Get your ears on

... because I've got a lot to say.

First and foremost, Happy Halloween! Or Happy Samhain! Or Happy Tuesday! Whichever you prefer.

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Second, Cobblestone Press is having a Halloween party tonight, celebrating the release of the final Octoberfest books. There'll be games and contests and prizes, so swing by if you're interested. 7pm Central in the chat room.

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Third, thank yous.

There are a *lot* of people to thank surrounding Fan Lit.

Thank you to Laura T for holding my hand from very nearly the beginning of the contest and being a fantastic behind-the-scenes support. Not to mention all the entries she read and commented on. Holy smokes!

Thank you to Chris, without whom it would have taken me a lot longer to notice the good news.

Thank you to the Bon Bons, for being wonderfully welcoming and friendly and supportive.

Thank you *thank you* to the authors (Julia Quinn, Teresa Medeiros, Eloisa James, Victoria Alexander, Cathy Maxwell) who gave their time and left such fantastic feedback.

Thank you to Lynne for keeping me up to date and in the know and for being there to lean on.

And thank you to everyone who's said a kind word, offered a congratulations or a wow. The people I've met because of this contest are some of the most talented and creative and generous people I've met.

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Fourth! I've been tagged. I will tell you five amazing things about me. One of them is not true. It's up to you to figure out which. ;)

1. My husband flung a dead rabbit at my feet and proposed with the following words: "Look! I brought you dinner! Marry me!"

2. I once danced on the field of as part of the half-time performance at a SuperBowl!

3. I spent many years of my life being very accident prone. Can you imagine fracturing your eyesocket while doing laps in a pool? I did!

4. I won first place in the costume category at a high school rodeo for appearing as a very curvy Lone Ranger!

5. I have a Bacon number of 2 (and a Jackman number of 2) because of Sean Patrick Thomas!

Guess away. :)

It's official!

Like Tessa, I got my confirmation email about the paperwork I need to fill out to claim the prize over at Fan Lit last night. It's no longer a long, very complicated dream. Woohoo!

And now I'm going back to work. I am. Really. After I make my tea. And light my incense. And chase the cat off the desk.

Working.

3.

2.

1...

ETA (can you believe that I just realized that ETA means "edited to add" and not just "estimated time of arrival"? Sometimes, I embarrass myself): My contest is still running through tomorrow! If you haven't entered, drop me a line with the answer to the following question: If you were stuck in a casino full of monsters on Halloween night, which of the Vegas Magic heroes would want to keep you company? Jake, Grant, or Alec?

Sunday, Sunday

Oddly enough, I'm having trouble motivating myself to do mundane things today. :) Had a great meeting yesterday, had a great evening with The Engineer. But today, I must get back to the ordinary and every day routine of life.

Which means writing and moving forward with the projects I have in the works. Time does not stop no matter how much I might want to bask.

Yes, another Fan Lit post

I really didn't intend to post about the FanLit contest again, but I'm going to, and I'm going to do so with my head held high.

Today, Fan Lit has announced that they're awarding me with the Editorial Grand Prize for the contest. You can see all the prizes laid out here, but the simple explanation is this: I get to pitch ideas at Fox TV, and if they like one, possibly have it developed into something bigger.

The question of whether I'm going to accept has come up. The answer is: Yes.

Why?

My complaint with Fan Lit was that the voting system was flawed and should be repaired. I still believe that there were issues with the voting process. I stopped submitting or reading chapters at the end of week four. It wasn't any fun to submit a chapter and not know whether it failed to make the finals because it legitimately didn't belong there, or because there were duplicate accounts and unfair voting going on. That's why I stopped participating in the weekly rounds.

The Editorial Grand Prize was not given as a result of voting by the participants in the contest. This prize was determined by the editorial team at Fan Lit. My complaint was never about the editorial process at either Avon or Fan Lit. Therefore I don't feel there is an ethical conflict involved in accepting the prize. I'm flattered that my writing stood out enough to catch the editors' attention, and I'll keep people up to date with how it goes.

I haven't talked about it for a while, but I write screenplays as well. This is a fantastic opportunity to pursue something I've wanted to do for some time.

