Jane
 is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. She's currently loving contemporary authors like Sarah Mayberry and Kristan Higgins but her first love will always be the historical. Some of her old time favorites are Amanda Quick and Johanna Lindsey and some of the new favorites are Sherry Thomas, Joanna Bourne and Claudia Dain.
Dear Ms. Johnston:
 I know I haven’t read you in a long time, but when I got an ARC of this book I confess that I just had to read it. Tall, dark, and gorgeous always does it for me. Â Thankfully, the characters lived up to the cover and despite some small problems here and there, I’m pretty much hooked on the “Fabulous Fourteen”.
Benjamin Benedict is one of fourteen kids between the mixed marriages of Foster Benedict and Abigail Coates Benedict Hamilton. Â Foster and Abby had five boys with the youngest, Darlington, dying at the age of 4. Â In the emotional year after Darlington’s death, Foster dallied with a waitress once and got her pregnant. Abby left him. Â They both remarried. Foster to Pasty Taggart and Abby to Senator Hamilton. Â Foster took Ben and Carter. Abby kept the youngest, Rhett, and the oldest, Nash, refused to leave his mother.
All of the Benedect boys (including Black Sheep, Ryan, the bastard) have gone to military school and then into the armed forces. Â Ben got out of the army and now is an agent for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), a division of homeland security. Â What Ben’s family …
Someone asked me if anyone’s first page that appeared here for critique is now for sale. I’m pleased to give you an update on three authors.
Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.
This is the revised version. I failed to recall that the author had sent me a revision. Sorry guys!
***
Somewhere between ordering dinner and the arrival of the Italian salad, the conversation at Brizio’s veered into “Have you ever… ?” territory.
Two sets of eyes turned in Carla’s direction as she sipped from a glass of house red. Where do they find all this great stuff, she wondered, absently contemplating the shelves of imported cans, bags and boxes in the grocery store cum restaurant. And what the heck is it for?
‘Hey!” Mary’s finger tapped Carla’s glass, startling her back to attention. “Don’t leave us hanging. We’re collecting data.”
Data. Where was her concentration lately? “Sorry. Have I ever met someone and felt an immediate physical –”
‘Sexual.”
‘– attraction to that person and, yes, I have.”
A waitress began seating a party at the table to Carla’s left and the three women automatically moved in closer to each other.
‘And,” Gretchen prompted, passing the wine bottle to Mary, who waved it …
Even though most of the U.S. has a holiday today, we are still blogging at Dear Author because if you can’t blog and read and blog hop on a holiday, what good is it?
We’ll start off with a non book treat, but a visual feast for the eyes. Via my Twitter friend Teresa Kopec, romance reader and political aficianado, are the wedding pictures of Adam and Hallis. It looks mystical, like something you would read in a book but never have the opportunity to attend yourself.
In other fantastic news broken on Twitter, Kristen Painter, co owner of the Romance Divas, sold her first long form narrative book to Orbit. It’s part UF, part romance, and wholly interesting. (yes, I’ve had the good fortune to read it). You can get a taste of Painter’s work in September when her first book will be released from Samhain.
Jane Friedman, former CEO of HarperCollins, who oversaw 10 years of growth for that publishing company, asks the question about what kind of middlemen will exist in the future of publishing. Unfortunately she provides little guidance. For myself, I see many smaller publishers because …
 Loading ... I kind of made up this poll so I could talk about a recent blog post that I saw wherein the author appeared to describe the Scottish hero in absolute terms:
But there is far more to a hero who wears a kilt than just his clothing. If the story takes place hundreds of years ago in Scotland, he’s a tall, strong warrior who fights for what he believes in and what he loves. His duty is to defend his clan, his lands, his country, and protect the woman he loves. Honor and loyalty are of primary importance to him. He is noble but at times playful. That delicious Scottish accent rolls off his tongue, seducing both the heroine and the reader. He can handle a sword or a woman’s pleasure with equal proficiency. He has passion in spades. Sometimes that famous Scots temper might escape his control and have him spouting Gaelic curses or chasing after the enemy with a sword. The land of myth and legend is his home. He has experienced the harsh realities of life–the feuds, battles and oppression–but chances are he also believes in fairies and magic. Perhaps his soul and body are battered
…
Somewhat belatedly, I am announcing the winner of the Famous Firsts giveaway from Harlequin:
As a special treat we have provided 1 nostalgia Harlequin tote bag and 8 Famous First novels to giveaway to a random commenter.
Don’t forget that you can enjoy 16 free Harlequin novels by downloading them at www.HarlequinCelebrates.com.
Patty L. is our winner. I’ve emailed you. Congratulations.
Dear Ms. Holley:
 I bought this ebook because it was a new release from Samhain and because I found you entertaining and interesting on Twitter. (I think we shared a bad attitude Twitter day). I hadn’t realized when I bought and read it that it had been reviewed by Sarah over at SmartBitches. While I don’t disagree with Sarah’s comments about the flaws in the book, I would rate this book higher than a C- and here’s why.
Lark Manning has had a crush on Detective Taran Lloyd since forever. His family took her in when her parents died and her youthful hero worship has evolved into something much more adult. Unfortunately Taran hasn’t noticed that she has grown up and Lark is reluctant to force the issue for fear of rejection. Family dinners would be no fun.
What Lark doesn’t know but we, as the reader, do know is that Detective Taran Lloyd has not only noticed that Lark Manning has grown into a very hot woman but that she is his mate. He hasn’t figured out how to broach the mate subject with Lark. For the past …
Loose Id was featured in the Washington Post. Treva Harte, the owner of Loose Id, was recently able to quit her job as a trademark lawyer to write and run Loose Id full time.
Doreen DeSalvo, the company’s chief financial officer, said the enterprise, which charges $2 to $8 for its online books, grossed $1.3 million in 2008 and is on track to make slightly more this year
Karen brings up the issue of perception as it relates to ebook companies. Like Karen, I have this perception that Loose ID does more m/m or m/m/f fiction than anything else.
Now of course I know that they do publish heterosexual romances, but I happened to surf over there on Sunday, and every single release was an M/M book. Two words: Nail and coffin.
Katie interviews the publicist for Sourcebooks about the upcoming YA line and his day to day activities.
My day officially starts at 8:30, but I like to get in early to read Shelf Awareness, the School Library Journal blogs (Practically Paradise, Fuse #8 and Amy Bowllan’s blog are my favorites), Media Bistro, and other blog reviews so I can stay aware of what is going on
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Dear Ms. Krahn:
 I don’t think I’ve read a Blaze Historical before (and I’m not even sure what a Blaze Historical is). I’ll admit that I passed over this book initially when I was perusing the eHarlequin ebook website because the blurb which included a reference to Prince of Wales and I am always nervous about the incorporation of Very Famous People in books. But! I am so glad that I did get this as an ARC because I actually thought the book was great and I wouldn’t have read it had it not been sent to me.
Mariah Eller is a widow whose sole inheritance from her deceased husband is the Eller-Stapleton Inn. One evening she is called to the Inn because several wealthy gentlemen were about to smash out the windows, molest her serving girl, and generally destroy the inn. Worse, because the so called gentlemen have signed her register under fake names (Jack Sprat, Jack B Nimble, Union Jack, Jack A. Dandy, Jack Ketch, Jack O. Lantern), she can’t even hold them responsible if they do wreak havoc. Her only choice is to lull them into a drunken stupor. …
There are a few very interesting (and some long) pieces on the current publishing business model and the way that it will need to adapt and change in order to survive.
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