then movie scripts, and then finally novels. I see my work as having really evolved from fully-gilled fish to woolly land walker. My hope is that the next stage will be when my work starts to glow in the dark. 

How long does it usually take you to write a book?

I’m not yet at the point when I have written enough books to know what normal is. I wrote my first novel in a month. My second took two years. I then started and abandoned a few. Luminous and Ominous took me a few months. Since I published that, in late November, I have been hard at work on two novels and a novella. When I’m “in the groove” I think 3,000 words is a decent day.

What was the hardest thing you've had to research?

Without competition, that was my senior project in college. I went to Bard College, in upstate New York. I graduated with a multidisciplinary degree in Philosophy and Creative Writing. My senior project was on the expression of experiences.

That said, I do a considerable amount of research for my writing. I am working on a science fiction novel about magicians now. To prepare for this I have read about the Hermetic magicians, the alchemists, Emperor Rudolph II of Prague, John Dee and Edward Kelly’s communications with angels, etc, etc. I’ve read several books on the history of stage magic. I don’t approach a book about magic as a Dungeons and Dragons-esque opportunity to just make up a story off of the top of my head. I take it seriously.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

Far more chaotic than I wish it were. Life isn’t simple. I do also teach. I have a lot of other responsibilities. Also, the fact that I do do so much reading and research for my books means that a large portion of the time that I spend on my stories doesn’t immediately result in any pages at all. But, all of that being the case, I am still hoping to publish four books in 2011.

Do you think you have an interesting writing quirk?

“Quirk?” I don’t think of my work as quirky. I hope that there’s a lot about the way I approach my work which is interesting, at least. One thing that readers might want to know is that I do give a lot of thought to the symbolic meaning of the events in my stories. The symbolism is never the point. The plot must always be paramount, but if you see a snake in my story, I will have considered what snakes represent on the psychological level and how this symbol relates to the others in the story.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

I put a lot of intentional work into inspiring myself. I carefully select the books I read, movies I watch, music I listen to. The walks in the woods, the drives across the country, the hours spent walking through the streets, the time I spend abroad… It’s all intended to generate ideas.

There is a myth that authors and creative people are simply gifted their ideas like Christmas presents which require no work or effort. There is nothing harder than keeping the fire burning.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That I could have a single coherent thought which went on for hundreds of pages.

What do you think makes a good story?

Ha! Is that all you want to know? I’ll tell you what I aspire to. I like to be imaginatively competitive. However original my ideas have been in the past, I always want to surpass them. Whenever I read a book or watch a movie and the ideas amaze me, I see that as a challenge to be more original than they are. I never steal anyone else’s ideas because my stated goal is always to try to outdo them. I wouldn’t be satisfied with any work wherein I wasn’t at least trying to accomplish this.

But of course, writing is even harder than that. We need to make people care. We need to move them. We need to be of psychological use. We ought to be honest. AND we have to catch all the typos…. I’m telling you, writing is hard!

Why did you choose to take the self published route?

I did seriously consider submitting Luminous and Ominous to agents and publishers. Here’s why I didn’t. If I were to submit the book, I could expect to wait 6-9 months for a reply. IF I were lucky enough to find someone right off the bat who was interested in my book, I could then expect to wait another year or more to see it actually published.

Instead, I published the book with very little delay. It’s done. It’s in the world. More than 500 people have read the book in a little over four months. I have moved on and am working on a sequel and other works. I’m getting a modest check every month. I continue to own all of the rights to my work and I enjoy 100% creative control. I have begun to build an audience, and I have earned a 4/5 star average of reviews on Amazon.com with 26 reviewers. I’m off to a good start!

Do you have any advice for others who are thinking of self publishing?

Edit. Take the time and catch all the typos. Also, spend some time thinking about if the book is the best it can be.

Then do it.

Name five things you can't live without.

1. Input: Movies, music, books, ideas, conversation. Deep thought.
2. Output. I need to write and create.
3. Friends and animals.
4. Rain.
5. Cheese.

