We had a wonderful time at XtraOrdinary Romance on Thursday. Wow! What a fantastic day! Lots of fun things happened there and I hope you can join in the fun sometime today as it's the last day.
We had tons of messages, great talk and fabulous giveaways. Drop by during the fun we're having today!
Here's the schedule for Friday, December 17, 2010:
10:00 am Free eBook - Violet Visions
11:00 am Free eBook - Atlantis Allure
12:00 pm Free eBook - Sanguinary Seductions
End of the day drawings start at 1:00 pm with names for all drawings picked at 11:59 pm
Gift Certificate from Borders books
Free goodie bag stuffed full of goodies
5 extra entries into the Cruz eReader drawing on Christmas day
Surprise gift
All the giveaways are being done closely together and they, as well as the rest of the drawings, will be very easy today. I'll be doing Christmas things at home here, which is why I'm making it easy for everyone!
I sure do hope you all are having fun and enjoying the Christmas Extravaganza. I appreciate all the support you have given me over the years and I hope to make your Christmas a little brighter. Hope you and your family are having a happy holiday season.
If you haven't joined the yahoogroup XtraOrdinary Romance, just email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I will send you a direct invite.
Hope to see you all at XtraOrdinary Romance throughout the day!
Again, may your holiday season be filled with love, laughter and joy.
Lynn
We had a wonderful time at XtraOrdinary Romance on Wednesday. All I can say is wow! What a day! Lots of fun things happened there and I hope you can join in the fun sometime today.
We had almost 300 messages, some great talk and fantastic giveaways. But more than that...we had fun! You should come and join us.
Here's the schedule for Thursday, December 16, 2010:
9:00 am Free eBook - Fluke
11:00 am Free eBook - More Than Robotics
1:00 pm Free eBook - Shopping Spree
End of the day drawings start at 6:00 pm with names for all picked at 11:59 pm
Gift Certificate from Borders books
Free goodie bag stuffed full of goodies
5 extra entries into the Cruz eReader drawing on Christmas day
Surprise gift
Please note the changes. I'm doing all the eBook giveaways two hours apart and lumping all the drawings at the end of the day. This allows for more people to enter the giveaways and really spreads them out. Plus it seems to be working out for me as well. I get to spend time with you all in the morning then I spend dinner time with the family then it's back to you all. Tomorrow, this is good as I have to take my friend again to the doctors at about 2:30. Changing the schedule is the only way to doing it all. And heaven knows, I need to do it all...LOL!
I sure do hope you all are having fun and enjoying the Christmas Extravaganza. I appreciate all the support you have given me over the years and I hope to make your Christmas a little brighter. Hope you and your family are having a happy holiday season.
If you haven't joined the yahoogroup XtraOrdinary Romance, just email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I will send you a direct invite.
Hope to see you all at XtraOrdinary Romance throughout the day!
Again, may your holiday season be filled with love, laughter and joy.
Lynn
Well, today has turned out to be a working Sunday. Most of the time, I reserve Sunday for reading or lazing about. Not so today. Today I have to edit and prep manuscripts for submission. I actually feel lucky to do this. Not many people work in a job they love.
For years, my husband was the only person who loved their jobs. I mean what’s not to love...LOL! My DH works outside of the country a lot and has visited some very beautiful places in the world. Right now, he’s in Vienna and I’m extremely jealous. I was supposed to be on this trip and am quite sad. But there was no way I would pay over $1000 for a ticket and that was the crux of the problem. Tickets were expensive and I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much as I’ve never paid more than $500 to go overseas. Even my DH had trouble with his tickets, as he wanted a specific airline, which cost too much for even the government. LOL!
Which brings me right back to being here, at home and preparing to do things I don’t normally want to do. Sigh. There are days I love editing and there are those times where I hate it. Right now, I’m in a hate mode so I just want to get it all done. It will probably take me better than a week to get it all together and sent off. Then again, maybe I’ll surprise myself as I have some other stories I need to finish pronto.
How many of you put off items that you really need to do? Sometimes I do and most times, I don’t. There are a few times where I’ve just been pigheaded and didn’t want to do anything. I would much rather play with my new phone or surf the internet or who knows? LOL!
Yeah, that’s right...I now have a phone, which sounds like a cylon...and it’s so very, very cool. My youngest got one too but he’s not sure what to think of it. Well, the first thing I did was download Google Sky Map so that I can look at the stars and know what one I am looking at in the sky. Next, I got a bunch of games, registered my QuickOffice so I can write ideas and my stories there. After this, I slowed down a bit since I felt I would overwhelm the poor thing.
I have yet to decide what ebook reader I’m going to download. You heard me...I get to choose between the Kindle reader or the Nook reader or I think anything I want...yeah! This phone will be my first true ebook reader. I’ve had a Pocket PC before but it was hard to sync and load all the stories on it. And to be honest, I really loved Microsoft’s Lit Reader as far as software. The library feature was fantastic and to this day, I had it on my computer and have tons of ebooks in that format.
I am still shooting for an iPad and can’t wait to get one very soon.
What is your favorite format for reading ebooks? How do you purchase those ebooks...straight from the publisher or a third party distributor? Again, more entries for those who answer!
