Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The Free Books Continue
Three Ink Jockeys are back in the saddle---participating in another book giveaway, December 12 and 13. Check out www.freepartay.com for titles by Rebecca York, Patricia Rosemoor and Dana Marton, along with dozens of free books by other authors you want to read.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
We Have a Winner!
Congratulations to Ada Hui, the winner of the Book Derby $25 gift certificate. When we asked her about herself, she said, "My passions are reading
romance novels and sports - hockey is tops."
Friday, December 7, 2012
Bargains Continue
Thanks for participating in the Book Derby. Many of the books below are still 99 cents.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Welcome to the Book Derby!
The champions are out of the gate! Ink Jockeys announce their first ever . . .
BOOK DERBY
All books FREE or 99 Cents
TWO DAYS ONLY: December 5 and December 6
All books written by bestselling, award-winning, traditionally published authors who have broken out of the starting gate to publish independently. Join us at the ticket window.
WIN A $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD*
SCROLL ON DOWN. FILL YOUR KINDLE
Don't forget to send a few as gifts! You can specify delivery date on Amazon, so your gift is received at Christmas! Don't have a Kindle? Check out Amazon's FREE reading apps
CLICK ON THE LINK
BELOW THE COVER
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE & PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE -- 99c
ROMANCE -- 99c or FREE
THRILLER -- 99c
SHORT STORIES -- 99c or FREE
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE -- FREE
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PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE -- FREE
*We love to hear from our readers so please leave a comment. If you include the email address where you can be notified, you will be entered into the gift card drawing. The winner will be selected through Random Org. By entering, you understand that you may be added to Ink Jockey member's mailing lists. Your address will not be given to others and if you later decide you don't want to continue, feel free to unsubscribe.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Going It Alone... Or Not
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| Jenna Ryan |
I think I've been shy since I was born. So naturally, I had no idea there was such a thing as a writers' group. That being other people with similar goals who will listen, understand, commiserate and support as needed. When I decided to pen my first Harlequin Intrigue, all I had were the standard guidelines and a deep well of hope. Oh, and I was also madly in love with Dark Shadows, Frank Langella's Dracula and just about every Alfred Hitchcock movie out there.
But first things first. Before I jumped into the writing pool, I read as many Intrigues as I possibly could. I knew I'd struck gold when I picked up Anne Stuart's Hand In Glove. There it was, my idea of the perfect Intrigue. It was this story that prompted me to go dark and spooky. I set my first Intrigue in a Massachusetts wax museum, followed the guidelines, boxed up my 70,000 plus word manuscript and sent it off to New York. Four nail biting months and one horrific postal strike later, I figured that poor manuscript was probably lying in pieces at the bottom of a Dumpster. Imagine my shock when, out of the blue, I got 'the phone call'. Harlequin wanted my book! Was I good or what?
Well, let's say I was good enough for the moment. But tastes change, and a few years later, I wasn't the flavor of the month any more. Ouch, that hurt. It also completely undermined my confidence. Maybe I couldn't write after all. Maybe the whole thing had been a huge cosmic joke. I have to say, it was a great relief when the publishing wheel began to turn for me again.
It took a while, but in time I found one of those writers' groups I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, I was still so very shy -- which is frustrating but difficult to overcome. Thank God for on-line connections and Patricia Rosemoor in particular. She invited me to join a really great group -- which led to another and another and -- you get the idea.
In the traditional publishing world, my 32 Intrigues have run the gamut from Jack the Ripper to a Paris Puppet Theater. Two of my Intrigues earned the Romantic Times Certificate of Excellence. Two others were named Best Intrigue of the Year. I've also been honored with a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Romantic Mystery.
Although I haven't self-published a book yet, I'm excited to let everyone know that my very dark, supernatural, romantic thriller, THE ARISING will be ready to go in early 2013.
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| Available at Amazon.com |
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| Coming March 5, 2013 |
For anyone who has recently connected with the Ink Jockeys site, have fun checking out the Book Derby, December 5 & 6 with its Prizes, Discounts and Free Books. You won't be disappointed!
