First, let me welcome you to Lex’s world of wild writing adventures! Well, maybe not too wild and adventuresome unless you count the fact I write about vampires, dragons, werewolves and other creatures.  Your last stop on this blog tour should have been #12 Kate Richards at http://katerichards.wordpress.com/ and I’m the 13th stop.  To be entered to win prizes on this tour, you need to start at 1RomanceEbooks.com and REGISTER. The grand prize is a Sony eBook reader and there are lots of other prizes as well so make sure you register, visit all the stops on the tour, and comment! The more you comment, the better your chances are to win the ereader.

Normally, I’m not much into blog tours and heavy promo. For one, I just don’t have the time. But it’s fun to do once in awhile and since I have a brand new book out, I thought this might be a good vehicle to maybe find some new readers for the Darkworld.

My newest release is Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five.  This series has been growing in popularity and I like to think that it’s fueled by the fact that I don’t really write about shifters and vampires the same way that other authors do. My books are contemporary in nature. My characters would fit right into our world for the most part. Coming from the Darkworld just means they are a species other than human.

These characters have jobs and homes, families and responsibilities, passion and angst. The vampires walk in the sun. (Well, they prefer overcast days since they’re sensitive to direct sunlight and get sunburnt easily.) The werewolves don’t get furry with the full moon.  The Magia (the magical race) don’t use wands. (They can, but they don’t have to.) The dragons don’t lay eggs. (They have live births.) And so on.

The first four books in the series focused on the dragons. This book shifts the focus to the vampires and werewolves. In fact, it’s really the introduction to the werewolves because until now, they’ve only been mentioned in passing and I’ve not written about one of them.

This is also a turning point in the series. Up until now, the books have truly been stand alones. With this book, which is stand alone as well, the tide begins to shift toward readers needing the rest of the series to fully know and enjoy what’s happening to these characters and families. There’s a very big picture drawn by this series as a whole. The Tales of the Darkworld is a series about family, relationships, friendships, and love. Every story is a tale of courtship and love that revolves around three friends who help each couple find their happily ever after. There are no boundaries in the series as it goes from couple to couple, male/female to male/male, from BDSM to menage, from those who are alive to those who are dead…and everything in between.

The fifth book in the series is the story of one of the three friends who helps orchestrate the HEAs in the other books. Marius Granville is a broody vampire who thinks love has passed him by. Then he meets a freedom loving werewolf who is involved in a menage. Sair McCallan’s love teaches Marius that love doesn’t have to be strictly monogamous and that there is great freedom in indulging your passions – whatever they may be – with your mate.

Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five (M/F/F/M, menage a quatre)

BUY LINK

Blurb:

Werewolf Sair McCallan escapes the confines of her brother’s pack with the help of a mated werewolf couple who believe in open sexuality and relationships. With Weylyn and Keir Randall, Sair experiences freedom in all things for the first time in her life. When she meets her mate, she’s shocked to find he’s a boring, broody vampire. Uptight Marius Granville has his staid and orderly life completely shattered by the arrival of his bloodmate, a beautiful werewolf who steals his heart and expects him to join in her kinky play with the Randalls. Marius is forced out of his hum drum existence and opens himself to new sexual experiences to please Sair. As her new mate strives to give her everything she needs, Sair battles internal demons that threaten their fragile new relationship.

Warning: This book includes sex on a washing machine, a make out session ala From Here to Eternity, sex between best friends (F/F), double penetration of a female (oh, baby!), and the best blowjob in the world (M/M) all within the confines of the hottest ménage a quatre the Darkworld has ever seen.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the Darkworld. Please leave me a comment to be entered in a drawing to win a pdf copy of Common Ground. Don’t forget to leave comments all along the tour stops to up your chances of winning a Sony ebook reader. And now, off you go to stop #14, Bryn Colvin at http://blogspot.loveyoudivineinfo.com/!

Thanks for coming by and participating in 1RomanceEbook’s anniversary blog tour. Have a great time along the tour!

An Anniversary! is a post from: Lex Valentine

Tomorrow is an event that I always enjoy. I’ve put a song here for it too. It’s been in my head all day as I’ve prepared to write this post and invite you all to come by for a chance to win prizes.

Share Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon (Main Version) by Backstreet Boys

Yes, it’s the last Sunday of the month again! Time for Ethan Day’s Gay Day!

