Tag Archives: romance

How A Book Gets Its Cover

Posted on by

Vote for my historical romance covers in the JABBIC!

It’s that time of year again, when everyone gets to vote in the JABBIC Readers’ Choice contest!

What’s the JABBIC? It’s Judge A Book By Its Cover (JABBIC), a well-known contest run every year by the Houston Bay Area Chapter of Romance Writers of America. It’s a super fun way to see lots of book covers by genre: Contemporary Romance, Historical, Inspirational, Mainstream, Romantic Suspense, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Paranormal, Sexiest Cover, and Young Adult. [UPDATE: The JABBIC contest is, sadly, no longer held!]

This year I entered >four of my covers, all in the Historical Romance category:
Imperial Warriors: Two Scorching Tales of the Roman Empire
The Pleasure Device (Harwell Heirs Book 1)
Disobedience By Design (Harwell Heirs Book 2)
Where Destiny Plays (Harwell Heirs Book 3)

They are all on page 4 of the JABBIC Historical category listing, and I’d love your 5-star votes! Continue reading →

Where Destiny Plays Finally Re-Released!

Posted on by

I am beyond excited to announce the re-release of Where Destiny Plays, Book 3 in my Victorian erotic romance series, The Harwell Heirs. I am even more excited to show off the new cover: Continue reading →

Release Day! Undamaged #DFRKW

Posted on by

Finally! It’s release day for Undamaged, my contemporary firefighter romance novella!

Undamaged is part of the Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindle World, and it’s exclusive to Amazon: [UPDATE: Undamaged is now available at all retailers!]
Buy it on Amazon USA!
Continue reading →

Undamaged: Cover & Blurb Reveal! #DFRKW

Posted on by

I am happy to reveal the cover and the blurb for my upcoming contemporary romance release Undamaged, a Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindle World novella!

Undamaged is set on San Juan Island in Washington state, very close to the Canadian border. It’s a place very near to my heart. It’s pretty remote, accessible only by ferry or plane.

My firefighter hero, Royce Donovan, is sent there for rehab after a tragedy drives him to drink. My heroine, Samantha Vickers, a National Park Service historian, found her way there because of a traumatic event in her past. Continue reading →

I Met My Cover Model

Posted on by

In July, I went to San Diego for the annual conference of the Romance Writers of America. I attended sessions on the craft of writing, the business of promotion, and opportunities in publishing. I hung out with friends at the pool bar, watched a 19th-century fashion show, and attended the Hamilton sing-a-long.

I also watched a faux romance cover shoot. With the guy who’s been on three of my covers:

Imperial Warriors Cover ReginaKammer_TheGeneralsWife200 The Pleasure Device 2013 cover

Continue reading →

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part Three #notchilled

Posted on by

For an explanation of what I’m doing here, please see Part One and Part Two of this blog series. More authors and their re-released reverted titles are listed below (with another “thank you” shout out to reader Cayenne!). Let’s do something positive to support your favorite author and their ex-EC titles! Buy their books! Review their books! Spread the word about their books on social media! Continue reading →

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part Two #notchilled

Posted on by

For an explanation of what I’m doing here, please see Part One of this blog series. More authors and their reverted ex-EC titles are listed below. This time around I received help from a reader who had an extensive library of books purchased from the Ellora’s Cave website — a library that vanished during EC’s website “upgrade” (many readers had this happen). This reader, Cayenne, started keeping track of reversions and re-releases for herself, and shared the list with me. Readers are awesome. Authors would be nothing without them, and publishers should do more to recognize readers’ importance.

Now for the list. Let’s do something positive to support your favorite author and their ex-EC titles! Buy their books! Review their books! Spread the word about their books on social media! Continue reading →

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part One #notchilled

Posted on by

The publisher Ellora’s Cave has been having problems for the last couple of years. They’ve had massive layoffs, late and missed payments to authors and contractors, then, when they sued a blogger for defamation, all hell broke loose. There was mudslinging and accusations and a boycott of Ellora’s Cave books led by some pretty powerful people in the field of romance. EC authors themselves begged their fans not to buy their EC books so they could request reversion of rights based on low sales.

I want to go beyond the negativity, the “don’t”-ness of a boycott, and instead explore positive actions to support authors still trapped in the EC quagmire. Let’s get some love for your favorite EC author!
— Buy non-EC books by your favorite EC author!
— Write a review for a non-EC book by your favorite EC author!
— Blog or post on social media about non-EC books by your favorite EC author!
— Recommend non-EC books by your favorite EC author to all your reader friends! Continue reading →

Definitions: What is Erotica?

Posted on by

[UPDATE: Please also see my reprise blog post “Definitions: Erotica, Erotic Romance, Steamy Romance”]

People frequently make broad assumptions about what it is I write. Friends, family, and acquaintances snicker about my “porn”. Romance writer colleagues imbued with the cadence of traditional romance often bandy about the term “erotica” as if to signal the ugly otherness of erotic romance.

So I will attempt to answer the provocative question What is erotica? and by doing so answer corollary questions about misunderstood erotic-like literary variations: Erotic romance, steamy romance, smut, porn, and Romantica®. Continue reading →

The General’s Wife now in epub!

Posted on by

Finally, finally I was able to convert The General’s Wife: An American Revolutionary Tale into an epub edition! I had to wait until the end of its enrollment in Amazon’s KDP Select Program, because books in that program have to be exclusive to Amazon.

So now you can buy The General’s Wife for your Nook, your Kobo reader, your iPad or other Apple product, your Tolino reader, your whatever-is-not-a-Kindle! Continue reading →