Vixenwriter

All eBooks are 50% off at All Romance eBooksand Omnilit this weekend! The ladies over at Smart Bitches have the details but the discount code is: SBTBARe1

If I might be so bold as to suggest some of my titles at All Romance ebooks and also at Omnilit

Both stores have an awesome digital book collection (I say this as I stock up on all sorts of books myself!)

This is a great way to go around the brewing war between Amazon and Apple and still get the ebooks you need! Thanks so much to Smart Bitches and All Romance Ebooks!

How about an excerpt from NO RESERVATIONS? Kate and Leah both have their own reasons for escaping the holidays back east and have headed to Vegas together for some girlfriend time…

NO RESERVATIONS by MEGAN HART and LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Megan Hart and Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Random House

‘You’re a bitch when you drink champagne,’ Leah snickered. ‘Do you think I have to keep it? You know, bring it out when they visit and stuff?’

‘So you’ve accepted they’ll visit? You’ve accepted you and Bingo have a capital F future then? You know you want to marry him, Leah. He’s young and eager and yes, he makes me want to ruffle his hair. If I could reach it without standing on a chair that is. But he’s a good dude. He loves you. He accepts you and respects your space. He gets you—in and out of bed. He has a job. He’s not a dick like Mike. He’ll apparently grow into a hot older man like his dad. And you’ll have a lifetime supply of doilies and BeDazzled shirts. Lastly and most importantly, he doesn’t have an ex-wife.’

‘Marriage? It seems like such a big step. I do not appreciate that he planned to do it there. He should have done it in private. He should have discussed it with me first!’

‘You know he did it because that’s how he thinks. He wanted to make a statement to you about how important you are to him. I bet asking women to marry them at Christmas with the family is important down in Hooterville. If you weren’t ancient, he would have given you his Four H pin or whatever the fuck.’

‘Hooterville, ha! You’re going to hell for making me laugh about this.’

‘You can sit at my table in the cafeteria.’

They paid and went outside, relaxed, mildly intoxicated, still full from an awesome sushi lunch and all prettied up. Kate hadn’t been so manicured and facialized in a while. Her roots were done, her pores were sparkling clean, her skin was soft and she smelled good. She wished Dix were there to get an eyeful.

Once they got in the cab heading back to the hotel, Leah got back to the subject. ‘We’re already living together, why isn’t that enough? And you’re one to talk. Dix wants to live with you and you keep putting him off.’

‘Of course I am. I would live with him if he didn’t have the whole daughter situation. I can’t be the slutty, selfish girlfriend who makes him think with his cock. I love him, Leah. He’s patient and kind, he thinks about what makes me happy. He loves to give oral sex and he’s damned good at it. He even had dinner with my parents at Thanksgiving! But I don’t want him to put his kids aside for me. I couldn’t live with that. He adores them. He’s a great, involved father. It’s only two more years. We can deal that long. I’m actually trying to see if I can take some of the cases further out of the city. There’s an entire division that deals with Lancaster and the surrounding environs. If I can do that three days a week, it might be a reality that I can move in with him and keep my place in the city.’

‘Have you told him about this?’

‘He only recently began the let’s move in together thing. He suggested we move to Lancaster which makes it halfway between our jobs and we each commute. Which is great but it doesn’t get at the situation with his daughters still going to school. While I don’t mind him commuting an hour, why should they give up the house he’s lived in for all these years?’

‘Because they’re old enough to deal with that. For God’s sake, they’re not eight years old. You said they were with Pickles most weekdays anyway because she was way closer to the school and their jobs.’

‘Back to you. I just think you should take a chance on Bingo. He’s worth it. He’s like way hot and stuff. He folds your laundry because it makes you happy. Christ, Leah, what man does that? He’s like, well listen, if he were five or six years older and not your boyfriend and Dix wouldn’t kill me and I didn’t love him and all, I’d nail Brandon myself.’

They got out and let the doorman get the door for them as they sauntered through the lobby, through the atrium and back toward the elevators.

