Sirens Conference in Vail This Weekend

I'm heading up to the mountains on Friday for the Sirens conference. It sounds like fun. Very different from other cons I've attended. They've been really nice about having the book store order copies of my books since I'm a local author. I hadn't expected that. I though I'd just drag some up with me and sell them on consignment at the store. I'll take some extras (eternal optimist) but it will be nice for them to already be there.

http://www.sirensconference.org/

It's supposed to snow up there tomorrow, but the roads should be clear by Friday afternoon. I love driving up to the mountains but am not a fan of driving in snow. Snow on mountain roads just seems more terrifying to me, for some reason. As if no matter how far away from the edge of the cliffs I'm driving, I'll be dragged over the ledge by unseen forces.



I've been incredibly excellent about staying on my low carb eating for the last almost-9 weeks (feeling MUCH better) and I just might give myself some leeway up at the resort in Vail. I mean, how often do I get to stay in a fancy ski town hotel, surrounded by tempting opportunities to eat and drink?

I'll post my impressions of the con (hopefully my new little netbook will work) during the weekend.

Guest Blogger: Allison Paige

The winner of Allison's book is: Mary. Congraulations, Mary! Give me your contact info and I'll pass it along to Allison. Thanks to everyone who participated.

A different kind of hero

Thanks so much, Lynda for inviting me to guest blog. I’m thrilled for the opportunity to talk about my latest Harlequin Spice Briefs, RAVEN.

I have to admit this story isn’t your typical romance because the hero isn’t your typical romantic hero. He’s a demon. To be more specific he’s a non-corporeal soul eating demon. And the heroine is his enslaved Raven shape shifter huntress, forced to find him one-hundred souls and one Raven shape shifter to replace her when the last soul is captured. Not your typical romantic couple and the odds against them finding love under those circumstances are pretty steep. So when they finally do come together it’s all the more passionate because they’ve had to overcome so much.

When I sat down to write RAVEN I knew Akram, the Leshii demon hero, wasn’t going to be easy to love. The woman who loved him would have to really know him, all his faults, all his needs, and love him anyway.

As strange as it might seem, Morrigan, Akram’s Raven huntress, is in the perfect position to be that woman. No one knows Akram the way she does and with her help he can be more, better, than he ever could without her.

Morrigan isn’t without her faults and needs either. Ravens are a lot like the old gypsies, nomads roaming the world as they pleased, never having a real home anywhere. Their gifts would provide them everything they needed and more, if they could resist their carefree, wasteful urges. With Akram Morrigan has a home, a place she belongs and wants for nothing except her freedom.

One thing that makes this odd, explosive, sexy couple even more inevitably romantic is the setting. Sorrento Italy is a slice of heaven here on earth. A beautifully romantic town on the Mediterranean coast across the bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius. Anyone would be hard pressed not to fall in love there.

Old and new mix seamlessly in the scenic town, cell phone stores in buildings that stood when Julius Creaser ruled his empire and tour buses and scooters buzzing along the same volcanic stone roads chariots once rumbled over.

With cafés on every corner and some of the world’s best food, golden sunsets and warm sea breezes in RAVEN Sorrento is a character all its own. Sorrento is the perfect place for a couple who never realized what they needed most was what the other had always given them. In the end, Akram needs someone who can love him despite what he is and Morrigan needs someone who can ground her without tying her down. What they both need is trust.

RAVEN is my third Spice Briefs. I also wrote, DARK MOON GATHERING and MEDUSA’S FOLLY. But I have to admit RAVEN was my favorite to write. As seemingly insurmountable as the odds were for Akram and Morrigan to overcome the obstacles that are keeping them apart, their attraction and feelings for each other were the most undeniable. I loved bringing them together and allowing them both to find the kind of soul deep love they could only find with each other.

I’d love to hear from the blog readers some of your favorite stories where the hero wasn’t the most heroic character in the beginning and overcoming his faults made him all the more undeniable in the end.

Thanks again for having me Lynda!!!

http://www.allisonpaige.net/

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Allison's winner will be selected and posted here on Tuesday evening. Stop back by to see if you've won.

Guest Blogger: Annette McCleave

The winner of Annette's book is: RKCharron! Congrats! Send me your contact info and I'll pass it along to Annette. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Do You Believe in Second Chances?

