Happy St. Patrick's Day! While you're guzzling green beverages and pinning on your "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" buttons, check out my featured book for March: "My Immortal." It's a paranormal Rubenesque romance that toys with the idea of reincarnation, soul mates and sacrificing it all for love. You want angst? I deliver in this book and then some, and for this month only it's $.99 for your Kindle!!
*Special Note: If you're digging the music used for these book trailers, check out my buddy Hal Sparks and his band Zero 1. If you're in Los Angeles, be sure to check out local gigs... you never know what Groupie-esque romance writer you'll see in the audience.
If you're in the mood for an Irish short story involving luck and romance, check out my free short story, The Luck of the Irish (In Love.)
And of course if you haven't already checked out what's got readers excited about "Groupie," the first book in the series is on sale for only $1.99!!
For more deals, featured books and all the latest information about upcoming books, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/GingerVoight. And please drop a line to let me know what you think about the books. I love the feedback!
In 1995, Harlequin put out a call for new submissions with a specific slant. They wanted books that used the written word as an instrument to find romance. I came up with a plot that involved anonymous, romantic postcards that ended up in the wrong hands, in a comedy of errors to find true love.
At the time I was recovering from the emotional devastation of losing my youngest son, who had passed away January 1995 when he was only nine days old. I needed something light-hearted in which to immerse myself, so I tackled my first genre romance. Today it may be considered Chick Lit, or even a romantic comedy. Unlike some of my more angst-y stories, this one was written to be a good time: fun, flirty, funny, sometimes cringe-worthy, but uplifting good-time fluff.
Sometimes you just need it, you know?
Like I mentioned in the note for LOVE PLUS ONE, I initially envisioned my heroine as perfect as all the lovely ladies I had read about as a kid, when I would plow through Harlequin romances as fast as my aunt could pass them off to me. PICTURE POSTCARDS actually was the first to get an agent’s attention, but we ran into some trouble trying to sell it to publishers. They didn’t find Caitlin to be believable or relatable. She was, as they said, “too perfect.” I shelved the project for years, ultimately converting it into a screenplay years later. I figured I could leave how they pictured the affable Caitlin up to a casting director.
Bottom line, I wasn’t ready to give up on PICTURE POSTCARDS yet. I always loved the story, especially the nostalgic, almost whimsical, fairy-tale feel of it. Surely there had to be a way to make it work, I just had to find it.
As years passed I realized how dated my concept really was. What worked in 1995 wouldn’t work in the 21st century, and it seemed further and further out of reach with the introduction of each new gadget or gizmo. We are way more connected than we used to be, so finding love through misplaced snail-mail correspondence grew even more unrealistic by the year. When I decided to rewrite the story with a full-figured heroine, thus resolving the “too perfect” dilemma, I was then faced with the challenge of making my dated plot a contemporary story. It finally fit right into place with the realization there’s only one thing you can do with a modern day fairy tale: you tell it as a bedtime story.
My solution enabled me to fall in love with the characters in a brand new way, simply because I got to see what their lives were like after “The End.”
In the spirit of Cyber Monday, here are some freebies and bargains for you to enjoy for the holiday.
Check out SAN FRANCISCO SERENADE, a Christmas novella that is free for your Kindle Monday, November 26.
Also free for Monday is COMIC SQUAD. Check it out for the younger reader on your holiday gift-giving list.
For some sexy suspense, download TASTE OF BLOOD, the first book in the Reese Mackenzie franchise.
And for the Cyber Monday low price of only $3.99, you can download three of my Rubenesque romance novels in a convenient, low-cost bundle. That's less than $1.50 per book! This bundle is only available through the holidays, so act now to own all three books at these rock-bottom prices. (Fans of the GROUPIE franchise will want to get to know some of these characters, who will be making appearances in the third book in the GROUPIE trilogy, MOGUL, in February!)
Don't forget you can own both GROUPIE and ROCK STAR in a low-cost bundle! Just $5.99 for both, at a savings of 25% off the listing prices if you bought both books separately!
