Melani Blazer

The flu bug bit me. Musta been why I felt like I’d been run over with an eighteen wheeler late yesterday.

On a good note, I’ve been able to type in more handwritten stuff, so far I’ve deleted only a teensy tiny bit that was repetitive and I’m almost 1/4 of the way done with this book.

Angie wrote a refreshing post at Romancing the Blog–deviating from all the hoopla that’s going on an any given day in the romance-blog world and talking about why she–and the rest of us–love to read a romance. (It’s not genre specific, so if you have an opinion, stop in and say so!)

Dear Author has a post about E-books that has made me think a lot in the last 24 hours or so. (maybe it was the flu coming on, I dunno), but in a nutshell, it talks about the….concept of e-book branding as a whole and how many share Jane’s way of thinking when she says:

I admit that while there are many e-publishers out there, I mainly identify epublishing with erotic romance.

Hopefully this post will make others aware of some great non-erotic reads at various e-book publishing houses.

I wish my head were clearer so I could easily voice my opinion, but these flu meds really fog the senses. I just think it’s a circle. Erotic is buzzed about, more authors and publishers jump on board, it becomes more popular. Authors talk, realize pushing the limit might help sales, even more erotic goes out. Word gets out menage is the “it” thing, wham, publishers and authors feed the mass’s demands. Supply and demand and all that jazz. Isn’t it similar to the way paranormal became so widely popular and historicals waned? What happened to chick-lit? Not to say I think erotic is gonna go anywhere. I think once you open the bedroom door, you can’t exactly close it. Right now I think the focus [of e-publishers and non-erotic authors] is/should be to educate readers about their non-erotic offerings and break the branding or stereotyping or whatever you want to call it.

Okay, enough medicated babble for one afternoon. I might try a nap.

And the winners are:
Sheila, Jodi S, Teoh, Ana Lisa, Deborah, Shuck Ying, Little Lamb Lost, Robin, Zara and Cathie! You will each get a deck of cards. I will be emailing you to get your snail mail addy.

Additionally, the left over names (remember, you could enter more than once!) were tossed into a pile and 2 names were drawn for a download from any of my backlist (any publisher)… those winners are: Wilma and Sheila

Finally, I’m sending a print copy of one of my books out to Valerie. Again, I’ll be emailing you for your address and choice of book.

thank you all for playing along!

That’s my mantra for the day.

I’m writing this… actiony, guns and…fighting and well, without giving away too much of the story, it’s one of those in which the plot threatens to become some giant, mutant pacman and gobble up all the allocated word count without letting me get in much more than a kiss and hint of the romance to come.

But it never comes.

This has made me think about a couple of things. Don’t mind my rambling or seemingly unconnected thoughts here, I *Am* still on cold meds…
(more…)

Have you heard about the Ellora’s Cave card decks? They were handed out at the recent Romantic Times conference, but if you didn’t get a chance to grab a deck, don’t worry, you can get one here!

The details (and more will be updated soon, including a pic!) are here.

Comment, comment, comment!

Win, win, win!

easy?

I’ve been reading a lot, writing little, at least where blogs are concerned. There’s been an interesting array of posts about the RT convention, and some…fiery blogs about RT itself. I’ve refrained from adding even one cent in the mix of this, and the more I read, the more I realize sometimes it’s better to remain silent.

My life is rather routine these days, working, writing, occasionally eating and sleeping . Yesterday we got out of town for a bit and took my mother in law to Build a Bear. It was her idea, and the bonus was that mothers at B-A-B got a special gift including $5 off $25 purchase at Borders. SHOPPING!

I picked up #6 in a series where I don’t have #4 yet. Looks like I’ll have to get that from Amazon, because I cannot find it anywhere! Grrr.

Today the family took a walk through a local county park. I took pictures and we talked about how we’d love to have acres of woods and build a cabin right in the middle. All the creature comforts of course, but a lovely hammock in the back sounds divine. Much better than living on a busy city corner. Bleh.

Okay, I’m heading back to writing.

Looks like everyone had the same idea.

Mandy’s got her blog up and running smoothly. She amazes me with her ability with art. That blog rocks.

Then Michelle Pillow took the plunge. Hers is pretty damn cool too, but if you’re visiting using Firefox, her smileys aren’t clickable. They work fine in IE and I’ve gone over it a few times, but can’t figure it out, so if someone has a clue what’s up, get in touch with Michelle about it.

Then Angie got brave (I think it was the cold meds making her feel like superman superwoman) and upgraded. Her new blog is different but the same, and I like it more every time I visit it.

I ended up adding a few more smileys. Damn, I’m a sucker for them.

I have typed in about a thousand more words on my WIP and caught up with all my handwritten pages. I’ve wandered off from the synopsis I’d originally written, so I need to go back and re-outline (not formally synopsize this time). Just not sure if I should do that now or keep on writing. Sigh. (wait… I got a smiley to do that for me. No I don’t. Geesh, must go find a sigh smiley!) (Just kidding, not going there again today)

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

Oh, no, nothing bad, other than tweaking it and adding smilies and stuff is ADDICTING!

Mandy Roth decided to take the plunge. She’s so web savvy anyway, it was a piece of cake to get herself up and running. She had the entire template re-freaked while I added her smilies and made them show up on the comment page. Yee haw. She tried to give me credit, but that woman is amazing with a website. Damn.

She’s doing a really cool feature on marketing, so why don’t you stop over there and say HI!

I couldn’t help myself, and I got a few new smilies, too. Have fun with them. (And if you want any, feel free to help yourself!)

Off to write,
~Mel

It’s been my goal for awhile to update my book pages–and I’ve sorta started the process. As with most of us who have control over our own website, I’m sure I’ll fiddle with it more later.

So far I’ve updated SeXTC and Hot Rod Heaven’s pages. I still have another excerpt to tease you with for Hot Rod Heaven which I still need to figure out how to add, but…. feel free to tell me what you think.

Cheers!
~Mel

Emma Porter aka Wax to us who knew her way back when, is celebrating today. Stop at her blog and say hello!

Also, there’s a special celebration going on at Mandy Roth’s blog–the whole theme has changed to help mark this event. Please stop and sing Happy Birthday to Barbie Mandy! Maybe I’ll give her her template back tomorrow…..

I kinda like it though…. a few more flowers and hearts and it’ll be perfect.

Just in….Jaci Burton’s Blog has been Hijacked…

Take a look!

Go here to help Jaci regain control of her blog—and her smilies!!!