Could give us a bit of information about yourself and your book?

Before becoming a romance author I was a documentary producer and director (including the Powers of the Universe and Your Water, Your Life) and had an NPR radio show called New Voices. I also ran campaigns to improve the lives of wild animals and their habitats. But my first love has always been story. I think we humans live and thrive by the power of our stories. It made perfect sense to me that romance powers the stories that captivate the heart and transform us.

But I have to admit that I didn’t set out to write a book about Jane Austen. Moments after sending my first book off to my editor, I got waylaid by an angel. Yup, an angel. And not just any angel, but the archangel who had fallen in love with Jane Austen. And heaven’s bad boy wouldn’t let go until his love story was told. And so, Jane Austen and the Archangel came to life. The tagline is “Every Life deserves one great love…” I think Jane fans will find it to be an intriguing and uplifting story.

What do you love about being a writer?  What do you hate?

I love that I can entertain and transport readers, give them a boost in their lives with the power of story. And I love everything about creating stories, especially when the characters come alive.

I hate that I’m not a fast writer. I have so many stories that want to come out, but that old rascal we call ‘time’ always wants to be paid its due.

What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I’m married to a former Major League Baseball Player who now runs The Center for the Story of the Universe—and, after many years of study, am firmly convinced that the irresistible power of allurement pulses at the very heart of the universe.

What about of one of your character?

Michael Grace, the archangel who falls in love with Jane Austen, and his sidekick, Lord Gabriel, put a fun and charming spin on angels. They bring a dimension to the angelic that includes humor and uncertainty, and a very sexy charm.

If you could do anything, what would you do?

I’d wave a wand and be able to discern what the plants in my garden really need and want! Some days, when I’m writing or revising, I look out at the garden and think,” Oh I should be out there.”  But thank goodness they are forgiving.

What is the best advice you ever got (doesn’t have to be writing related)?

Two things.

The first is “Peace is every step.” To me it means being present to life in every moment, realizing that this very moment is a miracle and remembering to be the best person I know how in each moment. Take a breath, a long, slow breath and remember to touch in with the bigger context and relax.

The other is very practical: Try to drink 3 cups of Green tea every day. Recent research has shown it is more powerful as an immune system booster than any drug could ever be.  I’m going to share more about this in August on my blog and quote some of the studies. I want our readers to thrive—and writers, too!

One last question, what’s your all- time favorite book and why?

I’m going to give my favorite non-fiction book because if I stated my fave novel, it would have to be Pride and Prejudice, and your readers know all about it already.

My favorite non-fiction book is Thomas Berry’s Dream of the Earth. It gave me hope that we will be able to create a future that is mutually enhancing for people and the planet and all of its creatures. Hope is a wonderful fuel. It’s one reason that I think romance novels are so very important right now. Great romance novels give us hope, provide a break from the exhausting demands on our psyches, provide a place of delighted engagement, and, very often, they shine a light on the path of life that we may not have seen before. It’s not all on the page; so much of what is powerful about our stories is in the chemistry between author and reader. That’s magic.

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Excerpt :

 Jane Austen and the Archangel

Chapter One

May 1813
Chawton Cottage, Hampshire England

A letter carrier, Michael mused as he dodged the thorns of a rosebush and headed down the path to the cottage. Perhaps he was lucky—his situation could’ve been dreadful. Instead of cooling his heels in a sleepy English village, he could’ve been sent to purgatory or . . . well, he didn’t want to imagine anything harsher than that. Besides, who was he to question the Almighty?

Searching through the leather pouch he’d slung over one shoulder, he felt a warm-hearted camaraderie with letter carriers—they bore messages that affected destinies. He knew plenty about that.

Still, the assignment would’ve been less provoking if he didn’t know the contents of all the letters he delivered.

Or didn’t care.

But he was an angel, after all. Caring came with the position. And extra responsibilities came with the rank. Archangel. Heavenly messenger. Master commander and all that.

Still, it irked him that he’d had no word. He burned to get on with the English War Office mission he’d been sent to command, chafed for some action. Boredom was wearing him down, and wasting precious time delivering letters made no sense. Two months had passed since the last dispatch, and this was the third village he’d been hanging about.

With an exasperated huff, he kicked an errant stone off the pathway. Making him wait was likely a further punishment. But penitence was not his strong suit, never had been. And it had been such a minor angelic indiscretion—just a brief, unauthorized visit to the future to set things right. Certainly not worth such a fuss.

But he’d been caught.

Hadn’t his sometime friend, Gabriel, always said that the main thing was not to get caught? But well-intentioned exceptions to protocol weren’t covered in angelic rulebooks.

His order for the mission would likely come unannounced, just as it had last time. He shook his head, wishing he could just as easily shake off that memory. He didn’t want to think about last time. The venture had gotten out of hand, hadn’t gone as planned. It still astonished him that people could be such fools. But so could angels, for that matter.

He’d just have to deal.

With a determined flick of his hand, he straightened his cap and walked up the weathered stone path. He liked this cottage. More than that, he liked Jane, the woman who lived there. But she wasn’t happy. In the past few days he’d seen the lines of worry etching deeper into her face.

He caught a glimpse of her through the window, sealing yet another letter to her distraught friend, Lady Serena. Jane was always putting herself out to help her friends. But right now, she was the one who needed help.

It should have been a year for celebration—her books had been published and had sold to widespread acclaim.

But Jane didn’t celebrate.

Though the books had met with success, her funds were still stretched thin. She supported her mother and sister, with little help from her brothers. Those worries he understood. But Chawton Cottage was a peaceful home, suitable for the pursuit of the perfect story. Yet she wasn’t writing, at least not more than letters. She hadn’t written a worthwhile paragraph in months.

All this he knew because of her letters. In fact, he could know the content of every word written in the human realm if he chose to look. That ability was one of his gifts. And sometimes one of his curses.

But no matter how her troubles piled up, Jane wouldn’t ask for help.

Why was it that people never learned to ask? Didn’t they know that spiritual etiquette simply required a request? But they never asked. At least the ones who most needed heavenly assistance didn’t.

He smiled to himself. He could teach Jane how to ask—surely that was allowed.

