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Down On The Other Street Book Blast

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Author Bio:

Jennifer Cie is a Tennessee native who loves taking aimless road trips, taste testing whiskey and low grade tequila—for science, and writing about social issues in everyday life. Self-proclaimed writer of “two cups of morning coffee” length books, Cie is the author of the fictional work Memphis Rain, creative non-fiction memoir Burn It, and the upcoming collection of short stories entitled Down On The Other Street.

When she is not getting lost driving across state lines, you can find her rambling about book formatting, poor life decisions, and everything in between on her blog: www.journeytopaperback.com.

Author Links:

Twitter: @JenniferCie1

Cover Artist: Najla Qambers

Publisher: Self-published

Blurb(s):

Excerpt:

““You’re not asking someone studied—you know? I guess the rough kind of good. Like when you floss your teeth till your gums bleed. Hurts a bit, but the taste and feel are good to you.”

My first “real” talk came from you in 1992. I was fourteen sitting on the edge of my father’s leather recliner watching you cut the edges off a peanut butter sandwich. You didn’t have any tattoos back then. You had on this red sweater with blue stripes swishing through it. That pesky string of acne was still running down your right cheek when you offered me half of the sandwich.

“Anna. Why do you want to know about sex—from me?”

I wanted to tell you that the walls in my house had grown thin. Even with the stretches of screeching cars passing by and gargled whispers from the Mississippi River outside, I could hear everything tiptoeing inside. The high pitched turned guttural shrieks the women in my brother’s magazines evoked. The sound of the calluses on his hands attacking flesh like rubberized sandpaper; then, the wheezing attack followed by a hushed “guuu-ah” and tissues sopping up warm ooze. The late-night lullaby to my summers had changed, and I wanted to know the words.” –Excerpt from Intellectuals Are Fools


Tour Date: 7/29/14

 

Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Cate Ashwood, Smoocher’s Voice, Emotion in Motion, Prism Book Alliance, MM Good Book Reviews, Havan Fellows, My Fiction Nook, LeAnn’s Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Kimi-Chan, Iyana Jenna, Michael Mandrake, Love Bytes, Velvet Panic

Sales Links

Paperback ( priced at 5.75) available via
Amazon–http://www.amazon.com/Down-On-The-Other-Street/dp/1500442291

Createspace– https://www.createspace.com/4874370

Ebook ( priced at $0.99) available via:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Down-Other-Street-I-ebook/dp/B00M7FOILI
Barnes & Noble( Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/down-on-the-other-street-jennifer-cie/1120020761

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unexpected Trust Book Tour

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Author Bio:

Silvia Violet writes erotic romance in a variety of genres including paranormal, contemporary, sci fi, and historical. She can be found haunting coffee shops looking for the darkest, strongest cup of coffee she can find. Once equipped with the needed fuel, she can happily sit for hours pounding away at her laptop. Silvia typically leaves home disguised as a suburban stay-at-home-mom, and other coffee shop patrons tend to ask her hilarious questions like “Do you write children’s books?” She loves watching the looks on their faces when they learn what she’s actually up to. When not writing, Silvia enjoys baking sinfully delicious treats, exploring new styles of cooking, and reading to her incorrigible offspring.

Author Links:

Website: http://silviaviolet.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/silvia.violet

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Silvia_Violet

For a list of Silvia’s available titles: http://silviaviolet.com/books

Cover Artist:

Publisher: Self-Published

Blurb(s):

Unexpected Trust (Unexpected Book 2) by Silvia Violet

http://silviaviolet.com/book/unexpected-trust/

 

Blurb:

Special Agent Hugh Cranford, better known as Sport, is conducting an off-the-record investigation. He’s after Danny O’Sullivan, a spy rumored to have assisted in the ambush of Sport’s former SEAL team. Danny claims he and Sport are on the same side, and the real traitor is the man Sport is working for. But Danny is a master manipulator. He’s also the most seductive man Sport has ever met. Sport can’t help being attracted to him, but that doesn’t mean he’s willing to trust him.

 

In his quest to bring down a few highly-placed traitors in the US government, Danny O’Sullivan has been keeping tabs on Sport. When Sport comes looking for him, Danny decides to bring Sport in on his secret mission and into his bed. Sport may not trust Danny, but he wants him. As the two men risk their lives to complete Danny’s mission, they discover neither is as strong as they like to pretend.

Author Bio

Silvia Violet writes erotic romance in a variety of genres including paranormal, contemporary, sci fi, and historical. She can be found haunting coffee shops looking for the darkest, strongest cup of coffee she can find. Once equipped with the needed fuel, she can happily sit for hours pounding away at her laptop. Silvia typically leaves home disguised as a suburban stay-at-home-mom, and other coffee shop patrons tend to ask her hilarious questions like “Do you write children’s books?” She loves watching the looks on their faces when they learn what she’s actually up to. When not writing, Silvia enjoys baking sinfully delicious treats, exploring new styles of cooking, and reading to her incorrigible offspring.