After I got the official notice, I went into my kitchen in search of a drink. It’s warm here in SoCal so Rott has all the windows open and the front door cracked open to let air through the screen door. He asks me why I’m smiling and without even a thought for how open everything is I reply in my usual big mouthed way, “Oh, I just got the notice for Gay Day. You know, that big chat I go to the last Sunday of the month.”

Rott rolls his eyes and points to the open windows. “Could you say that any louder? Let’s confuse the neighbors even more about how weird we are.”

For a moment, I think I was offended. Then it struck me as funny. It’s true that our neighbors don’t like us and think we’re weird. But I think a lot of that is the parking wars we’ve been having. Still, it did kind of give me a chuckle to think of them trying to figure out our sexuality because I’m all excited about Gay Day. LOL

Here’s this month’s information. If you enjoy this genre and want a chance at some freebies, join Ethan’s group and come on by!

Gay Day Notice from Ethan Day

Sunday, June 27th is Gay Day at my Yahoo Group.  Gay Day is the one day a month when the best authors in GLBT Romance stop by to post excerpts of their new and upcoming releases.

The following authors will be generously offering giveaways you can enter to win:

WILLA OKATI – BECAUSE ITS TRUE

NEIL PLAKCY – DANCING WITH THE TIDE

LEX VALENTINE – WHERE THERE’S SMOKE

ANDREW GREY – PUMP ME UP

TRINA LANE – LOVE’S RETURN

DEVON RHODES – THROUGH THE RED DOOR

KATE MCMURRAY – IN HOT PURSUIT

SOPHIA TITHENIEL – SADIE’S KISS

STEPHANI HECHT – DOUBLE SHOT CAPPUCCCINO

Z.A. MAXFIELD – JACOB’S LADDER

The amazing Authors below will be popping in and out to chat & post excerpts from their latest books:

AKM MILES – STONE CANYON

LYNN LORENZ – SILENT LODGE

SOPHIA TITHENIEL – MORGANS VIGIL

P.A. BROWN – L.A. BYTES

TC BLUE – THE ONE THAT BROKE FREE

CHARLIE COCHRANE – SAND from the LAST GASP ANTHO

ETHAN DAY – AT PIPER’S POINT

The day will begin from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CST in the Ethan Day Yahoo Group where we’ll be posting excerpts, running contests for free books, and chatting about all the new and upcoming releases from your favorite authors.

From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. CST we’ll be hosting another LIVE Chat which is pretty much a free for all, anything-goes-chat that’ll inevitably have you uttering the phrase, “What the f**k?” : )

***You will need to have Downloaded Skype in order to take part in the Live Chat.***

Once you’ve downloaded the FREE software, simply add me as a contact: ethandayonline — and I’ll be able to add you to the chat room!

I hope everyone will stop by to catch up with your favorite authors and join in all the fun!

Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon is a post from: Lex Valentine

Probably one of the most difficult things to deal with in a relationship is trust. Not only trusting your partner, but also trusting yourself.

I recently had a discussion with my husband in which he told me that he wants me to get angry. My usual method of dealing with anger is to hold it in till I can’t anymore, then cry to him for half an hour or so about the situation and a bunch of other stuff. He said when I’m mad at him, he’d rather have me start an argument than hold it in.

I trust him. I know if I argue with him, he isn’t going to lash out at me or hurt me in any way. My problem was that I didn’t trust myself not to lash out at him.

So I made him promise that if I did what he needs, he’ll have my back and stop me if I go too far. Not that I can’t control my temper; I just don’t trust that I will.

The fact that I trust him enough to know he won’t lash out in an argument and that he’ll help me with my temper is due to his working to earn that trust. For a lot of reasons I won’t go into here, I have abundant cause not to trust anyone at all. But he knew that going in, and he’s been patient, kind, and caring to a fault, and has gotten past my distrust. He’s earned the right to be trusted.

I think a lot of people have trust issues of one level or another. All of us have some hurt or slight in our past that we have to overcome before we’re willing to let the next person in. Some of us have more issues than others, of course.

My novella Beginner’s Luck started out being about a couple who wanted to have anal sex, so they bought a butt plug kit online to help them. But when I started looking more closely at the story, prompted along by help from Lex and from Mary at Pink Petal Books, I realized it was more than that.

