HelenKay Dimon

While I was gone, some folks published fabulous reviews of my new release, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. Here’s a little taste.

From Fresh Fiction:

“A fun and fiery hot tale of dealing with deception to reach an honest relationship… fresh, fast and alive all the way through.”

From Romance Reader At Heart where RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW was named a Top Pick!!:

“Fast-paced, fun, and even zany in parts with all the lies and secret identities, it was a definite sit-through-and–finish-it novel.”

Thank you to the reviewers and to all who have purchased and pre-ordered RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. I hope you enjoy it.

I’ve been quiet because I haven’t been here. For the last few days, I’ve been enjoying the sun and beauty of Hawaii. This trip was to Oahu to accompany my hubby on a business trip, to visit my in-laws and for general vacation fun. It also had a work purpose. I’m writing Josh’s story (DEA agent and best friend of hero in YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY). Josh’s book goes back and forth between two Hawaiian islands – Kauai and Oahu. In addition to the trip being a most excellent tax write-off, it was extremely helpful with this book. Just being there made the story come together in my head. I love when that happens. Now that I’m back, I can take all of my notes and get back to writing.

Hope you all had a great few days too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

In honor of the (Hallmark) holiday, my Valenduckie post (still don’t know exactly what that means) is up at Sybil’s blog, The Good, The Bad and The Unread. Check it out. There’s a surprise there…

First, some news: YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY will be released as a mass market paperback in March 2009. I don’t have many details, but I’m pretty thrilled with that tidbit.

Now for the reminders…

All About Romance is holding its Annual Reader’s Poll. This is your last week to vote. You have until the 17th to give your responses…and notice the last nominee in the Contemporary Romance category [ahem].

The winner of the Brava Novella Contest is posted. Brava Editor Kate Duffy picked her favorite. The Readers chose theirs. Go check out all of the entries.

Sybil is hosting a Valenduckie Event – and I don’t know exactly what that means, so don’t ask me. My romance story will post there at some point over the next few days. Wait for it.

Does anyone watch Murder By The Book on Tru TV (formerly Court TV)? Mystery/suspense writers introduce the true crime cases that intrigued them. The style of the show is much like 48 Hours with documentary footage and interviews, but with bestselling authors presenting the cases. The Kellermans, Lee Child, Harlan Coben – they’ve all hosted an episode. I think Lisa Gardner and Sandra Brown have episodes coming up this season.

The most interesting episode was a re-run I just watched with James Ellroy presenting. The true crime case he highlights is his mother’s unsolved murder. This is not exactly new. He has talked about his mother’s murder and used pieces of his life in his books and wrote a book called My Dark Places which deals with her death and his life. But, at the beginning of the show, he talks about how he has traded on his mom’s murder to further his career and how he will not do so any longer. He also talks about how the murder shaped him and the very negative light in which he saw his mother. He’s pretty cold and clinical. Even talks about how, as a boy, he was relieved by the murder.

In an interview about the episode, Ellroy says this:

You wrote about your mother’s murder in My Dark Places. You’ve explored it through fiction with The Black Dahlia. You’ve talked about it in numerous interviews, including this one. In Murder by the Book, you say explicitly that this is the last time you will address the case in a public forum. Why?

I’m enjoying talking to you now, but underneath it all, it’s deadening. Virtually every piece ever written about me brings to light again the story of my mother’s murder. It’s not like I wake up every morning and go, “Boo hoo hoo, my mom was whacked; boo hoo hoo hoo.” She haunts me in odd and unfathomable ways. She’s… there. The show [Murder by the Book] airs Monday night. Then it’s over.

If you’re interested in mystery, writing or true crime, try to watch this one. It’s an interesting study in the aftermath of murder.

Romance novels made the news again. Gawker posted a cover of Alison Kent’s new anthology Tex Appeal with the headline, A Festival Of Bodice-Ripping. Gawker got its news from Reuters. The Reuters article is, Mills & Boon: 30,000 Kisses And Steamier Than Ever.

One of the points of the Reuters article, as you might have guessed, is that romance novels have gotten increasingly more explicit. My favorite paragraph is this one:

Today, nearly all Mills and Boon books have explicit sex scenes. In some, such as the “Blaze” series, they can run to six or seven pages, complete with whipped cream, handcuffs and robust, four-letter Anglo-Saxon words.

