Happy Almost Christmas!

To those who celebrate...Happy Almost Christmas!! Ever since I was a kid, Christmas Eve has always felt almost magical to me. It's a day of excitement, hope and good spirit. My eldest kids eagerly put their gifts under the tree this morning for us, each other and the little ones. And then immediately asked if they should take them back in case Santa thinks we already have enough gifts and decides not to leave any more LOL! I love to see them so happy, so excited, so full of life and love :).

Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, or if you celebrate nothing at all, best wishes to you and your family. Here's to a new year filled with health, happiness and productivity! I've planned 2012 to be a key year for me writing-wise. I plan to ramp up my writing output, open up some new avenues, get my books a wider distribution and try out some new things, including some longer lengths. I hope you'll join me!

Stay safe, consume much and laugh loud with those you love and who love you!

Kaily

And the winner is....

Congratulations to kaisquared!!! Chosen by random number selection, you've won a $25 gift card to the online book store of your choice along with your choice of one of my ebooks!! I'll be sending you an email to work out the details :). Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by. I loved hearing about your favorite holiday memories and the things you most enjoy about the holiday season!

Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop! This is an amazing event with so many authors participating and so many great prizes. Thanks to the wonderful Drea for organizing it :). For those of you who might land here and don't know me, I write hot and steamy romance...with an emphasis on hot. My stories have tough alpha heroes who might be a little rough and rugged around the edges, but when they fall for the heroine? Man, they fall hard. They'd do anything, endure anything, sacrifice anything. For her. Sigh...

So what am I giving away? I'm giving away a $25 dollar gift card to an online book store (winner's choice) AND a copy of any 1 book from my ebook backlist! Not bad, right?

How can you win? Follow me, friend me or follow this blog and leave a comment here telling me what you enjoy most about the holidays! I'll select a random commenter from this post as the winner!

Ready to go hopping and see what else is up for grabs? Click on the badge below and check out the other great participants!! Good luck and happy holidays!!

And the winner is.....

Patty (skyjax02 at yahoo.com)!! Congratulations!! I'll be reaching out to you for your book choice. Thanks so much to everyone for the birthday wishes and for stopping by! You're all so awesome. Made my day, that's for sure :)!

So it's my birthday & I'll give away stuff if I want to...

So what am I doing to celebrate? You had to ask LOL. I have to rush my daughter to the dentist this morning. She lost a filling yesterday. I was at the doctors office myself yesterday (5 hour door-2-door trip) and he gave me the wonderful news that I have bronchitis and possibly phemonia. Sigh... I'll be getting a chest x-ray early this afternoon. I'm OK with taking my clothes off on my birthday, more than, but for an x-ray? :) I could have done without that. I also have air conditioner repair men under foot all day at the house. One of our units completely broke down and they need to rebuild it. For 4 hours! Thousands of dollars worth of repairs. So thankful I had the forsight to buy an extended warranty plan for it. And to top it all off, tonight it's my daughter's Girl Scout court of awards so we'll be rounding out the evening with s'mores and hot chocolate. Of course it will probably reach 80 degrees here today so not exactly the welcome snack it could be. I live an exciting life, don't I? I really know how to celebrate in style, yes? You probably wish you too could have this much fun on your birthday!

Anyway, it is my birthday but I thought I'd turn the tables and be the one giving away stuff! Through 11:59 pm Eastern tomorrow (cause I'm hoping tomorrow will be better, MUCH better), I'll pick a commenter on this blog to win either a signed copy of my print anthology OR any 3 of my ebooks. Winners choice. Not bad, right?

You can leave a random comment or tell me what's the best or worst birthday (or present) you ever had! GO!

Special Guest - Lorraine Nelson

I have the pleasure today of welcoming Lorraine Nelson to my blog. I 'met' Lorraine awhile ago now on a writing forum. It's funny how you develop these relationships over time, but may never actually meet in person. The internet has made such connections possible. I knew Lorraine had been writing for a long time, aspiring to be published, trudging the submission and rejection cycle and I was rooting for her to make it almost from the first SO I'm pleased to have her here to talk about her latest release :) with such an inspiring post. Take it away, Lorraine!

Some people (I refuse to name names) have commented on the fact that I’ve left it too late to be a success as an author. After all, my children are all grown up and (gasp!) I have grandchildren.

Do you want to know what I think? It’s never too late to dream and to actively pursue a goal!

Anyone who persists in achieving their dream is a success in my book.

Even if I’d never been published, writing fills a need, a restlessness inside me. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write, jotting down short stories (back then only a page or two or six) or poetry. I love rhyming, making thoughts connect, telling a simple story through words.

When my children were small, I enjoyed reading to them, imparting my love of the written word. I even wrote and published a couple of books and posters aimed at their age group. The learning experience involved in that was unreal…challenging and rewarding in equal measure.