Kyla, the heroine in the story, doesn’t want anal sex just because it’s hot, or nasty, or whatever. She wants to do it to show her boyfriend Alec that he’s earned her trust. Because I speak from experience when I say that being on the receiving end of anal requires a LOT of trust in one’s partner.

So instead of being just a story about a couple who buy butt plugs, Beginner’s Luck became a story about a woman who had a lot of trust issues to overcome, and the man who found her worth the effort to help her overcome them. It isn’t a story about sex, it’s a story about the power of trust.

Though there is some pretty hot sex in it…

Beginner’s Luck is available through Pink Petal Books.

Karenna Colcroft

The Power of Trust is a post from: Lex Valentine

I am hoping that everyone loves Zander and Voth. This is an action book almost opposite in nature to Rousing Caine. In Caine, it’s all about what’s happening inside Jason and all about Caine’s emotions. In Smoke, it’s all about the action. My heroes are on a mission and there are those who try to stop them. There’s an out and out battle with cobra shifters where the heroes are greatly outnumbered. In this book, it’s the action that lends poignancy to the emotional moments.

If you would like to win a copy of Where There’s Smoke and other books in the Phoenix trilogy, (Deeper Than the Ocean by Dee Carney and Playing Wolf by Mina Carter) head on over to Liquid Silver’s SEx Blog and comment on my post about my first release with this publisher. You have until about 7 am Monday morning to do this.

Here’s the info on Where There’s Smoke. I hope you enjoy it!

Where There’s Smoke, Book Three of the Phoenix Prophecy

Molten Silver Title

Buy Link

Blurb:

A murderous father. A son with a price on his head. Zander’s year-long affair with a mysterious woman ends when she tells him that her abusive mate is the father he’s never known. The woman, a prophesy-dreaming immortal known as the Phoenix, explains that Zander has three brothers and that his father killed their mothers. Now, the Phoenix has dreamt of her mate’s death and Zander’s destiny. Voth is the Phoenix’s successor and Zander’s true mate. The two set out to find Zander’s brothers while eluding the assassins sent after them by Zander’s father. Passion burns hot between them, sealing their fate, as their journey leads them to fulfill the Phoenix’s prophecy

Excerpt:

Zander followed Nix to the fire pit where the flames rose a bit higher than they should have for an ordinary fire. They swelled when Nix came closer, and he realized they were responding to the presence of the Phoenix. A draft of cold air brushed his face, and he looked up, his eyes tracking the movements of the pale brown bird with the long tail as it circled the campsite.

“Why are we here, Nix?” he asked quietly.

Seating herself on a smooth boulder, she looked at him across the width of the fire pit. “Because it’s time for you to know the truth and meet your destiny. Your path no longer lies with mine,” she said simply.

Anger poured through him in a rush and heated his cheekbones. Silently, he cursed his pale skin and hair. “I hate it when you go all phoenix on me. What truth and what destiny?” He stomped closer to the fire pit, and the flames leapt higher. The bird circling above swooped lower.

“My mate is your father, the demi-god Ancelin.”

Nix’s words hit him like bullets, and he recoiled, taking several steps back from her. Cold air swirled around him and the brown bird dove toward the fire pit, the long tail brushing his cheek. As the bird entered the flames, a small explosion occurred, and the flames swelled higher, out of control for a split second. Then they calmed, burning with an eerie glow Zander had never seen before.

“So you’re my step-mother.” Zander’s jaw clenched.

At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of Nix’s confession. He’d always known his father was an asshole. What decent man seduced a presumably innocent girl then abandoned her once she was pregnant with his child? It didn’t matter that Zander’s mother had used her more-than-considerable shape-shifting powers as well as her magic to deceive his father into thinking her innocent. To Zander’s knowledge, his mother had never had a chance to show his father her true face. The man had simply appeared every night for a week, got his rocks off, and then bailed.

Nix grimaced. “I dislike that term. It implies I’ve treated you in a motherly fashion as befits the wife of your father. My position with regard to your father is tenuous at best. When I mated Ancelin, I thought he would be faithful to me and treat our bonding as sacred. I thought he respected and cared for me a little. I suppose I was naïve, because I was wrong on all counts.” She shrugged, her slender shoulders rising and falling gracefully. “It doesn’t matter now. Ancelin’s fate has been decreed. The Phoenix has spoken to him in his dreams. He lives on borrowed time.”

