COMING TOGETHER FOR THE CURE & A CONTEST

I HAVE WINNERS!! I apologize for not drawing names last night - The winner of COMING TOGETHER FOR THE CURE is Barb V., the winner of Dianne Castell's I'M YOUR SANTA is Lisa F., and the winner of Dianne Castell's THE MORGUE THE MERRIER IS Laurie (no, not me!) If the winners will email me with their addresses at ljodamron@gmail.com, their books will be mailed out soon - I haven't received the CD copy of COMING TOGETHER yet, but will send it as soon as I do. Thanks to everyone who stopped by - I hope you'll be tempted to get your own copy of this book and support breast cancer research!!


Author Alison Kent http://www.alisonkent.com/ recently posted on her blog about a newly released anthology, COMING TOGETHER FOR THE CURE, from Phaze with proceeds being donated for breast cancer research. Alison is very generously purchasing multiple copies of this book, having received over 250 comments to her original post. Those comments were tributes of sorts to loved ones who have battled breast cancer - some battles won and some lost, but all are written from the heart. Below is some additional info about this book - I hope you'll take a sec to go check it out in more detail.
Anyone who visits here regularly knows that I'm a huge supporter of breast cancer research, participating in walks and various benefits annually. Having lost a very dear aunt to breast cancer, and with my mother and I both having our own repeated scares with this ugly, cruel disease, I decided to purchase two copies of the book, one for myself and one to offer up as a contest prize. I wish my pockets were deep enough to pick up several copies, but at the moment they're on the shallow side, so I'm limited.
I would note that the contest "book" is in CD form. I will draw one (U.S. only, please) winner from the names of those who express an interest by commenting here - the drawing will be held in the p.m. of September 8.
I'm doing this in memory of my Aunt Loey, who will lovingly remain in my heart forever.
Big hugs,
Laurie

http://eroticanthology.com/forthecure.htm

CONTENTS: (alphabetical by title)
A Town Called Night, by Sammie Jo Moresca
Angel on the Wall, by James Buchanan
Bound To Love, by Kelly Maher
Butterfly, by Alessia Brio
Discovery & Seduction, by Savannah Reardon
Domestic Goddess, by Lisabet Sarai
Ecstasy in E Minor, by Laurence Doyen
If We Were…, by Jeremy Edwards
Last Summer, by Jolie du Pré
Making Me Do Things, by Sommer Marsden
My Right Breast, by Amelia June
Not to Forget, by Vincent DiamondNuevo Dia, by Kate BurnsPhotographic Memory, by Harley Stone
Seduced, by Tomas Ohand
Stay, by Selena Kitt
Sweet as Vanilla, by Kis Lee
The Glimpse, by Robert Buckley
The Wet Spot, by Carys Weldon
Tree Hugging Can Be Fun, by G.C. Rider

Check out my article on Erin McCarthy!

I was recently invited to do an article on Erin McCarthy for Author Island http://www.authorisland.com/ - below is a link if anyone would care to check it out. http://www.authorscene.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59&Itemid=1 This is very similar to my earlier blog about Erin and her upcoming release, with a few embellishments; I hope you'll take a look at it.

If you haven't been to the Author Island site, I would encourage you to pop over and take a look around. They have lots of author info, reader info and for those of you who are contest junkies, there are lots of those too!

Have a great weekend!
Laurie

TROUBLE by Sasha White

Sasha White http://www.sashawhite.net/ has done it again. In her latest release, TROUBLE, she has taken her talents as a novelist and added several shakes of the most intense spice, a dash of edge, a handful of characters with an abundance of charm and wit, and then mixed in a healthy amount of romance. The result is the smoothest, sweetest, most tantalizing blend of erotic romance – a book worthy of the highest praise.
Take a couple of minutes to look around Sasha’s website and check out her blog – she has lots of info there about upcoming books that sound especially good. You say you like hot covers? In that case, you need to run, don’t walk, to check them out!

