On the Road Again, Plus Free Books!

I'm getting ready for another book tour. I did one two years ago and it was so successful that now gas prices are back down to a decent level hubby and I are taking off again in our 42' trailer for the start of my new series THE WEDDING VEIL WISHES.

Except this time we're doing something different. We're going to be doing booksignings at RV parks. Yep, instead of trying to lure readers into bookstores, we're going out to the readers. Sort of a Lori Wilde Bookmobile.

We're touring around my home state of Texas, but we're also going to be in Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama from the end of Feb to the first of May. Our travel trailer will be festooned with vinyl signs of my book covers. I'll have books to sell, but I'll also be holding parties with free refreshments, prizes, book club discussions and talks on how to get published. The hightlight of the tour is the Romantic Times convention in Houston, April 25-29th.

I'll also be giving away six handmade wedding veils. My Mom's a great semstress and she's making the veils to look like the magic wishfulfilling wedding veil from THERE GOES THE BRIDE that gets passed around between four friends.

So how can you get a wedding veil? If you're one of the first six people who see me on the road and tell me you read about the wedding veil on this blog, you win! I'll be blogging daily while on the tour at myspace blog, so you'll know when I'll be in your area. Bookmark this address. http://myspace.com/loriwilde

You can also win one if your attending the RT convention and sign up for my raffle drawing. I have a whole basket of wedding goodies for that giveaway, including a $50 spa gift certificate, wedding photo album, cake topper and much more.

My mom's in the process of sewing the veils. We'll have a picture up soon on my website at www.loriwild.com. If you know anyone who's getting married soon, past this on.

Also, I'm giving away a copy of my novella in the anthology, REAL MEN DO IT BETTER from St. Martin's Press. These stories are extremely steamy so if you don't like your stories hot, don't sign up for this one. If you don't like steamy books, don't feel left out. I'm also giving away a copy of my Harlequin special release SOME LIKE IT HOT. Yes, the book sounds steamy, but it's not. All you have to do is post in the comments section that you'd liked to be entered in the drawing for the books. I'll draw names on Saturday and post the winner in the comments section of this post.

Warner Authors ROCK!

Congratulations to our Warner Author Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Nominees!

Best Historical Novel

Kathryn Caskie – LOVE IS IN THE HEIR
Julie Ann Long – BEAUTY AND THE SPY
Paula Quinn – LORD OF TEMPTATION
Elizabeth Hoyt – THE RAVEN PRINCE

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel

Jacqueline Carey – Kushiel's Scion
Lilith Saintcrow – WORKING FOR THE DEVIL

Best Contemporary and Paranormal Romance

Robin T. Popp – SEDUCED BY THE NIGHT

Best Mainstream and Chick Lit Fiction

Sara Susannah Katz – WIFE LIVING DANGEROUSLY
Caprice Crane – STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS

Best Mystery and Suspense

Cornelia Read – A FIELD OF DARKNESS
Carrie Vaughn – KITTY GOES TO WASHINGTON

Best Romantic Suspense/Intrigue Novel

Annie Solomon – BLACKOUT

Best Gothic/Mystery

Eve Silver - HIS DARK KISS (Zebra, not Warner, but Eve is one of us!)

Lifetime Achievement Award

Nicholas Sparks


Way to go, Warner!!!
Offer your congratulations, too. Leave a comment.

DEAR STUPID AUTHOR

My ego always runs just a notch above empty, so I'm like a little kid at Christmas when a satisfied reader takes time to drop me a note about how much they enjoyed one of my books. A better gift I truly can't imagine.

That said, I'm also like a little kid when I hear from a DISsatisfied reader. I never know whether to put myself in time-out, or just go ahead and bend over for a good spanking.

I definitely took my spanking from a particular reader who began her correspondence with "Dear Stupid Author." The woman went on to tell me that she didn't understand why stupid authors like me made up characters readers were going to care about, then left the reader hanging wondering how those character's lives turned out.

In this particular case, the woman wasn't even talking about my MAIN characters in the book. She was talking about two secondary characters in my first Warner Forever "Dream Guy" - who were the main character's mother and the mother's much younger boyfriend.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? was my first reaction.

She wasn't kidding.