A Scary and Exciting Time
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Patricia Rosemoor |
I’m really happy to be able to make my backlist available to readers, who might not have caught those stories the first time around. I can't tell you how many times I've had readers ask me how to get titles they missed. I have a large backlist both of my Patricia Rosemoor titles, but also novels written with a co-author as Lynn Patrick, Jeanne Rose and Roslynn Griffith. Samhain is publishing most of the Lynn Patrick backlist, and Lynn Patrick is once more appearing at Harlequin for their new Heartwarming line. Backlist Jeanne Rose titles are available again at Amazon, BN and Smashwords.
My first novel was a young adult romance. It won the 1983 Golden Heart for Best Young Adult Romance. Unfortunately, I wasn’t at the RWA National Conference that year. A chapter mate called me to tell me I'd won and that the editor of Silhouette Young Love was saying that I was her new author. I had submitted the book to her and had done a rewrite to lengthen it, but the editor hadn’t called or written to say she wanted the book. So I waited for the call. And waited. And waited. And then gave up.
Three weeks after the conference, the editor finally called and asked if she’d made me an offer. I said no. She said she wanted to buy the book and hoped that I would accept her offer...because she’d already put it in production. A CHANGE OF HEART (by “RoseAnne McKenna”) was the only young adult book I ever wrote. Books that followed were romantic comedies, long contemporary romances, paranormal romances, paranormal historical romances. I was determined to continue to be published, no matter the changing market. As I said, I keep reinventing myself.
My favorite subgenre, the type of novel that composes more than half of my backlist, is romantic suspense. I’ve written 93 published novels, sold over seven million copies worldwide. Fifty-three of those novels were Harlequin Intrigues. RT BookReviews has honored me with two awards for Best Intrigue and two Career Achievement Awards recognizing my career as a romantic suspense author.
Currently, I am writing for Entangled Publishing's Dead Sexy line. I had a little fun writing Christmas romantic mysteries -- HOLIDAY IN CRIMSON and NIGHTMARE IN CRIMSON -- by killing Santa Claus. Twice.
So far, I’ve gone indie with several of my Patricia Rosemoor backlist titles, including SEE ME IN YOUR DREAMS, TELL ME NO LIES and TOUCH ME IN THE DARK, the first three novels in my bestselling series, The McKenna Legacy. (The most requested books by my new readers.) And I’ve written one original indie romantic thriller, SKIN.
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We Ink Jockeys are all traditionally published authors who also are producing indie work, whether backlist or original titles. We've banded together, hoping to entertain you endlessly!
Watch this space for our exciting Book Derby on Wednesday and Thursday, December 5-6. We'll offer readers Kindle books ON SALE at 99¢ ... and some will even be FREE! So come back and scoop up the bargains.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Pushing the Boundaries of Imagination
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| Click here to check out all my Kindle releases! |
It's a great time to be a writer and an even greater time to
be a reader!
As an author, I have more freedom now than ever before in my
career. I can choose to publish my books however I want, push creative boundaries,
go where no wo/man has gone before (yes, I'm a Star Trek fan <g>).
This freedom doesn't only give writers choices; more
importantly, it gives readers choices. One glance at Amazon.com (and other
ebook stores) and you can see how much variety is out there; far more than any brick-and-mortar
store had space to shelve or any publisher had the resources to publish before.
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| Pushed Too Far |
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| FLEE |
Finally after twenty-five books with Intrigue, I decided it
was time to push myself a little further. Or maybe a lot. Ebooks were coming into their own, and the possibilities were endless.
I teamed up with my friend J.A. Konrath, a man known for both pushing boundaries and bringing his wacky imagination to a variety of different genres, and together we started the Codename: Chandler series, an action-packed, over-the-top series of spy thrillers staring a super assassin known only by her code name (FLEE, SPREE, and novella EXPOSED are out now, with THREE and more novellas on the way). And earlier this year, I released my solo police procedure thriller, PUSHED TOO FAR. I've been having a blast, to say the least.
Ebooks have been great for me as a writer, but that's only a
small part of why I love them. My favorite thing about my Kindle is that it makes me feel like I
did as a kid, browsing through shelves of books that seemed as vast as my
imagination and picking out whatever suits my fancy; traditionally published books, indie published books, backlist books, and hidden gems.
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| SPREE |
I teamed up with my friend J.A. Konrath, a man known for both pushing boundaries and bringing his wacky imagination to a variety of different genres, and together we started the Codename: Chandler series, an action-packed, over-the-top series of spy thrillers staring a super assassin known only by her code name (FLEE, SPREE, and novella EXPOSED are out now, with THREE and more novellas on the way). And earlier this year, I released my solo police procedure thriller, PUSHED TOO FAR. I've been having a blast, to say the least.