 

Before you read Unexpected Trust, make sure you know where it all began: Check out Book 1 in the Unexpected series, Unexpected Rescue.

Excerpt:

He closed the box and reached for another. Then he heard the whoosh of a door opening. No footsteps followed. Someone was trying to be silent. O’Sullivan? A security guard? It might be nothing more than a routine check, but his instincts told him he was about to be discovered. He flattened himself again the wall next to the shelves.

Several seconds of silence. The hall door opened and closed again. Sport started to put his gun away.

Suddenly, the office door swung open and Danny was there, aiming a Glock at his chest. Fuck. He hadn’t heard a thing.

Why hadn’t he waited to come back here? Based on what he’d seen of the security, he could have gotten in easily after hours. He could hear his instructor at Quantico berating him for his impatience. Mr. Invincible. Mr. I’m-Better-Than-Any-Fucking-Spook. Look where that got you.

“Hello there,” O’Sullivan said. “Waiting for me?”

The Irish lilt went straight to Sport’s cock. Damn the man. “Just leaving actually,” Sport said, pushing away from the wall.

Danny shook his head. “Not yet. Get rid of your gun and then we’re going to get to know each other better.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, O’Sullivan,” Sport said as he dropped his gun on the floor. Danny kicked it away from him.

“Call me Danny. You’ve obviously been getting to know me already.”

“Can’t say that I have. Not much here to learn from.”

Danny walked to the desk and jerked open the drawer where Sport had seen the bug. Danny ripped it loose, dropped it on the floor, and smashed it with his foot, apparently no longer caring if whoever placed it realized Danny was on to them. “That’s better, now we can have some privacy. So tell me this, why did you bother poking around in this dusty old place when what you really want is right here?” Danny swept his hand down his body, letting it graze over his cock.

“It looked like you’d already found some company,” Sport said, keeping his face neutral. “I don’t do secondhand.”

Danny moved closer. “You’d do me. Any way you could get me.”

Sport fucking hated him, and he hated that he wanted the man under him, begging for mercy. That would be a mistake though; he couldn’t trust a word a man like O’Sullivan said. “Cut the games. Either shoot me or step out of the way so I can get back to my evening.”

Danny took another few steps toward him. Sport could have reached out and touched him, made a grab for Danny’s weapon or…. something else.

Danny reached out and drew a line down Sport’s chest with the tip of his gun. Sport didn’t flinch. Danny wasn’t going to shoot him, not that night anyway. After a while you learned to tell who was likely to pull the trigger and who wasn’t. Danny had no intention of ending things yet. He was the type who enjoyed the game far more than the outcome. He liked pitting himself against other operatives and coming out on top.

Sport could make sure he enjoyed coming on the bottom too.

 

Interview

What can we expect to see from you in the remainder of 2014?

In August, I’ll be releasing Say Yes, a short story featuring a cowboy foodie and a hotel event planner.

I’m also working on Wild R Farm 6, Zach and Brandon’s story. I’m targeting a late October release for that one.

I’ll have a short story in the Mischief Corner Books Christmas anthology. It features a young man who’s broken free from his fundamentalist roots but is terrified by what he’s feeling for the barista who works at his favorite coffee shop until he decides he’s not spending another Christmas alone.

There will also be a Wild R Farm Christmas story coming your way in December. Tristan in an apron cooking Christmas dinner. Cole fuming. Jonah trying to soothe him. All manner of holiday chaos.

While it won’t be heading your way until 2015, I will be working on another Unexpected Book, featuring Simon, a character you’ll meet in Unexpected Trust. There will be at least one more book in the series after that one too.

And if I only had a clone I’d write at least five more books by the end of the year but another book for the Fitting In series and another Pisgah Mountain Wolves book are in the plans for 2015.

 


Tour Dates: 7/28 – 8/1

Tour Stops:

7/28: Prism Book Alliance, Because Two Men Are Better Than One, MM Good Book Reviews

7/29: My Fiction Nook, Amanda C. Stone, Parker Williams

7/30: The Novel Approach, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Emotion in Motion

7/31: The Blogger Girls, Smoocher’s Voice,

8/1: The Hat Party, Love Bytes, Velvet Panic

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Midnight Rodeo: Homecoming Book Tour

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Author Bios:

BA Tortuga:

Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy’s Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds, getting tattooed, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she’s not doing that, she’s writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing porn sites in the name of research. BA’s personal saviors include her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.

Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but has answered the call of the high desert mountains. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the voices in her head.

