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Give Away!!!

Waving Hi!!!!
So, what did y'all do over the Labor Day weekend? And are you finding it as difficult as I am to get back in to the groove of working? LOL I feel as though I've been gone forever--and I took my laptop with me! Sometimes I think it's chained to me at the ankle--laptop to one, scales to the other.

Double Dating With The Dead is available!!! Yea!!! The Morgue The Merrier is available!!!! Yea!!!! I have excerpts and videos on my website if you want to know more www.authorkarenkelley.com The reviews have been fantastic!!! Okay, okay, I have to publicly apologize once again to my writers group who told me---like forever ago---that my strongest voice was in writing hot romantic comedies. They must've been right because the reviews coming in for these two books, and Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind, have been great.

I have three copies of The Morgue The Merrier to give away! Just say hi or what have you or make a comment so I can put your name in a hat and I'll draw tonight at 10pm central time the three lucky winners. If you already have a copy, you can still give it away as a gift. Think about it---an autographed copy of TMTM by THE Karen Kelley is worth $6.99 plus tax!!!! Unless you buy it at a discount store or a garage sale, slightly higher if you live out of the United States.

Good Luck!
Karen Kelley
Available Now!!! Double Dating With The Dead/Brava
Romantic Times 4 1/2 Stars!!!
Available Now!!!The Morgue The Merrier anth/Zebra
10/07 I'm Your Santa anth/Brava

Is it fall yet???

Okay - I admit it... I'm a wuss when it comes to hot weather. I have to slather on SPF 40, I hate to sweat, and my face turns an ugly tomato red when I have to be outside for any length of time. Now, if I could be at beach under a pretty striped umbrella with a breeze off the water and my favorite new book in my lap - well, then I could embrace the whole "hot as hell" idea.

But on my home turf, I'd just as soon not see the mercury hit 90+. My hometown is Chattanooga, and when I talked to my mom the other day, she said Chattanooga had set an "all-time" record of 105 degrees. It had never before ever been that hot in all the years of record keeping.

But enough is enough! The grass is brown. You can burn your hand just opening the metal storm door, and the neighbors' cats are drinking out of our bird baths and terrorizing the pretty finches. Sheesh!

It's so bad that I have almost given up dreaming about hunky heroes and started fantasizing about crisp October days and warm, wooly sweaters.

And by the way, If any of you EVER hear me complain this winter about how cold it is, just shoot me! I'd give my right arm just about now for a pretty six inch snow or even one of those dreary, rainy November days. I guess the grass IS always greener...

We've got some family plans for Labor Day and then it will be back into the writing trenches for me. I'm working on a fun new proposal which I hope will get a nibble of interest from somewhere! And then I have my next contracted book due November 30. And after that it will be Christmas!!

So there you have it, lots of whining from me even though (don't say it too loud) the temps today aren't supposed to get out of the eighties!!

Some of you know that I just got back from a family wedding in Orlando. We spent one day at the Magic Kingdom and despite being baked and wilted, had a great time. Because of my bum knee I had to wear my dorky white tennis shoes instead of my pretty red sandals, but I can only suffer for fashion to a degree. And at least my feet didn't hurt. Mickey is a great guy but a bit short for me. :)

Hope everyone has a great week... and please drop by to share your fantasies of fall with me. We can only dream...

Janice

Interview with Marjorie M. Liu

Coming up!

Putting out a call for questions. If you read Marjorie's work and have questions, your chance to ask them is coming up.

If you have one that you'd like me to use in the interview, email them to me @
shilohwalker@gmail.com and put QUESTIONS for MARJORIE in the subject line.

I will say this, that lady has had some of the best covers I've ever seen.


:o)

why i'm glad life isn't like a romance book

Last week, Karen Scott had a post about how romances make our expectations unrealistic. (yes, there are still people out there harping on this...geex, they need to get a life.) You can read the post here, BUT... don't read it at work. Karen's blog could probably get you in trouble.

I like reading romance. Love it. But would I trade my life for the lives of a woman who lives between the pages of a book? Nope. Not a one. Not Cherijo (yeah, she is sci fi, but she's like my fave heroine so she's on the list) Not Eve (yes, ladies, I'd pass on a chance to be married to Roarke) not one of the ladies from the BDB books(JR Ward), even though I love to read them and not one of the ladies from the Irish Jewels trilogy, even though I would love to live in Ireland.

Why not, you ask?

Oh, lots of reasons. Here's a few

• Cherijo is married to one heck of a guy but when she's ticked off or in danger, her husband can use his mind to control her body. That would seriously piss me off.
• Eve is constantly getting all these gorgeous coats, only to get them ruined by blood, gore and grim.
• I'd never been able to keep my Ben & Jerrys safe from the BDB books. They get hurt, they turn to ice cream to smear on the wounds. Sorry, that's a waste of good yumminess.
• As much as I'd love to live in Ireland, I can't see me falling in love just to help some cursed fairie prince.

So that's from those books.

Some random ones....

• How many romances heroines have either suffered a big trauma before the book starts or during the books as part of her 'dark moment'?
• A lot of the men are written to almost to perfection. I don't want perfect. Would make me too aware of how unperfect I am.
• I don't resolve issues well, or quick. Romances tend to have nice, neat resolutions.
• Alpha men can be nice to read about but in real life, I'd kill them. I like my DH just fine. He's a mix of alpha and beta and I wouldn't take it any other way. Sorry, I don't see the typical alpha as the ultimate father, husband, etc.

Do I like romances? Yep. Do I want to live in one? Oh, hell no.

Last Plans for Summer

Summer? Was there a summer?? Holy cow, we’re down to the last two weeks and I have no idea where it’s gone! Why can’t winter fly by this fast? I never get nearly as much done as I planned, though that’s pretty much the way of life no matter what time of year it is.

But now that it’s down to the wire I’ve got to cram in a few more things before the leaves fall and there’s that first chill in the air. First I’m going to wear all the white stuff in my closet before I sadly put it away and drag out the fall clothes that I look retched in. I cannot wear fall colors. A deep pink or rust is about it. The rest...blah and I look like a baby elephant in jeans.

We’re definitely having ribs on Labor Day and doing the home-made ice cream thing once more. And I’m hitting the final sales on summer clothes to get a jump start on next year...if there’s anything left. Seems that when I try this all the leftover stuff looks so shabby and picked over.

And I’m running around in bare feet as long as I can get away with it and using my little yellow and white purse a few more times and enjoying the final burst of flowers.

So, what do you have planned for the end of summer? What are you determined to get done before we say good-by to the lazy days and jump into fall and football and getting ready for the holidays?

Hugs,
Dianne
DianneCastell.com
The Morgue the Merrier
Kensington Zebra 9/07

PS—I’ll be giving away I’m Your Santa signed copy (by all three authors Lori Foster, me, Karen Kelley).

And the winners are...

The two winners who won free ebook downloads of Skin to Skin are....

Jodi, who commented

Good questions. I'm off to Samhain to check out more info on your book.

and Bernadette who commented,

Really looking forward to the book :) Thanks for the interview!

The winner of the $15 Gift certificate for Mybookstoreandmore is

Physmom who commented

Hi Bam, I am looking forward to the release of your book. If I didn't have family in this weekend I can guarantee I would be curled up reading it.

Ladies, if you all can email me at shilohwalker@gmail.com and put BAM's contest in the subject line, I'll hook you all up with Dionne. Again, Jodi and Bernadette won Dionne's ebook, Skin to Skin and Physmom won a gift certificate.

Thanks for joining in guys, and Dionne, thank you for doing the interview. Best of luck with Skin to Skin!

Shi
http://shilohwalker.com