My Romance Junkies review of TROUBLE:

TROUBLE is the story of a woman in search of herself and the man she doesn’t know she needs with her in the search. Intense emotions and rich sensuality seem to flow effortlessly in yet another excellent book from Sasha White.
When Samair Jones loses her boutique job, her boyfriend and her home all in the same day, she hits the ground running with a dogged determination to begin living for herself, damn everyone else and what they might think. When she goes to Risqué, a club where her best friend is a dancer, and she meets the club’s owner, Valentine Ward, passions immediately flair. The two begin a heated relationship that’s based at first on great sex, but soon they share a mutual understanding of, and respect for, one another. Samair is determined to get her line of clothing off the ground, but at the same time her feelings for Val and concerns over his ex-wife’s continued malicious presence in their lives, have her emotions tumbling.
Valentine Ward is used to having any woman he wants and he wants Samair the moment he sees her in his club. He’s the owner of a hugely successful club, having built it up himself from nothing; he is extremely proud and determined to make it work. Samair is equally hard working and determined to make her intimate apparel line a success, something Val admires and appreciates. It isn’t long before Valentine envisions more with Samair than just a quick fling, but his ex-wife’s scheming has put his ownership of the club in a precarious situation. He needs to take care of the business of the club, his very livelihood, before he can think of a future with Samair.
Ms. White has once again given readers a highly erotic story that goes much deeper than just sex. Samair and Val are wonderfully written characters whose story would be just as contagious if it didn’t contain sex; isn’t that the true measure of a truly excellent romance? Secondary characters are equally intriguing, and Val’s friend Karl (whom readers first met in BOUND) will have his story told in WICKED, coming from Sasha White in January ‘08, which promises to be just as delicious as TROUBLE!

Click here to take a closer look at TROUBLE - maybe you'll want to order a copy for yourself!: http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Sasha-White/dp/0425217000/ref=sr_1_1/103-4025839-3678222?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187890782&sr=1-1

Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone is staying cool! We're battling intense heat and almost daily storms - areas of Ohio just north of us have devastating flooding - please keep those people in your thoughts and prayers.

Laurie

IMPROPER ETIQUETTE by Janice Maynard

Janice Maynard http://www.janicemaynard.com/ , for anyone who hasn’t met her, is one of the sweetest, kindest, most genuine people you could ever want to know. Beneath that sweetly innocent exterior lies a closet vixen, a woman who can mix it up with romances that are emotionally and sensually fueled.
Janice writes seductive “sweeter” romances under her own name and more erotic tales as Elizabeth Scott .

Janice’s most recent release is an anthology titled IMPROPER ETIQUETTE, and it is wonderfully fun. The three stories in this anthology center around three woman who heed the advice they find in an antique lover’s handbook written by the very cheeky Miss Matilda. Here is my review:
When Francesca Fremont takes a meal to her new neighbor to welcome him to the neighborhood, they don’t exactly get off on the right foot. Despite their disastrous introduction, Francesca catches the eye of Brett Gilman. Brett has moved into the old fixer upper just to catch some breathing room from scandal that has his life in a shambles. It isn’t long before Francesca takes the sage advice of Miss Matilda’s writings and sets out to seduce Brett. The two are soon heating up the kitchen and every other room in the house.
Lily Lanford has her own guy to snag and she decides that Miss Matilda’s advice to play it cool might be just what it takes to heat things up with her neighbor, Ben Reynolds. Lily and Ben are very good friends and while Lily wants more, Ben seems oblivious. Lily decides to take a clue from Miss Matilda and play hard to get, and it isn’t long before Ben finds Lily simply irresistible and he wants to be more than just her next-door neighbor. Caitlyn Anderson is thrilled at the opportunity to serve on a mayoral-appointed committee whose purpose is the improvement of impoverished neighborhoods in her city. Duke Yancey is also serving on the committee. While the two are both hard-working, highly successful business owners, the similarity ends there. Caitlyn is poised and serious, a lady through and through, and Duke is a born ladies’ man, smooth, suave, and rarely serious, which thoroughly chafes Caitlyn. When these two get together, the fun – and the passion – are ever so sweet.
If you like romance with characters that are successful and sweet, and passions that are sizzling with depth, then this anthology is for you! I give it a high recommendation and hope that you’ll be tempted to get your own copy!

Thanks for stopping!

Laurie

ROMANCING THE BLOG

I'm the columnist at Romancing the Blog today - please stop by! http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/

Various and Sundry . . .

Still no word from Minna about her HARD AND FAST win - I've decided that if I don't hear from her by Friday, I'll draw another winner. Barbara's copy is going out in today's mail.

Coming soon, I promise, will be reviews and conversation about Janice Maynard's IMPROPER ETIQUETTE and Sasha White's TROUBLE. Sasha had sent me a pdf version of TROUBLE, but I've just been given a copy for Romance Junkies review, so now my review has to clear an editor, and my editor is on vacation, so I need to find another editor, and so on. I'm working on pulling them together, I swear! I will say this - both are excellent reads - and also note that TROUBLE just released yesterday, and we all know how important those first week sales are to an author, so brave the heat and get out there to buy them! Please. I also have a Romancing the Blog article due this weekend, so I've been working on it too. Maybe if I hadn't killed off so many of my brain cells back in the 70's I could work a little faster . . .

