I am so behind…

I am so behind this week that it is not even funny.  Getting sick stinks and I am still not functioning at 100%.

So a lot of what I had planned for this week will be postponed and I’ll be putting other stuff up.  And yes, I know I still need to update the sidebar.  Bad Me!

I will be welcoming author Mary Margret Daughtridge to the blog on Thursday as planned so please check in for that.  I loved her book SEALed with a Kiss and her latest release is SEALed with a Promise.

As for today…

The RITA nominees were recently announced.  You can find the list here.
Have any of you read any of the nominated books?

Book(s)-of-the-Month Annoucement

Today I am announcing the eBook-of-the-Month and Book-of-the-Month for April!
You can find out more info by checking the sidebar (which I need to update).

 

With  30% of the vote the eBook-of-the-Month that you all selected is:

 

Dream Walk by Meg Allison

  

 

And with 29% of the vote the Book-of-the-Month you all have selected is:

 

Tall, Dark & Deadly by Lorie O’Clare

 

 

 

 

So there you go, I’ll be posting the dates of my discussions soon and I encourage all of you to pick up these books and read them along with me during April.

 

As I do each month I will be giving away a copy of the Book-of-the-Month today.

So to win a copy of Tall, Dark & Deadly by Lorie O’Clare, leave a comment below letting me know you are interested.

 

I’ll announce the winner on Friday, April 3.

 

So any suggestions for May’s Book-of-the-Month?

Announcements!

Due to illness my Book-of-the-Month and eBook-of-the-Month discussions have been postponed until next weekend!  I apologize for this, but this flu/whatever-it-is has really taken its toll on me.

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I will be announcing April’s choices for Book-of-the-Month and eBook-of-the-Month on Monday.  Big thanks to everyone who voted!

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Also, I have some big news to announce soon regarding reviews.

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Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

 

My Apologies…

For those looking for today’s scheduled Book-of-the-Month discussion I am sorry.  I have been really sick this week and haven’t had a chance to get it typed up and posted.  I hope to get both Books-of-the-Month discussions posted this weekend, but if that doesn’t happen I will be sure to let you all know the date they will be posted.

Being sick stinks!!

Anyway…I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Read any good books lately?  I am still looking for suggestions for future Book-of-the-Month and eBook-of-the-Month polls.

Ann Aguirre winner…

Just a quick note to let you know that the winner of yesterday’s giveaway is:  Donna L

Congrats!  You should be contacted soon!  If you don’t hear from anyone by next week, e-mail me.

Please check below for today’s regular guest post…I am curious to read your responses to the questions.

Welcome to the blog…Kathryn L Nelson

Today I am delighted to welcome author, Kathryn L Nelson
Her book Pemberley Manor, a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice releases next week from Sourcebooks.

 

 

Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L Nelson

 

Jane Austen’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet has an innate faith in her own judgment, and is not easily swayed by facts that contradict her beliefs. Fitzwilliam Darcy is equally, if not more, sure of himself. Both are prone to leap to conclusions, but only Elizabeth has the ability to laugh at herself. Drawn together by a passion that overrides logic, it is certain that sparks must fly during their first tumultuous year of marriage, as the rough edges are worn off of these two flinty lovers.

 

Kathy Perschmann at Armchair Interviews writes: “Nelson has created an excellent back-story for Darcy, and re-creates the feel of Jane Austen’s witty dialogue and deep characters with great success. If you love Austen, you will most certainly love this story!”

 

Thanks for inviting me to appear as a guest on your blog. I’m on an adventure this month as Pemberley Manor finds its new home at Sourcebooks and on bookstore shelves. It’s great fun to think back over the journey – three years in the writing, five years of hiding under the bed, the discovery of the genre of Jane Austen sequels that led me to friendships with Diana Birchall and Jane Odiwe and an initial publication by Egerton House. The book’s journey started in 1995 with the BBC/A&E miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, but I’ve imagined myself to be a writer since I was very young, even failing any evidence to support the theory.

 

A love of sarcasm, the appreciation of a snappy wit, those come directly from my mother. But the traits that drive me to write stories come from my father: raging curiosity and an analytical temperament. Every complex personality that I come in contact with stirs up a craving to understand. What are the forces in a person’s life that drive them in a certain direction? How do the genetic streams flow together to create something new? What allows us to finally understand our own motives and blind spots?

 

Jane Austen’s characters, especially Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, are irresistible to me as well as to others. For some of the hundred or more authors who have written sequels to her books, there’s a longing to spend more time, go forward in the lives of these characters. For others it’s a burning urge to delve into the secrets of their sex lives, forbidden as that topic was in the original works. For me, it means trying to understand what created a man like Fitzwilliam Darcy. He is abrupt, and self-absorbed; his arrogance leads him to suppose that Elizabeth will accept his hand in marriage even as he is maligning her entire family and admitting that he separated his friend Bingley from Elizabeth’s sister, Jane.

 

Fitzwilliam Darcy stands by his principles, even when they interfere with his passion, solid as a rock, until, in the flutter of lashes of a pair of very fine eyes, he throws over his best judgment and pursues a path of social ruin. Interesting. And Elizabeth Bennet, equally sure of herself, holds strong to her own righteous indignation just up until the moment when she catches a glimpse of his fine estate. Hmmm.

