“So we lose forever the pleasure known to humanity for 500 years of taking a stroll up and down the aisles of someone else’s brain by perusing their bookshelves. Gone will be the guilty joy of spending a rainy afternoon at a cottage with the remnants of someone else’s childhood: their Nancy Drews, their 1970s National Geographics. Without bookshelves, you will never know the warning signs contained in the e-reader of your handsome date–you will not know for months that he is reading The Secret and Feng Shui for Dummies, even if you stay over. You will never be able to ask, as casually as you can, ‘Did you like this?’ as you pull down, as if fascinated, Patrick Swayze’s autobiography.”

I’ve seen this position expressed a number of times.  Digital books and the loss of the public nature of the physical artifact will result in the loss of culture, the loss of something important, goes the argument.

This reminds me of this UK survey that says 65% of people have lied about reading a particular book.  As if people haven’t placed books on their shelves that they’ve never read, just for the prestige of it.

I remember caring about what people knew I read and I read classics. Everything from Beowulf to Odyssey, from Anna Karenina to Vanity Fair.  I’ve read everything written by Ayn Rand. I’ve read the Grapes of Wrath (and Lisa Valdez has nothing on Steinbeck’s breastfeeding scenes :shudder:).  I used to be a big poetry fan, buying collections of Tennyson, Browning, Wordsworth.

And I still  have these books but what do they tell people about me? Because all it really means is that I went through a phase where I wanted to appear well read and read and bought books that made me look erudite. Those books are but a tiny portion of my life.  I don’t think I have been greatly influenced by the books of Ayn Rand.  I do think that Homer’s plots and tropes have been ripped off for a millenium, but what of it?

The loss of a physical artifact doesn’t reduce one’s ability to get to know someone, to peak inside their brain.  It doesn’t take away the ability to interact based on a common interest in a book. In fact, that’s the whole premise of social media sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing.  Today’s free flow of information actually means that you know far more about a person than what is solely on their physical bookshelves.  You can know who their friends are, what causes they are affiliated with, if they spend too much time building virtual farms.

Technology has always changed the way we interact with others, in some good ways and in some bad ways.  The loss of a physical artifact merely means that we people have to find new ways of connecting.  The loss of a physical artifact does not automatically result in a net cultural loss unless we allow it.

You seem to enjoy writing tough, smart mouthed heroines who don’t seem to know when the right man is just under their noses. I actually read your next book, “Everything Nice” first and backtracked to this one. Liza is not as masculine acting as Mike but she also has her moments of pushing away The One and nearly losing him. She’s also got life lessons to learn as well as lessons about herself.

Outspoken playwright Liza Weiler left Yale with everything she thought she needed to make her mark on the New York stage. So why, nearly a decade later, is she still waiting for her “real” life to finally begin? But like any great drama, Liza’s life only needs one good twist. And that’s what happens when she turns her ankle on the way out of a downtown nightspot and falls into the arms of a suspiciously gallant Wall Street prince and a practically perfect ER doc. Suddenly Liza not only has a couple of men in her life, but her play has fallen into the hands of a uber-hip theater director. Now Liza’s about to discover how much mess she can make of a seemingly good thing … and how terrifying, slightly tragic, and utterly hilarious a little success can be.

As I read the story, I got an image in my mind of a smart, acerbic young woman in NYC with a deadpan sense of humor. Liza can’t help but let her frustration at being a Yalie who’s forced to temp for rent money while her playrighting career goes nowhere. I like the foils you’ve created for her in the characters of her college friends Jeremy, thank God *not* the Gay best friend, and Parrot, the daughter of a man who might be a Mafioso but who is fiercely devoted to Liza.

And then there’re are the men in Liza’s life. Dr. Tim who honestly seems like he came straight from a box at Walmart marked, “The Perfect Man” and George, whose box would say, “The Asshole.” All through Liza and Tim’s dating sequence, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it did, I was happy that you hadn’t turned Tim into some kind of monster in order to move him off of center stage and make room for the man who is obviously meant to partner Liza through life.

Because it’s also pretty obvious, as in any good RomCom, who the main couple is meant to be. And just as obvious that after blissfully getting together for a while, they’ll have to hit the act during which they break up and suffer before finally getting their HEA and fade to credits. Now, would the driving force behind the breakup and makeup make sense or would it ruin the book for me?

The breakup actually worked for me. You’d laid the groundwork and the dividing factor seemed to flow from the characters you’d created. Everyone has their vulnerable spots and people in love have even more of them. So far, so good. The misery each feels afterwards also seems realistic and heartfelt. The makeup, hmmm. It just seemed a little sudden and too conveniently timed for me. The epilogue wraps things up nicely but I just never quite felt I caught onto what brought George back into Liza’s life.

After all is said and written, I enjoyed the humor, I enjoyed Liza and George’s Meet Cutes, I liked the secondary characters but the resolution of the romance didn’t give me the emotional payoff and Feel Good feeling I was looking and hoping to get. B-

~Jayne
| No Book Excerpt | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board | KoboBooks

Your book was another one recommended to me by Denise Rossetti. Because I loved the first one she recommended so much, I thought I’d try this one too. And boy, I’m glad I did.

This book has a very similar storyline to Zero at the Bone: two men navigate protective custody because one has witnessed something that could put away a very bad man for a very long time. As they spend time together, they fall in love. Despite the surface similarities, however, the stories are very different. In Shades of Gray, Danny Butler is a drug runner, working for a drug kingpin. He’s finally been caught by the cops on a weapons charge and Miller Sutton, FBI agent, manipulates Danny into witnessing against his boss. While in protective custody with Miller acting as Danny’s babysitter, they fall in love.

Unlike Zero at the Bone, this book isn’t a suspense book. There’s a couple of twists at the end that are brilliantly done, but almost all of the page space is given over to the relationship between the two men. The plot is there, it’s important, it’s beautifully written and pretty-much hole-less, as far as I can tell, but it’s secondary to the relationship. But the problem with this review is that I really can’t talk about that relationship without giving away unacceptable amounts of the plot. That said, however, you don’t hold back on how much these two men each have to compromise their own deeply held beliefs in order to save each other and be together. Miller has to overcome 30 years of denial over being gay and has to either lose or overcome (depending on how you look at it) his FBI “everything is black or white” mindset:

As a novice, Miller had assumed criminals were different in all ways from the average law-abiding citizen. But over time he had come to realize that drug dealers, murderers, and gang leaders all had people they loved, people they would do almost anything to protect, the same way the successful business man or suburban mom next door looked after their own. Involvement in the criminal world didn’t necessarily erase those basic emotions of loyalty and love. It sometimes made Miller uneasy, the knowledge that in fundamental ways men like Danny were more similar to him than they were different. For Miller,
life worked better when the lines didn’t blur.

Danny has to cut himself some slack, and see the good in himself. These are equally hard things for these men to do.

I also love how the narrative itself is all about the “shades of gray” that Miller has to embrace. Danny is terrified of his boss, but loves him, fears him, but is always looking for his approval, recognizes that he’s a Bad Man but doesn’t want to testify against him because of his deeply-felt loyalty to him. The justice system Miller believes in fails him at the end, as he himself does, too, and he has to figure out how to live with himself after that.

Not only are these characters perfectly consistent in their characterization throughout the novel, their changes are also consistent. That is, the narrative consistency of their characters is upheld even through the character growth and maturation they undergo, something that can be extremely difficult to pull off. And as this book was mostly about the characters figuring out how to be better people, both together and apart, in order to deserve each other, this consistency of characterization was vital to the quality of the book.

I think I’m failing miserably to say how damn GOOD this book was. I love romances that are primarily character driven and this one is so — I’m sorry, but I have to swear — abso-fucking-lutely perfect. These men have been through hell before their story starts, they go through hell during the book, they put *each other* through hell emotionally, and find themselves irrevocably different at the end of the book, wiser, all illusions shattered, all emotional disguises stripped, unable to be other than perfectly honest with themselves and with each other. I also like a lot of angst in my romance and you deliver perfectly. I like some grovel to my ending as well, and the Affair to Remember quality to the ending is perfect for drawn-out grovel from both characters.

Your writing never once tripped me up. The sex scenes are perfect. I liked the flashbacks, although occasionally they were slightly repetitious. I really can’t find anything wrong with this book at all. Angsty, romantic, hot, brilliant, and just plain GOOD. Thank you.

Grade: A

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

P.S. You really need a webpage. Like, really. How can an author today not have any sort of webpage at all?

| Goodreads Page | Kindle | Amazon
Amazon | no Nook | BN | no Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board

Denise Rossetti recommended this book to me late last year, but it took Maili ALSO recommending it to me recently to finally make me read it. I think I had about 7 hours of sleep in the three days since I started it. It’s just…brilliant. As I write this review a few days after finishing it, I’m still lost in your world, thinking about the characters, wishing them well.

Dr. Jack Francisco is a maxillofacial surgeon who witnesses a mob murder and is taken into protective custody. He gives up his life and his job (OMG, all that training!) in order to do the right thing and testify about what he saw. But he’s quickly found by a hitman, known only as D, who refuses to kill Jack because he’s been mysteriously blackmailed into taking the hit and can’t bring himself to do it. He’s one of those mythically moral hitman who will only take the hit if the mark “deserves” to die. One might roll one’s eyes at the cliche and might even, in a dorky moment, quote Gandalf (“Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends”), but by this point, your writing and characterization had pulled me in so perfectly, I really didn’t care about quite how much disbelief I was suspending.

D takes charge of Jack (if HE found Jack in protective custody, someone else would too, and in sparing Jack’s life, he felt he’d taken responsibility for it), and they wander around the country, avoiding death from the many people on their tail (mob hitmen, mysterious people after D, Federal Marshals who want Jack back), and falling in love. One thing I ADORED about this book was that they only started noticing each other physically and being attracted to each other and falling in love AFTER the danger was (mostly) over. When they were running for their lives, they were running for their lives and not stopping to fuck like bunnies, or even stopping to make eyes at each other. And yet the sexual tension, the unacknowledged attraction was still there and I’m not sure how you did it. Brilliantly done.

That’s pretty much the plot for half the book. The second half is taken up with trying to keep both Jack and D alive through the trial and then trying to clean things up enough that they could get their HEA. But this bare bones summary does the story such an injustice. You don’t shy away from the moral issues these two men have to face, you don’t shy away from showing their struggles with themselves and with each other. And OMG, you don’t shy away from their emotions. You show Jack struggle with his feelings for a hired killer. You show D’s slow return to emotional life so carefully, so perfectly, I literally couldn’t put the book down:

D shut his eyes, every cell in his body pushing and pulling at him…pulling him toward Jack, pushing him away, a tug-of-war where nobody won. He shuffled forward, slow and hesitant steps that drew him up behind Jack. He didn’t turn from the window although he surely knew D was there. D’s hand rose from
his side, a marionette arm on strings, his breath going shaky and panicked like a spooked horse. Jack didn’t move.

