A Slice of Orange

Home

The gift that gives twice

December 8, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as


One of my dearest friends, author Sandra Hyatt, died suddenly in August–a huge shock for her family and friends.

Sandra meant so much to me, it’s not the kind of thing I can express on a blog…but I can and will express the opportunity for readers to support Sandra’s family by buying her new book!

LESSONS IN SEDUCTION is a December release–the perfect gift for yourself or a friend. Hey, why not for all your romance-reading friends? The great thing is, this is a wonderful book from a wonderful writer. In her brief career, Sandra was a USA Today bestseller, Rita finalist and is also a nominee for Romantic Times best Desire of 2011.

Romantic Times gives Lessons In Seduction its top grade of 4.5 stars.
Reviewer Pat Cooper says: “A charming and sexy takeoff on the movie Sabrina, Hyatt’s chauffeur’s daughter is not only not looking to hook up with a prince, she’s actively helping him find the right woman – and her prince is just priceless in his cluelessness …Readers are the ones scoring the hit when they pick this one up, and it’s a shame that Hyatt’s passing is going to deny them more tales like this one.”

Lessons In Seduction
A prince on a quest to find the perfect wife doesn’t have time to trifle with a commoner. But Adam Marconi’s longtime friend and sometime driver, Danielle St. Claire, has him contemplating a change in plans. Why can’t the royal have a little fun before finally settling down? Then their supposedly quick affair suddenly turns
serious.

And Prince Adam finds himself in a quandary. Say goodbye to the one woman who sets his heart and body on fire, or defy all the rules and cause the scandal of the century.

Buying links:

Through Harlequin
Ebook
Print

Through Amazon
Print
Kindle

Through bookdepository.com

Thanks so much for supporting Lessons In Seduction. Sandra once wrote in a Christmas blog: “Whatever your religious persuasion it never hurts to stop and count your blessings and the gifts in your life.” She was one in ours.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Sandra Hyatt Memorial Trust which aims to develop emerging romance writers, please visit www.sandrahyatt.com

Postscript: Lessons in Seduction is number three of a royals trilogy.
Book 1: His Bride For The Taking.
Book 2: Falling For The Princess.

And if you’re in the mood for a fabulous Christmas novella try Sandra’s RITA finaling Mistletoe Magic (published in Under The Millionaire’s Mistletoe with Maureen Child). E-book

2 0 Read more

PAW Anticipation

December 6, 2011 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , ,
I admit it–I didn’t blog last month. That was because I was traveling and had limited Internet connection. Sorry if you missed me.

This month, I’m here! I’m also looking forward to the months to come at OCC meetings with even more anticipation than usual. That’s because I’m going to be the co-PAW meeting leader in 2012. My partner in no crime, I hope, will be Charlotte Lobb, and she has clearly demonstrated more skill at this already than I have–but I intend to take lessons from her.

We’ll be succeeding Jackie Hyman, whom Charlotte has also assisted at times. Thanks so much to both of you! You’ve done such a great job of preparing topics for PAW meeting discussions and, when possible, having the afternoon OCC speaker be PAW’s guest and the focus of our discussion as well. I hope we can continue that.

Meantime, all you PAW people–let us know if you have anything you’d like us to address in our meetings. We’ll try to accommodate you. And since this is a learning process especially for me, let us know if there’s anything else you’d like us to do.

–Linda O. Johnston
1 0 Read more

December Calls for Submission: Naughty & Nice

December 1, 2011 by in category Archives tagged as ,

Ready to wrap up the year? Making some publishing goals for 2012? Well, here’s a round-up of a few anthology calls to kick-start the inspiration. Get published after reading one of these calls? Drop me a line … would love to hear about success stories.
“Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men”
Pink Petal Books, a high-quality boutique publisher, is actively searching for erotic short stories between 7k-15k words for an anthology to be released in April 2012. At this time, we are looking for four to six tales for a 50k-word finished electronic and print book. Both published and unpublished authors are welcome.
Do you have a survivor-type story? A shipwrecked hero, a heroine stranded on a desert island with a hot rogue, or a couple who’s lost in the steamy jungles? Did your hero drop into a war zone or does he work in an extremely perilous occupation?
Submission deadline is January 15, 2012. Submit the full short story plus a blurb to anthologysubs@pinkpetalbooks.com with “Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men” in the subject line. For more information, visit http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Submissions.html.
Virgin Vampires
Darkness falls and they rise, leaving behind a trail of blood and lust. Ravenous Romance is seeking 2000-5000 word short stories for their new virgin vampire anthology, FIRST BITE. We want to see stories that delve deep into virgin territories, whether it is a vampire’s first night, first bite, first f—you get the idea. Let your imaginations run wild…amongst other things. Please submit stories to Tabitha@literarypartners.com, including a short story query letter, your bio, and your short story and a word document. Deadline is Dec. 30. Payment is a flat fee of $25.
A Mind is a Sexy Thing
The guy sitting in the library with a mountain of books, disheveled hair, glasses hiding the beautiful baby blues….we want him.  In fact, we want any romance you may have with the nerdy guy, or the computer geek who doesn’t realize just how sexy he actually is…or the guy with the lab coat who spends his days working out long equations for fun.  Silver Publishing wants your romance stories with the Brainy Guys!
•                M/M Only
•                Contemporary
•                15k+ words
•                Must have romance and either a happily ever after (HEA) or a happy for now (HFN) ending
•                Heat rating: Any