Day 7 - Guest Post by Marianne de Pierres

My First Story Proofs

If I had to pick one of the highlights from my life, one would be the day I got my first set of proofs. These were for a children’s chapter book I published years ago, called Dylan’s Magic Cards. And funnily enough it wasn’t seeing my story typeset that was the exciting thing, it was the internal illustrations and cover rough that made it so memorable. For me, nothing beats seeing how a story you’ve written is interpreted by an artist (whether it be an animator, videographer, film maker, painter or whoever). The sight of those pictures in Dylan’s Magic Cards was worth a million dollars to me – and more. Someone had breathed another kind of life into my words.

Leave a comment and your email for another entry to win the $50 gift card from Book Depository!

Day 6 - Guest post by Jaye Wells

This Is the First Line of the Rest of Your Life
By Jaye Wells

Inspiration can strike at strange times. Talk to a dozen writers and they'll give you a dozen odd locations where they've had an idea--in the shower, on the toilet, eating a bagel, at a funeral, etc. But for me, the most important piece of inspiration I've had so far hit me while I was driving down the road. 

I remember very clearly cruising down Beltline Road in Addison, Texas. I was approaching a stoplight and thinking about a story I needed to write for a friend's flash fiction contest. At the time, I was just another aspiring writer. The contest in question was a for-fun event my friend hosted on his blog a couple of times a year. He'd post an image that would serve as the jumping off point for all the stories entered. 

For this contest, he'd posted a picture of a full moon peeking from between clouds. Since I already wrote paranormal fiction, this image was perfect. But the pressure was on. I didn't want to write just another paranormal story. Which is why, on that sunny afternoon, I was thinking about what I wanted to write as I ran errands. 

I was about 100 yards from the light when a voice spoke in my head. "Digging graves is hell on a manicure," the female voice whispered. 

The car might have swerved--or maybe I'm just imagining it did. But that one little line, that one perfect little line, grabbed me by the throat. I pulled to a stop at the light and tore my car apart looking for a piece of paper, a pen, anything. I didn't want to forget it. But of course, I wouldn't forget it. How could I? A character that would say something like that was someone I wanted to get to know. 

"Digging graves is hell on a manicure," ended up being the first line for that flash fiction piece titled, "I Can Dig It." The 250-word story was about a vampire who was burying a body when she is discovered by another vampire who threatens her and ends up dead, too. The story got a lot of great feedback in the contest. So great, in fact, that I decided to write an entire novel about this intriguing female vampire with the ironic view on life and a violent streak. 

That book, of course, turned into RED-HEADED STEPCHILD. RHSC was the first urban fantasy I ever wrote--before that I'd written romances that will never see the light of day. And that first urban fantasy novel became my first published novel.  

Today, I'm working on book five of the Sabina Kane series. It's the last book in the series, which is the first last book in a series I've ever written. My how life has changed since RED-HEADED STEPCHILD debuted. But looking back, I see how one small first--that one line--lead to a string of other firsts and how, at the end of the day, you never know when a simple car ride can change your whole life.

Remember to leave a comment and your email address for the chance to win a $50 Book Depository giftcard.

Day 5 - Guest post by Cynthia Eden + Giveaway

You Never Forget Your First…

Happy Blogoversary, Jo-Anne!  It’s great to be here at Strange Candy Reviews, and I sure am excited to talk about my “first”—well, my first romance book, that is.

It’s been over twenty years since I picked up my first romance book at a local K-Mart. I was browsing the aisles, a twelve-year-old girl who was looking for something new (yep, I started reading romances early), and I found a Harlequin Romance that caught my eye: THE ASKING PRICE by Amanda Browning.

I read the book eagerly. There was angst. Romance. Betrayed lovers. Drama. And…a happy ending. One book, just one, and I was addicted. This book didn’t just change my reading habits; instead, it changed my life. Suddenly, I knew (yes, at 12) what I wanted to be: a writer. I wanted to pen stories that ended happily. I wanted to write about love and danger and drama—I wanted to have the thrill of creating stories and sharing them with readers.

This book (that, yes, I still have on my keeper shelf even though the pages have long since yellowed), changed my life. It made me happy. It made me dream. And it made me write.

