Embracing Romance! And Eileen Dandashi's Featured Author, too!

I'm very happy to announce that I've joined a brand new group blog, Embracing Romance, with a bunch of other authors. We all write historical romances, but we write other genres, too. It's a fun new venture, and maybe I will actually get around to blogging regularly. I hope so. Click here to see our great new blog site.

I'll still keep this blog open, but it will be used much as before -- mostly announcements to redirect you elsewhere, and the occasional recipe.

Also, I'm thrilled to bits that Eileen Dandashi has chosen me as her Featured Author for March on Booktalk with Eileen. The first post is already up, with my bio and a review of Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil. Thank you so much, Eileen! I'll have more news about this as the month goes on.

Eileen does wonderful, thoughtful reviews, and I encourage you to visit her site regularly.

Just for fun, a cat pic. If I'd snapped it a second sooner, both cats would have had their eyes closed -- sleeping in tandem.

Sunrise and Panera Bread!

I'm thrilled to announce that SUNRISE IN A GARDEN OF LOVE & EVIL, the first in the Bayou Gavotte series, is a romance pick for Panera Bread's summer reads. (I am such a fan of Panera Bread! I buy bread and pastries there. I heart their Greek salad and asiago roast beef sandwich. Panera is my first choice for lunches when traveling. It was my first choice for lunches at home, too, when I worked in an office close to one. I was so, so sad when a Panera in a nearby mall was closed...sniff.)

Anyway -- Amazon Kindle and Panera Bread are offering Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil for only $1.99 for the month of July. Here's the link to get there:  http://mypanera.panerabread.com/community/bookclub/

Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana , from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls in the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O'Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed...

In other great news the cover, blurb, and buy links for Heart of Constantine in both Kindle and paperback are up now at Amazon.com. The Kindle version is only $2.99 and the paperback is on special for $7.77 right now. The release date is September 10th.

This is the third book in the Bayou Gavotte series and the closest I come to a book of my heart -- mostly because I started it eons ago and wrote so many different versions that when revising it a few months ago, I had no idea which scenes I had chucked and which I had kept. It was like rediscovering an old, much-loved story. I wrote the first versions of it before writing Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil and Tastes of Love & Evil, and the character and story of Constantine changed gradually over the years.

Vigilante Native American rock star Constantine Dufray has hit rock bottom. His telepathic abilities have spun out of control, harming fans at his shows and destroying his marriage. Destructive rumors about the star run rampant—some true, some painfully false. Now he's being pursued by an unknown enemy trying to frame him for rape and murder. 

Aura reader Marguerite McHugh finally gets a close encounter with the mysterious star, but not quite the way she expected. When Constantine finds her after she's been drugged at one of his shows, she’s pulled into his quest for the truth. He won’t risk getting too close, and she’s desperate to stay out of the limelight, but as dangers mount and murders pile up, they are forced into an ever more intimate relationship. Only by facing their fears and working together can they unmask the killer before more innocent people die.

Giveaways: Small Blogs Big Giveaways and Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers

This is a crazy giveaway week! I'm one of the featured authors at Small Blogs Big Giveaways, where they're giving away 62 prizes and 6 gift cards. I've donated paperbacks of Tastes of Love & Evil and Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil, and a Kindle e-book of Notorious Eliza. To enter this fab contest, click on the graphic below or go here.

We're also giving away books all week at the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers. Drop in every day and comment for a chance to win one or more of the prizes below (each author is offering her own prizes the day she blogs):

Evil's Witness by Autumn Jordon (e-book)

To Love a Hero by Mona Risk (e-book)

French Peril by Mona Risk (e-book)

Forever Love by Mary Marvella (e-book)

Haunting Refrain by Mary Marvella (e-book)

Champagne for Two by Patrice Wilton (e-book)

All of Me by Patrice Wilton (e-book)

Tripping through Time by Mary Ricksen (signed paperback)

Red Bird's Song by Beth Trissel (e-book)

Enemy of the King by Beth Trissel (e-book)

Somewhere My Lass by Beth Trissel (e-book)

Tastes of Love and Evil by Barbara Monajem (signed paperback)

The Wanton Governess by Barbara Monajem (Kindle e-book)

Anyone who comments here will be entered in my personal giveaway as well. LET THE FUN BEGIN!

LOSING MY INNOCENCE

I'm blogging today in the Harlequin community. To read more about my lost innocence, go here.

News: My next Harlequin Undone will be out in August. It's called The Alluring Governess. Can't wait to see the cover!

Also, Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil is a finalist for the New England Reader's Choice Bean Pot Award. Yay!

The print below is a caricature by Cruikshank of that group of celebrated whips, The Four-In-Hand Club. Aren't they a hoot?

Reading the Signs

No, I'm not talking about reading bones or I-Ching coins or anything remotely woo-woo, although that would probably be more appropriate, seeing as I write paranormal romance, and my characters have a whole slew of strange abilities. I'm talking about foreign languages. I love words--probably one of the reasons I write--and I love them in any language. Just recently, I visited Montreal...



To read the rest, go here. Elisabeth Naughton invited me to participate in the promo for her new release, Entwined, and let me blather on about sign-reading on her blog. She has a great contest going with prizes and all. My post is a ways down the page.

Sunrise in German

This is the cover of the German translation of Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil.

Isn't it gorgeous?

New Cover, and the Demon Wisteria

 Tastes of Love and Evil is Book Two of the Bayou Gavotte Series, due out August 24th. Yay!
 (If only I get the ending right. Please let me get the ending right.)

Also, I received a letter from Dorchester Publishing on Friday, saying Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil will be translated into German. Yay again!

OK, so I'm not a master photographer,
but this is the Demon Wisteria last week,
in full bloom and looking deceptively pretty (while actually it's choking the life out of some poor hapless tree).

Bwa ha ha! Here it is a week later (after last night's storm --hence all the twigs and sweet gum balls), preparing to strangle my deck chair and anything else it can latch its nasty tendrils onto.

Hard to believe this voracious weed is a cosseted darling in northern climes!