‘Whore.’ Leah laughed as they rode up to their floor.

‘You know it. So when are you going to call him? He has to be worried.’

‘I know. After dinner tonight I will. Maybe I’ll go home when you do.’

They got off and walked around the serene, luxuriously appointed corner and what should they see but Dix and Bingo looking like they slept rough and very unhappy.

Kate stopped, sheepish. ‘Um. Guess you found where I was staying.’

Mouth in a hard line, Dix took the card key from her hand, opened the door, handed it to Brandon who looked equally pissed off, and turned back to Kate.

‘Which one is yours?’

She pointed to her room. He swatted her ass and pushed her along the way. She cast a look over her shoulder at Brandon and Leah before Dix slammed the door and menaced her.

‘No offense or anything, but one, you look like you slept on the floor of a Greyhound Bus and two, why are you here?’

He stepped toward her and she wrinkled her nose. ‘There’s a three, you smell like pee. Did Bingo have an accident or something?’

He threw up his hands and began to laugh. ‘Damn you, Kate. Why can you always disarm me? I’m supposed to be mad at you. Bingo? And why the fuck do you look so good? Being away from me means you turn into some fucking supermodel?’

She shoved him toward the bathroom. ‘I wouldn’t have had four glasses of champagne if I knew you’d be here. Bingo is apparently what Ma and Pa Kettle call Band Boy. If you tell him, I will have to kill you before Leah kills me so keep that to yourself. Get out of those clothes and into the shower. I can’t say I’ve ever had a thing for homeless, urine stinky men, even ones who can blow me until I scream.’

He got in and she brought back a glass of champagne just as he was getting out of the shower.

‘Thank you.’ He drank it in two swallows, put the glass down and hauled her to him for a kiss that left her tingly, shaky and breathless. ‘That’s better. I looked like I slept on the sticky floor of a Greyhound Bus because we spent last night at the ever so lovely Penny Pincher motor court about five miles from here with hot and cold running hookers with two-day beard growth and fishnet stockings in the lobby. By the way, he offered us a freebie. They had hourly rates. Brandon’s feet hung off the end of the bed. Which crinkled from the plastic lining on the mattress. My skin is still crawling. And here you are staying in the motherfucking penthouse suite at the Palisades! Why do you look so good? You smell like mango. Your hair is all soft and straight. Your breasts are very fetching in that blouse. What the fuck have you been doing?’

‘A guy I saved from a very nasty legal situation a few years ago works here. They had a last minute cancellation. It’s swank, no? I look rested because I am. I slept until eleven the last two mornings and I had breakfast served at the table out there while Kate and I leafed through magazines. Yesterday we shopped and lunched and went dancing. Today we had a spa day which included a massage, a facial, skin treatments including mango body butter, a manicure and a pedicure. Oh and I got my hair done. In between those things, we had sushi for lunch and flirted with servers. I also masturbated three times for no other reason than I could and I knew Leah wasn’t going to burst in without knocking and pretend she forgot I was in here. Why are you here? And most importantly, is Pickles with you?’

‘You test me, woman. You wouldn’t tell me where you were. I wanted to be with you. You promised me this entire winter break and I’m here to collect. Take those clothes off.’

She grinned. ‘How did you find me?’

‘Bingo has hotel connections. My God your tits look good.’ His hands replaced her bra and she arched into his touch.

‘I have a suggestion.’

‘I’m all ears and erection.’

‘We both owe the other a blow job, let’s start with that first.’

Don’t forget to visit today’s other Snippeters!

Vivian Arend
McKenna Jeffries
Ashley Ladd
Kelly Maher
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Lauren Dane
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels

Today’s guest is the most fabulous Denise Agnew whose book MAJOR PLEASURE releases today from Ellora’s Cave.

