Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Devyn Quinn & Free Ebooks



Ebook Readers: Which is best?

Before we get to today's blog topic, I'd like to thank Deidre at Gothic Asylum Reviews for allowing me the chance to join her today. As some of you might know, All Romance eBooks is sponsoring a Go Green/Read an eBook campaign. As one of their ambassadors, I am here to spread the word about eBooks and how fabulous they are.

As an author who has been in on the eBook revolution since it began in the early nineties, I found myself fascinated by the idea of books in a portable, paperless format. I'm all for eBooks, and anything that gets people back to reading for entertainment.

There's only one problem I've found and, for me, it's been a big one. What is the best way to read an eBook? I have to admit that the idea of using my work computer is unattractive. After all, I sit behind the computer all day working on my own projects. When it comes time for pleasure reading, the last thing I want to do is look at the monitor some more! I could print the book—except that some eBooks disable the print function. Printing the book also defeats the purpose of eBooks. It wastes expensive ink and paper, something I'm not inclined to do in the first place. I purchased the book because of its portable format. It's supposed to be easy and convenient to read. But it's not! My problem is that I have yet to find the perfect eBook reader.

Therefore I am asking readers this question: What eBook reader do you use, and why?

Give us the specs and tell us how the device you've chosen is the perfect one for reading eBooks. In other words, convince me this is the reader for me!

And since this is an eBook campaign, I'll be giving away free PDF copies of my gothic novel, The Keeper of Eternity, to any reader who emails me, saying they saw this article at Gothic Asylum Reviews! Send your request to: admin@devynquinn.com.

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Devyn Quinn is a romance author and avid eBook reader, blogging this month for All Romance eBooks' Go Green/Read e Campaign. Find out more about the Go Green/Read e Campaign at www.gogreenreade.com. To learn more about Devyn, visit her website at www.devyquinn.com. You can find Devyn's eBooks and thousands of other eBooks on-line at www.allromanceebooks.com.**

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Guest Author - Jade Lee & Contest

First of all, I must apologize profusely to Ms. Lee. This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but I got sidelined due to the two jobs I'm working this week. Please, please, please accept my sincerest apologies.

I hope everyone will stop by and comment, she has so graciously offered one lucky commenter a free book, so here she is........
I SCOFF! I SNEER! .... Was I wrong?
By Jade Lee

You know how everyone talks about a book of the heart? Write the book of your heart. Who cares if it’s alien frogs in the regency, it’s your heart! You can make it work!

Up until now, I have scoffed–nay, sneered at such advice. I’m sorry, but my heart is odd. Let me give you an example. I had this great story idea about alien frogs in the regency era. I also wanted to do a book set in the Forbidden City with a concubine and a eunuch. No fooling. You don’t need a male organ to be a great lover, right? It’s edgy, it’s challenging, it’s honest. Let me tell you flat out that market-wise, they were both STUPID IDEAS!!!! Fortunately, I had people in my life who said: DUMB DUMB DUMB!!!

But lately, I have been looking at my track record. My first Jade Lee book was Devil’s Bargain. I wanted to write a dark, sensuous story set in the ugly underbelly of London. A man trains young brides to be sensuous women, then marries them to older, wealthy men for a commission. I even created an early form of a pre-nuptial agreement to make it easier for the old guys. But then the hero falls in love with his last protegee. The book is 95% sexual tension and exploration. It’s dark, it’s steamy, it’s full out seduction from page 1 to the end. It is still one of my best sellers. And oh...up until that point, I had been writing light, funny regencies under the name Kathy Greyle.

My next what-the-hell idea was White Tigress. A Victorian woman caught up in a Chinese cult of Tantrics who use sexual stimulation as a means to attain Heaven. She was actually kidnapped and sold into the cult. (At that time, most Chinese believed the propaganda that whites were actually large monkeys...not human at all). This book–even set in China–started what became a 6 book series.

But in the middle of all those Chinese Tantrics, I got really bored. For a complete change of pace, I wrote a fantasy romance about a woman who incubated a dragon egg and the dragon slayer who must kill the dragon and its owner. The dragonslayer uses our heroine to find the egg, then falls in love with her, and then discovers she’s got the egg. Oops. Now he has to kill her. Kinda a problem for the love story. Dragonborn was fun adventure with some good sex thrown it. It was dragons and maids and lords and ladies! Gawd,I had so much fun writing that book. And wham...it’s been a best seller for me.

So what have I concluded from all this reflection? That maybe I was wrong. GASP! Really? NO! Not about alien frogs in the regency or eunuch heroes. I still think those ideas were clunkers. But maybe that passion is what’s important in our books. Not passion between hero and heroine. Well, yes, that too, but mostly passion from the author for the story. What a concept!!! Passion for what I write. Hmmmm...

So, now the exciting wind up. Oops. I don’t really have one. Over 10 years, I’ve published 28 books. Is it possible that the stories that I adored, that I was most fascinated by, were my best? That the audience can tell when I’m writing to a market and when I’m just writing because the idea is so cool? OMG, have I learned something here?