Zander pondered her words. He had spent the past year since his mother’s death searching for his father. Almost the entire time he’d been searching, the answers had lain in his arms. He’d been fucking Nix for a year, and she’d never told him the truth. Fury lashed him, but he tamped it down. After all these months, he knew a little something about Nix. She had reasons for her silence. Apparently, the time had come to find out those reasons.

“So my father mated you and then cheated on you. Now, he’s dreamed of the Phoenix and knows his death is coming, is that correct?” he asked, drawing the words out slowly and thoughtfully.

“Yes, but there is more,” Nix replied.

The cool tone of her voice told Zander she held her emotions on a very tight rein. She sat as if relaxed, but her pose didn’t fool him. A maelstrom of emotions rode her hard. He walked around the fire pit and sat on a rock near her, looking into her turquoise eyes.

“Tell me,” he whispered, his mind racing. So far, her revelations had been only a little shocking. Whatever else she told him couldn’t be nearly so surprising.

A flicker of anguish registered on her face momentarily. If Zander hadn’t been watching her closely, hadn’t known her so well, he wouldn’t have noticed that spasm of emotion at all. “Your mother was not the only girl Ancelin seduced after he mated me.”

Nix hung her head in a shamed manner, almost as if her mate’s acts of infidelity had somehow been her fault. Zander’s eyes narrowed. Why the hell would she feel responsible for what that bastard had done? Had she rejected him, leaving him to seek pleasure with another?

Her head shot up, her eyes flashing fire. “Of course not!” she exclaimed. “In the beginning, I loved him. Until he betrayed me with your mother. Even then I forgave him and welcomed him to my bed. But he didn’t want me. He spurned me yet again and left to seduce another. When his seed took root, he left her and took another lover. He stayed away until he had impregnated her as well. Only then did he return to me, bragging of the fertility of these women.”

Nix’s long, slender fingers stroked her flat abdomen. “The Phoenix sometimes cannot procreate. There is always another waiting in the wings should this be so. I have no children, therefore, my successor has been chosen,” she murmured almost to herself.

The flames in the fire pit swelled once more, and Zander frowned at them wondering if Nix controlled them. He knew she had the ability. Every phoenix controlled fire. It was as if they were fire.

“So you’re telling me I have siblings. Brothers? Sisters?”

“Brothers,” she whispered, her eyes closing for a split second.

His mind tried to sort out her confessions. Three women, three sons. One prophecy. Leapfrogging from one set of ideas to another, a sickening truth occurred to him, and his eyes widened.

“Fuck me,” he breathed. “Did my father kill my mother?”

Nix bit her lip, then she nodded. “The prophecy said that three hands reached for his throat. He took that to mean that each of the women who bore him sons would try to kill him. So he killed them first.”

A fury greater than any he had ever experienced began to grow inside him. “You knew I’d been searching for my mother’s killer, yet you kept this to yourself.” The flat tone of his words conveyed absolutely no emotion. He knew it would tell Nix just how angry he really was. “Why would he kill the women? Why wouldn’t he think it was his sons after him?”

With a sigh, Nix stood and paced around the fire pit. “Your father easily believes women will betray him. In your mother’s case, she truly did, although not out of maliciousness. When he discovered the truth of who she was, her days were numbered despite the prophecy, Zander. Your father does not take betrayal well.”

Irony rode her expression as she paused in her pacing. “He must always control everything and everyone around him. Betraying him in any way is a death sentence.” She shook her head a little, her long ponytail swaying. “He has no trust in women so his first thought after the prophecy came to him was that I arranged for it because of his infidelity. His second thought was that I would use the three women who bore him sons as the instrument of his death.”

“He doesn’t have much imagination, does he?” Zander muttered sourly. The whole story left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew what his mother had done in order to have him and had wondered if her deception had brought about her death.

A soft bark of laughter escaped Nix. The rusty sound told him that her amusement wasn’t the pleasant kind.

