Barnes And Noble…I love you

(Cross posted to Down Under Divas)

You might read this title and think the reason I love Barnes and Noble is because last year, while in the States, my family and I spent a wonderful fall afternoon whiling away the hours in the B&N on 5th Ave in New York. We hadn’t intended to spend the afternoon there. We just popped in to look around and find a few books for the kids to read, and three hours later we found ourselves sitting in the coffee shop, all of us reading and enjoying a drink, with no thought about leaving anytime soon. Perhaps the afternoon was so enjoyable because we just don’t have book stores like that in Sydney anymore Not since Borders closed down. Now when I book shop I do it on the net. So an afternoon in my favorite kind of store, doing my favorite things was indeed a treat. Anyway, you may think that’s my reason for declaring my undying love for B&N, but you’d be wrong.

You also may think I appreciate this major bookstore because it provides competition for Amazon. Yep, I’m pretty unimpressed with Amazon at the moment. Now that they have all those millions of readers using Kindle, they seem to be having NO problem putting up the prices of their ebooks. Seriously, I never thought I’d say this, but it’s becoming too damn expensive to buy an ebook there. So yay B&N for having consistently lower prices. Now, if you could just import your Nooks and books here to Australia, I’d be ecstatic. However… no matter how ecstatic I’d be, this isn’t the reason I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with B&N.

No, the real reason I love this bookshop is because…Office Affair is flying out of their doors. Last week a miracle of kinds happened. Office Affair hit the B&N Nook bestseller list. Much to my stunned surprised, it crept into the Top 100. Hello? The top 100? That is freaking awesome. Some of my books have hit bestseller lists on Amazon, but I have never had a Top 100 on Nook.

Then something even more amazing happened. Office Affair hit the Top 25 at Nook. Um, hello? My book in the top 25? Not possible. Then…the IMPOSSIBLE happened. It hit the Top 15. May I just state that at this time I was unable to breath. In fact, since the book hit the Top 100, my lungs have been acting funny. I haven’t gotten an adequate breath of oxygen in a week.

Here’s the astounding part. Not only did Office Affair hit a high of No 12 on the site, it was also featured on the Nook Home Page…UNDER FREAKING BESTSELLERS!!! And that just blows my mind.

As I write this post, Office Affair is spending (what I suspect) is its last day (maybe even hour) on the home page. It’s fallen now to now 26. (Yeah, I refresh the darn page every hour. I am that obsessed.) But may I just say, this has been the ride of my life. I’m okay with not breathing properly, especially if this is the cause.

Thank you to Barnes And Noble Nook Books and thank you to all you readers who have bought the book. You have made me a very happy, albeit very teary, writer.

Jess

5 Angels and 2 bestseller lists!

Looks to me like 2010 has gotten off to a great start!

Why do I say this? Well…

One book has received a five Angel review, and another book has hit two bestseller lists. What more could a writer ask for?

(…she says calmly, pretending she’s not fainting from the excitement.)

Check this out…

A Question of Love was given Five Angels by Sandie over at Fallen Angel Reviews:

“It is obvious Ms. Dee writes from the heart and has the ability to live the story with her characters. The sexual tension steams up the pages, you can’t help but want them to work out their problem and find their happy ever after. If you want a story that will take you on the ride of your life A Question of Love is the one for you.”

And then Going All In has hit two bestseller lists:

My Bookstore and More:

Best Sellers:

• 1. Make Mine Midnight by Annmarie McKenna
• 2. Going All In by Jess Dee
• 3. With This Ring by T. A. Chase
• 4. The Bite of Silence by Mary Hughes
• 5. Undercover Lover by Charlene Teglia
• 6. Heidi and the Kaiser by Selena Kitt
• 7. Romeo for Hire by Jane Beckenham
• 8. Marshall’s Law by Denise A. Agnew
• 9. Merry Christmas, Paige by Mackenzie McKade
• 10. What She Deserves by Ellie Marvel

(What’s real nice about this list is that the first five books were all released on the same day, as part of Samhain’s New Year special.)

And then there’s a first for me. Going All In found a place (however temporary) on the Kindle bestseller list!

Yes, I have immortalized the page forever, and here is a snippet from said page:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #726 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Popular in this category: (What’s this?)

#97 in

Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Romance

AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

I am one happy camper writer.

Jess

Three’s Company!

Yep, it sure is. Especially when it’s the print books keeping me company.

Check it out:

They even keep the image on my computer company:

And… Photo Opportunity and Ask Adam are always happy to have more company:

Wahooo!

LOL, the UPS guy thought I was completely nuts. I was hollering and jumping all over the place, and all he needed was a simple signature. It took about five minutes for me to complete the task. Almost hugged and kissed the guy as well, but I thought perhaps that might have been overkill!

And – look at this:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in this category: (What’s this?)

#11 in

Books > Romance > Anthologies

This is what the sales rank at Amazon looked like at 12.33pm on the 27th of July. Holy cow. The book is not even available until the 4th of August!!!

Yes, you bet I’m happy dancing. With a crazy grin on my face. (Just wish Jayne and Lorelei were here to dance with me.)

Jess

Steve’s Story is a Bestseller!

Oh, yeah. I am ecstatic!

Steve’s Story is a bestseller at Samhain/MBaM

This is what the list looks like today, on the 3rd/4th May. (Depending on your time zone.)

