kate rothwell

HEY! brendurbanist at gmail dot com You won. I forgot to tell you guys that! Sorry! I posted the winners in other spots but where the actual winner showed up? Nope. I'll be sending you the book.  Taming the Bander had a nice little run--in the top 100 gay books at Amazon and the top ten at Samhain off and on most of the week (still lingering at the top at Samhain). Now this week's batch of books will take its place. But I did like seeing that and I took screen shots which I will keep and gloat over during the long dark days of bad sales. In other news they're doing stuff to the old Borders across the street. The ghost writing, the shadow of the store's name is gone so we can move on. Adios entirely, Borders. This passage along time goes faster and faster. AAAAAAAAAAnd that's about it. Except they have the music cranked too loud here at Barnes and Noble. It lends a sense of desperation to the place as if it's trying to grab us and make us buy music, ple...

I found a box of books from Samhain on my front porch--it's the same book, over and over, Unnatural Calamities.  I read everything on my Kindle these days. I don't make any money from print books. Given a choice, I'd rather not have my books go into print. And yet...and yet. It's still cool to hold a real book. I'm not over my print addiction.  This one even has a nice cover. (I was mostly embarrassed when Irrational Arousal showed up on my porch). The back cover is nice too. It's red on white. Yum. I'm fond of this book--this is the story that has every romance trope I could imagine in it-- so I'll keep at least one copy for me. Linda picked one up, flipped it open and said, "hey, look a typo." It was a "joke" ha ha ha. We both agreed that we never ever look in books because we do not want to see those things. No, no. I brought it into work (Barnes and Noble--we sit in the cafe and type, so I'm not talking real work). I...

Two of my books are up for awards!! Getting to be a finalist is a very cool surprise--though the winning vote won't go for me (or rather us, since one is a BD/SD book, House of Mirrors). #1 reason: the competition has some good books in there. #2 both are the get-out-the-vote sort of awards and I'm not going to push for them, and is Bonnie. We're both working on books, thank you, though nothing together at the moment. Where are these contests you ask? House of Mirrors is at The Romance Review. the other is at the Sammies and whoops! That one is closed. But I do have this nifty button from TRR. Pretty!  Since we're talking promofomoschmomo here's an article I wrote over at Heroes and Heartbreakers. In which I define qualities of Chick Lit and Young Adult and then decide who did it first.  So yes, I'm a presence on the internet.

Message 1. Have you entered the contest yet? Easy to do. Easy to get multiple entries, too. ENTER THE CONTEST, and yes, that's shouting. I'm adding a megaphone of bolding, too.  Win $30 and more Summer Devon books than you ever dreamed possible. Message 2. We just got a review for House of Mirrors from Queer Magazine Online. Reviews come so slowly these days, which is fine in an age of endless shelf life. Just funny that in a world where everything has sped up, reviews have slowed down. It's a good review --as in not just positive (which makes reviews wonderful) but also well-written. I mean how could you not like lines like these? This is a wonderful, unusual story with delightfully complex characters, many of whom I grew to admire and love. The carnival world is a perfect setting for this engaging story, challenging us to think about reality versus illusion; it's an eye-opening look into the hardship and camaraderie of life on the road for carnival entertai...

1. figure out a way to tell everyone on the planet that Bonnie and I had two books in Rainbow Rewards 10 best  historicals .  The Nobleman and the Spy tied for third and House of Mirrors is honorably mentioned in seventh place. And Molly Winter listed one of our books in her top ten for the year. 2. get better numbers at Amazon and Samhain so that I can tag "best-seller" on my name. Actually, I have had best-selling books at Samhain before -- but this one hasn't made it yet. And I wouldn't really add that tag. 3. shake this godforsaken mind-set in which I check stats at Amazon and Samhain or look for reviews online. This sort of behavior leads to bitterness and frustration or elation and giddiness. None of these condition are ideal for #4 . . .   4. write a goddamn book. I'm telling you there is no happy coexistence between the promo mind and the writing mind. They exist in different realms. I hereby shed the promo-brain, all that glittery goo ...

And you will know too, if you go to Delilah Devlin's blog. ALSO another chance to win books! Plus! If you don't go to the blog, and no one comments, and I end up all alone, sitting here (and there) in the dark, whining again, I will track you all down and eat your cookies. I can't eat the ones sitting here because they're reserved for a school sale. Drat.

I'm going to lift this from my newsletter, but just to be mean provide a tiny incentive for you to sign up for my newsletter, I'm going to remove the recipe. (Subscription link is on the right.) So about Unnatural  Calamities.... HEY! It's on sale today and when Samhain puts out a new book, they reduce the price. So if you want a copy at a lower price, now's the time to buy. I'm very fond of this story and hope you enjoy it too .  Updated: I fixed this link. Every single dang link in that newsletter didn't work. The recipe is fine though. She has a deft hand with banana flambé…and a touch that sets his body on fire. Janey knows all too well she looks a wreck. What hard-working chef wouldn’t, operating on three hours of sleep? Stuck in a dull Connecticut town, taking care of her beloved niece, Rachel, Janey spends her days looking for a job and her nights working high-end catering gigs. Just her luck, she runs into Mr. Perfect two days past her...

