The Changing Face of Publishing

Writing a book isn’t what it used to be. The computer made the physical part of the process much easier. Now, Indie Publishing has added another convenience. It’s eliminated the need to find an agent or a publisher. 

But is this a good thing? Or is there a lot more poorly written crap out there? And why are so many authors blogging, Tweeting, and Facebooking? What’s with all this self-promotion anyway? 
The publishing world is changing and authors have to adapt or change careers. For those of us still struggling to make a career, the changes can be daunting. 

What’s an author to do?

I’m not sure myself. So, I’ve asked recently published Wild Rose Press author, Linda Trout how she views this new world of publishing.

Welcome Linda!

Hi Lilly. I’m so glad to be here today. It’s very sweet of you to host me.

- Contests. Do you enter and why?

I do enter contests. As an unpubbed, I found it to be a good way to get my MS in front of an editor if I finaled. Also, if you final you have bragging rights. Always a plus.

I tried contests a couple of times. Some of the critiques were very helpful. A couple sounded like so much sour grapes to me, while others didn’t give a clue as to what was good or bad about the work. I tend to shy away from them. I guess I’m afraid of being told I suck. Lol!

- Do you keep up with your sales? What social media do you think generates the most sales for you and how do you keep up with the results.

Since my book is a recent release, I’m still new at keeping up with sales numbers. I don’t check every day, but probably should keep a closer tab on them. I always try to steer people to The Wild Rose Press site, but most people are more familiar with Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

I love that TWRP pays quarterly. I checked my sales a few times on the authors’ website, but it just made me anxious. Now, opening that email that takes me to my paypal account is like opening a present. And since my sales very so widely, it’s like getting an unexpected gift. My December sales were steady. My sales went up in March and then dropped in July. Can’t wait to see what September brings.

- Do you do book signings. Do you think they're a thing of the past?

I LOVE book signings! I’ve done quite well at them. Of course, the one’s I’ve done so far have been with family, friends and former coworkers so it was a good way to reconnect. I think it may depend on where you live and your own social network. I come from a small town so it made sense to hold my first signing at the library there.

I’m a small town gal myself. I’ve had seven book signings. I made my most sales at the two held in a gift shop in my hometown. Thanks to all my friends, family, and co-workers. Lol! But you’re right. It was loads of fun and a great way to reconnect.

- Speaking of books, do you still read paperbacks? Or do you prefer digital readers? Do you see a future for paperbacks or do you think they're going the way of the dinosaur?

I have to admit I’m one of those dinosaurs. Don’t own an eReader (yet). My hubby and I both read paperbacks. A LOT! We drop in at the bookstore quite often to see what’s new. Don’t you just love the smell and the stacks of books when you walk in the door? Kinda like coming home. When we have too many books piled up, we donate them to the local library. It’s a win-win situation.

I felt the same way you do—until my husband bought me an e-reader two years ago. Now, I only buy/read research books. I still love browsing bookstores. I still buy old books and research books. But when I want to read for fun, I download it. I’m now on my second e-reader.

- Besides guest blogging, how do you promote your books?

I use Facebook and set up an Event when I have a signing, then invite all my friends that live close by. I’ll also have an announcement in the newspaper. I’m signed up on Twitter, but I’m still trying to learn my way around it. hehe. I also set up author profiles on Amazon and Goodreads. Not sure how those help me promote my book, though. Basically, I use word of mouth and tell everyone I know to tell everyone they know. Not that efficient, but I’m still getting the hang of this stuff. Remember, I’m a dinosaur. {snort}

I know what you mean. I get Facebook. I don’t quite get Twitter. But I am trying to Tweet more and respond to Tweets. I’ve run contests on Goodreads and I post reviews of books I’ve read on both Goodreads and Amazon. And, I too have an author page. I’ve also joined Pinterest. Another time suck. Lol!

- What's your take on self-publishing? Have you attempted it? Do you recommend it? And, have you read any self-published books? What was your take on them?

