First the bad news: The auction is over. Candice Hern’s price went up like Woah in the last half hour of bidding.

Now the good news: It looks like I won all my bids!!! I would like to thank Mr. Wonderful for spoiling me rotten and for funding my book addiction. He is the best husband in the whole wide world and my knight in shining armor and my sugar daddy. I am truly blessed.

Item 1: Critique of a FULL MANUSCRIPT by Award-Winning Regency Author Candice Hern

Historical critique of a full manuscript of a historical romance set in England between 1790 and 1820. Manuscript will be reviewed for accuracy in areas of titles and forms of address; fashion; government and the law; war and the military; travel and geography; art, architecture, and design; anachronistic language; and more. Candice has an extensive research library and will try to vet every aspect of Regency history in the manuscript. Author may be either published or unpublished.

Candice is the award-winning author of 13 historical romances set during the English Regency period. She visits the UK once a year, has an extensive library of reference books of the period, and has been known to waste weeks researching an obscure historical detail. Her 14th novel, LADY BE BAD, came out last August.

For more information about Candice and her work, please visit www.candicehern.com

From last year’s winner: Candice Hern’s in depth critique of my full manuscript was a life saver. She has an amazing ability to pick out troublesome plot points that can be hidden from the author’s eye. Her knowledge of the Regency era is unsurpassed, which made me one lucky girl to have won the bid for her critique!

Item 2: Lunch with author Jenna Petersen at RWA National in San Francisco

Are you going to San Francisco for RWA’s National Conference in July 2008? Then bid to win a lunch with historical romance author Jenna Petersen.

Jenna Petersen started writing full-time in 1999 when her husband said, “You’re only happy when you’re writing, why don’t you do that?” In 2004, her dream came true when her literary agent called to say she’d just sold two books to Avon.

Her releases include: SCANDALOUS (October 2005), FROM LONDON WITH LOVE (August 2006) and DESIRE NEVER DIES (January 2007), SEDUCTION IS FOREVER (October 2007) and the upcoming LESSONS FROM A COURTESAN (July 2008). She also writes erotic romance as Jess Michaels, and helped launch the Avon Red line with her novella in Parlor Games. She recently published her first full-length erotic romance, EVERYTHING FORBIDDEN. Her next Jess Michaels release is SOMETHING RECKLESS (on sale April 22). She’s been a Bookscan and Waldenbooks Mass Market bestseller.

In addition, she has run The Passionate Pen since 1999. This popular site for aspiring authors gets nearly 200,000 hits per month and contains information on literary agents, publishing houses, articles about writing and the industry, links and Jenna’s Diary toward and beyond publication. You can find her at www.PassionatePen.com and at www.JennaPetersen.com.

The winner will have a delicious lunch with Jenna at once of San Francisco’s great local restaurants and have time to pick her brain on whatever writing or reader topics that come to mind!

Item 3: A Critique by USA Today Bestselling Author Lori Handeland

USA Today Bestselling Author Lori Handeland will provide you with a detailed critique of the first three chapters and synopsis of your novel.

Lori Handeland sold her first novel in 1993. Since then she has sold to Dorchester Publishing, Kensington Publishing, Harlequin Superromance, St. Martin’s Press, Avon Books and Pocket Books. Her stories span the historical, contemporary and paranormal genres. She is a Waldenbooks, Bookscan, and USA Today best-selling author, as well as a two time RITA winner for her novel BLUE MOON in 2005 and THE MOMMY QUEST in 2007.

Lori can be reached through her website at www.lorihandeland.com

So now some more good news/bad news:

Bad news: Now that two authors will be critiquing my manuscript(s), I better get my butt in gear. This means less reading and book reviewing and blogging.

Good news: You, my friends, will get the inside scoop on my lunch with Jenna Petersen. Jenna has also graciously agreed to do an interview here on ciaralira. What questions do you have for her?

Questions for you, dear reader: Have any of you read books by Candice, Lori, or Jenna? Do you have questions for me to ask any of these dear ladies when I communicate with them? And lastly, do you think this new wordpress design is hard to read? I’m worried the grey is hard on the eyes.