He mulled over what her letters had revealed. Not only was she worrying over her finances and not writing, her dearest friend, Lady Serena, was in love with a man who hadn’t come back from the war. So many hadn’t. After two years, everyone had given up hope—everyone except Serena. And Jane was Serena’s only ally in resisting her ambitious family’s pressure for her to marry well and move on.

A bit of masterful angel sleuthing had revealed that Lady Serena’s beloved, Lord Darcy Hathloss, had been injured in the Battle of Salamanca. His head injury had resulted in total amnesia and he was marooned in Spain—in Alba de Tormes, to be precise. Though the young man’s father had traveled to Salamanca and scoured the villages near the battle site, the last known location for his son, he couldn’t have known that a farmer and his wife had found Hathloss wandering and delirious. They’d taken him to their home in a nearby village, out of range of the search. Since Hathloss’s head injury had erased all memory of his former life and all command of language, the rescuing family had no way to know he was an English soldier and no way to discover where he lived. It was a miracle he’d survived at all.

Clearly something would have to be done if this love story were to have a happy ending. And though it caused him to be the brunt of exaggerated jesting among the angels—jesting done behind his back and never to his face—Michael liked a happy ending.

He considered the plan he’d hatched that morning. There was one annoying hitch—he’d been told not to leave England until his current mission was completed. The order couldn’t have been clearer. If his plan to rescue Darcy Hathloss, restore the man’s memory and get him back to Hampshire were to succeed, he’d have to get help. And since the rest of his team had managed to finish up their assignments and return to the fold, that left only Gabriel. God only knew where he was. Well, God did know, but right now Michael wasn’t in good enough favor to ask.

So he’d have to find Gabriel on his own.

For an angel, Gabriel was a bit of an ass. Arse, Michael reminded himself. Then he shook his head. He’d have to watch his language—Lack of reverence was another flaw that had landed him in this fix in the first place. He’d just have to swallow his pride, find Gabriel and ask him to help. Gabriel’s powers in the earthly realm were more extensive than even Michael’s. Gabriel could get the man back to England, and Michael could carry on with his plan.

He whistled as he neared the door of the cottage, a short snatch of a tune he’d heard centuries before, a bit of a love song written by a troubadour. He liked having a project; it cheered him up. And it suited him—keeping busy helped to pass the centuries.

And he liked his plan.

He hadn’t worked out all the details—details were pesky irritations. Sure, messing with the man’s destiny could cost him a few more years of exile, but what were a few years to an angel? And intervening would be just a bit of an angelic fudge—if it did the trick, what harm could there be? Darcy and Serena would get together and true love would win the day. How could the Almighty be angry about such a blissful outcome?

And then, maybe then, Jane would be happy.

A smile curved across Michael’s face as he reached the weather-beaten door. He wanted Jane to be happy, wanted her happiness in a way that he’d seldom desired anything for himself. And—he tried to stop smiling but couldn’t—he wanted to be the one to ensure that happiness.

He knocked at the door and heard a quick shuffling of papers followed by the sound of Jane’s steps across the floor. The heavy door creaked open. He couldn’t help but notice that her cheeks were flushed, her eyes guarded, as if she’d nearly been caught at some naughty game. Little did she know that he was well aware of what she wrote at her desk, of how she covered her work to conceal her activity from servants and visitors. But since her brother Henry had bragged of her accomplishments as an author, Jane’s secret was leaking out and secrecy was hardly a behavior she still had to maintain. Yet her modesty was endearing. He liked her better for it.

She looked up at him and he saw more than worry lurking in her eyes. He saw fear. It surprised him, and little did these days. But it wasn’t fear of him, though had she known him better, it might have been. No, what he saw was deeper and more haunting. Something primal. Something that gnawed at her soul.

“Letter for you, Miss Austen,” he said, trying for a nonchalant tone.

“Thank you,” she said as she took the letter. “By the way, where’s the letter carrier who delivered here last month?”

Few people noticed those who served them, but Jane noticed everything, except when it came to herself. He smiled. “I’m taking the place of your usual carrier.”

She laughed. “There haven’t been any usual carriers since I’ve lived here.”

That was true—Michael was the third carrier this year. And God knew Damien and Alastair hadn’t been hugely adept. But they’d followed the rules and made their way back to the heavenly realms. It should’ve been a straightforward assignment for him as well. But as Jane smiled up at him, he had the very uncomfortable feeling—a zinging prickle of warning—that this might not be straightforward after all.

“I’m Michael,” he said, tipping his cap.

Surprise registered in her eyes. “And your surname, sir?”

Right, he thought. She didn’t know him well enough to be on a first name basis, and even if she did, it wasn’t proper to his station. Egad, all these English practices and sensibilities. Even more complicated than holy protocols. It was enough to make him yearn for the tumultuous era of the crusades. He’d better come up with a surname. Fast.

“Umm . . . ” He thought for a moment. “Grace. Michael Grace.” She wouldn’t know it didn’t truly fit.

“Thank you, Mr. Grace.” She turned the letter in her hand and read Serena’s vibrant script that dashed across the front. It wasn’t franked.

“Just a moment.” She turned to open a small wooden box on a shelf and took two coins from it.

Before he could move, she reached to place the coins in his hand and her fingers passed right through his hand. The coins clattered to the floor.

Maybe she hadn’t noticed. He hoped she hadn’t noticed. He’d forgotten to put his gloves on. With an inward groan, he reached into his pocket for his gloves, donned them and bent down to retrieve the dropped coins. She hadn’t moved.

“It’s a lovely day,” he said, dissembling, hoping to distract her. But as he knew, little escaped her keen notice.

And apparently little to do with her escaped his awareness.

Just that brief swoosh of her essence through his had made his heart pound, had shocked feelings through him he’d never felt before. Not good.

But the sensations that rippled through him felt good. Too good. And that was not good.

Without making eye contact, he turned and walked to the street, not looking back.

###

 Jane stood at the doorway, staring after the letter carrier. Wasn’t it enough that she couldn’t write three meaningful words in succession, couldn’t develop a personality for the heroine or a plot for her story.

