Rinda Elliott's Blog, page 9

A few days ago on Twitter, Harlequin Books asked if we could remember our first contemporary romance. This was mine. And it wasn’t this actual book–though the story behind this one is kind of romantic.

I finished writing my first romance when my daughter was a toddler. We were snowed in most of a winter in northern Idaho–living in my parent’s basement. I know, it sounds crazy, right? But my husband and I had left a home in Virginia and it took a long time for that place to sell, so we couldn’t afford a place of our own. Being snowed in with the parents and a toddler who was completely obsessed with Disney’s Beauty and The Beast movie forced me to find my own fun. Books were pretty much my world outside of family. I read all the time. And that winter, I wrote my first book.

Oh, it was bad.

BAD.

It was this wordy conglomeration of every over-dramatic book I’d ever read. The melodrama!!! I still shudder when I think of it.

But I made a copy and mailed it to Harlequin because it was my dream to publish with them. I ended up getting a two page, single-spaced rejection letter that was really wonderful. I didn’t realize that it WAS actually a wonderful thing until years later when I was trying a lot harder to publish with them and saw er, a few form letters.

But back to that first book. I have a point. Promise. Like I said, I was always reading and one time I told my husband that I wished I hadn’t lost the very first romance I’d read. I told him the name and author and didn’t think anything of it.

Years later, we were living in yet another state and my husband was working a remodeling job. I’m not sure how the conversation came up, but the homeowner told my husband that his wife had boxes of romances in the attic and my husband was welcome to look through them.

He brought home this book.

Years after I told him I wished I had it, my husband went through boxes of paperbacks in someone’s hot attic to find it for me. That’s pretty romantic-don’t you think?

So, I still have it. And the husband.

And now I have published with Harlequin myself.  You should have seen my husband’s face when I got that call and turned to him to say, “FINALLY! I’m a Harlequin author!” There was whooping. And dancing. Maybe we should frame this book.

The books I have out with Harlequin Teen.

 

Yeah, this is kind of blatant. But if you really enjoyed my young adult books–even just one of them–it would be great if word on them spread. They aren’t on bookshelves, so word of mouth is pretty much it for these. Things you can do? Leave reviews at Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, etc. Tweet. Facebook. You can even vote “other” in things like this.https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SLXJ2G3

Here’s my new cover! It’s also my first romance type cover. Pretty, isn’t it? I’m sooo in love with the sign.

I did a live interview! Some of the questions stumped me a bit, but it was really fun to do. You can learn more about the process behind the Sisters of Fate, about what I have coming up and whether I’m team Edward or Jacob!  Go to the actual Youtube site to comment for a chance to win all three Sisters of Fate ebooks!

I just signed the contract, so I can announce. New books Coming!!!

In July, Raisonne Curse, will enter the world.

I placed my southern Gothic trilogy with an editor I knew would put her heart and soul into these books with me. Holly Atkinson at Samhain LOVES the area these books are set and she LOVES dark, Gothic romance stories like this.

I wrote a rough of this proposal before she became my editor on the Beri O’Dell books and had set it aside. But through conversations, I just had this feeling, you know? (Okay, her many trips to the area with lots of photos helped. ) So I asked my agent to send her the proposal and her response was AWESOME.

So, I’m announcing the sale of The Brothers Bernaux trilogy with Samhain Publishing. The first book is called Raisonne Curse. These are dark, sexy, paranormal romances set in the deep south about brothers who can break curses but at a great cost to themselves.  (Yeah, yeah, me and my sibling themes–but they are brothers this time!) Yes, they are a bit sexier than my Beri O’Dell books and of course, my young adult trilogy.

Here’s a sneak peek of the moment Elita Raisonne first sees Pryor–part of the proposal that snagged my editor’s interest.

____________________

The Bernaux brothers still lived in their eight-generation family plantation, deep in the bowels of the Atchafalaya Basin. Elita could have driven, but the fastest route was by water so she hitched a ride with her Ma’man’s latest man friend, Tooter, on his twenty foot fishing barge.

Tooter. Her grandmother was dating—or rather, having sex with —an old fisherman named Tooter. Elita couldn’t stop grinning about it.

The old man eyed her from underneath a baseball cap stained dark brown from the swamp. Long, scraggly salt and peppered hair stuck out from underneath the hat, blending in with the beard that ended mid-chest. His two boys, both in their early twenties already showed matching signs of gray. They welcomed her aboard but didn’t offer small talk.

A couple of miles down the marsh, Ma’man’s gumbo kicked in and Elita understood the old man’s nickname. She stayed upwind for a good hour, baking in the sun and hoping for stands of giant oaks for stolen moments of shade.

