Forget brandy or egg nog, Tessa Dare’s holiday novella from Samhain, Once Upon a Winter’s Eve, is the perfect warm-up on a chilly evening. Readers are welcomed back to the charming hamlet of Spindle Cove — where “Mondays, we have country walks. Tuesdays, sea bathing. We spend Wednesdays in the garden. And on Thursdays… we shoot.” — for the story of Violet Winterbottom and the mysterious man who literally falls at her feet after festivities in the Summerfield grand hall.

Years after heartbreak nearly led to her ruination, Violet’s family is ready for her to come back home — and back to the Marriage Mart — but quiet, bookish Violet is still smarting from the actions of the man she’s ruled The Disappointment and not quite ready to leave the safe haven of Spindle Cove. All of that changes when the mystery man, assumed to be a spy by the Cove’s militia, comes into her life. Dare’s heroines are smart, free thinking and don’t balk at taking action. Violet embodies those qualities, and then some, as she and the party crasher connect. Sparks fly and soon kindle into flames more than capable of heating their blood.

Once Upon a Winter’s Eve is a fast-paced, quick read — so much so that the reader will likely be itching for more and feel constrained by the novella length. At the core, it’s a feel-good story about a woman coming into her own and grabbing what she wants with both hands. Dare’s prose is fun, laced with banter and light and life, and guaranteed to make you smile. Violet fled a Disappointment to come to Spindle Cove but, hopefully, readers visiting her story will experience anything but!

Once Upon a Winter’s Eve is available for download at e-tailers like the Samhain Publishing store, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

*Disclaimer: I was consulted about Bengali dialogue for this novella, but I had no idea what the story was about and was not privy to any of the text before publication.

Today’s

Several years ago, I started researching a novel I called Shakespeare’s Blood. Not scholarly or particularly realistic, it’s a suspenseful chase across Britain, involving a young American who discovers secrets about Shakespeare and has to escape a killer who wants to possess those secrets. Her life is complicated by the fact that several attractive men want to “help” her, but she doesn’t know which of them is trustworthy. She will die if she chooses unwisely. Though the book isn’t factual, I did want to be as truthful as possible about Shakespeare’s times. Therefore, I read a lot about him. My story presents what I think is an intriguing scenario to cover the blank spaces in our knowledge of the Bard. And it was a lot of fun to write.

Recently a new movie called Anonymous was released. Though (full disclosure here!) I have not seen it, its premise is clear from the trailer: of the works attributed to him, Shakespeare wrote not a word. The movie is not the first to propose this idea, nor will it be the last. Some insist that Shakespeare cannot be the author we think we know. The argument is this: a kid from Stratford couldn’t have been that good. Mark Twain claimed that a minimally educated man from a small, provincial town could never have written such brilliant stuff. (Hmmm. A writer with minimal education from a sleepy town in the American South said that?)

So who do these people say really wrote Shakespeare? One early theory claimed it was Francis Bacon, the famous scientist. Those who posited the idea weren’t always reliable, however. One claimed secret evidence she wouldn’t share. Others supported their claims with information gleaned from séances. And one’s enthusiastic claim was weakened by the fact that her name was Delia Bacon. Others argue that a committee wrote the plays: This stuff is too good for one man to have produced; it was done by a talented group that hid behind a false identity, fearing royal disapproval. The problem with this theory is that drama is not computer science. Group work results in Saturday Night Live, not Hamlet. A team of such brilliance that remained together and focused for twenty years is hard to believe.