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| EXPOSED |
What's your favorite thing about ebooks? And what boundaries have ebooks inspired you to push, either in reading choices or in the stories you write? And lastly, are you a trekker?
Check back on Wednesday, when we'll be offering some of our
books for 99 cents and FREE, to pick out whatever –you- feel like reading and comment to win a gift card! Spread the word!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
That
sounds so good I almost impressed myself just
typing it. LOL Well, a few shiny sentences can
cover a lot of gritty truth. The above bio is my
glamor version for press releases. My path to
publication, on the other hand, was nothing if not
unglamorous. I wrote for 13 years and completed 4
books (as well as writing a lot more that didn't
get finished), before I finally received the call
from a major NY editor. I was beginning to wonder
if I was being tenacious or just too stupid to
know when to quit.
When
the editor called, I was so nervous, I was
standing by the kitchen counter with the wall
phone, my knees shaking. I sure wished for a
chair. I sure wished for some paper and pen, too,
to write down all the things she was throwing at
me, like the possibility of pen names, deadlines
and contract details. I listened to everything in
a daze, hoping I'll remember half of it. After we
hung up, I realized the phone was cordless. I
could have gone and grabbed a piece of paper and
sat down.
Everything
worked out in the end. I looooove writing, and
would spend all day doing it if I could only break
my family of the pesky habit of wanting to wear
clean clothes and eat. What's up with that? My
wonderful assistant is Toby, a 6 mos old
goldendoodle. If I have free time between books
(I'm talking about a day here), I enjoy flea
markets, gardening and going on long walks in the
woods with my husband. He's my hero. He's served
in the Army, was a volunteer medic for years for
the free ambulance, was a volunteer firefighter,
and when I lost my office job and still hadn't
sold any books yet, he offered to sell his SUV, a
car he loves beyond words, and trade it for the
cheapest clunker he could find, so I could stay
home for a few months and see if I could give
writing a little more time. It didn't come to
that. I sold my first book, SHADOW SOLDIER, a
romantic suspense novel, just in the nick of
time.
I'm so excited about being part of our BookDerby on Dec. 5-6 and giving away a ton of 99c and FREE Kindle books for readers. How is that for a bargain? Make sure to check back in with us!
Dana Marton
Friday, November 30, 2012
THE COMFORT ZONE
It's a lovely place to be, isn't it? Wearing the same soft, pilly sweater, eating the same fat-loaded comfort foods, seeing the same friends, even writing the same types of books.
I published my first romantic suspense with Harlequin Intrigue in 2001. Since then I've written 32 books for Intrigue. My next Intrigue is Cover Me, an anthology I wrote with Rita Herron and Joanna Wayne, on shelves in March of 2013. I love writing for Intrigue. To me it still seems like a dream and it's definitely a dream come true.
But as much as I love writing romantic suspense, I also love writing other genres of romantic fiction--paranormal romance, contemporary romance and even historical romance.
My fellow authors and I will be offering a ton of 99¢ and FREE Kindle books for readers. Come grab some spectacular books at prices that can't be beat.
I'd love to hear if any of you have stepped out of your comfort zone lately. It's a brave and daring thing to do (in my opinion) and I applaud you for doing it.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Paula Graves, Living Vicariously
I've always wanted to be interesting, but apparently I lack the drive or the internal resources for it. I'm ruthlessly average, a bit on the nerdy side, and my life is so ordinary it even puts me to sleep.
So how on earth did I come to write romantic thrillers for a living?
I figure, the next best thing to doing something exciting is writing about it. I'm too afraid of heights to stand on a chair, but that doesn't keep my heroines from dangling thirty feet from a truss bridge in a hallucinatory state. Fire scares the heck out of me, but I've been known to stick a hero in a burning house trying to open a nailed-shut trap door to save the heroine.
When I was a kid, my play time was all about pretending to be something I wasn't. I guess writing books is the grown-up equivalent to playing pretend for me.
I've always thought of writing as a fun sort of therapy, in which I deal with my neuroses by living them out on page and winning. I get thrills through my characters, who get to do the interesting, exciting, and important things that I'll probably never get the chance to do. Like take on a Mexican drug lord and fall in love with a smokin' hot cowboy.
