What Kind of Marketing Turns Your Crank? Or Stalls the Engine?

All right, so I'm not at RWA. I made the choice not to go for several reasons, one is I have so much work to do!!!

I just finished some revisions on my upcoming paranormal, Pride Mates, and I'm heavily invested in finishing Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage. (BTW, I posted pub dates for the next books in the Lord Ian Mackenzie series on my other blog: http://www.jennifersromances.blogspot.com )

I also need to market my upcoming erotic paranormal romance, Mortal Seductions by Allyson James (Sept. 2009).

The thing is, I don't know what to do for it.

Any ideas? What kind of marketing makes you pick up a book? Ads? Campaigns? Blog tours? Interviews? Or should I just sit back, write my novels, let them appear on the shelves and have readers take if from there?

Feel free to be honest about what do you like to see. Or not see!

Eeeeeew!

Beware! Sometimes the creepiest things happen in your own back yard.

I found that out in a big way a couple days ago. I’m lounging on the back porch when I feel some kind of insect crawling/buzzing near my ear. Not thinking too much about it, I brush it away. What happened next was bizarre. Instead of flying off, the thing dashes RIGHT INTO MY EAR!

OMG! I slap at my ear and dig my finger in. The thing burrows in deeper. I jump up and shake my head like a crazy woman. I can feel the thing crawling around in my ear, and it is about the WORST THING EVER. I don’t even know what kind of bug it was! But it wasn’t any tiny little thing. A fat fly? Or…OMG - a YELLOW JACKET? OMG! How long before it stings me? Images of Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn explode in my brain. I know just how Chekov felt when Kahn’s slug thing slithered into his ear.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

I run inside the house screaming for my husband, who’s in the basement playing video games with the kids. He yells back for me wait a minute. Wait a minute? Wait a minute? While some alien bug burrows into my brain and takes over my thought processes? I can feel the thing wriggling. I’m clawing at my ear. “Wait a minute” suddenly sounds like grounds for divorce.

“No!” I scream. “I need you NOW!”

My panic must have cut through the video game haze. The DH bounds up the steps, my son and daughter on his heels.

“I’ve got a bug in my ear! Get it out! Get it out now!”

I’m thinking DH will need tweezers, or will have to haul me to the emergency room, but luckily as soon as I stop clawing at my ear long enough for him to look, the bug decides that maybe this nice dark hole isn’t quite the safe haven it had supposed. It crawls out and drops onto the floor.

It’s a creepy skinny black beetle with pincers.

My hands are shaking, I can’t breathe, and my ear is bleeding from a gash inflicted by my fingernail. DH gallantly scoops up the monster and disposes of it. I gulp in a lung full of air and try to calm down. My son thinks this is the coolest thing ever. My daughter puts her hands over her ears and declares she is never going outside again in her life.

DH says he hopes the thing didn’t lay any eggs while it was in there.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!


Joy

RWA National Conference

Come see the Chatelaines in DC. We'll be at the Romance Writers of America National Conference in Washington DC this week. Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 7:30 we'll be signing at the Wardman Park Marriott with 500 other authors. The proceeds go to help Literacy in America. So come say hello to Bonnie, C.L. Gerri, Emily and Cindy. And tell Jennifer and Joy that you missed them as we will.

Back from Neverland

No, not that Neverland.

I just got back from a family vacation in Disneyland in Southern California. It really is easy to escape every worry and responsibility at the happiest place on Earth. There is so much there to distract you. I hadn't been to Disneyland for thirteen years.

Things in the Magic Kingdom have changed since then. For instance, where the old parking lot used to be is a new theme park called California Adventure. My kids ~loved~ the Tower of Terror. Me, not so much. Anything with "terror" in the title should have been my first clue . . . My speed is more the Disneyland side of things, especially the classics. Tom Sawyer's Island was a welcome escape on a hot summer day with the lovely shady alcoves.

It's a Small World had changed slightly since my last visit, incorporating more of the characters from current Disney productions and a bit of musical relief with "theme" songs that harmonized with that other song that hasn't quite left my brain yet. That's Woody from Toy Story on the left. We learned that they are producing a Toy Story 3--something to do with a large pink teddy bear with anger management issues. Sounds interesting.

I truly enjoy strolling through New Orleans Square and admiring all the beautiful iron work as well as visiting one of my favorite rides, the Pirates of the Caribbean. They managed to squeeze Jack Sparrow into the setting three times.

But my all-time favorite ride has to be Indiana Jones. Love it! Not sure why since I'm not so hot on roller coasters, but it's a wild ride that thrills and exhilarates. It appeals to the adventurer/archeologist in me.

What's your favorite ride or your favorite memory from Disneyland or Disney World? Or what would you recommend as the perfect family vacation?

STROKE OF GENIUS Name a Character Contest

from Emily Bryan . . .
In case you aren't aware of my STROKE OF GENIUS Name a Character Contest, let me explain how it works. Readers are helping me choose a name for a character in my current WIP whom I've designated as XXX for now. (He's my hero's best friend and manservant and he looks suspiciously like the Brits' Prince Harry!)

For the past month my readers have sent in their entries. And now I've finally decided on the 10 names that will advance to the next round. Whew! (If you check out my Contest Entries page, you'll see what a tough job that was! As opposed to the easy task of admiring this Fortin & Sanders pic I'm using as inspiration for my hero, Crispin Hawke.)

Now I need YOUR help! Please pop over to my website and vote for YOUR favorite name. If you do, you'll be entered in a separate drawing for a WHOLE BOX OF BOOKS that I bagged at RT last April. One vote per person please and you must be at least 18 to vote.

If you'd like to leave a note here explaining why you think your choice is the best one, that'd be grand.