I’d tried to write what I enjoy reading, but with a full-time job and kids at home, I rarely had a spare minute to myself. I applaud anyone who can write with children under foot. I certainly can’t. J

Peace and quiet is the rule of thumb for me.

In the past two and a half years that I’ve lived alone, I’ve written eight full-length novels and three novellas. I also have six novels in various stages of completion, including the one I just started today. Writing involves a continual learning curve. I learn something new with each manuscript I write. I’ve also learned that you can’t always ‘write what you know’, especially when your characters take you in the opposite direction. I’ve had to research oodles of stuff, but it’s all good.

Zakia and the Cowboy was rejected seven times before being picked up by Evernight Publishing. To date, I’ve suffered more rejections than I care to count, but each one served its purpose by making me more determined than ever to succeed. “I can do this” became my mantra. The thought of giving up never crossed my mind. I love writing! Positive thinking is the key. Don’t let the negatives bog you down. Learn from those rejections and keep striving to craft the best story possible.

The day I received the contract offer from Evernight, I couldn’t believe it. It took a few days for it to sink in, but once I received that gorgeous cover, designed by the fabulous Dara England, I knew it was very real indeed.

Since the release of my debut novel in October, Zakia and the Cowboy has been a phenomenal success, appearing on several Bestseller lists and becoming a Featured Title at All Romance Ebooks for three weeks. Better than that were the reader reviews. They’d enjoyed it and wanted more. Luckily, I had more planned. J

Covert Mission: Undercover Cop is Samantha Muldoon and Blake Northrup’s story. It’s the second book in the Thunder Creek Ranch series and I was lucky enough to have Dara design this cover as well. It perfectly complements the Cover for Book 1. I’m eagerly awaiting its release on November 28^th, but I’m anxious, too. Will it entertain my readers and give them as much joy as Zakia and Luke’s story did? I think so. I definitely hope so. It was such a joy to write.

I remember falling in love with Blake when I wrote Book 1. And Sam, well, she’s a feisty, independent woman who challenges him at every turn.

Book 3 is written and once it’s edited, it’ll be off to Evernight as well. I’ve started writing Book 4, and the words are flowing great.
Have I left it too late to become a successful author? No, I don’t think so, and according to reader reviews, they don’t either. J

I so love hearing from my readers! It’s important to know what works and doesn’t work for them as I continue to craft stories of love and mystery. You can find me at:

http://www.lorrainenelson.weebly.com
http://lorrainenelson.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/LorraineNelson.Author
http://twitter.com/#!/lornelca
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5254629.Lorraine_Nelson
http://www.amazon.com/Lorraine-Nelson/e/B005XMAYFQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Thank you for having me here today, Kaily. It’s been fun.

Thanks, Lorraine for your wonderful words!! Your journey is one to be admired.

One commenter will receive a free download, their choice, Thunder Creek Ranch, Book 1, Zakia and the Cowboy, or Book 2, Covert Mission: Undercover Cop (releasing Nov 28th). You must be a follower of LORRAINE'S blog to be eligible. So leave your comments and/or questions and I’ll do my best to answer. :)

Why I'm thankful to be a writer

It's Thanksgiving here in the US and we're celebrating it in traditional style. Hubby will cook an elaborate feast, we'll stuff ourselves and then complain about how much we ate for the rest of the day LOL. I've been looking at posts for a couple days that talk about what people are thankful for. I'm incredibly fortunate and thankful for so many things, but at the top of that list is my family. I have a husband who only annoys me like 13% of the time :) and happy, wonderful kids who haven't managed to serisouly injure each other yet. What's not to be thankful for, right?

The other thing I'm incredibly thankful for is being a writer because it's only relatively recently that I even knew it's what I wanted to do. I've already had one successful, rewarding career. It was challening, engaging, satisfying and even fun, but it wasn't my passion, it didn't drive me, it didn't consume me, I didn't need it. That's what writing is, all of that. It's the career of my heart. And this is why I'm thankful for being a writer:

• There's no dress code. If I like, I can wear my PJs all day. Of course, the kids don't like it when I have to do drop offs at school that way, but the additional sick pleasure I get from torturing them is just an added bonus.
• I get to work from home. All the time. Within shouting distance of the fridge, the coffee machine and the left over Halloween candy. Okay, okay, that's not exactly a perk LOL.
• I'm the CEO of my own business. I'm my own boss and get to set my own hours, develop strategy and decide where I'm headed with all of this. I don't answer to anyone. Of course, that means if I slack off I have to kick my own ass.
• I get to write about sex. A lot. I get to come up with the ways my characters will get it on and how they'll get off. And I have to be careful. They can't get too much, too soon. What would be the fun in that?
• I get to construct the perfect man. Every book. Alpha? Check! Hot? Check! Knows his way around a woman's body? Check! Sacrifice anything for his heroine? Check! Sigh....
• I get to hang around online. What!? Hey, it's 'marketing and promotion'. Right? Regardless :), it enables me to interact with people I never would have otherwise, readers and writers alike, and I LOVE that immediate connection. Of course, if I do it too much, see point number 3 above.
• I am the grand ruler of the entire universe!!!! In my books, that is. I decide everything, down to the smallest detail about my characters and who they are, what they want, how they act, their dreams, goals and fears. I get to torture them mercilessly before I give them their happily ever after, but I haven't heard any complaints from them so far.