“Once he killed the three women, the prophecy came to him again. It was then that he began to seek out his sons. Even if he knew the truth, you and your brothers would not be safe.” She waved her hand toward him, and his skin burned with power where her mark lay. “The truth is that your father has four sons not three. One woman bore twins. You have three brothers, Zander. Already there is a connection between you in part because of Ancelin’s blood and in part because you all bear the mark of the Phoenix. I am not sure if your brothers feel this connection, but I know that you do. You have dreamt of them.”

Zander sucked in a breath. Over the past six months he’d had dreams of a merman and two werewolves. Men who also bore the mark of the Phoenix on their bodies, but in different places. The werewolves were marked on the opposite sides of their chests. The merman was marked on a bicep. His own mark was more personal, caressing the skin at the side of his throat. His gaze caught and held Nix’s.

“You marked us.”

She nodded. “The night your father had the Phoenix prophecy. The marks help protect you from him.”

“He wants to kill us.”

Again, she nodded. “I marked each of you more than a year ago. Your brother Danyl’s mark did not physically appear until I met him and touched the spot where I knew the mark lay. Your brothers, Jayce and Ryder, had their marks appear when Ancelin tried to kill them.”

Zander narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Mine appeared the first time I made love to you. I thought you did it,” he murmured.

Nix smiled. “I did. But not then.” She sat on the rock beside him. “After Ancelin killed the three women who’d borne him sons, the prophecy again came to him as he slept. Once more, it told him of three hands reaching for his throat, that his death drew near. So he knew he had not stopped anything by killing those women. That is when he decided to kill his sons.”

“Why are you telling me now? Why didn’t you tell me when I met you for the first time?” Zander’s head ached from the info dump. He’d fantasized of taking Nix from her abusive mate and keeping her for his own. Now, he knew it would never happen. Best a demi-god and take the man’s mate? No way. Zander had a lot of gall, but tempered it with the wisdom to know when he faced a losing battle.

“It will never happen, not because you cannot best your father, but because I am not destined to be yours, Zander,” Nix said with quiet emphasis. “Your mate is another.”

Zander’s breath hissed in sharply. Her tone conveyed a gravity that spoke to him of prophecy. Yet, the Phoenix had never come to his dreams.

She smiled at him, the corners of her bowed mouth curved upward with a spark of amusement. “I came to you in person, Zander, because a prophecy came to my dreams. The Phoenix is your destiny, your mate, but I am not.”

He hadn’t thought she could surprise him any more than she already had, but her words stunned him. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Zander deliberately caught her gaze with his and held it.

“How can that be, Nix? You are the Phoenix.” He kept his voice pitched low, hoping it didn’t give away the turmoil within him.

“But Zander, did I not say that the Phoenix has come to my dreams? It has foreseen my death. The one who takes my place is your mate.”

The soft cadence of her voice washed over him, and he shuddered. The finality, the surety in her words rocked his world. Nix was going to die. The reality of it made his chest ache. His lungs burned with every breath he took. His father would bring about her death. Every cell in his body knew it, and his hatred for the man who gave him life flared anew.

“I cannot deny your reasoning, Zander. Ancelin does figure into my end.” Her smile gentled as she shifted on the rock, leaning forward slightly as she spoke. “We are all part of a larger destiny, you know. Every life is entwined with another, affects others. Each act of destiny affects many. The universe is much more than the sea and shore before you. Beneath the waves lie things you have never seen, and beyond the stars lie things you cannot comprehend. Each thing is a piece of the puzzle that knits together the fabric of this universe and beyond. What your eyes see is a miniscule part. What your heart feels is a much larger, grander portion. What your soul knows is infinite.”

Zander clamped down on the urge to tell her being cryptic and going phoenix on him wouldn’t stop him from trying to prevent her death. Instead, he focused on the words that had the potential to fuck with his carefully balanced existence.

“Since you know who my mate is, why don’t you clue me in?” He tried to keep his words from sounding edgy with the sense of betrayal that had crept into his emotions.

The fire glowed brighter, and the flames rose impossibly high. Zander suddenly wondered why the nondescript brown bird he’d seen earlier had done a kamikaze into the fire. Realization sparked inside him, and his eyes went from Nix to the strange glow in the fire. The outline of the bird appeared and morphed into the shape of a person. A man stepped from the flames.