Fuck it. D let his hand fall to Jack’s shoulder. He felt him flinch a little at the contact, but he didn’t turn. The feeling of Jack beneath his hand, warm through his shirt and solid and strong and alive, sent another blast against that vault door, shuddering it on its hinges. He put his free hand on Jack’s other shoulder, his head sagging down. He could feel Jack thrumming, like putting his hand on the hood of a car with the engine
running.

D gave up. He couldn’t fight this, at least not now. [ . . . ]—it was all too much, even for him. He tilted forward until his forehead was resting against the back of Jack’s neck. A great exhale rushed from him and
he found himself hanging on to Jack’s shoulders for dear life.

I’m still drowning in these characters a full day after finishing this book.

Also, the suspense was unbelievably good. I am not a mystery reader and I rarely read suspense, so the fact that I had no idea about the course of the plot might not say much, but I think it was wonderfully done. My heart was in my throat for HOURS on end and I could NOT put this book down. (It might have helped that I was reading on my iPhone — it’s so difficult to read ahead.)

Niggles: Jack had a doctor’s bag and it had stuff in it. Do doctors REALLY have doctor’s bags nowadays? Especially specialists like Jack? If they do have doctor’s bags, would he really still have it all through the many transfers of protective custody? And if he DID keep it with him, would it really have medicine in it? And syringes? Really?

Also, Jack’s profession is not fully integrated into his character. He chafes a little at losing it in the protective custody, but considering how what D does is SO much a part of who he is, in comparison there’s no discussion of WHY Jack chose to do what he trained for. It’s part of his Type A personality and it’s used to discuss moral issues:

“How about deciding whether you’re going to treat the woman with the head trauma or the drunk driver who mowed her down? Or whether to let a man die of gunshot wounds because you know he shot a cop on his way down? How about treating a woman who’s been beaten nearly to death and having to watch her walk out the door back to the husband who nearly killed her while she tells you that he didn’t mean it, not really! Don’t you fucking talk to me about hard choices, and harsh reality. Just because I didn’t tote a rifle around Kuwait and never put a bullet between someone’s eyes doesn’t mean I live in some world of sunshine and rainbows, D. I live in a world where I spend months putting a four-year-old’s face back together after her own father smashed it in with a bowling ball. You think you’ve got it so hard, and maybe you do, but the shit is tough all over. Fucking suck it up, man.”

But his career is not as brilliantly a part of him as being a hit man is part of D. But that’s really an “in comparison” niggle rather than anything else. If D hadn’t been so brilliantly done, I don’t think I would have noticed this about Jack.

D’s “dialect” is…slightly annoying. When he’s thinking to himself about whether or not to kill Jack:

Just do it. Fuckin’ do it. You can live with it. You cain’t live with what’ll happen if you don’t, and that ain’t no figure a speech. Only takes a second. Two shots. Shut them eyes a his lookin’ at you like they see through ta yer bones. Fucker; why does he keep lookin’ at me like that? Most folks look away. Look at the floor, at the ceiling, at their own hands, anywhere but at me. Biggest damned eyes I ever saw on any man, and bluer’n the sky down in Bryce Canyon. Big enough ta hold all the life in him so’s I can see it, the life they want me ta take, the life I’ll hafta stand here and watch leave him. Stupid motherfuckers killin’ their own and makin’ me clean up for ’em like they fuckin’ branded me.

It’s part of him. It’s perfectly sustained throughout the book. But it’s never explained by where he came from (either geography or class). And it slowed down my reading sometimes enough to be mildly irritating. But not enough to stop. Never enough to stop. Did I mention I couldn’t put this book down?

And finally, there’s a 15 page Epilogue that should have been cut completely. Even before the Epilogue, you’ve got two endings. I’m glad you went beyond the first ending to the second ending, but then adding the Epilogue as well was just too much. And the short stories on your webpage are just…sad? I understand another sequel’s coming, but don’t give Jack and D problems before they’ve even settled into their happy ending.

That aside, your writing is amazing. The individual words you choose surprised me in a good way. The sentences you string together flow beautifully. The paragraphs you make are perfect:

With his shorn hair and stubble, D’s head looked like it had been sandblasted and weather-stripped. Jack had spent most of his professional life cutting people’s faces open, and his surgeon’s eye showed him the bones beneath D’s skin, although his seemed much closer to the surface than most people’s. His jawline was like a flying buttress, his brow like one of the table mesas that lurked on the horizon. His skull was geologic in its architecture. One could only imagine the seismic events and plate tectonics that had gone
on in his life to shape him into this…whatever he was.

The story as a whole is still glowing bright in my mind. I would pretty much read anything else you wrote, no matter what. I’m torn how to grade this book. Logically, looking at all the niggles I had, it should get a B+ or even a B but the book FELT like an A- book, so I’m going to go with my gut.

Grade: A-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

| Book link (no excerpt) | DreamSpinner Press | Kindle | Amazon

| Fictionwise | BooksonBoard

Ever since you revealed that your next book would be about Jae Sun Kim, the hot, sarcastic, misanthropic doctor from Collision Course, I have been yearning for this book. Yearning, I tell you. The problem, of course, with wanting a book so hard is that when it comes, it might suck and all that yearning is transformed into disappointment more crushing because of the depth of the yearning.

This book doesn’t do that. This book is worth every ounce, every drop, every last millimeter of yearning. In fact, this book is about one of the most perfect romances I’ve ever read.

Jae Sun Kim is a trauma surgeon who finds himself on a live-on dive cruise vacation for a week because he’s running away from the fact that his careful plans to move from his residency in Jacksonville to a fellowship in Seattle have collapsed through no fault of his own. He desperately wants to put the continent between himself and his homophobic parents in Orlando but has no idea what to do now. Shane is the dive master on the cruise, very much a rolling stone determined never to grow any moss. Much to Kim’s disgust, he and Shane end up rooming together in a tiny cabin even though he booked a single cabin. And the cherry on top of his loss of control is an unexpected sea-sickness that Shane helps him through.

I love the first description of these two men:

The guy might have been giving a lesson on a dude ranch. The lilt in his voice made cactuses and Stetson hats tumble out along with his words. Which in a less stressful situation might have been nice, because a tall guy in boots, a hat and dusty jeans, drawl pouring sweetly from a wide mouth, was the kind of thing Kim had been known to bookmark on his laptop. Especially when that cowboy parted with the dusty jeans and boots in the first thirty seconds. He could leave the hat on for the ride.

It tells us so much about Kim — workaholic extraordinaire — and about his perception of Shane, one that Shane does nothing to dispel.

While Kim and Shane enjoy some really great sex in their time together on the boat, sea-sickness aside, they are really drawn together when the boat abandons them during a dive. This extended scene of survival reads like an adventure story, but tells us a lot about the characters. In fact, everything tells us about the characters. You are, to my mind, the undisputed queen of Show, Don’t Tell, and these two characters are so brilliantly constructed, they felt like they should have walked off the page into my living room (I wish). I was grinning like a fool as I watched Shane stumble toward the realization that Kim is a top and only a top and that pocket-sized Kim expected tall, muscle-bound Shane to bottom. And I had an even bigger smile on my face when he did and loved it:

Kim wrapped a hand around Shane’s neck and pulled him down. Fuck if the bastard hadn’t been right about Shane’s wiring, because the weight of Kim’s hand on that spot had Shane’s knees starting to bend. He took a deep breath when he realized all Kim was pushing for was a kiss. Shane spread his legs until they were a little closer in height and met him halfway.

After the life-and-death situation, Shane follows Kim to Jacksonville, and it’s in the relative peace and quiet of everyday living that their flaws come out and threaten the relationship. But I love how unabashed both Kim and Shane are about their character flaws. Shane is perfectly happy being a fuck-up, following his traveling itch, moving to make sure he doesn’t get bored. He thinks to himself once:

His conscience always took a back seat to the fact that he was a slut for pleasure and that wasn’t going to change any more than the fact that everything he got involved in turned to shit.

He tells Kim during their final fight:

“I’m not a fighter, Jay. I don’t have the patience for it.”

But he’s not an asshole because of it. He’s just…Shane. Just as Kim is just…Kim, completely unable to understand emotional entanglements, completely uninterested in having relationship conversations, frustrated and embarrassed by them:

Kim couldn’t begin to understand what he wasn’t understanding and he hated it. Confusion was as unfamiliar as it was loathsome, and he remembered why, despite the human propensity for pairing off, he had successfully avoided being befriended. For the most part. Unwilling to expose more of his efforts at communication to ridicule, he folded his arms and leaned back against the couch.

The ending is…just sublimely perfect. I always squint my way through my first reading of the ending of a highly anticipated book (yes, I read the end first) because it just might not live up to expectations. And if it’s good, I then kind of wince my way through reading the book because it might not live up to the ending. But this ending is perfectly suited to both characters and to the rest of the story. I adore the fact that Kim doesn’t come to a sudden realization about love — although he and Shane definitely get their Happy Ever After. I love that Shane is so ready to quit…and yet not. I love how they don’t change because of their love, that their love, instead, shows them being more themselves. Kim’s despair and actions, and the way you bring the imagery and themes of the whole book together in the final few scenes is incredible.

I have learned to live with the fact that I can’t turn off my literary critic. I might want to at times, just so I can settle in and enjoy a book without thinking about it, but I can’t, so I deal with it. And it’s books like this one that makes all my training worthwhile. Watching how the symbolism of Kim’s tattoo and the imagery of death and the theme of impulsive actions weave themselves throughout the book was a wonder to behold. It’s done so smoothly, I think, so unintrusively, that it’s not obvious to any but the most obsessive reader. But it’s there and it layers the book, drawing everything together to make everything just make sense by the end.

And it’s unintrusive because you trust your readers to get it. You trust us to get the desert dry humor of these two men, their flaws and foibles and fucked-up motivations. You trust us to understand and in doing that, present us with an amazing story because you’re letting the characters speak for themselves without any unnecessary explanatory narration.

I’ve read this book twice straight through and probably another two times in bits and pieces, rereading for the good stuff — which usually means reading most of it because it’s all good. And I can’t find any flaws. Even the inclusion of Joey and Aaron from Collision Course is integral to the story and well-done and readers don’t need to have any previous knowledge of them to understand their role in this story. I didn’t know if you could top Collision Course, but you absolutely did. This is a perfect romance with stunningly vivid characters, a beautifully constructed plot, and a brilliant emotional arc. Everyone should go and get a copy. Right now!