I think Indie Publishing is a great way to get your book out there that doesn’t necessarily fit in the parameters of the Big 6. However, too many people are simply throwing their work out there without it being ready. First and foremost, you have to have a good product! Which means hiring an editor. I know my book wouldn’t have been nearly as good without the help of my Wild Rose Press editor. If you’re going to go to all the effort to write a book, make it the best it can possibly be. Once you have a bad reputation for poor quality work, it’s hard to overcome it.

I couldn’t agree more! I think those who’re making the most money off Indie Publishing are previously published authors who’ve gotten their rights back and those authors published in other genres who decide to do something different—like trying their hand at Steam Punk. I’m flirting with the idea of Indie Publishing myself but haven’t taken the plunge yet. 

-And you have a new release from The Wild Rose Press. What’s it called? Can you tell us a little about it?

My debut novel, Grave Secrets is a romantic suspense.
Here’s a blurb:

When Sara Adams' infant daughter is abducted, she moves heaven and earth to find her. But six months later, time is running out and Sara turns to the one man she shouldn't—insurance investigator Morgan Daniels. Dangerously attractive, he's a threat to more than just her heart, and if she isn't careful, he'll unearth secrets better left buried.

Proving Sara murdered her husband is Morgan's top priority. Helping her find her child is the perfect opportunity to get the proof he needs. But when he starts to think of her as a woman rather than a suspect, she slips under his armor. He can't trust her. Worse, he can't trust himself around her.

All evidence points to Sara as a murderer, but Morgan's gut tells him the evidence is wrong. Is his obsession with her blinding him to the facts? Or is the real murderer still out there…stalking Sara?

Excerpt:

Sara’s sobs, the first he’d heard from her, broke through his stupor. Was this the reason behind those dark circles under her eyes? The logical side of his brain said to back out of the room and get the hell out of the house. He didn’t need another mental case in his life, didn’t need the responsibility, and later the guilt, when he failed them.
Instead, he gathered her in his arms, then pressed her head against his shoulder. She cried so hard, her entire body shook, and her keening touched him in places he’d thought long dead. He had the feeling this was the first time she’d truly cried since they’d dug up her husband’s body. No wonder there were so many tears.
His shirt was soaked. He didn’t care. He forgot about his mom, about how Sara could already be headed down the same road and simply held her close. When the tears had abated and she’d blown her nose on the handkerchief he’d offered, he kissed the top of her head, whispering it would be all right. She looked up at him, parting her lips. Remnants of tears still trailed down her cheeks. Without thinking, he lowered his head and gently pressed his lips to hers to comfort her.
Sara had been clinging to his shirt, but now moved her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She opened for him, inviting. Am I out of my mind? He couldn’t get involved with a client. Or a suspect. Sara Adams fell into both categories.
He chuckled to himself. He was about to make the biggest mistake of his life, but right now he didn’t care. When she whimpered he scooped her into his arms, her weight a turn-on by itself, and strode across the hall to the nearest bed he could find.

Thanks for stopping by to chat today. Good luck with the new book. I think it’ll do great. Then again, I love good romantic suspense.

Thanks for having me today, Lilly! I’ve enjoyed visiting with you and sharing my viewpoints on some of the issues authors face in our ever-changing publishing world.

This is the tail end of my blog tour, so on Labor Day I’ll be drawing one lucky commenter’s name from the tour to receive a free digital copy of my book.

Who doesn’t love a chance to win a free book? Especially an award-winning book.

That’s right. Grave Secrets won the 5 Heart Sweetheart contest with The Romance Studio! http://www.theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/gravesecretstrout.htm{Yelling a little quiet ‘yah’ here. hehe}

Congratulations!

Thanks again for hosting me! You’re more than welcome to come on over to my site anytime. I’d love the company.

