Welcome Selena Illyria

I am delighted to introduce Selena Illyria to my blog. I won’t waste your time saying much about her, as she has more than adequately introduced herself in her bio below.

Enjoy getting to know Selena, and reading a tidbit of her very soon to be released work.

Jess…

SELENA ILLYRIA, GUEST BLOGGER

Hello everyone! My name is Selena Illyria. Jess was kind enough to allow me to high jack, no that’s not right, I mean, do a blog entry for her site. I’m so honored. Thank you so much Jess! *grin* okay, so let’s see . . . what can I talk about? Hmmm . . .paranormal? Travel? Vampires? How about all of them?

In, A Fling in Vampiropolis being released by Changeling Press, you get a combination of three. The story is about a woman who travels to one of the few all vampire cities in the U.S., Vampiropolis and has a fling with a local. I adore this book, it combines two things I love, vampires and travel. And now in this book you get both. This book was a joy to write, although, it demanded a lot of creativity from me.

After all I can’t just do research and look up Vampiropolis on Google, now can I? LOL, nope, wouldn’t that be scary if one actually existed? And to top it off, it was a city of Vamps? *Selena crosses fingers* Please let the mayor or head of office be hot, please, pretty please. LOL. What? If they kidnap me demanding to know how I found out about them, I’d like the person interrogating me to be hot and sexy and attracted to me. Wait! Hold that thought, story idea! *Selena scribbles down idea* Ha, okay I’m back.

One of the hardest things about creating the city was naming the places, streets and keeping it somewhat Gothic and Vamp related. But as the world in my mind morphed things changed and it was no longer just a Vamp theme, but I’m getting ahead of myself, waaaaay ahead. LOL.

One of my favorite places in Vampiropolis, is The Silver Stake Pub. It’s one of the places the heroine, Nevada Justice, goes to and meets the hero, Lucian Sandros. The atmosphere is fun and boisterous and I can tell you that the clientele is a great mix of people. The second place I love is Celia Simone’s Boutique, which we go to later in the story. Lida, the owner is just fun!

I can’t wait to share this world with you. A Fling in Vamiropolis comes out March 28th with Changeling Press. Here is the blurb, buy link and a little teaser:

Blurb:
Determined to have fun and relieve some of the stress from her job, Nevada Justice decides to take a vacation to one of the few all-vampire cities in the U.S., Vampiropolis. What she doesn’t count on is meeting vampire Lucian Sandros, having a hot steamy affair with him and developing feelings for him. After having a big fight with him on her last day in Vampiropolis, she thinks she’ll never see him again. What will she do when he comes to Normalville for her?

Buy Link
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=829

Teaser:
He pulled her close as the crowd in the pub increased. He lowered his head, putting his mouth near her ear. “Hold tight, don’t want you to get jostled.”
“You just want me to hang on to you.”
“That too.”
He laughed and she found herself biting her lip. His laugh was deep and rich, like a man who enjoyed life, reveled in it to be exact. She found herself loving his laugh, looking into his eyes which twinkled with mischief.
“Stick with me and I’ll show you how to have a good time, a really good time.”
“Really, you think you know what I like?”
“Oh, I do, mavro mou roda, more than you know.”
She held up a finger to which he bent his head and kissed it.
“Stop that and no reading my mind.”
“I don’t have to read your mind to know what you like and what you want, love.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why? Because you’re a man?”
“No, because I love women and know how to treat them.” Luc’s hands slid further down her waist.

And before I forget here are my bio and links:
Dear Reader,
In a man’s letters his soul lies naked.
- Samuel Johnson
I/R Author, Selena Illyria was born with need to write and an over active imagination. She loves to write stories featuring futuristic cities that can only be imagined, visit island kingdoms of vampire/dragons, giggle with mischievous pixies, peek in on faeries looking for their mates, check in on the naughty staff of an exclusive academy, and sigh over how in love a powerful business exec is with his wife. She can’t wait to write stories with her talented, creative and wonderful CPs Celia Kyle and Shara Cooper. And when she’s not writing, she loves to read many different genres of books. She also loves to watch some of her favorite movies (too many to be named) and televisions shows. She also, loves to listen to some of her favorite musical artists. All of these things help inspire her to write. She does believe in the quote above. She does believe that part of writing does bare a part of the soul.
If you’d like to know more about her, you, can visit the following places:
Website: www.selenaillyria.com
Blog: www.selenaillyriasthoughts.blogspot.com
My Space Page: www.myspace.com/selenaillyria
Selena Illyria Contributes to: www.pinkchairdiaries.com
You Can Email her at: selenaillyria826@gmail.com
So, reader, now that you’ve been told you a bit about her. Can she tempt you dear reader? Can she seduce you into her world and show you a bit of her soul? And if you’d like, you can show her a bit of yours. Do we have deal? Please ignore the wicked gleam in her eye, it was trick of the light. *smile*
Selena
P.S. The Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/selena-illyria-and-shara-coopers-seductive-secrets

Well, I gotta go for now, sending Hugs all around. Thank You so much for reading my Blog Day and Thank You with Big Hugs to Jess for allowing me to take over her blog for Day. *grin*

Selena

Yeehaa! Great news.

Circle of Four – Steve’s Story has just been accepted by Samhain Publishing.

Wooo hoooo. I am flying. Got the news yesterday, but didn’t want to post it until I had the contract in my hot little hands. Well, it’s here now, so I can celebrate.

Don’t think this came easy. I had to rewrite half the book. Jennifer (my editor) liked the original version, but didn’t love it. She thought I needed to tweak several parts. So boy, did I tweak. And apparently the tweaking went okay.

Only Tyler and Steve’s Story are officially part of Samhain now – together, where they should be.

Please, don’t think I didn’t have palpitations several times over the past month waiting for the news. Damn, the wait can kill you.