Links:

Website: http://www.batortuga.com

Twitter: @batortuga

 

Kiernan Kelly:

 

Kiernan Kelly lives in the wilds of the alligator-infested U.S. Southeast, slathered in SPF 45, drinking colorful tropical, hi-octane concoctions served by thong-clad cabana boys.

 

All right, the truth is that she spends her time locked in the dark recesses of her office, writing gay erotic romance while chained to a temperamental laptop, drinking coffee, and dreaming of thong-clad cabana boys.

 

 

To date, Kiernan has over a dozen novels in print and ebook, and a plethora of short stories in both formats.

 

Links:

www.KiernanKelly.com

KiernanKelly@KiernanKelly.com

https://www.facebook.com/kiernan.kelly

 

 

Julia Talbot:

 

Julia Talbot lives in the great Southwest, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and everything from meat and potatoes to the best Tex-Mex. A full time author, Julia has been published by Torquere Press, Ellora’s Cave, and Changeling Press. She believes that everyone deserves a happy ending, so she writes about love without limits, where boys love boys, girls love girls, and boys and girls get together to get wild, especially when her crazy paranormal characters are involved.

 

Find Julia at @juliatalbot on Twitter, or at www.juliatalbot.com

https://www.facebook.com/juilatalbotauthor

Cover Artist: Anne Squires

Publisher: Torquere Press

Blurb(s):

What happens when rodeos start to get too tough for humans to compete in? Midnight Rodeo, of course, where supernatural creatures like shifters and vampires work for the prize money, and for the awe of their audience.

In Welcome to the Pack by BA Tortuga, when head bullfighter Denton is killed by a demon bull, his twin, Denver, comes back to take his place. Denver was gone for years, working mundane rodeos and missing his twin. He’s not sure the pack can heal him since the other bullfighters challenge Denver at every turn. All except Blaine, who’s an outcast himself, and who knows Denver is like no one he’s ever met.

In Oklahoma Rain by Kiernan Kelly, psychic Blaze scouts locations for the rodeo company, Darque and Knight, where he finds another psychic talent, Zack, who’s as hot as the Fourth of July. Zack is complicated, though, thanks to his sidekick, Mikey, a damaged kid. Blaze invites the pair back to the rodeo, but not everyone is as happy as Blaze to have them there.

In Big Bear, Little Bear, by Julia Talbot, bear shifter Ben is returning to the rodeo after a long injury recovery. Big bear shifter Ozzie is the barrel man and clown, and he’s been waiting for Ben to come back to the big show. But is Ben ready to ride again, let alone be the lover Ozzie is ready to take on?

 

Excerpt:

Denver was– wow.

Denton had been stunning, making Blaine stare a lot. A lot. Still, Dent had been off-limits, and he’d bet Denver was, too. No one could be that hot and be like Blaine.

He was the weird one, the one brought into the pack by a she-wolf who had already had a single pup. Blaine figured he was lucky no one had killed him when he was a kid.

Everyone else was broad and wide, shaggy headed with eyes like green glass. All of them came from the same line. Denver was the spitting image of Denton, really. A little harder around the edges, a little more wild. A shit ton more bruised.

The guys had been taking turns. Two a night, just like clockwork, they’d come and challenge Denver. One at midnight, one at three a.m. Greg and Vince went, then Carter and Caul, and finally Hank and Mike. Boom.

He supposed Denver was waiting for him, now. Blaine sighed. He had no intention of trying to take the pack. God, the very idea made his head hurt.

The real question was, were they going to just start over, or was Denver going to get a night off, a chance to sleep before they settled in town for tonight’s show?

 


Tour Dates/Stops: 7/28 – 8/22

7/28: Prism Book Alliance

7/29: Parker Williams

7/30: Up All Night, Read All Day

7/31: Amanda C. Stone

8/1: LeAnn’s Book Reviews

8/4: Love Bytes

8/5: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Jade Crystal

8/6: The Hat Party

8/7: Night Owl Reviews, Because Two Men Are Better Than One

8/8: The Novel Approach

8/11: Decadent Delights

8/12: Wake Up Your Wild Side

8/13: Tara Lain

8/14: MM Good Book Reviews, Emotion in Motion

8/15: Iyana Jenna, Rainbow Gold Reviews

8/18: Fallen Angel Reviews, Velvet Panic

8/19: Hearts on Fire

8/20: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Dawn’s Reading Nook

8/21: Book Reviews and More by Kathy, Kimi-Chan

8/22: My Fiction Nook, Smoocher’s Voice

Sales Link

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=96&products_id=4220

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Facts about reviews…

author supportWhen I read a book that touches me (or makes me touch myself, but we won’t need to go into that), I feel that I should show the author how much their work meant to me. So I do a number of things.

#1 – I write a note to say thank you. This has led to me some great friendships with people like Eden Winters, KC Wells, SJD Peterson, Tom Webb (who helped me to find Laura Harner, Lee Brazil, and Havan Fellows), Silvia Violet, Angel Martinez, and more.

