A new contest is here with another very cool prize!

What can you win?
This trinket box that I purchased from my favorite curio shop, Christi’s Gifts & Consignment
(870-230-1877).

What do you have to do?
Post comments on my blog or my Facebook page. Every comment you make over the next two weeks will count as one entry. Could I make it any easier?

The contest ends August 1st!

To start you off right, you can post here today AND at Wild & Wicked Cowboys. I’ve posted a very sexy picture of a cowboy. Come help me dream up a story to go along with it!

I think I’m tired of day-tripping. This past weekend while friends held down the fort here, I drove to North Arkansas to my sister’s, then trekked across to Oklahoma where we both led a plotting bootcamp on Saturday. Then it was back to North Arkansas to drop off sis before making my way back south. Those were a lot of miles, and the whole time I was away I fretted about my past due deadlines.

I have plenty of excuses for why I can’t get my work done, but none that truly excuse me. I used to write when I worked full time AND did my once a month National Guard stint WITH needy children underfoot!

Last week, last minute (I stayed up until Midnight on Thursday), I wrote a short story for a Cleis collection. That’s the sum total of my writing accomplishments last week. I have to do much better this week. Do you have any suggestions for how I might stay focused or organize my time better?

But y’all don’t want to hear me whine, do you? You want to know who won that cute little book dragron, right? (Yes, I know I still have the last prizes to get out the door. I’ll do that this week, come hell or high water!)

The winner, from among 190 entries is…Karen C! Congratulations, Karen! Be sure to email me with your snail mail address.

I’ll be back with a brand new contest tomorrow, so be sure to check in!

WHEN BETA RELATIONSHIPS BECOME SERIOUS

or “How To Use a Catcher’s Mitt”

From ACN: When I go to my writing group and mention to friends of mine that I write with a collaborator, or as I call her, a co-author, I get odd looks. One even suggested that it couldn’t possibly be a collaboration and that really I must be doing all the work. But that really couldn’t be farther from the truth.

As in any good partnership, once synergy happens, one can’t tell where an idea began once it gets going. The whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. (And here you thought two and two only ever equaled four!) Rachel and I started working together several years ago as “beta readers” for each other. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a beta reader is a second pair of eyes who looks at your manuscript and helps to pinpoint areas of weakness. It is not, generally, a line editor. (In fact, many beta readers that I’ve known refuse to line edit.)

When Rachel first sent me a manuscript to look through, what struck me right off was the strength of the story. It did need help with some of the technical details, but the underpinnings were rock-solid. Contrary to what many writers have said in my hearing, it is my belief that STORY is everything. If you don’t have a good story, you just have well-constructed grammar exercises. After all, it’s not very interesting to read “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.”

From RW: I would say that several of the main benefits are input and a second opinion when world building. It also helps to have another pair of eyes when editing and another brain when creating, as well as a built in support system for the tough times. It’s fun to trade ideas and use each other as a sounding board.

Back to ACN: As we worked together, we started talking about how we might write a story together. I suggested a blog, and created Taurus and Taurus. That is how our serial novel NEW WORLD ORDER came to be. At first, Rachel took one character and I another, and we essentially role-played our way through the story. We have the first, second, and third books all plotted out as well as ideas for a couple spin offs.
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Gritty Historical Novels

by Denise A. Agnew

Romance novels have a happy ending, and that’s one of the reasons why I love them. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like a novel with grit. You know, the type of novel that really is heart-wrenching, makes you think something seriously bad is happening to the hero and heroine and that they will have to fight for their lives and their happiness.

While I love writing contemporary novels, I’ve found my true voice in historical romance. Here I feel like I can sink my teeth into everything dramatic, romantic.

Research isn’t something I shy from when I’m researching a historical novel. In fact, it’s one of the elements I find compelling. Not only do I discover what I need to accurately portray the people and times for that novel, I love learning about a new time period and place.

Historical novels are calling on me at all levels lately. In summer 2010, Samhain Publishing released a reprint of my Jack The Ripper novel (original title Midnight Rose) under the title Dark, Deadly Love. On January 4, 2011 Samhain released For A Roman’s Heart. Both novels have stunning covers! Thank you to the wonderful artist Kanaxa. In June of 2011 Samhain released Before The Dawn and it also has a beautiful cover. Each novel started with a kernel of an idea and blossomed into a story I loved writing.

And what about the future? I have six…count ‘em…six historical novels either in the works or in the idea stages. The six are broken into two separate trilogies but they all involve paranormal elements.

Here’s a tidbit of BEFORE THE DAWN to tantalize you.

A fallen woman must decide to stay down, or rise and fight…

Elijah McKinnon has been found innocent of a heinous murder, but it doesn’t erase the hellish years in prison he endured. He boards the train to Pittsburgh a changed man, certain he will never feel free until he’s wreaked revenge on the brother who ruined his life.