My titles are also available on All Romance eBooks, and for Cyber Monday there are significant savings, which will help fit any of my titles into your Cyber Monday Budget. ;)
So Happy Shopping, Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!!
November 21 is my birthday, and the Universe has been exceptionally generous to me this year. I thought I'd share these blessings with others by offering a little something to all of you.
Most of you who have read my books are familiar with my romances or gritty dramas, but one of my favorite books that I've written is geared more toward the kid in all of us. It's called COMIC SQUAD, and it features some of my favorite characters ever in a story near and dear to my heart.
Not only is it a labor of love, it's the baby I conceived, labored and delivered thanks to my beloved hubby, @MrGeevie.
My husband, Steven, is a geek. A loud and proud, card-carrying, comic-book-collecting, Doctor-Who-salivating geek. He was going to Comic Con before it was the "hip" thing to do, back when it only cost $45 to go all four days. This was back when he pursued his passion by managing a comic book store. His ultimate dream is to own one.
This is the kind of guy who has spent hours in a darkened theater watching "Star Trek" movie marathons, and has seen almost every comic book movie at its midnight showing.
You wanna talk romance: our very first date was at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood when he saw that the 1982 geekgasmic "Tron" was playing. I indulged him because I'm a geek in my own right (Journey had provided the music for the soundtrack) but I guess I shoulda known then exactly what I was getting into.
When we first moved in together I found myself up to my ears in discarded Magic the Gathering collectible card wrappers. By 1999 I still hadn't seen Star Wars: The Original Trilogy and so he had to correct this grievous wrong by making me watch the original three back to back in one sitting.
(For those who think I'm making you wait for the GROUPIE Trilogy, thank your lucky stars I'm not George Lucas. S'all I'm sayin.)
The ringtone of his cell phone is the Doctor Who theme, and his text alert is a Dalek. If he and Dr. Sheldon Cooper got into a debate over the finer aspects of comic books or science fiction, he'd win and Sheldon would finally short circuit as a result.
Not only is he a geek, he's a carrier. Thanks to Steven I have been sitting right beside him at those midnight showings. I have become versed in things like Doctor Who and Star Wars, and I live for The Big Bang Theory each and every Thursday night.
After living with him for many years, I decided to dig a little deeper in the geek sandbox to come up with a story that would be accessible to all readers, not just the adults I usually cater to. It was a challenge, because the way my demented mind works I thought for sure I'd end up writing something more Flowers in the Attic than Stand By Me.
But I had a whole lot of fun watching these comic book adventure movies, so I really wanted to flex my muscle past all the angst and drama and write one. More importantly, I wanted to write a story that involved a young comic book fan that was a kick-butt, wickedly smart girl. I knew I could related to her because I know what it means not to fit in with any group. But I wanted to take all the confidence hard won as an adult and stuff it into the fearless mind of an adolescent. As a result, Alice Thornton was born.
Perhaps I say this because I am, in fact, her mother, but Alice is one of the bravest, strongest, most solid heroines I have ever had the pleasure to write. She's quick thinking and fearless, and determined to do whatever it takes to protect the ones she loves most.
She's what I wish I could have been at age 12.
At first, her devotion is saved specifically for a fictional hero named Joe Dakota, who came alive only through panels of an old comic book she used to share with father. These familiar stories bring her comfort in the wake of her dad's death. They also drive a big wedge between Alice and her mother, the over-worked and under-appreciated Barbara Thornton, who learned the hard way there were no such things as superheroes.
Both Barbara and Alice are uprooted from their comfortable existence and thrown into a new town where neither one off them fit in, especially with each other.
Serendipitously, however, Alice happens upon the only other person in her vicinity that would have any use for her or her antiquated box of old comic book memorabilia - an opportunistic little weasel named Dwight. He owns the local comic book store and really, REALLY, wants to get his hands on a piece of her rare paraphernalia. In the world of "Joe Dakota," only five issues of a 3-D comic book were released, to go along with a matching pair of 3-D glasses. Time had scattered the collectibles so that no one owned a matching set, making it Dwight's lifelong pursuit to do just that.