Okay, smart people are emailing me saying whu? huh? about this contest, so it's time to have a post with no bells and whistles, telling you the basic facts. No big, colorful fonts and no whining. It'll hurt, but I'll manage. THE CONTEST runs today through next Monday, Sept 12. A winner will be picked about 6 pm eastern time.  WHAT YOU WILL WIN Everyone is a winner! You will get any Summer Devon or Kate Rothwell ebook title (I can't send you Somebody to Love, Somebody Wonderful or Claws on Silk. Still, that's a fair sized lot of books to pick from.) You will also be entered to win a twenty-five dollar gift e-certificate from Amazon. Winner picked next Monday. Your chances of winning depend on how many people enter and how many entries you have (up to three possible). HOW TO ENTER JUST tweet, facebook o r blog about one of my two new books ( Claws on Silk and Protecting Miss Dunaway ), using a link that goes directly to that book.   Okay,...

So I called in another judge. Literally. Dragged her out of her car where she was waiting to haul us both off to exercise. "Look," I said, and showed her the picture. "Listen," I said, and read the entries. She liked them all, and I expect she wished I'd gone across the street and nabbed the Republican** as judge. At last she picked LYNN'S. Yay LYNN! You now have Bosnian Socks. I just need to send them to you. Email me your address (again, please). Thanks! _____ **After all, he is the Arbiter of Good Taste on our block. Both husband and wife are, but the husband is on the board of the town's historic preservation committee bushwa, thingy. Whatever They are extremely New England Tasteful and are all about proper restoration and subdued good taste. They used to make snarky remarks about my kids' toys in our yard. So one night I planted two pink flamingos on their front lawn with a bad taste manifesto attached to them. I told the neighbors that if...

Aya sent me this page from the Boston paper. Sorry if you were going to put it in your blog, Aya. On the other hand, the more places this Art is posted, the better. It deserves an audience. Anyway, what label would you give this shot? It deserves better than " A Landslide? Says Who? " I mean we're obviously talking wave for one thing. Here. Let me crop. That might be easier for you to give this picture words that are worthy of its awesomeness. Caption, description and/or snark, your choice. Whoever gives the best caption gets a prize of some sort. I'll decide soon what it'll be. Look for updates. Weird how pleased McCain is. You'd think in a campaign full of snarls and grimaces they'd find something in which he looks less chipper. Or maybe being buried in a sea of disembodied Obama heads is just what he's been longing for. Click on the photo to see details.

Last Lin-day. And here you go, her winners. Thanks again for letting me hijack your blog this week. It's been fun. :-) I put all the commenters' names into the lucky St. Augustine hat and had the DH draw two names: 1) Winner of the choice of my ebook backlist is Sam . 2) Winner of a signed copy of either What Mattered Most or Truth and Consequences is Tracy Macnish . Sam can check out http://www.samhainpublishing.com/authors/linda-winfree to take a look at my ebooks. If she'll email me her choice and format preference, I'll get it to her ASAP. I'll need Tracy to email me her snail mail addy and her book choice.

Bettie Sharpe rocks .... and not just because she's a great writer, an actual FNV . She made a very cool button for Dean who won a contest here. It's such a cool button that it makes me want to hold another contest. February, maybe and Maybe I'll make it a title / back cover copy contest because I love those things and they're a great way to practice writing: 1. blurbs 2. query letters 3. sucknopses. (in which you try to keep a perky style while giving away key plot points) Why should I care about you , my fellow rioters getting some practice with these skill sets? Because Bettie did my button as part of a play it forward thing so now I'm tagged it. She refuses socks and says I should continue to support "wobbly baby deer writers" (I love that phrase) Attention: any baby deer in search of real guidance should head over to PBW. Also learn to hold very still so you blend into the landscape. (that's not so much for the rioters as for any real bambis ...

Forget envy. For the week ahead, the featured sin will be wroth, which is a wonderful word. Wrath is pretty, wroth is just elegant and a good old word, too. Love the writhing factor. From Merriam-Webster Etymology: Middle English, from Old English wrāth; akin to Old High German reid twisted, Old English wrīthan to writhe Date: before 12th century: intensely angry : highly incensed : wrathful WROTH entry number one: Do you know what I bloody HATE ? Writing contests, as in contests for writers. I already mentioned the fact that I entered the Suzannah (opened to pubs!) and got rotten scores, including 45 out of 115. That means that the judge gave me many, many, many ones. She only gave me two fives and both of those were for having a neat manuscript. The rest? Mostly ones (on a scale of 1-5) with a few 2s. Low scores don't set off the wrath. Yo, I think no one gave me over 78 for either of the two manuscripts I entered--no, I really don't know what I was thinking, either--and the ...