Phoenix Contest! is a post from: Lex Valentine

Here’s the info from Ethan:

Sunday, April 25th is Gay Day at my Yahoo Group.  Gay Day is the one day a month when the best authors in GLBT Romance stop by to post excerpts of their new and upcoming releases.

The following authors will be generously offering giveaways you can enter to win:

AKM Miles – Love, Grant – Available April 26th

Andrew Gray – An Unexpected Vintage

Clare London – Winners Choice from Her Backlist

Trina Lane – The Perfect Union

TC Blue – A Game of Chances

Leiland Dale – A Prophecy of Destiny

Jambrea Jo Jones – Retribution – Available May 3^rd

Kimberly Gardner – Bound to Please

Stephani Hecht – Man Down

P.A. Brown – L.A. Heat

Z.A. Maxfield – Fugitive Color – Available April 27th

The amazing Authors below will be popping in and out to chat & post excerpts from their latest books:

Lynn Lorenz – Pinky Swear

Amanda Young – Pool Boy Seduction

A.J. Llewellyn – The Book and the Rose – Available April 25th

Jamie Samms – Spinning & Life After

Kimberly Gardner – Blush from Red (An MLR Antho edited by Kris Jacen)

P.A. Brown  - L.A. Bytes

Lex Valentine – Where There’s Smoke- Available May 3rd

Clare London – Heart & Home

Hope to see you there!

Oh So Gay is a post from: Lex Valentine

It probably won’t happen because I don’t use Yahoo mail. Apparently, people with Yahoo mail have had their email addresses “spoofed” by spammers. This is not an uncommon thing in this day and age. It happens a lot to people who a) put their email addresses out there on websites and such regularly, b) it happens to people who have gotten a virus, and c) it happens to people who use those free POP3 mail accounts like Yahoo and Gmail.

A lot of authors, readers, and others on Yahoo groups have had their Yahoo mail accounts send out spam recently. The spam is being sent, not to individual people so much as it’s being sent out to the Yahoo groups. Most groups have rules about spam and will ban you if you do it.

But here’s my problem with that rule: Usually, when something like this occurs, it’s not the fault of the person whose email address was spoofed. It could happen to anyone who has a Yahoo mail account.

Banning the person doesn’t make a lot of sense when it was something they didn’t do on purpose. Groups whose mods and owners get obnoxious and ban these victims show incredible ignorance. I would prefer not to be on a group with someone who doesn’t understand how technology works and uses a situation like this to be mean. Also, if all the groups start banning their members who have been spoofed, pretty soon they won’t have too many members because most of them use Yahoo mail, Gmail, and Hotmail.

The other problem I have with this witch hunt attitude is that I’ve seen mods and owners turn a blind eye to authors who spam and promo outside the rules of the group. Those are their favored authors I suppose, but to me, a rule is a rule. If you are not the owner, you shouldn’t be breaking the rules and allowed to get away with it.

I see a lot of posts that start with “I’m sorry if you feel this is promo but…” and then they promo something. The mods might email the person after and delete the message from the group’s web interface, but those who use email to receive their Yahoo group messages (the majority of us) have already gotten the message and deleting it is closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

And what about those people who break the rules of one or two promo posts allowed per day? I can’t tell you how many authors I’ve seen break this rule. I have my Spam filter set to put anything from them directly into the Spam folder. It’s rude. And it’s hugely annoying. I don’t want to read five sexy excerpts from the same 20K book every day on 50 loops for weeks on end. I’ve read more than a quarter of it with those excerpts! I understand posting one or two promos on every group that allows promo that day, but c’mon. Some of the stuff I see is just nuts. Those authors aren’t getting more readers, they are growing their list of readers and authors who have them on auto-delete.

Another thing about all this that gets old is the litany of emails from half the group telling each other that the Spam email is a Spam email. C’mon. Give it up. One or two people announcing it is all you need. Do you think we can’t read? That you have to reiterate it over and over? I rather think I have enough brain cells to figure this out without the endless repetition.

Okay, I’m about to step off my ranty little soap box here in a moment, but before I do, I want to encourage those of you who have been banned and/or spoken to in a mean, obnoxious, and unnecessarily harsh manner by a group mod, to NOT FEEL BAD. You are better off out of a group run by someone who is ignorant and arrogant. If they cannot behave professionally and courteously, you don’t need to be there. I don’t care how “popular” they currently are. Popularity can wane and situations like there where someone you thought was sweet turns into a virago are often catalysts to the decline of their popularity.