Best Sellers:

• 1. Tooth and Claw by Annmarie McKenna
• 2. Terms of Surrender by Becky Barker
• 3. Steel Beauty by Dana Marie Bell
• 4. Trust the Moon by Jamie Craig
• 5. Circle of Friends: Steve’s Story by Jess Dee
• 6. Unleashed by Cherrie Lynn
• 7. Saddled by Delilah Devlin
• 8. Tempt Me Twice by Eden Bradley
• 9. Butterfly Tattoo by Deidre Knight
• 10. On His Knees by Beth Williamson

Jess

Spotlight on: Viv Arend

She’s taking the erotic romance world by storm. Two days after Viv Arend’s first release, Wolf Signs, was published she shot to number one on the MBaM Bestseller list. She’s in the process of climbing several other bestseller lists even as we talk.

Viv, while writing six new books, editing two and rewriting one, cooked up the idea of our exciting new blog, International Heat. She has a tireless amount of energy and an incredible, creative mind.

I love her to bits and she’s become a wonderful friend. Please welcome the amazing Viv!

Jess

A Whirlpool of Wolves (aka my head is spinning!)

Jumping in here and taking over Jess’ blog for a bit, because she said I could.

Hi- I’m Vivian Arend and my first book, Wolf Signs released this past Tuesday from Samhain Publishing. Yes, I’ll tell you a little about the book, but what I really want to talk about is Jess AND my writing.

I had no idea what I was doing when I started this adventure. I just wrote. I had a blast learning about my characters as the story progressed. My heroine, Robyn, is deaf. The hero, Keil, is an Alpha werewolf and the sidekick, his younger brother TJ, is a dangerous disaster waiting to happen. Once I finished the story and realized I –liked- writing, I knew I had to start improving my skills.

That’s where Jess came in. I emailed her out of the blue and bullied her into letting me see what a real author’s synopsis should look like. Why her? I had read everything she had written and loved her work. I had ‘met’ her online at the Samhain Café, our mutual publisher, and she sounded approachable. She sounded fun.

Holy Hannah, Jess is a hoot! She’s smart and witty and has taught me so much over the past six months. Not only how to write a synopsis, but a few other really important lessons and I wanted to share two of them with you.

The first is to write what you love. When I read Jess’ account of the story behind Only Tyler and Steve’s Story I was so inspired. Jess can write. She can write like nobody’s business and her characters are alive, the plot exciting and the sex… have ice on hand, that’s all I can say. As evidenced by the phenomenal success of A Question of Trust, she can write in the hottest of erotic romance genre and shine with the big boys. She could easily sit down and write what I’d hesitate to say were formula stories, aiming solely at the hot market genres. (I hesitate, because knowing Jess there would be nothing cookie cutter or generic about what she wrote, since she writes so damn well.)

But she needed to tell the stories of Tyler and Steve and Katie. They are real people with real issues. The skill Jess brings to her writing makes me long to meet these characters, long to sit down and give Katie a hug, Tyler a shake, Steve a kick in the pants… Jess has inspired me to write what I love, no matter what, because writing from the heart produces stories worth telling.

The second thing she’s taught me is to enjoy the journey. I was nervous heading into release day. What if no one wanted to read my book? What if… Jess held my hand, hit me upside the head and told me to hang on for the ride, it was going to be worth it. Jess was the one who posted at our writer’s blog, International Heat, to inform the world that Wolf Signs had hit the top of out publisher’s bestseller list. She tracked me down to let me know I was #2 at Books on Board and the featured release. Yes, I’m grinning from ear to ear and Jess has been bouncing up and down along side of me. I can’t explain how it touches me that someone I’ve never met in real life can be so excited for me.

And I guess that’s part of the magic. We’ve learned to spin worlds and stories to share with others and in the process we share a piece of ourselves.  There is something inside Jess that is bright and shiny and when she shares, it lights up everyone around her.

So I’ll leave you with the blurb from Wolf Signs, but also with a big hug to Jess for everything she’s been to me over the journey. The wolves are howling right now with great delight and approval.

Vivian Arend

Wolf Signs

Talk about getting your signals crossed…

Available from Samhain Publishing

Robyn Maxwell doesn’t care that her brother has to cancel out on their backcountry ski trip. She can do it alone. The fact she’s deaf doesn’t make her survival skills any weaker. The chance to get away from it all and relax in the Yukon wilderness is just what she’s been craving.

Meeting wilderness guide Keil at the cabin starts cravings of another kind. Keil’s one hot hunk of ripped, tasty male. Now she has to deal with raging hormones as well as strange questions about wolves and mates and challenges to the death.

Keil was trying for a nice reflective retreat before challenging for the Alpha position of his Alaskan pack. He wasn’t planning on meeting the woman destined to be his mate, or finding out she’s not aware she has the genes of a wolf.

Between dealing with his accident-prone younger brother, a deaf mate with an attitude and an impending duel to the death, his week—and his bed—is suddenly full.

Far from the relaxing getaway any of them had in mind…

Warning: Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘talking with your hands.’ Includes dangerous use of sarcasm and hot nookie in a remote wilderness sauna.

http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/shop/product.da/wolf-signs
http://vivarend.blogspot.com/

Insane Bestselling News

I’ve just heard the most insane yet exciting bestselling news.

Three’s Company (the print version of The Menage and More Anthology), which releases in August – that’s five months time – is now number 7 on Amazon’s Romance Anthology Bestseller list.

The list changes hourly, I know, but no 7! Even if it just for an hour. Wow. I am blown away.

Jess