October 30, 09 @ 9:00 pm
As promised, here are the winners, chosen at random thanks to random.org.
Winner of signed copy of Nalini Singh’s Branded By Fire or a mass market copy of the An Enchanted Season anthology…….
Comment #29 — Lindlee
Winner of signed copies of Hot Spell by yours truly……..
Comment #42 — H.C. Zuerner
Comment #5 — Sandra
Please email me at michelle@michellerowen.com with your mailing addresses to claim your prizes!*
*by Monday at 9 p.m. EST or I will pick new winners.
Congrats!
And thanks to everyone who entered!
October 30, 09 @ 10:56 am
Now that I have my cover, I can finally share more info about THE DEMON IN ME, the first book in my upcoming Living in Eden series. Before the cover art, it just doesn’t quite feel like a real book yet.
Paranormal romance, humor, a sexy hero, a relatable heroine, magic, mayhem, mystery, danger, and lots of fun! I’ve written the first two books in this series and I absolutely adore the main characters, Darrak and Eden. I hope my readers do, too!!
THE DEMON IN ME
May 2010 – Berkley Sensation
Hell hath no fury…
Fate has led Eden Riley to become a “psychic consultant” to the police, even though her abilities are unreliable at best. Those paranormal powers are about to get her into a jam she couldn’t have predicted. After her hunky police detective partner guns down a serial killer in front of her, Eden realizes that she’s quite literally no longer alone. A voice in her head introduces himself as Darrak. He’s a demon. But not in a bad way!
…like a woman possessed.
Darrak lost his original body 300 years ago thanks to a witch’s curse. This is the first time he’s ever been able to speak directly to a host, plus there’s a bonus. Eden’s psychic energy helps him to take form during daylight hours. He wants to use this chance to find a way to break his curse — finally. Otherwise, Eden’s going to have to learn to live with this sexy demon…like it or not.
And she thinks she might like it.
A short excerpt from Chapter 2….
“You’re a demon,” she said it so quietly even she had trouble hearing it.
“Yes.”
“And you’ve possessed me.”
“If you put it that way it sounds a bit ominous, doesn’t it? I’d rather think of it as ‘sharing living space.’”
It was true. She’d seen it with her own eyes when the serial killer had been killed. The black smoke hadn’t just been smoke—it was the demon he’d claimed to be possessed with. The demon that was now inside of her.
For a moment she was positive she’d faint. The feeling passed, but the steadily growing fear that filled her remained.
“Get out of me,” she said softly.
“That does sound like an excellent plan, but you need to understand, this isn’t my choice. I haven’t been able to exist outside of my host since—”
“Get out right now!” Eden clutched the baseball bat so tightly she was sure she’d get splinters. She put every ounce of energy she could summon from the universe into those four words. She’d never felt so fierce or certain about anything in her entire twenty-nine years of life—and that included kicking her cheating jerk of a fiancé out six months ago. Although, it was still a close second.
She felt rather than heard the demon gasp inside of her—inside her head, her chest, her entire body. As if she’d been punched in the stomach she let out a wheezing breath and doubled over as the black smoke exited through her mouth in one dark, tasteless, odorless stream. She scrambled back from it until she hit the wall behind her and held the bat up as if that would be enough to protect her from Hell itself.
The smoke hung there like a small black rain cloud, unmoving, five feet in front of her, for a few more moments. Then something changed. She watched, stunned, as it began to take on a recognizable shape. The entire process took less than thirty seconds, but it was as if time itself had stopped. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she could do was watch—waiting for a large, red, hulking, horned Hell-beast to appear and devour her whole.
Pre-order available on Amazon.com!
October 28, 09 @ 11:02 pm
I’m very happy to welcome Nalini Singh to my blog during her online tour to celebrate the release of BLAZE OF MEMORY! She’s a fabulously talented author and very generous to offer up a book to a commenter here on my blog. Keep reading for more information!!
***
BLAZE OF MEMORY
BERKLEY BOOKS
Out 3 November 2009
Nalini Singh returns to the Psy/Changeling world and its “breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal” as a woman without a past becomes the pawn of a man who controls her future…
Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete…until he finds himself drawn to a woman who might yet prove the enemy’s most insidious weapon.
Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor, and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity itself. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For in this game, one must die…
Excerpt: http://www.nalinisingh.com/blaze.html
Reviews
“…When it comes to delivering stories that grab you by the throat and don’t let go, Singh is in a class by herself!” – Romantic Times
“…An outstanding November read!” ~ Fresh Fiction
“…BLAZE OF MEMORY had me in tears with the tenderness that Dev and Katya exposed in each other. This story adds immensely to the series…You will want to revisit this love story again and again.” - Romance Junkies
Contest
Leave a comment with your answer to the question below to win a signed copy of Branded By Fire, the previous book in the series. (Or if you prefer, you can choose a mass market copy of the An Enchanted Season anthology).
Excerpts:
http://www.nalinisingh.com/enchanted.html
http://www.nalinisingh.com/branded.html (warning, excerpt may singe your eyebrows off).
Contest Question:
If you could have any psychic ability, which would you choose?
Winner will be chosen at random from all comments received by Friday, October 30th at 9:00 p.m. EST. Please check back here to see if you’ve won!
October 27, 09 @ 5:11 pm
It’s the release day for my first Harlequin Blaze HOT SPELL today!
Everybody knows there’s no love lost between paranormal investigators Amanda LaGrange and sexy Jacob Caine. They can’’t even stand being in the same room together….
Well, unless it’s an enchanted bedroom. And they’’re trapped there, at midnight. And the sexual tension suddenly becomes too powerful to resist…
Then that bedroom gets really hot, really fast! But come morning, they still can’t keep their hands off each other. Are they cursed forever? If so, neither one’’s complaining….
* * *
To celebrate I’m going to give away two signed copies to two commenters. Please leave a comment to this blog and I’ll pick a winner Friday at 9:00 pm EST.
I will announce the winners here and you’ll have to contact me by email to claim your prize. (I only say this because I think some commenters never check back to see if they won or not!).
Good luck!! 
October 20, 09 @ 5:24 pm
Okay, it’s official. I’m going to do Nanowrimo this year. I haven’t done it seriously since 2006, which is when I wrote the first, very rough draft of Demon Princess. Since then, November and my writing schedule haven’t really lined up perfectly. Nano only works if:
1) You don’t mind writing an underdeveloped idea really fast that will need A FREAKING LOT of work to fix, or
2) You’re about to start a book that has already been brainstormed and plotted and is ready to rock.
Luckily, this year I’m falling into category #2. I’ve found that while I can write pretty darn fast, I need to be ready to rock. I can’t be second guessing plot or characters. Their motivations and goals need to be pre-planned. When all that lines up, then start yer engines.
I’m going to be writing the first draft of STORMY WEATHER, my second Harlequin Blaze. My goal is 55K words.
If you’re also participating and you’d like to friend me, you can find me on Nano under the incredibly original username of Michelle Rowen.
October 19, 09 @ 9:03 pm
I received this email the other day and thought my answer to the sender was something more people might like to know about, so I asked permission to post some of it and here it is.
Dear Michelle,
I have some questions I hope you can answer, if they are not too private I mean. I have always wanted to write full-time. But I’m worried that I won’t be able to write a book fast enough. On average, how long does it take you to finish a project? Does a writer’s deadline depend entirely on the editor? I write five pages a day at the most when in the middle of a project. I get an hour a day to write, which is part of the problem. Would I be able to survive being a full-time writer? And how do you deal with this?
The money side of writing has always been the part I worried about the most. A lot of writers that put stuff out very often are what I have heard being called as “midlist”. If most writers end up there, what exactly does that mean in terms of money? Would I be able to support my family?
–Aspiring Writer
***
Dear Aspiring Writer,
I can’t really tell you too many specifics about money — mostly because it’s very different for everyone. You’ll have one author who makes a couple hundred dollars from their book and another who gets a million dollar advance. Doesn’t mean one is any better than the other, in my opinion. It’s just the luck of the draw and how marketable the publisher thinks your book is.
DO NOT become a writer because you want to make a lot of money at this. I can pretty much guarantee that you will be disappointed if that is your goal. While I do currently make enough money to do this full time, that is due to my four book a year writing schedule. That’s one book every 3 months, and that includes editorial revisions, proofreading and promo (which takes up about half of my time). I work seven days a week at this and my vacations in the last five years have all been writing related (conventions, NYC, etc). These expenses are not comped by the publisher, they’re out of pocket.