 

And so, after reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice several times, and watching the mini-series until the tape turned fuzzy, I set out on a journey to uncover the key to Darcy’s past, and to imagine how it would impinge on his future. How would Elizabeth’s stubborn and witty optimism fit into his world at Pemberley? And when might the two of them begin to really understand each other, and themselves?

 

I’m sure Miss Austen meant for us to think about that question and come to our own conclusions. In fact, I’m sure she is stirring up the waters around Pemberley’s trout stream, amusing herself with the struggles of writers trying to catch her wit and her elegance. Let the sequels continue, each following their own path, until Jane herself is satisfied that we’ve understood it all. What do you think?

 

Thanks Kathryn for being my guest!

 

Readers, you can learn more about Kathryn and her books by visiting: http://www.klnelson.net

 

So, what do you think of Jane Austen sequels?

 

Kathryn also made me wonder about your favorite couples in general…do you ever wonder what happens to your favorite characters beyond the last page?  Ever make up your own “sequel” to a favorite romance?

Special Guest Ann Aguirre…

First, the winner of yesterday’s giveaway is:
Marie E.

Please e-mail me to claim your prize!

Now for today’s post…

Today I am pleased to welcome Ann Aguirre to the blog.
Ann’s latest release, Blue Diablo, hits stores April 7!

 

Here’s a blurb:

Right now, I’m a redhead. I’ve been blonde and brunette as the situation requires, though an unscheduled color change usually means relocating in the middle of the night. So far, I’m doing well here. Nobody knows what I’m running from. And I’d like to keep it that way…

 

Eighteen months ago, Corine Solomon crossed the border to Mexico City, fleeing her past, her lover, and her “gift”. Corine, a handler, can touch something and know its history—and sometimes, its future. Using her ability, she can find the missing—and that’s why people never stop trying to find her. People like her ex, Chance…

 

Chance, whose uncanny luck has led him to her doorstep, needs her help. Someone dear to them both has gone missing in Laredo, Texas, and the only hope of finding her is through Corine’s gift. But their search may prove dangerous as the trail leads them into a strange dark world of demons and sorcerers, ghosts and witchcraft, zombies—and black magic…

 

 

Now here is Ann…

 

Interesting on Demand

 

Six months before release, you start thinking, hm, I need to schedule some guest appearances. So you do that (or you have someone book said appearances for you). You’re happy as a clam, looking at your appearances schedule because it means people want to hear what you have to say. Glee! For those months, you savor the warm fuzzy feeling of being wanted.

 

Two months before release, you start getting nervous while looking at your appearances schedule. Lo, you have fifteen guest blogs. Can you possibly be interesting on fifteen different occasions? Probably? Maybe. Well, possibly not. But you have a book to write, so you put it from your mind.

 

One month from release, you examine your calendar again, and say to yourself, holy crap. Self, this is really happening. You’d better come up with something fast.

 

Unfortunately, your brain has turned to Malt O’Meal from the grueling word count, and all you can think about is how spray-on tan works for old people. I mean, if someone with really serious wrinkles steps into the tanning salon, how do they keep from getting extra dye caught in the creases? Maybe old people don’t do spray-on tan? Then you chastise your brain for being so obviously damaged, demented and deranged. That’s right—the triple-D, which isn’t nearly as impressive as in breastises.

 

Somehow you manage to stop thinking about spray-on tan and focus for a little while, only to discover your concentration has been fried by the time you spent writing fiction in the morning. See, that’s what you signed on for. Guest blogs are hard! You swore you had something to say six months ago. Pre-book. In some cases, it may have even been three or four books ago.

 

Self, you need a personality implant, you decide. You know how some people seem effortlessly cool on the internet, radiating charisma and constant witty repartee? Well, that’s not you. You write in your pajamas, and you run errands on Tuesdays. You constantly forget to pull something out of the fridge to make for dinner, and your family wonders if you’re ever going to get a haircut. A few of them suspect you’re insane. Once you get really deep into the book, you mumble as you do household chores. Crazy? No, you’re plotting. Really.

 

Three weeks before release, you’ve run contests until you start to wonder whether anyone would be interested in your soul, along with a nice Coldstone Creamery gift certificate. Sadly, given the state of your soul, you decide they probably would not.

 

Anyway, so here I am. If any of this has made you smile I’m glad because according to this study, brain deterioration begins at 27. So apparently I’m lucky I have any neurons firing at all in my thirties.

 

I think I’m relieved to have a reason for my mental decrepitude!  What do you guys think? Is that true? Do you have any weird brain-fart moments that you think could support this hypothesis? If so, what are they? The best / funniest story will win a copy of Blue Diablo.

 

Thanks Ann for that great blog!

 

Everyone, as Ann mentioned there is a giveaway today!

Leave a comment answering Ann’s questions to enter.

 

But wait, there are some special rules for this giveaway:

1) Winner must to post a review online somewhere (Amazon, BN.com, personal blog, etc.) by April 25^th and send a link to the online review to Ann (an e-mail addy will be provided to the winner) E.T.A.  This rule is no longer a requirement.

2) Winner will be contacted via email, therefore a valid email address must be provided for the comment to be entered in the giveaway

 

Other than that, anyone can enter.
The winner will be announced sometime tomorrow so be sure to return to see if you won.

 

And if you want to learn more about Ann and her books visit:  http://www.annaguirre.com/

 

Oh, and before I forget, Ann is having a BIG blowout contest to celebrate the release of Blue Diablo.

Click here for more info.