Must run off and add some four-letter Anglo-Saxon words to the book I’m writing…

I just read a story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning about a 48 year-old woman who is in jail for helping a 27 year-old convict escape. First of all, the woman looks about 60, but that’s probably not relevant to the story. Her name is Toby Phalen Young. She has grown kids and had been married forever when she hatched this plan. This is one of those but-the-convict-understands-me stories. She sounds like a good-hearted, kind of naive, person. Well, up until the point where she shoved the felon in a box, packed him in her van and drove him out of the prison gates. That probably knocked some of that innocence out of her. But I digress…

There probably is something perversely romantic about a woman doing charity work in a prison who then finds happiness in the arms of a young misunderstood felon. I don’t really get that part. But I do get her. She came from a strict never-complain background, never did anything wrong, lived the life she was supposed to live and seems to have been suffering from depression when this event occurred. None of that is an excuse, mind you. I’m pretty big on people taking personal responsibility for their actions, so I’m not justifying her behavior. But I do think this sort of dysfunctional emotional state is interesting from a writer’s perspective. It’s helpful to look at a circumstance such as this and try to figure out why it happened so that when I write my characters I can make them a bit more real.

For those wanting to know the ending…it’s not happy. They got caught. The felon took guns during a brief stop on the getaway, which made the entire situation worse. Her husband divorced her. Her kids won’t talk to her. Her father died and her mother thinks the escape and jail term hastened his death. She is serving 27 months. The young dude, who was already serving a life sentence because an accomplice shot and killed someone during a carjacking, got 10 years added to his sentence. The young felon insists the escape was worth it because he fell in love.

She loved him. He says he loved her. Love is a wacky thing.

Fellow Brava author Karen Kelley is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. She’s funny, a bit kooky and great fun. She’s also a talented writer. Her newest book is COSMIC SEX - and how is that for a title. As you can probably tell, this one is a bit…otherworldly. The cover copy goes like this:

Kia can’t imagine why her cousin Mala left planet Nerak—utterly perfect in an ever-so-slightly boring kind of way—to go in search of Earth men. At least, not until she meets a virile, muscular human intent on rescuing her (how quaint!) from a bar brawl. And while at first Kia just wants undercover cop Nick Scericino to help locate her cousin…well, it would be a shame to come all this way without finding out whether everything really is bigger in Texas…

Nick knows trouble when he sees it. And right now, trouble is sitting at the bar—black-clad, sexy as hell, and about to mess up his sting operation to take down some Russian mobsters. Could she have mafia connections? Kia’s certainly not like any woman he’s known—flat out demanding sex, and following through with a sensational romp that leaves his mind blown and world rocked. Other options: a) she’s crazy, or b) she’s not kidding about being an alien. In which case, he’s in even deeper trouble. Because the only thing worse than falling wildly in lust with someone who’s not playing with a full holodeck is the thought that she’ll soon be leaving for a galaxy far, far away…

Not convinced yet? Well, try these reviews:

“COSMIC SEX continues the often hilarious, but always sexy, hijinks from the women of the planet Nerak….” — Kathy Samuels, Romance Reviews Today

“The comedy of errors, cameos by old characters and mind-blowing sex all add up to a great read.” — Jennifer Madsen, Romantic Times
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But why take their word for it. Comment here today about Karen, her books or anything relevant and you’ll be entered to win a copy of COSMIC SEX. The only catch – and, yes, there’s always a catch – is that you post a review/some comments on the book after you read it and within the next few weeks. You can do that on your own blog or on mine. I’ll pick a winner on Saturday morning. Good luck!

UPDATE: Thanks to all who participated. The winner is Laurie – congrats!!! Everyone else should go out and buy this one or another by Karen. I think you’ll love her style.

Super Tuesday is now over. Thanks to all who participated in the contest (and voted or intend to). The winner of an early copy of RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW is – Nicole!!!! Congrats.

To everyone else, check back tomorrow when I’ll have a contest by a fabulous writer and fellow Brava author.

It’s Super Tuesday. That means it’s Presidential Primary voting day for many of you out there, including me. I usually don’t talk about political things on my blog, but go vote. Really. GO. VOTE.

This is one of my hot-button issues. Drives me nuts that people don’t take a few minutes and vote. I will spare you the diatribe on your responsibility as a citizen and all that. Just go vote.

And to celebrate the fact you’re voting – and I know you are – I’m giving away a copy of RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW to someone who comments today.* The book comes out February 26th, but if you vote (if it’s Primary Day in your state) and comment here, you could win an early copy. I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday.

*This one is open to US folks only. Sorry. I’ll have a giveaway for everyone soon.