The average new author will make between $5000 – $10,000 for their first book when they sell to a big New York publisher (this may be a generous estimate) — this is split up over several payments: usually half up front, a quarter when you’re finished the revisions the publisher wants, and a 1/4 when it’s published (so this could take up to a year to get your entire advance). If the book does really well, you may see royalties on top of that, but you will not see them for at least a year after the book is published (so now we’re at two years since the book was initially bought). There are exceptions, like I said above. You may very well get a huge advance, but the odds of that are similar to winning the lottery.
The midlist author is essentially any author who is not on the major bestsellers lists — New York Times, USA Today. So that is the majority of us. It is incredibly difficult to break out of the midlist, and again the lottery scenario comes into play. It’s hard enough to get published in the first place, but getting to the next tier is another major hurdle.
I’m not saying these things to discourage you, but they’re simply facts — ones that you’ll learn eventually if you pursue this whole-heartedly. I encourage you to write because you love your characters and want to tell stories. Write in the genre that you love to read. Don’t try to write to the market in order to sell because if you do sell you’re going to have to write that kind of thing for a long time since it will become “your brand.” That’s not to say that you can’t write with an eye on the market. See what’s selling and how your voice can fit in. Do tons of research both online and off about publishing. I have a section on my website with my advice to writers (it’s off the bio page).
It’s hard not to get excited about the money end of things when people like Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, and Stephen King are seemingly cashing in but, believe me, they are the exception to the rule.
As far as being prolific, five pages a day is a very good pace. I usually do 15 pages a day when I’m working on a first draft. Bitten & Smitten took me the better part of two years to write but I took my time with it and wasn’t working to any assigned deadline. While I had a full time job I was only writing a book every 10 months but I knew this wouldn’t help me build my name so I took a risk and quit my day job. To say I’m driven right now would be an understatement. To write 4 books a year I’m always at the computer. It’s my life. You have to ask yourself how much you’re willing to put into it and sacrifice for it.
Bottom line, I would strongly suggest working hard on your first book, shopping it out to get an agent, and seeing where this takes you. In other words, cross the money bridge when you come to it, but always, always remember that the writing should be the reward itself.
I wish you great luck with your writing. As difficult as it can be sometimes, it’s been an adventure I wouldn’t trade for anything!
Best wishes!
Michelle
October 13, 09 @ 4:39 pm
A week without a blog post is like a…um…is like a…something without something!
Lack of easy metaphors from me means that my well is dry. My imagination is currently resembling a small pathetic little raisin, and not a cheery singing Californian one. I need to recover my muse. She’s currently mainlining caffeine to stay awake.
I’m officially finished my urban fantasy NIGHTSHADE and it is jetting off to my betareaders as we speak. I’m happy with it. Now I need to figure out what book two is going to be about, although based on the first book I have a pretty good idea. I won’t say it ends on a cliffhanger because I don’t like cliffhangers (well, other than Stakes & Stilettos, of course), but being that it is a duology (or, let’s face it, more if it does really well) the end of book one is extremely…open. But still satisfying. I think. We shall see, you know, in 2011. That’s like TOMORROW in the publishing industry, people.
I’m about to start proofreading my REIGN CHECK galleys. This is the last stage an author gets to see their book before it becomes a, well, a real book. Yes, the last stage is sometimes eight whole months before the book is published. I’ve also recently gotten a glimpse of the upcoming cover for this and I can tell you right now that it is ADORABLE. And very pink. I shall say no more until I can share the final version.
What else…what else. I mean, a whole week! A lot probably happened, right?
Hmmm… not so much. I’ve been kind of focused on finishing the book so I’ve barely raised my head up above my hole in the ground. This week I’m chilling, but I’ll probably start on the new Blaze, STORMY WEATHER in a few days.
Speaking of Blazes, here’s what Night Owl Romance had to say about HOT SPELL, which is out in only a couple more weeks! Their review won’t be going live until November 1st, but thought I’d share a snippet of their 5-star top pick review!
“I loved this story from the very beginning…Ms. Rowen is a great storyteller and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. Because of the paranormal theme, this would make a perfect book to read for Halloween. If you’re like me though, a great paranormal story is perfect any time of year!”
And that’s that.
I’ll try not to make it another week without a blog post again, but time will tell.
A couple fast movie reviews I caught on the movie channel recently…
Yes Man (Jim Carrey) — Fun, worth watching. 7/10
Seven Pounds (Will Smith) – Depressing and thought-provoking, but flawed. I figured out the ending about a half hour in. 7/10
I have a ton of books I need to get through. Vegging in front of the TV is good for only so long!