Do you remember your first romance novel? Share it with me! One random commenter will win her/his choice of either DEADLY HEAT or DEADLY LIES (my romantic suspense novels published by Grand Central’s Forever line—I promise, you’ll find danger and a happy ending in these pages!).

Thanks for checking out my post!

Cynthia Eden

www.cynthiaeden.com

BOUND BY BLOOD--.99 eBook Available Now

NEVER CRY WOLF—Available 6/28/11 from Kensington Brava

So leave your answer and email for your chance to win a copy of either Deadly Heat or Deadly Lies by Cynthia Eden. All entries from this post are also entered into the $50 Book Depository gift card giveaway!

Day 4 - Guest Post by Kevin Hearne

Completing my first novel changed my life.

It is an utter piece of trash that will never, ever be published, but its importance as milestone for me cannot be overstated.

For the longest time—most of a decade—I couldn’t finish one, and I beat myself up about it. How can I want to be an author, I asked myself, if I don’t feel strongly enough about my work to complete it?

I think part of my problem was taking those writing advice books to heart. I read too many of them and it damaged my brain. All their guidance about how to write, market, and sell your novel—sometimes with competing ideas—banged around my head and had me writing things I didn’t care about for an audience I truly didn’t know. I must have abandoned ten different manuscripts trying to follow their advice on how to write a bestseller.

What changed things for me was when I decided to write for myself. It still took me six years, but I wrote some crazy shit about an eco-terrorist who used those Coleman propane lanterns to firebomb fast food restaurants. The media dubbed him the Green Lantern, and I thought the comic book joke was funny. I threw in a history professor who was trying to find some Aztec gold buried in Arizona five centuries ago. Oh, and he was running from the Russian mafia too.

It made no sense. It’s truly awful. But it had a beginning, middle, and end, and I was highly amused while writing it. Most importantly, I learned that I could finish a book, and that gave me the confidence to start another one. I wrote my next book in half the time. My third book was the one that got me an agent and a publishing deal—and again, I wrote it to please myself. My fourth and fifth books were written in five and six months, respectively, and now I have the confidence to say I can keep up that pace. I owe that confidence entirely to just getting through my first book—my first, unpublished horror of a book. I will always look back on it fondly.

Kevin Hearne is the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles, to be published in Australia by Voyager. You can visit him at http://www.kevinhearne.com and follow him on Twitter @kevinhearne.

Remember to leave a comment and your email to win a $50 Book Depository giftcard!

Day 3 - Guest post by Eleni Konstantine

The First  Cover Design

Thanks Strange Candy Reviews for having me on your blog. Congratulations on a great first year.

I love a good blogoversary.  It's a time to look back and reflect.

I’m a big fan of cover art. I love how colour, text, and images combine to entice you to open the covers  to reveal the magic of the story within.

One day, I decided to enter the 2010 Little Gems cover contest run by the Romance Writers of Australia. I had been playing around with stock images and creating banners for my website, so I had wanted to take this one step further.

I had been going through a hard time (family health issues), which left me with the inability to concentrate on the written word. But working on this cover competition was exactly what I needed. So I decided to not worry about writing and instead concentrate on designing.

It must take incredible artistic skill to do a cover, right?

Well, yes and no.

You don’t have to be an artist to do a good cover. You see, I think you need the technical ability, and an eye for design. What I see myself in regards to book covers is that I’m a designer, not an artist. Yes, there are people who create artwork from scratch, but I wasn’t one of them in this case (one day, I hope).

I had burrowed through stock image websites, looking for images for the theme ‘Topaz’. I am an omnivore when it comes to art, enjoying a different range of styles and looks. The resulting ideas that flowed reflected this. From the more classic to the more abstract. From bright colours to dark colours, and even pastels. My mind spun with ‘what about this’.

I explored Photoshop Elements, making different mock-ups with an image(s) and font size. I adjusted lighting, contrast, colouring. I added layers with different features. I chopped, changed, and combined a number of elements together. I found out a little about printing, and I finally placed in my entries.