Several years ago, I proposed an anthology featuring military men to Ellora’s Cave. Within a short time I came together with Kate Hill and Arianna Hart to write the BY HONOR BOUND anthology. To make these stories even more interesting, we linked them together with family ties. The first story His Sister’s Kiss by Kate Hill features Vietnam veteran Master Sergeant Abraham Forbes. Major Pleasure, my story, features the son of Abraham, Major Blayne Forbes, Army Special Forces. The third story, Charming Annie features Major Annie Forbes, Blayne’s cousin. I’m very happy to say that MAJOR PLEASURE will be released again January 27 as an ebook only at Ellora’s Cave www.jasminejade.com. MAJOR PLEASURE features a theme I continued to touch on in my HOT ZONE series at Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com of a soldier coming home from war and how he handles the challenge of returning to civilian life and the woman that helps him find that courage.

I’ve always enjoyed series or linked stories, just as many other readers do. I believe authors can write a series to death, and I’ve stopped reading a series if I feel the stories are starting to sound all the same. It takes considerable work for an author to write a series and keep it fresh. Do you like series and if so, why? If not, why?

Click the “more” jump to read an excerpt to spark your appetite for more major pleasure.

He’s got the military command…

Army Special Forces Major Blayne Forbes has always desired Jemma Teagan, but knows she’s off limits for a casual relationship. The last thing he wants is involvement with a forever kind of woman. Jemma’s desire for the diamond-in-the-rough soldier has never faded, and when he tumbles into her arms, the tough guy sends her heart rate into orbit. She doesn’t want to love a man destined for danger, until he challenges her to a display of hardware she can’t resist.
Read the rest of this entry ?

WORTH THE WAIT

Ella Tipton is a survivor. In the wake of an attack that left her nearly dead, she’s spent each day putting her life back together. Once vibrant and outgoing, she’s needed to reclaim the best parts of who she was while retaining the hard won lessons. There hasn’t been room for any romantic entanglements, even if she were ready. Still, it didn’t mean she had to stop sneaking looks at Mister Tall, Dark and Tattooed himself.

Security professional Andrew Copeland isn’t quite sure when his jones for the lovely and decidedly skittish Ella developed. He’s known her for years, has watched her triumph over the pain she’d been dealt. Cope is no stranger to women, but he knows the nervous flush he gets every time he talks to her is different than any attraction he’s had in the past. Determined to get Ella to let him in, Andy does the one thing he can think of to get close: he offers her hands-on training in self-defense.

While Ella’s sure he’s just being nice, the prospect of being able to touch him and gain the tools to push away the last vestiges of her fear is more than she can resist. Soon enough, Cope shows Ella his feelings are far more than friendly and re-ignites something deep inside her. Before long desire and love turn them both inside out.

Uber busy today with copy edits – so how about an excerpt from INSATIABLE? Carina and Daniel are on the run after he’s smuggled her away from her home ‘Verse and they’re getting to know each other…

PHANTOM CORPS: INSATIABLE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing July 6

“Your metabolism is very fast.” She didn’t know if she could talk about her mother just then. Not without crying.

“I burn a lot of calories while I’m on a mission. But that’s not what you mean.”

His tendency to see right through her was unsettling. “Do you have bio enhancements, then? My father’s men have to take in more calories, too. They carry around special protein bars.”

He snorted. “Special protein bars? Is that what they call them? Let us be honest, shall we? They carry around bricks of chems laden with stimulants because your father’s labs have turned them into super soldiers. He’s created an army of addicts, and he’s their source. That’s not loyalty. It’s a dangerous line he walks. I’m not addicted to anything but good food. I work with my body; I need the calories. I’m not in the military because it’s the only way I can get my drugs.”

It had been the longest speech he’d given since she’d met him, and despite her offense and some shame, she found herself fascinated by the cadence of his speech. The way he spoke, like each word weighed a certain amount and they all had to fit, precise, and yet, there was wildness, too, just beneath the surface.

“I apologize. It wasn’t meant to insult you.”

“I’m not insulted by your question. You didn’t mean it to be offensive. I understand that. I told you I’d give you answers when I could, and I mean that. I’m insulted by the way humans are engineered to serve better, but in doing so, they’re unmade and turned into automatons. Automatons chemically dependent on your father. To live. That offends me. I serve willingly. Others should have the same choice. There should always be a choice.”