#2 – I try to make a post on Facebook to tell people about the story. This has been pretty successful at sharing my thoughts on books, but…well, you see, there is a very limited audience to my posts (about 1100 friends or so). While it’s great, I don’t think that it has a long or lasting impact.

#3 – I try to write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, AllRomance. These are the biggies. People will see these reviews quite often over there, and that helps the author out a lot. In fact, I recently found out that some of the promo companies won’t touch a book that has less than 20 reviews. Now that might not seem like a huge number, but when you look at the number of books an author sells, and then at the number of reviews they get, it’s pretty far out of line.

What am I saying? Show your love of good books. Take a few minutes from your day to write a review for a book you’ve loved. Sing the praises of the author for others to find.

This is especially important for the smaller genres (m/m, m/f, menage, etc). While it has a vibrant community, it is definitely not on everyone’s radar. So show the authors you can’t live without some love.

Buy from a reputable source. Read. Like. Review. And spread the love.

Make an author happy today.

Piracy is NOT a victimless crime

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Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to her audiobook that came out not too long ago. It had been downloaded over FOUR HUNDRED times. This means that at least 400 people stole this author’s work. Her time. And her money. AND this was ONE site. How many others are there that have stolen and passed around this work?

Writing isn’t an easy job. You need to constantly keep up a constant supply of fresh and innovative ideas. Make engaging characters. Situations that aren’t rehashing what you’ve already accomplished. And so many authors do this amazingly well. They deserve to be paid for their work. Yet there are people who seem to think nothing of going to a website and downloading a copy of the book – in whatever format – and seem to think they’re not hurting anyone. I might agree with it if there was just one person doing it, but that’s not the case at all.

Let’s put some numbers to this.

This e-book costs $6.99 and it’s audiobook companion costs $19.99…

The author makes approximately 35% (average, not indicative of all publishers) per e-book. This means he or she makes about $2.45 from an e-book.
They make approximately 25% (average, not indicative of all publishers) per audiobook. This means that he or she makes about $4.99 from an audiobook.

The sales on the books are average. They might make it into the top 100 of Amazon. So let’s assume that they’ve sold 300 e-books and 50 audiobooks (these are guesses, not legitimate numbers. They will make $735 from an e-book they worked months on. They’ll make $249.50 from the audiobooks. So that’s slightly less than $1000 for three months work (writing, editing, etc.) Minus editors, covers, and the like if they’re self-published.

 

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So my friend had FOUR HUNDRED copies of her audiobook downloaded. One book.  That’s almost $2000 that they’ve lost to pirates, because let’s be honest; how many people are going to pirate a book and then turn around to buy it?
(Dilbert comic used with permission per website agreement)

 

 

The most infuriating part – to me anyway – is that people were posting comments about how much they loved the series. Really? Did you buy it? Did you support the author you claim to love? Or do you even care that you’re basically walking into their house and taking money from their kitchen table?

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Not too long ago,  I unfriended a person on Facebook who had the audacity to say that by pirating books, he was HELPING authors, because he turned around and recommended them to others. Then turned around and said what he was doing was no different than what Amazon was doing, because they were stealing from the author’s pockets, too. Because Jimmy did it, that makes it okay for me to do it, too? That mentality was stupid when we were thirteen. It’s unforgivable now that we’re ‘adults’.

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It’s amazing to me that people who would call the police if you went into their home and helped yourself to their hard-earned belongings find nothing wrong with pirating. Be it a movie, a song, a book, or a work of art, it’s stealing. Pure and simple. I don’t think it can be said often enough. If you pirate a book you. are. stealing.

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Let’s be honest. Most of us are huge supporters of our author friends. We will read a book, leave a review, encourage our friends to try the story. We will pull out the stops to get others to try an author, and that’s amazing. For those who pirate, it’s selfishness. I can’t really find another way to describe it. NOW, before I get taken to task for being greedy or selfish: I know friends who are having a hard time of it. None of them have come to me and said as much, but I know of their problems with money and I sympathize. I am more than happy to give them a copy of MY books, and have even offered it to them. I don’t mind if an author shares his or her books, because it’s their property and they’re welcome to do so. If you need one of my stories, talk to me. I’d rather you do that than go to a pirate website. Not just for my sake, but for your own. Do you know how they’re going to use your credit card information (assuming you pay for it), or are you sure they haven’t infected the book to get information from you?

 

And finally, keep this fact in mind:

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Many of us want our favorites to write more. And they could if they were being compensated for their work properly. Who here couldn’t use an extra thousand dollars? Maybe more if people were honest and bought the works, then told their friends.

Don’t pirate. It’s risky for you. It’s illegal. And you’re hurting real live people.