Now her mind had to play tricks on her as well. She could’ve sworn that her fingers passed right through Mr. Grace’s palm. And, even stranger, the most blissful feeling she’d ever experienced had washed through her at precisely the same moment, feeling like a blessing, sounding like a song. Surely she’d only imagined the soul-sweet singing, the power and splendor of a heavenly chorus. But more astonishing than the music and unearthly voices was the thrumming of her heart.

Pressing her hand against her chest she watched the man stride to the street. His dull uniform did nothing to hide the muscled grace of his movements. Grace. A fitting name for a man who moved as he did. Was she simply adding to the flight of fancy when she remembered the smoldering amber glow shimmering from his eyes?

 I need to keep those sorts of dramas on the page. But that’s what was wrong, wasn’t it? Too much drama all around her and too little on the page. None on the page, she reminded herself, not a word. That wasn’t like her.

I write contemporary and fantasy romance, and I’ve always loved writing and making up stories, beginning back when I used to act out epic fantasy tales with my dolls. (My Barbies had swords and knew how to use them.) I even have a degree in Literature, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I wrote my first full rough draft of romance novel and began gathering up my nerve to pursue publication. I fell in love with writing romance and have focused on that ever since. I’m also a teacher, and I enjoy encouraging young readers and writers as they discover their growing abilities. My class cheers when it’s time for their spelling test! When not writing, teaching or reading, I dabble with bread baking and painting, and try to keep up on weeding the garden beds. I live in New Jersey with my wonderfully patient husband and our three extremely spoiled cats.

Clear As Day is my debut novel, a spicy contemporary romance from The Wild Rose Press about two friends with benefits facing the fears and uncertainties of their changing relationship and is set against the background of the summer heat and cool waters of Lake Mohave. I loved writing Clear As Day, it’s been a story of my heart in many ways, so seeing this story published and receive the 4 1/2 star scorcher review from Romantic Times truly has been a thrill. Being able to hold my book in my hands is a dream come true and I hope you enjoy Nate and Kay’s journey as much as I have.

What inspired the idea for this story?

When I was young, my family took camping trips every summer to Lake Havasu or Lake Mohave and I loved those scenic desert places. Lake Mohave is a reservoir downstream from the Hoover Dam formed out of stretch of the Colorado River by the Davis Dam. Later, when I was in college, remembering those trips, I wrote a short story as an exercise featuring that setting, and that little story was born that would eventually grow into Clear As Day. I loved the juxtaposition of the stark, hot landscape with the cool waters and wanted to play with that particular setting.

While writing this story, did you come across a weird piece of trivia while researching?

Lake Mohave is 67 miles long, but only 4 miles wide at its widest point. The water temperature can be in the low 50’s at the upper end of the lake by the Hoover Dam and as the water opens up into the main lake area some 45 miles south it begins to warm up, and in the summer gets into the 80′s at the surface.

What do you love about being a writer?  What do you hate?

I enjoy the surprises of storytelling. I enjoy seeing a story grow out of a little idea, plots twist and turn, expand and shift, how one story can spawn into a series, and how the characters grow and reveal their lives and find their happily ever after.

I don’t hate anything about being a writer, but I admit some days the pressures involved in promotion can sure take some gloss off the joy of being published.

What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?

I’ve performed in a marching band at Disneyland once. That was great fun.

What is the best advice you ever got (doesn’t have to be writing related)?

Nora Roberts has said, “You can’t edit a blank page.” This really sums up the best advice I’ve received on writing. Just get those words out and on the page and don’t worry until you’re done. You can fix them later.

One last question, what’s your all- time favourite book and why?

It’s a hard to choose an all-time favorite, but J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings made a great impression on me when I was young. Now I have too many keepers and current favorites to choose just one. I love reading books by Toni Blake, Inez Kelley, and Carolyn Brown, among many others.

Thanks to Babette for joining us here at Author Rescue!

Thanks so much for letting me visit!

Excerpt :

She trailed her fingers over his collection of pebbles on the table, polished by sand, wind and water. Be happy. Be happy. How could she feel so happy and terrified at the same time? You’d think one would cancel out the other.

She would be happy. They would talk. She would sort out her mind.

Don’t worry, be happy.

She slipped on her leather sandals and picked up her sunhat, sunglasses and beach bag. “All set.”

As Kay and Olivia arrived at Spider Camp, Nate was talking and taking casual shots of Dave sitting on his boat. Dave waved. Nate stopped talking the moment she came into sight, his attention fixed on her in a way that rushed heat through her and kicked a happy tumble in her heart.

He waved. “Hey, babe!” He raked his gaze over her. “Stop right there.” He raised his camera and made swift adjustments. “Okay, move.” Rapid shutter clicks followed his order. “Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Slower. Perfect.”

He met her halfway and kissed her hot and hard. “I was about to track you down. You look great.”

“And you look happy.”

“Life is good.” He gave her another quick kiss. “I took some awesome shots today.”

Be happy. Kay smiled. She just needed to practice. Starting now. “Want a beer then to celebrate?”

“Sounds great.” Nate slid an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear, “Damn, I love this suit on you. Why does it always make me want to peel you out of it?” He caressed his hand down over her bottom, holding her close. He softly nipped her earlobe. “Between this one and that yellow-dot one, I am one happy man.”

Desire twisted and heated through her. Wanting him was so easy. That, at least, she never doubted.

“Let’s go swimming, so I can play. Hmm?” he murmured, with more little nips. “Please?”

Go on, practice being happy. Go swimming. Play. Relax. Enjoy. Love.

What was so hard about all that?

Nothing.

Kay tugged the knot of her pareu free and tucked the wrap into his hand. “Okay.” She pulled away from him and strolled off, slipping off her shirt and tossing it, her sunglasses and hat on a chair as she passed, kicking off her sandals as she reached the damp sand.

Running feet pounded up behind her, and Nate scooped her up in his strong arms. He charged laughing with her into the water and threw them both in, the cool shocking splash against her sun-heated skin driving a giggling shriek from her.

Laughter and friendly catcalls rang behind them from their friends.

