Sign up for my newsletter and be entered for the DISCOVER THE LOST Exclusive Prize contest (as well as all future monthly contests!). For a chance to win the Grand Prize, just post a comment on any of the blogs on Caridad’s website or those that she is visiting during the month of August. The contest will end on August 31, midnight PST. Grand Prize in the contest is a SONY PRS300SC E-Reader Pocket Edition, $25 Gift Card, copies of AZTEC GOLD, THE FIFTH KINGDOM, t-shirt for THE LOST, bookmarks, cover flats and other goodies, including a wickedly cool Lumin disk that will allow you to handle energy just like Adam, the hero in THE LOST. Also visit Caridad’s website at www.caridad.com for details on how to be eligible for a Second Chance Prize of a $25 Gift Card! THE LOST THE FIFTH KINGDOM AZTEC GOLD

The romance world received the sad news that one of the shining stars of the genre, Leslie Esdaile Banks, widely know as LA Banks, lost her battle with late stage adrenal cancer on August 2, 2011. A loved author with more the 40 novels under her belt, Leslie was also known to contribute to magazines and newspaper columns. She was the recipient of the 2009 Romance Times Booklover’s Career Choice Award for Paranormal Fiction and the 2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year award. Leslie was a proud founding member of the Liars Club, an organization based in her home town of Philadelphia of authors and publishing personnel. Shortly after the announcement of Banks’ illness, the publishing community gathered together and auctioned books, agent and publisher time, and other valuable items to the literary community to help the Banks family with the costs of Leslie’s medical bills. The Liars Club had planned to host a writer’s bash on August 6th at Smokie Joe’s Bar in Philadelphia with the proceeds going towards medical bills. This gathering of friends, family, colleagues and fans will now serves as a memorial to remember the positive force Leslie was to so many people. For those who…

Brother, Sister, Can You Spare a Job? In the wake of the collapse of Borders Books & Music many forget about the numerous people who rely on the company for a paycheck. There is a movement to help the Borders employees who find themselves unemployed. Half-Priced Books has issued a nationwide memo encouraging Borders employees to apply for employment at one of the Half-Priced Book locations found in sixteen states. The initial statement was posted on a blog called Help Ex-Borders Employees started by Colleen Lindsay, an employee at Penguin Group. Lindsay’s motivation for creating the blog was stated as: we try to look after our own.” JUST ONE CATCH August 2nd YOSSARIAN SLEPT HERE August 23 An American Classic Turns 50 — CATCH-22 This October we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary for the publication of CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller. Publishers had started to announce how they plan to celebrate the occasion. This week ONE CATCH: A biography of Joseph Heller by Tracy Daugherty will be released. It will be the first full biography on the author. Later this month Erica Heller will release YOSSARIAN SLEPT HERE, a memoir of her father and A 50th anniversary edition of CATCH-22…

New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight has three new books out now. First is MASTER OF SHADOWS, the eighth book in the Mageverse series. Tristan, immortal vampire knight of the Round Table, teams up with a beautiful witch to prevent a war with a race of werewolves. In CHAIN OF KISSES, a mercenary starship captain is captured by a handsome prince with erotic revenge on his mind. And in HOPE’S KISS, a beautiful cop discovers her former high school flames has been turned into a vampire when she ends up in a cage with him. MASTER OF SHADOWS Amazon BN.com CHAIN OF KISSES Buy HOPE’S KISS Buy Also available is a novella set in Mageverse MOON DANCE Kindle nook

Who Owns Thor? A legal battle over the ownership of the copyrights for some of the most popular superheros in the Marvel universe has been resolved. The heirs of Jack Kirby, artist, had sent 45 notices trying to terminate Marvel’s copyrights over characters drawn by Kirby. The courts came to the conclusion that the copyrights in question are the sole property of Marvel Comics. The list included Spiderman, Thor, Ironman, the X-men, and the Avengers. Marvel in turn filed a federal lawsuit in January 2010 to officially invalidate the claims of the Kirby heirs. Marvel states that Kirby was hired on a “for hire” basis voiding any artistic claims he or his heirs may have on the product of his work. The comics and characters were published between the years 1958 and 1963 More People Buy e-Books According to Pub Track, a Bowker consumer service, e-books had the largest jump in the publication market in the 1st quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010. Even though e-books only represented 6.4% of the spending margin, the unit margin for e-books is 12.4% compared to 2.5% last year. The lower cost of an e-book compared to a Hardcover or…

This is my first time to be “attending” RWA from start to finish. My trip started at the of dawn on Sunday…well ok, 7:00 AMish at a McDonalds very close to my home. There I met Sara, Pat, Gwen, Rosemary Clement-Moore and Daniel, who was just helping us to load and not actually coming on our exciting road trip. Follow me on Twitter We drove to Georgia where we spent the night. The next day we picked up Faye and continued into Florida and Disney World. The entire road trip was so exciting because I’ve never before been to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or yes even Disney in Florida! Since we stopped in each of these states I can now officially add them to the places I’ve visited. Lovely rooms here at the Boardwalk Resort, lovely, wonderful friends to share a once in a lifetime experience with, and the opportunity to meet so many wonderful authors I can’t possibly name them all here. I do have to mention meeting Tara Taylor Quinn, Sharon Sala and of course I had my first face to face with Robyn Carr! Ok… time to go have more great once in a lifetime experiences. Until Sunday…

Bestselling author Jill Barnett is releasing a dozen of her historical and contemporary titles in ebook editions for the first time ever. Publisher Bell Bridge Books will handle the titles in ebook publication, starting with BEWITCHING, which is now available on Amazon Kindle (and soon in the iBookstore, Sony store, and from other major ebook sellers.) Coming next: DREAMING, WICKED, WONDERFUL, WILD and many others.