BL Bonita Interviewed

BL Bonita's "Pathway to Paradise" from Noble Publishing

Our most recently acquired romance author at Embrace Books, multi-published Canadian author BL Bonita, has just been interviewed over at Happily Ever After Reviews.

Well done, BL, for a great interview! It was especially fascinating to hear all about your beautiful home in the Canadian wilderness, and how it has inspired so much of your writing.

If anyone has other news of Embrace authors out and about on the net, drop us a line and we'll post it up on the Embrace blog.

BL Bonita's "Savage Sun"

Savage Sun is a new erotic western romance by multi-published Canadian author BL Bonita, who now brings her passion and sense of frontier adventure to the Embrace list.

In a lawless western town, genteel Jamie Phillips stumbles upon the brutal whipping of a local coloured man, Avery Samms. With sympathy in her heart, Jamie takes the man to her home to recover, where a forbidden passion brings them together. When their world is threatened by jealousy, hatred and revenge, Jamie and Avery must fight for their lives and their love - under a savage western sun.

BL Bonita is in an interracial relationship, and her brand-new novel Savage Sun blossomed from learning about the struggles her boyfriend’s ancestors were forced to overcome. She often wonders how difficult it must have been for interracial couples to survive in society at a time when such a relationship was frowned upon or even strictly forbidden. She thought, “What would I do if I was the heroine?” and the story came quite naturally.

BL writes erotic romance in multiple sub-genres including historical, contemporary, western, suspense and thriller. She resides in beautiful Northern Ontario, Canada, where summers are green and winters crispy white. Often you will find her tapping away at the computer with dishevelled hair and a cup of strong coffee, creating stories out of her wild imagination.

BL Bonita describes becoming a part of Embrace Books "an exciting adventure" and believes that "the rougher the road lovers travel, the sweeter their reward at the end".

Savage Sun will be published as an After Dark title, under Embrace Historicals.

To learn more about BL Bonita and her "unpredictable and completely engrossing" red-hot romances, please visit:
http://www.carnalfiction.com

Writers: Spread the Love

Since Embrace Books is only three months away from launching, why not spread the love and let other writers know that we're still encouraging submissions?

We have two contemporary and paranormal romance series, the sexy and scrumptious Red Velvet and her even slinkier sister, After Dark.

We also boast two historical lines, Embrace Historicals, which covers everything from World World II romantic fiction back to sweeping medieval or Roman sagas, and the Embrace Regency series, which covers early Georgian romance through to the end of the Regency.

High quality lesbian fiction and non-fiction can be found at Saffron. 

And for those who also enjoy alternative fiction, without a strong romance element, we've just launched a call for Proxima, our new science fiction and fantasy line.

Novels, novellas and short fiction are all welcome. Wait times on submissions are currently very short, mostly under 6 weeks. Please see our Submissions page for full details of what and how to submit, and for our standard contract terms. All books will be launched digitally, with some also being available in print editions.

Interview at Writers, Authors, Books & More

I was interviewed recently by Susan Palmquist for her blog

Writers, Authors, Books & More

Looks like an interesting site, with plenty of good interviews, doing basically what the name suggests. Hope you can pop over there sometime and hear me answer fascinating questions like:

What type of romances are you looking for? What's the word length?

and

How will the Embrace line differ from Mills & Boon?

and many more!

Inspiring Inspiration

I was looking for inspiration for a post and the lovely Rachel Lyndhurst pulled out her equally lovely dictionary so I’m going to do copy cat.

What more inspiration did I need than the word INSPIRATION?

Most of the time my main inspiration is music. Usually at key scenes I need to crank things up and the tunes come out (in MP3 and You Tube form). I probably end up with a trio of artists that help me along per book. I tried the photoboard montage thing (but frankly my craft skills are worse than my pre-schooler’s so that was the end of that). 

For Nanny Behaving Badly my inspirations were heaps of Scottish band Del Amitri, The Killers and some Nelly Furtado thrown in. In a nutshell the book idea came from a yearning to write about the city of Edinburgh in Winter (when I happen to think it’s at its best) with hot characters to ward off the December chill.

