Monday, June 29, 2009

Book BIN Tuesday -- Knight of Desire


FEARLESS IN BATTLE
His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn.
TENDER IN BED
Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she’s keeping secrets and dares not give him her heart. As passion ignites and danger closes in, Catherine and William must learn to trust in each other to save their marriage, their land, and their very lives.
***
Not just a new book, but a debut book, by a fabulous new author! Margaret Mallory and I are in the same RWA chapter, and I've been just thrilled watching her career take flight. The book has been getting a lot of buzz, and I couldn't be happier for her.
It's out now, and I encourage everyone to do what I'm going to do this week -- pop down to the bookstore and Buy It Now! (I'll have the added benefit of having it signed by the author, at her booksigning Wednesday at the Olympia WA Borders. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by!)
And one lucky winner will be selected from all comments this week to win a signed copy of the book. Just post a comment sometime between now and Friday, and you could win!

Friday, June 26, 2009

I *Heart* Libraries

I've always been a library person. The weekly trip to the library to check out a new stack of books was one of my favorite activities as a kid, and things haven't changed much since then. I still hit the local libary on a regular basis, and leave with a pile of books each time. Except now, I can add my kids' choices to my own. It adds up to a heck of a lot of reading material.


And that's fine by me. I'm a very fast reader - so fast, in fact, that if I didn't have a library habit, I'd spend the majority of my paycheck on books. I prefer using the library to used bookstores because I know that my checking-out habits encourage the powers that be to order more romance books for the system, which results in more royalties to authors. I also request books and authors all the time -- sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but it's always worth a try.

So I was thrilled to discover that my local library system had ordered my newest print title, Lessons Learned, for circulation. When it first came out, I'd considered donating a copy, but the librarian told me it would just be put in the Friends of the Library sale because of the cost of entering it in the system. And since it's small press, I thought the chances of seeing it on the shelves was slim to none.

I was wrong.

Somehow, somewhere, Lessons Learned ended up on their radar, and there are now four copies in circulation. And that thrilled me as much as getting my first author copies did.

I'm in the library. And dang, it feels good!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Happy Loving Day!


June 12, 1967, was a significant day in the United States. That's the day the Supreme Court decided in favor of Richard and Mildred Loving in the case brought against them by the state of Virginia.


Their "crime"? Living together in Virginia AFTER being married in Washington DC. Why was it a crime? Because they were an interracial couple, and that was illegal in the state of Virginia at the time. In fact, it was still illegal in 16 states in the union in 1967.


(Sidenote: Good lord! That's only two years before I was born. There were still states with anti-miscegenation laws on the books then?)


But on this day in 1967, the Supreme Court struck down the state laws against interracial marriage. And today, the 12th of June is designated Loving Day, in support of multicultural families, and to celebrate the couple whose struggle helped grant Americans the right to marry whomever they want, regardless of race or ethnicity.


We still have a ways to go, but it was a giant step forward, and I wanted to say thanks to the Lovings, who have to be the most appropriately-named defendants in a Supreme Court decision, ever.


(And in any case, a romantic like me couldn't pass up a chance to celebrate something called Loving Day.)

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Book BIN Tuesday -- M or F?


A couple of weeks ago I attended an SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference. Part of my reason for attending was to earn credit toward my continuing teaching certification, and part was the YA fantasy romance book that's been kicking around in my head for a few years.


Anyway, one of the featured authors was Lisa Papademetriou, a middle grades/YA writer. There was a bookstore table outside the main meeting rooms, and I found myself gravitating to one of her books in particular.


I read it a couple of days ago and I'm so glad I did! It's actually a team-written book, with Chris Tebbets, and the two of them did a fabulous job creating a fun, frothy, sweetly emotional book about navigating the treacherous waters of high school romance.


Did I mention that one of the main characters is gay? Yeah, add even more turbulence to those waters. But it's not a coming out story. Marcus is already (mostly) out of the closet, and his friends and family accept him for who he is. No, that's not the issue.


The problem is, he's developing a crush on the boy his best (female) friend wants to date. And he's starting to think Jeffrey likes him, too.


Add in alternating first person chapters, where we see events from both Marcus's and Frannie's perspectives, fun secondary characters, and a humorous twist on Cyrano de Bergerac featuring an online chat room, and you've got a recipe for a fun, happy book.


I keep saying fun, don't I? Sorry, but it really is the best word to describe this book. I highly recommend it. So why not head on over to to the nearest bookstore and Buy It Now?

Monday, June 01, 2009

A Message From Samhain

Passing along some information from Samhain Senior Editor Angela James:

Samhain is open to submissions.

In the most recent issue of the RWA’s Pro newsletter (Prospects) it was reported that Samhain is closed to submissions. We’re unsure where the erroneous information came from, but we are not closed to submissions and have no plans to be. We continue to accept submissions in all genres of romance, as well as science fiction/fantasy/urban fantasy all with romantic elements. Submissions guidelines can be found http://samhainpublishing.com/submissions. All questions and submissions can be directed to editor@samhainpublishing.com .

So there you go! The scoop, right from the source.