Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts

Friday, September 26, 2014

Her Men by Ashley Ladd - Release Day Guest Blogs, Interview Stops, & Contest



Today my newest erotic romance ‘Her Men’ releases at Amazon and ARe and so I’m having a cover reveal and book blitz across the web.


Also, my ghostly erotic paranormal mf romance 'Spooky Sojourn' prereleases at Totally Bound which means it's available for early download at the publisher's site.


Below is a list of the generous bloggers that are hosting all unique guest blogs and interviews with me today in honor of Her Men’s release. Please visit each for a different article, interview, top 10 list, or other bit of fun. I thank each and every one of them for their kindness.




























 


hermen_800.jpg


 


Publisher: Totally Bound


Genre: Contemporary Erotic male-female-male romance


Book Length: 22,000 words




 


BLURB:


Forty-four year old Julie Weston has loved Timmy and James since her college days twenty something years ago. She's fantasized about both all these long years, never able to choose between them.


 


Hoping Tim and James will attend, she attends their college marching band reunion. When both men show up her dreams are answered. They're sexier than she imagined and she hopes they won't be disappointed by her older self.


 


It turns out both men came just to see her again and neither is happy about the other’s presence. They fight over her, confusing her more than ever. It takes a hot ménage…or two…for her heart to decide which one she’s in love with.


 


EXCERPT:


A silhouette fell across her, waking her up from her nap and a husky voice washing over her. “You’re going to be sorry falling asleep out here. This sun is brutal.”


Groggy, she shaded her eyes and looked up at the shadowy figure in awe. “Timmy, is that you? You’re early.”


He leaned down, his body still sinewy and strong, and held out his hand to her. Nary a wrinkle marred his matured face. Only a few laugh lines fanned out from his eyes which added to his attractiveness. “You too. Is that a sign?”


She couldn’t help but chuckle. Since when did Tim believe in signs? “A sign?”


“That you want to see me, be with me in private, as I want to see you and be with you in private.”


She swallowed hard and put her hand in his, her heart somersaulting when they touched for the first time in more than twenty years. A maelstrom of emotion washed over her and she didn’t want to mess up what was probably her last chance to be with him, so she wasn’t about to play coy.


Slowly, seductively, she licked her lips. “You read my mind.”


As he helped her up, his gaze smoldered into hers. He dragged her alongside him and his hard cock swelled  into her side. He nipped her ear then whispered huskily, “Your nipples are puckering through your suit. I’d call that a sign.”


 


Buy link: https://www.totallybound.com/her-men




spookysojourn_800.jpg




Blurb:


Someone’s trying to kill Deanna, but is it the ghosts she doesn’t believe in, the rich socialite who might be a murderess, or someone else with a beef against The Gilroy Hotel and Resort that Deanna has just been hired to manage?  The Gilroy’s owners want the ghosts, or whoever is causing the trouble at the hotel eliminated, and they are pressuring Deanna to do the job as quickly as possible. Harry DeVeaux, paranormal investigator comes highly recommended to do the job and against Deanna’s better judgment, she hires him.


Although Deanna thinks Harry’s crazy for believing in ghosts and Harry thinks Deanna has a closed mind to the possibilities of ghosts and they highly annoy each other, sparks fly. Deanna can’t help but fantasize about Harry and inspired by a romance convention visiting her hotel, writes her fantasies in a private blog that Harry finds, hacks, and reads. Ooh la la!


Excerpt:


Wow!


Deanna reread her fantasy, barely able to believe she’d penned it, wondering if she should delete it. Did she really want to make out with Harry, a perfect stranger, on a public beach? Did she really want her words on the Internet, even in a supposedly private blog under a make-believe name?


Well, it was confidential, right? As long as she didn’t give anybody the web address or password or tell them about it, it would remain secret.


Enough fantasizing! She had to get back to work. Dragging the files out, she familiarized herself with the ghost sightings as well as Lynette’s and Grant’s history. By the time she finished, she knew how they’d died and the theories about their suicides-slash-murders. She also knew that everybody was afraid to point fingers at the now very influential and powerful Roxanne Cambridge-Anderson. Could Roxanne be behind the haunting nonsense? Did she want the hotel shut down? But that made no sense. The rumors portrayed Roxanne as a murderess. It wouldn’t be in her best interest to keep their legend alive.


Deanna’s temples began to ache the harder she thought about everything, so she decided to go to sleep. Hopefully she’d awake if any hijinks took place in the bowling alley.


About three a.m., deafening booms awoke her. Light brightened lane fourteen and all but one pin lay scattered on the wooden floor.


