HelenKay Dimon

I mentioned my huge stash of new books courtesy of Wendy and a few publishers. Sue A. joked about me sharing the wealth. Well, seemed like a good idea to me, so… Want a free book? Before you get too excited, you need to know there are conditions associated with getting this free book. They go like this:

1. You have to post about the book on your blog or mine, including information about the book, the cover, links to buy it and to the author, and some editorial comment by you. This “comment” can be a review, can be a bit on why you wanted this book/like this author/what you thought about the book, or something along those lines. You don’t have to love the book. You just need to talk about it and the author who wrote it.

2. You need to email me (hkdimon@gmail.com) and let me know what kind of romance books you like (vampires, historicals, etc) and where you plan to post your book info (ie, on your blog or mine). I’ll send you the list of books. You can pick from there, and we’ll go until the books are gone.

I’m making you work for it not because I’m mean – no, I’m not – but because the books are free and I want the authors to get some benefit out of the fact you have it and didn’t pay for it. The books I’m giving away are ones of which I have multiple copies. As a result, that extra copy is just that – extra. I hate for books to go to waste. And, with a May 15th deadline and a September 15th deadline, I couldn’t possible read all of these books and review them. Deadlines or not, getting through all of these in a timely manner would be tough. So, I’m seeking your help. And, really, your job is easy. You get a free book mailed to you and all you have to do is give it (and the author) a bit of air time.

A few disclaimers:

-Meljean’s point is a good one. To the extent the book is an ARC, that means it’s uncorrected. It further means that commenting on typos is not helpful since, hopefully, all of those were caught in the editing process and are not in the final version.

-I haven’t read a single one of these books yet, so I have no idea if you’ll like them. You are allowed not to like them. You are allowed to say you don’t like them. Honesty is good. Being crappy is bad, so try not to take personal shots at the authors if the book makes you crazed. With that being said, I won’t edit what you say. This is your show, not mine.

-If you are here via one of those online sweepstakes sites, you are not eligible. Sorry, but this is not about getting something free just for the sake of getting something free. I can tell if that’s how you get here. Don’t bother.

-If you get a book, you must post. If you don’t you’re banned. I’ve never banned anyone from my website in my life (except the spammers), but I’ll ban you if you get the book and don’t follow through. Yeah, yeah, yeah, things come up. I know all that. No one understands that better than I do. I’m not talking about that. I’m really directing this at the folks who collect free stuff and run. That’s not cool. The giveaway has a simple rule, so follow it.

-Please don’t sell your free ARC on ebay. Please. That’s just not cool.

The rest is up to you.

I visited Wendy yesterday. In addition to shopping, eating…and more eating, I got a big box of books. See, ever since my move to California I’ve had trouble getting books and ARCs from publishers for review on PBR. By “having trouble” I mean it’s not happening. The good news is that Wendy continues to receive books with abandon. Being the awesome chick she is, she stockpiled a bunch for me. And by “bunch” I mean about 50. I am a happy woman today.

Thought I’d go ahead and highlight some of the books in my big pile. Here is a random selection – you know, so you can be jealous of my haul.

*BAD GIRL BRIDESMAIDS by Susanna Carr
*GIDEON by Jacquelyn Frank
*DEMON MOON by Meljean Brook
*HUNTER’S: SALVATION and HUNTER’S: HEART AND SOUL by Shiloh Walker
*NIGHT LOST by Lynn Viehl
*PARALLEL SEDUCTION by Deidre Knight
*BLED DRY by Erin McCarthy
*SIMON SAYS by Lori Foster
*ATLANTIS RISING by Alyssa Day
*DANCING SHOES AND HONKY TONK BLUES by LuAnn McLane
*MOON AWAKENING by Lucy Monroe
*VOYEUR by Lacey Alexander – who I think is also Toni Blake

And about 30 others. Where oh where do I start…

I’m blogging over at Access Romance today talking about the loss of my May edition of the Romantic Times magazine. Stop by and say hello.

Somehow I’ve fallen behind in my book buying. I hate that. There’s a whole list of books I want to buy…and stack on my TBR pile. The reading will need to wait. Yeah, for some reason the act of purchasing gives me joy.

My lack of book buying hit home while paging through this month’s RT. There were so many books that caused an “I want that” response. Many were follow-ups to books I read before. Some were new. Then I headed over to B&N to check out the Hourly Top Ten lists. To the extent I wasn’t clear on how far behind I am in my book buying, the online experience drove the point home. I have almost none of these. Okay, I have none of the books on the contemporary romance top ten list – and I would like to point out that some of these seem to be in the wrong category:

1. HOT STUFF by Janet Evanovich, Leanne Banks
2. ABSOLUTE FEAR by Lisa Jackson
3. LAST OF THE RED-HOT VAMPIRES by Katie MacAlister
4. TAKE ME by Bella Andre
5. OBSESSION by Karen Robards
6. HIGH NOON by Nora Roberts
7. SISTERS by Danielle Steel
8. FEAR NO EVIL by Allison Brennan
9. DOUBLE TAKE by Catherine Coulter
10. WHEN I FALL IN LOVE by Lynn Kurland

In case you’re wondering, there are top ten lists for anthologies, gothics and historicals too. Have a few of those but not many. time to go book shopping.