Grade: A (FWIW, I’ve been reviewing for Dear Author for 18 months now — wow, really? — and this is only the fourth straight A review I’ve given. That’s how good this book was.)

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

| KA Mitchell’s Website | Samhain | Kindle | Nook |
Fictionwise  | Books on Board

What would you ask them? Is pricing the most important topic for you? Is it availability (geographic or just generally digitized)? Is it DRM? Is it ownership? The right to share? How about resale? Is timing of the release? Is it quality?

For me, it’s a number of factors. First, I definitely want quality. I want the digital book to be as good as the paper book and even more, I want the digital book to avail itself of digital features like searchability, multiple bookmarks, annotations, organization. I want pretty little section breaks and the graphics included in a print book, optimized for the digital book.

I want all books available in digital that are available in print. I want the digital books to be available at the same time as the print books. I will concede that there will be no resale but in exchange, the price of the digital books must be some percentage less of lowest comparable print book.

I would like to share a book but if I can’t share it then I want the price to be lower, again, than the print version.

In order to reduce costs of digital books, I want publishers to decide on one universal format and one DRM that allows for cross platform availability. Reducing the number of formats and different DRMs will substantially reduce the cost of producing the digital book. If publishers are going to insist that there is no difference in the production and delivery of a digital book from a print book, they are going to have to be far more transparent.

Because listening is just as important as speaking. If we consumers are ignorant or presumptuous or sound entitled, then explain why and provide evidence. Don’t speak in conclusory statements about how if we only knew.

As for speaking with publishers, I am not sure who I want to talk to and in what setting. What I do want to know is that they are listening. John Sargent posted about pricing on the Macmillan blog entitled “Macmillan Speaks” and he responded to one comment that I left asking for clarification. Ami Grecko, formerly of Tor and now with Adaptive Blue (GetGlue) says that the time for heavy lifting for Macmillan and other publishers begin. But we can start the conversation.

I want to hear from you. What would you say, if you had the opportunity and to whom would you want to speak?

In a way “Steal Away” is a major departure from the previous books of yours I’ve read. Yet in others, it’s very similar. Here there’s no paranormal element, at least not that I noticed. But you reprise the use of two men and one woman as the main characters around whom the drama unfolds. As well, there is an immediacy to the story that makes me feel that I’m there, right there, with the characters.

During Prohibition, Twilight Amery has dreams that she refuses to let die. She’s going to escape rural Alabama and get to Harlem where a young woman with a voice can sing at the Cotton Club. But even after years of scraping by, she doesn’t have enough money for a train ticket. So, dodging Pinkerton men, she hops a northbound train and encounters two very different men. Courtly Hector with his deep, booming voice and Daniel Stone, who is initially as hard as his name, are unlike any men she’s ever met with a relationship unlike any she’s seen. Together they’ll backtrack across the South then end up in an Atlanta whorehouse where they pick up a deadly foe before finally reaching Harlem. But once there, will Twi achieve her dream, will the three of them work out their relationship and can they escape a deadly enemy determined to track them down?

The sex is hawt but it doesn’t overpower the story nor is it included in inappropriate places. I don’t usually care for or read menage books but you’re one of the few authors who can entice me to do just that. Yet this one has a twist from your usual m/m/f books in that there is a bisexual character, Hector, who has relationships with both a man, Stone, and a woman, Twi and often in the same bed while the other character watches. Okay, so add voyeurism onto the list of things I don’t generally read but which I will from you. And doesn’t that sentence sound strange?

When I read your novels – I’m there. I feel surrounded by the atmosphere you create and immersed in the action. This is something I look forward to in your novels and you don’t disappoint. I can feel the tension as Twi waits to jump a train, the heat in the upstairs room of Miss Beu’s house, the tenderness with which Hector removes Twi’s face paint, the nonstop action on the streets of Harlem. The period detail is wonderful and I never once thought I was reading 21st century characters in Prohibition era clothing.

At Loose-Id this is listed as a novel length story but it’s shorter than the usual Harlequin category novel by my ereader page count. So I wasn’t too surprised when the final conflict was resolved mostly off page. I was bummed that some of what happened isn’t explained at all – how did the injuries occur? how was the rescue carried out? how was the escape made? will there ever be a resolution or will these three really have to watch their backs from here on? But, on the other hand, I like the open ending of the relationship of Stone, Hector and Twi.

An unusual setting, coupled with three dimensional characters, mixed with hot sex makes me happy you offered me the chance to read this novel. Since you took such care with the action throughout most of the book, I was sorry that the ending seemed slightly truncated but overall it’s still a B read for me.

~Jayne

| Author Website | Loose Id |

I picked up this book because it was a romance with a female dominant and a male submissive, which is about the only reason I read straight romance nowadays. And while I enjoyed it, it has solidified for me that BDSM romance is mostly about fantasy fulfillment rather than verisimilitude. I’m becoming more accepting of that fact but it’s still disappointing to hope for a romance with BDSM-identified people I might realistically meet and get instead…a fantasy. But then what is any romance but fantasy, right? Where/when/why does the desire for stark reality bend to the needs of the story? I don’t know, but this story was too much fantasy, not enough reality for my tastes. (I’ll reiterate here that the “reality” I’m looking for is psychological, emotional reality, not complete James-Joyce-ian stream of consciousness of actual reality.)

One of my biggest problems with this book, however, was something else, and something that effects even my plot summary: it’s so obviously part of a series of romances that it was difficult to follow a lot of what was happening. Characters were either past or future main characters of their own stories and it got to be very annoying and rather confusing when more and more characters piled in for their own cameo. Not only did I not understand all the character connections because of this sequel-baiting, the timeline of the story was strangely off.

For example: in some near past, Megan Jamison went to a club called Velvet Ice and found herself very much at home in its more private upper floors, which are a BDSM club, but was barred from it because of her friend’s feud with the club owner, a plot point that was obviously important to the larger series but was so irrelevant to Megan’s story it was maddening. In some measure of time, she manages to rate a private room at the club. This plot point (will she or won’t she get in to the club) is unnecessary to THIS story and drags out the beginning so that it’s really slow, rather than focusing the beginning of the story on the interaction and tension between the main characters.

All this time, Megan has been attracted to one of the club’s bouncers, Gregori Lavinkia, a sexual submissive. But she refused to play with him because…well, I’m still not 100% sure. She repeats again and again that she won’t play with him because she never has sex with her submissives and, I guess, Gregori makes her want to have sex:

As a Domme she needed to call the shots. She didn’t want to give over control, and that’s exactly what happened when she made love. So, to protect herself, Megan had compartmentalized. She kept sex tame and vanilla—and infrequent—and saved her passion for Velvet Ice. She couldn’t, wouldn’t let the two merge.

But Gregori doesn’t just want to submit to her, he wants a full D/s relationship. They go back and forth on this, with him pursuing her and her refusing him, until finally they have a showdown in which she tops him and bests him and retreats:

She’d fucking Mastered his fine ass, and kept her composure the whole time, proving once and for all that for her, D/s wasn’t about the sex.

The throbbing between her thighs said she was a liar.

He then begs to be only her lover, rather than her submissive, because having any part of her is better than nothing. And then of course (and very quickly) they work things out and all live HEA.

The BDSM scenes and the sex scenes are super hot and very well done. What disappoints me about this book, however, is something that someone else without my own personal experiences might find perfectly fine. These two are into BDSM for reasons: Megan is a Southern Belle rebelling against her Daddy’s domineering life plans for her by dominating submissives at the club, by never losing control, and by never having sex with them, although I’m never sure how and why she makes the jump to BDSM to exercise control rather than…I don’t know, being anorexic or an exercise freak or a crazy cat lady or something more socially normal. Nor do I really understand how and why she manages to separate BDSM from sex, but maybe that’s just me. Gregori is a submissive and masochist in order to sublimate the pain of his Russian upbringing…or something: it’s never really explained well — Yeltsin’s regime is brought up, and that didn’t really work for me because it’s not like the 1990s in Russia were 1960s Cold War communism. Anyway, not only did I find their reasons paper thin (in an ebook); I found the NEED for a reason frustrating. No one asks why gay people are gay. Okay, scratch that: no one sane and rational asks why gay people are gay. We’ve accepted the fact that gay people ARE, that being gay an immutable part of their nature that doesn’t need explanation or to be changed. It IS. Not so much with BDSM, apparently. So instead we have pop psychology of an Electra complex and a strangely (a)political statement about the deprivations of…post-communist Russia? None of which really ACTUALLY explain why these two people are so heavily into BDSM — mostly because being into BDSM doesn’t need explaining. It’s as much a sexual orientation as being gay is.

That aside, whether or not it’s an issue for your other readers, the realization of how to overcome Megan’s barrier to the relationship (because Gregori has no barrier and very little character development — he’s just strong and hot and a wonderful submissive) is abrupt and ridiculously easy. We’ve got Daddy complexes galore and one phone conversation makes her change her whole worldview, blowing all psychological barriers out of the water and leaving her open to Gregori’s love? Uh, okay. And once the crisis is over, there’s still another 20 pages (of 70) of the story left. You would have done better investing as much time into the overcoming of the barrier as you did into constructing it, with less time on the denouement and happiness at the end. These are both writerly issues that have very little to do with my own personal hang-ups about BDSM and bugged me slightly more than your depiction of BDSM.

That aside, like I said, the sex and the BDSM scenes were hot. The emotion was strong. The sexual tension was good. Gregori is a wonderful sexual submissive. There’s no cringing around the fact that there’s a male submissive and a female dominant. If this is a peek into a future with more femdom stories, I’m (mostly, sort of) happy with it.

But what I’d really like to see is a BDSM romance with characters who just accept that they ARE kinky, without needing reasons for it. I mean, angst about that is fine (needing to beat someone and/or be beaten to get off — rather than *choosing* to, as shown in this story — is a very difficult thing to accept, after all). But angst about manufactured reasons about WHY one likes to beat someone up and/or be beaten for jollies is a different thing and rings false to me. I stress the “to me” part of that. This story might and probably will work for other readers without my own personal hangups. Because, like I said, the emotion is strong, the sexual tension is good, the characters are enjoyable.

And finally, authors, can we PLEASE stop with the BDSM clubs? I mean, really, please? Been there, done that. Find another way to get your kinky characters together. Maybe a kinky craft club? Or a kinky reading group? Or, hey, maybe two people just meeting each other like normal people and recognizing something in each other that might work? Something different? Please?