Thank you to everyone who's sent their congratulations. If anyone wants to question my decision, I'm willing to answer those who sign their names.

Parallels in Fiction

And now, to do some shameless promotion for a fellow author:

Deidre Knight Cranks up the Heat in Her Latest Installment in the Parallel Series: PARALLEL HEAT

“Intelligent characters, hot romance and breathtaking adventure with epic feel—exactly what I want to read!” - Susan Grant, New York Times bestselling author

“A fantastic and riveting new voice in paranormal fiction.” -Karen Marie Moning, New York Times bestselling author of Spell of the Highlander

“At times humorous, at others heart-wrenching, but always compelling, Deidre Knight offers readers a fresh, wonderfully creative glimpse at the complexity of human decisions. What a page-turner!” - Gena Showalter, Author of Playing with Fire

In the unforgettable, alternate world of Parallel Heat, two enemies are bound by betrayal, vengeance—and forbidden passion.

Warrior and royal guardian Marco McKinley has been assigned a vital mission on Earth, where a war between human fighters and otherworldly soldiers is rising in the far reaches of Wyoming. But he's also been warned about twists of fate yet to come-ones that will transform him into the enemy of his own people and appoint him the personal protector of beautiful soldier Thea Haven.

Little do Marco and Thea know, but they have met before in an alternate universe, and they are bound by betrayal and vengeance. Now, on a world at the brink of destruction, forbidden passion ignites—but will the destiny Marco has glimpsed unfold a second time?

Sign up for Deidre’s newsletter and be eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate, signed copies of her books, and plenty of other goodies! Just click here.

Check out the book that launched the series, PARALLEL ATTRACTION or order your copy of PARALLEL HEAT today! And coming in April, PARALLEL SEDUCTION.

Still going strong

The contest is still going strong, and I'm still taking answers to the question from that post. It's just a couple down so scroll down and take a look. I've gotten a lot of answers, but there's always room for more, so send 'em in!

I killed my printer last night. It's 15 years old and you know, it's time had probably come, but I employed a particular brand of stupid. Word of advice: Do not use nail polish remover on the roller on your toner cartridge. Really. Just don't.

So, the dino will go away and a new, speedy, state-of-the-art model will be along shortly. It will do duplexing, and be wireless, and undoubtedly faster than the old boy we've had so long. But it still makes me a little sad.

Still writing like mad, hoping to finish a project by the (looming!) end of the month and another one or two (they're short!) by the 20th or so of next. Man. The life of a writer. It may not be exciting to anyone else, but it sure is busy.

Stacking the Deck is out today!

It's live, it's live!

Stacking the Deck, the third book in the Vegas Magic series, following This Spells Trouble by Shelli Stevens and Gone With The Wolf by Loribelle Hunt is out today at Cobblestone Press!



Attending the Hell's Ball with her friends was just supposed to be about having a good time. Samantha didn't plan on meeting the man of her dreams or to give him a crash course in magic to keep his power under control.

Alec Zimm is a stage name. Doing card tricks pays the bills. He's caught off-guard by his reaction to Samantha and the sudden revelation that the magic he's been performing is real. When a rogue werewolf threatens the Halloween party atmosphere, Alec must learn to trust his teacher and save the woman of his dreams.

Available for purchase here.

And don't forget to check out the contest that I'm holding. It's the post directly below this one!

Halloween Contest!

It's one day late! Sorry, sorry, for those of you who were eagerly awaiting this announcement.

Welcome to my 100th blog post over here at Love Between The Pages! Can you believe it? I can't. Who knew I had that much to say?

To celebrate both this milestone post and the Vegas Magic series out at Cobblestone Press right now, I'm holding a contest.

But first, the books!

The Vegas Magic series is set in, no surprise, Las Vegas and centers on the Crypt casino on Halloween night. What could go wrong at a party where the creatures of the night are free to strut their stuff? A dangerous question to ask.



She never expected the Hell’s Ball to live up to its name. Buy This Spells Trouble here!

A wolf, a witch, and a casino—magic, love, and mayhem in Vegas. Buy Gone With The Wolf here!