Groggy, Deanna tried to gather her senses. She looked around then, to her horror, she saw an iridescent figure of a man on lane fourteen picking up a glowing ball. Collecting her presence of mind, she grabbed her webcam, pointed it at the ghostly shape and turned it on. Shaking, she tried to hold her computer steady. Not believing what she was seeing, she knew there had to be a rational explanation. Perhaps some machine was projecting the image onto the lanes. Perhaps a real person stood in front of her in glowing phosphorescent powder.


Whatever or whoever it was, picked up the ball, and knocked down the spare pin. Then the ‘apparition’ bowled three strikes in a row.


Unexpectedly, he turned and glared at her, fire shooting from his eyes. Pins flew from all the lanes at her. Her heart racing, she ducked under the score table.




Buy links:
https://www.totallybound.com/spooky-sojourn


CONTEST:












Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Armchair BEA: It's So Nice To Attend From My "Armchair"

Actually, I'm in bed working on my laptop.

I just came from the doctor's office for a recheck on my bronchitis. Unfortunately, I'm still in pretty bad shape: 101.5 fever, trouble breathing, coughing. I had to have a breathing treatment, a shot of steroids, and more meds yet.

My son's also been ill all week. I couldn't leave him in this condition.

Despite all this, I can still attend BEA.



I love the Internet, Twitter, and blogging. I love Skype.

Even if I hadn't been ill, I didn't have the money to trek to NYC much as I'd love to go.

The Internet and the nifty media that comes with it, opens the world to us. We can chat with a roomful of people from many different countries all at once. We were able to plan events, interview each other, and coordinate blogging.

My son's been seeing a counselor in our local area. He told me this weekend that she's moving to Georgia. I thought he'd have to find a new counselor. No. Instead, they'll hold their meetings through Skype. As he's a computer tech, he's won more work to set up several of her clients on Skype.

At my day job we recently set up a web conference room. Instead of spending a lot of time and money to travel, we'll be conducting more webinars and conferences from the comfort of our office.

Think of the possibilities. In future, we'll be able to attend many more conferences from our armchairs. We'll be able to choose counselors and work with many professionals around the globe we couldn't in the past. We'll be able to save gas, cut back on pollution, and save our vacations to visit family and friends.

I don't think in person conferences will ever go away. I'm really looking forward to going to Cincinnati to Lori Foster's Readers and Writers Get Together in a couple weeks. I want to see my family and friends, go to movies with them, eat side by side, and touch them. But it's sure nice to have the option.

Please come back each day this week for more BEA activities. Tomorrow please check out my interview with book lover Kathleen from Boarding in my Forties blog. We had a lot of fun chatting and I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too. As much as you love hearing from authors every Wednesday on my blog, it'll be a change of pace to hear from an avid reader.

Be sure to check out all the other participating blogs. Find them here.

Also be sure to check out #armchairBEA on Twitter for more fun.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Smorgasboard Reviews

Reviews is a popular subject. I've read more than one post about them recently.

During the past few weeks I've received multiple reviews for one of my sweet romances. Some have been good. Some not so good. A couple have made me really heart sick.

For instance, one person said the book was "horrible, horrible". Not just one "horrible", but two.

Another person wrote, "Ick ick ick".

When I read that I seriously considered not only to stop looking at reviews, but to stop requesting them.

But four star reviews for the same book were arriving in my email box. Better yet, I discovered that same book was (is) number one seller on Fictionwise for my publisher and number three for all books at Fictionwise.

What's going on?

I have received a lot of reviews. For that, I'm happy. An author friend mentioned recently she hasn't received a review for a year. And I've also heard other authors say they don't receive many reviews any more.

I see three issues with this.

Number one - Why is the book selling well with such a smorgasbord of reviews?

Number two -  Why is this book getting a lot of reviews?

Number three - What can be learned from this?

Perhaps the book is selling well because reviews are subjective. Often I enjoy (really enjoy) movies that received poor reviews. Some of my favorite albums only received average reviews.

It's also possible that poor reviews generate more interest. People want to find out why the reviewer was so down on a book, to see if it's as bad as the reviewer believed.

Another possibility is that there are a lot of reviews, thus a lot of publicity. Perhaps the readers who bought the book did so because they read the positive reviews. Or perhaps, like me, they buy books because they like the blurb, and don't base buying decisions on reviews.

The last possibility is that I've also had several contests to give away this book. At first, I was nervous giving away a new book, that buyers would hold off buying the book in the hopes of winning it. But that hasn't hurt sales.

