Category: Contests-Over

(Giveaway) Day 2

Posted on by Cindy


Up for grabs today is:

I was cleaning up alot of my stuff and stumbled across these goodies that I got when I was at BEA in May.
-small lunch bag that advertises Late for School by Steve Martin
-a few buttons (not shown)
-a little Mimi note pad
-assortment of book marks
-postcards
-stickers

These aren’t from BEA:
-Chapter 1 booklet of White Cat by Holly Black
-Chapter 1 booklet of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
-Montreal pen (not shown)
-post it flags (not shown)

Rules:
-Open to Canada and the US with a Valid mailing address (Sorry no PO Boxes)
-Don’t forget to leave your email address.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

(Giveaway) Day 1

Posted on by Cindy


Welcome Everyone. This is the first day of my week long blogiversary giveaway.

RULES:
-In all the giveaways please include your email address so that I have a way to contact you should you be a winner. Failure to do so will cause your entry to be deleted.

-Before entering please make sure that you are able to enter as some of the giveaways will be Canada only. (Sorry but this is due to the cost of shipping items out!)

-If you are a winner you have 48 hours to email me back with your mailing address. Failure to do so will result in picking another winner.

-All the giveaways this week will end on Sunday, August 29th at midnight. Winners will be announced on Monday August 30th.

-Also you must have a valid mailing address no PO Boxes please.

-Finally in each giveaway there will be one winner only. The only time you will have a chance to win a second item is my grand prize giveaway. Sorry about that but I have seen it done and personally don’t think its fair if there is a week long giveaway and one person gets to win several prizes. (This is only my opinion.)

GIVEAWAY:

To start off the giveaway I have a $5 Tim Horton’s or Starbucks gift card to give away.

-Open to residents of Canada or US.

-In the comments please tell me which one you would want to win.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

White Heat Giveaway

Posted on by Cindy

The newest series by Brenda Novak is White Heat. Its going to be a trilogy in the Department 6 Hired Guns. (Body Heat #2 and Killer Heat #3)

ABOUT THE BOOK (from the publisher Harlequin Mira)
Nate Ferrentino and Rachel Jessop are operatives for Department 6, a private security company, and they’re going undercover to expose a new and dangerous cult.

This group has taken up residence in the Arizona desert, in a ghost town called Paradise . Members worship at the feet—and in the bed–of its charismatic leader, Ethan Wycliff. On his orders, they tried to stone a woman to death. And they’re implicated in the disappearance of a teenage girl.

To expose the Church of the Covenant, with its arcane rituals and debauched practices, Nate and Rachel must pretend to be married. That’s the only way they can get in—but being Nate’s “wife” is the last thing Rachel wants. She and Nate have a one-night history that’s just an embarrassment to her now. But they don’t have a choice. Wycliff has to be stopped.

ABOUT BRENDA NOVAK
Most writers say they’ve had stories running around in their head since they can remember, but that wasn’t the case for Brenda. She grew up thinking she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. She considered herself “left-brained,” with talents in science and mathematics, and even went to school for business.

It wasn’t until she was 29 and married with three kids that she discovered writing — and if not for a difficult situation that prompted her to find a way to make money from home, she might not have started even then.

Brenda was a loan officer for a mortgage company when she caught her in-home daycare provider drugging her children with cough medicines and Tylenol to get them to sleep while she was gone. They’d been waking up several times in the night and she couldn’t figure out why. Except for the baby, they were too old for that. But once she found the medicine in her baby’s bottle, she suspected the baby-sitter had been doing this for several months.

No longer able to trust someone else with her children’s well-being, Brenda quit her job to stay home with them — but her husband’s business was failing and she needed to find some way to help him financially. That’s when she decided to write a book.

It wasn’t the “quick fix” the Novaks were hoping for. It took her five years to teach herself the craft and to finish her debut novel, Of Noble Birth, published in November 1999. But it introduced her to something she loves to do more than anything else. Shortly after she sold Of Noble Birth, she sold three books to Harlequin’s Superromance line, the first of which, Expectations, came out in February 2000.

Now she has five children; three girls and two boys, and juggles her writing career with softball games and field trips, carpool runs and homework sessions, and trying to keep up with her active husband. Fortunately, her family is as involved in what she does as she is in their activities. Her husband or one of her daughters sometimes go to conferences with her, they put stamps on the postcards she sends to her mailing list when she has a new book come out, and they come to all her book signings.

