BIG NEWS!

Sorry that it's been three months. I'm not the best blogger. I'm more a Tweeter as I've already said.

I did want to share my good news, though. For those of you who have been waiting for a sequel to "Dirty Business" your wait will be over on 2/1/11.

Tentatively titled "Business of Pleasure", it centers around Chloe's best friend, Carmen and Sean's best friend, Drew. They are explosive together! Carmen is sassy and sexual and Drew is sexy and reserved but oh, when you get him in the bedroom, he is a sexual dynamo!

This book is IR. Carmen is from the Dominican Republic and Sean is Caucasian.

For Sean and Chloe fans, you will get a bit more insight into their relationship. The story starts at their wedding. It makes me happy that they have their happy ending (Ha Ha).

Anyway, more updates when they come along. I probably won't blog for a while because now the edits begin.

Total Hotness Tuesday

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves...

MECHAD BROOKS

Dorchester to their Authors

The following was posted on one of the loops that I receive daily. The forwarder wishes to remain anonymous but she did say the many established authors have left Dorchester. Also, Dorchester did not say this e-mail was not to be forwarded. I'm just posting this now and I'll put my two cents in at a later time.

Dear Anonymous Author:

Don, Chris & I have been working to contact as many people as we could
before sending out a blanket announcement regarding some of the new format
changes many of you have already read about. Unfortunately, news broke
online before anticipated.

Given the many changes in the publishing industry over the last several
years, Dorchester has made the decision to more tightly focus its
distribution models so that we may fully capitalize on the most profitable
emerging technologies.

Starting with September titles, we will be moving from mass-market to trade
paperback format. This will delay new releases roughly 6-8 months, but it
will also open many new and more efficient sales channels.

And we're pleased to say all titles will be available in ebook format as
originally scheduled. The substantial growth we've seen in the digital
market in such a short period-combined with the decline of the mass-market
business-convinced us that we needed to fully focus our resources in this
segment sooner rather than later.

Dorchester has always been known as a company ahead of the curve and willing
to take risks. As bookstores are allocating the bulk of their capital to the
digital business, it only makes sense that we do the same. Everyone keeps
hearing that the industry has to change if it's going to survive. We're
excited to be at the forefront of that change and will continue to keep you
posted on further developments.

And to help answer some of the questions you might have:

When will my book be coming out?

Ebook editions will be out in the month the mass-market was originally
scheduled. The trade paperback will follow roughly 6-8 months after. We
have tentatively rescheduled many of the Sept.-Jan. titles through June or
July 2011. But we're still working on books scheduled farther out.

Why the delay?

Some of the delay will be in reformatting the typeset mass-market so that it
better fits a trade size. But most of the extra time is so that the sales
force we're working with will have a chance to sell books in to the
accounts. Just like mass-market, stores will be placing their orders about
4-6 months before the books are printed.

I read in an article that these are print-on-demand. Does that mean they
won't be offered to the general market?

We've partnered with Ingram Publishing Services, who will be selling in
books to libraries, Borders, B&N, Books a Million and all other retail and
wholesale accounts that we've called on previously. But by having many more
sales reps, we'll also be able to target accounts, such as many independent
stores, who have not ordered our books in the past. Just as for mass-market
books, stores will place their orders and we will print to fill them. Books
will be on the shelves for readers to browse. However, using
print-on-demand technology, we will not have to keep as many books in
inventory incurring warehousing fees. Books will be available for reorder
just as they are now, but we will only have to print as many copies as we
need instead of a minimum of 5000.

What happens to backlist titles?

We're currently in the process of changing warehouses, but once set,
reorders will continue as normal. When a book goes out of stock, we will
make the determination of whether to reprint-just as we do now. Reprints
will most likely be in trade format, though we haven't completely ruled out
the possibility of some staying in mass-market.

Thank you for your patience and support as we make this transition.

Best,
Leah

Leah Hultenschmidt
Editorial Director
Dorchester Publishing

RWA 2010 Recap PART ONE

Hello to all my friends out in the blogosphere!

I know it's been a while but as I've said before, if you really want to keep up with me, you can find me on Twitter.

It's been a busy time since I last blogged. This whole last week I was in Florida attending my very first RWA Conference. I've been to RT several times but never really gave a thought to to attending this conference which I now know was a mistake.

I'd first like to thank all the staff at RWA who worked their asses off to put this together after the flood at the Opryland Hotel. They did an awesome job.

But really? Mother fucking Florida in the middle of mother fucking July? It was like the Devil's armpit there. I told several people that God had abandoned us. No way He could live there and He was punishing us. Still, as long as you stayed inside the hotel, all was well. But DAMN! It didn't even cool off at night.

That being said, everything came together amazingly.

My CP Tricia and I decided to attend this year because our other CP Viola Estrella was nominated for her first (and in no way last) RITA award. Unfortunately, she didn't win but still, it was a landmark nomination because it was the very first e-book to be nominated. A fact that I think RWA grossly undervalued. In my opinion, there should have been more fanfare. But whatever. Her name and her book will be remembered for that.