See? Pretty cool, huh? That's what I'm thinking about today - how thankful I am that I'm doing what I love, surrounded by people I love.

H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G to those who celebrate it and if not, why not be thankful for soemthing anyway? I'd love to hear what YOU'RE thankful for!!

Just Published - Kelly Boyce

It is with great pleasure I welcome Kelly Boyce to Just Published this month. I stumbled upon Kelly on the interwebs and realized she'd recently had a release from Carina Press. I'd never included a Carina Press author on this segment before! Huh. How could that have happened? I made haste to rectify that as quickly as possible and here she is :).

The details of Kelly's first published book are:

Title: The Outlaw Bride
Genre: Western Historical Romance
Words: 79,200
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Published:  April 18, 2011

Blurb:

What would you risk to keep a promise?  Katherine Slade has two goals: to escape her outlaw husband and to find the family of the man who died saving her life. Taking the place of a mail-order bride isn't part of her plan—until she's forced to continue the charade and become Sheriff Connor Langston's housekeeper to stay out of jail. Pretending to be another woman is hard, but Katherine's real challenge is resisting her growing attraction to the handsome lawman...

Falling in love is the last thing Connor needs, even if the rest of Fatal Bluff wants him to. His hands are full with a band of outlaws threatening the safety of his town, and a child to raise. But Kate has a way of getting under his skin and into little Jenny's heart. Soon Connor can't get the fiery beauty out of his head—along with his suspicion that Kate isn't who she claims to be.

When Connor learns the truth about Kate, is there any way for this outlaw bride to become the sheriff's wife?

What an absolutely gorgeous cover. It really is beautiful. So...how would you describe what you write?
For the most part, I would say my writing is an emotional story tempered with humor. I like to explore some darker elements, but inevitably humor always crops up to keep things from getting too mired down. I love stories with a redemption theme and seem to be drawn to writing them. I’m a huge history buff, so my natural inclination is to set my stories in the past, however I read books across the board in all types of genres and styles and while I love historicals, I have no plans on writing strictly in the historical genre, but plan to branch out into others, mainly YA, which is where I started, and contemporary. I also have a legal thriller kicking around in my cranium that I may need to deal with eventually. I find this helps keep my writing and ideas fresh and the process more enjoyable.

Wow, that's awesome. I find myself a good story is a good story, regardless of genre. What’s your writing process in a nutshell?
I am a mad plotter. For me, plotting the story and the characters out beforehand is the fun part and it really helps me get a handle on these people and what their issues are. I often follow a story structure such as the 3 Act Structure and Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet. I also like to story board my outline as well. I’ve just downloaded Scrivener and can’t wait to start using it. However, once my outline is complete, it is never written in stone. When I’m writing things will come up and I’ll realize there’s a better way to do something or a better direction to move the story in. When this happens, I’ll usually stop and map it out, to make sure I’m not getting off track and that the new idea works best. Then it’s back to the writing again. I never do character interviews, but I will do an extensive backstory on the hero and heroine and the villain as well.

I'm a supporter of the detailed character backstory as well :)! What has your submission history looked like? 
I started writing at age 8, but I wrote my first manuscript when I was 18. A YA murder mystery that I would still love to go back to and revise. My next manuscript was a western historical romance I wrote in my early 20s. It’s still a story near and dear to my heart, so that one will be coming back of storage for a revision sometime in the near future. After I finished that manuscript I really didn’t know what to do with it, or where to go. I entered it into a contest a publisher was having and didn’t win (might have had something to do with all the head hopping, backstory dump and the fact it was over 600 pages long!). After that, real life took over. I picked away at my writing here and there but it wasn’t until I was laid off from  my job of 15 years in 2002 I had a change in perspective. I realized writing was what I was meant to be doing and I really needed to get on that. My mom gave me an interview Julianne MacLean did  in our local paper. I tracked her down and asked for some advice and she led me to RWA and our local chapter Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada. That was a huge game-changer for me.  I started writing The Outlaw Bride. The manuscript won or placed in a few contests, I had requests, it was either rejected or the editor/agent changed houses, moved, left the business (I was starting to think I was jinxed!). Eventually I set it aside. Westerns were a hard sell and not too many publishers were buying them. No problem. I had this great idea for a 4 book Victorian series with an over-arching  plot of murder and intrigue linking the four stories together. I entered Desire & Brimstone in contests, won and placed in several, had requests, was asked to take part in a documentary, Who’s Afraid of Happy Endings, as one of the featured authors along with Kayla Perrin and Kathryn Smith. Eventually, the manuscript was rejected by a handful of agents and a couple of editors (or the editor/agent moved, left the business, etc). I realized the story still needed work, so I set it aside to write another western historical (currently under consideration) and the first of a 3-book series set in Regency England. I also wrote first drafts of a contemporary and a YA. The road to publication has not been easy. There is a big learning curve and a lot of rejection along the way. I think the key is to know this going in and accept it as part of the job. Learn what you can from it and move on. Understand it isn’t the end of the world, just a bump in the road. Drive over it and keep going.