I entered the RITAs, but I'm not sure why I bothered. I'm also not sure why, once I shelled out the dough, I didn't bother to pay better attention to things like rules and whatnot. I thought they needed the books by mid-January. Last week I got the email saying yo, dudette, we need the stuff by 1/1. Whoops, time to use priority mail. Fast forward two days. . . And hey, wait a sec. What's that copy on the shelf? Wait. ..hey.... that's supposed to be in the package to Texas. So then another run to the post office for express mail. We're talking expensive, and silly expensive at that. Add on the apologetic coffees I'm buying for the RWA peeps ( if one messes up and makes innocent administrative types lives harder, and they're polite [eg don't get the satisfaction of calling you names], one must buy them coffee . That is a rule of life my mother taught me.) and I could have bought something more likely to bring me joy and pleasure, like a buncha powe...

where's the tension? not even a squee of anticipation? and Linda? Where are you? I'm gonna hold my breath and just wait until someone begs me to tell. holding. .... . holding. ..... aw heck, I have to get out of here because my husband is watching Showdown at Area 51 and I can't take much more of the dialogue ("I have a bad feeling about this"). Green. She said she likes green. So Sam is the winner! But I don't think it's Sam Winston, is it? So the Sam in question should track down Linda Winfree and demand the goods, as in a good read. It's up to you two to figure it out. I have to flee bad teevee before the alien blasts someone else's arm off and we get a close up of the spraying stump.

it's my blog and I'm in the mood. The headlines today said Iconical Stuntman Evel Knievel is dead. Only I thought it said Laconical. Heh. Evel Knievel laconical? Now, maybe, but not so much before. I have never seen an episode of Grey's Anatomy so that bloffle is right out for me, Sam. Sorry. Does Scrubs count? Because they referenced GA once. I haven't seen Desperate Housewives and I hear it'll be too late on account of a big old tornado. The contest is fun, I loved the entries--EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Do you know how weird that is? Usually in contests a few make me go eww, hmmm , blah. Not this time. Here's the down side: there isn't a lot of tension about who won. I don't even have to go count the votes because we all know it's number two, Dean. "So, it's been a while. Whatcha been doing?" He scuffs the pavement with a Converse All-Star. "Nothing much." Her arms are crossed. He glances at the phone in his hands. Where ...

Did I say when I was going to JUDGE the puppies by the 24th? Huh? Did I? It's tough! You guys are too good. And it's come to a eenie meanie minnee mo thing. So I'll post the four and you pick the winner. Remember, the contest was A Big Secret and points for 400 words or less and for not SAYING exactly what the secret is. Bonus for babies. I found it hard to resist Doug's entry, but it came in at 419 words. And I rooted for Jesus Mary and Joseph but I figure one per author. I know I said as many entries as you wanted, but that's because I want to read them. I love how perverse you people are. #1 James looked at me and, his deep blue eyes never wavering, and said, "I have a secret." My mouth went dry. James had always been the one for me. My heart mate. My destiny. Searching for him after he left town had taken all my time, money, and energy. Now that I found him, I wasn't about to let him go. "You're married. Is that it?" I managed to kee...

one about you one point five about me. 1. yes, please enter the contest as often as you like, within reason, whatever that is. 2. my current favorite song is Ruby because the lyrics are about empty headed love and it's got that catchy refrain. Also it's short and anything on Guitar Hero III that's short wins my vote. 2a. This fave provides more confirmation that great depth isn't part of my personality package. My first confirmation came when I went to art museums with my mother and looked forward to the cake in the cafeteria more than the art. I enjoyed the art and sometimes (like during a big Gauguin show) I forgot about the cake. But not for long.

What's your excuse? Well? You might write 400 words about WHY you WON'T enter the Contest. Or you could enter the contest. Any minute now I'll design a button that'll knock your sox off. Hey, and I will give away Bosnian Sox . Even Bam doesn't do that. Heaven knows I have enough pairs of 'em. so LOOK! You'd win: * a pair of Bosnian Sox * a book with a Big Secret in it (I have one all picked out) or one of mine. * $20 to spend on more books with or without big secrets. * A gorgeous e-button declaring you are a champion pro writer.

It will end the end of November. So you have to enter by, ummmmmm November 24 so I can put up finalists and let you pick. By then I will have nabbed a judge, figured out a system, decided how to do it, I hope. Even if you don't enter, read them because there are good ones already . Yay! . . .and I wasn't going to do the LWRanting thing, but this is too good , because anyone, right or left, might wake up at 2 am and try to figure out WTF? Is Reese being subtle? I think he or she is an Onion writer who got bored. Being gay has nothing to do with gay sex, dammit.