Playing with cards was never this much fun. Stacking the Deck is coming Friday!

Want to know what you could win?

-Three imps (sample vials) of Halloween/Samhain-themed perfume from BPAL in the following scents:
  * Samhain: Truly the scent of autumn itself -- damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein.

  * Dia De Los Muertos: A joyous celebration of La Catarina, La Flaca, La Muerte… Glorious, Beautiful Death. In Mexico, death is not something to be feared or hated; She is embraced, loved, and adored. La Muerte is fêted, as the celebrant "…chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love." This is a Mexican paean to La Huesuda: dry, crackling leaves, the incense smoke of altars honoring Death and the Dead, funeral bouquets, the candies, chocolates, foods and tobacco of the ofrenda, amaranth, sweet cactus blossom and desert cereus.

  * Sugar Skull: Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.

-Two scented wax melts from Dark Candles in the following scents:
  * Autumn Harvest: Spicy blend of cinnamon bark and clove bud on a dry down of musk.

  * Jack O'Latte: Pumpkin Spice flavored Latte, the perfect coffee-inspired scent to carry you into the fall season.

-A $5 Gift Certificate good for purchase of any book at Cobblestone Press

How do you win? Simple! From October 20th to 5pm PST October 31st, just email me with the answer to this question: If you were stuck in a casino full of monsters on Halloween night, which of the Vegas Magic heroes would want to keep you company? Jake, Grant, or Alec?

I'll choose a winner Halloween eve! Good luck!

I lied.

That wasn't my final word on the matter. Lynne's posted an interesting look at how close the scores were, and how what was done really *could* have had an impact on the contest outcome, regardless of what Fan Lit may have said.

And could *still* be having an impact, just so we're clear.

Yes, I'm still upset.

But in other news, this is post #99. That means that tomorrow, I'll do my post about the basket I'm putting together. There will be wax tarts, perfume, possibly some candy (who can resist Halloween candy) and who knows what else?

Stop by and check it out!

The Last Word on Avon FanLit

As should be obvious from the last few posts of mine, I got involved with the Avon FanLit contest. It was a unique contest set up, looked interesting and I thought hey, why not, I'll give it a shot.

I met some great people. There are some *very* talented writers over there and I sincerely hope that those who have what it takes go on to publishing contracts and good things.

In the process, I also met some not so great people.

One of the rules set up at Avon FanLit was that people were not to create shill accounts, a shill being a duplicate account. Whether that was meant to be for reading the forums, submitting entries or voting on the contest rounds, it really didn't matter. It's right there in black and white, against the contest rules. And the penalty for doing so is disqualification.

And yet, during the course of competition, I was given convincing evidence that some contestants in an earlier round had done just that and were using shill accounts to "stack the deck".

Fan Lit, when provided with this information, chose and chooses not to acknowledge the cheating--because no matter how you spin it, it's cheating--publicly. Thanks to the phrase "sole discretion" in their rules, they don't *have* to acknowledge it. They can pick and choose when to enforce the rules and when to let a contestant slide.

They've made their choice, and so have I.

I cannot, in good conscience, be a part of a contest where the rules set forth are not upheld, where voting on another writer's hard work is not protected and there is no accountability or repercussion for abusing the system in place.

Some people may feel that all's fair and that doing anything to win is acceptable. Personally, I'd rather surround myself with people who succeed honestly.

Edited: I am not the only one posting about this.

Spared!

You are all spared more rambling about FanLit. Well, sort of. I didn't final in this week's round but Jacqueline did! So if you have an account, go vote on the finalists and help her earn her place in the fishbowl head hall of fame.

Congratulations to Mary and Sara and Tessa too, of course, but I don't have links for them.

So I sulked a bit, and then got kicked in the butt and told to work on my proposal already comma dammit, so that's what I'm going to do and -- crud, I forgot to do my group blog post today. Must think of something.

We had our first rain last night, which means it's officially fall in California. I wish I lived a little further north so we actually got snow, but The Engineer says that my childhood love of snow would not hold up as an adult.

He's a California native, what does he know? ;)

Third time's the charm...