Grade: C+

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

| Author Website (no direct book link) | Liquid Silver |

Dear Author received a copy of your latest book, “Scarlett Fever” for review and since I’m slightly anal about reading a series in order, I backtracked to read the prequel book, “Suite Scarlett” first. And wow am I glad I did. YA isn’t my usual forte here but with books like this one, I could see myself changing my mind.

Scarlett Martin and her family live in a small hotel in NYC. Oh, not just any hotel but a once beautiful, though now slightly frayed around the edges, example of Art Deco which the family has owned since it opened in the 1920s. All the family, parents, older brother Spencer, older sister Lola, Scarlett and baby sister Marlene pitch in to keep it going but, frankly, with the guest load they have, or rather don’t have, something needs to happen.

And that something is Amy Amberson. Vibrant, outgoing, sweeping Scarlett and everyone else along with her, Amy arrives and immediately begins to manage Scarlett, who becomes “O’Hara,” girl Friday, and Spencer who is desperately trying to achieve his dream of acting with garage staging of “Hamlet.” Then there’s Lola and her wealthy, though not too bright, boyfriend Chip and Marlene, who gets away with murder all because she’s a cancer survivor. It might be summer vacation but Scarlett’s running flat out to try and keep up with and on top of it all before everything risks spinning out of control.

I love a book with subtle humor which arises out of the characters and events in it and which doesn’t rely on pratfalls or making fun of anyone. Even the chapter titles amuse me here. But, despite the set up of living in a boutique hotel, the whole thing seems realistic and believable too. The plot never ventures into “okay, now this is going too far” territory.

And speaking of the setting, it all reminds me slightly of Never Land with Amy as an irrepressible Peter Pan figure leading Scarlett/Wendy deeper into chaos as the story unfolds. Here the children are mainly in charge of events while the parents are secondary and rarely involved in the action except to be people who must be kept from knowing most of what’s going on. Amy is an adult with money and so has more independence than the Martin children but she’s still not quite grown up, or doesn’t act it, and makes mistakes that even Scarlett sees coming. And then it’s usually up to Scarlett to fix and straighten things out.

The relationship of the children makes the book. Marlene has been coddled yet kept from everything the others do and take for granted. I enjoyed watching her finally enter into the circle of her older siblings. Lola and Spencer are there to be PITAs, sometimes, but also back Scarlett up and present a solid front to the world. Spencer is willing to risk discord with Scarlett’s “maybe boyfriend” during the show to support his little sister. And the two of them have to deal with the fact that Scarlett is venturing into the world of dating.

Speaking of which, I doubt there are many people who haven’t, at one time or the other, been in her shoes. Though she’s watched Spencer’s many, week-long romances and Lola’s relationship with someone the others feel is not worthy of her, Scarlett’s never dated before so the whole thing is new to her. She’s not sure what’s going on or even if she’s really dating. The problems she runs into with Eric and his slippery ways are realistic – he’s older and already into game/role playing while she’s running just to catch up.

New York City is almost a character in the book. You add countless, every day, touches that indicate the story is taking place there and no where else as well as making use of the well known theater setting. Scarlett sees her hometown slightly anew through Eric’s eyes which also serves to show it to us. I doubt there are many other American cities where this book could be set and I enjoyed my “trip” there while the action lasted.

“Suite Scarlett” is a direct prequel to “Scarlett Fever” so I’m glad to took the time to read it first. As I finished the book, I was left with several questions I hope will be answered in book two. Wither Lola and Chip? How will Amy’s venture into agenting play out? Will Spencer’s dream come true? Is Marlene fully a part of the action now? And what’s in store for Scarlett once school starts again? I can’t wait to find out.

~Jayne
| Link to Book Website | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders |
Fictionwise (not present) | Books on Board (audio format only?)

How do I like this book? Let me count the ways. I do like contemporaries and even the occasional romantic suspense but rarely do they combine as well as you’ve done with “Something About You.” And wow, even the cover model kinda looks like she’s wearing the dress you described. And how often does that happen?!

I’m going to be mega lazy after a hard day at work and just borrow your blurb.

FATE HAS THROWN TWO SWORN ENEMIES. . .

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

. . .INTO EACH OTHER’S ARMS

Work with Cameron Lynde? Are they kidding? Maybe, Jack thinks, this is some kind of welcome-back prank after his stint away from Chicago. But it’s no joke: the pair is going to have to put their rocky past behind them and focus on the case at hand. That is, if they can cut back on the razor-sharp jibes—and smother the flame of their sizzling-hot sexual tension…

Jane said the book was good but she didn’t say how good. It’s great. Lessee, a heroine who is smart, acts smart and when she’s told she needs to be under protective custody, she doesn’t fight it with the same old stupid plotting I’ve seen with this kind of novel. She doesn’t think it’s fun to escape her police escort, she agrees to have them come along for a bridal party at a nightclub and ends up telling them all about her friends and the wedding she’s going to be in. They like her and she likes them. She’s good at her job and follows her professional principles even when she has to come to Jack’s rescue. And even after he loses control and tells the world she had her head up her ass during a previous case. Bliss.

And then there’s the hero who is portrayed as being as sinfully delicious as a double fudge chocolate cake with chocolate chips on top. And whipped cream. Jack’s initially not thrilled to have Cameron back in his life – just as she’s not too thrilled with him, but he takes her protection and her involvement in the case seriously and treats her with professionalism. He explains why she needs to be under protective custody instead of just strong arming her then he’s willing to protect her at any cost. Bliss, bliss.

The dialogue is fantastic. Smart, snappy, funny yet realistic. I can’t count the number of times I laughed while reading the book. The scene of the two CPD officers and the two FBI men talking about Cameron’s dating life is a sceam.

“So… for some reason we thought you were the guys assigned to Ms. Lynde’s surveillance. Guess we were mistaken?”

“Nope, you got it right,” Kamin said. “We do the night shift. Nice girl. We talk a lot on the way to the gym.”

“Oh. Then I guess Agent Wilkins and I are just curious why you two are here instead of with her.”

Kamin waved this off. “It’s cool. We did a switcheroo with another cop, see?”

“A switcheroo… right. Remind me again how that works?” Jack asked.

“It’s because she’s got this big date tonight,” Kamin explained.

Jack cocked his head. “A date?”

Phelps chimed in. “Yeah, you know—with Max-the-investment-banker-she-met-on-the-Bloomingdales-escalator.”

“I must’ve missed that one.”

“Oh, it’s a great story,” Kamin assured him. “She crashed into him coming off the escalator and when her shopping bag spilled open, he told her he liked her shoes.”

“Ah… the Meet Cute,” Wilkins said with a grin.

Jack threw him a sharp look. “What did you just say?”

“You know, the Meet Cute.” Wilkins explained. “In romantic comedies, that’s what they call the moment when the man and woman first meet.” He rubbed his chin, thinking this over. “I don’t know, Jack… if she’s had her Meet Cute with another man that does not bode well for you.”

Then, there’s when they’re standing outside Cameron’s house and exchanging information, and awe, at the bachelorette party game going on inside.

“What do you think the pink bags are for?” Wilkins asked. His voice was filled with wonder.

Phelps stood next to him, similarly wide-eyed and awestruck. “It’s a game. Each girl buys a pair of underwear, something she would normally wear herself. The bride has to guess who brought which pair. If the bride guesses wrong, she has to do a shot. If she guesses right, the other girl drinks.”

“Cameron was afraid Amy would think the game was tacky, but the cousins insisted, see?” Kamin said.

Jack glanced over. “You guys sure are getting into all this.”

Phelps grinned. “When a girl like Cameron talks about underwear, you listen.”

“How about you, Jack? Could you do it?” Wilkins asked.

“Do what?”

“Twenty pairs of underwear. Think you could figure out which pair belongs to Cameron?”

Jack had been interrogated at knife-point, gun-point, pretty much at all-points a man could think of, but hell if a question had ever made him squirm as much as that one.

Because now he was thinking about her underwear.

“I don’t see why I’d have any particular insight into that,” he answered gruffly. “Think you could figure it out?”

“No, but I didn’t try to kiss her three nights ago,” Wilkins said.

Jack glared at Kamin and Phelps. “You two tell all sorts of tales, don’t you?” He nodded to Wilkins. “We should get going.”

Wilkins shook his head. “No way. We came to show Cameron those photographs, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Jack pointed to the house. “You can’t seriously be thinking about going in there.”

Wilkins’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Oh, I’m going in all right. And you are, too, partner.”

“You thought that going into a purse was sacrosanct? Infiltrating a bachelorette party is way beyond that.”

Wilkins rubbed his hands together eagerly. “I know. And I’ll never have an excuse like this again.”

“You’re an FBI agent, Sam,” Jack reminded him.

“I’m also a single man, Jack. And inside that house are twenty gorgeous women who are drinking and showing off their panties. It’s a no-brainer.” He pushed off the car and headed toward the house.

The heroine’s Gay best friend isn’t a stereotypical Gay Best Friend. Thank you for no mention of “Project Runway,” interior decorating (at least in relation to Collin), or squeally moments. The plot just seemed to flow and I didn’t notice your authorial hand jerking the characters’ strings to get them to move as you want them to. Bliss, bliss, bliss.

The villain isn’t a serial killer! So his POV of course doesn’t lovingly detail how much he likes to kill people. Sure, he did commit murder and does need to go down, but I can almost understand the situation in which he found himself and what made him kill. What’s the saying? Everyone could kill under the right circumstances. Then he stays a professional and methodically tries to cover his tracks. It was almost fun to watch him delve into why the crime didn’t have the outcome he’d expected. Still blissful.

Let me mention again how much I enjoy watching Cameron and Jack work this case. Despite a rocky start…

Before he could call her bluff, Cameron grabbed her purse and headed for the door. The hell with her stuff, she’d get it later. “It was nice catching up with you, Agent Pallas. I’m glad to see those three years in Nebraska didn’t make you any less of an asshole.”

She threw open the door and nearly ran into a man standing in the doorway. He wore a well-cut gray suit and tie, appeared younger than Jack, and was African American.

He flashed Cameron a knock-out smile while precariously balancing three Starbucks cups in his hands. “Thanks for getting the door. What’d I miss?”

“I’m storming out. And I just called Agent Pallas an asshole.”

“Sounds like good times. Coffee?” He held the Starbucks out to her. “I’m Agent Wilkins.”

