UPDATE: The winner of SIMPLY FORBIDDEN by Kate Pearce is elaing8. Congrats! Please send your physical addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net.
::happy dance:: The weekend has arrived, finally! Time to break out the wine, turn off the morning alarm (and that super annoying but very necessary back up alarm) and catch up with my BFFs. But before I, and hopefully you, start the festivities, let's catch up on the news of the week.
Report from Cyberspace:
CLIENT NEWS: New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series, Rachel Caine, was featured in a Fort Worth Weekly cover story and the El Paso Times. Great back story on how this prolific author pushed past the bumps in the road throughout her 20-year career and is now enjoying major success - Fort Worth Weekly, El Paso Times
In keeping with the inspiration theme, Wordserve Literary agent Rachelle Gardner wrote a through-provoking post on pushing past your limitations to discover strengths and talents that you didn't even realize you had - Rants and Ramblings
Notable news from Amazon this week. They report ebooks are selling faster than paperbacks ahead of schedule, and paperback sales are also rising. However, overall earnings missed expectations in the fourth quarter, which the company attributes to investments in infrastructure and technology - Publishers Weekly
Tired of searching around in your purse or briefcase for a pen and paper when the missing puzzle piece to your dark and twisty plot strikes? Well there's an app for that. Or several - MediaBistro
It was only a matter of time. The anonymous writer of O: A PRESIDENTIAL NOVEL was exposed (legal note: allegedly) as Mark Salter, former aide and speechwriter for John McCain. I only mention this because I'm curious. In a world where we want to know EVERYTHING, all the time, as fast as possible, can any author stay anonymous if enough people want to find out who they are? I think those days fell away the first day someone typed, "www..." -- Washington Post
Freelance writer and aspiring author Danica Davidson alerted us to her informative article on the Guide to Literary Agents blog about what lessons she's learned on her journey to publication, and we were happy to provide a linkity link (Disclosure: I stole this term from Nephele Tempest, but I don't think she has a copyright on it, and she's really nice AND we work together -- so it should be all right) - Guide to Literary Agents ________________________________________
Today's freebie is SIMPLY FORBIDDEN by Kate Pearce. Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced on Monday.
The 411: Lisette Delornay-Ross is used to belonging to two worlds—her father Philip’s aristocratic circles and her mother, Helene’s more risqué sexual empire. When she meets Major Lord Gabriel Swanfield, she is instantly attracted to him and more than willing to engage in her usual brand of flirtation. Scarred both physically and mentally by his sojourn in the Peninsular army, Gabriel lives a solitary existence on the fringes of London society.
Although he is willing to indulge Lisette in an erotic affair, Gabriel has surprisingly strong views about marriage. But despite herself, Lisette understands Gabriel’s conventional desires all too well. Should she give into his demands and become the perfect society wife he thinks he wants, or try and persuade him otherwise? As both of them try to provide the other with what they believe is the answer to their dilemma, they discover that love has a way of making the most unconventional of lifestyles work after all.
UPDATE: The winner of MOUTAIN MIDWIDE is Linda Henderson. Congrats! Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.
Thank goodness the weekend is finally here! It was really tough getting back into the grove after Snowpocalypse. One would think a break from driving into work would leave you refreshed. However, I can attest it makes you hit your snooze button 10 more times than usual and forces you to play incredibly loud music to keep yourself awake on the road. So, onto the news and the giveaway. Happy Friday! I hope everyone has great plans!
Report from Cyberspace:
CLIENT NEWS: Cassie Miles's MOUNTAIN MIDWIFE hit the USA Today list at the #67 spot. WTG Cassie! (Don't forget to check out the freebie below, we're giving away a copy!)
The Mystery Writers of America revealed nominees for the Edgar Awards. I'm definitely coveting several of these titles, including the much talked about CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER by Tom Franklin. I see a bookstore trip inserting its way into my weekend plans... - Mystery Writers of America
Is the emaciated book review arena actually packing on a few pounds? Galley Cat reports that the Washington Post will expand its book review coverage -Galley Cat
Who cares about that stinkin' iPad with all is fancy bells and whistles? Not Amazon. A Barclays analyst reports the online retail giant will sell 12 million Kindles this year - eBookNewser
Would you like one space or two with that paragraph? I have often bemoaned the email with two spaces between each sentence. Why? Why!!!?? Apparently Slate writer Farhad Manjoo agrees. Good man - Slate via Nathan Bransford ---------------------------------------------------------------- This week, we're giving away a copy of MOUNTAIN MIDWIFE by Cassie Miles. Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced on Monday morning.