My December story, "Wyatt" is part of a Harlequin Intrigue Christmas anthology called THREE COWBOYS. My co-conspirators, Julie Miller and Dana Marton, wrote the first two stories, and mine wraps up the overarching mystery. It's a tale about three brothers, estranged by time and circumstance, who join forces when the little sister they never knew existed is kidnapped by a ruthless drug cartel just a few days before Christmas. There's plenty of danger and thrills, but there's also a heart-warming story about a family finding its way back together at a time of year when family and forgiveness take center stage.
I also have three indie e-books available now, books I chose to publish myself in order to help them find an audience. Talk about living vicariously—one of them actually features a former President's daughter seeking help and protection from the former Secret Service agent who once protected her. Check them out on my website:
So here's my question for you. Do you read books to meet interesting people?
Don't forget to watch for our upcoming Book Derby! Lots of free and 99¢ books up for grabs! Don't miss it!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Connie Flynn. Starting Over . . . and Over
As we move through life making plans then dealing with what actually happens, we often fail to notice how frequently we start over. That got me thinking about my writing career, the one I decided to pursue after I got to work one day and learned my boss and all my peers were being laid off. I was the only one left and not long for that world, either, I realized, so I began looking for other work.
That took me to fiction writing, novels actually, and I wrote a romance that was sold to Harlequin Superromance, the second publisher I'd sent it to. I was elated. I was on my way. Harlequin was, of course, going to buy everything I wrote, and when you stop laughing I'll tell you what this recollection brought with it.
First, I think I always wanted to be a writer, I just didn't know it. Back in the fourth grade I had this wonderful inspiring teacher who encouraged the class to write fiction and share their stories. I wrote about Suzie and Jimmy, siblings who solved mysteries and had a black cat that had undergone a white hair examination in order to become a Halloween cat. Anyway, I quickly became a superstar in this small fourth grade class and the other kids couldn't wait to read the next Suzie and Jimmy installment.
Everyone, that is, except my best friend, Bonnie (isn't that cute, it rhymes) who told me without any sugar coating that she didn't understand why I kept writing about these same stupid people. Apparently, I didn't understand either because I don't remember ever writing another story that year.
Fast forward twenty years on an afternoon when I just finished reading a dark Phyllis Whitney gothic romance. The story grabbed me and when I finished I decided I wanted to write like that. Typewriters weren't household items in those days and the personal computer was just an spark in the brains of future Microsoft founders, so I grabbed a spiral notebook and put it all down by hand. I wrote. I crossed out. I scribbled over old writing, I strived to write new . . . and better. Eventually I decided my writing was crap. Who was I to think I could ever write like Phyllis Whitney?
It never occurred to me to ask myself where that voice came from. Echoes of Bonnie I now think, but the page binder got stuck in a bottom drawer, not to see daylight for nearly ten years when I moved. While packing, I found the binder, started reading the pages – no easy task since the handwriting was often illegible – and discovered the writing really wasn't all that bad. It needed rewriting, yes, but it wasn't crap.
Which circles me back to the beginning of this blog, when my working life was thrown into "starting over." I started over once again, still using a binder and ruled paper. Then I bought an almost leading edge personal computer, (256k of RAM) although I didn't spring for the hard drive. I got an employee discount from the company that would later lay me off.
That's when I really started over. I went into writing novels for the money (okay, you can laugh again) but it soon became a calling and that's when I realized that the rest of my life would be a series of "starting over." I wrote ten traditionally published novels and each book entailed "starting over." Publishing began changing in the blink of an eye. Editors jumped ship with nowhere to land, expectations changed and the bean counters finally got control.
That's when I realized that independent publishing was a world where I had some control and I met the wonderful Ink Jockeys and together we are helping each other thrive by publishing independently. Life remains a series of "starting over." Only now I wouldn't have it any other way.
COMING SOON! WATCH FOR OUR BOOK DERBY!
