March Featured Author, Lovely Review, and Travels!

Today I'm at Eileen Dandashi's blog again. :) She has very kindly made me her March featured author, and she gave me a lovely review of Tastes of Love & Evil a few days ago. Click here to see her review.

Today she's interviewing me about my travels and my dream destination. At the moment, it's Scotland! Actually, I've always wanted to go to the Isle of Skye -- at least, ever since childhood when we sang the song about the boat taking Bonny Prince Charlie to Skye. It seemed awfully romantic. Then I read Mary Stewart's Wildfire at Midnight, one of my all time favorite romantic suspense novels, which takes place on Skye. Lately I've been reading Vonda Sinclair's fabulous blogs about castles in Scotland. How can anyone resist going to see them?

Anyway, to read the interview, go here. There will be another review and interview next week. I will post more info here when I have it.

Barbara

Five Nominations! And a #giveaway...

Imagine my astonishment when I learned I had received five nominations for Reviewer's Choice at the Paranormal Romance Guild! I'm in three categories, so in two of them I'm competing with myself.

Paranormal Romantic Suspense -- Heart of Constantine and Tastes of Love & Evil

Romance Novella -- The Magic of His Touch and Under a New Year's Enchantment

Romance Series -- Bayou Gavotte

I would love some votes from anyone who has the time and inclination. Voting ends on Sunday January 12th at 5 pm. EST.

http://www.paranormalromanceguild.com/2013reviewerschoice.htm

Thanks!

Also, today I'm blogging at the Harlequin Paranormal Romance blog about my new novella, Under a New Year's Enchantment. I'm giving away a copy to a lucky commenter. Please stop by!
http://paranormalromanceblog.com/2014/01/10/who-doesnt-like-a-good-sex-dream-by-barbara-monajem-giveaway/(This post is now up!)

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.

Tastes of Love and Evil re-release and Round Robin!

I've been overwhelmed lately, so I forgot my blog. I seem to do that a lot. Just not my strong point...

But anyway, I have two bits of news. One, Tastes of Love & Evil has been re-released in paperback by Montlake Romance. Considering the crazily high prices out there for secondhand copies (over $100 sometimes), this is excellent news. People who prefer reading on paper can now get it at a reasonable price.

 

Other bit: I'm participating in another Harlequin Historical round robin. It's a time travel story, which goes on throughout the month of March. Today my chapter (Chapter Eleven) is up. I ventured a thousand years into the past -- something I've always wanted to do. It was dark, scary, and smelly back there, but I'm planning to go back again at the end of the story. :)


(And only two weeks to go until The Magic of His Touch comes out! :~)))

Not So Super Heroes and Last Chance at the Giveaways.

This is the last day of the Small Blogs, Big Giveaways for October. To enter, go here. Lots of prizes and gift certificates are being given away. And if you don't make this month's contest, you can try in November.

It's also the last day for the Pink Fuzzies giveaways. I posted a brief blog today about my kind of heroes, as well as an excerpt from Tastes of Love and Evil. To read or just comment to enter for a prize, go here.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Tastes of Love & Evil is Book of the Week!

Color me blown away! Last week, Tastes of Love and Evil got a lovely, lovely review from Orchid at Long and Short Reviews, and it's up for Book of the Week!

If anyone has the time or inclination, I'd love to get some votes.  :)  The poll is here.

Red Beans and Rice and the Ghost Cat

Wooooooooo...

I'm over at the Pink Fuzzies today with my unauthentic recipe for Red Beans and Rice, and Pause the ghost cat came along just to give the post some of that New Orleans graveyard flavor. For more, go here...

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!