Buy Links for Grave Secrets:
TWRP: http://tinyurl.com/cann8jz
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/bvpysqf
Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/cnqz5ky

Donna Del Oro's The Delphi Bloodline

I love just about anything paranormal, but psychic powers and abilities have always fascinated me. So does the premise of Donna Del Oro's new novel, THE DELPHI BLOODLINE. And today, I'm going to interview Michael Drake, the tech tycoon who wants to control and enslave the Bloodline from Donna's novel, THE DELPHI BLOODLINE.


THE DELPHI BLOODLINE: A smart, romantic thriller about an ancient bloodline of psychic women, the ruthless tycoon who wants to enslave them, the mysterious man who wants to protect them, and the modern-day descendant who must fight to stay alive and free!


Lilly: You’re a billionaire, the owner of D.I.E., Drake International Enterprises. What does your corporation make?

Drake: All kinds of high-tech products, from cyborgs to unmanned aerial vehicles, military drones. You name it, we make it. Silicon Valley is the brain center of the high-tech industry.

Lilly: You’re a single man with more money than you need. Billions! Why haven’t you married? I’m sure lots of women would love to be married to a billionaire.

Drake: That’s the problem. I’m drawn to exceptional people. Who DON’T NEED ME.

Lilly: What made you think that true psychics would work for you?

Drake: Women in the Delphi Bloodline, as they call themselves, work for police departments for nothing. Why not work for me and make millions? There are governments and agencies all over the world that need their talents.

Lilly: Doing what?

Drake: Corporate spying, intelligence of all kinds. Those women can do what the men of the CIA’s Stargate Program couldn’t do. And a hundred times better.

Lilly: And if they don’t want to work as spies? What then?

Drake: Then I convince them they have no choice. You’ve heard this before, I make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Lilly: You’d go that far?

Drake: Whatever it takes. How do you think I got where I am today?  Just a matter of time and the Delphi Bloodline is mine.

THE DELFI BLOODLINE is available: MusaPublishing.com/Kindle/Nook/Apple

You can learn more about Donna and her writing at: www.donnadeloro.com

THE DELPHI BLOODLINE: Blurb:

Present day descendants of the ancient, psychically powerful Delphi bloodline face the threat of extinction when an evil tycoon hunts them for his own nefarious intent, a global spy network.

When artist Athena Butler, the modern-day descendant of a powerful, ancient bloodline of psychic women, realizes she’s the target of mysterious and dangerous kidnappers, she gets help from strange sources—the spirit of an ancient ancestor and a handsome man who claims to be one of her bloodline’s Guardians. Her mental powers and his brawny skills keep them one step ahead of the mastermind behind these kidnappers. Until the time when an FBI task force decides to use Athena as bait.

Excerpt-

Chapter One

Pyramid Valley, Nevada

Thursday AM

Athena Butler’s eyes blinked open and she sat up. 

Coming back from The Flow was always jolting. Emerging from the stream of spirits was like a water skier lurching out of the water, pulled by a strong, invisible force. The mind caught up later to the body as if it required a rough snap to break free.

Likewise, to go there was like jumping out of a plane and feeling the air rush to your face, your limbs weightless and wobbly. Most of the time, it was a joy to enter this world of unseen spirits. Athena welcomed her visits, especially at night when she found herself invariably alone.

When she was a child, she’d often emerge from The Flow with a fearful whimper and a cry. She’d wept and wanted to stay in The Flow. Now, at twenty-six, Athena had grown accustomed to her mental flights. They were no longer fear-inducing for she understood their purpose. But her exits were still mind-wrenching and she often lay in bed afterwards, disoriented.

This morning, fear clutched her heart and she could barely breathe. With a trembling hand, she reached for her phone.

Breathless, she raked her other hand through her hair and kicked her legs over the side of the bed.  Six AM, Nevada time. She punched her mother’s mobile numbers. It was nine o’clock in D.C.

“Thank God, Mama! Where are you?”

“I’m in Baltimore, near the—.”

“Mama, I had a dream about you. A Flow Dream. The spirits—they want me to warn you! Whatever you’re doing right now, get off the streets.  Go home and lock the door. Call the police!”