The most popular idea the Not-Shakespeare claimants present is that a writer of eminent reputation wanted or needed to remain anonymous. The story goes that this person wrote the plays and gave them to an obscure actor to present. Names dropped are Edward de Vere, Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, and…wait for it…Queen Elizabeth I. Why would such a talented person hide his/her name from admiring fans? Some argue that it was “improper” for nobles to write, which is ridiculous. Many Elizabethan nobles wrote poetry and plays and even performed them in entertainments at Court. The other argument, that it was politically dangerous, doesn’t apply to all the works. Wouldn’t the real author want to get credit for the “safe” plays, at the very least? Ben Johnson and Christopher Marlowe had their own careers. It’s unlikely they would give away income-producing work as popular as Shakespeare’s plays were. Raleigh was a busy world traveler. Elizabeth was kind of busy, too, fighting off the Spanish Armada and all. Nothing she did was private, so how did she sneak in all that writing time? And de Vere? Does it matter that he was dead before the last few plays were written? (By the way, de Vere’s poetry survives. It isn’t very good.)

Face it: Shakespeare was a brilliant man who listened, observed, and created. He made mistakes, which Isaac Asimov argues lends credence to the fact that the man from Stratford is The Bard of Avon. For example, in Julius Caesar, a clock chimes as Brutus and the boys plot Caesar’s death. A guy who never traveled, a guy with an eighth-grade education, might not realize that the Romans didn’t have clocks; no matter how wonderful his use of language and grasp of characterization. It’s kind of cute, when you think about it.

Here’s what I (and the serious Shakespeare scholars) believe: Shakespeare began as a small-time actor. After a few years, he wrote a play and showed it to his fellows, who liked and consequently staged it. He wrote more plays, rising in his field and ending up a prosperous businessman with a string of popular works to his credit. No one from his time doubted he was who he said he was. It was only a couple of hundred years later that the idea arose that the writer had to be of higher birth, a claim born of nothing more than upper-class snobbery.

I know it’s fun to play with the idea of Not-Shakespeare. My idea, at least in my own view, is more fun. In Shakespeare’s Blood, I offer an intriguing explanation for the questions concerning Shakespeare without impugning the reputation of the greatest writer the English language has ever known.

Visit Peg Herring’s Web site at http://pegherring.com. If her view of Shakespeare interests you, Shakespeare’s Blood is available in e-book form for Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers.

Bourne’s previous book in this series, The Forbidden Rose was, without a doubt, one of the best romances of 2010 — an absolute treasure from start to finish. In my write-up of that novel, I noted that “Bourne doesn’t write her characters as if ‘sequel’ is some big, shining, foregone conclusion. She just writes them as wonderful, bold, passionate people who have stories yet to be told.” Justine and Adrian are two such bold, passionate people, and their tale is as tempestuous and unrelenting as they are.

The Black Hawk zips from year to year, place to place, in Adrian and Justine’s history… almost turning their adventures into a time travel romance. But after the first jaunt, the reader becomes used to spending several chapters at a time in a particular setting that offers insight into the story in the present… and also shares cherished glimpses at how Adrian and Justine grew as people and also grew to love one another. The book itself is about sixty pages shorter than The Forbidden Rose, with considerably smaller, and more crowded, type. It gives the book a rushed, almost claustrophobic, feel… adding to a sense that the story is going at top speed. When I reached the end, I actually thought. “Wait, it’s over? It can’t be! I’m not ready!”

Bourne’s use of language remains as beautiful as in past books. When it comes to actual, nitty-gritty, prose, Bourne is one of the most poetic voices in romance today, and her characters’ voices are just as distinct. We “hear” Justine and Adrian speaking French, speaking English, thinking in dialect, even though Bourne doesn’t write out any accent. It’s in the cadence of their speech, in the words she chooses.

Too many times, when a character is introduced early in a series, you set your expectations for “their book” incredibly high and wind up various degrees of unsatisfied. The culmination of Adrian’s saga, so inextricably woven with that of Justine’s, gave me no such disappointment… and offered up the hope of stories yet to come! Surely the tale of Adrian’s fellow spy Pax awaits us… and that makes Joanna Bourne’s readers a truly lucky lot!