…they quickly start meshing together. They listen to each other, respect each other professionally – now, mull over the other person’s ideas and suggestions and when someone higher on the food chain than the killer is contemplated, there’s no immediate dismissal that “this couldn’t possibly be right.” Cameron does do one slightly silly thing which no one would think might bring a killer to her house one day and because she didn’t go out once and try and track down and bring in the killer, I’ll forgive it. She also ends up doing something Jack calls “fucking brilliant” to aid in capturing the killer. I’m almost in a haze of bliss.

I did end up marking the book down slightly because I just felt the ending kept on going and going. The last chapter felt tacked on and was somewhat of an anticlimax but other than that, this is one book I can totally recommend. A-

~Jayne

This book is the subject of a new Save the Contemporary campaign. Come back tomorrow to hear about the details to win a new iTouch and a bottle of Stags’ Leap Petit Syrah which is a wine featured in the book.

| Julie James’ Website | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders | Fictionwise (eReader/epub) | Books on Board (epub/PDF)

I’ve been reading ebooks for a long time and the main things I like are convenience of taking many away from home to read easily and the space saving vs. print books in the home, and are now becoming a want for more and more readers.  Yet, I still think overall (production and promotion both) it can’t cost as much to produce as a print, and do not want to pay the same, and certainly not more, as a print version, especially considering I can’t share with family and close friends like a print, which helps us all get to read more than we can afford by pooling our resources.  I’ve found through the years sharing with a few family members and close friends overall we tend to buy more, especially being able to introduce new authors to each other which encourages the individual to buy again as an individual when they like that new author.  Thus, being able to share an ebook with a group of family/close friends is a great incentive, which would include having it in a format that could be read on more than one specific device.

I hate the trend of delaying the ebook release date, no way is that going to influence me on buying a hardcover, or even paperback, if I want the ebook – the only influence on ebook v. print for me would be the price.  Multiple formats are important as our readers can change as we replace (due to age of device, new purchase, gift, etc.), we don’t want to be left with an ebook that can no longer be read by use due to one device restriction.

I’ve seen many suggestions around as to added bonus content for ebooks to encourage sales, but in reality, I and most readers I know just want to read the story – enough “extra features” can probably be found online if one wants that.   Most of us can’t afford the extra features and glitz, just want to read the story by our favorite authors, and as many as we can try to fit into our budgets.  It always comes down to what the consumer can afford or thinks is a value, as in all products.  I will say, for a book I really can’t wait to read, if the price is right, I’m liable to go for instant gratification and download the ebook to read right away on release.

Here is the raw survey data to be downloaded.

My feeling was that we were fairly well received.  There were definitely people that didn’t look interested but overall, the feedback that we received was positive. I wish that we had included actual video of readers like they did in the LibreDigital session because I found those fascinating.  If we get the chance to do this again, I’ll be asking the Dear Author community to videotape themselves!

I’m not sure what you would like to know about the session. You can see the slides here (this link will open a new window and download the ppt presentation) and obviously download the data in the link above. If you have specific questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

1. Facebook is where it is at. Facebook has 400 million users and 100 million of them are mobile. Facebook directs more online traffic than Google.
2. What we know and use today will be obsolete in a few years.
3. Change is more likely to be forced on legacy publishers by outsiders who have no burdensome infrastructure to maintain.

Initially I was heartened by the tone of the conference. It seemed very focused on delivering the content to the readers in the manner that the readers want where the readers are. This may have been my own bias shading what I was hearing.

The opening keynote speeches made the point that we are in a period of acceleration. We are adopting new media faster than ever before. The way we change our method of consuming media moves quickly. One presenter said, tongue in cheek, that customers are always complicating the situation by getting new devices. The iPod entered our life the first time in October of 2001 and in a decade, it is ubiquitous. Facebook debuted in September 2006 and now it has 400 million users. In the last decade, several big chains and over 500 indie booksellers have closed as a result of customers moving toward internet retailing.

Skip Pritchard of Ingram noted that consumers can be paralyzed by too many choices. He gave an example about a grocery store that featured a huge assortment of jams one day. The press came out; there were long lines of customers to taste the jam. The next day, the store put out only a tiny selection and that day, the jams sold more than on the previous day. The publisher Twelve, put out one book a month and had eight bestsellers. Ingram noted, though, that there are over 1 million books published worldwide each year.

New players can change things faster because they don’t know what the limitations are supposed to be.

Arianna Huffington said that books are conversation starters and that the internet is the perfect place to continue the book story. This is the golden age of engagement as readers want to share with others. Goodreads has almost 3 million users and Library Thing a little over a million. Huffington pointed out that this should mean that the publishable period is gone. The three weeks between release and oblivion should be a thing of the past. The way that books can remain visible is by editors, interns, publicists getting out there and starting conversations. Reviews should be conversation starters not ends. This is something I’ll want to work on in the future.

But the participation by editors, interns, publicists can’t be limited to “hey, read this book”. As Mike Hendrickson of O’Reilly said, you have to promote other people’s things twelve times as much as your own to enable you to build your brand. In other words, for a publisher to come and talk about books with a reader, that publisher needs to build authenticity with the audience. It’s why Facebook is directing more traffic than Google. Facebook users trust their friends’ recommendations versus Google’s search results. I heard this as suggesting that those who want to promote to a community have to be part of a community. In the Bowker presentation, it was noted that personal recommendations are important to readers, second only to author reputation.

I attended an eclectic selection of seminars, most of which were product demonstrations but all of which gave me greater insight into how publishing works and how it affects us as readers. First off, the reason that we readers get such crappy metadata is because there is no standard. Metadata is the part of the digital book that contains the author, title, publisher, date of publication and anything else the publisher sees fit to provide.

Ingram is a third party distribution service which means they take product from the content creator, like an ebook, and distribute it to a retailer, like Fictionwise. The problem is that they don’t require metadata to all be standard. They don’t “enhance” the metadata for a customer (and by customer I mean the publisher). This is why some books have author firstname author lastname and some have author lastname, author firstname and some books have author “null” or author “unknown”.

There is no consistency and no requirements for even a standard level of information. Ingram says that some of its customers are very touchy about their metadata and the customers do not like a third party changing it.

The lack of consistent standards was driven home when I attended the Bowker session. Bowker is another third party distribution service. Bowker is a bibliographic information service provider. Bowker helps to provide unique identifiers to published products as well as ways for readers and students to find these products. The problem is that there is no standard for identifiers. Most print books have an ISBN, a unique identifying number.

Digital books, however, are not required to have an ISBN and the unique identifier can vary from retailer to retailer, particularly when there are different types of formats. In publishing terms, an asset is just one version of the product. For example, a title is a family of assets with the parent as the hardcover and each version of the product is a different asset such as the audio book, the multiple digital copies, the mass market, a POD file, and so on. Each one of those assets needs a unique identifier and each unique identifier and method of tracking said identifier is costly. One audience member said that it was simply too expensive to get a separate isbn for each digital asset.

Why doesn’t the industry get together and decide on standards? Standards for metadata; standards for DRM; standards for identifying products? It seems like lack of standards only creates more cost for publishers.

Liza Daly and Keith Falgren spoke about the new wave of digital devices. Landlocked devices are a thing of the past. I concur. They also urged publishers to invest in creating a way to deliver their own content directly to the consumer.

Publishers told Perseus in a survey that they are going to test the market by varying pricing based on version and monitoring of sales. 50% of publishers said that there won’t be fixed pricing. I have a sad feeling that the data that customers give back to publishers won’t be in line with what they want. Apple might not be the savior of publishing. $4.99 is the sweet spot for the app store and $2.99 is the optimal price in the Blackberry App store.

One of the last presentations I attended was the case study of the promotional efforts of Courtney Milan’s book, Proof of Seduction. It was the most fun session because LibreDigital showed video of actual readers! Holly from Bookbinge was shown first talking about her reading habits. She reads everywhere, all the time. Another reader who was unfamiliar to me shared that she fell in love with the historical genre after reading Courtney’s book. Isn’t that wonderful and amazing? One book changed her reading habits, maybe forever.

Then I went to the BISG presentation on ebook reader behaviors. The data presented befuddled and worried me. Befuddlement from some of the results: For example, it said that more men buy than women (51% v 49%) and that only 14% of ebook readers buy romances. WHAT? I mean, when you look at the bestseller lists, it is always populated by romance books. In other words, publishers have an opportunity to change readers mind about the value of ebooks. Worry: The BISG data says that ebook sales are cannabalizing print sales at a much lower margin. BISG says that readers getting into the ebook market are driven by the affordability of ebooks but, BISG says, that publishers have an opportunity to save themselves because every six months the market grows by a third. BISG also said that ebook readership would likely top out at 30%.

In the end, I felt like publishers have a huge challenge. We readers want content at the right price, in every format that exists now or may exist in the future (I was amazed at the number of people there buzzing about the iPad). Because change is happening so fast, many existing publishers are ill equipped to move to meet the changes. I feel that the status quo looks more promising to many than adapting. Ultimately change will come but as Peter Collingridge said there will be winners and losers.

I have seen your writing described in many places in such high terms and with such delight (comparisons to Laura Kinsale have been made) that maybe I expected a little — or even a lot — too much from this book. I found it when I was looking through your backlist. The excerpt intrigued me and I was super-excited with the set-up of the book written by an author who I thought, by reputation, would be able to handle the implications of it. Yeah, not so much.

Andreas is a 25 year old, do nothing rich kid, titular heir to one of the corporate structures that runs the world in the post “plague years” near future. He finds himself at a cage match, randomly betting on a match with his friend, with blind stakes where the loser announces the stakes after the bet is over. Andreas wins an hour with the man he bet on after he beats his opponent into unconsciousness. Andreas is not quite sure what to do with Jabez so…they talk. Andreas finds out that Jabez is a fighter as a way to pay off his indenture for an armed robbery conviction. They do eventually get around to a blowjob, but Andreas is fascinated enough with Jabez to go back the next night and ends up saving Jabez after he wins his bout in a pyrrhic victory and passes out. So Andreas takes Jabez to his estate, gets him healthy, buys his indenture, hires him as a personal trainer and security consultant. And they fall in love with little to no angst about their complete opposite social levels — like, complete opposite: orphaned street mercenary and spoilt corporate heir.

And then there’s a whole storyline about saving the world and revitalizing the slum that comes out of nowhere and takes over the story in a way that’s just…oh, this story could have been so wonderful. And maybe I’m just looking for the wrong thing, and maybe I’m trying to tell people what to do again when I have no place to do it. But! As a reader who looks for deeply emotional stories that actually get deep into the issues brought up by the situations of the characters an author has created, I have to say, this story set up these characters as so different, so diametrically opposed to each other in situation and life experience and then it just snapped its metaphorical fingers and let the Power of Luurrrve (TM SBTB) work its magic and everything was better without anyone having to WORK for it. And that pissed me off.