And won.

(Well technically, my alter ego won *grin*)

I can’t tell you what a huge thrill this was for me. Even more so, that one of my favourite designs was chosen. Being the first time I had ever done this, I didn’t think I would be successful. Oh, I hoped, but I was realistic. I was not an artist. But, like I said before, I was a designer.

This was the winning entry.

It represents a more ‘classic’ look.

I continued to learn more about design as I worked with the printer to get the best possible result. What a thrill to see it in print form at the launch at the Romance Writers of Australia conference last year, and to be awarded with my certificate.

It was the boost I needed at the time, to keep going with my creative pursuits. I haven’t spent as much time doing the designs I would like to do, but I do feel it helped me with my writing. They seem to balance each other out.

So, I can now say, I’m a cover designer and writer.

You can learn more about Eleni and her works by visiting her website.

Remember to leave your a comment and your email for a chance to win a $50 giftcard from the Book Depository!

Day 2 - Guest post by Diane Whiteside

First Earrings

What does it say that I came into a set of wheels before my ears were pierced? Well, for one thing, my parents were very conservative. As for the car, attending the only college which offered my chosen major meant certain sacrifices – starting with distance from home and the swift realization that local bus service sucked. Enter one small, cheap, used car into my life shortly after I arrived at the dorms.

But earrings? Not so fast. No metal was allowed to pierce the flesh of my parents’ child. Well, at least not for years. By then, I was paying my own way through school and felt liberated. Liberated enough to dump the screw-backed earrings I’d always loathed because they either fell off or hurt my ears if I tightened them enough to stay on.

The alternative was pierced ears. Ooh, dangerous thought – metal entering my flesh, exactly what always sent my parents into loud agonies of squeamishness. On the other hand, they couldn’t stop me and I could have so much more fun shopping for pierced earrings than screwback or clip-ons. Ah, the retail therapy possibilities! Oh, the stretch on my tiny college budget! Oh, the pure joy of hunting jewelers’ booth for the right pair of earrings… And show off my independence.

But I digress. My mind was made up. As soon as I had the money, I’d get my ears pierced.

That’s when trouble hit. I got my year-end bonus in mid-December – just before leaving to spend Christmas vacation with my family. The local department store had a fabulous sale on hoop earrings, including a stainless steel pair which would be perfect for starting out. The nurses where I worked were amazed my ears weren’t pierced and had promised to help.

The money burned in my pocket. I took a deep breath and splurged.

It was a quiet afternoon at the nursing home. Soon a half dozen nurses gathered around to approve my choice of earrings. They decided the head nurse would pierce my ears, after her second-in-command – an artist – selected the exact spot on my earlobe. Coffee and cookies were passed around while my earlobes were thoroughly disinfected with alcohol wipes. (To hospital standards, thank you very much!) We chatted and chuckled while the ladies told stories about how their ears and their daughters’ ears were pierced.

Then I got on the plane to visit my folks.

My mother was horrified when she saw me. She launched into a tirade about how I’d risked my health by assaulting my ears in that dirty fashion. I countered by recounting who, where and how my ears were pierced. My explanation silenced her, at least around me. Privately, I kept reminding myself of all the great earrings I could buy for myself.

It was an edgy visit at first. My parents kept looking at me sideways and asking if my ears hurt. (No, they didn’t, much to my parents’ continued surprise.) My folks gradually calmed down and started talking to me about new and unusual topics, like politics.

We even wound up shopping together – for earrings. Yup, you heard me right. Mother and I both like pretty baubles but she prefers bracelets. We were killing time in a jeweler’s store and she came over to see what I was looking at. She too started ooh’ing and ah’ing over pierced earrings and I thought, “Gotcha!”

When she fell in love with a pair of earrings, I bought it. I still wear that first pair of black and gold earrings, in honor of woman power and togetherness.

What was your first pair of earrings like? Do you have a piece of jewelry that makes you feel alive and warm?   

Learn more about Diane and her books  by visiting her website.

You can read my review of The Shadow Guard here.

