News and Updates

Hello everyone! Here are a few updates on what I’ve been up to and a little book news.

For authors, I recently wrote an article for SavvyaAthors.com  on Three Powerful Tools to Build Momentum in Your Story.

Over on the Smart Girls love SciFi and Paranormal Romance blog I’m asking readers what type of information they like to see in reviews.

I recently posted a printable reading group guide for Ladybugs and Fireflies.

If you enjoy Christmas stories, be sure to check out Christmas Wishes. This collection of short stories is soon to go out of print. My story “In Time for Christmas” will continue to be available as an e-book. This story is a Viking time travel romance and is by far the best reviewed and best selling of my stories. Wondering if I should writer more in this genre. Any Viking fans out there?

Wishing you a very merry holiday season!

It’s a cover makeover…

I recently worked with my publisher to give one of my covers a facelift. A Love to Remember is a quirky little romantic short story about a guy, a girl, an elephant, a tiger , a… menagerie of rescued animals. It’s available as a stand alone ebook on Kindle.

So why the makeover?

The cover was ok but I thought it needed more color to reflect the upbeat tone of the story. We stuck with the same image, but zoomed in a bit to better see the couple and the carousel in the background. There isn’t actually a carousel in the story, but it fits with the circus animals and the fun tone. I used colors that were brighter for the text and used a transparent banner behind the text to make it more readable and, again, add color. I thought the red in the transparent banner and the gold text picked up the carousel colors and made the whole thing more vibrant.

Here are the before and after images. I’d love to hear opinions on the changes!

Before:

After:

The Dali in St. Petersburg

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit The Dali in St Petersburg. Salvador Dali, is a Spanish artist, but we are lucky enough to have an entire museum dedicated to his work right here in Florida thanks to the Morse family. Their collection was the foundation for this beautiful museum.

   

I should confess right up front that I am not a fan of Dali’s surrealist work. Melting clocks just don’t appeal, *shrugs* but I have always been a fan of this type of museum. Collections that take you through the entirety of an artist’s body of work provide great insight to the artistic mind and highlight the true depth of his talents. That is exactly what I got from this museum, a new appreciation for talent, if not a love of the results of the artist expression of that talent.

So, whether or not you like Dali, I recommend the museum. If you’re like me and you are not so keen on the work done in the apex of his career, I know you’ll find other pieces to admire and the building and ground of the museum are a tribute to the unexpected and sometimes whimsical aspects of his work. The building’s design is fascinating with a bubbling bulge of windows emerging from the heavy box of its structure.

My favorite moment of the trip actually came on the way out of the building where we stumbled upon a tree that had been transformed into a colorful display by patrons peeling of their paper wristbands and tying them onto the branches of the tree.  Somehow it seemed like something Dali would have appreciated.

Interview: Leanne Burroughs of Highland Press

I’m very please today to be able to share an interview with Leanne Burroughs of Highland Press Publishing.

CHERYL: Leanne, thank you for agreeing to this interview. I really appreciate you taking the time from your very busy schedule.

LEANNE: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about Highland Press Publishing.

CHERYL: How/when did Highland Press get started and what are your goals are for HP?

LEANNE: I bought Highland Press in 2005. My first book, Highland Wishes, had been published by them in 2004. When the owners decided to go out of business, I bought the company and my rights back to the story.

   

In 2006 a group of writers thought about doing a project based on silly laws still on the books around the world. That led to No Law Against Love, our first anthology. Proceeds from that book went to the American Cancer Association.

CHERYL: Where can readers find Highland Press books? Are all Highland Press books available in both print and e-book format?

LEANNE: Highland Press print books can be found at any online bookstore, i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble. The e-book versions can be found at places like Kindle, Fictionwise, Nook, Smashwords, etc. Some of our books are now also available as e-books in Portugese through Nova Cultural in Brazil.  All of our books are currently available in both formats.

CHERYL: According to your website, Highland Press publishes all genres accept erotica. What heat level can readers find in HP romances?

LEANNE: Some of our earlier books have quite sensual situations. Since then we’ve tended to purchase books with lower heat levels. Even though we’ve always stated we don’t take erotica, we now clarify that to state no graphic sexual descriptions.

Although we publish all genres, one of our main goals right now is to get our Christian/Inspirational/Family line going full strength. 

CHERYL: Some readers express concern about the quality of Indie and Small Press books. I know from experience that HP books are professionally edited. Can you tell us what steps you take to ensure the quality of books published by HP?

LEANNE: Highland Press’ editing process is something we’re very proud of. We take great care to ensure each book is the very best it can be when it is published. Every editor focuses on different things in books, so all of our books go through between one to three editors.

CHERYL: Are there any advantages to being a small press that allow you to do things larger publishers can’t?