I think there are very few authors who had an easy road to publication. I think it makes success that much sweeter. How did you pick Carina Press to publish your first book?
I really loved The Outlaw Bride and I knew it was a story worth telling and worth selling, but most publishers seemed to want regency and only a few were taking westerns. I’m a strong believer that a good story is a good story and will eventually find a home, so I never gave up the idea of selling The Outlaw Bride. I had initially been reluctant to go the e-publishing route, but as it started to gain a strong foothold I re-evaluated my opinion and realized it was a growing force and I wanted to be a part of it with a reputable publisher. When Carina opened for business, a friend, Lilly Cain, published with them and was impressed. I looked into them, liked what I saw with respect to the fact they had the Harlequin muscle behind them, a well-respected Executive Editor in Angela James, and a solid platform. I sent The Outlaw Bride to them as a full and crossed my fingers.

Well it worked! And how. What’s your ‘call’ story?
I was at work when I got the call. I was on my work phone talking to then boyfriend/now husband when my cell phone rang. I saw the number, hung up on my boyfriend and took the call. It was Angela James calling me to tell me they loved The Outlaw Bride and wanted to publish it. I think my first words to her were – “That was totally worth hanging up on  my boyfriend for!” (He’s since forgiven me!) Naturally I wanted to scream and jump around but since I was at work and didn’t want my co-workers to think I’d completely lost my mind, I was relegated to doing a happy dance in my chair along with a few arm pumps. After I hung up I sat in my chair in a total brain freeze for about five seconds staring at my computer screen and trying to figure out if that had actually just happened. Then, when the brain freeze wore off, I called my boyfriend back to let him know what had happened then emailed and called the rest of my friends and family to give them the news.

LOL. I love hearing call stories!! Did you have an agent when you sold? Now?
I didn’t have an agent when I sold. I didn’t need one for Carina Press. I don’t have one now either, although once I finish the manuscript I’m working on now (the regency historical) I will start shopping around.

What’s it like working with a publisher and editor? Are revisions really as bad as you hear?
My editor, Elizabeth Bass, was so incredibly awesome. She really made the process painless, and by the time I sent The Outlaw Bride to Carina, it had been through about 6-8 revisions already, so it was pretty clean. There were a few minor revisions, but nothing extensive. So my first experience in that regard was pretty good. Carina Press has been wonderful to work with too. They’re very pro-author, work to promote you, give you plenty of guidance on how to do things etc. Overall, my first foray into the publishing world has been very positive.

So glad you had such a great experience. How did you feel the first time you saw your cover? How much input did you have?
I filled out a sheet…which has a name that I forget at the moment! I’m not sure how much of it was used in the process, but I loved the cover they came up with, so it was all good. That was my main fear – getting a cover that made me cringe. So to get one I loved was a huge relief. I also loved the fact I was able to keep my original title too.

The cover really is awesome. What was release day like for you?
It was exciting to wake up in the morning and realize – Wow, today is the day my book is released! It’s a little surreal. But again, real life. I still had to get up and go to the day job and deal with all of that. It added a little perspective. We had my husband’s son that night so we couldn’t go out to celebrate – again, real life, right? But we had a bottle of wine and I had congratulatory emails from my friends etc. And the thrill of knowing what that day represented to me – the first release day of many!! – was a nice high that lasted all day long.

How did you market your book?
I will say marketing is not my forte. I’m working on it, and I’m learning as I go, but it’s an ongoing thing. Carina do a blog post and Facebook notices etc from their end which was great, but I also had to hit the social media market and get the word out there. I did a blog tour, I tweeted, my website had been revamped, my Facebook page was given a workout, joined Goodreads, attended the RWA National conference. I did a few marketing things locally as a group with my RWAC crew (strength in numbers!). I’m still working on the marketing as well all these many months later. I think it’s essential to keep your name and your book out there and find new ways to reach new readers. I’m currently reading up on new ways to market your book and hoping to get some new ideas.

