Tag: regency romance

Romance Writers -Contest Opening

vfrw Finalist BadgeNow Open!

The Valley Forge Romance Writers (VFRW) 2016 The Sheila Contest opened for entries March 13, 2016. VFRW is a local chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) and they and their internationally-recognized The Shelia Contest abide by the regulations and philosophy set forth at the national level.

Participation is open to all romance writers who are unpublished, self-published, and published. Entries must be the author’s original unpublished work and not under contract. Submissions will be accepted in the following categories: Single Title, Historical, Erotic, Romantic Suspense and Fantasy/Futuristic/Paranormal.

Fee 
$25 for VFRW members, $30 for non-members

Important Dates

  • Opens for Entries: March 13, 2016
  • Deadline: April 16, 2016
  • Notification of category winners: June 18

Entry 
You will be asked to submit the first 20 pages of manuscript and an up-to-5-page synopsis, for a total of 25 pages.

Initial entries will be judged by three (3) qualified, trained judges, including: General, PRO* and PAN* members. The top five (5) entries in their categories will be forwarded for a final round of judging by the following publishing professionals:

Categories and Final Judges: 

  • Single Title: Junessa Viloria, Penguin Random House
  • Historical: Stephany Evans, Fine Print Literary Management
  • Erotic: Sara Megibow, KT Literary
  • Romantic Suspense: Alicia Condon, Kensington Publishing
  • Fantasy/Futuristic/Paranormal: Nicole Resciniti, The Seymour Agency

Top Prizes: The 1st through 4th place winners will receive certificates and have their names printed in Romance Writers Report (RWR) Magazine.

Best of the Best – 1st place winners from the final round will move on to the Best of the Best round, judged by Best Selling Authors and Booksellers:

  • Madeline Hunter – New York Times & USA Today Best Selling Author
  • Mariah Stewart – New York Times & USA Today Best Selling Author
  • Terri Brisbin – USA Today Best Selling Author
  • Joan Silvestro – Indie Bookseller – Hamilton Book Trader
  • Heather Soligo – Traditional Bookseller – Barnes & Nobles, Christiana Mall

Grand Prize for Best of the Best: $100
(*RWA designations)

For more details and submission guidelines, visit the VFRW The Shelia Contest page. 

Even Historical Demon Hunters Need Love

Deception book coverA.S. Fenichel has unveiled the cover art for Deception, Book Two In The Demon Hunters series.

Due for release in July, this Paranormal Historical Romance is available through Lyrical Press/Kensington Publishing.   

When Demons threaten Regency London, only a Lady can stop them.

Lillian Dellacourt is beautiful, refined and absolutely lethal. She’s also the most feared and merciless demon hunter in The Company. She’s come a long way from the penniless seamstress’s daughter sold to the highest bidder, and it wasn’t by trusting a man, let alone an exiled Marquis with more on his mind than slaying the hellspawn . . .

For Dorian Lambert, Marquis de Montalembert, being sent to keep track of Lillian is no mean task. He’s wanted the fiery vixen since he first heard of her five years ago. But wooing the lady while fighting the demon uprising is no easy feat, especially when the lady’s tongue is as sharp as the Japanese sai blades she favors for eviscerating the spawn of hell.

These two will have to learn to trust each other fast, because the demon master is back, and he’s planning to turn Edinburgh into a living hell…

Pre-order through:   Amazon     Barnes & Noble      Kensington

Enter a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author:

A.S. Fenichel gave up a successful career in New York City to follow her husband to Texas and pursue her lifelong dream of being a professional writer. She’s never looked back.

A.S. adores writing stories filled with love, passion, desire, magic and maybe a little mayhem tossed in for good measure. Books have always been her perfect escape and she still relishes diving into one and staying up all night to finish a good story.

Multi-published in erotic paranormal, contemporary and historical romance, A.S. is the author of the Mayan Destiny series, Christmas Bliss and many more. With several books currently contracted to multiple publishers, A.S. will be bringing you her brand of romance for many years to come.

Originally from New York, she grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in the East Texas with her real life hero, her wonderful husband. When not reading or writing she enjoys cooking, travel, history, and puttering in her garden.