The thing that made me most happy though, is that I got to see La Nora. Of course, in true Monica fashion, I spit on her. Yeah. I have a tendency to spit sometimes when I talk and that was one of those times.

Awesome.

Nora gave a GREAT keynote speech. She talked about what it took to be a writer. My favorite quote and one that I'm going to get made into T-shirts was 'Ride the Hard.' My mind went to oh so many bad yet delicious places! If you get a chance to get a copy of this speech, do it. I was so inspired. Tricia and I came home determined to ride our hards all the way to New York. I'm working on putting a synopsis and querying agents.

And writing. Most of all writing.

I also met some AWESOME people. Of course there was Jessa Slade and Delilah Marvelle. These lovely ladies are kindness personified and my best night was sitting at the pool with them as well as Vi and Trish and talking shop. Career planning, publishing, the future of our industry. It was one of the best conversations. Ever.

I got a shitload of books. Like ten times more than RT. I swear, when I see books, my brain shuts down and goes into MUST HAVE mode. I grabbed everything I could. I have gotten more books in the past three months than I can read this year. But I'm going to try. Really hard. Though I will have to fit reading in around my writing and not the other way around.

I saw Nalini Singh. We had a room on the same floor and I swear she thought I was stalking her. I wasn't. This time.

I also think I freaked out Carolyn Jewel. I follow her on Twitter and when you read someone's tweets it's like you know them. So when I met her at RomCon I kind of approached her like I knew her. I didn't. But she was so sweet and lovely that when I saw her again at RWA we were BFFs. (Not really. At least not anywhere but in my own mind.) As such, I talked to her as though we were best gal pals. She humored me. But I saw the glint of "this bitch is crazy" in her eyes but I promise her I'm not going to be hiding in her bushes. I'm in CO, she's in CA. At least until RT next year.

KIDDING!!!

I was happy to get an ARC of her book though. It was like a stroke of luck because they were all gone and then one got returned and I snatched that shit up.

But the real highlight of my trip was sitting next to Donald 'Mother Fucking' Maass at the RITA awards. Another thing for which I need to thank Delilah and Jessa. Oh, and he's hot. I'd never seen a picture of him but wow. He was not what I had expected. And I did take Keri Stevens's advice not to lick him and thereby commit career suicide.

Random bits:

-Lisa Kleypas is gorgeous in person.

-Teresa Medeiros is funny as hell.

-Cynthia Eden continues to be the sweetest person on the planet and she told me she loves me. The feeling is mutual.

Okay. That's it for this installment. Next time more about the week and why RWA is better than RT. If you're a writer.

RomCon 2010

Hello Blogosphere!

This weekend was a big one here in Denver, CO. The planets aligned to bring a giant slice of awesomeness to our Mile High City. Last weekend was RomCon. It was billed to be the biggest event for romance readers around and I have to say I agree, although there weren't all that many readers there. It was the first year so I wasn't expecting much and my expectation were WAY exceeded.


It's true what they say that writers are readers first and so even though the ration of author to reader seemed like 5:1, it was all good. Especially since I'm a huge fan girl and I got to spend some quality time with some of my favorite authors like Christine Feehan, Jessa Slade, Shannon K. Butcher, Nicole Peeler and the woman I most wanted to see, Nalini Singh.


There was so much opportunity for fans to meet up and spend time with an author. I did the Speed Date an author and people came to talk to me and even if they hadn't read my stuff, we still could have a great conversation about the books we liked and all things romance which I love to do especially since I rarely get the chance to do it.


The most fun I had was doing the Midnight Sexcapades with Delilah Marvelle, Lila DiPasqua, Bridget Midway, Delinda Jasper, K Jones, and a couple others whose names escape me night now. It was a raucous and rowdy night! I had very little hope that anyone would even show because it was the same night as the ball but we were packed and most people stayed until the end which was awesome. I decided to get the ladies (and a couple gentlemen) drunk by playing the drinking game 'Never Have I Ever.' Let me tell you, these women were freaks! One woman in her 60s told us about the time she had sex while stowing away on a freight train. Sweet.


However, the most fun came when Delinda read aloud from one of her books and had two people in the audience act out what she was saying. There is a video out there and as soon as I can find it, I'll send out a link. The woman, Jackie and the guy, Sam really gave us quite the performance. And at the end, they basically made out for real. It was so much fun.


I also got invited to join the Denver fetish community by a woman who shares her man with another woman. Ah, polyamory! She told me that judging from some of my answers the previous night at Sexcapades, she thinks I would be an ideal candidate. I thanked her, not knowing what to say to that but oddly flattered. I told her that I did have a story in mind that involved a BDSM and they very generously offered to educate me which was great and I do plan to take them up on it.


I won't say the conference wasn't without its flaws. For one, the setup for the book signing was weird. You bought your books up front and then went to this back room to have it signed. This did not work. Like I did not know Julia Quinn was there and I love her books and I was going to buy her new one but decided against it. I would have purchased it had I known she was going to be there.