Her oldest, Ashley, throws her backpack down when she gets home from school and immediately joins Brenda at her computer, wanting to hear the latest installment on her current work in progress. Ashley gives Brenda valuable feedback, and so does her husband, who hears the same pages when he comes home from work. Now, as a family, the Novaks look back on those hard times when Brenda was just starting out and are grateful that something so good came out of it.

Brenda loves to hear from fellow romance enthusiasts. You can contact her at P.O. Box 3781, Citrus Heights, CA, 95611 or via her web site at www.brendanovak.com.

DID YOU KNOW?
She also runs an annual on-line auction for diabetes research every May at Brenda Novak. To date, she’s raised over $1,072,000.

Interested in reading the first chapter to see if this book is for you? Click here to read it: Dept 6 Hired Guns.

Watch the trailer:

Doesn’t this sound really good? I am in the midst of reading this and I am enjoying it. (My review is to come.)

Guess what readers? I have one sweet giveaway for you. Thanks to Chelsy at Big Honcho Media I am able to offer this:

A White Heat prize pack including:
-Tote bag
-3D viewer bookmark
-White Heat lip gloss – made especially for the book!
-A copy of White Heat

ABOUT THE LIP GLOSS:
White Heat Lip Gloss is a sheer and sexy hot pink gloss with silver-white and opalescent shimmer created in our signature non-sticky lip gloss formula. Available in a stackable swing-out pot, this universally flattering shade is the perfect travel-friendly gloss to keep your lips moist and hydrated on the go!

RULES:
-The giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian addresses. (No PO Boxes)
-Please leave me a comment with a email address so that I can contact you should you be a winner. (failure to do this will disqualify you)

The giveaway is sponsored by MIRA Books. Thank you Mira Books.

Also from the author’s website: If you’d like a pair of Brenda Novak 3D glasses (which double as a bookmark), send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Brenda Novak P.O. Box 3781 Citrus Heights, CA 95611

UPCOMING BOOKS:

Twelve people have been shot at point-blank range and left to rot in the desert sun. It’s Sophia St. Claire’s job to do something about it. She’s Bordertown, Arizona’s new chief of police—and she’s out of her depth.
Help arrives in the form of Department 6 hired gun Roderick Guerrero. As far as Sophia’s concerned, his involvement only makes things worse. Maybe he’s managed to turn his life around. And maybe he’s a good investigator. But as the bastard son of a wealthy local rancher, he has a history he can’t get past. A history that includes her.

Rod refuses to leave town until the killer is caught. He’s not worried about the danger posed by some vigilante. It’s Sophia who threatens him. Because he’s used to risking his life—but his heart is another story. (Aug 31/10)

The bodies of seven women have been discovered in Skull Valley, Arizona. Jonah Young, a private security operative from Department 6, has been hired by the Yavapai County Sheriff to assist in solving these murders. But Jonah’s not prepared for the complications that arise when he’s forced to work with a woman from his past, private investigator Francesca Moretti.

Jonah betrayed Francesca ten years ago. She hasn’t forgiven him and she’s pretty sure she never will. But the woman she was hired to find has been murdered in exactly the same way as the seven in Skull Valley, so like it or not, Francesca has to work with Jonah. They quickly zero in on the most likely suspect–but questions remain. Questions they have to answer. Because if they bet on the wrong man, it might be the last thing they ever do…
(Sept 28/10)

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Contest Winners Announced

Posted on by Cindy

I want to thank everyone who entered the following contests on my blog. I loved reading all your responses and discovering some new bloggers in the mix too.

Emails will be sent and as soon as I get mailing address I will sending them to the publisher who will ship the books out.

Jenny N & trishalynn0708

fredamans & Sheila Deeth

Jonita & DCMetroreader

Melissa & Myckyee

Thanks again everyone for taking part in another successful run of contests.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Millie’s Fling Tour & Guest Post by Jill Mansell & Contest

Posted on by Cindy


Millie’s Fling by Jill Mansell is the latest book to hit the US market. Its in stores now. If you like to read chick lit and in the market for a really good book then let me suggest this to you. You will love it.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
He’s the best thing that ever happened to her. He’s also the worst. He’s Millie’s Fling.

From one of the premiere contemporary authors in the UK, here is a fun and romantic tale that proves the road to matchmaking hilarity is paved with good intentions.

