Goodreads Giveaway!

Giveaway alert! 

See widget above or click HERE

Chicken Little and the Big Scary

Baby-author share time again.

I have a love for SmartBitches that is rather like the love an old school doofy-assed TSTL heroine has for her brutal-and-sometimes-rapetastic hero.

I love SB.

I'm also terrified of SB.

I bring this up because with my upcoming debut release, I've been dipping a toe into the review-pool. I have been working with Lisa at Tasty Book Tours, and she's awesome and I'm very grateful for her assistance(took the nerve out of asking for reviewers!). But outside that, there are a few review sites I've been reading for years that I'd love to submit to--IN THEORY. Ones where I load up the submissions page, become terrified, and close it. CataRomance and SmartBitches to name a couple...

The last really can send me into a full-blown, neurotic-bunny flip-out. Panic? Yes. Irrational paranoia? You mean... like where I become convinced that the longer I stare at the submission-focused page, the more likely it is that some brilliant SB-aligned hacker has activated my laptop's webcam and... can see me staring at it with deer/headlights eyes, sheet-wrinkles on my cheek, and staggeringly awful bed head? Yeah, I pretty much do that too. I don't know why I'm always tempted to consider it right after waking up. Maybe I have dreams where I'm totally brave, and then the computer reminds me that insanity is not quite the same thing as bravery... and I quickly close the danged tab.

So far, my review-getting experience has been very positive, but all review-soliciting comes with the inevitability of unhappy words being written about poor MountainMan. It's a given, someone will hate the book. Actually, they'll probably hate the heroine--she's kind of a handful at times. Someone(possibly many someones) will hate the book. Period. End of story.

I know this. I have accepted this. I feel I'm more or less prepared for the eventuality. I have an emergency-bad-review-boogie-bag, complete with dark chocolate, deluxe mixed nuts, and tissues to vanquish looming sniffle-snot-bubbles. But for some reason, there are review blogs I just can't bring myself to submit to yet for no real reason other than I'm totally a chicken. SmartBitches is right at the top. No idea what to do about that. I'm hoping that will eventually work itself out of my system.

Until then let me say: Bock-bock. Bock.

SYTYCW and Me (Really Long Post)

I was going to hold off writing about SYTYCW until a little later, when the contest was in full-swing, but I discovered tonight that my last year's SYTYCW entry is actually available for download on Harlequin.com! That's exciting for me. I don't actually know how long it's been there, I have been obsessively checking the print store, figuring that having the print books in stock would be the delay in actually having the book up for purchase, but not so! (Print is still not available, alas.)

So to mark the occasion, I thought I'd do a little recap of the journey to publication.

The first time I decided I wanted to write a book was in 2005... or maybe 2006. I don't have much of a grasp of time. I sat down and pounded out a truly horrendous manuscript in about two weeks. I was very proud of myself until I read it and then I promptly stuffed it into a drawer and it has never seen the light of day. (And never will.)

Fast-forward: In 2010, inspired by the success of friends, I decided that publication was actually something that could happen to regular people, and gave it another shot. I should probably pause here and say that although I had not been writing books/stories during that time, I had been writing every day since about 1998 for fun. I am a former MUSHer, which is online, text-based roleplay(or in everyday vernacular: Interactive Storytelling). My voice was well established by this point, but my storytelling skills needed work.

My first submission in 2010 resulted in a full manuscript request(and voice probably got that). The book had not been written(which had been okay'd by the editor prior to submission--back when neither of us knew how long it would take me to write the full), and I didn't get a version I was anywhere comfortable sending in until almost a year later. When I sent it in, the editor who'd requested it had retired, and I have no idea where it went. I checked up at six months, and then again at nine, Still Under Consideration was the response. In the meanwhile, I had gotten more comfortable with How To Build a Novel, so I entered another Fast-Track and got a Form-Rejection on it, entered a pitch(with the book that is actually now on sale--MountainMan!) and didn't get selected to pitch, had entered New Voices and SYTYCW for two years running and got nowhere, and then I got a big Fat-Form R on the full manuscript requested in 2010(which turned out later to have been an error), a few other Big Fails that left my confidence very shaky.

Added to this, I am a quirky writer--my voice tends toward irreverence and I like off-the-wall scenarios. I was not at all certain I could write category. As a matter of fact, by summer 2012, I was pretty-darned certain I couldn't. I'd decided to stop submitting to Harlequin for the time-being--focus on epublishers, learn more, and maybe try it again later when I was no longer convinced my Level of Suck didn't need to be measured on the Fujita scale.

Then I found out the 2010 full manuscript Form-R was an error. Got revision notes on it. My confidence was still in tatters, but I had one thing going for me and I was just going to focus on that one thing, the 2010 story. By the time SYTYCW2012 rolled around, I had decided not to enter it. Until about the day or two before, when my CP's(Michelle Smart and Aimée Duffy) talked me into entering. I had no story written, and the only fully formed story I had in mind that had never been submitted to Harlequin was MountainMan. So with a first chapter I'd written in the Spring in hand, I uploaded it to the site and dove in to write the rest of the book. I reached The End at like... 4am the day they were going to post the Top 28(semi-finalists), just in case. But again, I was not in the semi-finalists. Unlike the other contests, I didn't expect or even really let myself hope I'd be there. I was just using the contest deadlines to give myself hard-fast dates to get a book done by. And I'd done it. So yay me! I revised a the first half, then stuck it away and went back to revising the other book.