Another thing was the food. I didn't but the meal tickets and I'm glad I didn't cuz I would've been pissed if I spent $35 on the one meal I got. The only reason I got the ticket was because Nicole Peeler gave it to me because she was out being wined and dined by her publisher and eating freeze dried ice cream and root beer from a giant syringe (her story not mine). The food I had was awful and wasn't even the menu they'd advertised. I should've known about the food because the hotel used to be a Holiday Inn where my company used to hold their Christmas parties and the food wasn't good even then. So the decor got better and the food got even worse if that's possible.


The other thing I didn't like was the location. It was near the airport in a part of town that was mostly warehouses. I know it was probably cheaper to hold the conference there but I kind of wish it was in a nicer part of town that was more accessible to all the fun stuff in town. I offered to show people around and give them a taste of Denver but no one took me up on my offer.


Despite that, I think the conference was amazing. I can't wait to do it again. I'm so glad they're keeping it in Denver and I have my fingers crossed that we'll one day attract Nora Roberts.


And now for some photographs!

I promised Jackie I wouldn't tell anyone how I got her and Sam to kiss but let's just say she wanted it. Bad!

The crowd from Midnight. This night was fucking crazy fun! We engaged in all sorts of wickedness and I got people drunk which was really more of a privilege than a duty. I just hope no one has pictures of me with the glow in the dark penis.

Jackie and I after the conference. We're both tired as shit which is why we look like it!

Me and Christine Feehan! It was so cool that I got a chance to chat with her for like five minutes. She was crazy nice!

That's right! Me and Nalini Singh! Jealous?

She is so freaking sweet and her accent is so cute. I think it's fair to say I have a pretty big girl crush!

Man I Wanna Hump Day!

So I don't watch "True Blood" but many of my Twitter mates do. The past few days, the Twitterverse has been all a-twitter (har har) with the name Alcide. Being the curious gal that I am, I decided to put my Google skills to use and I found the man of all my newest fantasies.

JOE MANGANIELLO!!!

How did I not know about this man? Where has he been all my life? How long before I can see him naked? I wish it were now.

Sorry! I was lost in a fantasy. If YOU don't know Manganiello, oh honey, you really, really, REALLY need to!!!

He even looks good in clothes!!!

Guest Blogger: Jessa Slade!!!

If you read this blog, you know Monica Kaye appreciates a fine hero. So I thought I’d share some of my inspiration for my dark heroes, written and unwritten.

I love tortured heroes. Dark pasts. Broken hearts. Wounded souls. With honed and burnished bodies, of course, although a few scars are unavoidable, what with the torturing and all.

This picture works for almost all my heroes. And not just because of the chest. I’ve always liked black and white photography. I took a b&w photography class (back in the days of dark room development) and the instructor told us a good print had at least one point of true black and a point of purest white. Sounds like a perfect dark hero, doesn’t it? Black and whites can be so stark, yet so revealing. Just like the best dark heroes. Despite the shadows in a dark hero, you always know exactly what you’re getting: a man...

Oh, sorry, lost my train of thought for a moment. You get a man who doesn’t give up, doesn’t give in, doesn’t give a damn...until he meets you—I mean, the heroine. In the heroine, he meets his match. And by match, I mean the woman who challenges him and who is his other half and who sets him on fire.

Well, those sexy scars had to come from somewhere.

Looking through my stash of eye candy, I found a lot of pix with deep shadows. Not surprising, I guess, since my books are all about shadows. The heroes of my Marked Souls books, SEDUCED BY SHADOWS (Book 1) and FORGED OF SHADOWS (Book 2, out this month) are alpha male warriors possessed by repentant demons. So yeah, they’re shadowed, inside and out.

They walk a sharp line between damnation and redemption and carry sharp blades to ensure they always end up on the right side of that line. If occasionally the line gets a little blurry, that’s just because of all the malignant demon guts on the edge of the blade.

Not that all my pictures are dark. See? This one has all sorts of sunlight behind him.But he still has those wonderful dark locks and dark, dark eyes and OMG actual dark chest hair (but not too much)! Swoon!

But he’s not facing the light. Nope, my dark heroes are resistant to the light. They’re like SPF 101. But love has a way of sneaking through the cracks in their armor. Or maybe just the cracks in their shirts. Dark heroes frequently have unbuttoned shirts.It’s a syndrome or something.

Lighting a dark hero—like properly lighting a photographic subject—can be tricky. A little firelight, or should I say firefight, shows them in action. A little candlelight shows them in a moment of romantic passion. The misty light of the moon gives them mystery while the cold, hard light of day reveals them. Or maybe they show best by flashlight, reading a book under the covers late at night.

All my dark heroes get their day in the sun, of course. That’s what happy endings are for. And speaking of happy endings, doesn’t Liam have a cute butt?

Who is your favorite dark hero and why? Leave a comment and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Book 1 or Book 2 of the Marked Souls. Not sure which one you want? You can read the opening chapters of both books at http://jessaslade.com