My inspirations were a newly launched coffee bar, Edinburgh in pre-Xmas sparkly mode with its festive Christmas market. An uptight Scots alpha entrepreneur hero, who needs urgent childcare as well as a good lesson in chilling out. And an in your face bouncy, gutsy new American barista who stirs things up with firecrackers to bring true dazzle to the season.

I had a blast writing it. I can only hope it’ll work for readers too (gulp!)

So in summary sometimes inspiration is a mosaic of elements inside you and you need to pull it all out and make it pretty (of course pretty is pretty darn hard to achieve and like the legend that is Fame it takes lots of sweat and effort as payment).

So without further ado here’s some INSPIRING POHM (pictures of hot men) as reward in lieu of reading this post.

There’s Alexis Papas...a long time favourite. Who wouldn’t drown in those eyes? Then Marios Lekkas. Sexy new boy on the block. And finally there’s Noah Wylie – Dr John Carter from ER who is the real inspiration picture behind Lyle Sutherland the terse and sometimes grumpy hot Coffee King in Nanny Behaving Badly.

Who would you pick to kick off wintertime sparks with? Which is your pick for sharing a latte, iced gingerbread...and maybe more?
 

Judy Jarvie is a new Embrace Books author. Her contemporary romance 'Nanny Behaving Badly' launches in early 2011. 

Obsessed? Join the Club.

I am a writer - and I still can't get over how much I love saying that! - so I love words.  Big words, small words, words that coat your tongue like heather honey, words that snap like icicles or crackle like burning logs.

Scrumptious.

Can't get enough of them and that's not a problem when you've got one of these to dip into on a daily basis:

Well-thumbed beauty, isn't she? Bigger than the bible by my reckoning, so for today's lesson let's dip in and pick a word shall we? My turn first:

OBSESSION.
'An idea or thought that continuously preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.'

Ah, I do like this one.

Any decent alpha male hero needs a touch of this to drive him on, to focus, achieve and become the successful man he is. Similarly, your heroine will need a good dollop to adhere to her principles and fight for what she believes in, in spite of the impossible temptation and choices she is facing.

They both suffer from the bittersweet hold of obsession when they are unable to resist each other and can't shake the need for their perfect mate. They become consumed, obsessed with wanting each other, with fighting that need until it brings them to their knees and speeds them on to their happy ever after ending.

And what about the author?  The person who writes their story?  Does he or she need to be obsessed to create this storm of emotion? To force them together, tear them apart, crush them and finally reconcile them in a satisfying way?

There's no doubt about it in my mind.  If I wasn't so obsessed with writing I'd never have finished writing a book in the first place. Or the next one and a couple more after that. I would never have submitted either.

So, do you agree?  Do you have to have a bit of an obsession to be a writer?  Or is there another way?  My family might want to know at some stage.

Well, here endeth the lesson.  Drop us a line if you'd like us to feature a particular word in the future, otherwise I get to choose again (yessss!). But you've been very patient, so as a treat I'm going to share my current hero obsession:

 David ...

Sigh.  He's been top of the list for a couple of years now, I really think I need a cure.

He's become a bit of an addiction actually.  Now there's a good word.

Rachel Lyndhurst is one of our new Embrace Books authors, and will be launching her contemporary romance 'Storm's Heart' in early 2011.

The Reluctant Marquess by Maggi Andersen

“Strong Attraction … Fear of Intimacy”
Embrace Books is delighted to announce the acquisition of a thrilling Georgian romance novella by accomplished Australian novelist, Maggi Andersen.

This historical romance, The Reluctant Marquess, will join the brand-new Embrace Regency list.

Maggi and her lawyer husband are empty nesters, living in the countryside outside Sydney with the cat that rules them, and the demanding wildlife they feed. An entertaining offshoot of this lifestyle: animals often feature in her books!