Friday -- Nov 9, the day after my birthday, I got an email from Suzanne Clarke, Medical Editor, asking to see the full manuscript. I emailed back saying I only had the first half revised, and could I wait to send it in when I got the second half revised. She emailed back asking for whatever I had polished.

Monday -- Nov 12, Sent in first half.

Monday -- Nov 19, Got revision notes on first half (Which were rather epic if enthusiastic)

Tuesday -- Nov 20, emailed back to thank her and set a Dec 7 deadline for the revised full

Thursday -- Nov 22 -- THANKSGIVING!

Friday -- Nov 23 -- Suzy emailed to ask for first three revised chapters earlier, if possible. I naturally, agreed and set another close date to send them by.

Wednesday -- Nov 28 -- Sent revised chapters 1-3

Thursday -- Nov 29 -- Sent the revised chapters 1-3 again because after sending on Wednesday, I had been filled with irrational word-hate and felt like it was a big ole mess of stupid. And that feeling disappeared after I chopped a paragraph that served no purpose beyond making me laugh. Whew. (Also, probably the first sign for editor that I'm a bit of a neurotic mess).

Thursday -- Dec 6 -- One day before deadline(Yay). I sent in the revised full. 

Tuesday -- Dec 18 -- Received another round of revision notes. Again, fairly epic in scope.

Christmas and New Years derailed progress for rest of December.

Revisions are hard!

Monday -- Jan 7 -- Contacted Suzanne to propose Jan 18 deadline for revisions, and she said sure!

Thursday -- Jan 24 -- Actual date I managed to send in revisions. They were hard, man.

Then I spent time with the Crickets of Scary Silence.

Wednesday -- Feb 20 -- Email asking if she could call in the afternoon. I said sure, but then promptly missed the call. Emailed, rescheduled for next day. I THOUGHT I knew why, and when I told my CP's about the email, they were sure of the reason -- but I was still pretty sure that it could just be that I'd totally crapped up the revisions and she had to talk to me on the phone to make me understand where I went wrong :)

Thursday -- Feb 21 -- Germs conspired to keep her out of office, rescheduled for Friday.

Friday -- Feb 22 -- THE CALL

And now, the Frootz of All That Labor:

• Harlequin Ebookstore (Print not available until October)
• Mills & Boon -- Where it is also available in print
• It's up on Amazon's and elsewhere, but I think it does not actually become available anywhere other than Harlequin sites until October.

No.Am. Cover for 2012's SYTYCW Entry!

Love how the white sheets blend into the white format of the North American medical covers. The smokin' hot couple looks even better in big format than I had hoped!

Tickled pink!

Compare to UK Cover here

MOUNTAIN MAN GOTS A COVER!

UK cover for Mountain Man!

Warning: This will be a post where I run amok and make little sense, as opposed to my usual posts of stunning brilliance. . .Ahem.

MY FIRST COVER EVER.

And I love it.

It's beautiful.

Top Ten reasons I love this cover, in no particular order:

1. It's purple! Is this important? YES. Purple is the best color ever.
2. See those mountains? THOSE ARE THE RIGHT MOUNTAINS. They may or may not be from eastern Kentucky where the book is set, but it's definitely Allegheny territory--either the Smokies, the Appalachians, or whatever they're called in Pennsylvania that I'm too excited to research!
3. Hot couple. Ever seen a romance where the models did nothing for you? The heroine was frumpy, the hero had a sweater vest(*Cough* SORRY, AMY). So not happening here, at least for me and I'm totally right. If anyone disagrees, I'll be in the corner plugging my ears and singing How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? at the top of my lungs.
4. Heroine's got the right hair color. (I know it's not really that important but this little detail makes me happy!)
5. Hero's got the right hair color. (Same reason as above, but I love the Tall, Dark and Handsome and add it to the list of YAY!)
   
6. Who's the scruffy puppy! Okay, so this hottie has no beard and his hair isn't touching his collar, but he's got the sexy scruff. Who's a scruffy puppy? You are! Oh yes you are!
7. Hello sexy! Granted, it isn't quite as smoking hot as Amy Andrew's recent medical(which, by the way, is an awesome read and the reason I don't feel bad about mentioning the sweater vest debacle). I could not ask for more. *dreamysigh*
8. It's got my name. This is very important. Might actually be #1 on the list, but I didn't want to seem like I was all egotistical so I strategically located this bit at #8 and then made the text massive so no one misses it. Dash cunning? Or contradictorily subtle?
9. I get to squeal and run amok two more times before October because... there will be North American and Australian covers! 
10. Comparing to future cover-siblings. In the future, when other covers fail to make me so gleeful, I can chastise them and tell them they should try to do better like my ELDEST child(cover) did. 