Nate tugged her to her feet, his body hard and warm against hers. He shook the water from his hair. A big smile, alive with affection and delight, lighted his face. Mischief danced in his eyes. “Come on, follow me.” He swam with lazy strokes toward the moored boats and flipped around, floating on his back, waiting. When she followed, he kicked farther on, putting Lloyd’s and Dave’s boats between him and the shore. She caught up with him. The water here was breast deep. He snagged her wrist and drew her close.

1. Know why you want to blog and who your audience is. When you know this, then you can better tailor what you’re writing. Are you trying to reach out to other writers like you? Or to your readers? What is the reason for you to blog? When you figure this out, you can decide whether you want to be a niche blog or not. Both have positives and cons:

Pros for having a niche blog:

-readers know exactly what you’re all about and what to expect
-you have a focus, a direction

Cons:

-can run out of topics. You can feel “locked in”
-if what you write doesn’t interest your readers, you can be limiting those who come to your site

2. Like what you’re writing about. This is very simple. If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing about then you’re going to be least likely to continue.

3. Have an interesting twist on what you’re writing. What makes you different from all the other blogs out there? What are your opinions? Why should your readers read YOUR site?

4. Have a pleasing site to look at, nothing too bulky (i.e. sidebars that extend past the page). This also goes to no white font on a black background. This shouldn’t have to be said but, I still see it: no music.

5. Your title should tell your reader what the post is going to be about. You don’t need to be creative or cryptic. It should be plain and simple. In other words, you should use keyword rich headlines.

6. You should be posting new stuff constantly.  Be on a schedule.  If your readers never know when you’re going to blog, then they won’t come back often. Not just that, Google sends out spider bots and if it doesn’t pick up a post, it may take weeks or longer before it comes back to your site. The more you post, the better SEO you’ll have. Better SEO= better visibility.

7. Write an optimized first paragraph using the same keywords you used in your post headline.

8. When writing, keep paragraphs short. They should be one or two sentences at most, and then break for a new paragraph. White space is your friend. This is especially true for those readers who go to your blog on their iphone or ipods, etc.

9. Use bullet points and lists as often as possible. This makes it easier not only to read but to remember.

10. Know that it takes time. If you’re not willing to put the hard and persistent effort into building an audience over a prolonged period of time, your best bet might be to look at guest writing opportunities on existing blogs, or websites.

There’s a tool that can help you with that. Google Analytics is free, but powerful. Not only will you know how many people are visiting your site, but also what keywords are being used. If you’re new to Google Analytics, it can be a bit confusing so I thought I’d create a walkthrough on how to set it up.

1. Set up your Google Analytics account. You’ll need this code for your website. When you get the code, you paste it into your page or template. If you’re intimidated by adding the code yourself, WordPress has a plugin you can use that will do it for you. If you click on the advanced settings you have more options. You can track pageviews per tag/category and if your old posts are still getting views. It may take some time for analytics to receive the information from your site.
2. If you’re not still logged into your Google Analytics profile, do this now. You should have the new version (you’ll know if it says you can still use the old version as default). To get to the page you want, you need to clikck on the Standard Reporting tab. This is where you’ll find all the information. Become familiar with your left sidebar.

AUDIENCE

Overview- You’ll find here how many people have come to your site, the # of page views, unique views, etc within the stated period of time.

Demographics- Under demographics, you can find out where your audience is coming from and the breakdown of info. The most useful item here will be custom variables. This is where you’ll be able to see what people are looking at. What interests them based on page views.

Behaviour- Are most of the people who visit new or are they followers? Here you’ll find the percentage for both, as well as the frequency of visits and how long they stay on your site.

Browser- What browsers are people finding you on? Knowing this breakdown is important because do you know where you fall on the SEO scale over there? Are you on the first page or the second? Sites often look different on various browsers. Do you know what yours looks like? Use this nifty site to see how your homepage looks, paying particular attention to the sites where you know your audience is coming from.

Mobile- Are people looking you up on their phones and ipods? You should know this and how your site looks on them.

TRAFFIC SOURCES

Overview- Where are your sources coming from? Are they finding you through a search engine? Through a referral site? You can find here what keywords people are typing in to find you and the referral sites.

Sources- Under here you can find where your traffic is coming from and what page they’re landing on.

CONTENT

This is an important area to pay attention to because it will tell you what pages people are looking at the most. You can also find where people are landing on your site and where they are exiting.

By knowing your audience, you can better set up your SEO and figure out new ways to get and keep your visitors on your site as long as possible.

Do you use Google Analytics? What do you like or not like about it?

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN A YEAR AGO:
The number one thing I wish I’d known a year ago is what a blessing e-books and self-publishing really are. I had heard about the Amazon kindle store but kept plugging away, selling my hard copy books at events and shows, staying out for several hours at a time and sometimes not getting home until one o’clock in the morning. Then a writer friend told me about how well she was doing selling her books in e-book format. I didn’t give it a try until September of last year but once I did I never looked back. No more long days at events and long nights promoting my books. Now I can do all my promotion from the comfort of my home. No production cost (outside of the minimal cost of a book cover), no shipping cost, no storage cost and no more lugging heavy boxes of books from show to show. Thank God for the e-book revolution!

Another thing I wish I’d known was how to write for the e-book market. Having written books for the traditional paper book market I thought simply converting those novels to e-books would have done the trick. Not so. I soon found out that the majority of readers of e-books, particularly those I encountered in the Amazon kindle store, wanted books that were shorter and faster paced. They wanted to be thrown directly into the action. The less time spent on set up or back story, the better. Since purchasing a kindle my own reading style has changed, where short and sweet are well received and the lengthier novels sit in my book list and I hardly ever get around to reading them. I’ve since adjusted my writing style and go for suspenseful quickies over longer tomes.

Finally, I wish I’d known how best to promote my e-books on Amazon.com. I’ve spent hundreds on paid ads, many with little impact on sales. Then I tried something different, something free – I gave the books away in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Program. Over thirty thousand people downloaded ‘Hot Summer’ over a 2-day period and after that my sales took off. The next day my novel hit the # 4 position on the contemporary romance chart and # 47 in the entire Kindle store. Nothing has enhanced visibility for ‘Hot Summer’ like giving it away for free.