Her heart felt like a ticking bomb in her chest.  Athena could barely speak. But her mother knew her and understood her Flow dreams. They were seldom wrong though sometimes a little off in timing. Today, a threat was imminent. She knew it.

“Slow down, Thena. Take a deep breath and tell me slowly about your dream. I don’t doubt you but we must be able to interpret it correctly. You know how these Flow Dreams are. Sometimes the symbolism is strange and difficult to interpret.”

“Okay—just go home and lock the door. Now, Mama!”

Athena had to swallow hard and take big gulps of air in order to speak. Losing her mother was unthinkable. She’d already lost her father, and in a way, her brother.

“Where are you, Mama?” 

She inhaled and counted to five. Her mother wasn’t in Georgetown, where she lived with her second husband. Athena sensed water nearby, a large body of water. Her mind jumped ahead. The body of water in her terrifying dream was vast, a bay leading to the ocean. The Baltimore harbor—of course!

“Near downtown Baltimore. I’m heading toward a section of the city where I believe a little girl’s body was hidden. The police need the evidence from that location.  They think she was hidden somewhere, killed and then a day or two later dumped into the bay. I think I’ve found the monster’s hideout.”

“Mama—”

“I had a session with the homicide detective last night. I handled a few articles of the poor child’s clothing, what she was wearing when they found her. I got some visions so I drove up here to pinpoint the location. It’s not in a very nice part of town but I thought I’d drive around, and then call Detective Bonner when I got something.”

Athena groaned. Her mother was at it again.  Getting involved with homicide cases and trying to use her powers to bring killers to justice.

“Mama, get out of there, please! Go home—”

“I’ve had no sense of this danger, Athena, not to me personally,” her mother said. “Listen, we must talk soon. There are other dangers that I’ve seen…but don’t fret, my car doors are locked, I’m driving my big SUV. I’m in traffic, so relax.”

“Maybe you’re too focused on that homicide case,” Athena stressed. Her mother had no idea the danger she was putting herself in. First-hand experience had taught Athena that working with the cops was a dangerous business. Let them do their work and solve their own cases.

I’m done with all that.

Her mind darted back to the vision in her dream. She took a deep breath and steadied her voice.

“I saw you in your car, Mama. You stopped to get out. A black car pulled in front of you and another one—a long white one—blocked you in back. There was a woman driving the car in front and she was with men who had guns.  Someone grabbed you and carried you to the white car. I could smell salt water and then they took you away. Some place far away. And then I was in the mountains, the Sierras, searching for you.”

Athena bent over, clutching the cell phone, her lifeline to the one person she loved most in the world.  Her stomach cramped into a hard ball.

There was silence. “Mama, go home,” she repeated.

“Okay, Thena, I’m turning back toward the freeway. The harbor shops are on my left. Remember that eight-sided tower, the one with a great view of the harbor and breakwater. The octogon tower. You remember going there on your last visit here, don’t you?”

More silence followed then as an image sprang to Athena’s mind. Yes, they’d had lunch there…

Her mother gasped loudly.  A screech of brakes, metal crunching, glass breaking. Her mother cursing a blue streak in her native Italian.

“What happened, Mama? Are you all right?”

“Yes, dear. Just a stupid fender bender. Merda! Daniel’s going to throw a fit. My second one this year! I’m getting so distracted with these cases—not paying attention to what I’m doing. I swear this car pulled right in front of me, cut me off. It’s not my fault this time.”

More angry muttering followed.

“Dio, I really smashed up that rear end! Thena, I’ll call you right back as soon as I exchange insurance information with the driver. Be right back, Thena.”

“Mama, don’t get out of the—”

The line went dead.  With a cry, Athena sank to her knees on the cold, tile floor. Shivers of dread rippled through her. Her mind went numb with panic.

For God’s sake…Think! Get help!

Andrea Downing- author of Loveland

Happy Friday! Today I'm interviewing romance author Andrea Downing.

Welcome, Andrea!