Yeah, it's also one of those things that is impossible to assess what really works and what doesn't, right? What’s the most surprising thing you learned during the publishing process?
I’m not sure I learned anything new about getting published only because I had good friends who had gone before me and they were such a great wealth of information and advice. Also, working with Carina was a wonderful experience and an easy one. As for what I would do differently, I wish I had Book 2 in the Fatal Bluff series ready, or at least almost ready to go, when I submitted The Outlaw Bride, so there would have been less time between releases. But at the time I was in the middle of another book, then after conference I had several requests for other books, and I’ve discovered there are not enough hours in the day!!

Yeah, right? What do you think were the factors that got you published?
I think the first thing that worked in my favor was perseverance. I really believed in my book and that a good story would find a home. I never lost sight of this fact and continued to learn my craft, improve my writing and my knowledge of the industry and just kept plugging away until I found the right home for The Outlaw Bride. The second factor was having my manuscript in the absolute best shape I could get it in. By the time I sent it to Carina, there was nothing left I could do to it to make it a better story. That manuscript is going to be your calling card to publishers and it’s essential it is as good as you can make it.

I actually think perseverance is one of the most critical things for a writer to have. What’s your 5 year plan look like?
I just finished working on my writing plan for the next two years and it’s looking pretty busy. The Fatal Bluff series has 4 more books in it which need to be written. The regency series has a request on it, so that needs to get done, as well as Desire & Brimstone and a YA series. So all of those need to get done and get sent out. Another goal I am working on is to have enough product out in the market to justify dropping my day job down to part-time to allow for more writing time. But that will depend on what I can accomplish in the next two years. My plan is to target all areas of publishing – traditional, e-publishing, and eventually self-publishing, and as I said earlier I expect to be writing in several genres, not just historical. In 5 years my ultimate goal will be to be writing full time with at a minimum 3-4 releases per year in varying formats, to be a recognizable name in the industry, and to grow my craft so my writing continues to improve.

So, what’s next for you?
Next up for me is to finish Book 2 & 3 in the Fatal Bluff series, tentatively titled The Widow Bride and The Scandalous Bride respectively. These two books will tell the stories of the other two mail order brides on the train Kate Spade rode into Fatal Bluff on. After that, there is a certain bounty hunter and saloon owner who will each get their own books. I am also completing revisions on Book 1 in my regency series, An Invitation to Scandal, which will be sent out to a publisher on request. I also have a western historical under consideration with another publisher, so fingers crossed that works out.

That's awesome. What’s the best advice you can impart to writers aspiring to be published?
I think the best advice I can give is to treat it like a job. I get up at 5am every morning to write before work because that is the only way I can fit it into my schedule and make it a daily habit. It isn’t something you can just pick away at and hope it works out. Write every day, or at least 5 days a week. Hone your craft. Learn the industry. Don’t buckle under rejection, it’s a temporary setback, not the end of the road. And no matter what, keep going. Keep trying. Keep learning. And keep writing. Perseverance is key.

Great advice. I love that. Now for some fun! If you were stranded on a desert island but could only take 1 thing from each of the following categories, what would it be & why:

Person – I’d take my husband. He’s a lot of fun to hang out with.

Animal – I have a 2 year old golden retriever, Cedar, who is the biggest clown out there. I’d take him for the entertainment value alone.

Food – I’m trying to figure out how to combine wine, bread, cheese and chocolate into one word… I’ll go with cheese. I’ve never met a cheese I didn’t like.

Book – Oh wow…how do you pick just one?? Elizabeth Chadwick is one of my favorite authors so I would likely pick the next book of hers I had to read.

Music – I’m currently a big Adele and Christina Perri fan, so probably one of those. Of course that would mean belting out the tunes along with them which might have my husband swimming for the next island…

Personal Item – My knitting (it’s my other obsession next to writing).

You can find out more about Kelly from her website or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter!

Website: www.kellyboyce.com

Facebook: Kelly Boyce, Author - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelly-Boyce-Author/167747449914858

Twitter: @KellyLBoyce -   http://twitter.com/#!/KellyLBoyce
Thank you, Kelly for being such a good sport and answering my totally unsolicited email! I've enjoyed getting to know you and I loved hearing about your journey so far and your fabulous plans for the future. I wish you wonderful successes moving forward!

WIP It Wednesday

Yeah, I know, I've neglected my blog a bit over the past month and I STILL have to get up a post about the time I had at RomantiCon. It was awesome by the way :). But I've been writing. A lot. So that's all good, right? AND I made it through Halloween without eating too much of the candy myself. Now to just throw out a bit each day without the kids actually noticing. Wish me luck on that one!