Bestselling novelist Orla Hart owes her life to her friend Millie Brady, whose rotten boyfriend has just left her. So Orla invites Millie to Cornwall, where Millie looks forward to a summer without any dating whatsoever. But Orla envisions Millie as the heroine of her next novel and decides to find Millie the man of her dreams. Except the two women have drastically different ideas about what kind of guy that should be.

With Orla and Millie working at cross-purposes, and a dashing but bewildered hero stuck in the middle, the summer will turn out to be unforgettable for all concerned.

Here is Jill Mansell’s guest post. I hope you enjoy it. I asked Jill Mansell about the internet. The good and bad about it as a writer.

–> Hi there, and it’s lovely to be guest-blogging my way across America and Canada! Isn’t the internet incredible?

When I first started writing, everything was done by snail mail and phone calls, and research was a nightmare. Now it’s all here at the click of a mouse! I feel as if I’m making new friends all over the world. And it’s not only readers – it’s so brilliant to be able to talk to other writers too.

I’ve been published for nearly 20 years and in the beginning I knew no other published novelists. Now, of course, I’ve met many, but a lot of the time we interact by email, Facebook and Twitter. This week I’ve been contacted by 2 old schoolfriends, one now living in Texas, the other in Australia, and it’s still completely miraculous to me that this is possible. And then we have my children, both teenagers who simply can’t comprehend the possibility of ever losing touch with people they know. They’re right, too. In the future it won’t be an option. Nowadays you can trace anyone you want.

The downside of the internet, of course, is the endless distraction it affords. I am a writer, therefore I procrastinate. I have it down to a tee. I check my emails all the time. Then my Twitter account. Then Facebook. Then Amazon. I find out all sorts of things I don’t really need to know. I recognise a face on TV and wonder where I’ve seen that actor before. In the old days, I could puzzle over something like that for hours. Now I just press a couple of keys and there’s the answer.

There’s also Google Alert: never mind finding out about other people; what about Me, me, me?! It feels like being locked in the cubicle in a ladies loo while people outside the cubicle fix their make-up and gossip about you, blissfully unaware that you’re there. You have to be strong for this. Comments about my books are usually flattering, but sometimes, well, they’re not. That’s OK, we all have different tastes, but the observations can be cruel sometimes. The urge to metaphorically leap out of the toilet cubicle and reply can be intense, but it’s never a sensible thing to do. Writers have turned themselves into laughing stocks attempting this. You just have to take it on the chin and send thankyou messages to those who have said lovely things about you instead.

I hope you enjoy Millie’s Fling!
Love, Jill Mansell x

About the Author:

Jill Mansell is one of the UK’s premiere contemporary authors who has written nearly 20 romances with multi-generational appeal and has sold nearly 4 million copies of her books in the UK. Releasing her latest novel this spring, Miranda’s Big Mistake, Mansell’s writing style can be best described as “Sex & the City meets Bridget Jones’s Diary.” She worked for many years at the Burden Neurological Hospital, Bristol, and now writes full time. She lives with her partner and their children in Bristol, England. For more information on Jill in the UKplease visit http://www.jillmansell.co.uk/, and for info on her US releases, go to http://www.sourcebooks.com/spotlight/jill-mansell.html!

The next book set to be released by Jill Mansell in the US is Perfect Timing and its a set to be released in November. I am so excited and can’t wait to read this one.

Here are some of the places that Jill Mansell will be visiting:

September 4: Savvy Verse & Wit http://www.savvyverseandwit.com/
September 7: My Friend Amy http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/
September 8: Night Owl Romance http://www.nightowlromanceblog.blogspot.com/
September 9: Scribe Vibe http://scribevibe.blogspot.com/
September 10: Books by TJ Baff http://booksbytjbaff.blogspot.com/
September 11: Diary of an Eccentric http://diaryofaneccentric.blogspot.com/


CONTEST TIME:

Thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks I am offering two lucky readers a chance to win their very own copy of Millie’s Fling. I am sure you will love it just as much as I do. So the contest is open to 2 lucky readers one Canadian and one American with a valid mailing address. Just let me know in your entry if you are Canadian or American please. Please make sure to leave your email address so that I can contact you should you be the winner.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Guest Post with Carolyn Brown & Contest

Posted on by Cindy


I have to thank Danielle at Sourcebooks for giving me the chance to have Carolyn Brown guest post on my blog today.

Thank you to Carolyn for taking the time out of your busy schedule to guest post for me.