Our returning guest blogger Alina Adams has written Regencies for Avon, contemporary romances for Dell, soap-opera tie-in novels for Pocket, and figure skating mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. Now, it’s enhanced e-books that live close to her heart. Alina talks about how, when it comes to writing romance and involving the romance reader, three (or more!) definitely isn’t a crowd.

Previously, right on this very blog, I wrote about enhanced e-books and my plan to take over the world with them. I published my first one, When a Man Loves a Woman: Enhanced Multimedia Edition, last month. The electronic re-issue of my 2000 Dell paperback original now features its own musical soundtrack to complement and comment on the action (and, IMHO, a much nicer cover that the original).  Check it out on Amazon. My upcoming enhanced e-project, though, is something I’m particularly excited about. I intend to “crowd-source” a romance novel!

But, first, a little background…

I spent close to ten years working for Procter & Gamble Productions.  I wrote three best-selling tie-in novels for them, Oakdale Confidential and The Man From Oakdale for As the World Turns, and Jonathan’s Story (with Julia London) for Guiding Light. I also developed a property called Another World Today, a bi-weekly serial where every episode ended with a question. Fans voted and whatever majority ruled, I wrote.

Now, I am ready to try authoring a romance novel series, Counterpoint, in the same way. Every book will end with a cliffhanger (I do come from the world of soaps, after all!) and a chance for readers to vote on what they’d like to see happen next. I intend to put out a book a month, all reader-directed. There will also be a message board, where those who need to express their ideas and suggestions in more detail can do so. I am very curious to see what the result will be, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it will answer the question of whether readers want to be involved in the story-telling process, or whether they prefer to be swept away by the action.

For instance, with Another World Today, only about half of the people who visited the site actually voted, and some visitors even posted that they refused to vote because the emotional issues were too complex! (I am going to take that as a compliment. No matter how they meant it.) Another point that came up with AWT was that while some vocal posters on the message board expressed particular fondness for one character, whenever questions about her were put up for a vote, the response was lackluster — and, more often than not, against her!

And then there were the split-down-the-middle tallies. For instance:

Should Kirkland accept Sarah’s challenge?

Votes for Yes 52%
Votes for No 48%

Quite clearly, whatever I did here, half my audience was going to be unhappy!

There was also the day when the following two comments were logged in within an hour of each other:

Great episode but I’m tired of the Zeno story already.

Thanks for that scene between Zeno and Cass. I am really enjoying this new character.

So, yeah… what to do?  (And these are merely the less controversial storylines! When we explored racial identity and bisexuality, boy, were opinions split!  And heated!).

So why am I tackling such an experiment again, this time in romance novel form? Because I love trying new things. Because the latest technology makes it possible. Because I really, really want to see what happens when I do!

Interested in coming along for the crowd-sourced romance ride with me? Please join the Alina Adams Media Mailing List. If you’d like a copy of When a Man Loves a Woman to review for your own web site, please contact me at AlinaAdams@gmail.com.

(Interested in guest-blogging and chatting about your own new endeavors? Shoot an e-mail to perfectromance.magazine@gmail.com)

The memory of them, and of her skin almost luminous in the murk of his room, and of her breathing when she finally fell asleep beside him — all of it still had the power to catch his heart, and squeeze till it hurt.

Troubled psychiatric patient Boone has a hard time existing outside the nightmarish world of his therapy sessions with his solicitous doctor, Decker. His only real link to the world is Lori, his unfailingly devoted girlfriend. They have physical intimacy issues, but their emotional tie is strong enough that Boone and Lori both cling to it as they become pawns in a serial killer’s ghastly game. And it’s not a “Happily Ever After” that the two find themselves drawn to. Instead, they each set out on a path to the mysterious world of Midian… where monsters are welcomed with open arms.

As Boone and Midian become inextricably connected, Lori must change not only her definition of love, but of what constitutes humanity and what it means to truly be alive.