If you feel I’ve been a little more ranty than usual, you’re probably right. However, I rather think I have more to back my opinion in this than others do. You see, I’m an IT professional and have been for almost 16 years. Companies PAY ME to be a tech and run their network. I have to know how this stuff works.  And yanno, I wouldn’t have been a Network Admin for this long had I not made it a point to know my job and do it well.

So, go ahead and ban me all you mods and group owners who feel free to become obnoxious over the spamming stuff that’s going on with Yahoo mail and Yahoo groups. Go ahead and take me off your groups. I don’t really want to see your meanness and your ignorance anyway. It just makes me disgusted at the state of mankind and humanity. And all of you who have been banned for this spam attack, feel free to email me. I’ll tell you about some groups where the owners and mods are not only educated about this sort of stuff, but who have a hell of a lot more compassion for their fellow man than these mean people do.

Hey, Moderator! Ban Me! is a post from: Lex Valentine

Sunday December 13^th is the special Holiday Edition of Gay Day at my Yahoo Group.  Gay Day is the one day a month when the best authors in GLBT Romance stop by to post excerpts of their new and upcoming releases.

Along with the copy of Melting the Slopes, which I’ll be giving away, the following authors will be stuffing many more stockings by offering giveaways you can enter to win.

Cocked & Fully Loaded/featuring Tengo una Pistola by Bryl Tyne

S.J. Frost will be giving away a print copy of Conquest

Clare London is giving away 2 of her Christmas Shorts

A.J. Llewellyn is giving away a two week membership to Massive Studio to promote his latest book, Bad Cops

Saved by Love’s Blood by Stephani Hecht

Muse’s Vacation by Jaime Samms

Take It Easy by AKM Miles

Lynn Lorenz – will be offering up a Holiday Goodie Bag which will include a print copy of David’s Dilemma

Lex Valentine will be giving away the readers choice of either

Love Me Dead or Fire Season

Jambrea Jo Jones is offering up one copy from her backlist which includes Heart Song & Runaway Man

The following amazing Authors will be popping in and out to post excerpts of their latest books and chat:

Carol Lynne – Poker Night: Different Suits

William Maltese – Love Me Dead & Melting the Slopes

P.A. Brown – L.A. Boneyard

J.P. Bowie – Murder Above Fourth & Bound in Blood

Simone Anderson – Finding Love

Andrew Grey – Love Means…Courage

The day will begin from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST in the Ethan Day Yahoo Group where we’ll be posting excerpts, running contests for free books, and chatting about all the new and upcoming releases from your favorite authors.

From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. CST we’ll be hosting another LIVE Chat which is pretty much a free for all, anything-goes-chat that’ll inevitably have you uttering the phrase, “What the f**k?” : )

Stop by to catch up with your favorite authors and join in all the fun!

May you all have a truly Happy Holiday Season!

Ethan

I will be there with my reindeer horns and jingle bells on! Gonna talk about the contract (which has been offered but isn’t in hand yet) for Where There’s Smoke, my M/M urban fantasy novella that is part of The Phoenix Prophecy series. Hope to see you at the SNOW HO GAY DAY!

A HO HO HO Gay Day is a post from: Lex Valentine

Noble is the publisher for my book The Wise Guy. I decided to try for one of the open slots in their Child of the Week series because all of the other authors were multi-pubbed, fairly well known in these circles, and mostly – if not all – were Cobblestone authors too. Those of you who are familiar with me and my work know that I have a submission in at Cobblestone. In fact, it’s been there 164 days I think. Since the 15th of October. I thought this series would be a great opportunity for me since although I had three contracts under my belt at the time I sent in a proposal for The Wise Guy, I had yet to have a release.

Just prior to release day, the seven authors in this series had a little discussion about a big release day promo that included all of the authors. The little discussion got a little heated. Well, maybe not heated but uncomfortable. The upshot was no promo went off with all authors in attendance. Everyone did their own thing and although I showed at one of the events I frankly just kinda felt left out in the cold while other authors who weren’t in the series were showcased as part of this promo. Now, granted, I suppose I could have asked to be included, but I’m the noob here. I don’t always do what I should in part because of ignorance and in part because I don’t want to feel like or be perceived as some arrogant buttinsky.