The 411 on MOUNTAIN MIDWIFE: Kidnapped, blindfolded and driven to a desolate Rocky Mountain lodge ~ for midwife Rachel Devon it's the most terrifying birth she has ever attended to. But now that the baby's mother is dead, it's up to Rachel to get the child to safety. Much to Rachel's surprise, one of the kidnappers helps her escape. Cole McClure claims to be an undercover FBI agent, though Rachel doesn't trust him for a minute. He's got that sexy bad-boy edge, the type Rachel's been burned by way too often. But Cole comes through and with a blizzard bearing down on them, with killers and cops hot on their trail, they team up to find this innocent baby a home. And try to resist temptation when they're "forced" to share a bed through the cold winter nights….
We had an awesome time at Stephanie Rowe's chat event last night. The author shared details about her writing journey and gave fab advice to aspiring and established authors. We also announced the winners of her Kiss At Your Own Risk Contest, and threw in a few more fun give aways. The chat transcript link is below, as well as a list of the winners. If you are a winner, please make sure you contact us at Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net with your physical address.
Grand Prize Winner of $100 Amazon Gift Card: Piper Bayard
Runner-up Winners of Stephanie's latest release, KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK: Casey H, Blaze, Sabrina Shields, Intense Whisper, Heidi and Cynthia Murphy.
Chat with Stephanie Rowe TONIGHT @ 9pm ET + Just a few hours left to enter her $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!
Stephanie Rowe, author of KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK, is the featured guest in our chat room tonight. We are so excited about talking to Stephanie and learning about her experiences as a published author. Some of her past titles include, DATE ME BABY ONE MORE TIME and MUST LOVE DRAGONS, from the Immortally Sexy series, as well as her romantic suspense books CHILL and ICE. Besides great conversation, we are also announcing the winner of her $100 Amazon gift card giveaway. And there will be a few more surprise giveaways tossed in for chat attendees.
Remember there's just a few more hours to enter Stephanie's $100 Amazon Card giveaway! It ends at 1pm ET. You can Tweet, update your FB status, email Contests@KnightAgency.net with your entry or leave a comment on The Knight Agency blog in the official contest post! Read the contest web page for more details.
WHAT: Chat with Stephanie Rowe WHEN:TONIGHT - Thursday, January 20th at 9pm ET WHERE: The Knight Agency Chat Room, http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=115545 HOW TO CHAT: Enter any combination of username and password. Login. Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.
Don’t miss the Pleasure Me With Romance blog event running January 17th through March 1st. Monica Burns is hosting 35+ historical romance authors with posts from bestsellers like Sabrina Jeffries, Madeline Hunter, Lorraine Heath, Lisa Valdez, Julianne MacLean, Sarah MacLean, Monica McCarty, Hannah Howell, Lucy Monroe and many more.
And you won’t want to miss the upcoming two-part interview with JAYNE ANN KRENTZ (Amanda Quick)!!
Stephanie Rowe is celebrating the release of the first book in her Soulfire series, with the KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK Contest. The grand prize is a $100 Amazon gift certificate. There are four ways to enter (including leaving a comment in THIS post!), and Knight Agency newsletter subscribers will receive triple points. Deets below, and Good Luck!
Share the riskiest thing you've done for love, or what someone has risked for you via Twitter or Facebook status updates, commenting on The Knight Agency's official KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK Contest blog post, or emailing Contests@KnightAgency.net with your entry.
The contest period begins on Monday, January 17th at 12:01am Eastern Standard Time and ends on Thursday, January 20th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. The winners will be randomly drawn and announced at Stephanie Rowe's author chat on Thursday, January 20th @ 9pm ET in The Knight Agency chat room.
1. Twitter entries must be contained to one Tweet and contain the hashtag #KissRisk.
2. Facebook entries must be also be contained to one status update and contain the hashtag #KissRisk. Facebook entrants must email Contests@KnightAgency.net with a link to their page so that the entry can be verified by the Contest Adminstrator.
Friends of Stephanie Rowe on Facebook and publicly viewable Facebook accounts can enter. If you are not Stephanie's Facebook friend. or if your account is not publicly viewable -- you cannot enter the contest using Facebook because we will be unable to view your page and verify your entry.
3. Visit www.KnightAgency.blogspot.com and leave a comment in the blog noted as the "Official Kiss at Your Own Risk Contest Post."
4. Email Contests@KnightAgency.net with your entry and "Kiss Risk Contest" in the subject line.
- You can use each entry method one (1) time for up to four (4) entries.