Shame made her skin hot. “I agree it’s not perfect. But to assume you had not been pushed into a place where you chose this life, but over something worse, is somehow free choice, is to underestimate how dependency works, does it not?”

He chewed, thinking. She sat back, sipping her tea and watching him, fascinated with the way he processed information.

“I’m not a chem-head, and I don’t serve tyrants because I’m a slave to a craving. However, you are correct that at the time I entered the military, it was a choice between that and something worse. But I choose to be here now. I choose to do my job. I don’t do it for more chems; I don’t do it for credits. I do it because it’s what I do. I do it because it’s what I’m good at, and I make a difference. I did not make a purely free choice when I entered, but staying? That’s my choice, and that is what makes me different from the Skorpios. It’s what makes you different, too, Carina.”

If someone had told me five years ago when my first book was published that I’d be mentioned in a NYT article, I may have had trouble believing it. I’m very, very blessed. Let me get that out of the way. It’s something I try to remember every day, no matter how craptastic the day is.

The NYT article entitled With Kindle, The Bestsellers Don’t Need to Sell – is on the front page of this morning’s New York Times and it’s about how free can be a great promotional tool. I think the title is a bit misleading – sure if you do a free giveaway you can rank at the top of the bestseller’s list in the Kindle store, but the point of a free giveaway is to expose a large group of readers to an author’s voice to hopefully bring a portion of them back as readers who will then pick up your other titles which aren’t free.

This happened to me, but the giveaway in October wasn’t the first time. I’ve always given my books away for free in contests. Before Triad came out I have believed that giving away my books is the most effective form of promotion. Other authors disagree, but as this is my blog, LOL, I’m saying it’s effective and that’s backed by five years of experience.

I not only give away my own titles, but I love to give away other people’s books too to hopefully hook readers on something I really loved. For me, the cost is not about – “I spent X and on this title I need to make Y in royalties” because promotion should never be about a single title. It should be about an author’s voice. When you’re starting out, you need to find a way to stand out, to give readers a reason to choose your title over the twelve or twenty also out that day. Banner ads can’t compete with word of mouth, IMO. Real people talking to their friends about something they loved. Of course you take a chance that people who read the book you gave them will hate it, LOL, but that’s a chance you always take as a writer. You do the best job you can and you set the book free out there. Some people will love it, some will hate it. You just hope the balance is weighted in the love it camp.

A free book is the absolute best way to show your work. How can it not be? How can a banner ad compare to that? Sure it gets your name out there if people visit whatever site you’ve placed the ad on and name repetition is important too (I do blog ads so I do obviously believe in the efficacy of ads as well). Digital books are even easier to give as prizes – you can send them immediately, there’s no trip to the post office and the cost to the author is lower just due to those facts alone.

Let me quickly distinguish this form of free from piracy – piracy is NOT free. Piracy is people other than the owner of the material offering up a download to everyone and their brother online to steal. Thousands of downloads at a time. This is not helpful. This is not “sharing” because you can’t share what you don’t own. And pirates don’t own those sorts of use rights. Piracy sucks. It hurts authors and my opinion of it is quite clear. Don’t do it and call yourself a fan or a booklover. You can steal an MP3 player from Best Buy and call yourself a fan, but you’re still a thief.

Back to the topic at hand – free as a tool. Because my numbers are quoted in the article and because I don’t normally discuss them in such detail, let’s break out what success means in this context:

Giving Chase is a title that released from a recent start up at the time, Samhain publishing, in 2006. The other three books in the series followed with the last releasing digitally in 2007 and appearing in a staggered fashion in print roughly 10 months after digital release. The books were not erotic romance, but highly sensual, small town romances, a total departure from what I had written before.

Samhain did a Kindle giveaway for Giving Chase once before and I got a nice bump but at the time, it was print that really pushed me into a whole new readership. At that point, Kindle wasn’t as widespread as it is now, not all my books were available at the kindle store and so that success was moderate, but still nice.