So, in summary, my key learnings within the past year are:
- If you haven’t yet joined the e-book revolution, get on board now.
- If you’re writing for the e-book market make sure the story grabs the reader from the beginning. Make it fast paced and not so long that it is tiring.
- Be sure to include freebies in your marketing plan.

I hope I’ve given you information that you can use to make your own writing journey a success. And if you’d like to unwind with a romance novel and a glass of wine you can have a peek at Hot Summer. Here’s what it’s about:
A hot-tempered spitfire and a sexy, arrogant man – put them together and sparks fly!

After her first embarrassing encounter Summer Jones vows to stay away from suave record producer, Lance Munroe. But then she ends up working for the man. Her quick temper and sharp tongue keep landing her in hot water with him but no matter how hard she tries she can’t deny her growing attraction for him. Then they go on a business trip to Jamaica – and her world is turned upside down.

Lance is intrigued by the feisty woman who practically tells him off the first time they meet. When they begin working together he realizes how much he enjoys the challenge of taming the little tigress. But, before he knows it, he’s the one caught in the snare of passion. The tables are turned – the tigress has tamed the lion.

If you love the sizzle of a romance between two strong-willed individuals, follow Summer and Lance from Chicago to Jamaica and be swept away in the thrill of their hot summer.

Check out Hot Summer on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Summer-ebook/dp/B005OTKXKO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1331866446&sr=1-1

To the readers of authorrescue.com/blog/ have a great day and ‘Happy reading!”

How will they find you if they aren’t looking for you? By searching keywords into their browser, whether it’s Google or whatever. But first, you need to get associated in the page rankings with those words. What words? Words that aren’t your penname or book title (if someone’s Googling your penname, then they already know of you and they aren’t the people you’re targeting right now). Choose words that describe your book. Think like your target audience. What could they type in for looking for a certain kind of story?

What describes your writing or books?  Take some time and write out a list.

Now that you have a list, what next?

1. As much as possible, whenever you do a guest blog or interview you should use those keywords. Whenever you do, you should link back to your site (or book), thus helping to associate yourself with them. You want those links directing people to you. The more places you link back to you, the more effective you’ll be.
2. Use the keywords on your website (especially in the first paragraph of the content). Even if without links, Google will pick it up. Don’t overdo this, however, or duplicate content.
3. Page titles shouldn’t be generic. Try to make them relevant to your book.
4. Categories. When you blog or create a page, what categories are you tagging? You should have some of the words from your list.
5. While we’re all told we should have an url based on your penname, having one with a word or so from the list can help with your SEO. Everytime someone finds your site based on it, it’s an extra point that helps elevate your SEO. So what can you do? Having an alternative url direct to your site could be useful (i.e. if you write a series, having an url based on it and redirect to your site)
6. Link out. By adding links out to other pages, other sites, you’re extending the reach of your post by providing more content to readers. This can also mean linking to other posts you’ve written that are related.
7. Write good content and don’t stop.

1. Be relatable- Your readers want to know that you’re like them.

2. Be fun. Don’t just talk about your writing credits.  Be interesting and you’ll keep their attention. Quirks or odd talents are some of those little things. At the same time, make sure that what you’re putting in there is relevant.

3. Humor- While it’s not the most important thing, it can keep a reader on the page.

4. Some past history- We don’t need to read all about you but some details about what you studied or had a job in, can add depth to your bio.

5. Voice- voice is one of the main things that can make a bio. Do you get a sense of how the person writes by it? Bios should reflect you as the author. It should brand you. In other words, write to your readers. Always be mindful, especially if you write more than one genre (i.e. erotica and YA).

6. Where can you be found?- social media is big these days. Are you on Twitter and Facebook? This is important to point out.

An author’s bio is an important marketing tool. Make sure that you create more than one in various lengths, just in case. You never know when you might need a longer version or one of a few sentences.

What do you like reading in author bios?

By: Elizabeth Ann West

A big thank you to Caitie Quinn and the rest of the wonderful people behind AuthorRescue for the opportunity to guest post! I just finished my first official year in fiction writing, and when I heard that Caitie needed pinch hitters I jumped at the chance to share my experiences.

You’ve just published, or you’re about to publish, and suddenly the question is “Oh no, what do I do?”

There is a camp of authors that firmly believe in forget marketing, just start writing your next book! That philosophy does work for some authors. Writing can stand on its own, doesn’t mean it always does. I’ve seen just as many authors with two, three, or four books available STILL upset they don’t have an audience. Pssst, you might have to go GET your audience, and that’s where marketing comes in.

Who Are You?

What are your strengths and weaknesses as a marketer? Hard question if you’ve never marketed anything before. Do you read books on writing craft? Of course, we all do. Go out and look for resources and books on marketing. Branch out from just “book marketing” guides. Advertising is advertising. Certain nuts and bolts are integral to every successful campaign: making the ask, a hook, distribution, a call to action, tracking clips/clicks to judge effectiveness, etc. Besides, if you only do what every other author does, your message will be lost in the din. Effective marketing takes creativity, you have it, use it!

When I first published CANCELLED, in September 2011, my marketing strategy morphed into a deer frozen by headlights. Before I published, I kept a log of marketing opportunities so I would remember to query them later. By the time I published, I was broke from editing and cover costs, so most of the paid opportunities were scratched. The non-paid opportunities required criteria like “10 reviews, averaging 4+ stars” or a waiting list that stretched into late 2012. No bueno.

Can’t join ‘em? Make your own magic.

Rather than give up, I made a marketing opportunity. Yes, you can do that.

Did I have a blog with hundreds of followers? Um, no. Did I have thousands of Twitter followers? No, I had about 200. What I DID have was the ability to organize and my HTML wizardry. I created a simple blog to save money even on hosting fees, asked authors to offer a virtual “treat” and created a link list of hidden places that readers could virtually trick or treat! See, my personal followers don’t matter if numerous authors share the link! I offered it to a few reader sites and they were thrilled to have a fun activity for their readers that didn’t require any work on their part.