- You can repeat your answer to the question each time you enter. (For example, you could say "I eloped after knowing my husband for only one week. #KissRisk" on Twitter. Then you could repeat the exact same entry on Facebook, The Knight Agency blog and send it via email.)
- As a special bonus, subscribers to The Knight Agency newsletter will receive triple points for their entries. If you are a newsletter subscriber, email Contests@KnightAgency.net with the locations of your entries and the usernames/handles you used to receive credit. If you subscribe to the newsletter anytime during the contest, you can also receive triple points. Sign up here: newsletter link.
UPDATE: The winner of KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK by Stephanie Rowe is Kirsten. Congrats! Please send your addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net. For everyone else (and Kirsten too), you'll definitely want to check out Stephanie's KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK in the blog post above.
It's the best day of the week! Well, except for the fact that the weekend's been stuck on repeat for the past five days around here. Who knew you could have too much of a good thing!?
In the Atlanta-area, the Snowpocalypse shut everything down. The local Starbucks was running dangerously low on coffee, the 24-hour Walmart was open for less than 10 hours a day, and driving became hazardous to your health. All the while, Northerners rolled their eyes as we boo-hooed over a few inches of snow. To be fair, if you don't have the equipment beautiful white fluffy flakes become dangerous ice patches. Just ask one of my BFFs who is now sporting crutches. Ah well. The sun is shining, and the temp is rising. So, enough snow already!
We have lots of great news to catch up on, including two New York Times bestseller hits this week for Gena Showalter and Faith Hunter. We also have a giveaway from Stephanie Rowe who will be kicking off an awesome contest in our newsletter next week, as well as chatting with us on Thursday, January 20th @ 9pm ET. Without further ado...
REPORT FROM CYBERSPACE:
CLIENT NEWS: Faith Hunter's urban fantasy, MERCY BLADE, appeared on the extended New York Times list at #24. Also, the mass market reprint of Gena Showalter's DEEP KISS OF WINTER anthology, co-authored by Kresley Cole, hit the #35 spot on the list. WTG ladies!
CLIENT NEWS: Linda Gerber's DEATH BY BIKINI was named an ALA 2011 Popular Paperbackin the Thrillers & Chillers category.
Does Digital Rights Management (DRM) really protect against savvy book pirates, or is it just a way to keep you from sharing your favorite new release with your Aunt Matilda? Shatzkin investigates DRM's effectiveness and its impact on sales - The Shatzkin Files
Authors Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo launched a new YA site celebrating diversity in young adult fiction - Diversity in YA
Eric at Pimp My Novel tells publishers to get hip to the game of managing their own brands before they get lost in the shuffle. - Pimp My Novel
In heartwarming news, a recently release report shows ebook sales rose 130% in November - eBooknewser
But then there's layoff news from Borders... Hey, at least I softened the blow with some good news first, right? - Publishers Weekly
I can't go anywhere online without seeing Amy Chua defending her book, THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER. Though I personally think denying your child bathroom breaks until they get a piano piece correct is erring on the side of crazy (not to mention messy), you can't deny there's something to be said for demanding excellence from your kids. But as a single, kid-less woman I'm on the outside looking in. Happily. What do you think? - Washington Post
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This month, Stephanie Rowe released the first book in her Soulfire series, KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK. To celebrate, we're planning a major book party blowout in the chat room with the author on Thursday, January 20th @ 9pm ET. We're also hosting an fab contest for her next week, starting on Monday. The grand prize is a $100.00 Amazon gift card, so you'll definitely want to check back with us to get the details. As a pre-game warm-up, we're giving away one copy of KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on Monday morning.
The 411 on KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK: He needed a killer woman...
Blaine Underhill is one lucky man after having recently escaped a century and a half of imprisonment at the hands of an evil witch. Now he's determined to save his still-enslaved friend, but in order to do so, he'll need the help of one of the world's most lethal women.
She was drop dead gorgeous, literally...
Trinity Harpswell is sick and tired of being a Black Widow. Having managed to go three years without accidentally killing anyone she loves, she's one short week away from freeing herself from this killer curse forever.
When Blaine tracks her down and convinces her to help him, little does Trinity know that the next seven days are going to be murder!
Happy hump day, everyone! Aside from being Wednesday, it's also the second Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for me to answer a few of your burning questions.
For those of you who haven't played along before, you all post your questions about getting an agent, publishing, writing and so on in the comments of this thread. Then I'll come back some time later tonight or early tomorrow morning and answer a few of them--at least three, more if I can. If you're new to this, you might also like to check the blog archives for the last couple of Q&As, since your question might already have been answered.