She informed me that "leaving things with Bev and Umberto moving in together at the end of the book is just plain cheating!" And she also informed me that she'd paid her good money for my book, and she felt she had every right to demand that I tell her what happened to these two characters. Did the relationship work out after they moved in together? Did they end up getting married? Did they break up? What the heck happened to them!!!!!!!

My second stunned reaction was - Lady! These are FICTIONAL characters! Get a life already!

But after a pound of chocolate and a bottle of wine later to help take some of the sting out of her biting words, it began to sink in that as angry as this reader was with me, she was actually paying me a huge compliment. If I'd really made her care so much about these two secondary characters that she felt compelled to send me such an angry e-mail, then I had to be doing something right.

Sooo, I e-mailed her back and apologized for leaving her hanging, and I simply made up an ending for these two characters whom I'd considered basically insignificant. I told her that yes, the relationship with Bev and Umberto did work out, but that they decided not to marry. Their relationship, I told her, was so good the way it was, Bev and Umberto didn't want to chance messing things up between them.

I never heard back from the woman, since she also informed me in her e-mail that she'd never read another book of mine even if someone gave it to her for FREE!

And several of my writer buddies tease me that I am a stupid author for letting this reader mentally blackmail me into making up an ending for two secondary characters, but I disagree. That's what we authors do - we make up stories about characters we hope our readers are going to love and we hopefully give the relationships of all those characters satisfying endings that don't leave the reader hanging.

And if we don't deliver . . . . well, we get an occasional nastygram. :)

So. How about you guys?

Readers - have you ever sent an author a dissatisfied note?

And authors - if you've ever received a dissatisfied note, how did you handle the situation?

Candy Halliday

More Contest!

I’m adding another contest to those Elizabeth listed in her blog of January 7^th.  We Warner Women will be giving away a ton of books in the coming months!

A new contest in now up and running at www.sharianton.com where one lucky winner will receive four autographed books: my MIDNIGHT MAGIC and TWILIGHT MAGIC, and THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN by Diane Perkins, and ON BLUE FALLS POND by Susan Crandall. A winner will be drawn from entries received by midnight on February 15^th.

Several of us have also recently put up sites on MySpace, and we’d love it for those of you who have MySpace sites to befriend us! I’m not going to list everyone separately for fear I’ll forget someone, but if you go to www.myspace.com/sharianton you’ll find most everyone’s cover in my profile’s Friends section. Feel free to hunt everyone down – kind of like a treasure hunt!

Shari

 

 

From Sarah McKerrigan...

Since I write "wife of a rock star" in my bio, I get asked constantly who my husband is. So I thought I'd solve the mystery here. I'm NOT the ladylove of Jon Bon Jovi, Sting's fling, or Bono's better half. My husband, Richard Campbell, has played bass guitar and sung for a number of classic rock bands, most notably Natalie Cole, Dave Mason, Chuck Negron, and Three Dog Night. He's also done shows with Edgar Winter, Joe Cocker, Ringo Starr and the All-Starr Band, Stephen Bishop, Andrew Gold, Al Green, Badfinger, Gary Wright, and Tiny Tim. Currently, he's touring with America...you know, "Horse With No Name," "Ventura Highway," "Sister Golden Hair"? Their new CD, "Here and Now," is hitting the stores this week, and the band appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday, January 15th, if you want to take a peek at my main squeeze! But Richard isn't the only one in the family with a rock-and-roll history. In fact, we were in a Top 40 band together in college, and when he left to tour with Natalie Cole, I got signed to CBS Records with an all-girl rock band, The Pinups! (that's me sitting down in the photo...) I also played drums in the Tom Jones video, "It'll Be Me." Now, however, I'm happy to just sing in the shower. While I'm talking about music and doing shameless plugs, I should tell you my intrepid editor at Warner, Melanie Murray, is an author in her own right! She just came out with her second book from Red Dress Ink, "Good Times, Bad Boys." It's a rock-and-roller coaster ride through the music industry, a delightful chick-lit romp that reads like a cross between "Seinfeld" and "Sex in the City." Check it out! All right, back to the Middle Ages and working on my next novel, though when I think about it, my hero in this book, an executioner, is kind of like a rock star...cool, aloof, handsome, partial to black... Sarah McKerrigan... Stories to keep you up all night! LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006 CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006 KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007

Warner Women Contests Galore!