Maggi began writing adventure stories when she was about eight years old. Three children, a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree later, her novels are still filled with adventure and suspense, but are now also passionate romances. Georgette Heyer – among others – brought inspiration to her seductive Regencies and she also writes contemporary romantic suspense, young adult novels and darker, Victorian mysteries.

Maggi Andersen’s first historical romance was a Regency novella, Stirring Passions, and she has since written several more, which received great reviews. She chose to set her novella for Embrace in the 18th Century because it allowed more freedom for her independently-minded heroine, Charity Barlow, than the stricter Regency era. Plus, Maggi loves the fashions, architecture and decorative interiors of this period.

The Reluctant Marquess
A country-bred girl, Charity Barlow never expected to become a Marchioness. Nonetheless, she is determined to make her marriage of convenience into the ton work. Yet despite the strong attraction between them, and Charity’s bold attempts at intimacy, the rakish Lord Robert does not believe a husband should be in love with his wife. Can she ever make him love her?

You can find out more about Maggi Anderson in the following places:

Maggi’s website: www.maggiandersenauthor.com
Maggi’s blog: http://www.maggiandersen.blogspot.com

Embrace Love Letter

The first ever Embrace Books newsletter has now gone out to subscribers. If it hasn't arrived, and you definitely subscribed, please check your spam boxes before emailing me. Thanks!

If it has arrived and you've read it, please do let me know what you think or make suggestions. We're probably going with a different design next month, so that's going to change. But content-wise, if there's something you'd like to see in the newsletter, please let me know.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here. 

This month, I commissioned C.L. Kerr, a NWS RNA member writing under a pen-name, to create our first Love Letter.

She came up with a wartime letter from 'Tom' to his 'darling Iris', written in September 1943. The letter was so poignant, I knew immediately it was the one to launch the section. You can also read it here.

Love Letters can be contemporary, historical or paranormal. They're unpaid, but an excellent way for new and developing writers to raise their profiles.

If you'd like to have a crack at writing one for a future newsletter, please keep it under 200 words and submit it to me as a Word doc. at jane @ embracebooks.co.uk

For Romance After Dark ...

There's a renewed call for submissions to our scorching hot After Dark romance line, over on the Embrace Books website.

Do please hop over there and leave a comment, make your mark on our brand-new website, and hopefully start preparing a submission to Embrace Books.

Fabulous new website for Embrace Books

Just when I was getting comfortable here on blogspot, it seems we have a new address.

Check out the brand-new website, just starting to take shape at embracebooks.co.uk, and marvel at its total gorgeousness!

I shall be developing some of the posts there in the weeks to come, which may include repeating a few important posts from this site. Bear with me though, there'll be plenty of new material coming soon to Embrace Books, especially once we're out of the holiday month.

The first-ever Embrace Love Letter will also be coming your way around August 21st, packed with exciting news, photographs, tips on writing romance, and even some short fiction to get you in the mood.

If you haven't signed up to receive the newsletter, please click at the top of the side-bar.

"Storm's Heart" by Rachel Lyndhurst

I can now announce that we have a title for Rachel Lyndhurst's excellent debut with Embrace, which is the unforgettable Storm's Heart.

Many thanks to those who have signed up to receive our monthly Embrace Love Letter, which is due to be sent out around the middle of August. If you haven't yet signed up for a copy of our newsletter, there is a link at the top of the sidebar which will take you to the appropriate form.

We shall be on holiday for the rest of the month, but will check in occasionally to read messages. So if you send your ms and don't immediately receive an acknowledgement, please wait at least two weeks before querying.

After Dark

We're particularly keen to receive submissions for After Dark.

Most of our submissions to date have been for the Red Velvet line, which is 'sexy, sophisticated romance'. But it would be good to see some deeply-felt mss for the hotter After Dark romances too. We're looking for steamy erotic romance for this line, in all categories and from either a heterosexual or gay perspective, with quality writing as paramount.

A potentially successful manuscript for After Dark might prompt some or all of the following descriptions:

Spicy
Provocative
Erotic
Intriguing
Explicit
Risk-taking
Unusually plotted or themed
Written with great character