Some years later, with Kindle being far more successful, I began seeing increases in my numbers as my books began to list there. It was at this time that they asked me if they could use Giving Chase as a free giveaway for the whole month of October. I agreed.

Why did I agree? The book still sells well for a book that is now 4 years old, but it’s an old title. What did I have to lose really, from all that exposure? If it fizzled, I wouldn’t be out a whole lot and sometimes it’s good to take a chance.

Samhain promoted it. Kindle promoted it and I promoted it. The huge number of Kindle fans who’ve started blogs and lists of the free offerings at the Kindle store listed the books. The level of chatter about the free offerings was far greater than the last time we did a giveaway. This, IMO, was hugely important.

But in publishing, time moves at a different pace. Everything is a lot slower. I saw the ranks so I figured I was doing well, but pretty much forgot about it in the chaos of the holidays, having my family visiting and the kids being home. (I did just stop looking at the Amazon pages for the books because free also means people who don’t really read romance will grab the book and hate it. Hate is fine, but really, my skin is only so thick so it’s best for me not to read those reviews, LOL.)

So I got a ping from Crissy Brashear, the publisher of Samhain some weeks back wherein she told me what those numbers were and I nearly passed out. When she broke down how the other three books in the series did – I realized we’d achieved a 10% return on those who got the free download who then went and grabbed the other books.

10% is a big number. A really big number when you consider the age of the titles. My other kindle available books got a nice bump too. When I look at the numbers what I see are the small press books doing the best. Why that is I can’t say for sure, but I think several things are in play:

Am I a millionaire? No. I still get excited when I find a five dollar bill in a pocket of old jeans. Do I believe that in this case, free books have bumped up my name recognition and overall sales? Yes. Yes and it happened with something that’s an expression of who I am as an author. That’s priceless in an age where you can go into any bookstore and see shelf after shelf of books. I’m not a NYT bestseller (yet), I don’t get book tours or even free ads from my publishers. I’m scrambling and fighting to reach midlist and beyond.

Promotion is a fact of life for authors. Most of us find it time consuming and exhausting. Some authors don’t do any at all, but I can’t afford not to. What I have to do is think about promotion in a comprehensive fashion because like most authors, I have a thousand other responsibilities in my life and I still have to write the books I need to promote. Spamming a thousand people at facebook every day with comments about my book being the awesomest on the planet will not help, in fact it turns people off. Spamming twitter won’t help either.

To those who repeat the “just write the best book you can and they’ll come” mantra – I have to disagree. Unless you’re already established, what’s going to get that reader to grab your book over the one a shelf over? Each month you’re competing with hundreds of other titles similar to yours in some fashion. Those of us who aren’t at the Nora Roberts level (which is most of us because hello, it’s pretty rare to achieve that – and you know she works her butt off too to keep that) have to be smart about raising our titles above the rest, about standing out in a non-trainwreck way (and you all know who you are – all publicity is NOT good publicity in this case).

At the end of the day, something like giving away a book or a track from a new album IS important. Free won’t make you a success if your book or your song sucks, or if you can’t keep up pace and continue to put out good work. But it’s underrated. It’s totally simple, which is part of the beauty, isn’t it?

My husband and I watched Gamer last night. Now, first of all, my husband is awesome because he got the movie due to my, um, pleasure at watching Gerard Butler do all things Gerard Butlerish. Accent? Check. Bulging biceps? Check. All actiony and stuff? Check. Gorgeous green eyes? Check.

The acting for the most part was good to very good as well.

Cohesive story? Um. Not so check.

It was like the director had four different movies in mind and tried to make them all at once, even when they did not fit together.

I mean, okay the gamer part wasn’t incredibly original, but that’s not such a big deal to me. Most things in entertainment are based on tropes people like. This one has a megalomaniac taking prisoners and messing with their brains to receive data and forcing death row inmates to play real life first person shooter games with players controlling them. Death is real, etc. Of course Butler is in for murder but you obvs know he was framed or didn’t do it or something. Again, it’s not a big mystery, but it wasn’t executed particularly well either.