The Wonderous Warner Women have gotten together to cross promote, which is a boon to all you contest junkies. Check out these contests on our websites (thanks to Larissa Ione for compiling the list!):

Susan Crandall runs a monthly contest (gave away a digital camera last month!) as well as offering prizes just for posting on her message board!
Kelley St. John is giving away a really nice prize basket in her contest that runs from now through February 14.
Eve Silver is giving away a copy of His Dark Kiss, a book I'm dying to read, in her January contest.
Robin T. Popp is giving away a gob (that's a real word, really) of books, including a signed copy of her latest.
Lori Wilde is giving away four books, plus a T-shirt in her contest.
Samantha Graves is giving away a beautiful set of luggage until April, on her site.
Diana Holquist is giving away several signed books by Warner authors, and all you have to do is comment.
Check out Elizabeth Hoyt's contest for autographed copies of The Raven Prince and Eve Silver's His Dark Kiss!
Just in: Paula Quinn is running two separate contests at her site.
And Marliss Melton will be kicking off her new website with a contest to give away several books, so check back at her site this week.

Bon Chance!
Elizabeth

More with Less

I'm diving into a radical experiment. Radical for my usual North American lifestyle. I've declared January, No-Buy month. That means no unecessary spending, no frivolities, no books, no c.d.'s, no movies, no books, no clothes, no books, no ice cream, no books . . . Can you see a pattern here? Books are a definite weakness and now that I have my (drum roll) high speed internet, I can go anywhere, shop anywhere and have it all shipped to our local post office. But not this month. This month I'm only buying necessary groceries, paying bills and not buying anything else. I'm foregoing the thrill of seeing a notice for a parcel in my mailbox, the excitment of going home and setting new books up on my already laden bookshelf. I've survived my first test. My favorite scrapbooking site is selling out of some of my favorite stickers. I had my pen and paper out, making a list and suddenly I realized . . . no buying. I did the same thing last year and found it a challenge and an eye-opener. I'm blogging about my experiences on my own blog,

A Few Words in the Wind

. So I've gotten through day one. Today is day two and once I've written my page quota for the day, I'm heading into town to buy groceries. My next challenge. One day at a time, I say. (And no, that's not play money I'm holding- that's cold hard, Canadian cash that I'm not going to be spending.)

Elizabeth Tries to Make a New Year’s Resolution List and Doesn’t Get to Number Four Before it All Falls Apart

Oh, my god, is it really 2007 already? Can’t we all go back to bed and give it another 24 hours or so before we decide to start a new year? No? Fine. If we must go on, I’ve got a contest up at my website just for Warner Women Blog readers. Hop on over there after you’ve read my resolutions for the new year, for a chance to win an autographed copy of The Raven Prince.

In 2007 I resolve to:

1. Smile at every baby I see. (Okay this is cheating—I already smile at every baby I see.)

2. Never wear uncomfortable shoes…no matter how sparkly they are. Even if on sale at Nordstroms.

3. Sleep less.

4. Watch every movie that has the potential to be rated for the Bare Male Chest (BMC) movie rating system. (Naturally, I only do this as a public service.)

5. Freeze the frame on the DVD to study any bare male chests I run across to make absolutely sure of their rating on the BMC. (Note: recently I was watching the second half of the first season of Battlestar Galactica and came across the scene where Apollo, played by Jamie Bamber, is wearing a towel and it slips. I’m afraid that I was forced to freeze that picture several times to ascertain exactly how far Mr. Bamber's towel slips. That particular episode rated a perfect 10 on the BMC scale, by the way.)

6. I do watch movies that don't have bare male chests in them. Just so you don’t think I’m shallow or anything.

7. Like, for instance I was watching Foyle's War the other night which has this guy, Anthony Howell, in it who makes a compelling case (to my mind) for bringing back hats on men.

8. Also, three-piece suits with ties and everything.

9. And he never even takes off his suit jacket in the series as far as I can tell. So there. Not shallow. Told you.

10. Um… Oh, and lose tons of weight, exercise, eat more Brussels sprouts, and try not to tell my husband he’s an idiot out loud. The usual.

Happy New Year!
Elizabeth
www.elizabethhoyt.com