Or something like that.

I have lost my pointy little mind. I have three entries in this week's round of FanLit. I did my best when I wrote only one. This should tell me, I suppose, that the later I come up with an idea, the more dilute it is. Or, maybe it just means I've been obsessing. Again.

Ahem.

I turned in the manuscript Cerridwen Press requested finally. We'll see if it floats. I love that story. I love those characters. It's a contemporary romantic suspense with, of course, a cop hero and a sort of Ugly Ducklingesque heroine. I'm great with characters, if I do say so myself. Plot is my weakness. I tend to get halfway or three-quarters of the way through a book and go "aiieee" and my plot sort of flounders around until I find it again.

Yes, I'm working on it.

I worked on it a lot when I revised this book. I hope it worked.

I have a proposal to send off before a friend kicks me, and then I'm back to work on finishing promised books.

OH!

I will soon hit 100 posts on this, my blog. I'm thinking I'll put together a Halloween basket type thing to give away on that post. So stay tuned!

The (Neurotic) state of the author.

All right. So I have now given up three weeks of my life pretty much entirely to FanLit. And we're gearing up for week four.

Yes, I've submitted a chapter. I've hit that stage after clicking 'confirm submission' where a couple of not-so-stellar scores have come in and I'm staring at the screen thinking 'what have I done?!'

I mentioned before that this is brutal. But it really is. This is the submission/rejection game of publishing on a very condensed scale. It takes a special kind of idiot person to put themselves through this once. Here I go with try number four.

One good thing that it has taught me is that I can still roll with the punches. And that there really are an awful lot of good people out there in writer-land to make up for all the people who aren't so great.

But I can't hover around FanLit forever. I have books to turn in. Back to the grindstone.

A fetching shade of bruised.

Man, this is brutal. Laura, who's been keeping me company for the past couple of weeks, through the FanLit madness, said something to the effect that published authors don't have to go through this kind of up-and-down rollercoastering, and I think she's right. It's like the Romance Idol thing they've been doing at National for the past couple of years. Step right up and take your licks.

The winners are announced tomorrow at noon-ish EST. Then begins round 4. Three more weeks of this insanity.

In other news, I won second place in San Francisco's Heart to Heart contest with In The Blood, in the paranormal category. I cannot wait to see what the editor had to say about the book.

More about the contest...

I know, I know people are probably tired of hearing about it now, but:

I made the top ten in Round Three, too. I'm happy dancing again. Hopefully this time my celebration plans will not be interrupted by parking lot fender benders.

Woohoo!

Octoberfest!

It's October! That means that we get to start celebrating Octoberfest, over at Cobblestone Press. No, no, not a lot of beer-drinking, but lots of fantastic books.

The ones I'm most excited about are, predictably, the Vegas Magic series written by Shelli Stevens, Loribelle Hunt and myself. It's a trilogy involving three friends who are all witches and the trouble they get into in a Las Vegas casino on Halloween.

Shelli's book comes out first, this Friday. Lori's is out this week and mine will be out October 20th. Here's hoping that you all enjoy all three. Can't beat the covers.

Need proof? Check them out:




We're also having a contest. You can get all the details on that over on Shelli's site. Good luck!

I think I'm going to out myself.

You know, I've been sort of kind of circumspect about myself over at FanLit. I sign my posts with a different name. I think I've slipped up a couple of times in sending email responses to people and left my blog information on, but mostly I don't tell people who I am.

And I've been thinking about why that is and what I'm hiding. And I think I'm going to stop.

There's no reason for me to hide. I read over the rules many many times before I threw my hat into that particular ring. I'm not employed by Avon (no matter how many times I've sent submissions to them) so I'm kosher. So why hide?

I think it's because I felt like other people would think it unfair if someone published, even epublished, were playing along with all the other hopefuls. Obviously, being published guarantees nothing. I went from 100th place in the first round to 2nd in the 2nd round, but second is not first. I didn't win. That honor goes to Lacey. So what do I have to be afraid of?

Nothing.

No more hiding.

The next batch of finalists gets announced tomorrow. We'll see if I make it to the finalists circle again.