Find A.S. Fenichel

Web Site- http://asfenichel.net/

Blog – http://asfenichel.net/blog/

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5154640.A_S_Fenichel

Twitter – https://twitter.com/asfenichel

Tsu – https://www.tsu.co/ASFenichel

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/A.S.Fenichel

Google +1 – https://plus.google.com/113195747154467378107/posts

Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/asfenichel/boards/

Fifty Shades of Great Entertainment

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220px-50ShadesofGreyCoverArtI’ll admit it. I am one of the millions of women who tore through the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy like a bride at Filene’s Basement. They were silly, redundant, romantic and shocking…not to mention a lot of fun (not good, clean fun, but definitely fun).

It is now five days away from the movie’s opening day and I am giddy with anticipation. (UPDATE: It’s now only one day away…24 hours to be exact! I wish I had a countdown thingie like the Irish bars do for St. Pat’s Day) Will they be able to capture the intriguing allure of Christian, accurately portraying the torrid, tormented soul that both attracts and repels the innocent Ana? It’s a tall order.

To be honest, I don’t expect it to live up to the hype. But a girl can hope, right?

Follow up 

As you can tell, by my second post “5 reasons why the movie was better than the book,” I was not disappointed. I wouldn’t give it 5 stars, but it was not the soul-crushing, society-destroying, domestic violence promoting, women’s rights bashing, end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it travesty that seemingly EVERY reviewer is proclaiming.

So, to support those few brave reporters who watched the movie and took it for was it was–a fictional/romantic/sexy/fantasy/love story–I’m going to post your reviews here. Thank you.

If you’re as obsessed as I am…finding yourself watching trailers over and over, even clicking on the Lego video just to get your fix, let me offer you an alternative.

**Shameless self-promotion alert** My romance novel, Dare to Love is what I call “Thirty Shades of Regency.” While he’s not quite as damaged as Mr. Grey, Lord Landis is a handsome, heartless rake who goes to great lengths to hide the scars of his childhood. Nivea Horsham is a sweet, spinsterly wallflower who has loved him since she was a child.

Can Nivea shatter Dare’s carefully crafted facade and show him how to love? Just click here and you can find out!

Now available through Lyrical Press/Kensington Publishing.

FINALLY! After 11 months or 7 years…

Dare to Love cover artSeven years ago, I started my romance novel “Dare to Love.” I’d never written, let alone published, a novel before and I have no idea why I thought I could do it. I mean, how many people have the time, the commitment, and the patience  to go through with it?

For some reason, I did. It took me five years to write and two years to find a publisher. Then, almost a year ago, in November 2013, Lyrical Press gave me the green light. They wanted to publish my regency romance novel about Lord Dare Landis, a handsome heartless rake who treated women as interchangeable playthings. The novel takes place during a visit to the country home of his oldest friend, Lord Horsham, accompanied by Horsham’s younger sister Nivea. While there he learns that women, or more accurately the right woman does not lead to betrayal. Now Lord Landis must answer this question–does he dare to love?

I signed the contract with Lyrical (now owned by Kensington Press) in January and, 11 months later, it will finally be published as an ebook. Tomorrow. December 1, 2014. Unbelievable, really.

Now, I just have to wait to see if anyone buys it. I hope so. Because I have about five more book ideas swirling around in my head and I’d love to give each of the couples the opportunity to come to life.

Fingers crossed.

Kindle   Nook    Kensington

www.alleighburrows.com

Blog Hopping

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bunny-reading bookI was asked to participate in my first “Blog Hop.” Authors post information about their book on a blog and then provide links to other websites, so readers can ‘hop’ from blog to blog. If you’re joining me from Jackson D’Lynne’s page, thanks for hopping over.  If you just stumbled across my site by accident, welcome!

Instead of answering questions myself, I’m allowing the hero from my book, “Dare to Love” to speak. Please welcome Lord Landis.