I betting you do. Most people make mistakes — it’s human nature. Fortunately, we tend to learn from our mistakes, so failing doesn’t always mean disaster. Not that I always understood that. I was born a perfectionist — one of those high-strung people who avoid making any kind of mistake, who aim for nothing but smooth sailing all the way. It took me a long time to notice that life lessons sunk in faster when I failed (sometimes spectacularly), and that the folks who gave me a second chance weren’t just being nice, they were teaching me to get back up and try again.

Perhaps that’s why I imagined the world of the Soul Gatherers the way I did. Because we all need second chances. My Soul Gatherers are strong and capable, but imperfect — each one of them is serving a term in purgatory, trying to earn their way into heaven after making some serious mistakes in their lives. They’re sinners. On the surface, it may be hard to understand how a sinner could be a hero — but that’s where the second chance comes in.

In the Soul Gatherer world, even sins aren’t black and white. What matters is how tattered their honor is. Here’s how one of my Soul Gatherers explains it to the heroine if my debut novel, DRAWN INTO DARKNESS, Rachel:

She glanced up. “How reassuring, they pick morons to be Soul Gatherers.”

“Ouch. But for the record, Death doesn’t pick morons, just sinners. Morons don’t last long in this job.”

“Don’t all the sinners go to hell?”

“No, believe it or not, a lot of them make it into heaven. God’s big on the whole forgiveness schtick. Only the completely unredeemable souls go to hell.” He grinned. “I didn’t qualify. We Gatherers aren’t rotten enough for hell and aren’t sweet enough for heaven. We’re getting one last chance to prove ourselves.”

“I see.” Sort of. “But Gatherers are all men, right? What happens to the women who fall into a similar limbo?”

“Doomed to an eternity as high school guidance counselors, I think.”

“Very funny.”

His eyes twinkled. “Seriously? The odd woman passes muster as a Gatherer, but you’re right, most don’t. They and the guys who aren’t natural warriors end up working somewhere in Death’s bureaucracy, managing her messaging system, extracting relevant information from the huge volumes of data she collects on humans, giving us our job assignments, that type of thing.”

“Ugh.”

“Hey, no one said purgatory would be fun.”

Second chances can often turn a failure into a success. My first attempt to get published with NAL — with a manuscript titled A Dragon’s Oath -- met with a nice, but very firm No Thank You. If the editors at NAL hadn’t been willing to give me a second chance and read a later manuscript, DRAWN INTO DARKNESS would not be on store shelves proudly displaying their signet Eclipse logo today. Obviously, that’s one second chance that changed my life.

Do you have a second chance story? Did someone offer you the opportunity to turn things around — one that ended up making a huge difference in your life? Do you have a reason for believing in second chances? If you do, please share. To encourage you to wade into the conversation, I’m offering one lucky commenter a copy of my debut paranormal romance DRAWN INTO DARKNESS.

p.s. This is also a stop on my “Cross into Darkness” blog tour, so feel free to visit my website at

www.annettemccleave.com for a chance to win the tour grand prize. If you’ve been following the tour from the beginning, here’s the clue....

Paranormality clue: Second word of the two-word answer is a varied spelling of an African animal.

Good luck, and thanks for joining me today!

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The winner of Annette's book will be randomly chosen and posted here on Tuesday evening. Stop back by to see if you've won!

Boulder Writers Alliance Expo and Dexter

I'll be adding my two cents as an "expert" on September 22 at the Boulder Writers Alliance Expo. I'll be offering feedback about "Writing Genre Fiction" and "Expanding Your Creativity As a Writer Through Hypnosis." Sounds like fun. If you're going to be in the Boulder, Colorado area that day, please stop by and say hello. Here's a link:

http://www.bwa.org/showcase/showcase.htm

I just read the fourth installment in the "Dexter" novels -- Dexter by Design -- by Jeff Lindsay. So, what (you might ask) does a serial killer have todo with the paranormal? As I read these books, I'm often reminded of my favorite creatures of the night: vampires. Dexter feels most comfortable at night, he has a dark secret and he's an unrepentant predator. Sounds vampiric to me. The other three novels are: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter and Dexter In the Dark. I have no idea why books about serial killers stroke my fur, but they do. I must be even weirder than I thought. Some parts of these books makes me laugh out loud. No wonder I can't write happy endings. LOL.