When Dwight sees she has the glasses, he takes it as a cue from fate that he is destined to have them, since he already owns one of those rare five issues. He uses nefarious means to procure the object of his desire and inadvertently tearing open a portal between their world and that of the fictional "Joe Dakota."
This causes quite a hullabaloo in their peaceful little burg as an evil villain gains access to their town and all the unsuspecting adults in it. The only people who know what's wrong - or how to fix it - are a hodge-podge group of geeks who must depend on each other and their individual strengths to subdue the bad guy before he takes over their world.
When I first wrote this book for NaNoWriMo many years back, a Myspace friend who read along as I posted sample chapters asked if she could read it to her class. I, of course, said yes. The kids loved it, and every adult I've shared it with feels the same way. Yet for some reason it is my slowest moving book, which breaks my heart and confounds the hubby. Nearest we can figure, it just hasn't found its audience yet hidden adrift all the other titles for middle grade readers.
So here's the deal. It's my birthday but I'm the one who's gonna be giving the presents. I'm going to give away Kindle copies of Comic Squad. If you have a kid in your life, especially on your Christmas gift list, give it a read and see if it's something you'd like to pass along as a present of your own.
This is a book about finding the hero in yourself - and in your family and friends. I'm extraordinarily proud of it. (It is my baby, after all.) I hope to finish and release book 2 by July, and I've got my sights set on the San Diego Comic Con to premiere it.
(If you're gonna dream, dream big.)
All I need are people to fall in love with it and champion it like Groupie. It's not filled with the adult stuff I normally write, but if you have a young reader in your life, I'm pretty sure he (and especially she) won't be disappointed. There are huge spiders, fireworks, magic potions, evil villains and kids trying to save the day. What's not to love?
So join our party, won't you? This holiday season, free your inner geek!! :D
I had intended to write a free scary/romantic short story around the theme of Halloween for you all, but got seriously sidelined by an unexpected illness right at the end of the month.
"Taste of Blood" was a story that I developed with a producer/director, who was looking for a vampire-themed story he could film in Romania. By a stroke of luck I had a vampire story ("My Immortal") but he wanted to get away from the more traditional Gothic love story that contained. Instead, he wanted a grittier, contemporary, urban take on the myth that could basically be summed up in the pitch: "Interview with a Vampire" meets "Se7en."
What he did like from "My Immortal" was my heroine, who had a tenuous grasp on her sanity. This is largely due to the fact she used to be a vampire in a past life. So I developed the protagonist of TOB, Reese Mackenzie, to face similar paranormal challenges. Instead of being a reincarnated vampire like "My Immortal's" heroine, Adele, Reese has psychic visions concerning murder victims just 'cuz she was born that way. These start as premonitions prior to any contact, but once she heads over to good ol' Transylvania, her gift kicks into overdrive. She makes the frightening discovery that merely coming into physical contact with someone can give her the foresight of their death.
Reese already knows what can happen if she makes the mistake of telling people they're going to die before they do, so she hides from this gift as long as she can. Each clue hits closer and closer to home until she is propelled into action. Ultimately she becomes her own detective to piece together the clues left behind by this serial killer, who is bound and determined for the world to think he's a vampire.
Whether he is or not... eh, you'll have to read the book to know for sure. ;)
If you're a fan of my romances, this is not a romance novel - although there is a romantic element. This was written as a thriller/horror story, and it gets scary even for me. I get to flex a little different muscle with "Taste of Blood." And Reese is a lot of fun to write, and I can definitely see taking her into other mystical adventures in the future. Book One is mostly based on the screenplay I developed with aforementioned producer/director, that was sadly shelved after financing fell through. (Ah, Hollywood.)
The Kindle version is free for Halloween only, and I'll be giving away paperbacks through a Goodreads contest starting November 1.
So enjoy this spooky read as a Halloween treat from me to you. And if you do get to read the book for free, consider giving it a rating/review - especially if you really enjoy it and want to see another book in the series.