Remember all you have to do to enter is leave a comment, in this case Diane has asked a question, leave your email in case you win!

My first Blogoversary! with Christina Phillips

Welcome everyone to my new blog thanks to Kayden McLeod. It's My first blogoversary,and I thought it would be a good idea to have some awesome authors stop by and tell us about one of their 'firsts'. To kick things off we have a guest post by Christina Phillips. My blogoversary runs from 22 April - 6 May and the major prize is a $50 gift card from the Book Depository! If I reach 350 followers by the 6th May I will also have a signed copy of Pleasure Unbound to giveaway thanks to Larissa Ione. All you have to do is leave a comment on each post. If you only comment on one post thats 1 entry if you comment on all posts (including reviews) you have more chances of winning. So lets begin..........

Congratulations on your first year Blogoversary, Strange Candy! And thank you for inviting me onto your blog to help celebrate!

As this is a party celebrating ‘firsts’ I thought I’d share how I felt when I first held my debut historical romance in my hand. It had been a long time coming – ten years in fact! During that time I wrote category romance, first person chic-lit and then paranormal romance. I worked with editors on revisions and new ideas, caught the interest of several agents—but there was never any cigar.

So I decided to try something completely new for me—erotic romance. My very first erotic novelette sold! I had clearly, at long last, found my voice!

But as exciting as that first was, my true love has always been writing full length books, because I can explore so much more in terms of world building and digging deeper into the characters of my hero and heroine. And so, spurred on by my sales to a small e-publisher, I wrote my very first full length erotic romance. Somehow it also decided to be a historical romance and if that wasn’t enough—seeing as I’d never attempted to write a historical romance before—it turned out to be an ancient historical romance with hot Roman warriors and magical Druid heroines.

So there I was with an erotic ancient historical romance with fantasy elements which I loved to bits but seriously doubted would ever find a home in the market.

But within a month of querying agents I accepted representation from my dream agent at 11.30 pm one Friday night while we chatted on MSM. Not that it’s engraved in my memory or anything! Three months later we signed a two book deal and so began a whirlwind of more ‘firsts’.

On 16^th August 2010 my early author copy of FORBIDDEN arrived. O.M.G. It was so pretty and shiny and the cover looked even more fabulous in real life! I might have kissed it once or twice and walked around the house clutching it like a cuddly kitty, and made everyone wash their hands before they were allowed to stroke it. Much to my husband’s bemusement I even took it to bed with me that night!!

Since then my second book CAPTIVE has been released—and it was just as exciting the second time around as the first!

Christina Phillips writes hot ancient historical romances for Berkley Heat.

FORBIDDEN:

"Set in the time of the Roman Empire, Phillips' wonderful story of the romance between a Roman soldier and a Celt is more than entertaining"

Romantic Times BOOK Review, 4 Stars

CAPTIVE:

Phillips’ second in the Forbidden series is just as hot as its predecessor. Readers will be held Captive by the magic between Druid priestess Morwyn and Bren.

Romantic Times BOOK Review, 4 Stars

                                                                   

Christina’s Website

Christina’s Blog

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Don't forget to leave your email so I can contact you if you win. Having my blogoversary button displayed will earn you an extra 2 points, so please leave a link if you put it on your blog. 

It's my blogoversary on the 22nd!

Hey everyone.


It's my 1st blogoversary on the 22nd of April! Yay. I can't believe I've been blogging for nearly a year now. I will have a button for the event up over the weekend. The party will run for two weeks and you will have a chance to win a $50 giftcard from the Book Depository! That's right, $50! So stayed tuned...........

Taking a break.

I am just writing to let everyone know that I am taking a break from blogging until April as my Grandfather passed away. I have two great authors who will have posts up at the beginning of April, so I hope you'll stop by. It's also my blog's first birthday in April too, so hopefully while I'm away I can think of some cool stuff for it. I'll try and get some authors who would like to participate too!


Before I sign off the winner of the signed copy of Etched in Bone is (drum roll) Lisa R/alterlisa! I have emailed Lisa, so hopefully I can pass along her details to Adrian.


Regards,