The passenger who catches his eye is intriguing, but he’s seen her kind before. The kind who puts on airs—and looks down on Irishmen. Still, he can’t seem to stop himself from stepping between her and a pack of ruthless cads.

Mary Jane Lawson is grateful for the handsome stranger’s help, but her journey has a higher purpose: to rise above her shattered reputation and declare her independence, come flood or famine. Propriety says she should refuse Elijah’s suggestion they pose as husband and wife—for her own protection, of course. Her practical side says it won’t hurt to pretend, just this once.

Come nightfall, though, their little charade must be carried all the way to shared sleeping quarters, where their vulnerabilities become painfully clear. And when danger past and present threatens, trusting each other becomes a matter of life and death.

Product Warnings: A hot Irish accent mixed with high adventure may cause combustion. Beware of falling for this hunk. The heroine says he’s hers.

She stumbled along in his wake, no energy to ask why they pushed onward into the woods where no one from the train could help them. Thinking that far ahead caused more trepidation, so she concentrated on planting one shoe in front of the other. After what seemed an endless time, a rocky outcropping and massive hill rose in front of them.

“Thank the saints.” He tugged her forward. “Here.” He released her hand long enough to shove aside shrubbery and reveal a tall opening. She saw his throat work as he swallowed hard. “Damnation. I don’t want to go in here, but we must. I’ll go first, you follow.”

His voice snapped like a general, and she flinched. His eyes went hard, unyielding.
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I’m soooo not motivated to go on another trip, but sis and I agreed to lead a plotting workshop for the Oklahoma City RWA chapter. The class is tomorrow, but I’m heading out the door today to travel to my sister’s house (she lives in northern Arkansas). From there, we’ll make the trip into OKC.

While I’m away, I have two guests signed on to keep you entertained:
Saturday — Denise Agnew
Sunday — A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder

Be sure to drop by and comment. The Book Dragon Contest continues! Click here for more details!

And just so that you have something to talk about when you post, help me with a little brainstorming.

I need a title for an eerie book set in the bayou country in Louisiana. There’s a monster in the water—a darkly seductive monster who tempts the hero. Our heroine will be there to keep him on the straight and narrow so he doesn’t end up the creature’s next meal. Throw out suggestions! There’s never a stupid idea when you brainstorm, because just a single word can spark another idea, then another…

I’ll check in, if I can, to see how you’re doing! ~DD

I’m almost done with the pictures from my road trip. Promise! This one was too much fun not to share.

When we left Eureka Springs, Arkansas, heading for home the last day of our trip, we were barely out of town when we saw a sign for “Quigley’s Castle”—not something we’d heard of before, so naturally we had to stop! We followed a gravel road, all the while humming the theme to Deliverance.

We pulled into a small gravel lot and saw this sign. After about five minutes a very grumpy woman showed up at the gate. Again, I watch too many horror movies. I immediately saw her as a gatekeeper to a Hell Mouth, and wondered if we should worry about the fact no one knew where we were. However, I was too curious at this point and followed her anyway while she led us inside a secret garden and to a shaded area in front of the “castle”.

There we heard the story about the house, which she told in a monotone without a single expression. After she finished her little story, she told us to make our own way through the house and the gardens, and then she disappeared. I just knew she hurried off to sharpen her ax!
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Thank you to Delilah for having me as a guest on her blog today.

July 18 is the release date of my next book, Falling Hard, and I was thinking about all of the writing I’ve done this year. I realized that I really need a break!

But it’s so hard to think about going on a vacation when I still have deadlines looming over my head and the laptop is just so darn portable. On the other hand, the weather is so beautiful and where I’m from we don’t get long enough summers. My brain wants to turn off for a while, and my body wants to soak in the sunshine, lay out on the dock with the lake lapping and sparkling in front of me. I would watch kiddo splashing around and have hubby to bring me something refreshing to drink…all right, let’s not get carried away. 🙂

But you get the idea. My writing is important to me and I enjoy it very much (sometimes more than other times, depending on how the words are flowing), but I think everyone needs time to recharge every once in a while, and I not only owe it to myself, but also to my family to spend some time with them without anything else to get in the way.

This is why, although I’m writing this blog post for Delilah BEFORE my holiday, by the time it’s posted here, I’ll have returned, and I’ll be all refreshed and ready to get to work on the next book!

How is your summer coming along? What have you done to relax, or what do you plan to do? Give me some ideas for next year!

J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She makes her home in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and son and a feisty black cat who is the uncontested head of the household. While she spends her days immersed in the litigious world of insurance law, she is very happy to spend her nights writing dark and sexy characters that leap off the page and into readers’ hearts.

FALLING HARD is available from Carina Press on July 18!
Check it out: Carina Press
JK Coi’s website: https://www.jkcoi.com