Y’all know how much I love Meljean Brook‘s Guardian series. The lovely ladies at The Book Smugglers have interviewed Meljean today on their blog. Check it out here!

The series in order:

1. FALLING FOR ANTHONY (in the anthology Hot Spell)
   
2. DEMON ANGEL
3. PARADISE (in the anthology Wild Thing)
4. DEMON MOON
5. DEMON NIGHT
6. THICKER THAN BLOOD (in the anthology First Blood) – To Be Released 8/08!
   
7. DEMON BOUND – To Be Released 11/08!

My review of Demon Angel, which I lurved: Click Here

My review of Demon Moon, which I also lurved: Click Here

If you haven’t bid yet, get yer arse over to Brenda Novak’s auction for diabetes research and check out the romance-related ARCs, autographed editions, editor/agent/author critiques, and more. There are some serious goodies waiting to be snapped up. Just don’t bid on one of mine!

Title: Magic Bites
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels
Publication Info: Ace Penguin March 2007
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Wow. I’m speechless. I read this book in one sitting and let me say, that was some of the best world building I’ve read since Sabriel. And this is a debut novel. That, ladies and gentlemen, is some damn fine talent. Ilona Andrews is actually the husband-wife writing team Ilona and Andrew Gordon. Rather than refer to them as “ze,” I will stick with Ms. Andrews.

Future-day Atlanta, the world is a very different place. Magic has taken over, fluctuating in blackouts that cause technology to fail. Evil creatures walk the earth: necromancers, shapechangers, the Undead, and worse. Who you gonna call? Kate Daniels. As a mercenary-for-hire, Kate is a tough cookie, like all Urban Fantasy heroines are. Fortunately she leaves behind the leather and stilettos for more practical fighting gear, (which I loved. Sneakers all the way baby!). When Kate’s guardian is murdered, the hunt for his killer leads her on a trail of dead shapechangers and vampires. She has always kept her head down and tried to keep out of sight, but now her search brings her into direct conflict with the Lord of the Shapechangers (who is of course arrogant, overbearing and sexy) and the local power-hungry necromancers. She is caught between two violent and powerful armies and frustrated by bureaucracy. She’s got guts and bravado to spare, with a good helping of fighting skills and smarts too. It’ll take everything she has and more to defeat the evil that is on a killing spree through the city.

As the main heroine reminds us, words are power; Ms. Andrews is powerful indeed, wielding her tools with the beauty and skill of a master artist.

[The gloom] pooled in the corners and along the walls, lying in wait to clutch at the ankles of an unwary passerby, (p29).

He seemed to shrug off the sun’s rays–not a man, but a rectangle of darkness cut in the shroud of sunlight, (p35).

She sprinkles her descriptions with a dose of humor as well.

He wore a dark gray shirt, black jeans, tucked in soft boots, and a black cloak that wanted very much to be a cape, (p35).

I especially like the descriptions of how magic has acted on the once-mighty buildings of human civilization, eating them from the most powerful on down, until little is left but hulking ruins. I can’t find the exact passage. You’ll have to take my word for it, or better yet read it yourself. Her language and style are quite amazing. It’s a violent, action-packed story, as much UF is. Expect horror, not romance. But the world building is really something else. Recommended for anyone who likes sci-fi/fantasy and especially for Urban Fantasy fans.

Join with me now: “Hello my name is [name], and I’m addicted to J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood.”

Welcome!

While you wait for Lover Enshrined to come out, here are 13 other book recommendations for Black Dagger Brotherhood crack addicts.

There is a difference between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy: Paranormal Romance must have a main love story with a satisfying Happily-Ever-After for the hero and heroine. Urban Fantasy does not. BDB falls in the former, so I have NOT included Urban Fantasy in this list (even thought Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series is teh awesome). The recommendations all contain the things we love about BDB: Alpha heroes, love-true-love, and fabulous world building.