She pulled out her cell phone to try and find a number for the brothers, but frowned at the lack of signal bars. Stupid, cheap phone. Before she could put it back into her pocket, the boat abruptly slowed and her phone went flying. Right into the swamp.

“Sorry,” Tooter yelled.

He didn’t stop so she could find it. Would have been a pointless endeavor anyway. Once the swamp took something, it rarely gave it back.

Gritting her teeth, Elita eyed the approaching dock. Now that she was here, the craziness of her situation made her want to turn back around. What was she thinking just showing up at this house to ask for a hex removal?

Tooter brought the boat to a stop and his quiet boys both jumped onto the swaying pier and held out their hands to help her over. She smiled her thanks and turned to their father. “Do you mind waiting here a few minutes while I see if they’re here?”

“Pryor’s here. Always is.” Tooter tugged on the bill of his cap. “We’ll swing back by later and pick you up.”

His sons got back onto the boat and started untangling fishing line.

“Wait!” She stepped closer to the edge of the dock. “How much later?”

“Hours. Dropped folks off here ‘fore and un-hexin’ takes time.”

She frowned. “I don’t even know if this Pryor will help me.”

“He will.”

With that, Tooter restarted the noisy motor and steered the boat away. Elita stood, mouth hanging open. She was stuck. Thoroughly. Without even a cell phone to call for a damned cab.

She turned and looked at the old plantation, taking in the French colonial house built on brick pillars for floods. Small, leaning outbuildings dotted a gravel path that led all the way up to the Bernaux’s back door.  She knew one of the buildings had probably been a milk house, another a blacksmith. Two or three would have been slave houses. One sat pretty close to the pier. It had a nice, wide front porch with huge oaks shading the building. Wild honeysuckle dotted bushes to the sides.

This had been a hell of a place in its time.

From the looks of the scaffolding lining the back of the house, the brothers were restoring it. Fresh white paint covered a good fourth of the walls.

Walking up the path, Elita was breathing in the thick, citronella scent of magnolias when she tripped on a thick root that seemed to come out of nowhere. She hit the ground hard. Sun-scorched gravel bit into her palms and dug into her jean-clad knees. Crying out, she tried to sit up fast, to get her burning hands off the ground, and felt the pull along her wound just as something wet soaked the back of her T-shirt. She rolled onto the cooler grass. Reaching back, she felt along the four-inch stitched gash over her right kidney.

Blood covered her fingers when she brought her hand back around.

Gravel crunched and she looked up, then nearly swallowed her tongue when she saw the man headed her way. Long, lean and shirtless, he walked toward her with long strides. Sweat glistened on one of those ripped abdomens she’d only seen in movies, and colorful tattoos started on the right side of his chest, cupped his shoulder, and wrapped his muscled right arm. Chestnut hair, short and spiked, showed blonde highlights in the glaring sun. He wore small, dark sunglasses.

“Bienvenue chez nous.”

His voice, deep and melodious, sent the oddest shiver down her spine. Then she focused on his words. He’d said welcome home. Like she lived here, which was just weird. Or maybe it was welcome to our home, she wasn’t sure which. Surprise lifted her eyebrows. He was most definitely under forty—possibly younger than she—so the French was a shocker. The older people around here always peppered their speech with French, but the younger generation had mostly dropped the habit.

She held her breath. Watched the ripple of muscle in his jean-clad thighs as he moved with a lazy grace that stole the moisture from her mouth.

This man was walking, talking, bad boy sex and he strolled toward her with a crooked grin that let her know he already had corruption in mind.

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It is written that three Sisters of Fate have the power to change the world’s destiny. But only if they survive…

Kat Lockwood grew up listening to her unhinged mother’s stories about the Norse goddess souls she and her triplet sisters carry, about fiery deaths and a prophecy foretelling the world’s end. Now, to save that world, Kat must find a guy who hosts the soul of a Norse god–a warrior with the lightest blond hair and the darkest brown eyes.

But at a truck stop on her road trip, Kat freezes time while she writes out a cryptic message in runes. The only other person able to see this happen? A gorgeous guy with the lightest blond hair and the darkest brown eyes.

Kat’s not convinced peaceful Arun is the future warrior who will turn the tide in the final battle. Yet, Arun turns out to be a lot tougher than he seems. As soul-carrying teens and underworld creatures gather over the world’s deadliest volcano, Kat finds that no one, including her sisters and mother, is exactly who she thought they were…

Sisters of Fate The prophecy doesn’t lie: one is doomed to die.