Barker’s prose is gorgeously poetic and starkly crass in turns. He doesn’t spare the reader the macabre pictures of the killer’s crime scenes, nor does he hold back when writing the sexual content. He drops the “c-word” and eschews hearts and flowers for bodily fluids and hurried hookups. So if you’re looking for sweet, sweet lovemaking, it’s certainly not to be found in the pages of Cabal. But despite all the stark, painfully honest, uncomfortable moments — or maybe because of them — Boone and Lori’s story never fails to compel me. I care about them. I root for them to survive the hideous horrorshow that’s ultimately created by man, not beast. I’ve always wanted to know what happens next.

What are some of your favorite horror-themed love stories?

PR’s interview and review components will continue as time and opportunity permits, but I would like to open the blog up to weekly, if not daily, guest blogs! Have industry news? I’ll post it. Got a book blogging tour? Put PR on your schedule! Just want to sound off about what you’re loving or hating in romance these days? I’ll take it! Editors, authors, readers… all are welcome.

Love’s a collaborative effort, right? So help me see this affair through!

Leave a comment in this post or shoot an e-mail to perfectromance.magazine@gmail.com and we’ll make a date!

InterMix will feature original works as well as re-released classic works available in e-Book format for the first time. The line will kick off in January with 11 classic Nora Roberts books, including the series Cordina’s Royal Family and The Donovan Legacy. More Roberts books will follow, with the second batch — which includes the MacGregor series — dropping in April.

But wait, there’s more! In February, InterMix will revive the Signet Regency line, with the release of six titles. Per the release, “three additional Regency-set romances will be released each following month throughout 2012. And later in the year, InterMix will bring back four novels in the classic Guinevere Jones series from bestselling writer Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Jayne Castle, that have long been out of print and have never been available as e-Books.”

Look for InterMix titles at all major e-retailers, in a variety of e-reader formats.

Avid book clubbers can stock up on a year’s worth of picks for less than $36. The books being offered at a reduced price of $2.99, through the month of October only, are:

Light of Day, by Jamie Saul
The Summer We Fell Apart, by Robin Antalek
The Blessings of the Animals, by Katrina Kittle
The Weight of Heaven, by Thriti Umrigar
Commuters, by Emily Gray Tedrowe
Husband and Wife, by Leah Stewart
Very Valentine, by Adrianna Trigiani
Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry
The Safety of Secrets, by DeLaune Michel
The Life You’ve Imagined, by Kristina Riggle
In a Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke
The Recipe Club, by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfield

Visit Book Club Girl or the BCG Facebook page for more info!

Unclaimed

 
1. Unclaimed features a really unusual reversal of roles with the hero and heroine. Can you tell us a little about Mark and Jessica and what inspired this story?

I’ve always wanted to write a book about a rock star — someone who has a fan club and is recognized on the streets. But I write books set in early Victorian times, and they didn’t have rock and roll. So I asked myself, “What would have been popular back then?” The answers are poetry, morals, and music. I suppose I could have taken the easy way out and written a poet, but instead, I came up with the idea of a hero who wrote a book extolling the virtues of male chastity. So I have my rock-star hero — but instead of being known for the multitude of women that he’s seduced, he’s known because he’s never seduced anyone.

2. How did you hit upon the idea of naming the Turner brothers after Bible verses…and how did you pick which Bible verses?

I got the idea for naming the Turners after Bible verses from a number of different places. The practice was not uncommon in some religious sects in the US around that time period. Terry Pratchett put a hilarious spin on it in his Discworld series — he had a character called “Smite the Unbelievers with Cunning Arguments.” I guess that name stuck. It seemed like a really humiliating name for a child to have. I’m all about making my heroes and heroines struggle from an early age, and so I wanted to write a book with a hero named “Smite.” The other names followed thereafter.

As for how I picked the verses… confession time! I picked the names first and then searched the Bible to find matching verses.