1- When do you do your best writing? Morning? Evening? Or mid-day? And how do you organize your writing time?
I’ve never been a morning person and because I live in New York but am in touch with people in Mountain Time, 2 hours behind, I tend to stay up quite late at night.  So I don’t really warm up to writing until the caffeine has set in, in the afternoon.  I’m probably at my best early evening.  And because I travel a lot I have no organized writing time.  It’s a horrible thing to admit, I know, but I grab the time when I can.
2- Are you a reader as well as a writer? What have you read lately?
I’m an absolutely voracious reader.  I must have a book with me at all times, cannot bear to be sitting doing nothing in a waiting room or on the subway or whatever.  And I read just about everything from western and romance (which of course is what I write!) to biography and history.  I just finished Jenny Cockell’s Across Time and Death:  A Mother’s Search for Her Past Life Children.  Fascinating stuff and I recommend it.
3- How do you spend your free time when not reading or writing? Do you even have free time?
I make free time because I think it’s important to get away from the computer and get out.  After all, if you have no outside experiences, what do you know to write about?  As I said, I travel a lot.  These days it’s mostly out west where I visit ranches and go riding and do “western” things!
4- Since I love to travel and seldom do, I like to hear about other places. It’s one reason I love to read and write. I get to travel in my head. Much cheaper that way. Lol!  So, where do you live? What’s the it like?
I live most of the year in East Hampton, NY, and the rest of the time in NYC.  I guess everyone knows what New York City looks like.  East Hampton is near the very end of Long Island, about 100 miles from NYC.  The place I live is approximately 4 miles from the Long Island Sound with its harbors and boats, and a similar distance from the Atlantic Ocean beaches.  The town was incorporated in the 1600s and it has tried—not always successfully of course—to keep its Olde Worlde charm with a village pond, windmills and some of the original houses, all clapboard of course. Aside from the beach and the sand dunes there are Pine Barrens—it’s a very flat area. Nowadays, however, the roads are a huge traffic jam in the summer and the village has shops such as Tiffany’s, Ralph Lauren and Gucci.  I prefer it in the winter!   We get 4 seasons here but the winter is pretty mild being near the sea and the summer’s much cooler than in the city.


5- Where is the most exotic place you’ve ever visited?
Tough one, Lilly!  I lived in Nigeria for a while, in Kano near the sahel (just below the Sahara) so that was pretty exotic.  But so was Ecuador where I got out on Lake Titicaca (I believe it’s the highest lake in the world) and visited the Uros Islands, which were fantastic.  They are man-made, woven in fact—fascinating.  

6- Was it vacation, business, or research? And, have you ever combined travel and research?  Ecuador was vacation—my daughter’s university graduation present in fact-- but I have combined travel and research.  I went out to Loveland, CO for my book of the same name and visited that, as well as Cheyenne, WY and the Pawnee Nat’l Grasslands to get a feel for what the prairie was like.  


7-So, tell us something about your latest release set in Loveland, CO and aptly titled: Loveland
It’s a western historical romance, and the background is the ownership of the large cattle companies by British aristocrats.  My heroine, Lady Alex, returns to the ranch where she spent some happy years as a child.  She is trying to develop a career in art but loves life in Colorado and, more particularly, one of the top hands, Jesse Makepeace.  Unfortunately, her family places demands on her and the relationship between Alex and Jesse undergoes numerous complications while problems also beset the ranch.

8- Lastly, what are you working on now?
It’s a double romance—two for the price of one, folks! There’s a mother and a daughter, and a (separate) father and son.  The mother is a successful writer of romance who cannot let romance into her life; her daughter has just lost her fiancé to leukemia and is trying to get on with her life.  The father blames himself for the death of his oldest son in Afghanistan while his younger son holds a secret that can blow them all apart.  But it’s also about the relationships between parents and children. And about the lies we tell ourselves to get by each day and, of course, it’s about finding love where—and when—you least expect it. 

