Bella Street Romance Goes Retro

Shawn K Maravel , author and designer extraordinaire, came up with this book trailer for my book Kiss Me, I'm Irish . How cool is that?? Pretty stinkin' cool.

Shawn lives with her husband in Germany where he's stationed in the Army. She's the author of two books, Volition and Severance , which I have on my TBR list (and in my Kindle). Can't wait! Shawn, tell me a bit about your writing bio: (when you started, fav genres/authors) I started writing when I was young. I once wrote a story about a family going on a trip…the brother, after being attacked (I forget why) resorted to using his Bop-It as a weapon of self-defense. I actually really enjoyed writing that story…but I remember that the word “plunged” was used A LOT. Anyway…I started to write seriously about three years ago when my husband enlisted in the Army and even more seriously when he deployed in 2009 for a year to Iraq. My favorite genres are Young Adult, Literary Fiction, and Romance Novels (as sort of a guilty pleasure). I write both YA and Literary Fiction and…to be honest, I would love to write romance novels but I’m pretty sure I’d have to create an alias for t...

I only just started the books about a year ago and read them out to my kids. We didn't have time to finish them before the last film, Deathly Hallows Part 2 , which we wanted to see in the theater. We did and it was superlative. Aside from the compelling characters, incredible direction and amazing FX, what impressed me most was the realization that the author cared about her readers. J.K. Rowling never forgot her responsibility to her fans and she treated them with utmost honor and respect. We can easily see times when the almighty dollar takes precedence over storytelling (think most film sequels), when what made the movie or book so good the first time is absent the second time around. Why can't the powers that be recognize what originally made the story great and replicate it? I believe J.K. Rowling did not bump into success, instead, she wrote from her heart and continued writing that way through the series. She knew what made them good and didn't have to cobbl...

A cool shortcut to entering my contest Help Spread The Z Word . Hat tip to Shawn Maravel for leading the way. Contest details here . Check the entry form out and don't forget to get your FREE copy of The Z Word here .

My contest to promote my new release, The Z Word , is live! The best part, is no cost is involved. It's free, baby, free--at least on Smashwords ( Amazon is charging 99 cents, so a heads up there). The Z Word is the first book in the Apocalypse Babes series. It's been said that a sure sign of the coming apocalypse is an 80s roller skate disco movie coming to DVD (with special features). In the science-fiction novel series Apocalypse Babes, a stylish group of twenty-something friends are torn from the Babylonian arms of 2006 West Hollywood and flung nearly thirty years into the past. It might be because one of them purchased the taboo film in a nostalgic moment, setting off a chain of events more disturbing than a roller skating conga line. They wake up in an apocalyptic but strangely familiar landscape, complete with a hidden mountain compound and retro survivalists, hinting at hidden and retro secrets they must face if they want to survive. Book One follows...

For the month of July, all my titles are FREE at Smashwords. Just go to the Smashwords website, click on any of my titles and at checkout, enter the code SSWSF. And don't forget to enter my contest . Where else could you get the chance to win a pink Juicy Couture tracksuit??