LEANNE: Small press publishers can purchase what we want, what we think our readers will want, regardless of whether the large New York publishers feel that genre is feasible or not. In Highland Press’ case, that predominantly relates to historicals. They are what we predominantly love and will always been searching for the next historical to enhance our lineup.  But we want people of other genres to keep contacting us as well.

CHERYL: Can you tell us about any upcoming books you’re especially excited about?

LEANNE: Oh, there are soooo many. This is the time of year where our focus is on Christmas anthologies. Those are always such fun to work with. This year we’ll have two holiday anthologies—regular romance, All I Want for Christmas Is You, and Christian romances, Hot Cocoa for the Heart. Jennifer Linforth’s third book in the Madrigal series, Rondeau, will be released in September. It’s another page-turning sequel in her tribute to Gaston LeRoux’s Phantom of the Opera. One of the stories in our mystery anthology, Deception, being released in August, is the stepping stone for a delightful new series. The antics of the residents at the Harmony Hills Retirement Home make an unusual backdrop for solving mysteries.

CHERYL: For the authors who read the blog, where can they find information about submitting to HP? Are there any genres or types of books you are most interested in seeing submissions for right now?

LEANNE: Highland Press’ website is http://highlandpress.org

Submission information is http://www.highlandpress.org/submissionguidelines.htm

I look forward to hearing from your readers. They may contact me at The.Highland.Press@gmail.com 

CHERYL: Thanks again for taking this time!

Excerpts from Frostbound

I recently read and fell in love with Frostbound by Sharon Ashwood. I posted a recommendation for it on my SGLSF blog, but I wanted to share some excerpts here. When I see good writing I have to shout out about it and there’s lots of good writing in Frostbound. I’ll get to the writing in a minute, but first a little about the book from the author’s website:

Frostbound: the Dark Forgotten

Nominated for Romance Reviews Today Best Book of the Year 2011

Every dog might have his day, but the hellhound guards the night . . .

As a snowstorm locks down the city, more than the roads are getting iced. Someone’s beheaded the wrong girl, and vampire-on-the-lam Talia Rostova thinks it was meant to be her. Now she’s the prime suspect in her own botched murder—and the prisoner of her smoking-hot neighbor.

Lore is a hellhound, bred to serve and protect, so he’s not freeing Talia until he’s sure that she’s the prey and not the hunter. You’d think a beautiful woman in his bedroom would be a good thing, but trouble-prone Talia has run afoul of someone more sinister than your average lunatic killer. An ancient Undead is wreaking vengeance on the city—and on her—and Lore will have to go far beyond a stake to put him back in his grave . . .

Here are some examples of the excellent writing in Frostbound!

The werewolf raised an eyebrow. “You see, that’s why I hang out with you. Every time it’s like, wham, I’m in a Doctor Who episode.”

Lore grunted a reply. Now that he wasn’t working up a sweat fighting, his hands were starting to ache from the cold. He slid them into the pockets of his jacket. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Hey, you’re the premonition guy. You say there’s floaty badness, I believe you.” Perry slurped his drink again, but now he was watching the night, too, the set of his head and shoulders alert.

This is not only great dialog, it is great characterization. We know instantly that the werewolf is comfortable in the modern world and that he has a playful side. We also see that even though he is joking around, he does respect Lore’s prophetic abilities.

“Lock me in on your way out. I’ll look forward to an exciting evening of counting carpet lint. You should try hanging some pictures. Do you know how boring your bedroom is?

Lore raised an eyebrow. “I’ll let that sleeping dog lie.”

A beat passed. “Oh, great. Now I have to wash my brain out with soap.”

Again, fun dialog and great characterization. It also sparks up the romantic tension in a fun way.

He’d seen that kind of grief in people’s eyes before. It didn’t come from a single tragedy. It came from circling the drain for years.

I loved the imagery here and what it says about Lore, who is the one making the observation about Talia.

Too bad there was no Toxic Homes Anonymous.

Hi my name is Talia and I can’t stay away from my homicidally screwed-up roots.

With internal dialog like this, you have to love Talia. She is funny, but she’s also emotionally wounded and vulnerable.

When she came to, Talia couldn’t figure out what she needed most: rest, water, blood, medication, or a therapist.

A bath.

This is a girl with her priorities straight!

…there was no way she could be identified under a hood, scarf, mitts, and layers of sweaters. Everyone out on the streets looked like a bundle of knitting projects.

More great imagery!

Health care administrators seemed to search the world over to find the most stomach-turning shades of paint. This ward had walls the hue of squished caterpillar guts.

And more!

Imagery, wordsmithing, characterization…all of these things enrich a book. Often you won’t notice them as you’re reading, but you’ll probably add that author to your auto-buy list. I know I do.