17 authors signed up for my Trick or Treat for Ebooks. Each author received thousands of clicks on their blog posts offering a Halloween treat. In March I’m running an Ebook Cruise and I have 30 authors signed up from advertising the event one day on three author forums. See? Once you do just one event, one service for your fellow authors and bloggers, you start to make a name for yourself as a team player, someone people WANT to work with. I have ideas for another free author event this summer.

But I Want Name Recognition and Sales NOW!

We hear you, Veruca Salt. All of use who click the “Publish” button dream the fantasy of instant best-seller status. Here’s the lowdown on those authors on the best-seller list: Not ONE of them had best-selling status the first day after their debut novel. Not one. You find one, show me. But I’ve never heard of such a thing. Darcie Chan is sometimes given as an example of immediate success, but in a PubIt Facebook chat in late 2011, she shared that it took months before The Mill River Recluse took off.

I’ve made friends with best-selling indie authors. I’ve rubbed elbows with the instantly recognizable names. Why? Because I participate in forums and comment on their blogs. I started that BEFORE I even finished my manuscript! Every author on that short list will tell you it took months, possibly years, and usually multiple books, to get noticed. And that was in the days before KDP Select and going FREE!

On January 30, 2012, I made my debut novel, CANCELLED, free on Kindle. Because of the friends I made over the last five months, when I said I was going free, an entire army of readers, authors, and bloggers HELPED. People were tweeting my success, I was thanking everyone, expressing my joy as much as I could. It was a great day…one of those days I felt lucky to be a writer and I didn’t make a penny! In 24 hours, a book that had sold a grand total of 80 copies on Amazon since it’s debut in September, had over 8,000 downloads. On a Monday! The following week, I sold 200 copies.

I hand signed 150 ebooks in January as part of a 15 stop blog tour. I was part of a few author group promotions in November and December. My email inbox is ALWAYS open to technical questions, and I answer a few emails on those subjects every week (I write blog posts about technology for authors on my international publisher’s site). Unwittingly, I ramped up to that free promotion.

The moral of the story isn’t that you have to use KDP Select… that is only one marketing tool available to authors and it has trade offs. Please, don’t take from this that KDP Select is all it takes. That’s wrong.

The reality is every few months a new marketing tool opens up. Before KDP Select was talked about everywhere, it was a handful of reader blog ads that had remarkable returns (for a few hundred dollars of an author’s money). You have to find the right marketing avenues for YOUR book. It won’t be the same as mine, because your book is different. You have to consider your genre, your book’s situation with reviews etc, and what you have to pay for marketing (time, money, or another valuable asset such as temporary exclusivity).

Marketing has a snowball effect, and every snowball starts with a single snowflake. Sorry Veruca, there is no golden goose for you until you earn it.

Quality, Not Quantity, of Your Relationships

I mentioned that when I sent out the announcement I was going free, others helped me. No, I didn’t pay anyone to help me, they just did. How do you make that happen? What exactly do we mean when we say quality relationships, not quantity of relationships?

Never spam email reviewers or bloggers. If I query a blog, I am specific in why I think my book is a good fit and include information about the blogger from the About Us page. One blogger had a picture of German Shepherds on her site. I grew up with a half Chow/half German Shepherd dog named Skipper! I let her know my childhood pet had the look of a German Shepherd but the fluffy fur and a pink and black spotted tongue because of his mixed ancestry. If a reviewer is going to take the time to read my book, by golly, I’m going to the time to email him or her individually. About half of the sites I query, I get a response, and most of the time the answer is “Yes.”

Blitzkrieging every blog, forum, and social media outlet available does NOT work if you are in this for a career. That’s right, I’m being blunt. Are there authors who tout they’ve seen record sales from their auto-buy-my-book direct messages and robo-response emails? Yep, and I’ll bet they have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in, too. But check their sales ranking on these books. Where are they? Probably in the #100,000+ like many, many other authors. You can automate a little, I even automate portions of my Tweets. I do NOT automate or mass email any personal request. That’s just tacky.

I’ve been in the online marketing game for 5 years, starting with non-fiction SEO article writing for marketing firms and websites in 2007. Content was king then, it’s the emperor now. Any robot or automaton can send out a canned email to thousands of email addresses. You have to be unique and personal to make it past the spam folder, or bulk folder (a new filter on most email clients funneling emails that go to a bulk list of names to a unique folder). You have to be human for the human on the receiving side of the message to give a damn about you and your needs. If you are labeled a spammer or even worse, a whiner/complainer, no one is going to want to work with you.

Writing may be a solo gig, but there’s no such thing as self(ISH)-publishing.

The Cost

It takes TIME to make quality, professional relationships with other authors, website owners, bloggers, and reviewers. TIME not spent writing. TIME not spent reading. And for me, TIME not spent with my family. How much TIME? Weeks… months. Go slow. Be great at just a few marketing efforts before jumping to other methods.

Beware the over commit, especially as your author name is associated with following through on projects. And if you ever agree to write a blog post, or participate in a group effort, deliver.  Don’t flake out when someone’s counting on you. It’s tough sometimes to follow through, but this one little mantra WILL set you apart from authors just looking for a hand out.

How Do You Know When You’re On the Right Path?

Sales figures will not immediately reflect your marketing work. But until the sales figures pick up, and that might take months of dedicated work, how do you know if you’re making the right kinds of decisions in regards to marketing?

Ask for help.

Ask for guidance/advice on your blurb, your cover, your marketing idea. Ask for guest blogging opportunities. Ask for authors willing to guest post on your blog. Real author friends and bloggers will tell you the truth, that you need to rethink the cover or jump up and offer an opportunity. You hear crickets? Time to stop talking only about your book and start talking to people!

Be the person you would want to work with, give it time, and share your experiences with others. It’s one of the best parts of this new world of publishing. And at the end, no matter what happens, always say thank you as I will right now.

Thank you so much for staying with me until the end. I know this post is long, but I wanted to share real experiences with the advice peddled all around. A large, standing ovation from me to AuthorRescue for offering a great blog resource for new indie authors! It was a privilege to visit.