The FFBC Blog tour begins! There is a lot of fun behind-the-scenes info about the Sisters of Fate books here. Links to pics that inspired characters and scenes. Music that inspired. Answers to questions like craziest research, etc. Also, you can win ALL THREE BOOKS in the trilogy!!! Feel free to share this post. All word of mouth helps. http://theunofficialaddictionbookfanclub.blogspot.com/2014/11/ffbc-blog-tour-welcome-to-club.html

Only 20 days to the release of FORESWORN, the third in my Sisters of Fate Trilogy! Early copies have gone out to some reviewers already and I’m keeping myself occupied so I don’t check for reviews. (Failing a bit at that one, but oh well. )


So, how about an excerpt?

—————-
We opted to leave the snowmobile in the clearing because four of us wouldn’t fit. Arun was sure he could find it later even though he said that thicket hadn’t existed before.

 

Walking in the slush left from the storm turned out to be the worst thing I’d ever tried to do. Every step in the wet, thick, glopping snow felt like the earth was trying to suck my feet inside. The brutal wind burrowed so fiercely, it crept under and through layers of clothing. And though I’d wrapped my scarf around my face, the cold seemed to have thickened in my lungs until every breath felt like it stabbed fat icicles into my chest.

 

I didn’t know if it was exhaustion or what, but the trees seemed to be throwing moving shadows onto the ground. Moving sinuous shadows that didn’t resemble any sort I’d ever seen. A dark foreboding filled me, and even my norn seemed to lock up in my chest as something suddenly felt very, very wrong. Looking up, I squinted at the full moon that threw light on the ground—though we didn’t need it. Not with Brigg.

 

But then I remembered what was wrong and jolted to a halt.

 

Nanna, Brigg and Arun all stopped with me and followed my gaze.

 

“I know,” Nanna said, her voice barely carrying over the arctic blast of wind coming through the valley. “It’s not supposed to look full right now.” She shivered and hefted her backpack higher. “I’m pretty sure that’s a bad, bad sign.”

 

“It’s not just the moon,” I said, waving them all closer, so I wouldn’t have to yell. Once the three of them were close enough, I had to swallow twice to dislodge the lump of terror thickening in my throat. And I still had to raise my voice over the wind. “I don’t think we’re alone out here anymore.”

 

They froze. Then, one by one, they each looked toward the woods around us. My heart beat so hard and loud, it competed with the roaring wind.

 

Slowly, Arun let his backpack slide off his shoulders. Nanna and Brigg did the same. Then they surprised me when they knelt and pulled out weapons. Actual weapons. Brigg held a dagger in each hand and my eyebrows lifted when I glimpsed the silver nunchucks in Nanna’s hands.

 

I stepped close to Arun. “I don’t suppose you have a sword in your pack?”

 

He shook his head, frowning as he peered into the woods. “I trained on one but didn’t bring it for this trip. I mean, who walks around with a sword on his hip?” He squinted before his eyes went wide.

 

I looked that direction and felt the world rumble underneath my feet as the shadows under the trees started to writhe and flow in ways that had nothing at all to do with natural shadows. One in particular sort of rippled as it moved from one tree to another. It had long legs and long arms and long hair that flowed around its shoulders just as it left the cover of the trees.

 

“Get ready to be blinded,” Nanna shouted as it seemed as if the forest exploded shadows.

 

Brigg, still gripping the two wicked-looking daggers, held out his hands and lowered his face. The light that burst from him made the creatures pouring out of the forest raise their hands to cover their eyes. They halted, some hissing, then slowly crept forward.

“Gods, look how they move,” I said as I knelt and began digging through the snow, looking for rocks…for anything. I wished we’d brought weapons and couldn’t imagine why we’d thought we wouldn’t need them. But then, never in all my wildest nightmares had I thought to see actual dark elves.



They were like us in that some were taller than others and their hair came in different shades, but their skin glimmered like polished black marble in the glow of Brigg’s scalding light. He closed his eyes, obviously concentrating, and more light spilled out of him.

I winced and shielded my own eyes just as my hand grasped something under the snow. I felt two somethings—right next to each other. I’d been looking for a rock or a heavy stick or anything I could fight with. What I pulled out of the snow made my skin crawl with electricity because there was no way this was coincidence.

Because I do have some who subscribe to this blog and I’m not sure how to set up a subscription to the one on my domain, I’m going to update both for a time until I figure it out. Some of you have been with me a long, long time and you have no idea how much I love that. The road to publication took me a long, long time, eh?  

So, I’m going to share some of the harder parts of this job today.