If you haven’t read Lucky in Love yet then you really should its a good book.

Thank you for allowing me to join you as a guest today! It’s a delight to be here to discuss the difference between writing for the literary market and now taking things more main steam.

Lucky in Love, my second foray into the paper back world, has just hit the market and I’m so very excited about it. The first four books I sold were paperback books to Kensington for their Precious Gems line. When that line died I approached Avalon with a manuscript for the literary market. They bought it and that was ten years ago. The thirty fourth one was published last month. There are a few more still in the process so right now I’m still writing for both the literary and the main stream markets.

How do I keep them separate? Very easy! While I’m writing a main stream trilogy I focus on those characters and the qualities that make them who they are. When I’m writing literary, I do the same but under different guidelines. For instance, in the Lucky Series, I’ve got three strong women who’d fight a forest fire with a cup of water and expect to have enough left for a long cool drink afterwards. In the Black Swan series, I’ve got three sisters who are sassy and spunky but are not allowed to cuss out the local busy body next door.

My big four major differences are:

Length: The literary books I write are somewhere between 50-60,000 words which means the story must be told in a shorter form without losing any of the appeal. Main stream runs from 90-100,000 words and gives me more room to expand the main characters and work in all the quirky secondary characters my warped brain can come up with. Lucky in Love has approximately 350 pages as well as One Lucky Cowboy and Getting Lucky. My literary books run at least a hundred pages less than that.

Content: My literary market’s guidelines say no sex, no profanity and no drinking. It’s a wholesome family oriented market with a readers’ age base from thirteen to a hundred and ten. Sorry if I left out someone who is past that age. If you are still reading my books and you are over a hundred and ten, please leave a comment or visit my website and drop me a line. I’d love to hear all about your life. The main stream guidelines are more flexible and give me wiggle room with a brawling Texan’s temper in a bar fight or a heroine’s absolute rage when she finds out her man’s been cheating on her. If you are over a hundred and ten and like the new Lucky Series I’d really like to hear your comments and comparisons between it and the library’s hard back books.

Market: Literary markets rely mainly upon libraries for their sales so they do not publish the mass quantities that the main stream market produces. Plus literary market sells my books online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. Main stream will show up in book stores, Wal-Mart and Target and be available to purchase right off the shelf. My readers are very excited that they will be able to walk into a book store and buy a book right then without having to wait for it to arrive in the mail.

Cost: Hard back books are wonderful for libraries. They can be checked out and read time after time. But they are more expensive than paper back books. The literary books which can be ordered online are now over twenty dollars per book. Lucky in Love will sell for less than seven dollars.

Whatever I write, it’s with the hope that I touch someone’s heart. That they laugh so loud their neighbors call the cops to calm down the ruckus next door, that they use up half a box of tissues during a sad scene, and when they finish the last page they want one more page, one more chapter or at least the promise of another book that mention the characters to continue the story line.

Here’s hoping Lucky in Love gives the reader all those things. If you run out of tissue holler right loud and I’ll send you another box. If you really want the story to continue rest assured One Lucky Cowboy is coming in November and Getting Lucky in January. If you laugh so hard the neighbor calls the cops, you are on your own!

Isn’t the ability to touch emotions what sets a good book out in front of the others? What book has made you giggle, made you weep or sigh?

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Lucky in Love—in stores September!

When hunky rancher “Lucky Beau” Luckadeau accuses spitfire Milli Torres of stealing his prize bull, she promptly shoots at him, triggering a feud that only gets resolved when they discover they share a steamy hot memory from a night long ago…

It was a night of passion that has always haunted Lucky. The mysterious beauty he seduced at a cousin’s wedding disappeared. He’s always been lucky at cards, lucky

with cattle, and lucky with land, but he’s never been lucky in love.

Now Milli Torres has come to southern Oklahoma to help out on her grandfather’s ranch. A cut fence and a big, mean Angus bull in the pasture are bad enough, but then she looks up and sees Beau Luckadeau. Great God Almighty, how did he get from Louisiana to Ardmore, Oklahoma, and what in the hell is she going to do if he recognizes her?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Brown is an award-winning author who has published 36 historical and western romance novels for the library market, many of them bestsellers in that market. She was born in Texas and grew up in southern Oklahoma. She and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, now make their home in the town of Davis, Oklahoma.

Thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks I have two copies of Lucky In Love to give to one Canadian resident and one US resident. Please note that you must have a valid mailing address.