Hopefully, the books I've been working on will be worth the wait. The one I just typed 'the end' on today (Yay!!!!) is probably the book I've most enjoyed writing to date. It's got the requisite alpha hero and the strong, but vulnerable heroine, but it overlays a more involved and detailed plot. I'm really excited about it. The below snippet comes from that book (warning, it's a bit naughty!). Did I mention it's book 1 in what I hope will be a 5 book series? No? Well, this would be my first series and I've had a blast working on the overall story arc. Each book has it's own hero & heroine, but there's a broader story unfolding with a little bit revealed in each book along the way. Book 1 is Seth & Devon's story. He's rough and rugged, rude and crude, but by the end of the story he'd do anything, sacrifce anything, for Devon. And he very nearly does. Sigh... ENJOY!

*****

“Touch it. Feel it,” he rasped, when her wide eyes dropped to his cock. “Be sure this is what you want inside you.”

She swallowed, wet her lips. He could be easy on her, but she needed to be sure. He needed to know she was sure. He jerked at the contact when she clasped him gently, softly. It was an effort just to keep his eyes from rolling back in his head. The pressure wasn’t nearly hard enough, not the way he liked it, but it didn’t matter, his knees just about buckled with the pleasure all the same.

“I just want you inside me, Seth,” she whispered, raising her gaze to his. “You, with your....."

And the winners are...

By spreadsheet random number generator (RANDBETWEEN for spreadsheet freaks like me LOL), the winners of my Halloween giveaway are:

shadow_kohler
Kathryn Merkel
flchen1
mahalia2010

You each get to choose any one of my ebooks!! Let me know which one you'd like (Picture This, Pay Up, Play Me or Point Blank) by email to kaily @ kailyhart . com and I'll send it right off to you. If you'd like to check out an excerpt first, you can see them all here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween if you celebrate it where you live ,and if not, I hope you at least got to over indulge with the sugar (although I really could have done without that).

It's Halloween & I'm giving stuff away...

I love Halloween. It's probably one of the things I've most enjoyed about living in the US. It's all about FUN and I get such a kick out of how much the kids really get into it SO.. it seemed appropriate to join a Halloween Blog Hop to celebrate!!

It starts TODAY, Friday, October 28th and goes through Monday, October 31st and I'm giving away books!! I'll be picking four winners, yes FOUR winners from comments on my blog through Monday. Each winner can have their choice of any of my ebooks. All you have to do is tell me what YOU love about Halloween (or don't). I'll announce the winners on Tuesday. Here!


There's a ton of other authors participating all giving away something on their own blogs. Be sure to check them all out  HERE to follow the Hop around and see what else is up for grabs!!!

Below are some of the more interesting pumpkins I've seen so far. Some people have WAY too much time on their hands if you ask me :).

So...who wants Romance Trading Cards?

I went ahead and got Romance Trading Cards done for my first three books. They're a fun thing to have at conferences and just to hand out to people. Although a lot of authors do bookmarks, I can't help think that most people probably have no use for them anymore. You know, future generations probably won't even be able to relate to them at all! The trading cards were also really great fun to have made. I got to pick and choose the content and I loved coming up with the line of dialogue on each of them. Warning: one of them has a bad word, a very bad word LOL. I posted pictures of these (front and back) on a prior post and have them up on my albums on Facebook if you'd like to take a book, but I have one for each of Picture This, Pay Up and Play Me.

If you'd like one (or all), just send me an email letting me know at kaily at kailyhart dot com with your address and I'll send them out to you. Oh and indicate whether you'd like them signed or not :).

WIP it Wednesday

I'm back from RomantiCon and trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm suffering from extreme author withdrawal without all my writer friends around LOL. Extreme! I'm in the process of getting my pictures together and loading some video to share, but in the meantime thought you might enjoy a snippet from my WIP. It's Seth and Devon and he's having a 'hard' time. I feel so bad about torturing him so, but he'll thank me for it later. They both will :). ENJOY!

           “Have you ever even seen a naked man? Aroused?”

     “You mean hard?” Her eyes dropped to his hips. “Like you are?”

     Christ, the wide eyes were answer enough. He took a deep breath. He didn’t need her romanticizing this, him.

     “Devon, this is just sex. You want it—fine—but—”

     “Oh, gee, thanks.”

     “But understand going in, that’s all it is. And it’s…sex is hot and sweaty. It’s not soft and gentle. At least it’s not with me.”

At the end of this month, 3 years ago...