Rec’s for BDB Addicts:

1. Guardian series by Meljean Brook
2. Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole
3. Midnight Desire by Emma Holly
4. On the Prowl anthology by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, and Karen Chance
5. Hot Spell anthology by Emma Holly, Shiloh Walker, and Meljean Brook
6. Dirk & Steele series by Marjorie M. Liu
7. Tairen Soul series by C.L. Wilson
8. Darkness Chosen series by Christina Dodd
9. Midnight Breeds series by Lara Adrian
10. Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
11. Paladins of Darkness series by Alexis Morgan
12. Nightwalker series by Jacqueline Franks
13. Psy-Changelings series by Nalini Singh (which I haven’t read but have heard great things)

Do you have any other recommendations?

This week I am participating in my romance writers of america chapter’s BIAW challenge. It’s a great way to kick start a new project or give your Work in Progress (WIP) an energy boost. Like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), BIAW is a quantity over quality exercise in getting your ideas down on paper. You turn off the inner critic and allow yourself the freedom to express. As Nora Roberts says, it’s a lot easier to edit a page of crap than a blank page.

I am not writing a new book this week, but working on my WIP (I have 52,912 words!). Each participant has announced her own goals for the week, and forward progress is considered a “win”. The first day of the challenge I wrote 2,700 words, the second day 1,300 words, the third day zero. Yesterday I started back up, spending 5 hours rewriting my scene from last week. Each night we send an email to the BIAW listserve announcing our progress. Like NaNoWriMo, having a community of writers to cheer me on is extremely motivating. Friends hold me accountable for achieving my goals. It makes writing no longer a solitary process.

About BIAW (Book in a Week) from the moderator Lori Grube:

CONCEPT:
To write an entire rough (very rough) draft in a week OR (how I use it) to write as much as you can, as fast as you can on your current MIP. BIAW is used by several groups and is a very popular program. I’ve participated in a BIAW group myself and write 189 pages that week(!) which still amazes me.

OVERVIEW:
Announce the week for the challenge (usually at least 2 weeks before).
Before the challenge, do all pre-writing or time-management preparations.
During the challenge week, write as much as you can–no editing allowed.
Post your results for the day.
All those who reach their goals get chocolate!

PRE-WRITING
For pantsers, well, I don’t know–just have an idea of what you’re going to write. For plotters, have your scene list available (or whatever you do) to remove any roadblocks. Maybe pictures of your characters or setting would help. Whatever. Just be prepared so you don’t slow yourself down.

TIME-MANAGEMENT
Tell dh, kids, friends that you’re going to be downright antisocial for a week. Don’t worry, they’ll live through it. Don’t schedule any appointments after work. Clear your calendar as much as possible. Ignore as much email as possible (except, of course, the BIAW list.)

THE CHALLENGE WEEK
Lots of people use a timer to schedule writing time so they have official break times for backups and resting/exercises. No sense in aggravating your CTS or tendonitis. Make your work area as ergonomic as possible. During your writing time, just write. DO NOT PRESS “PAGE UP” or you’ll find something that needs editing, sure as the world. Keep going. This is the quantity phase of writing, not quality (although you might be surprised how good your free-writing really is!). At the end of the day,
post your results to the list. Send encouragement to your fellow BIAWers. Pump up the ones who fell short and wax eloquent about those who met or exceeded their goals

There’s some really good info at Melinda Rose Goodin’s site: http://www.wire.net.au/~melinda/biaw.htm

Julia Quinn, New York Times Best Selling Author and 2008 RITA Finalist, is the Queen of dry wit and laugh-out-loud dialog. Her books are some of my very favorite Regencies. My favorites: The Duke and I, The Viscount Who Loved Me, An Offer from a Gentleman, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, and The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. I heart Julia. (And she lives here in Seattle!!!)

Tomorrow is the release date for her latest book, The Lost Duke of Wyndham, which looks to be a gem. Harper Collins is sneaky and put three whole chapters online for free. How could I resist? Now that I’ve read them I’m completely sucked into the story and impatient for more. What? You mean your TBR pile is already too big? Well join the club da’ling and add one more to the top of your list. Just remember that the next time we choose for the island, Jack is MINE biyatches.

Haven’t read Ms. Quinn yet? Read her and love her and want to reread the goodness that is The Duke and I? Well the entire book is available for free for a limited time to read online through Avon’s look-inside program. Check it out here and spend the rest of your memorial day cuddled up with your laptop and a yummy romance novel.