Today is one of those days. It’s overcast and rainy (drizzling only). For San Diego, that’s a major weather event. Lack of sun is an odd thing here. It’s also a motivation killer. Makes me want to curl up on the couch and take a nap. Since I’ve only been up for about two hours, and since I have a great deal of writing to do, the nap thing isn’t going to happen. So, I must resort to my get-off-the-couch-and-back-to-writing plan. This includes running to Starbucks for a caffeine drink loaded with enough non-caffeine (ie all sugar) stuff to make it taste like something other than coffee, setting aside time to lounge on the couch and/or play online and forcing those fingers to the keyboard at the end of the lounging time – otherwise known as the drop-dead deadline time. Today the drop-dead deadline time is 10:30am.

I can’t be alone in this, right? Other folks do the whole thing where they make a deal with themselves that includes a bit of slack now in exchange for lots of work later…right? I’d just like to think that I’m not the only one who has to engage in internal warfare before I can get started writing some days.

For those who celebrate the religious aspects and those who just love bunnies…Happy Easter!

I have found what I believe to be a fine weekend book. It’s A Perfect Mess by by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. The tagline is: “The Hidden Benefits of Disorder–How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place” and, really, how great does that sound.

The publisher website says this:

With a spectacular array of true stories and case studies of the hidden benefits of mess,A Perfect Mess overturns the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, organization, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, coauthors Abrahmson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones.

Finally we have proof that my yellow sticky note addiction is a good thing.

Last year I started reading a few new authors who were starting paranormal/urban fantasy series. The most obvious is JR Ward. I read her, continue to and will into the future. But, there are others. I thought this might be a good time to highlight one or two…okay, three.

Kerrelyn Sparks’ series started with How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire. It was one of those books that came out of nowhere and landed on the bestseller lists. The upcoming installment is Be Still My Vampire Heart just hit the shelves. The cover sets a very different tone than the ones that went before, but I like it. I haven’t tracked it down yet, but I will.

You have to love a werewolf heroine named Kitty. Well, I do. The Kitty in question lives in Carrie Vaughn’s series. This one started with Kitty and the Midnight Hour. The third book, Kitty Takes a Holiday, comes out this month.

Tate Hallaway is an author I picked up because I liked the cover to her first book, Tall, Dark and Dead. It had that cartoon look, and there aren’t many of those right now. Being a bit different from all of the photo covers out there at the time, it caught my attention. Hallaway’s voice kept me reading. Her newest comes out in May. It’s called Dead Sexy.

If you like a more serious tone, try Carrie Vaughn. Kerrelyn Sparks’ books are lighter. Tate Hallaway’s have a chick lit feel. All are very good. Give ‘em a shot if you haven’t tried them already.

The title of Stephen King’s article on the back page of this week’s Entertainment Weekly is How To Bury A Book. Sounded like a scary thing, so I read what King had to say. Basically, he came across this book Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski. He loved it. He then went on to express his frustration over the fact most people would not read it or ever know about it. Of course, as with the titles he promoted in the past, the sales numbers on B&N and Amazon soared after King gave the book his blessing.

His overall point – I think – was that book sales were down because of: (1) critics and their “stubborn insistence” that popular fiction and literature are two different things; and (2) publishers who have “bought into this elitist twaddle…” At this point I thought King would go down the literary fiction versus popular fiction road. Instead, he confused the bejesus out of me and started talking about bad covers and bad titles. In his view, Fieldwork suffers from both. Now, what covers and the anti-popular fiction sentiment have in common was lost on me. Honestly, he seemed to start at one point then flip to another. I didn’t follow.

However, I do think King is right that bad titles and bad covers have an impact. I’ve seen some covers and had the “what the hell is that supposed to be” reaction. Not to pick on ebooks, but there’s one publisher where the covers are so awful (in my view) that I’ve never even considered trying one of the titles. I know that stinks for the authors, but there are a lot of choices out there and only so much time and money. If I’m going to try a new author – and I do that all the time – there has to be something that drags me in. Sometimes it’s the cover. Many times it’s because I saw the book somewhere or someone recommended it. Other times it’s sitting on the table in front of me, I pick it up and like the back cover copy, and off it goes with me to the cash register. Give me a blend-into-the-background cover and I’m more likely to pass it over.

King asks at one point: “Why. why, why would a company publish a book this good then practically demand that people not read it?” A valid question and one not limited to bad covers and titles.

I’m over at the Brava Authors Blog today. We’re celebrating the addition of the newest Brava Author – Cynthia Eden. Come over and say hello.

On an unrelated topic…Huge congrats to the winner of my March website contest: Li. Email me with your address. Also, there’s a new contest for April. Don’t forget to check it out.