One shouldn’t create a do-nothing, lay-about of a corporate heir whose father doesn’t think he’s worth anything and literally have him change the entire social order of his world without a huge shift in personality. Oh, hey, he suddenly realizes that people live differently from him. Oh, hey, he suddenly decides his friends are nasty little shits when he just loved them before because he was always a good guy, he just didn’t realize it. Oh, hey, in THREE DAYS of training he can begin to defend himself against a mercenary?! WTF?

And one shouldn’t create an illiterate street orphan, a criminal, a mercenary, a guy exploited and abused his entire life for rich people’s pleasure and have him end up the indentured servant of the wastrel corporate heir and have them fall in love without any resentment, without any angst or concern or apparently understanding of the vast differences in their experiences, their lives, their world views. And one shouldn’t have the corporate heir basically own the illiterate mercenary and then have him say “I don’t want you to feel beholden to me or under any compulsion like you have to give me sex,” and have the mercenary go, “Oh, okay.” And yes, okay, in this story, Jabez does a hot/cold, on-again/off-again “must protect myself emotionally for when rug gets pulled out from under me,” but I’m sorry, these two men are going to have so much to deal with and you gloss it all as unimportant and that just felt so blindly disingenuous to me that it made me crazy.

So I’ve got a couple of your books in my pile still, and I’m still interested in reading them, because your writing was mostly engaging, even if your plot and characterization was implausible, but maybe I’ll read them with much lower expectations.

Grade: C

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Loose ID and other etailers.

After I enjoyed the previous book in this series, “Wedding Bell Blues,” so much I was excited to see that the next book, about brother Lars, was available. From what went on in WBB, I knew that Lars’ bitch of an ex-wife, Sherice, would be there along with all the other crew characters: the other Toleffson brothers, their wives and sundry members of the small Texas town of Konigsburg. The question was, who would Lars’ heroine be and how would the love story play out.

Jessamyn “Jess” Carroll thinks she’s found a safe-haven for herself and her 9 month old son far away from her rich mother-in-law who is determined that the boy be raised with his Moreland kin, his rich kin, and not by the wife of the son whom Lydia Moreland despised. Lydia is willing to go to any lengths to get her grandson so Jess has fled halfway across the country and lives under the radar. But she steps into the world of the Toleffsons when she answers Lars’ ad for a baby-sitter for his 2 year old terror of a daughter, Daisy. The attraction between Jess and Lars is immediate but it doesn’t take long for Lars to see that everything isn’t as it seems with Jess. Now, can he do anything to help this haunted young woman? And better yet, how does he keep his matchmaking sisters-in-law from taking over the situation?

One really nice thing about this series is that I think new readers can jump in at any point. Yes, there are a lot of characters from the previous books to learn but I think you laid them and their relationships out logically here so it was easy to remember who is who. True, I did remember most of them from WBB but even so this book didn’t start with as much of an info dump and learning curve. As well, the characters haven’t done any 180 degree changes and mainly serve to further the relationship between Lars and Jess.

The humor of the characters adds a nice bounce to the story. Lars and Jess both add mental asides throughout the story which had me smiling and laughing. The dialogue, especially between the Toleffson brothers is great as are the scenes with the scary waitresses in the Dew Drop Inn.

The buildup of the plot involving Jess and the Morelands, and the reaction of the characters to the situation, seems realistic to me. No one immediately jumped on the OMG bandwagon yet at the same time, no one pooh poohed the possibility that Jess was telling the truth regarding what she was up against. I really liked seeing this from Pete the DA and Erik the policeman. And as the final showdown took place, brava for having those two have mini strokes at the short cuts that Lars the Warrior Accountant took to protect Jess and her baby. The fact that Jess feels fine about taking down her mother-in-law is also okay with me.

Thank you for not making baby Jack or Daisy be wittle angels. After all, we’re talking about a 9 month old and a 2 year old who are going to get singularly or collectively cranky at times. God help Lars when Daisy does start flashing her smile at boys for real. He will need to keep that baseball bat on hand. I did have one “oh, no you’re not” moment when Lars and Jess decide to spend the night doing the horizontal bed bounce after finding out that a villain is on the loose. True, I believed the reasoning that there probably, probably mind you, was no danger but still….

The means that the Toleffsons use to persuade, shall we say, the Morelands to better behavior sounds reasonable and more likely to take place than some major FBI investigation. I enjoyed seeing Erik be moved more into his brothers’ lives and would assume that a book with him as the hero is due next. I look forward to hearing his POV on his relationship with the other brothers. I did wonder at the speed with which Lars, who was repenting his hasty first marriage at leisure, dove into a marriage with Jess but I guess that’s twue lurve.

Anyway, it was nice to visit with the friendly folk in Konigsburg, TX again and I look forward to seeing Erik redeemed and, maybe, Wonder and Allie finally get hitched as well. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Samhain in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

We received over 2700 responses to our survey. Yes, our survey was flawed and incomplete. It is not scientific. Rather it is a compilation of raw data of over 2700 readers giving their opinions on all things from where they buy books to how long they’ve been reading to the thing that they most want to tell publishers.

Very few readers believe that publishers are interested in hearing from them. Over 75% of the respondents felt that publishers did not care about them as ebook readers. This is kind of sad reflection of how disconnected readers feel from the major content providers in the industry.

In a consumer study by Millward Brown, Amazon was recognized as the number one most trusted and most recommended brand in the U.S. The only conversation that readers are having right now is with retailers, whether it is Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple or Google.

There is a real opportunity for publishers to learn from the readers of their books, not just about what readers want to see published but how those books should be published.

The readers of the survey were quite diverse. Over half of the respondents were between the ages of 30-49. The next largest age group was the 18-25 crowd comprising 469 survey responses. The respondents had been reading for a long time. The readers in the survey were not just romance readers. We allowed the respondents to pick as many genres as applied to them. 2156 said that they read SFF and 2095 said that they read romance. Nearly as many, 2038, checked general fiction. Most everyone read either every day or every couple of days.

Nearly 75% bought at least one new book every month with over a quarter admitting to buying 6-10 new books each month. More than half preferred to buy print when given the opportunity with 34.60% preferring to buy ebooks. 46.37% buy online with 43.81% buying at a physical bookstore.

Free promotional offers work. 92.70% have downloaded a free book with 70.44% making a purchased based on that free read.

People commented frequently that DRM was a major impediment to ebook reading and 87.74% wanted multiple device access to their ebooks, something that is prevented with DRM. 96.89% of readers wanted the ability to organize their digital book collection which is yet another something that is difficult to do with the existing software and DRM.

People want the ability to search, sort and organize their ebook collections. They want to be given the opportunity to buy books in the format they prefer, at the store that they prefer, and in the country in which they live.

Many, many readers commented how frustrated they were by geographical limitations. I know it’s something to do with rights but the fact is that readers don’t care. They just want to be able to buy the books that are available to other readers.

I know some people will read this and say that the reader is being entitled or acting as if they want everything. To some extent they do, but why not? Readers expect much but they are also willing to buy. I talked with a couple of O’Reilly media people at the conference this week. I asked them what their philosophy was regarding the fact that they are selling their content DRM free in every format known to ebook readers. The response was that given the opportunity, people will do the right thing.

I definitely see more areas for common ground between readers and publishers. I can’t help but think that if publishers start listening to readers that readers would be more receptive to the publisher message, whatever it may be.

1.  Install 10.4 SDK  (FOR MAC ONLY.  If you are a PC, go to step 2).

For Mac:  Under Snow Leopard, there are several python programs installed but it makes sense to run the latest which is Python 2.6.  Unfortunately, if you try to install Python and Pycrytpo, you might get an error message something like this:

Compiling with an SDK that doesn't seem to exist: /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk

After much drama, I found a post that said that you should install the 10.4u.sdk from the Mac OS X Install DVD which came with the computer.  Once the DVD loads, choose “Optional Installs”.

You’ll be presented with this screen:

Choose “Xcode.mpkg”

From there, follow the defaults until you get to the “Custom Install on ‘Macintosh HD’” screen.  Everything is checked but “MAC OS X 10.4 Support” and that is the program that you want to install.

Check the box beside it and follow the rest of the prompts.

2.  Install Python

Python.org hosts the latest versions of Python. The latest stable version is Python 2.6.4. Select whichever python program that suits your Operation System.  For Mac, I suggest the “Mac Installer Disk Image” and for Windows, “2.6.4 Installer“.

For Windows, make sure that you follow the suggestion of the install program and install Python at the C:\python26 location.  It will be easy to find by going to “Start -> My Computer -> “Local Disk C:”.  Further, this will be important for the next step.

3.  Install Pycrypto

For windows, it’s fairly easy to install this program.  Simply download the module from Voidspace.  Make sure that you are downloading and installing the right pycrypto module.  If you installed Python 2.6.4 in the prior step (step 2), then download and install “PyCrypto 2.1 for 32bit Windows and Python 2.6 (.zip)”  Unpack the Zip file and you will be left with an installer program.  Double click and install in the default location (meaning, just click next).

For MACs, it requires use of the Terminal program. First, download Py Crypto.  The latest version is 2.1.0.  Unpack the program which in Mac is generally just double clicking on the file.

Open Terminal program.  Type “cd”.  You are going to tell terminal program to “Change Directory” to the one that holds the pycrypto files.  After you type “cd”, drag the “pycrypto-2.1.0″ folder onto the terminal screen.  This drops the entire path into terminal.  It should now read “cd pathto/pycrypto-2.1.0″  (path to being where you have the folder downloaded).  Press return.

The next step is to run the install script.  This is done by typing, in the terminal window, “python setup.py install” via kj in the comments:

python setup.py build (press return)
then
python setup.py install (press return and it ask for system password)

To double check if it is installed correctly, you go to “Macintosh HD/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Version/2.6/lib/python2.6″ there should be a folder called “site-packages” and inside that folder should be this set of folders and files.

You are done. Python and pycrypto based scripts should now work on both Macs and PCs.