Julia will be giving the key note address and holding a workshop on dialog at the Emerald City Writers Conference in October.

Workshop: Dialogue: It’s More Than What You Say
Dialogue affects every aspect of your novel, from plotting to pacing, characterization to voice.
Join New York Times bestseller Julia Quinn to learn how you can make dialogue shine.

Title: Slightly Dangerous
Author: Mary Balogh
Series: The Bedwyns
Publication Info: Dell Historical Romance, March 2005
Genre: Regency Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 (5 hearts!)

I do not remember who recommended Slightly Dangerous, but I should like to kiss her. This book filled my heart to bursting. I am all aglow with warm fuzzies. This is why I read romance novels, and in particular Regency romance novels. In Slightly Dangerous, Ms. Balogh has created two remarkable characters whose biggest weaknesses are also their biggest strengths. They fight their unreasonable and nonsensical attraction, only to have love transform their lives into something better than they ever hoped they could be. I have fallen deliciously in love with both the hero and the heroine. I want to date Wulfric and be best friends with Christine. I want to be a member of the Bedwyn family, and plan to rush out and buy all their stories. Gotta love sibling sequels. Though Slightly Dangerous is the last book of the series, it stands perfectly fine alone. It is my first read of Ms. Balogh’s, and again I would like to profusely thank whomever made the introduction.

The plot reads like a standard Regency, but the delivery is magical.

Christine Derrick is a widow living happily in genteel poverty with her spinster sister and mother. She is warm, outgoing and gregarious. She truly loves people. Wulfric Bedwyn, the Duke of Bewcastle, is her polar opposite. He is obscenely rich and terribly proper, with the personableness of a glacier. At a tedious country house party one woman refuses to cow to his icy stare. Her behavior is outrageous, climbing trees and laughing out loud and doing everything civilized persons ought not to do. But, of course, he finds himself attracted to her, despite despising her. Christine is likewise not enamored of the top-lofty Duke. When he asks her to be his mistress she is outraged. They submit to their attraction, but the encounter does nothing to end the damnable feelings. Nothing lasting can come of it, as she is inferior for the position of Duchess and he lacks a shred of warmth or kindness. Christine vows never to marry again after her first marriage slowly killed her girlhood dreams of happily-ever-after. They run into each other again and again, until finally the Duke makes his move. He invites Christine and her extended family-in-law to his country estate with all his siblings and their offspring for the holiday in an attempt to show her he has a heart. Lovely family moments and hi-jinx ensue.

Ms. Balogh weaves a beautiful love story with an lovely theme (p362):

“At last,” he said. “I would not believe in our happily-ever-after until now.”

“Oh, not happily-ever-after, Wulfric,” she said. “That is such a static thing. I don’t want happily-ever-after. I want happiness and life and quarreling and making up and adventure and-”

If you like an uplifting story of luv, true luv, this is the book for you.

The Desert Island Keeper Hero round-robin game is over. It was fun. No one got any work done. But we got a fabulous list of our favorite heroes. My To Be Read (TBR) list is HUGE. Based on the final composition of the island, I have compiled a list of the 13 authors who had the most heroes make the DIK hero list. J.R. Ward tops the list with 8. (9 if you count Carolyn Jean’s pick of the Omega.) (edited- sorry Christine!!!) Authors 8 through 12 each had three heroes make it to the island, so they are listed in alphabetical order. Josh Lanyon had 3 heroes, but they were fought over so I listed him at the top of the 3-hero authors. Patricia Briggs has 2 heroes, but made the list over the runners-up because Adam was fought over. Viciously. You know it’s gotta be love.