...I decided to write a book. The prior month I'd quit my 'high-powered' job to spend more time with my kids and 'relax'. I was going to take photography classes, I was going to learn how to sew, I was going to become more involved at the school, perhaps take up tennis and maybe *gasp* I might do some cooking.Yeah, that one probably wasn't going to happen. 6 weeks later I was stir crazy LOL. I had this romanticized idea of what it might be like to stay home, I dreamt about all the things I thought I was missing, and I fantasized about all the wonderful things I could do if I just had some time to myself. It might have taken a lot longer than 6 weeks for others, but it's hard to go from having 1,000,000 things to do to only having say... 50,000. I have 4 kids. It's not like I don't have enough to occupy my time, but I just needed something else, something cerebral. I'd always read, even snatches of 10 minutes here and there and it had been mostly romance.

I convinced myself I could write one of those. Sure, why not? I must have read hundreds of books. How hard could it be? It took me about 3 months to write Love's Fugitive. Now you're probably wondering...huh, I've never heard of that book. Well, there's a very good reason for that :). It. Will. Never. See. The. Light. Of. Day. At least in it's current form. You see, it's one of those I call 'it served it's purpose' manuscripts. Yeah, it served it purpose in proving to me I could actually write a full length book, because I did it. It's surprising the number of people that begin on this path and never actually finish a book. It was also a HUGE learning experience. Romance isn't easy to write, especially not straight contemporary. There aren't exaggerated plot devices you can use to amp up the tension, the interest, there's not much room for a bunch of secondary characters to add flavor. It just the hero and heroine and you better make them relatable, you better make him sexy and you better get the conflict right or the story is going to be a big yawn. It also helped me find my 'voice' because before you actually go through the torture effort of writing a book, especially that first one, your own voice is really hard to quantify. And voice is everything for an author, if you ask me.

Of course, at the time, when I finished the book, I thought it was the best thing ever. And it was for me at that point. I thought surely a publisher would snap it right up LOL. Um, no, that's not exactly how this works. The following year was a huge learning curve, particularly when it came to understanding how the publishing industry works and the business of publishing and exactly how freaking long it can sometimes take to get a response, any response.

It's weird to look back because I have learned so much. I've come a long way since that first manuscript. I've accomplished a lot of milestones, achieved a lot of goals. Of course, I've only just began on this journey and I'm nowhere near done. Not by a long shot!!

RomantiCon 2011! One Week & Counting..

It's hard to believe it's only a week until RomantiCon. I went to this conference last year for the first time and it ROCKED. I had such a great time, met so many fantastic authors and got the opportunity to do my very first book signing. It was so very cool. This time next week I'll be on a plane on the way to Ohio. Hopefully, I'll be kicking back, relaxing and reading a good book, anticipating the great time I'm going to have. Hopefully, I WON'T be completely frazzled about having left everything to the last minute and have had to rush around like a crazy woman to get everything ready just making my flight. Whew.

It's weird. I'm such an organized person. Usually. But when it comes to these conferences, even though I know about them months in advance, it still comes down to that final week to get ready. The good news is...I've got a lot of stuff done. The bad news is there are still things not done LOL. And of course, I'm trying to get a book finished. At least the entire thing drafted. Well, it's drafted, but it's my version of 'draft', which probably translates to anyone else's hot mess. Sometimes I wonder how these books end up being the finished product they become.

Oh, and I know you're going to be jealous, but look who's going to be there? Just some cavemen. And if you' re in the Akron area on October 2nd? Come to the book signing! Cavemen will be there and I hear they're performing. Should be a really great time. And I'd LOVE to see you!! The details are below:

Sunday October 2nd - Noon - 4:00 pm
Ramada Plaza - Akron, OH
20 West Mill Street

Akron, OH 44308 US

Oh, and the caveman in the back row on the right? He's on the cover of my book, PERFECTLY UNEXPECTED. My mission? Get a photo with him. Wish me luck!

I'm Giving Away A Book!!

I'm giving away a copy of Perfectly Unexpected my print book over on Goodreads!! If the link below doesn't work, simply go here. I'll even sign it! This contains three novellas - Picture This, Pay Up and Play Me. Once I receive my additional copies I'll give some more away. Stay tuned :)!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Perfectly Unexpected

by Kaily Hart

Giveaway ends September 27, 2011.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I've Got...Trading Cards!!

I'm headed to the Ellora's Cave RomantiCon convention and book signing at the end of this month. I'm really excited. Last year it was so much fun and I met so many great people. I've been thinking of swag and promo for awhile and just couldn't ignore Romance Trading Cards. I have other stuff too, although these were really fun to have made :). I have a card for each of Picture This, Pay Up and Play Me. What's on them you ask? Well, the heroes of course. What else? It is all about 'him' anyway, right? So I have a card for Sam, Rio and Gabe. Sigh... In regards to what to put on them I decided to include a brief description, a short sentence or two on what their 'problem is' and a line of dialogue from them from the book. THAT was fun to go back and find a quote. I tried to make it PG, but for Gabe I just couldn't resist. His quote is decidedly R-rated. But that's fine. That's Gabe. He wouldn't have it any other way.