October 06, 09 @ 11:01 am
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WINNER OF DEEP KISS OF WINTER IS COMMENT #71, RAELENA. I’VE CONTACTED HER BY EMAIL AND SHE HAS UNTIL MONDAY TO CLAIM HER PRIZE. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!!!
*****************
Have to say, I’m pretty excited about this book. I mean, even if I didn’t already love the authors, the cover is fantastic, isn’t it??
(He looks kind of cold. Perhaps he would like me to hug him to warm him up. Just a suggestion.)
DEEP KISS OF WINTER is a hardcover release, but here’s the best part about it…
The book contains two nearly full-length novels by Gena Showalter and Kresley Cole and the hardcover is not overpriced at all. It’s basically the same price as buying two paperbacks.
Bottom line? You get great value and hot romance TIMES TWO for the money, people. Plus, hardcovers just look gorgeous on your keeper shelf, don’t you think?
*********************
CONTEST!!!!!!!
Gena has generously offered up a signed copy of DEEP KISS OF WINTER to a commenter. So comment away and I will pick a winner on Friday, October 9th at 9:00 pm EST.
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DEEP KISS OF WINTER
by Gena Showalter and Kresley Cole
Passion begins with a deep kiss…but who knows where it will end?
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole delivers the next seductive installment in the Immortals After Dark series: a breathtaking tale of a brutal vampire soldier about to know love for the first time and an ice queen aching to be touched.
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter delights with her newest Alien Huntress tale, a soul-shattering story of an iron-fisted warlord hungry for pleasure, and the one woman who would deny him…
Buy at Amazon
Buy at Barnes and Noble
Or, preorder for a copy signed by both Cole and Showalter
October 05, 09 @ 9:02 pm
Michelle, you might say. Are you doing any more interviews this week to do with Demon Princess?
Why yes. Yes, I am. Thank you for asking!
I’m over at The Story Siren with an interview and signed Demon Princess giveaway.
Also, another interview with Tabitha Olson at Writer Musings with an interview and contest.
—
Hey, it’s Monday again! Funny how that day seems to happen once a week whether we want it to or not. I officially started my first draft of STORMY WEATHER today and so far so good. I’ll work on it for a week before I get back on my second draft of NIGHTSHADE. That book is calling to me. It wants attention, but I’m trying to ignore it for a bit longer.
—
Check back tomorrow. I’m going to have a contest here that has NOTHING TO DO WITH MY BOOKS!! I know. Hard to believe, right?? I’m featuring another author’s fabulous soon-to-be-released hardcover anthology and she’s giving away a signed copy to one lucky commenter!!!
I’ll give you a hint who it is. She’s a New York Times bestselling author of paranormal romance and a prolific author of YA books as well. Her first name starts with a G and her last name rhymes with Bowalter.
It’s going to be FABULOUS. Be here or be square!!!!
October 02, 09 @ 11:20 am
SIGNING
I’m doing a signing this weekend with Eve Silver. I’ll be signing copies of Demon Princess: Reign or Shine and Tall, Dark & Fangsome. If you’re in the area, please come out and see us!
Chapters – Queensway
1950 The Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario
Sunday, October 4, 2009 — 1:00 — 4:00 pm
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And don’t forget about my contest that’s going to go through to next Tuesday at midnight EST. I’ve revised it slightly to include another prize option…
DEMON PRINCESS PHOTO CONTEST
Take a photo of yourself with a copy of Demon Princess and email it to me (or let me know where you’ve uploaded it). If your name is drawn next Tuesday you will have a choice between receiving the following:
1) A signed manuscript of Demon Princess #2: Reign Check, which will be sent to you asap, or…
2) A signed advance reading copy (ARC) of Demon Princess #2: Reign Check, which will be sent to you when they’re available (could be a few months wait, though).
This choice applies to those who’ve alreeady entered the contest. So if you don’t want a pile of paper and would prefer to wait a bit for a shiny ARC, then the choice will be yours!
—
Today I’m continuing my relaxation and filling the well thing, but I’m getting a bit antsy having nothing to do writing-wise. I’m going to start doing some pre-writing and research for STORMY WEATHER, however I keep thinking about my NIGHTSHADE manuscript, so I just might start my read-through of that a bit earlier than originally planned. We’ll see where the day leads.
And I can’t believe it’s Friday again. Seriously. How did this happen??