That road to publication for some of us takes years. And there are constant roadblocks thrown into the mix. And just when you feel that maybe you’re getting somewhere in this crazy career attempt, other things happen out of your control. Some really tough stuff happened this week and it made me consider whether I should keep working at this. Yes, writing is what I love and yes, it would be cool if I could do it for free, but I can’t. It’s my job. I put as much and sometimes more time into this as anyone does in any other job out there. Every writer I know does. There’s been many a night I’ve sent an email to my good friend, Karen Mahoney–who lives 6 hours away in England–to find her up in the middle of the night there working toward a deadline.

So yesterday, I posted that ARCs of FORESWORN went out. I have a handful of reviewers I trust not to put my books up on pirate sites and I’m hopeful that the new reviewers on this list won’t either. I have new bloggers on the list because of the upcoming blog tour I’m so excited about. I’m hoping to find new readers and very excited to have new bloggers interested in trying my work. (I’m certainly not saying I don’t trust most bloggers here, btw, because I actually do. Book bloggers do this because they love books! I’ve just worked with the ones on my list from nearly the beginning or was introduced to them by publishers. ) 

The time of book release is incredible. There are so many emotions authors go through. Excitement that a new book is coming out. Hope that it will sell well–every single book we release is a gamble. Nerves…what if fans are disappointed? We tell ourselves not to look at the reviews, but most of us do anyway because really, wouldn’t you want to know what someone says about your work?

But I will say that it broke my heart to see how many searches came here yesterday looking for free copies of FORESWORN. Yes, it thrills me that some are enjoying my books enough to come to my website, it does! But the books are easily available at a lot of places. Nearly all of those have them for under 3 dollars each.  I don’t think $5 is much to pay for a book, but $2.99 is a great price. And all 3 for less than 10 bucks? Most will fork that over for lunch and with books, you get a lot more enjoyment time (hopefully ) and the ability to reread. Trust me, it takes me a lot longer to write a book than to cook a lunch.

I understand that some can’t afford all the books they want. I can’t either. But I wait until I can because I know the incredible work that goes into the making of a book. I do try to support my favorite authors by buying directly from their publisher but when money is tight–which is the norm for most writers I know–or I want to check out a new author, I will also go to one of my favorite places to buy ebooks. All Romance or OmniLit. Authors still earn from these sales.

I truly don’t care where a reader buys my book. If you can get a great deal for it, I’M ALL FOR THAT. If you find legal copies to borrow at a library, I’M ALL FOR THAT TOO!

http://www.omnilit.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Rinda+Elliott

All my books are available there at OmniLit–with the exception of FORESWORN, which isn’t yet out–and you see how there is a rebate price next to Dweller and Blood? Yes, you pay full price up front for the book–not always, but you do with rebates–but Omnilit offers these rebates often. Sometimes, they are at 50% off. At that rate, you can buy a couple of books at full price and basically earn enough back to get a third for free. I buy books there a lot. Earlier this week, I had 15 dollars in rebate bucks built up. Yeah, yeah, I’ve already spent most of those. I read a lot. But I subscribe to their mailing list so I know when the rebate programs happen and I buy then. (They happen OFTEN.) Those rebate dollars build over time and it’s so cool to see a book you really want come out, check Omnilit, and realize you have enough to cover the book in your account. Plus, they take Paypal, offer all formats of ebooks and the best thing? If you have a Kindle, they have a “send to Kindle” button that emails your purchase directly to your Amazon account.

So, there are ways to save on book buying. Downloading illegal copies should never be an option. It will kill this business and it’s already forced so many authors to quit.

Here’s a wonderful article on what ebook piracy does to our business. The biggest difference for me?

So far, I’ve done all digital first publishing. This means, I do not earn advances. I only make money when a book sells. So you can imagine how hard it is to see so many of my books being downloaded illegally online.

http://www.deadlinedames.com/dame-for-a-day-jeaniene-frost/

FORESWORN, The final book in my Sisters of Fate trilogy, just went out to early reviewers. NERVES! This is my first time to publish the final in a series. OMG. NERVES!

(LOL, this is normal. I’ll be okay. )

It also went out to all the bloggers who signed up for the Fantastic Flying Book Club Tour that starts in a couple of weeks. I’m excited. It’s my first blog tour and I’ve already answered fun interview questions and did a post on the book’s soundtrack.

I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE DREAM CAST POST.

I’ve always wanted to see who readers would cast in my books. I actually was inspired by an actor to create Vanir in the first book. In the second and third, my inspirations were different. One unknown, that I kick myself for not saving the website I found him on so I could share since I don’t have rights to the pic I saved, and one model. Arun, the hero in FORESWORN is carrying the soul of Freyr, was inspired by the model. Freyr was reputed to be one of the most beautiful of gods after all. But I won’t share yet. I’d like to see how readers imagine him first. The post with the list of blogs that signed on for the tour should be going up soon and I’ll link.