But they had all this other stuff in there too – Ludacris (who is a really good actor and I wish I saw him in more movies) led some hacker crew who’d break into the shows to tell the truth or what have you, about this megalomaniac who is up to nefarious things, natch.

Now, again, I liked that aspect, but it wasn’t fleshed out at all. Who were they? How did they get access to all this tech and info? What was their motivation? Etc. None of it was explained.

So even parts one and two are connected somewhat loosely and if that’s all we saw, I’d give this movie a C+.

But then of course what would a movie be without jerky camera movements, rave scenes, scantily clad women making out at random, lots of breasts flashing for no real reason – all in a second life sort of world, only with people who get paid to let others control them. I could have done without this aspect altogether. First of all, I really hated the rape/prostitution angle. It didn’t work, I didn’t care, and it was just gross. GROSS. There were other things like showing the disgusting people who controlled Butler’s wife who had to work in the game. It was all so ridiculous and over the top and yet it lacked the tongue in cheek quality that made Shoot Em Up successful at poking fun at its own excess.

I didn’t turn it off twenty minutes in like I have other movies. I liked looking at Gerard all dirty and on the run, hello, who wouldn’t. But I understand why it wasn’t a huge hit. It would be a great drinking game though! Like the random sapphic make out would be one shot, if breasts are bared, two shots. Someone licking their lips t be gross OR sexy would be time to chug some beer. You’d be wasted by the end.

OH! One scene I did totally love was when Michael C Hall (villain) did this musical number singing to Sammy Davis’ version of I’ve Got You Under My Skin with these puppet/controlled henchmen. If the rest of his scenes could have been that stylized and over the top in that way, I would have loved it.

Overall, it was a C-/D+ and when it was over, I was really skeeved.

Over the last several months I’ve received several of the same questions asked so I figured I’d answer some of them right here as well as reply to the senders!

1. What the heck were you thinking with that ending of Trinity!!

Trinity and the next book (gah, still untitled!) are a two book story arc WRT Renee and Kendra’s father and his wife and what they’re up to. That part of the story was way too big to put in Trinity in its entirety. The HEA for Renee, Jack and Galen was done in book one and in the next book (out in July) will also have a standalone HEA for Kendra and her hero (Max de La Vega).

All that said – yes, they are related to the Cascadia Wolves series and yes, some of the backstory is defined in those books (like how the mate bond works, etc). So if you pick up book seven in an established world, you might miss certain things, though many have read it without the others and been fine, some read it and were like, “What’s up with this guy just falling for Renee in five minutes!”

2. When will you write Skye or Phillip’s books? (In the Cherchez Pack series)

I’d like to and I’m always trying to find a way to do it. I want to give Phillip and Skye their HEAs. But my schedule is so tight and I’d be moving it to Samhain which means I’d have another series with books at two publishers which complicates matters. Right now I just don’t have the time to deal with what I know will be a more complicated situation and I’ve got several more books to write and turn in before I can even think about how to do it in reality.

3. Is your next contemporary from Heat going to be Adrian’s story?

Nope. The next book in the series is INSIDE OUT and it’s Cope’s book. It releases this November. But as soon as I finish writing it, I’ll do the proposal for Adrian’s book (I’ve got the basic idea in my head now, I just need to sit down and write the synopsis and some pages)

4. Will you be continuing your Federation Chronicles series?

Yep! The next book is Daniel’s story and it’s called INSATIABLE. It’s out in July and will be the start of a mini series about the special ops team Daniel leads called Phantom Corps. The second book is called Mesmerized, which is Andrei’s story and it’ll be out in April of 2011.

5. When will Trinity be out in print?

September of this year.

These are the most asked questions over the last few months but if you have others, g’hed on and ask! If I can give you an answer I will.

It’s the start of a new week. Kids are home from school today but the dude is at work. They’re all calm. For now, LOL. But it appears like it may just be sunny for a while so I can send them outside (thank goodness) and hopefully get some work done. I may be busy, but a deadline is a deadline and it doesn’t care that I’ve done something insane like decide to move when I have books due like a total foron.