Well... you tell me. If the above is true, then you’ll love Dragonborn which was published last year, and you’ll adore it’s sequel Dragonbound. I wasn’t going to write a sequel, btw, but Sabina’s story entranced me. Seriously. I couldn’t stop thinking about her path as she hates and adores her dragon-now-turned-man. Her history and her future are interwoven in a complex...in a ...damn, I can’t explain it. It’s just an awesome book and it’s coming out...probably now. (It’s an April book, but Dorchester always releases things early)

Somebody, please comment! Please tell me that you think I’m nuts. That ALL my books are equally fabulous whether I wrote them because the publisher demanded a sequel or because I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head. Or maybe that I’m right, and I should forget marketing all together. That I need to just write what is out and out inspiring to me. In which case...you could be getting those frogs, you know. One lucky commenter will get a free copy of Dragonborn or, if you prefer, a copy of my latest regency era historical The Dragon Earl which is totally unusual in its own way. (A white guy raised in a Chinese fighting monastery shows up in England to marry his betrothed. He’s bald and wearing a saffron robe. Would you marry him?)


Jade Lee
http://www.jadeleeauthor.com/

USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Dragonbound April 09
The Concubine (Blaze historical) Feb 09
Winter Heat (anthology) Jan 09
The Dragon Earl Sept 08
Contest will end Sunday, March 29 at 11:59 p.m. eastern time.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Calling all Nora Roberts Fans

Saw this in my inbox and decided to share with you guys!

Don’t miss Lifetime’s Nora Roberts Movie Collection featuring 4 world premiere movies starting March 21st at 9pm/8c, and continuing for three additional weekends!

Watch a full month of Nora Roberts' movies, including the premieres of "Northern Lights" starring Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian premiering March 21st at 9 pm et/pt, "Midnight Bayou" starring Jerry O'Connell, Lauren Stamile and Faye Dunaway premiering March 28th at 9 pm et/pt, "High Noon" starring Emilie DeRavin, Ivan Sergei and Cybill Shepard premiering April 4th at 9 pm et/pt and "Tribute" starring Brittany Murphy and Jason Lewis premiering April 11th at 9 pm et/pt.

Guest Author - Amanda Ashby

I'm so pleased to have author Amanda Ashby with me here today on my blog. So without further adieu, here she is.......

Sophomore book

For those of you who don’t know it, ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH is actually the second book that I’ve had published. My first one, YOU HAD ME AT HALO came out in 2007 and was the story about a dead girl who got kicked out of heaven and forced to sort out her earthly issues. Unfortunately, due to a small error, she ends up in a guy’s body - while the guy was still in it. Yeah, and you thought my zombie idea was crazy!

Anyway, today I thought it would be fun to talk about how different it’s been this time around compared to when Halo came out. Of course the major difference was that I wrote Halo just after my father died so there was a lot of crazy emotions all tied up in it, and when the book finally came out, it sort of reminded me of that time all over again. Not necessarily in a sad way, but all the same it was quite overwhelming.

With Zombie, thankfully no one had to die (though in one of the earlier versions things didn’t end up too well for the biology teacher. But then again if you teach biology I guess that’s just one of the hazards of the job!).

Another major difference between the two books was that I was completely paralysed with fear when Halo first came out. And I wish I was kidding or exaggerating about this but I’m afraid I’m not. You see I had been so determined to get a book published that I really hadn’t thought it through properly – in that if you have a book published, in general complete strangers will read the book. Which doesn’t sound so bad in theory but when you realize that they’re going to read your book with words that you’ve written, it gets a bit scarier. Anyway, these nerves really didn’t go away until my reviews came in (which were, on the whole, really quite lovely).

This time around the fear wasn’t there – okay, so it was a bit, but it was more manageable and by this time I had learnt enough to know that even if some people don’t like your book, there will be others that do. Oh and chocolate helps as well!! Anyway, by losing my fear of what other people would say, I’ve ended up having so much more fun this time around. Especially in deciding to hold a blog party to celebrate the release!

I never would’ve done that for Halo but I’m so happy I did it for Zombie because not only did I get to find out just how amazing my writing friends were in agreeing to come and play with me, but I also managed to make so many new friends and without them the experience just wouldn’t have been the same!! Of course if I’d known how annoying and bad mannered the zombies were going to be at my party I might’ve thought twice about inviting them, but apart from the fact they tried to eat everyone in sight, I guess it wasn’t too bad!

There have been other differences as well. I don’t check my Amazon ranking every two seconds anymore nor do I practice mind control techniques to try and get complete strangers to buy my book (only because the techniques didn’t work, but if you happen to know some good ones, then I would probably be up for giving it another go. Just saying). I’ve even managed to do a bit of normal writing as well, which is something that didn’t happen for months after my first book came out! All in all it’s been a lot more fun this time around. And who knows, for book three I might even manage to do a books signing or two? After all, stranger things have happened!

Monday, March 2, 2009

More Hot Topic to Love! St. Patty's Edition

Isn't this just gorgeous?
What a pretty fairy! Love it!
Too funny!

Cute pun!
Check 'em out at