Anyway, a month later Noble starts these workshops on their Yahoo group. I had my day in the sun talking about making trailers and the power of branding and social media. The following weekend was a workshop on similar stuff… and promo. Now, when someone tells me that in order to do well as an author, I should be spending four hours a day on promo… do you realize how many flies I caught in my open mouth? To begin with, I don’t have four hours a day. I worked a 50 hour week last week and those kinds of weeks aren’t going to go away for the foreseeable future. For another, HELLO! I need to freaking WRITE!

Being told that about promo and making it as an author kinda put my panties in a bunch because yanno, I already have this really big soapbox that I get on regarding people who can’t write very well, are hand held by editors through five rounds of edits, and still end up with a book whose plot is kinda MEH, or those people who go to publishers that don’t really edit. I’m tired of buying books where the best part was the blurb and excerpt I saw on the groups. Because I’ve been burned in this fashion a few times in the past, there are publishers I will not buy from and will not sub to. I buy from them only if they put out something by an author I know delivers. And yeah, I did read those Dear Author posts that had everyone howling. And yeah, I did see some of what Jane from DA posted on Twitter on a Friday night recently. I had already decided that house wasn’t for me long before all the DA stuff came out. Maybe things will change with them and me, but for now I know who I want to sub to and I’m not deviating from that list.

All of that being said, if you believe the four hours a day of promo thing… that means all the stay at home moms are the only authors selling. Which, if I’m being snarky, makes sense in the whole scheme of things whereby I buy these books I see in promo on the groups because they seem like they would be great. I open em and read em, find them to be MEH and weeks later I see em winning awards. Maybe I better put the soapbox away now…

Despite the fact that I cannot promo for four hours every day, I know I can write well. I’ve been told this by people who would know. And I’ve been told this by countless readers on the groups when I have promo’d. Hordes of people have told me how great my excerpts and blurbs are. Most of them were glowing in their enthusiasm for my writing… most of them said they couldn’t wait to buy my books. Yet, according to my royalty statements… they have waited. And here is the crux of my rant.

Lip service. These people paid me lip service on those groups. At least a hundred or more of them… giving me lip service. This is like being fucked in the ass with only the promise of lube (that never materializes) and no damned reacharound either.

I’m an honest person. If I don’t like something or it doesn’t sound like my kind of book, I try to find something positive to say anyway. But that positive thing is NEVER “I can’t wait to buy your book!” when I have no intentions of buying your book.

I’ve become hideously cynical about the groups now. Yeah, I promo. Not a lot and I really don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference. There are people who say, “Oh, you just need to join three dozen group blogs and post to them to get your name out!” Well, I happen to think that isn’t any different than the groups. Yes, I do belong to the Flirty Author Bitches, but that’s not about promo for me. It’s about having a venue to talk about stuff that we got slammed on the groups for talking about. My own group, Tales of the Darkworld, really has no rules because it’s just starting up and we don’t do anything formally yet. And I just think a lot of the group stuff is… lip service.

I just want people to tell me the truth. And if they are interested in my books, I’d like them to show that by purchasing them. But don’t tell me in droves how wonderful I am, and what a big star I’m going to be, and how awesome my excerpts are, and how my stuff is going to the top of your TBB list… when you DON’T MEAN IT. By that I mean, you don’t put your money where your mouth is and buy the book and read it.

I’m sure someone will slam me for this post too. I’m sure they’ll say I’m asking people to buy my books. Yet, isn’t that what promo is? And I’m not asking people to buy my books with this post. I’m asking them to stop lying to me. Stop telling me you’ll buy it when you have no intention of buying it. Stop giving me lip service. I’d rather have your honesty so that my royalty statements aren’t a surprise. If a hundred people hadn’t sworn up and down they were gonna buy my books I wouldn’t have expected to see 50 sales on my statement. When I didn’t see 50 sales, I realized that the stinging sensation I had was my chapped butt cheeks from all the lip service.

Do me and all the other authors out there a favor… stop the lip service. You’ll save yourself some needless typing and you’ll stop getting people’s expectations up for nothing. I just want what I am prepared to give in return… honesty.

Have a happy Easter-Zombie weekend.

Lip Service is a post from: Lex Valentine