I’m happy to announce that my first book DEADLY SECRETS is now available for pre-orders at LBF Books, my publishers website. I am planning a nice launch on December 6 and a family thing on Nov 29. I can’t wait to get my hands on some copies. I have waited 14 years for this to happen.

 Please help me raise funds for Breast Cancer research and pay for mammograms for women who can’t afford to get one. How can you do this? By purchasing a copy of DEADLY SECRETS. I will be donating at least 50% of all my royalties and my publisher will be donating proceeds as well. Together I believe we can make a difference.

 Here is where you can purchase a copy of DEADLY SECRETS.

Inspiration can be found in many places in different ways. Often simple pick me up conversations with a fellow author will do it. For me what gets me motivated to write and be better is hearing what my fellow RWA chapter writers have done and their accomplishment. There is nothing like hearing someone who had a block get through it or sell a book, get a good review or good contest results to get me going. The only problem is that my chapter is slowly phasing that out because our membership is increasing. I can understand it takes more time but I’d hate to see it go.

This week I saw a video that touched me and motivated me all in one. It was originally posted on Smart Bitches Trashy Books (Fabulous website by the way). What is it? Well it’s a documentary produced by Marianne Mancusi. It details Sherrilyn Kenyon’s road to success. For an author this is great inspiration. We all think that the big authors were born that way or were accepted with their first submission. That’s not the case. These kind of documentaries keeps author spirits going, just like mine.

Thanks Ms Mancusi for producing a great inspiring documentary and thank you Ms Kenyon for sharing your own private yet inspiring story of following your dream. This author intends to do just that.

Here is the link to the video on Youtube. For some unknown reason I can’t upload it through Wordpress like other blog sites.

A few years ago I kept hearing that e-books would take over trade paperbacks and mass paperback sales. Then everyone said that would never happen. E-books would simply die a slow death. Well it seems that e-books aren’t going away any time soon. E-books sales are actually on the rise. According to the International Digital Publishing Forum in conjunction with the Association of American Publishers retail sales of e-books reached $31.8 million in 2007. Sales increased 59 percent more than the $20 million in 2006 sales. Sales in 2005 were $10.8 million and in 2004 were $10 million.

I can’t wait to see my book released in e-books and contribute a small amount of sales to those figures.

Barbara Vey blogger of BEYOND HER BOOK is celebrating the  first anniversaryof her blog at Publishers Weekly.  Ms Vey blogs about some of my favourite authors, romance authors of course and woman’s fiction.  I’ve enjoyed reading her blog over the year and look forward to reading more.

Congratulations Ms Vey!  Here’s to 10 or so more years of blogging!

Stop by, say hello and get a chance to win some prizes Beyond Her Book.

Why are authors lying and why are publishers publishing their lies? This week Margaret B Jones came clean, she’s really Margaret Seltzer a white 33 year old woman who wrote Love and Consequences. Her book is about a hard-luck story of growing up in a “gang family” in South Central Los Angeles which she said she lived through.  However she didn’t. Previously this month Misha Defonseca also admitted that her holocaust memoirs was complete fiction.  This is nothing new to us readers remember a few years ago we had A Million Little Pieces by James Frey who revealed that his memoirs had some fiction in it. 

What I wonder is why aren’t these publishers doing their research and seeing if these authors are telling the truth or not.  I mean it can’t cost all that much to do a background check on them.  It would save them from the embarrassment of recalling so many books and refunding readers.  Which leaves their reputation in taters. What really angers me is that there is a true memoir out there that they rejected in order to publish these falsehoods.  Shame on these publishers.

Anne Rice shocked her fans when she walked away from her vampire series a few years ago to start writing Christian fiction instead. Well Vampire fans rejoice according to an article on Time magazine website Ms Rice has one more Vampire book left to write.  

Now I have to admit I didn’t read any of her Vampire or even her Christian fiction books, but you have to love an author who is truly dedicated to her craft as Ms Rice is. I loved watching interviews of her on 202/20 and other shows. She’s a fascinating lady.

When does the new vampire book hit the bookstore shelves? Well her second Christian book Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana will be released March 4 2008. She’s committed to writing a third Christian fiction book in her new series and then she plans to write another vampire story.

Will it be the last one? Who knows

I received a note from RWA about the issue of Cassie Edwards’s plagiarism.  It was sent in an RWA Alert email.  They voiced their concerns about this issue.  They do not support plagiarism but also admitted that Ms Edwards hasn’t been an active member of the RWA for a few years.  They also reelased a statement that Smart Bitches (a site this author strongly supports) has posted on their site. Click here to read the article.

Nora Robert has also been quoted on this issue. Some of you might remember that she was a victim to plagiarism a few years ago.  She won her case and donated all the funds to charity.  I won’t make the mistake of quoting what Ms Roberts said (Why? I’ll probably get it all wrong). Instead click here  to read the article on CNN.

My question today is do you agree with Ms Roberts?

Quite a few romance blogs have been discussing the issue of plagiarism since a wonderful site called Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books discovered 16 passages from a book by Cassie Edwards having similarity to another text book.  I encourage you to read their passage on it, click here  to read the passage.

Another great blog site who doesn’t shy away from controversial discussions, Dear Author has gone one step further and voiced their concern to the CEO of Penguin the publisher involved with Cassie Edwards book about their reactions and comments to this issue.  I applaud this gutsy reader for voicing her opinion and sending to the right person.  Way to go Dear Author! If you want to read her letter click here . They are also encouraging other who share the same opinion to also contact Penguin.

Since I haven’t read either book I can’t really weigh in on this too heavily.  However I would love to hear what you as readers or fellow writers have to say about this subject?