Second, I've sent a LOT of review requests out for this book. I sent it to small, medium, and large book review sites. I didn't only send it to large sites. I've held a lot of contests including Blogmania, Blog Jog, and smaller contests. I've also requested several guest blogger spots and author interviews, and received many acceptances. And I've paid it forward so that I interview and host other authors on my blog.

Three - What have I learned?

Be proactive. Ask for reviews, interviews, and guest blogger spots. Hold contests. Be generous.

When you find a poor review, take constructive criticism from it to make the next book better. If there are rude remarks, ignore them. Eat chocolate, soak in a tub, do something to make you feel better and forget the bad stuff.

Recent posts you might like to read:

Author Interview: Wendi Zwaduk 

Author Interview: Frances Pauli


Author Interview: Marcia James

Author Interview: Elaine Hopper

Weathering A Bad Review


What Do You Want in a Romance Hero & What Do You Want in a Real Life Husband?

Rejection: Where Do You Go Next?

Procrastination

Cliche or Coincidence?

Incognito: free short story

Dedicating Books

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Wendi Zwaduk are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Pictures from Lori Foster's Event: Also, Do you want to be interviewed?

As you may or may not know, I attended Lori Foster's Readers' 'N Writers' Get Together this past weekend in Cincinnati. I had a great time. I made many new friends. I learned a lot of good things. I had appointments with one agent and a few editors and publishers. I signed my books. In short, it was awesome.

As promised, here are some pics. Better late than never. :)

* Also, if you're an author or a reader or a reviewer or an editor/publisher and you would like to be interviewed on my blog, please answer the interview questions below and email them to me and I'll feature your interview on my blog. Be sure to answer all the questions that apply and return them to me at:

chinara@aol.com

Since I get a LOT of spam, be sure to put in the subject line: "Interview with Ashley/Your Name"

If you have a book coming out or something time sensitive, let me know and I'll try to post your interview on or very near your special day. This goes for all my old and new friends, and those of you I haven't formally met.

The questions will be below the conference pictures. Just copy and paste and add your answers. If you're an author and would like for me to post your book cover or pic, email that to me with your answered interview questions.



Cerridwen author: Joanna Waugh





Wendy and 1st Lt. (I'm sorry I forgot your name)




Author Lori Foster




Author Kelly Nyrae


Above and below: Authors Ashley Ladd (in pink), Trenea Sumter (sitting), and Autumn Bell (standing, in costume). This was 3 out of our 4 woman dinner/movie girls' night out crew. We went to see "Sex in the City" and we had a blast. I can't wait to hang out with them again.








Author Autumn Bell




Authors Lucy Monroe and Susanna Carr (We signed at the same table and they were both extremely nice and helpful with writing and promotion advice.)




The "Power of Love" anthology authors





Rhonda Penders (left) publisher of Wild Rose Press, and author Ashley Ladd




Authors Trenea Sumter and Ashley Ladd
Oops! I HAVE TO go on a diet (again). Soon as I get back to Florida I'm going back to eating mainly fruits and veggies and working out daily!!!
As you can see, we had a blast. I've not had so much fun in a long time.
And now, for the Interview Questions:
1) Are you a writer, reader, book reviewer, edit, agent, or publisher?
2) If you're a reader (and what person above isn't) what genres are your favorite to read? What are your favorite books and authors?
3) What is your all-time favorite book?
4) About how many books do you read in a month? A year?
5) What makes you like a book?
6) What makes you hate a book? What makes you throw a book against a wall? (Have you ever thrown a book against a wall or given up in the middle in frustration?)
7) Do you belong to a readers' group?
8) If you're a writer, what genres do you write in? Why?
9) Please tell us the names of all your published books and where we can get them.
10) If you're a writer, who do you write for? If you're a reviewer, who do you review for? If you're another publishing professional, who do you work for?
11) Are you running any contests, spotlights, or other promotions you'd like for us to know about?
10) Do you have a day job also, and if so what is it? Did you hold any other jobs before this one? If so, what were they?
11) What are your hobbies and passions other than reading and writing?
12) Where do you live? What do you like best about your home town? Were you born here or somewhere else?
13) Tell us a bit about your family and pets.
14) What is your daily routine?
15) What conferences, book signings, or other appearances might we meet you at in the next year?
16) Tell us any other interesting tid bits about yourself or your books you'd like for us to know.
(Please feel free to delete any questions you may be uncomfortable answering).
Thanks in advance!
** Sometimes my mail overflows my email box so please, if you don't hear from me within two days, email your questions and answers again until you receive a response from me.

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