Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Julie Miller | Covers, Covers, Covers
Uncategorized / June 22, 2009

Thank you to Sara Reyes and the gang at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog with them this month! I’m honored. Today, I’m going to be talking Harlequin Intrigue. Since Intrigue is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, I thought it’d be fun to share some Intrigue covers, and show how the look of our beloved romantic suspense novels have changed over the years. 1. Here’s where it all started, with THE KEY by Rebecca Flanders. 2. Then we went through a “white” period–I discovered 43 Light Street series by Rebecca York in this phase–read bunches of the white covers in college. Click here to read the rest of Julie’s blog and to comment. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Elizabeth Amber | Lustworthy Pin-up Guys
Uncategorized / November 12, 2008

As I write each novel in The Lords of Satyr series, I always have an idea of what the hero looks like in my head. And pinned on my wall. Since my pin-up guys are cut from magazines, they’re usually actors, musicians, models–someone I consider lustworthy. He has to have the right hair, eyes, and muscles. But most importantly, my pin-up guy(s) must capture the mood of my hero. It’s the mood that inspires me and reminds me who my guy is, inside and out, lest I forget over the months it takes me to write a novel. For The Lords of Satyr series, which is historical paranormal erotic romance, I found at least some of my inspiration in a single statue I saw on a trip to Europe a few years ago. I was writing about half-satyr half-human males. Imagine how thrilled I was when I stumbled on this life-size statue of a satyr male in the Louvre! I took so many photos of it, I’m pretty sure I worried the hovering guard. I explained to her that I was writing romances about satyr brothers in Tuscany and showed her bookmarks. She was intrigued—or maybe that was bafflement I…

Sandi Shilhanek | Robyn Carr & Breaking Rules
Sundays with Sandi / October 26, 2008

This week I broke one of my cardinal book rules. I bought a book that I’ve already read, and I plan on keeping it. In case you don’t know I don’t keep books nor do I reread books. This being the case why then would I purposely buy a book I’ve already read? The answer is easy…due to the Readers-n-Ritas event I attended a few weekends back I was able to get two autographed books from the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. I being the book fanatic than decided to see if Ms. Carr would be nice enough to autograph the third and return to me, and she agreed. So naturally I needed the book. The trip to the bookstore went smoothly enough, but I didn’t walk out with just the one book. Does a book fanatic ever walk out with just one? I ended up buying the reissues of the Grace Valley books because of the beautiful covers. It didn’t matter that those books in their original covers are sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, the new covers call my name, and I had to have them! I couldn’t believe I was carrying those books to…

Sandra Hill | Can we talk?
Uncategorized / March 11, 2008

About book covers, I mean. Oh, I know, this is a subject that has been beaten to death, but I’ve had some experiences of late that make me rethink some of my previous preferences. I love the covers for my Jinx treasure hunting covers, including my current WILD JINX, but I am being told by the powers that be that the big buyers do not consider these good sellers. Huh? I think they’re beautiful, and the colors make them pop. But, no, they claim that, unless you are a huge name, readers want to know exactly what the book is about, and that means people. In my case, probably shirtless hunks. Yikes! Talk about a blast to the past. I’ve been published for fourteen years, and I have twenty-five books under my belt. For years I got hunk covers, sexy hunk covers, some of which were downright embarrassing. Not so extreme as the erotica ones today, but sexy nonetheless. A few of them I call my “bag over the head” covers…ones that I would have to wear a bag over my head if I were doing a booksigning in the mall. I couldn’t wait until I became a big star…