Laurie

Who's that lady?

Kelsey has band camp this week, every day 8 am-9 pm - very long, very hot days. The kids are going through lots of water. Each day this week there's a "theme" and today's theme was to dress like a celebrity - Kelsey went as Audrey Hepburn. So much fun! Tomorrow is college day, so she can wear her Ohio University (where her sister attends) shorts and shirt. I'll be attending parent band camp tomorrow night, where they'll try to guilt me into volunteering on every single sign-up sheet they have available. I'm kidding, mostly, as they will have lots of sign-up sheets, but I'm proud to say that I always do my fair share, so I'm not actually guilted into anything.

Have a great day, everyone, and stay cool - remember to check on your elderly or disabled neighbors during these hot days of summer. We're under a heat advisory today and tomorrow -the heat index now, at 11:20 pm, is still 92 degrees - that's just plain crazy.

Laurie

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .

BARBARA and MINNA!! Please email me at ljodamron@gmail.com with your mailing addys, ok? Thanks so very much to everyone who stopped by and entered the contest! Lisa and I both truly appreciate your interest. I hope you'll all run out and get a copy of this wonderful book!
Thank you, Lisa, for so generously providing a copy of this book for the contest!
I hope everyone has a great week.
Thanks again,
Laurie

HARD AND FAST by Lisa Renee Jones - and a CONTEST!!

I have followed the writing career of Lisa Renee Jones http://www.lisareneejones.com/ almost from the very beginning. Many of the first ebooks I devoured were Lisa's and I'm thrilled to have witnessed her career skyrocket. HARD AND FAST is Lisa's first Blaze and is now available - here's the back cover blurb:

For Amanda Wright—new reporter on the pro baseball block—this rule is harder to keep than she had thought. Especially with the team's star pitcher, gorgeous Brad Rogers, sending signals her libido can't possibly miss. How can she indulge her craving for Brad and still prove she can play with the big-league journalists?
From their first illicit kiss, their private ball games lead to delicious pleasure. Then she discovers Brad is hiding a big secret that could make her career—or blow his. And suddenly she has to choose: the best story of her life… or the best sex!

I've read HARD AND FAST and adored it - Lisa has written characters who are intelligent, caring and sensitive, both with very definite ideas about what they want for themselves, now and into the future. Neither is looking for love, and isn't that always when it hits you the hardest? Fun baseball scenes and locker room talk are excellently incorporated into this book and it will especially make for fun summer reading while you watch the boys of summer on television! Add all of that together with an abundance of deliciously passionate romance and you have a beautifully crafted love story - a home run, so to speak!
Lisa has an exciting incentive for readers who buy HARD AND FAST - if you contact her lisarenjones@aol.com about submitting your sales receipt, from either brick and mortar stores or online stores, she will in return send you either an EC print book or a Secrets volume (maybe some other goodies as well) as a thank you. How great is that?? Please keep in mind that first week sales are extremely important to an author, so act fast and get your own copy.
Lisa is very generously offering an autographed copy of HARD AND FAST and I'm offering an unsigned copy as well, right here! Many of you already know that my contests are very simple and always easy (tell me I didn't just hear someone say "just like her" lol) You comment here that you're interested in winning a book and you're entered. Invite a friend to visit and when they also express an interest in winning and they're entered - if they mention that you sent them over, you'll get a second entry. The more friends who mention your name, the more times you'll be entered to win.
I'll draw the names of the two winners on Monday, August 6th at approximately 9:00 p.m. (Eastern).
I hope you'll check out HARD AND FAST as well as Lisa's upcoming releases, EXCLUSIVE, an anthology with Eden Bradley and Jaci Burton, releasing in September '07 from Berkley Heat and her Silhouette Nocturne, THE BEAST WITHIN, available in November '07. I would ask that you keep in mind that THE BEAST WITHIN is NOT a western historical, something Lisa fears readers may think after seeing the cowboy on the cover.
Thanks so much for stopping by - click the link below to take a quick trip to Amazon to order your copy of HARD AND FAST!
Laurie
http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Harlequin-Blaze-Renee-Jones/dp/037379343X/ref=sr_1_1/104-1683269-9826358?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185974497&sr=1-1