PRIZES! DISCOUNTS! FREE BOOKS
Contact Connie:
Amazon author page: http://amazon.com/author/connieflynn
Blog: http://imaginationgonewild322.blogspot.com/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/ConnieFlynnAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnieFlynn
Email: connieflynn@yahoo.com
Website: http://connieflynn.com
From the Author:
The books of Connie Flynn, a bestselling, award-winning author of ten novels and several short stories, are getting some positive attention from eBooks readers these days. She writes in several genres, including paranormal romance, romantic comedy and romantic action/adventure, contemporary fantasy, and mystery/suspense. Look for several more new releases from her in 2013.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Ginger Chambers
Ginger Chambers’ writing specialty
is Contemporary Romance. She’s been
writing and selling romances for most of
her adult life. First for Dell Publishing and then for Harlequin. “I’ve always been a romantic,” Ginger says. “And
I read hundreds and hundreds of romances before starting to write. I truly do
love romance!”
Of Ginger’s 33 plus books, she wrote one Candlelight (sweet) Romance,
three Candlelight Ecstasy (spicy) romances, four Candlelight Ecstasy Supreme
romances (longer versions of the Ecstasy romances), eleven Harlequin American
romances, two books in the highly popular Welcome
to Tyler series--the first continuity series Harlequin created--(written by
different authors, with a single mystery running throughout twelve books), two
books in the follow-up continuity series, Hometown
Reunion (also set in Tyler), and ten Superromances, seven of which were
Ginger’s own continuity series within Superromance, The West Texans. Three of Ginger’s Superromances were also re-edited
and re-published by Harlequin for their new Heartwarming series.
Coming soon on Ink Jockeys: Ginger
Chambers venture into e-publishing. “I’ve found it so sad over the years that
series books have had such a short shelf life. But now, with the advent of
e-publishing, series writers are able to bring their past books to life again.
How wonderful for both readers and writers!”
Learn more about Ginger at her blog,
http://gingerchambers.wordpress.com and on her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/GingerChambersAuthor
Watch
this space for our exciting Book Derby on December 5-6. Come scoop up some
bargains!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Rebecca York Goes for the Far Out
She’s written more than seventy-five RS novels, all populated with guys who can only be tamed by the love of a good woman. One of her latest projects is her indie series, Decorah Security, where all the agents have paranormal powers or take on paranormal cases. Frank Decorah, the crusty old Navy SEAL who owns the agency, had his own run-in with the weird and dangerous not long after he lost his leg in a commando raid, which is why he keeps an open mind to otherworldly possibilities. His agents include werewolves Cole Marshall (DARK MOON) and Zack Marshall (HOT AND DANGEROUS), a very sexy ghost named Matt Houseman (CHAINED), and Ben Walker, who can touch the dead and get their last memories (DARK POWERS). Rebecca loves getting inside the heads of these alpha-male heroes, pairing them with strong women, and putting the two of them in danger. Their reward for defeating the bad guys is their own HEA.
A USA Today best-selling novelist, Rebecca is a recipient of RWA's Centennial Award. She has written for many traditional publishers. Her werewolf Moon series was previously published by Berkley, with new stories coming out in the Decorah Security Series. She also writes for Harlequin Intrigue, including her long-running 43 Light Street series, set in Baltimore, and has started a fantasy romance series (the Chronicles of Arandal) for Carina Press as well as a romantic suspense series for Sourcebooks which will be published in Fall of 2013. She is the winner of a PRISM Award, two RT BOOK REVIEWS Career Achievement Awards, 5 New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Awards, and the 2012 Mentoring Award of Washington Romance Writers. Two of her books were RITA finalists. Learn more about Rebecca York at her Web site, www.rebeccayork.com or drop by her blog, www.onromancewriting.com Her Twitter handle is @rebeccayork43. She’s on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rebecca-York/122426234846?ref=hl
Watch this space for our exciting Book Derby on December 5-6. We'll be offering a ton of 99¢ and FREE Kindle books for readers. Come scoop up some bargains.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Hang out with the Ink Jockeys!
WHO ARE WE?
We are bestselling/award-winning authors with top notch books from major publishers.
With 426 sold books and 43 awards among us, we’ve hit every single bestseller list many times over.
We love our readers and our readers love us.
Contemporary and historical romance, suspense and thrillers, romantic suspense, paranormal, fantasy, horror, woman's fiction, young adult and science fiction. What’s your favorite?
Subscribe to our blog, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. It’ll be worth it! We do regular FREE giveaways and 99cent days. We will be giving away a $25 amazon gift certificate soon!
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