1) What is the name of your character? Is he fictional or a historic person? 
My name is Adair Landis–Dare, to my friends–and I am most assuredly an historic person. Perhaps infamous would be more accurate, as I am known among the ton as a handsome heartless rake who answers to no one.
Although, I now answer to Nivea, which is as big a shock to me as it is to the rest of the world.
2) When and where is the story set? 
My story takes place in 1800 England–the center of the civilized universe. My colleague, Ms. Burrows was kind enough to document my exploits during a visit to the country home of my good friend William Horsham. He insisted I escort his sister Nivea on a carriage ride up from London, which turned out to be a much less dismal endeavor than I anticipated. Then, after a good bit of time, and some shameful behavior on my part, I returned to London, where my tale comes to its surprising and delightful conclusion.
3) What should we know about him? 
I’m a right bastard. Or at least I was until I met the right woman. That’s not to say that I didn’t have my reasons for behaving as I did. Damn good ones, if truth be told. But I’m good at keeping secrets, so if you want to learn more, you’ll have to buy the book. Ms. Burrows assures me that this can be accomplished by pressing letters on the strange window box she calls a computer. If you tap her name into this device, you’ll see a photo of me and my beloved Nivea in flagrant delicti, above the words “Dare to Love.” That is the story of me and Nivea, the woman who shattered my carefully crafted facade and showed me how to love. (I  showed her a few rather enjoyable things.)
4) When will the book be published? 
You will be able to purchase Dare to Love on December 1, through Kensington Publisher. This amuses me, since I maintained a house in Kensington for a number of years. If those walls could talk…the stories they would tell…
That will need to wait for another time. I’m catching a whiff of vanilla, my favorite scent.
Muffled “Hello, my Luv. Yes, I was just finishing up. A carriage ride, you say? That sounds like a marvelous idea.” The sound of seductive chuckles, kissing, the whisper of fingers across fabric, and a sudden throat clearing.
Oh, you’re still here. Well, I’m afraid an urgent matter has come to my attention. Please excuse me.
Remember to purchase Ms. Burrows book–December 1. 
 On October 9, I’ll post a link to our next stop on the tour. Stay tuned

Becoming an Author

It’s funny. Being a writer is easy. You get an idea, you write it down, you edit it a few times and voila! You’re a writer. If you’re lucky, and mildly talented, you can get someone to pay you to write–newsletters, brochures, websites, etc. I’ve had that good fortune for over 15 years.

But being an author? That’s a LOT of work.

First you get an idea for a book–that’s the easy part.

Then you start to write, realize you don’t know what you’re doing, talk to other writers, and maybe join a club or go to a conference. Over time, you manage to craft a pretty good story and you’re ready to “Become an Author.” Da da da dum.

That’s when things get tricky. Here are steps 1 through 397 (or so it seems):

  1. Write a synopsis of your novel (it’s very tricky to squeeze a 300 page novel into a 3 page summary: Boy meets Girl, Boy likes Girl, Girl gets mad at Boy, Girl wallows, Boy gets angry, Boy admits he’s wrong and they live happily ever after)
  2. Find someone to pitch to. This can be done by searching online for publishers, making contacts at conferences, entering contests–winning–and being referred to a publisher, or just dumb luck (a friend of a friend? Score!)

Here were the rest of my steps–your reality may vary:

  • Get rejected
  • Re-write pitch, summary and first 3 chapters about five times
  • Give the right pitch to the right publisher and submit your manuscript
  • Get accepted! And get a contract
  • Find someone who knows what they’re doing to review your contract.
  • Develop a bio, get a professional photo, submit cover art outline, write your book blurb, get your manuscript copyrighted and all the other boring administrative stuff.
  • Start the editing process. YIKES! You thought you had a book good enough to get published and then all your appallingly bad writing flaws are brought to your attention–page after page of corrections, comments, notes, insertions and deletions.
  • THEN you have to start thinking about marketing. Set up a website, twitter account, facebook, pinterest, whatever you think you can keep up with, whatever you have time to learn.

That’s where I am now. I’ve finished my edits, created a website and started a twitter feed(@alleighburrows). I look forward to the next 43 steps I’m sure are coming. That should be the inspiration for my next blog.