So, let me have them? What would you like to me to chat about to kick off this brand new year? (And don't forget to check back for answers!)
Happy New Year, everyone! We're starting 2011 off with a new First Impressions critique. If you would like the opportunity for one of your projects to be critiqued, please see the details below. And please feel free to add your own comments and thoughts. Here's hoping the new year is fruitful for all!
Title: Now and Then
Genre: Chick Lit/Romance Author: Jen Baggiero
It's very rare that Emily Hayes has to remind herself why exactly Nicole Wright is her best friend. (I do think this would be a bit more engaging if it was first person point-of-view.)
“I just don't know,” Nikki's voice drifts out from her fitting room. Her voice is filled with consternation and Em can practically see the pose Nikki's striking in the mirror: lips pursed in concentration, head tilted to the side, and one hip jutted out to the side. (Repetitious with "side".) They've been at the bridal shop for three hours now, the other bridesmaids sitting patiently on the couch as Em continues jiggling her knee agitatedly. She started when they passed the one hour mark and hasn't stopped since.
This is Nikki's show, Em tells herself chidingly, her inner voice sounding entirely too much like her mother for comfort. It's going to be her wedding day, her wedding pictures, and this is her wedding dress that's going to be at the center of everything come January. It's a Big Deal and even in her thoughts, the words sound capitalized. (Not a bad phrase because I get what you're trying to do but it just reads oddly to me.)
She left those thoughts behind at the two-hour mark. The other bridesmaids are giggly, huddled together on the maroon what is that squishy material called(perhaps trying too hard to be cute?)couch, still sharing the bottle of champagne that the bridal attendants had dropped by in an ice bucket back when they'd all thought that this would be a short, relatively painless process. (Why is she not with them?)
“Okay!” Nikki's voice exclaims. Em hears a loud clap and imagines Nikki nod decisively. The dressing room door flies open to reveal Nikki in a frothy concoction of white lace and beading. The dress's skirt (tangled around Nikki's legs) (I'm not one for parenthesis in text, you can easily separate this with em dashes.) rises from a bell shape up to a satin sweetheart neckline embellished with iridescent crystal beading. If dresses were bicycles, this would be the bright pink one, with a flowered wicker basket, silver sparkling streamers, and a bell.(Nice description.)
My thoughts: Overall, I thought this was a clever opening and put me in the mind of the protagonist; she so obviously does not want to be there. Good hook to draw the reader further into the book.
Okay, this is totally personal opinion, but I'm not one for present tense. It distances me from the story rather than drawing me in which I believe is the ultimate point. Do others feel that way or is it just an odd quirk of mine? I mean, I put a book down if it starts this way it's that hard for me to get involved. And this book could so easily be fine in past tense. Usually chick lit is first person as well.
I do think the writer could tone down her descriptions. I'd like to know more how her protagonist feels rather than just what she's seeing.
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To enter First Impressions, email your first page (300 words or less) to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net with “First Impressions” in the subject line. Include the title and genre in the email, as well as the name you wish us to use when referring to you publicly. All genres are welcome. Do not send your entry as an attachment; it must be within the body of the email. Winners are randomly selected using www.random.org. **Disclaimers, Rules, Stipulations, What Not, and All That Jazz: By emailing your entry to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net, you agree to have your first page posted on our blog for critique. Entrants will remain in the selection queue indefinitely, so your number could come up tomorrow or two years from now. Such is life. We will drop you a line if your email is pulled out of the hat. Maybe. It’s best to just swing by our blog often and check things out, no? Winning a first page critique does not in any way indicate an interest or offer of representation by The Knight Agency, and we reserve the right to delete any material that we find improper or offensive. Though we encourage blog readers to offer positive, thoughtful feedback, we cannot control their opinions with Imperius Curses. However, we will promptly banish nasty, mean-spirited comments to the outer limits of cyberspace. Dontcha wish you could do that with people in real life? Addendum (11/03/2010): In order to give everyone a fair chance, only one entry is allowed per person. If you've submitted more than one first page, your initial email will be added to the queue; however, subsequent emails have been deleted.** First Impressions Schedule: February 2nd, March 2nd, April 6th, May 4th
The 411: Lisette Delornay-Ross is used to belonging to two worlds—her father Philip’s aristocratic circles and her mother, Helene’s more risqué sexual empire. When she meets Major Lord Gabriel Swanfield, she is instantly attracted to him and more than willing to engage in her usual brand of flirtation. Scarred both physically and mentally by his sojourn in the Peninsular army, Gabriel lives a solitary existence on the fringes of London society.