Guest Blogger: Viola Estrella

Viola's winner is: Cari Quinn! Congrats, Cari. Send me your contact info and I'll pass it along to Viola. Thanks to everyone for participating.

Can a person be both practical-minded and open-minded?

I’ve always thought I had a practical mind. When life’s happenings haven’t made sense to me, usually I could think it through rationally and come to a logical conclusion. I’m big about getting to the bottom of things . . . which isn’t very fun for people who want certain aspects of life to remain a mystery. Where I dissect and analyze, other people might wonder and, after time, disregard without further questioning.

You might then ask how or why I’ve decided to write about angels and demons in one book, and ghosts and psychic events in another. These paranormal elements can’t be proven with science (yet). The worlds I create are far from what most would consider realistic. BUT to get lost in the paranormal as a writer and as a reader is so thrilling.

Isn’t paranormal fiction a wonderful thing? To toss everything you’ve ever known about anything out the window and just trust that the story will entertain you is the ultimate adventure. A paranormal writer must believe in his/her characters, whether that character is an angel or a werewolf or a vampire. They put rational thought aside and create a world that only existed in their minds up until that moment when fingers hit keyboard. And the reader turns those pages and gulps every word down and trusts that the author will show them this new world.

We all want to believe, if only for that moment in time.

In my eBook, Angel Vindicated, I write about an organization called Angels, Inc. It consists of three departments: Demon Control, Guardian Angels, and Angels of Death. My heroine, Abby, is a Demon Control agent. It’s her duty to police the demons and send them packing back to hell if they get out of control. Although she’s an angel, she’s easily tempted by half demon/half human, Simeon Keller. When Angels, Inc. is threatened by malevolent demons, she must trust Simeon to help her find the bad guys.

I’ve always believed angels exist. Watching over us. Protecting us. Perhaps shaking their heads at us. And I thought it would be fun to bring them to life. I know I probably didn’t do them justice since the angels in Angel Vindicated are a little less than perfect, especially my heroine, Abby, who is as flawed as most humans, or more so. But I’m hoping my readers will have a sense of humor and fall in love with the characters, just like I did when I wrote the story. I’m hoping they’ll open their minds, pitch all practical thoughts aside and indulge in the world I created.

Have you ever read a story that made you believe in something completely improbable? As you turned the pages did you ask yourself what if? Could you imagine yourself as the heroine, kicking demon butt or possibly falling in love with a vampire, werewolf, or insert-imagination-here?

Let’s analyze this together. Share your thoughts with me and be entered to win a free PDF copy of Angel Vindicated.

Thanks for sharing your blog with me, Lynda!!

Viola
www.violaestrella.com
Bewitching You – Available 10/30/2009

Angel Vindicated – Buy now! http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7216-angel-vindicated.aspxm

~5 out of 5 Cups from Coffee Time Romance – http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/angelvindicated.html
“The world building is extraordinary and totally unlike anything I have read in this genre.”
~4.5 Hearts from The Romance Studio –
http://www.theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/angelvindicatedestrella.htm
“I loved Abby Angel.”
~4.5 Blue Ribbons from Romance Junkies –
http://romancejunkiesreviews.com/artman/publish/paranormal/Angel_Vindicated.shtml
“Abby’s spunky attitude and Simeon’s sexiness were too fun for words and their sizzling chemistry had me fanning.”

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Viola's winner will be selected and posted here on Tuesday evening. Check back to see if you've won.

Maddie James Interviews Lynda and Kismet

I did an interview a while back with author Maddie James for Examiner.com

Here's the link:

http://www.examiner.com/x-4981-Romance-Novel-Examiner~y2009m9d5-Paranormal-romance-author-Lynda-Hilburns-Vampire-Psychologist-series

Kismet got a chance to do a little venting, too!

Free Tiny Download

I got the rights back to a tiny erotic paranormal I wrote -- Trick or Treat. I'm giving it away for free on my website. If you'd like to read the little quickie, just go here:

http://www.lyndahilburnauthor.com

Go to "books," and scroll to the bottom.

It's for over-18 only.

Fantasy Con in Vail, Colorado

I registered for this interesting-sounding con up in Vail the first weekend of October. Check it out:

http://www.sirensconference.org/