These stories will each be released individually on the same day and will share the same cover art design. Submission Deadline: Feb. 25, 2012. For more information, visit https://spsilverpublishing.com/pages-title-page-24
Bound For Love

Editor Sascha Illyvich
and publisher Sizzler Editions is seeking romantic BDSM stories for our upcoming anthology, Bound for Love. Throughout history love and sex as submission and love and sex as pain have been linked. For example, this link is revealed in commonly used phrases like “the bonds of love,” “the chains of love,” “the ties that bind,” “prisoner of love,” “captive heart,” “love hurts,” “love is pain.” 
 â€¨Stories should reflect this connection be between B&D and romance. What after all could be sweeter than a bottom’s submission to a top? In some ways love between leather folks, slaves and master/mistresses, is the most honest straightforward love there is. In short, we want stories that capture the romance in bondage and the bondage in romance made explicit. 
 â€¨
Stories for Bound for Love should be 4-9k in length with a focus on the relationship development. Each needs to have a strong focus on both BDSM with a classic romance type of plot and a HEA ending. If either can be removed, the story is not for this anthology. We seek unpublished submissions though we will consider reprints. Deadline: Dec. 15, 2011; expected release Feb. 1, 2012. The advance payment against a prorated share of the royalties will be $25 for stories under 5000 words and $35 for stories over 5000.
Submit to wolfprinceeditor@gmail.com in MS WORD format, 14 point, single spaced, Times New Roman. Make sure to put Bound for Love Anthology submission in the subject line of your email.
See something that piques your creativity? Louisa Bacio will be teaching Writing a Short Story for Anthology Call-Out on SavvyAuthors.com in January, and for OCC/RWA in November 2012. Make publication a goal. For more information, visit http://louisabacio.com

— Compiled by Louisa Bacio

0 0 Read more

Goal Setting for 2012

November 28, 2011 by in category Archives

Thanksgiving is over, and the official holiday shopping season has begun. I was driving in my car just the other day and heard a famous Christmas song that made me pause, where the singer crooned about the year being over, and then he asked. “What have you done?”

What have I done? The question lingered in my mind. What had I done? Not what I intended, that’s for sure. I had set goals and hadn’t attained some of them.

Hearing author Susan Mallery speak at the recent OCC birthday bash really inspired me. She talked about goals and how she made business decisions based on how well they would help her attain her goals. Her ability to set a goal and stick to it impressed me, as did her willingness to occasionally refuse select prospects because they did not line up with her goals.

Many people get caught up in the moment and are afraid to let an opportunity pass. Sometimes it’s about money, sometimes about getting or staying published, sometimes about building a name or personal validation. Accomplishing goals means sticking to your guns and keeping your eye on the prize. As writers, we tend to get easily distracted, and we often need to work on the discipline needed to set and keep our goals.

Here are two tips for making and keeping goals that hopefully we can all apply to the upcoming year:

1. Make the goal ATTAINABLE. Sometimes we have goals that may set us up for failure because we have no control over them. Keep your goals to things over which you have most of the control. Setting the goal to get an agent by the end of the year might not be considered an attainable goal because you have no way of guaranteeing that an agent will sign you in that time frame. However, an attainable goal might be to query X number of agents in a year. You have total control over that because you are the one sending the queries. And achieving that goal might indeed result in you getting signed by an agent within a year.

2. Have SHORT TERM and LONG TERM goals. Your short term goals can give you that feeling of immediate gratification while you work towards the long term goal. Example of a short term goal: Finish the book by the end of the year. Long term goal: Have written three completed manuscripts in three years.

Here’s hoping we all reach our goals in 2012!

2 0 Read more

A Fantasy Life by Janet Quinn Cornelow

November 28, 2011 by in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as ,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did with all of my sons, their spouses, my sister, and my granddaughter. My babies, the kitten and the dog, were worn out by the end of the day with all of the company.

The Enchanted Hawk is now up at Kindle. It is a fantasy romance.

Brylyn, of the Hawk Clan, is drawn into the intrigue surrounding Thom McGarrety, when his brother is to wed Anna from another domain. Brylyn faces the danger of the feonds, the humans who rule the area where her people used to live. They would see her and her people dead because they are shape-shifters.

When Anna’s family wants the McGarrety castle, Brylyn must trust her secret to Thom. Thom, believing that the shape-shifters are nothing but myth, must learn to believe in Brylyn and trust her to help save his life and his domain. Together, can they save the castle, unite their people and find lasting love?

Rob, my youngest, came over yesterday and helped me put up the Christmas tree. Count Rugen, the kitten, loves it. He has already knocked off a branch – it is a fake tree – , brought me an ornament, and pulled the bottom piece of garland across the room. It is going to be a year of repairing the Christmas tree.

I am not putting up as many decorations this year because of Count Rugen. The village is staying in its boxes. Many of the other decorations will also stay in their boxes. We are going heavy on wall hangings this year. Some of them have not been up in awhile. I figure Rugen can’t knock things off the wall as easily, though he will try.

I took Rob and his wife to the Bower’s Museum to see the Chinese Sand Warriors. It was well worth seeing if you want something to do over the holidays.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

0 0 Read more

Copyright ©2017 A Slice of Orange. All Rights Reserved. ~PROUDLY POWERED BY WORDPRESS ~ CREATED BY ISHYOBOY.COM

>