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Elizabeth Ann West is a Jane-of-all-trades, mistress to none! After writing non-fiction professionally for four years, she made the jump to fiction in 2011 with her debut novel, CANCELLED. A chicklit/romance from the male POV, Elizabeth’s novel challenges the conventions of modern romance. Her next title, STONE, is slated for release in late March for the Nook and April for Kindle. You can reach Elizabeth on her author site, http://eawestwriting.blogspot.com and her reader site http://eawestwriting.com.

I won’t go too in depth with the instructions, as the site I’ve linked to is excellent with detailing the steps but you’ll want to use a 3^rd party tool called Feed43.com.  It will turn your board into a RSS feed. There is some coding involved but Jesse does a great job about walking you through it so that you don’t get lost. Once you have it all set up, you simply have to add the Super-simple Pinterest plugin widget to your WordPress site.  Add your RSS url from the Feed43 site and set the number of pins to show on your site and you’re good to go!

Can you think of other reasons for putting a Pinterest feed on your site?

I make no secret of my love of any type of re-enactment event that calls for costumes. I don’t care if it’s a Civil War battle, the Scottish Highland Games, or a Renaissance fair—there’s just something about a group of people coming together to re-create history (in full dress) that I adore.

It turns out I’m not the only one. I’ve discovered there’s actually quite a bit of crossover between re-enactors and romance readers. We love fantasy, whether in fiction or role playing, and I like to think my book embraces all these things.

 What inspired the idea for this story?

 The idea for Love is a Battlefield came to me after visiting a Highland Games event in my hometown. I thought it would be fun to take a group of quintessentially Scottish traditionalists and pit them against their biggest enemies: the English. But I wanted to do it in modern times and with a modern twist, so I put them up against a Jane Austen club and gave them some land to fight over.

 While writing this story, did you come across a weird piece of trivia while researching?

 I came across several!

My favorite was probably that in England, there are really strict regulations in place if you want to make a sporran (that’s the little pouch the Scottish wear over their kilts) out of a badger. Even though it’s the traditional way to make them, animal preservation groups in England require that you have a license to make, sell, or transport a badger sporran.

Which is funny, because in the United States, badgers are a huge pest. Farmers hate them.

 What do you love about being a writer?  What do you hate?

 I have a favorite quote by Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing. I love having written.”

That pretty much sums up my feelings. Sitting down every day to pound out the words is agony, but looking back on a story once I’ve gained some distance from it is one of the best feelings in the world.

 What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?

 I didn’t really start reading romance novels until college. Oddly enough, I was an English Lit major at the time (this was before anyone even joked about romances being worth collegiate study), and my peers and professors mocked every kind of genre fiction there was. You couldn’t carry around a mass market paperback without fear of public mockery.

It was probably the taboo nature of romances that drew me to them. (Isn’t it always? If not as a pre-teen stealing her aunt’s tattered paperbacks, then as an adult who is supposed to only find value in William Faulkner?)

 What advice would you give someone new who is going to a Renaissance Faire? Or about to participate in a re-enactment?

 Have fun and don’t be afraid to talk to people. Most of the re-enactment groups I’ve seen are made up of people who have known each other for years, and there can be a lot of inside jokes flying around. This can make it intimidating to break in or even just to attend an event.

But re-enactors are some of the nicest people in the world, and they love sharing what they do with new people.

 What is the best advice you ever got (doesn’t have to be writing related)?

It’s really cliché, but I’d have to say it’s “Find something you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I don’t get up and go to work in the morning; I get up and live my life. And except for that whole sweating-over-the-fruits-of-your-labor thing we writers all have going on, it’s pretty fun.

 One last question, what’s your all- time favourite book and why?

 The Count of Monte Cristo, no question. Revenge and swordplay and love and betrayal and one of the most crazily intricate plots ever created?

Oh, yeah. I read this one at least once a year.

 Thanks to Tamara for joining us here at Author Rescue!

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Excerpt :

 Chapter One
Lady Lovelace’s Ball

What the ballroom lacked in authenticity, it more than made up for in effort.

The room was dim, lit by a chandelier that struggled valiantly to appear as though it were made of candles and not the plastic, glass and filaments that so effectively shattered romantic illusions, watt by watt. The music, which was not the string quartet it purported to be, floated up from a CD player someone had the foresight to hide behind a swatch of flowing white gauze. And the attendees of the ball, present in a horrifyingly unbalanced ratio of females to males, were dressed in silks, satins and feathers designed in painstaking detail to recreate the best scenes in a BBC period drama.

“Kate, have you seen that woman over by the piano?” asked an ethereal young woman whose alabaster skin was in keeping with the evening’s tone. Her voice was just right too, the low vibrations sweeping underneath polite murmurs and the sound of the music with fluid grace.

Kate peeked over her shoulder. It was Lady Lovelace, the grand matriarch of their little community, wearing yards of puce satin like she owned the color. No amount of persuasion on Kate’s part had been able to convince the woman that not everything from the Regency era needed to be preserved.

“She’s the one hosting tonight’s ball,” Kate explained. “Why?”

“I think her hair is purple. From here, it looks like a really dark brown, right? Get closer. I swear to God, it’s actually deep purple. Like you get at one of those free beauty schools—or if you let Prince do your hair.”

Kate choked on a laugh. “I don’t think Prince does his own hair.”

She whirled her friend away from Lady Lovelace, searching for something that might captivate her interest for a few more minutes. From the way she kept wandering around, poking her fingers into the custard tarts and looking out the gymnasium windows, her friend obviously wasn’t enjoying the evening. In fact, Jada was downright bored.

And when Jada was bored, she was dangerous.

Kate should have known better. A monthly ball put on by the Jane Austen Regency Re-Enactment Society wasn’t exactly her friend’s idea of a rocking Friday night. Jada was better suited for nightclubs, where history never lasted longer than the first round of martinis.

“So, are we going out after this?” Jada asked as if on cue, indicating the ballroom floor. Despite the elaborate preparations, there wasn’t much to see. Two male members of their historical preservation group—the only two male members—were struggling through the steps of the waltz with a pair of ladies covered in flounces, but no one else even bothered trying to dance.

“I don’t think so.” Kate took a glass of punch labeled with a sign ordering them all to pretend it was ratafia. “I promised to help clean up after the ball, and I was planning on going into the bookstore pretty early tomorrow to get some work done.”