I reviewed a short story of yours in my review of Sindusty I from Dreamspinner Press. It was one of my two favorites of the anthology. I had this to say about it: “I adored this sweet little story. Patrick is a video game designer, working the final kinks out of a game weeks before release. He’s not perfectly sculpted and toned—he’s a dork and kind of soft around the edges. His friends buy him a prostitute for his birthday, just so he’ll get laid. But Jack keeps coming back, “the gift that keeps on giving.” The connection between the characters, the fun they have and the affection between them makes this a gem of a story. Grade: A-”

But I didn’t realize I’d already read a story of yours when I dove into the short (70 pages) “Rules Were Meant to be Broken” from Dreamspinner. I chose it because it’s labeled a BDSM romance and while I think that’s a gross mislabeling (one-time use of handcuffs does NOT make a BDSM romance), I certainly don’t hold that against you because the story was just wonderfully fresh. Aaron has lusted after his best friend for 15 years and has an elaborate set of rules he follows so that Dale doesn’t find out:

“In fact, he’d devised a “Big List of Rules For Hiding That You’re In Love With Your Best Friend” just for this purpose. Rule #4 was: seeing the guy really shouldn’t make your heart beat faster, so just pretend it doesn’t.”

Rule #9 said: you’re not supposed to be jealous of the girls who sleep with your best friend. It was always the hardest rule to follow.

It was hard for me to warm up to Dale. He’s a no-good layabout with no job, no ambition, and indiscriminate taste in women…and apparently in men, too, as Aaron finds out later. It’s that indiscriminate taste that is the cause of him calling Aaron at 3am one morning so Aaron can help him out of the handcuffs one of his bar pickups left him in attached to the bed before she stole his wallet. And Aaron’s reaction to being that close to Dale while he’s freeing him makes Dale realize how much Aaron wants him and Dale acts on that realization. However, by the end of the book I loved Dale and I adored Aaron the whole way through. I loved the quirky secondary characters and the obvious deep friendship between the men, even before the grow biblically closer. But most of all, I loved your voice. The “in love with my best friend for year and YEARS” storyline is trite and can be awful, but you pwned it so beautifully, with such a freshness, I loved the story. Grade: Another A-

Then I moved to “Ganymede,” a short story in the I Do Too anthology by MLR Press (review of the whole anthology forthcoming). This story is incredibly different from the other two of yours I’ve read. If asked, I would have said they had different authors. But again, your voice shines through, even though it’s so different in the other two stories. An American vinter goes to Italy to drop in unannounced on a legendary but retired Italian wine-maker who is experimenting with non-technological ways of making wine, in order to become the Italian’s student — acolyte, even. The story is told in present tense, which threw me, but the language is evocative and exciting, and the characters are brilliantly detailed snapshots of two deeply imagined, beautifully written men. I think the relationship happens a little too quickly, but the lushness of your language and the richly layered characterization and motivation mostly make up for that. I also loved that these men were both (?) older. Certainly the Italian was over 60 probably. The story is just…different, but in such a good way that it makes me excited about your future stories as long as you keep writing. Grade: B+

The question becomes at this point: you’re brilliant with short stories, but what are your longer stories like? Can you sustain that brilliance? All’s Fair in Love and Advertising allowed me to figure this out. Quick answer: Oh, hellz YES!

The book is about 150 pages and Max is a character I should have hated. He’s an advertising genius, a complete workaholic, but not in the grim alpha-hero way. He’s neurotic and melodramatic and completely over-the-top. One of those people who’s impossible to work with but absolutely brilliant. He’s not over his wife leaving him two years previously (and breaking their partnership) and he hides his hurt by “turning gay.” Which should be insulting and obnoxious and awful, but just isn’t, somehow, because it’s just…Max.

He’s competing for an account for Avionics, a flight technology company that needs to up its visibility and therefore its stock value in order to avoid a take-over bid by Omnion, the Evil Corporate Empire. Of course, Max meets Joe, the founder and owner of Avionics and falls for him, hard. But in a completely neurotic, manic, Max-like way.

Again, voice is what carried this story. It was told in deep third person perspective from Max’s perspective. I haven’t laughed out loud at a book so much in a long long time. I was giggling through most of it. Max was maddening and adorable at the same time. In trying to find a quote, I just want to cut and paste the whole thing. But try this. Joe just told Max that he liked his work, and Max, who is a typical New Yorker who can’t get beyond the fact that Joe is from Montana, challenged him to name his favorite:

“You know, I liked the gum thing. That was catchy. And the beer stuff. Everyone likes that. But I think my favorites are the commercials you did for that financial services company, the serious ones with the black-and-white footage and the literary quotes. Gotta admire someone who can work e.e. cummings into a commercial about asset protection.”

Max blinked. That campaign dated from at least ten years ago. It wasn’t one he was generally remembered for, but it happened to be his own personal favorite. He lifted his chin stubbornly. Just because Bennett appreciated his work didn’t make him any less of a yokel; it just made him a yokel with good taste. Any moment now, Max knew, the charm would rub off, and Bennett would show his true, narrow-minded colors.

Max did his best to hurry along the process. “I read your company is headquartered in Montana.”

“We have a small office here in New York. But, yeah, most of the operation is back in Wilcox,” Bennett said. “A small town, but we like it. Great views of the mountains. And we’re one of the biggest employers in the state. So that has its perks.”

“Is that what drew you there? Tax breaks?” Max lifted an eyebrow inquiringly. “Or was it the handy proximity to the local militias?”

Bennett laughed again, but it didn’t have quite the same humor as before. “Naw, no playing at war out in the woods for me. Wilcox is where I grew up. After I retired from the Air Force—” His voice got tighter. “Medical retirement. My jet got shot down in Bosnia. It just made sense to come home. Be near family while I was laid up. I ended up staying put.”

“Oh,” Max said weakly. “I didn’t realize—”

Bennett shrugged. “Hey, all in the past now, right?”

Happily, the sommelier chose that moment to descend upon them. Bennett turned his attention back to the wine list, and Max fidgeted in his seat. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, something he wasn’t used to, something that left him off-kilter. Possibly it was a sense of shame. That would explain why he didn’t recognize it right off the bat.

And that makes Max sound like an asshole — and he IS — but I loved him all the way through and I loved that Joe liked his abrasiveness. And Joe was delicious — I could totally see how he fell for Max and it was obvious what he was feeling and why, even though we never get into his head. And again, the secondary characters were wonderful. For such a short story and the large cast of characters, the characterization was pitch perfect. And I totally did NOT see the twist at the end of the story, which was refreshing. Altogether, I adored this book, devoured it, and will come back to it again and again. Grade: A

And finally, there’s the unfortunately-covered “SPAM! It’s what’s for Christmas”. Ben is a washed-up, unemployed baseball pro with a bum knee. His boyfriend just threw him out and he’s desperate to get him back. Desperate enough to answer an ad for nude male models. Where he meets the delicious photographer, Gavin. Hijinks ensue, but Ben really wants his boyfriend back…he thinks. We don’t see much of Gavin, to be honest, even though what we do see *is* delicious. This is Ben’s book and Ben is…adorable. Trying to make it work, trying to readjust his life after his dreams are destroyed, trying to figure out what he really wants. Again, the tone of the story, Ben’s voice and his characterization, make it something I just couldn’t stop reading. Grade: B+

You’ve got free fiction on your website (bittersweet) and on your Livejournal (a fairy tale retelling with beautiful writing that stretches my disbelief a little bit too much on the plot, but still gets a B grade because the characters are so good). (Oh. Also: a short story in a Ravenous Romance anthology that I refuse to buy or even request. Not even for you. Sorry.)

And sadly, that’s it. You need to write more. And longer. And OMG, if you keep it up, I think K.A. Mitchell’s got a rival in the m/m world (although the beautiful thing is, of course, you’re not rivals. If you both just keep writing, then the world will be a better place and we can all be friends with sunshine and rainbows and iPadsunicorns!).

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

Since I love the time frame, I’ve done a number of reviews of books set in ancient Rome and am always on the look out for more. Hence when Samhain offered us your book, “Damon’s Price,” this month, I pounced. Pounce is a good word to use here since the book involves a hot Roman Cougar heroine x hot Greek slave hero. Roar!

Thirty-eight year old widow Claudia Sabina has returned to the estate she inherited from her father. She’s wealthy but most importantly, she enjoys a degree of freedom from male control that is rare in her world. Though determined to manage the estate herself, she realizes that the estate steward, a young Greek slave named Damon, is an invaluable resource. Claudia finds him attractive and accepts the physical release he can give her. Such relationships, though officially forbidden, are not unknown and as long as discretion is maintained, no harm, no foul. What she doesn’t realize, until it’s too late, is that not only has Damon fallen in love with her but she has fallen for him. Can Claudia keep her independence? And is there any kind of future for them?

You manage to deliver a lot of information about Claudia’s and Damon’s pasts very economically then dive into the story. Since I’m not initially looking for romance between these two, I’m not dismayed when they begin a physical relationship almost immediately. I’m also delighted that Claudia has no false modesty and goes for what she wants. Since it’s what Damon has dreamt of, I say “go for it.”

The quick glance she’d intended to judge his reaction became a prolonged gaze into his eyes when she recognized in them something she had not seen in a very long time. This beautiful young man lusted for her—for her, a woman twelve years his senior. “What would you do?” she whispered.

The sex is hawt and initially their relationship is kept strictly to that – which makes sense. The change to a realization of mutual affection then love, on Claudia’s part since Damon has always loved her, is handled well and I didn’t get a rushed feeling about it.

The intervention, on the part of the world, follows the hints and warnings you’ve included in the text so when it happens, there’s no surprise about it. It’s only the manner in which Damon leaves which I didn’t expect. Their reunion is touching, heartfelt and a neat way around the initial problems their relationship posed.

The main problem I have with the story is in Damon. Simply put, he’s almost too good to be true and he has no character arc. He’s loved Claudia from afar, he loves her physically and emotionally when offered the chance then ends up staying true to her for quite a long while before they can finally be together. He’s an excellent steward, he’s loyal, intelligent, handsome as sin, and a fantastic lover. All that sounds lovely but not too realistic. At least make him snore or scratch in public or get impatient – something that tells me he’s not so perfect. Secondly, he doesn’t change – at all – over the course of the book. He reaches no revelations on his own, he doesn’t grow as a character, he just stays perfect and static.

His attitude towards his slavery also seemed a little off to me. Had he been born a slave, I could see his seemingly easy acceptance of his servitude but as he wasn’t always a slave, his perfect submission was odd. His experiences before coming to the estate also seem to have left little mark on him emotionally. Perhaps this is all in tune with the mores of the day but it all struck me as odd.

I enjoyed a lot about the book and think you did a good job with the timing and pacing. It was neither too long nor too short. The resolution of Damon’s slavery seems believable and a HEA granted to two people who deserve it. But Damon needed – something. Some growth or emotional stretching. Just something. B-

~Jayne

| Book excerpt | Kindle | Samhain |

This cloud set up allows you to have access, either by webbrowser or by iPhone/iTouch, to your entire ebook catalog from anywhere you can get internet connection, whether by wifi or cellular access.  The catalog generated is incredibly feature rich.  You can browse your catalog by series, tags, author, title, and most recent additions. You can look up a book on Goodreads or check out the wikipage for an author. Take a look at these iPhone screenshots (click for bigger images):

Note: For your ebooks to be read using Stanza, they should be in ePub format.