3. Did you have a particular inspiration for the utterly hilarious Male Chastity Brigade that is featured in Unclaimed? Did such societies actually exist during the time in which the book is set?

The Male Chastity Brigade has its roots in all the ways that we idolize celebrities today, and the totally over the top things that people will do for their idols. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, they didn’t really have anything like the MCB back then — I invented it to embarrass Mark, my hero, and I think the MCB does a good job of that.

4. You’ve mentioned that you don’t think people will like Unclaimed as much as Unveiled. Why do you think that is?

-Jovanka Novakovic | bauwerks.com

Well, I think some people will like Unclaimed better than Unveiled. And to be fair, the heroine — Jessica — is probably my favorite heroine that I’ve ever written. She’s smart, clever, and a real survivor. But she has made mistakes, and bad things have happened to her as a result. She’s not defined by those bad things, but she definitely has to work to overcome them.

I’m a lawyer in my other life, and once, when talking to a prosecutor, he told me that women who sit on juries tend to be much, much harder on other women. If a woman is assaulted, other women try to distance themselves from what is obviously a traumatic experience by focusing on her mistakes. We want to believe that it can’t happen to us, and so we look for a way to place blame. And so I don’t know for certain, but I suspect that Jessica may be a polarizing heroine.

5. Can we ask what’s in store for the third Turner brother, Smite, in his book?

The book is called Unraveled, and it will be out in November. When the book starts, Smite is deeply committed to doing what is right — so much so that he has earned the nickname “Lord Justice” from the common people for his service as a magistrate. Then Miranda Darling appears in his courtroom to testify on behalf of a child accused of theft. The catch? She’s pretending to be someone else, and he figures that out. And so I pit a man who believes in following the law to the letter against a woman who believes in bending all the rules.

6. You’re very active in the romance community. Is there anything you want to put out into the universe for our readers?

Ten years ago, most authors would have very little contact with their readers. Perhaps a few might send letters to their favorite authors, or see an author at a book-signing — but, by and large, readers never saw anything by their authors except a book. Today, as an author, I’m very grateful that I can e-mail, tweet, and interact with my readers on Facebook. It means a lot to me to not only be able to talk to readers about my book, but to talk about the books that I’ve loved — and about American Idol, Glee, or the latest news. It’s great to have readers who are not only customers but friends, and I’m so happy to live in a time when that’s possible.

For more on Courtney Milan, visit courtneymilan and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/courtneymilan.

An epistolary novel consisting of diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, Darker Still is the story of Natalie Stewart, a young mute woman recently released from a school (dare we say ‘asylum’) for the deaf, blind and speech impaired. Always on the outside looking in, and traumatized into silence at a young age, Natalie speaks eloquently to the reader, making us her companion well before she finds one (quite literally) in the stunningly lifelike painting of Jonathon Whitby, Lord Denbury. A dashing, would-be doctor who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Denbury, too, is trapped. To free him from a terrible curse, Natalie must battle ghastly supernatural forces, her own nightmares… and forbidden desire!

Hieber sets her tale in Gaslight Era New York, with much of the action taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For younger readers in particular she crafts a beautiful sense of a city that was just as cultured and vibrant and exciting a hundred years ago as it is today… and teenagers who were just as relatable! Mean girls? Check. Breath-stopping, racy-for-all-its-chasteness romance? Check. A touch of the macabre? Check. (Yours truly is in her 30s and had a little trouble reading this book before bed!) But the most resonant thing of all is that Hieber stresses the importance of giving Natalie a voice… not necessarily literally (though that is certainly a huge component of the arc) but emotionally. It’s a pretty good message for teens who feel like no one is listening: You’re not alone.

Darker Still touts itself as a novel of “magic most foul,” and while Hieber pays homage to Shakespeare and his witches, Oscar Wilde’s perilous portrait in the attic, and Wilkie Collins’ woman in white, her own magic is most fair!

Readers can find Darker Still in bookstores and at online retailers starting November 1.