Authors who Rock and their Heroes:

1. J.R. Ward: Zsadist, John Matthew aka Tehrror, Rhage, Qhuinn, Vishous, Wrath, Rehvenge, Butch O’Neill, the Omega *coughCarolynJeancough* (edited – sorry Christine!).
2. Meljean Brook: Hugh Castleford, Colin Ames-Beaumont, Savitri Murray, Michael, Ethan McCabe *coughMineHahahacough*, Belial.
3. Nalini Singh: Lucas Hunter, Hawke, Vaughn D’Angelo, Judd Laurens, Clay Bennett, Dorian
4. Suzanne Brockmann: Tom Paoletti, Sam Starrett, Max Baghat, Stan Wolchonok, Mr. Jules Cassidy
5. Laurell K. Hamilton: Doyle/The Queen’s Darkness, Rhys, Nathaniel, Barinthus
6. Lisa Kleypas: Cam Rohan, Sebastian St. Vincent, Derek Craven, Gage Travis
7. Josh Lanyon: Adrian English, Taylor MacAllister, Jake Riordan
8. Linda Howard: Gray Rouillard, James Diaz, Sam Donovan
9. Kresley Cole: Cadeon Woede, Bowen MacRieve, Conrad Wroth
10. Sherrilyn Kenyon: Zarek of Moesia, Acheron, Vane Kattalakis
11. Stephanie Meyers: Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Ian
12. C.L. Wilson: Gaelen vel Serranis, Rain Tairen Soul, Kieran Vel Solande (I forgot mine!)
13. Patricia Briggs: Adam Hauptman, Dr. Samuel Cornick.

Runners up:

• Kelly Armstrong: Jeremy Danvers, Clay
• Anne Bishop: Lucivar Yaslana, Daemon Sadi  (edited to add)
• Jennifer Crusie: Calvin Morissey, Phineas Tucker
• Janet Evanovich: Joe Morelli, Ranger
• Patricia Gaffney: Michael McNeil, Sebastian Verlaine
• Judith Ivory: Mick Tremore, Graham Wessi
• Samantha Kane: Derek Knightly, Ian Witherspoon
• J.L. Langley: Nate, Jake Romer
• Linnea Sinclair: Branden Kel-Paten, Gabriel “Sully” Sullivan

Title: Iron Kissed
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, Book 3
Publication Info: Ace Books, January 2008
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3

The third book in the Mercy Thompson series is Dark. Though I knew the terrible price Mercy has to pay ahead of time (I looked it up), I was still on pins and needles from page one. Iron Kissed has delicious world building and great story telling, although it lacks the humor and light-hearted moments of the previous books. I especially like the world building about the fae that Ms. Briggs brings to life. Forget Tinkerbelle – Ms. Briggs has resurrected the original fairy tales in all their gruesome glory.

All is not right in fairyland. Mercy Thompson is called in to use her superhuman nose to find a killer as grisly murders rock the fae reservation in Eastern Washington. The lords of the fae will do anything and sacrifice anyone to keep the humans from finding out. Humans are already wary of the fae, and no one wants to give fodder to the fae hate groups. But when Mercy’s old mentor Zee, who taught her everything she knows about cars and sold her the garage, is arrested for the murders, Mercy refuses to let an innocent man die. She hunts for the real killer even as the fae issue warrants for her death and fae-hate groups plot nefarious schemes around her. Will her loyalty cost her her life? By the skin of her teeth, Mercy tackles her most dangerous mystery yet. But the price is high.

Dominant werewolves Samuel and Adam have been courting Mercy, and she finally makes a choice. While her relationship with Samuel is complex and well-communicated to the reader, I have to wonder after three books just what her relationship with Adam consists of. Mercy and Adam have known each other for 7 years before we meet them, but during the course of the three books we rarely see them together unless Adam is in a dangerous rage and Mercy is trying to calm him down. The romance reader in me wants more. I want to know about the good times between them, not just that Mercy thinks Adam in a rage is hawt. The ending of the book left me with a “WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?????” feeling. BUT, I recognize that this isn’t a romance novel – It’s Urban Fantasy

Iron Kissed is great and I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT ONE. What – 2009??? Are you kidding me? I am not a patient person. At least Cry Wolf comes out in August. It is the sequel to the novella in On the Prowl and is about Charles, Samuel’s brother and the Marrok’s second son.

If you have yet to read any of the Mercy Thompson series, don’t start in the middle. I highly recommend them in order:

Book 1: Moon Called
Book 2: Blood Bound
Book 3: Iron Kissed