When Lady Alexandra Calthorpe returns to the Loveland, Colorado, ranch owned by her father, the Duke, she has little idea of how the experience will alter her future. Headstrong and willful, Alex tries to overcome a disastrous marriage in England and be free of the strictures of Victorian society --and become independent of men. That is, until Jesse Makepeace saunters back into her life...

Hot-tempered and hot-blooded cowpuncher Jesse Makepeace can’t seem to accept that the child he once knew is now the ravishing yet determined woman before him. Fighting rustlers proves a whole lot easier than fighting Alex when he’s got to keep more than his temper under control.

Arguments abound as Alex pursues her career as an artist and Jesse faces the prejudice of the English social order. The question is, will Loveland live up to its name?

Get your copy at:

http://www.amazon.com/Loveland-Andrea-Downing/dp/1612173233/ref=la_B008MQ0NXS_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343850672&sr=1-1

Also available from: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=991

Sounds like a great story, Andrea. Thanks so much for sharing it today. I'm definitely adding it to my TBR list!

It's Still Summer and the Romances are HOT

Speaking of hot romances and summertime, let me welcome sister TWRP romance novelist, Nancy Jardine. Are you having a hot summer, Nancy?

Summer time?  We Scots are likely to say – please explain that term; I don’t know what you mean.

It’s the 10th of August, and it’s supposed to be our summer time here in Scotland. Have you heard of that phenomenon when there’s lots of lovely sunshine? Warmer temperatures when we can remove the heavy fleeces, and don the shorts and T-shirts? The occasional squirt of sun screen needed-maybe factor 10 will do because it isn’t very hot? Oh, I know, you’ll think that has to be a joke. Wait till you visit my country, because lovely as it undoubtedly is, sun screen isn’t bought in bulk hereabouts. And we can easily experience all four seasons in one day.

We do get a lot of rain, but the opposite side of that particular coin is I’m thankful not to have a problem with water supplies. Apologies, here, because some of you might live in Tornado country, or are close to horrendous out-of-control fires, or your landscape is parched dry. During 2012, we’ve already seen weather patterns-across the globe-which have been variations to the norm. In places where extreme conditions are not expected something devastating has occurred-drought parched land becomes a flooded quagmire bringing havoc and despair to the people who inhabit the areas. Controlling worldwide weather isn’t within man’s capabilities, yet.

Talking about weather may seem too mundane, but it can furnish a good scenario for action scenes in a novel. In my recent release, TAKE ME NOW, Aela and Nairn find themselves at the mercy of the weather a few times. Why is that a problem for them, and how do they overcome it? Since the story is largely based in a castle, on an island off the west coast of Scotland, weather conditions are pretty important for them. They have to get to the mainland, and there are only two ways to do that. Number one is to sail, and number two is to fly.

Either method presents problems when the weather is rough. You might well question why they set off in rough weather? It’s a very good question, but if you hung around in Scotland for a very good day you might have a long wait…though, the weather forecasters can give much better predictions nowadays, which sometimes gives you a ‘weather window’ to work in. But then, again, you might set off when the going is favourable and find that something unexpected delays your progress. This happens to Nairn and Aela as they fly above Loch Long.

I’ve gone through a couple of pretty bad storms over the European Alps in a British Airways Boeing Airbus (something like the 321-200 type) which can seat around 180 people. The high turbulence was, at first exciting, even thrilling in a roller coaster sort of way, but when the cabin lights started to flash off and on, and the jouncing around opened overhead lockers, setting debris to fly around inside the cabin…that’s when it got a little bit scarier. Not to mention the smell of fear that seemed to permeate the plane, though the passengers were eerily quite. No-one was in any way loudly vocal about the buffeting conditions, but the indrawn breaths were not as quiet as people intended them to be. The fierce lightening storm-jagged forks of bluish white in a lowering purplish darkened sky-outside the tiny window wasn’t so welcome either, as we flew over mountain tops, the pilot having dropped altitude to prepare for landing. Yet, in that larger plane, there was a much greater element of cocooning in the cabin. I’m very glad, though, that I wasn’t sitting next to the pilot in the cockpit while the controls were being adjusted constantly, viewing what was ahead, and all around the plane in a more panoramic view.