What do you think? After RomantiCon I thought I'd post a call for people who might want cards, but can't get to events like the book signing in Ohio so that I could send some out. I'd sign them, of course. You know, if you're interested :). Stay tuned!

Daisy Harris - Why I Write

I have the fabulously witty and hugely talented, Daisy Harris here with me today. When Daisy and I talked about her blogging she asked what I thought she should talk about, what my readers might be interested in. It wasn't difficult because I asked the question I always REALLY want to ask other writers; what drives you to write what you do? The answers are usually just so diverse and straight up fascinating. So, I think I'll just pull up a chair and hand it over to Daisy. Daisy?

*********************

Hi Kaily! Thanks for having me on the blog today. You posed an interesting question in your email of why I write what I write. It got me thinking…

Well, first off—I write mainly because I’m incapable of doing anything else. I have no organizational skills to speak of and I despise responsibility.  My main skills are learning, and making sh*t up. And when I write, I get to do both!

I also like to write about science. Most of my stories fall under the category of “paranormal,” but they generally walk the line between sci-fi and paranormal. My favorite thing about science is its lack of emotion. There’s this cool detachment in research—even when the topic being studied is incredibly emotional, and even when the study itself is morally questionable. I adore the sheen of cool that a scientific outlook provides.

That cold detachment provides a jumping off point for the emotions of the story. I have a hard time writing feelings in a vacuum. Emo werewolves and drama-laden heroines freak me out. I need distance and action and plot devices.  I need a smooth, hard wall of “fact” as a launching point for the feelings under the surface.

For example, in my new release STUDENSTEIN, my hero Royce is a Love-Bot controlled remotely by his builders. At the start of the book, he’s engaging in a BDSM scene with a “client,” but his actions are mechanical. He’s literally following a script in his mind, and checking my heroine Shani out at the same time. I love the concept that something as intimate as sex can be broken down into a clinical array of motions and actions.

When Shani takes Royce away from his network, he’s in many ways lost. Without directions scrolling through his mind, he isn’t sure how to think or feel. It’s no co-incidence that Royce and Shani spend time in the woods together. I love to get my cut-and-dried love-bots out into nature. In this case—a campground. The buzzing lights of the bathrooms contrast with the rustling of trees, the RV they’re driving is a lone piece of machinery fighting to function with only a water and electrical hook-up. It’s a science-meets-eden wonderland!

My machines always end up in the woods, or at sea, or in the forest. For me, there’s nothing hotter than breaking down the clinical and letting the emotions sing through.

Wanna read more? Check out Studenstein, on sale TODAY at Ellora’s Cave!

Blurb

A man built for sex… A woman who wants more…

Freedom fighter Shani Brown is determined to drag the ungrateful Royce back to her team in Seattle. Despite his denial of mistreatment, she wants to give him a chance at a better life. Due to her horrific past as an unlicensed love-bot, Shani never plans to have sex again. But Royce’s makers punish him remotely with crippling pain. His only escape is to orgasm. Never one to turn her back on a job, Shani soon finds herself servicing him—and soon after, caring for him.

Love-bot Royce Harden wasn’t looking to be rescued, especially not from the San Francisco BDSM club where he was having a perfectly good time. But rescued he was—by a hellcat bent on delivering him to her people. As Royce starts to trust Shani, he begins to dream of freedom. But freedom comes with a price. Royce must face his vanity, his makers, and even the loss of his sexual upgrades if he’s going to be the man Shani deserves.

About Daisy

Birkenstock-wearing glamour girl and mother of two by immaculate conception, Daisy Harris still isn’t sure if she writes erotica. Her paranormal romances start out innocently enough. However, her characters behave like complete sluts. Much to Miss Harris’s dismay, the sex tends to get completely out of hand.

If you like science-y subplots, fantastical creatures, and red-hot chemistry, you’ll love Daisy Harris. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and at www.thedaisyharris.com.

*********************

Daisy, it was so awesome to have you here today and I just love the premise of your story. Good luck with it!

WIP it Wednesday

Okay, it's Thursday already, so sue me LOL. I'm been engrossed in my WIP this week trying to finalize the high level plot for my new book. It's a more complicated story, with more 'danger' elements and I've enjoyed being in my hero's head for most of the week. Seth has been a hard nut to crack, but I think I did it and I thought I'd share just a taste of him. Enjoy!

     Seth let out a rough breath. He didn’t have the temperament for this type of mission. He wasn’t the hand holding type, didn’t have a diplomatic bone in his body, and didn’t give a shit about anyone’s ‘feelings’. And that was on a good day.