Oh, did I mention one major change? The books have been renamed. Crissy, (Samhain’s head honcho) felt that Circle of Three and Circle of Four were far too suggestive of menage-which this series does not contain. So, from here on, the series will be known as
Circle of Friends, and the books will be titled simply: Only Tyler and Steve’s Story.

Oh, um, did you say you wanted to read the blurb? Yep, well tiny prob with that. I don’t really have one yet. I haven’t managed to find the right punchy lines to describe the book. But I guess I will have to get onto it ASAP, just like I will also have to bang out some form of a synopsis. Aargh. They don’t call it the dreaded synopsis for nothing. Meanwhile, this is what is posted on my website. Perhaps it’s enough to give you a tiny teaser…

Three friends have survived the toughest of tests. Or so they thought. Can they overcome one final hurdle to ensure all of their future happiness?

Find out in the heart-wrenching completion of the Circle of Friend’s series—Steve’s Story.

Promise when I have a proper blurb, I will post it.

Jess

I’m in the Author Spotlight at Selena Illyria’s blog

I am very proud to tell you that Selena Illyria invited me to participate in her author spotlight feature at her blog.

Hop on over and check it out. I even posted an excerpt from Photo Opportunity there.

http://selenaillyriasthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/03/author-spotlight-jess-dee.html

Now I’m trying to convince Selena to come on over and blog at my place. I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully she’ll join me soon. Selena writes for Changeling Press, and her book, A Fling in Vampiropolis, is due for release on the 28th of March.

Jess

New review for Ask Adam

So, did I mention Marina at Cupid’s Library reviewed Ask Adam?

I think she liked it. Look at all those Cupids she awarded the book:

Cupid-Plot-Factor:

Cupid-Romance-Factor:

Not only did she give Ask Adam 10 Cupid’s, she also labelled the book a “Winner” AND “highly recommends” it.

Could I ask for anything more?

Cyber hugs going out to Marina for her lovely review. Thank you.

You can read the whole review at Cupid’s Library.

Jess

I’m spending money…

Nothing Stays in Vegas by Moira McTark $4.50 $4.05	Cowgirl Up and Ride by Lorelei James $5.50 $4.95	Erotic Research by Mari Carr $3.50 $3.15
Diving In Deep by K. A. Mitchell $4.50 $4.05	Leap of Faith by Arianna Hart $4.50 $4.05	Dark Sentinel by Melissa Lopez $5.50 $4.95

…Over at My Bookstore and More.

Have you seen these fantastic looking releases. Holy moly. You know me – a huge fan of red hot, erotic romance, and lookee what I found under the new release section. Don’t they look awesome? All of them! Probably blown my book budget for the month, but I think it’s worth.

Jess

Reader Appreciation Week

Reader Appreciation Week has officially begun. It runs from Monday, March 9th to Saturday, March 15th, in conjunction with
Read An E-Book Week, March 9-15, 2008. For more information please visit www.domokos.com/readebookweek.html .

To celebrate the wonderful world of e-books, and yes I think they are wonderful, Samhain Cafe are having a week long celebration.

Come on down and join the authors and readers as they chat about the Samhain books, post excerpts and run tons of lover-ly competetions.

I’ll be there, on Monday evening at 7pm, (CDT) or Tues morning, 10am (Sydney time)- and yes, I have a little competition too. For those of you who haven’t yet read Ask Adam, I’ll be posting a few excerpts. And as the re-release of Photo Opportunity looms ever closer, I will also be sneaking in a few teasers from this book.

Hope to see you there.

Jess

I’ve been telephone tagged

I’ve been tagged…

Grumble! Maggie Nash just tagged me. Grumble, grumble. I’m not a very good taggee. Now I have to figure out how to pay it forward.

Okay, so here’s the deal…

Did you ever play the game Telephone when you were a kid? It’s sometimes called Rumor or Gossip. You sit in a circle, the bigger the better.

The ring leader will tell a “secret” to one person. That person turns to the person on their left and whispers it. Each person hears the “secret” on one side and tells it on the other until it goes all the way around the circle. The last person says out loud what they were told, then the ring leader says what everyone started with. Most of the time it isn’t the same thing, and can be quite funny.

Using the power of the Internet, let’s give it a try.

I’m going to write a paragraph. Your job is to make a change. It can be as little as one word or as big as twenty words. You can change names, plot and setting, but don’t change it so much that we can’t tell how it relates to what Alice started with. Post your paragraph on your blog with a link to Alice’s post. She will link back to you. Then, pick three people to whom you will “whisper” your modified version. Let them know they are up next. Link to them and to the person who passed it to you (me).

Here is my paragraph for the three people I’m going to tag:

“Jocelyn and Will went up Cob Street to find a dry spot to sit in a dark alley. Jocelyn fell down and broke her bottle of home brew and asked Will to kiss her senseless. Will was happy to oblige Jocelyn’s innocent desire without further ado, but her kisses weren’t enough. He wanted more. Jocelyn woke up to herself and ran home.”

I’m whispering to Sami Lee, Caitlyn Nicholas and Sloane Taylor. You can still play this game even if I didn’t tag you. Anyone can play if you follow the rules. Come back in a month and see what happened to our little rumor.

~*~*~*~*~

The rules for this meme:

1. Change something in the paragraph you received; a minimum of 1 word, a maximum of 20 words.

2. Link to the post at http://aliceaudrey.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/alice-calling/ and leave a comment so we can keep track of what happens to the paragraph. Alice will link back to you.

3. Link to the person who tagged you, preferably to where ever they posted their version of the paragraph.

4. Tag three people you think might enjoy this game. Let them know they’ve been tagged. Link to them.

5. Include these rules in your post.

View Other Participants Here