Step 1: You need a cloud.

The cloud is essentially a computer harddrive space that you can access anywhere in the world so long as you can log onto the internet. Dropbox provides a 2 GB cloud for free and works on Windows, MAC, Linux, and the iPhone. Dropbox is particularly suited for this cloudy goodness because of its automatic synching abilities. Everytime your files change on your harddrive, Dropbox notes that and uploads the changed file.

So step 1 is signing up for a dropbox account. Sign up and install the software program. The software program will require you to designate a Dropbox folder on your computer. Within the Dropbox folder, you will put your ebooks.

Step 2: Set up your ebook cloud location.

In this step you are going to create a folder within the public folder of the dropbox folder. This public folder will allow you to access your ebook cloud anywhere. While the name of the folder is “public”, it is only public if you share the link (which is why mine is fake in this example) so don’t share the link. Also, you may want to use a random character generator to create a folder name to create a link that is even more secure.  Just don’t make the name too long. 8-10 letters is good.

Step 3. Download Calibre

Calibre is the best ebook software out there. The Best. Even if you don’t use Calibre to create a cloud of goodness, it is still a great management tool. I highly, highly recommend it for every ebook reader out there.

When you install Calibre, just use the standard install rather than advanced.

Step 4. Set Your Calibre Library to be in the Cloud.

Open Calibre. Select Preferences and then change the location of the ebooks to the “My Dropbox\Public\SECRET FOLDER” that you created in Step 2.

If you already have Calibre, you will simply change your existing files to this new location.  If your database is big, go take a big break.  Calibre will copy over every file to this new location and that can take some time.

Step 5. Download Calibre OPDS

This is an open source program written by David Pierron. It runs without adding new software to your computer or changing drivers or anything crazy like that. This is the site for Calibre OPDS and this is the direct download link.

It is based on the Open Publication Distribution System cataloguing system.

Step 6:   Download the Calibre OPDS installer

David is working to update this program all the time. The latest development are installers for both Windows and Mac.  Simply download the program and follow the ordinary installation steps.  A Calibre OPDS icon will be available.  Double click on it and the program will open, showing a window like this (click for a larger image).  The Database Folder is where the “metadata.db” file resides which should be the folder you created in Step 2.  Catalog folder is where you want the catalogs to be generated.  This will affect Step 2 of adding a catalog to Stanza explained below.

Step 6. Unpack Calibre OPDS

This has been deprecated because David developed a GUI (graphical user interface) for Calibre OPDS

Calibre OPDS comes in a zip file. You need to unzip the contents and place them somewhere. I put the set of files in the SECRET FOLDER but you can really place it anywhere. Remember this location. It is important.  Also important, if you are using a MAC, move the zip file first to the location that you want and then unzip.

Step 7. Create a BAT file

I don’t have a MAC so I’m not sure how to automate things but for Windows users, you create what is known as a BAT file, short for batch. Once you create the BAT file, you will simply double click the file icon to regenerate new catalogs whenever you make changes to the Calibre database.

A BAT file is very easy to create. You open Notepad which should be in Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad.

In the notepad file, you would past two lines of code:

The first line of code tells your computer that you want it to find the directory where you have the Calibre OPDS folder saved in Step 6.  Inside that folder is a “bin” folder.  The bin folder is where the Calibre OPDS program resides.  You are telling the computer to find the Calibre OPDS program. As I said, I have my files saved in the SECRETFOLDER so my first line of code is:

cd C:\Documents and Settings\Jane\My Documents\My Dropbox\Public\SECRETFOLDER\1_Calibredb\bin\

cd= “change directory” and the rest is the path name to where the bin folder is. If you go back to Step 6 and copy the address bar you can paste the entire thing after the letters “cd”

The second line of code runs the Calibre OPDS program.  You need the command “calibre2opds.bat” and then you need the file to where your calibre metadata file is or the folder you created in Step 2, the location of your ebook cloud aka SECRET FOLDER. The second line of code looks like this:

calibre2opds.bat C:\Documents and Settings\Jane\My Documents\My Dropbox\Public\SECRETFOLDER\

Save the file as “calibre.bat” or “mycataloggenerator.bat” or whatever in a location you will remember.  You should now have a file that looks like this:

STEP 8. Create the catalogs:

If you’ve done everything correctly, you should be able to double click on the above icon and it will show a window like this which means your catalogs are generating:

Another way to double check this is to go to your SECRETFOLDER and look for a folder called _catalog.

Done yet? Yes, if all you want is web access.  You just need the path to html catalog file.  You can get this path by doing the following:

Go to your SECRET FOLDER and click on the “_catalog” folder created above in Step 8.  Look for the file named “catalog.html“.  There will be a catalog.xml (this is for the iphone) but you want catalog.html. Highlight that file.  Right click, scroll to Dropbox, and in the fly out is “copy public link”.

Once you have the public link, paste it somewhere (like in a word document or a notepad file, etc). It should look something like this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/212378/SECRETFOLDER/_catalog/catalog.html

212378 is your dropbox id.  (I made this up so don’t use it looking for my SECRET FOLDER).  Paste this in your webbrowser address bar and ogle your catalog.

Take a break. Come back.  We are going to set up the iPhone next.

Step 1. Open up Stanza on your iPhone.

Step 2.  Add a new catalog.

Tap “Get Books“.  A new screen will open:

Tap “Edit” (or if you don’t have any catalogs “Add”):

Tap “Add Book Source“.  A new screen will open:

Make sure “catalog” and not “web page” is tapped.  Enter your catalog name. It can be whatever you like.  The URL is the path to your dropbox public folder.  You can get this path by doing the following (yes, this is the same thing you do to get the catalog.html path):

Go to your SECRET FOLDER and click on the “_catalog” folder created above in Step 8.  Look for the file named “catalog.xml“.  There will be a catalog.html but you want catalog.xml. Highlight that file.  Right click, scroll to Dropbox, and in the fly out is “copy public link“.

Once you have the public link, paste it somewhere (like in a word document or a notepad file, etc). It should look something like this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/212378/SECRETFOLDER/_catalog/catalog.xml

This entire path must be typed into the URL of the iphone.

Click “Save”.

You are now done.  Whew.   Check out your fancy catalog:

In the future, anytime you make a change to your Calibre database, you will want to update your catalogs by clicking on the bat file you created in Step 7.

Have questions? Leave them in the comments.

When Grace Emerson’s ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she’s seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone…exactly unlike her renegade neighbor Callahan O’Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.

Whoa. No. Callahan O’Shea is not her perfect man! Not with his unsavory past. So why does Mr. Wrong feel so…right?

When I start one of your books I know I’m going to get a few things in it. It will have memorable (at least to me) characters. It will be humorous. There will be at least one dog. It will be first person POV from the heroine. The hero will [probably] not initially appear to be her best romantic choice. The dialogue will be wonderful. The heroine, and often the hero’s, occupation will be central to her/him and presented as an integral part of her/him. The fact that true love never runs smooth will be shown through the relationships of the secondary characters. The heroine will be somewhat martyrish in her relations with her family. The heroine will be flawed in how she views the men she meets in her book long search for love.

I think that covers most of what I expect to find. And most of it I’m looking forward too since you handle these things so well. But the last two issues….well, sometimes they can drive me nuts.

I love your characterizations even if sometimes I don’t care for some of the characters. But then I’m not meant to care for them all, so that’s okay. But they’re definitely not cookie cutter people who feel as if they’re pulled from any of the previous romance books I just read last month. From Grace’s father, who shares Grace’s passion for Civil War reenacting, to her mother who creates, um, interesting blown glass sculpture, to some of the teachers with whom Grace attempts to instill knowledge in the heads of today’s youth, to Grace’s terror of a grandmother, they remained unique over the course of the book. Never did I have to stop and think back, “now, who is this character again?” The one exception would be Julien who I wish hadn’t been such a stereotyped Gay Best Friend.

The humor and dialogue of your books go hand in hand for me. As I read yesterday, I startled my own dog and cat several times by clutching my sides and laughing out loud. Humor is an individual thing, I know, but yours works for me just about all the time. Even when it does tend to stray in the direction of slapstick. I especially like the fact that the humor doesn’t seem cruel – if that makes sense. And you know when to turn it down or cut it off instead of milking it past the point of funny.

I love books in which the characters have pets and obviously love them – even if the people might appear a little foolish about it at times. My pets are my children and I talk to them all the time. Yeah, cleaning up hairballs and the occasional mistake isn’t fun but like Angus McFangus, Kitty and Puppy are worth it. If a hero doesn’t like his heroine’s pets, he’s not a keeper IMO, so Cal’s willingness to deal with the Westie goes a long way with me.

Grace’s profession is such a part of her. She lives and breaths history, literally in the case of her weekend reenacting, and finds fun ways to try and get her students to realize the importance of the past. I enjoy watching her at work and the passion she shows for it in her presentation when applying for the Department Head job. As for Cal, well, let’s just say that ex-cons generally don’t work so well for me because they’re usually dripping with angst and eager to act like asses. But here you have him keep his cards close to his chest until the revelation of his past will have the most impact. Kudos for having him insist on not hiding it either.

The fact that not every couple in the book has a “fluffy bunnies” marriage is a plus for me. Because let’s face it, that’s usually how real life is. But you also let us glimpse that no one who’s not in the relationship knows everything that goes on in it or how a couple has chosen to make it work. I also like that the final conflict between Cal and Grace is the result of what’s gone on in the whole book and of their respective pasts, not something cooked up at the last minute to get those last 20 pages of story length.

All good things must come to an end and here’s where I start in on the things that don’t work so well for me. Your heroines usually seem to have willingness to put up with demands from their family that exceeds my tolerance. Sure, be a good sister/aunt/daughter/whatever but don’t be a doormat. This is a constant issue for me with a lot of romance heroines so maybe I’m the one who’s out of step but I wish it hadn’t taken until the showdown at Soleil for Grace to stand up for herself. And while her procession of blind dates is an improvement on those in “Catch of the Day,” do all your heroines have to endure “Dates from Hell” on their way to wedded bliss? But at least Grace seems a bit more toned down about why she is searching for “Mr. Right.”

So, I’m still looking to give you that “A” that I so desperately want to. But in the meantime, I’ll laugh my way through your books and enjoy the ride. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon, Kindle, eHarlequin in print, eHarlequin in ebook, or other etailers.