I’m not sure I’d want to be flying around in similar really rough weather in a tiny floatplane-as Aela and Nairn do in take me now. When I wrote the scene, in my mind, I revisited my own experience of flying in cloudy weather during my seaplane trip, though it wasn’t raining then, and was only marginally, and intermittently, windy. . Even in reasonable weather it feels as though all you need to do is reach down to touch the trees tops, or the top of the hillsides you’re flying over. Every noise, inside and out, is heard more acutely. The ground dipping up to meet you in severe turbulence would make memorable moments. To my own seaplane experience I added incidents of being in a small boat in rough conditions, in the same area they were travelling over, and merged the two in my imagination.

It’s early July in Scotland. Nairn’s already injured, and in some degree of pain, before he sets off on what becomes a hazardous flight, but his competent assistant, Aela, transports him with superb skill. Here’s how she saves the day:

 With incredible skill Aela landed on the far side of the island in heaving waters so high at times the waves sloshed over the wings, breakers he wasn’t convinced he’d tackle himself. Although only late afternoon the summer sky was so slate-dark it was like night; the angry grey-caps surging up and around them, their height dangerously close to submerging them. The rain battered the glass windshield, a momentary blocking of the way ahead till the wipers did their job.

“Brace again, Nairn!” she yelled over the horrendous noise. “This isn’t going to be smooth.” Her words were no sooner uttered than the floatplane lurched, a dangerous list in the high winds. “No worries, Nairn! I’ve got it under control!”

How Aela managed to keep it steady he hadn’t a clue, but it would have been beyond his own experience. The craft vibrated, a violent and relentless buffeting, as she taxied around the headland to Mariskay harbor. The storm lamented, the rain bombarding them with even more force from that direction. Having radioed ahead the automatic roller doors of the boatyard opened for them as Aela made the harbor entrance where she bumpily-bounced the little plane up the slip and inside out of the weather.

“You still with me, Nairn?” Aela grinned. He knew her adrenaline was pumping wild around her-for his was no different.

His smile was weak, his pain-wracked body having given in to the relief they were home. Not dry by any means…but home. And Aela was safe. “Jeeze! That beat the hell out of a boring ride, Aela.”

Thank you for allowing me to bring you some Scottish summer weather today, Lilly. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, but haven’t been put off learning about my part of the world.

**My-TAKE ME NOW-Tour Contest** 
To celebrate the launch of Take Me Now I’ll be giving away 2 e copies of Take Me Now, 2 e copies of Monogamy Twist, and 4 goodie bags of Scottish Castle Gift Cards and Tags to some lucky winners. At each tour stop I’ll be asking a different question. To be entered into the draw find the answer to the question set, at each tour stop, and send the answers to me at nan_jar@btinternet.com before Saturday the 11th August 2012. The more questions you answer, the better your chance will be! (ie send in four answers your name’s in the draw four times) The draw will take place at noon (GMT/ UK time) on Sunday 12th August.

For the URL details of the other tour stops (and special giveaways) please check the calendar on Nancy Jardine’s blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com

Quiz question for Friday 12th August: Which Scottish Loch is featured in the blog today?

Nancy can be found at:
Website: http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com
Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com
FaceBook:  http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56
Twitter:  http://twitter.com@nansjar
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6166205-nancy


Books by Nancy Jardine:
TAKE ME NOW
The Wild Rose Press:
Print:  http://bit.ly/MrlI8x   E book formats: http://bit.ly/MQJXvw
Amazon: Print: http://amzn.to/LEUb1g
Take Me Now YouTube Trailer link - http://youtu.be/stDC4Yhm2r0


Also available:
MONOGAMY TWIST
Coming Soon:
THE BELTANE CHOICE will be available in ebook formats from Crooked{Cat}Publishing 31st August 2012. Print will follow.