BOOK LOVERS' BUFFET BOUQUET OF BOOKS

by Lois Winston

As you’re reading today’s post, I’m getting ready to attend Malice Domestic, a wonderful yearly convention of mystery authors and fans that will be held in Bethesda, MD May 3rd-5th. I’ll be taking part in Malice-Go-Round, speaking on a panel about how season affects story, and doing a book signing. At the conclusion of Malice Domestic, I’ll be heading to Oakmont, PA for the annual Festival of Mystery on Monday, May 6th.

However, there’s also something else going on over the next three days that I’m very excited about -- the Book Lovers’ Buffet.

A group of authors, many of them bestselling and award-winning authors, have gotten together to offer the Book Lovers’ Buffet, a special “Bouquet of Books” sale running from May 1st through May 3rd. During these three days, more than 175 e-books are reduced in price to just .99 cents. Categories include contemporary romance, young adult, mystery & suspense, historical, paranormal, and more.

I’m taking part in the sale with Hooking Mr. Right, one of my award-winning contemporary romances, written under my Emma Carlyle pen name. Hooking Mr. Right is a story about a guy, a girl, and a matchmaking cat. And because some people believe the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, there are also some mouth-watering recipes included.

If the chance to buy over 175 e-books for only .99 cents each isn’t enticing enough, there are also prizes galore. Visit the Book Lovers’ Buffet website for a chance to win gift cards to your choice of online retailers. $400 in gift cards are up for grabs! A total of twenty-two gift cards will be given away-- one $100, two $50, four $25, five $10, and ten $5 cards.

So click on over to the Book Lovers’ Buffet and fill up your Kindle or Nook full of great summer reading before the sale ends. After May 3rd these books will go back to their regular prices.

NEVER SAY NEVER

by Lois Winston

When I was younger, I saw life in black and white. Everything was either good or bad, right or wrong. With age came experience, and I learned that there are an endless number of shades of gray between the black and white. I learned never to say never. You just don’t know where life will take you.




Recently, I set out on a new journey in my writing career, something I never expected ever to do because of the stigma once associated with it -- I decided to indie publish.




I began my writing life as a romance writer. For ten years I toiled away at love stories. Most of these manuscripts never sold, although many collected numerous awards in contests for unpublished authors. Some almost sold, but at the last minute the deal would fall through because the editor who loved the book left the publishing house or the publisher folded the line for which the book was intended.




Eventually, I sold two of my romances, but then a certain glue gun wielding amateur sleuth hijacked my romance career, and I found myself writing the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Don’t get me wrong; I’m very happy telling Anastasia’s stories, and I hope to continue doing so for quite some time. 

However, the publishing world has gone through a dramatic change in the last few years. All around me I started seeing friends indie publishing not only their backlists but manuscripts that had never sold to New York. After hearing success story after success story, I began to think about all those manuscripts lolling around in my Dead Manuscripts File, those books that had won awards and almost sold but never did through no fault of either the writing or the stories. 



So after much mulling, I decided to create Emma Carlyle, my alter ego romance self, and begin indie publishing all those romances under her name. The first book launched on Kindle three and a half weeks ago. Hooking Mr. Right was my most successful, never published manuscript, a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist and winner of a slew of awards. Editors loved it, but for various reasons (see above,) no contract was ever offered. 

A week later I launched Finding Hope. That book was also a Golden Heart finalist, but because it fell somewhere between romance and chick lit, it was never quite right for any traditional publisher's lines. And this past weekend, I launched Four Uncles and a Wedding, a chick lit book.

Now I’m off on a grand experiment, offering these books and more directly to readers for less than the price of a Starbucks cappuccino. Never say never is my new motto.



Hooking Mr. Right blurb:

After writing a doctoral thesis that exposed fraud in the pop-psychology genre, thirty-two year old professor Althea Chandler has to sacrifice her professional integrity to save her family from financial disaster. She secretly becomes bestselling romance guru Dr. Trulee Lovejoy, a self-proclaimed expert on how to catch a man, even though Thea’s a miserable failure when it comes to relationships -- especially those with the opposite sex.

Burned by a failed marriage, Luke Bennett finds himself pursued by Dr. Lovejoy toting women after a gossip columnist dubs him New York’s most eligible bachelor. When he at first mistakes Thea for one of the women out to snare him, sparks fly, but the two soon find themselves battling sparks of a less hostile nature, thanks in part to an alley cat named Cupid.

Hooking Mr. Right link: 

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Hooking-Mr-Right-ebook/dp/B008E95NPG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340584627&sr=1-1&keywords=hooking+mr.+right

Finding Hope blurb:

Being offered a position at a prestigious architectural firm is a dream-come-true for thirty-four year old widow Hope Morgan. For twelve years she’s attended college while working full-time and fending off family efforts to find her a new husband. Hope’s long-exiled libido escapes confinement the moment she sets eyes on Ben Schaffer, her married boss. When Ben’s wife walks out on him and their young sons, Hope steps in as temporary nanny, a bad move, considering all those traitorous hormones.

Ben finds himself developing feelings for Hope, feelings he knows better than to act on, given the mistakes of his past. But Hope refuses to take no for an answer, and her three-year-old accomplices are a triple threat of determination when it comes to finding everyone a happy ending.

Finding Hope links: 

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-hope-emma-carlyle/1111938500?ean=2940014654494

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/FINDING-HOPE-ebook/dp/B008GN66JW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341369237&sr=8-3&keywords=emma+carlyle

Four Uncles and a Wedding blurb:

My Big Fat Greet Wedding  morphs into My Big Fat Multi-Ecumenical Wedding.

Back when thirty-one year old Polly Faith Harmony's feminist mother burned her bra, she wasn't thinking ahead to the day she'd want grandchildren. Behind Polly's back, her mother enlists the help of her four great-uncles -- the Catholic priest, the Episcopalian priest, the Jewish rabbi, and the gay Unitarian minister. The five relatives embark on an all out campaign to find Polly a mate in time to beat her biological clock. Like all loving relatives on a mission, they play dirty.

Four Uncles and a Wedding links:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=B008L2HRAK&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20

Barnes & Noble:

Want to read more about Emma and her other books? Check out her website.