“Really? That’s your excuse? Cleanliness and productivity?”

“What time is it, anyway?” Kate resisted the impulse to check her wrist. There were no watches allowed here. No Visible Modern Conveniences—that was rule number eight, right after No Real Names and right before Male Guests Require Cravats.

Although the rules occasionally felt like an attempt to wrest any last bit of fun out of the JARRS group, Kate loved the entire charade. There was something about the way the women in the group bonded—in a longing, wistful, romantic way—that brought a smile to her face.

It was silly. Silly and longing and wistful and romantic, and she couldn’t help it. No matter how much her sensible parts rebelled, there always remained the lingering feeling that if she squinted her eyes just so, or if she focused on the stays that forced her spine into a straight line, she could spend a few minutes in a time that appealed to the grandiloquent corners of her heart. A touch of the real historic England, right here in modern-day Washington state.

Not that any of that was going to happen tonight—not with one of the men’s Nike sneakers flashing white underneath the lights of the chandelier and Jada snorting with mirth as she emptied a fifth of vodka into the punch bowl.

“Seriously, Jada?” Kate reached over and checked her friend’s generous hand. “Lady Lovelace put a lot of work into the party tonight. The least we can do is be respectful. She probably spent hours taking all the crusts off those cucumber sandwiches.”

Jada’s dark eyes flashed in a glimmer of mischief Kate had long since come to recognize and dread. “I think you’ll find the spirits are about to become extremely necessary.”

“Why? What have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“Jada,” Kate warned, but she didn’t have a chance to say more. A scream from a short, rounded woman in a turban brought all attention to the door.

“We’ve got crashers!” the woman cried.

Vodka. Crashers. Jada doubled over in laughter… Kate spared only a quick, pained glance at her friend before turning her eyes toward the door, where four young men were in the process of making a rather dramatic appearance.

Dramatic. That was one word for it.

Each man looked as though he’d stepped right out of the pages of a Regency novel, but not the Jane Austen variety. Oh, no, they were from the juicy kind—the ones full of rakes and midnight trysts. The ones that proudly boasted Fabio’s well-waxed torso and windblown mullet. All four men were dressed in painstaking detail, complete with small clothes that outlined every inch below the waist and cravats that might have been tied by a foppish hand straight from the past. Their hair was pomaded into gleaming locks, and each man bore a grin that demonstrated how well he knew his worth.

They were handsome. They were debonair. They were perfect.

They were trouble.

“Jada, this better not be what I think it is,” Kate hissed. But it was.

Correction. It was worse.

The young men moved through the room, whisking up women old enough to be their mothers into impeccable waltzes. They twirled and turned, spun and swept over the floor. If the squeals of delight were anything to go by, the women loved it, eating up the chance to move around the ballroom floor on delicately shod feet.

But Kate knew better. The only men she knew who could dance with so much grace and fill out a pair of pants like that were not interested in dancing with the ladies—at least, not unless the ladies in question carried fistfuls of dollar bills.

Jada moved to the hidden stereo, while Kate got stuck in a sort of suspended animation. She wanted to stop Jada—knew exactly what was coming—but she always froze at moments like this. The world would keep moving, pushing her sluggishly through, and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it. Watch and cringe. Clean up the mess afterward.

It was the story of her life.

One of the young men made a beeline for her and grabbed her waist in a masterful move that confirmed her worst fears. There was one huge erection pressed up against her, and although she was wearing a rather low-cut gown, she doubted she had very much to do with it at all.

The music took a turn for the worse. Loud, thumping beats replaced the soft Haydn strains, and Kate could see she wasn’t the only woman in the room held captive by a pair of well-tailored, masculine arms that seemed at odds with the sudden bumping and grinding underneath the tight, tan breeches.

“Oh. My. God,” Kate cried as soon as her partner released her.

In a single fluid, practiced movement, the man ripped the breeches away from his body, helped along by a panel of snaps tailored for immediate release.

There was nothing of the Regency about the blue spangled thong that was suddenly the only thing separating Kate from the hard rod of her dance partner’s livelihood. The stripper—he could be called little else now—tore off his jacket and cravat in another consummate move, tossing the clothes casually aside. A few gasps from across the room indicated Kate wasn’t the only one getting such personalized attention.

The strippers weren’t the least bit disconcerted as they moved toward the middle of the room together, resting their hands casually behind their heads and rocking their pelvises up and down in time to the music. The line of erections bounced joyfully underneath the ballroom lights, the synchronized slapping of cock on balls keeping the beat with alarming precision.

“Jada, you’d better get them out of here—and fast.” Despite herself, Kate let out a giggle as a pair of women finally gained their bearing and marched over to the stereo. “You might want to go too. Oh, no! Wait, though—look at Lord Hampton. He’s covering his wife’s eyes! He’s physically holding her back to keep her away from the ballroom floor.”

Jada howled with laughter, clutching her stomach. “The punch,” she managed between breaths. “Encourage them to have some punch. It’ll calm them down.”

“Oh, Jada,” Kate cried, still half choked with laughter herself. “You’ve really done it this time.”

“It’s more action than most of these women have seen in months. They’ll thank me for it. Just you watch.” Jada offered a cheerful pat on Kate’s butt and turned to the ballroom floor. With two fingers placed in either side of her mouth, she let out a whistle better served on a football field. “C’mon, boys! This show’s over. Let’s go grab that drink I promised you.”

In a practiced theatrical bow, all four of the men swept out of the room, pausing only to pick up the garments that littered the floor, a clear view of eight chiseled ass cheeks making grander a departure than Kate was certain she would ever witness again.

Female voices rose behind her, bringing with them a wave of piercing aspersions on Jada’s character. Kate’s character. The character of her mother, and her mother before that. Kate took a deep breath and turned to keep back the tide.

It had been a mistake to invite Jada. Her friend had warned her it wasn’t her style to sip punch with a bunch of tepid old ladies, but Kate had pressed her. This stuff mattered to her. Didn’t that mean it should matter to her best friend too?

Unfortunately, she’d forgotten that Jada never did anything without a bang.

And this time, she’d added a bump and a grind.