To enter all you have to do is answer this:

Isn’t the ability to touch emotions what sets a good book out in front of the others? What book has made you giggle, made you weep or sigh?

Don’t forget to include you email address so that I can contact you should you be the winner.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Guest Post by author Terry Spear & Contest

Posted on by Cindy


Today I am very honored to have the author of Tempt the Wolf her latest novel and of Heart of the Wolf and Destiny of the Wolf.

Thank you so very much Terry for stopping by to do this guest post for me.

Capturing the Reader’s Imagination
By Terry Spear

First, thanks to Cindy for having me on Cindy’s Love of Books. I had to smile when I saw your posting, Cindy, about the reading program at the library. I had a little different perspective since I work in one. For us, the beginning of school, means our library-reading program is over and the place doesn’t look like a tornado hit it once a week.

I asked fellow librarians what they thought about this question, what captures their imagination when reading a story?

One said she liked Coming-of-Age stories, seeing a character’s growth, if my friends could see me now, and how surprised other characters would be of their success. So whenever she finds a story like that, she feels involved and can share the character’s dreams and success.

One likes more realistic stories, mystery, no fantasy at all. He likes to puzzle through unsolved crimes and figure out who-dun-it. He saw Harry Potter, but couldn’t read the book because he couldn’t visualize the fantasy world until he watched the movies. For him, it has to be realistic, or he can’t envision it.

I tried listening to an audio book, but my thoughts kept straying. I tried another one, same thing. So for me, I have to read the written word to envision the story.

Some love young adult fiction, no matter the age of the reader, enjoying a more youthful journey. When I read young adult fiction, I take a trip through a teen drama that I didn’t when I was a teen. Would I make different choices if I were the teen in the story? Most often, yes. I love reading them.

Others enjoy historical fiction, a trip to the past, like taking a time-travel capsule trip, but not having to deal with all the problems of living in the historical past.

Some fall in love with characters more than plot and others want the meaty plot and don’t care about the characters as much.

So what captures a reader’s imagination? For everyone it can be different. For many the same. Creating a world that readers can fall into and feel that for the few hours while reading the story, they’re there, taking part, becoming the characters that are striving to overcome the conflict and reach their goals. Creating twists and turns so the reader has to keep on guessing how the story is going to end can stir the imagination. And what about those books that linger in our minds long after we’ve finished reading them? Yep, definitely, they’ve captured our imagination.

For me, it’s forgetting that I’m in this world, so immersed in someone else’s lives that I don’t want to leave it. Yet I can’t let it go as I strive to reach the end. And then? I’m looking for more of the work by the same author, or more of the same genre so I can fall into that alternate world once more and start the struggle all over again.

What captures your imagination when you find a book you truly enjoy?

Thanks again, Cindy, for having me!
Terry Spear

CONTEST TIME:
Thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks for allowing me to give away one prize pack of Terry’s three books (Heart of the Wolf, Destiny of the Wolf and To Tempt the Wolf). This is only open to Canadian and US residents with a valid mailing address. Sorry no PO BOXES.

To enter all you have to do is answer Terry’s question from her guest post which was:

-What captures your imagination when you find a book you truly enjoy?

Please leave your answers in the comments of this post. The contest will be running until Sept 7th/09. When you leave your answers please make sure to leave your email address so that I have a way to contact you should you be a winner.

To Tempt the Wolf—In Stores September 1

In this third in the series, wildlife photographer Tessa Anderson must prove her brother innocent of murder charges. But when she discovers a gorgeous naked man barely alive on her beach, she’s got a new world of troubles to deal with, not least of which is how he affects her with just a look, a touch, or a whispered word.

Hunter Greymore is a lupus garou, a grey werewolf. Hoping to keep a low profile at Tessa’s cabin on the coast, he’s drawn into her life—and into her bed. His animal instincts war with his human half, but in the end, the only thing he can do about this fascinating, adorable woman is to leave her forever —unless she becomes one of them.

About the Author

A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, award-winning author Terry Spear has an MBA from Monmouth College. An eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal as well as writing historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas.

Her 2008 Sourcebooks Casablanca release, Heart of the Wolf was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. Destiny of the Wolf and To Tempt the Wolf are in stores now, and more are on the way: The Legend of the White Wolf (February 2010) and Seduction of the Wolf (August 2010). For more information please visit www.terryspear.com

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.