See you all tomorrow!
Lynn
This week winners are as follows:
Sassy Brit wins an ebook from Laura Tolomei
Tina Donahue wins an ebook from JoJo Brown
Congratulations to the winners. Just email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I'll get your prize to you.
Thanks everyone for participating!
Lynn
The winners of this week's XtraOrdinary Romance Blog drawings are:
For Annie Alvarez is Tracy D.
For A.J. Llwellyn is Anna Shah Hoque.
All winners, please email me at lynncrain@cox.net for information on how to collect your prize.
Thanks for stopping by to see us here at XtraOrdinary Romance and see you all next week!
Lynn
Hi everyone!
The winners of last week's drawing are:
For Courtney Breazile's Reincarnated Death Wish is boonebrux.
For Tierney O'Malley's Wicked Proposal is Nathan Lamirand.
Winners, please email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I will send you your prize.
Thanks for stopping by to see us at XtraOrdinary Romance and see you all next week!
Lynn
Please help me welcome Viola Grace to XtraOrdinary Romance. She is a multi-published author and very talented who has a lot of interesting information to share.
At what age did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
9 or so. I wrote a short story for Christmas and got to read it on CBC radio.
What has been your biggest influence on becoming a writer?
The works of Anne McCaffery, Jayne Krentz (in all her incarnations), and David Eddings.
How did you feel when you got your first publishing contract?
Confused. I wasn’t sure that I was accepted for a while and had to send an email back to the EIC at the time. Then I squealed and flapped my hands in the air.
How many novellas/novels have you published to date? When did you have your first sale?
As of today, it is 43 novellas and 2 novels.
Tell me about your latest release. Please include if it is part of a series or a stand alone book.
Today is the release date of Hotel Spectre. The first Novella in the Nexus universe started in Gnomes of Suburbia. Sophie is a half-elf and she has been invited to the Half-Blood Ball at the Hotel Spectre and also invited to stay until she can get a handle on her magical talent. Raffin is her mentor and when he finds out the depths of her talent he is a little shocked. They play games of control to find out who is the stronger, and on the way they foil an attempt to stamp out the half-bloods that are all under the same roof.
What was your inspiration for this book?
The cover art was created by Martine Jardin and I based the story around the picture.
How do you categorize yourself: pantser or plotter?
Pantser. Definitely. But, I can weave bullshit into fine cotton, so no problems there.
How do you handle the editing/revision process?
I curl into a tight ball and open the file. Then I bite my lip and run through the entire manuscript in one sweep. Most of my issues are punctuation and tenses, so they are relatively easy fixes.
You’re received some fantastic reviews...how do you feel about them and why?
I love a good review, but it is the mediocre ones that hold my attention. Sometimes I get a reviewer who can see what I was thinking when I was writing…it’s kinda cool. And my favourites are the ones who give me a middle of the road review, but then state that they have to keep reading my work. I just howl at those.
Did anything odd happen while you were researching this story?
With all the talk of Halloween, I got a craving for pumpkin pie. Or cake, or whatever. I also learned that there is an elf for every occasion. …hey, there’s a title “An Elf for Every Occasion”. See how my brain works. :-)
What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Park your ego at the door and take what advice is offered. Starting out is when you are most insecure, so just keep writing until you have a body of work that tells you if you are meant for the genre you have chosen. I wanted to be serious, and yet here I am writing romantic and erotic comedy. Go figure.
Is humor important in today’s women’s fiction?
I certainly think so, but then that is my primary means of expression. Life nowadays is a little too serious, I like to shake that up and make the reader crack a smile or laugh out loud.
What’s the easiest book you’ve ever written? The hardest? The most fun?
The easiest was Haldis Imperium, it was the story that I had in mind when I started the Champions of Terra. The hardest book was Wardstone, the madness depicted was drawn from real life which was a little disturbing at the time. The most fun would have to be Hael’s Fury. Dragons in space, how cool is that?
What do you consider the elements of a great romance?
A love that takes on all the senses, smell, touch, taste, sight, sound and emotion. If you can combine all of these, you have something fantastic, whatever the genre.
What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
Fan mail. I love hearing about people who enjoy my work. It makes going through tough storylines and harsh reviews sting a little less. It also keeps me going. I keep all fan emails for those days I just can’t figure out why I am sitting at a computer and they get me through it.
Where can readers find out more about you and your work?
www.violagrace.com
www.extasybooks.com
www.devinedestinies.com
Viola’s Bio: Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis.
In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush.
Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.
She is quite happy with her genetic heritage, a brilliant mind, with a twisted sense of humor.
Thanks for taking part in my 2 for Thursday promotion, Viola. I hope everyone enjoyed her words as much as I do!
Lynn
Hi Everyone!
I bet you all thought I had forgotten to post the winners from last week...nah...just a little slow. Homework took precedence last night.
The winner of Rie McGaha's Two For Hire is Bryl R. Tyne! Congratulations!
The winner of Debi Wilder's HeartBeat is s7anna! Congratulations!
Bryl and Anna, I will try to track you down BUT if you see this just email me at lynncrain@cox.net and I'll send you your prize.
Don't forget to join us this week as we interview Fawn Lowery and Viola Grace!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Lynn