Because of the Book Binge ladies, I had to download KMM’s Dark Highlander to my Nook yesterday. It was the first KMM book I ever read and romance wise, it remains my favorite of that series to this day. But the paperback got destroyed and I haven’t had it to go back to. Yay for digital downloads which take me all of ten seconds, LOL!

Dark Highlander has a perfect pitch. The combination of the dark, broody and nearly broken hero and the heroine who is strong totally hot for this man totally works in a way few books can achieve. Bet Me has this pitch too along with Welcome To Temptation. Oh! Naked In Death is another. There are a great many books I adore and revisit at least in some part, but few of them hit me just perfectly. We all have our own buttons that certain books hit for us – y’all have any?

Doing some advance work on my next book, which remains title-less and I need to figure that out, LOL. It’s the next installment in the de La Vega Cats series (that started with Trinity). After that it’ll be Mesmerized, which is the second book in the PHANTOM CORPS mini-series. Oh and somewhere in there I need to write up a proposal for Adrian’s book to get to my editor. I have the basic idea of who the characters are, I just need to work out the storyline.

So busy, but all sorts of fun type busy. I’m pretty damned lucky, I have to say. Thank you to everyone who gives me all these great moments!

Cue Soapbox:

I noticed something new yesterday – a reviewer gave a book a one star rating at Amazon solely because it wasn’t available in Kindle format. You know what? That sucks and it’s misplaced anger. Do people actually think authors have any actual say in that sort of thing most of the time? You can one star authors until the sun burns out, but we can’t make it happen. So really, all the one star for no Kindle people are doing is harming the person who can’t do a thing about it, and being uselessly negative in the bargain. I get that it sucks, but I think it sucks too. See, we’re on the same side so why on earth would there be some sort of attack on the author when he or she can’t do anything to help you? Write the publisher. Click the “I’d like to see this book available on the kindle” button. But that one star review will net you nothing but negativity and I’d hate to believe people would rather be negative for negativity’s sake.

We like to get our books into your hands. I promise. But I don’t have a darned bit of control when or if my books show up in the Kindle store. Not a bit. Believe me, I want them available there too! One star reviews or 5 star reviews, it’s totally not in my hands. I don’t own those rights, I can’t do my own distribution and neither can most other authors, especially those who’re signed with a publishing house. The publisher handles all that. NOT the author.

It takes a lot of time and effort sometimes, but it DOES happen and we’d like to get those books out in a wide variety of formats because we love our readers. But man, I gotta tell you, I feel no fondness to get attacked for stuff I can’t control. We can work together and hopefully make a difference, or some can attack the wrong person who can’t do anything to remedy the situation. I’d rather it be a positive than a negative. But that’s just me.

/soapbox

Everyone have a great MLK Day! What a complicated and complex man Dr. King was. Imperfect and yet, tireless and unswerving in the fight for equality and justice.

Here’s a few of my favorite quotes:

A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Mad is giving away multiple copies of COMING UNDONE over at her blog!

And Limecello is also giving away a copy of COMING UNDONE and talking about blog content too…

Now for the blather – I did indeed sleep in until 8:30. Now don’t laugh! There was a time, pre-kids of course, when I’d sleep until 12 or 1 on a Saturday and probably nap again around 4 or so. Not so much now. 8:30 is like a treat these days, LOL.

I capped off my sleep in with total laziness with the family. Watched movies, ate pizza, just basically hung out and snuggled on the couch. Not a bad Saturday at all, I’d say.

I just may actually do some baking tomorrow. After writing of course. And if my kids let me sleep in again they might just get pancakes and bacon. That’s a big if, considering my children take after their mom in the talking department so that once they’re conscious they start talking, singing or humming and they do not shut up until they pass out at night. But we live in hope!

Okay, I’m off to hang with my dude, watch some Mystery Science Theater 3K and eat peanut M&Ms. Because I roll all wild like that.