Okay, I'm done running amok now. Only I can't decide whether to make the picture larger, or change my background to it, or maybe bathe it in soft light and infect my blog with some mood music. Nothing screams sexy or puts you in the mood for love more than banjo music, right?

Guest post: Author Ju Dimello

Note from AB:  Ju's been a writing pal for a couple years now, so I'm tickled to help her celebrate her release blog tour. And since it's Sunday, and not A to Z day, this post brought to you by the letters J and D and Cake and Yummy-shirtless-men. What? Those are letters where I come from.

.~*``*~...~*``*~...~*` Ju Dimello `*~...~*``*~...~*``*~.

Thanks so much, Amalie, for hosting me in your blog to celebrate my debut release!

My characters like to cook...Maybe it's because I have a love-hate relationship with cooking, or it could be the fact that I need a lot of comfort food to get me into the writing mood or it could just be that I can try whatever dishes I'm in the mood for through my characters. Whatever the reason is, I wish I could say that incorporating food into my stories is much easier than me preparing them! The sad truth is, it’s often not. :sigh:

In Fiery Icicle, my debut release (Look at my cover pretty), the heroine is a witch. To make it interesting, I put in a point that she doesn't eat eggs. Well, I didn't realize the amount of research time I might need, where I ended up searching for recipes that doesn't contain eggs and in making sure the heroes (yep!) take double care in that aspect :)  

Why am I doing this? I think there's a lot one can find about characters from the way they eat or show they care through food. At the very least, I feel so nice when my DH (Dear Husband) steps in to cook for no reason at all...and there're times we substitute eating in instead of going out to celebrate and it's fun to cook together. Of course, the kitchen looks a lot messier that day but well, it gives me a chance to get worked up and start on a whirlwind of cleaning (which btw, is my usual style). LOL! 

How about you? Do you love to cook, hate it? Or in between - where you do it because it has to be done? Let me know in the comments.

I have one copy of Fiery Icicle to giveaway during the blog tour and every comment during this week will count towards it. I’ll pick a winner around the 15^th of April and contact them! Don’t forget to leave your email id.

Blurb and Excerpt:

I thought I’d share a short version of the blurb and excerpt here, while a longer one can be enjoyed at : http://www.jasminejade.com/p-10002-fiery-icicle.aspx

This story contains a half-fae intent on claiming his woman, a half-demon bent on resisting her and a passion that's hot enough to melt the alpine snow

Excerpt:

She placed a plate with an omelet topped with peppers and tomato in front of him, while another one simmered on the stovetop. She obviously remembered the part about double the serving. Toast accompanied by homemade muffins followed before she poured generous glasses of orange juice for both.

Following up her promise, she brought out a tub of butter and a bottle of strawberry jam. She didn’t eat eggs and his skeptical glance at the tempting omelet didn’t go unnoticed.

“Cooking helped me focus on something besides school and wanting to run away. Mom never bothered with anything except her ranting. I prepared the meals every day, leaving them on the table for her.”

He cleared his throat to distract her. “You mean to say I can dig in without fear?”

If you liked the teaser, you can also check where I’ll be during this week at: http://judimello.blogspot.ca/p/fiery-icicle-release-week-celebration.html

You can also find me at the following places.

Website : www.judimello.com

Blog: http://judimello.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/judimello

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Romance-Author-Ju-Dimello/111756422240536

More about Fiery Icicle: http://www.jasminejade.com/p-10002-fiery-icicle.aspx

Drop me a line..I’d love to hear from you!

`*~...~*``*~...~*``*~. Ju Dimello .~*``*~...~*``*~...~*`

Medical Romance Book Review: One Month to Become a Mum

... Is the most excellent debut from Louisa George.

I don't even know where to start with this review. It's not often that I write them, and even less frequently do I write reviews for fiction.

I could say I loved it(I did), and gush about how the characters were drawn so sharply I couldn't fail to love them(Yep, that's true.). I could say I had to put it down in the middle when duties dragged me away, and I couldn't wait to get back(Also true), or that the emotional wounds were so deep I could almost smell the blood(I connected with the characters, does it show?).
 
I don't often gush over books with children with them. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, but I don't have any and sometimes the stories with secret babies and pregnancies are harder for me to identify with and I'll skip over baby stories for their non-baby counterparts. Had I not won the book, I may have not read this one(and probably wouldn't have because it's not on sale in the U.S. for some reason). That would have been my loss.

If I'm trying to figure out something on my own, I think I'm something of a slow learner. If you explain a new concept and give me examples, I'm quick to catch on. If you give me two very similar things and ask me what's different about them, the chances that I'll highlight the important differences are slim. What is logical to one person is not logical to me, and that's always how it's been.

I said that to say this: Louisa's writing made me realize what is missing in my own writing with such clarity I can only call it an epiphany. I'll look forward to her next release, with or without a baby.

Speaking of Medicals...

Another debut Medical author, Louisa George, is sharing her call story and giving away her debut over at the Pink Heart Society.

North American Medical Romance releases are a month behind, and this is a March release overseas, so no link to Harlequin, but Book Depository does ship everywhere for free once the book's available!