Wicked Wednesday – Behind the scenes

FURY CALLS by Caridad Pineiro, March 2009, Silhouette NocturneThis Wicked Wednesday, I’m giving you a behind the scenes look at the characters in FURY CALLS, my March 2009 release from Silhouette Nocturne! Just pop on over to my friends at Fresh Fiction by clicking here or cutting and pasting this link into your browser window: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=1602

If you leave a comment on the blog over that Fresh Fiction, you’ll be eligible to win a copy of DESIRE CALLS as well as a CALLING T-shirt.

Also – gearing up here for a week long b’day celebration! Starting on March 9, look for a number of posts with info on where I’ll be guest blogging and how you can win some prizes!!

Fun Friday – Romance

As a romance writer, you get used to being bashed. Some bashing is just too funny not to appreciate and I hope you’ll get a laugh out of this one!

Have a great weekend!

Wanted to give you a heads up that starting March 9, I’ll be visiting a number of places and you’ll have a chance to win some fun prizes. I’ll be posting more details later next week!

Wicked Wednesday – FURY CALLS

FURY CALLS by Caridad Pineiro, Silhouette Nocturne, March 2009Today’s Wicked Wednesday is an excerpt from FURY CALLS, my March Silhouette Nocturne release, but first, just a reminder that you can be be eligible for a drawing to win a CALLING T-shirt, copy of DESIRE CALLS and SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD if you leave a comment at either of these blogs!

http://bronzeword.wordpress.com/ – Just mention Caridad sent you on the blog!

TRC Reading Blogpspot – The blog is up today so please drop by and leave a comment.

This scene from FURY CALLS is a flashback to the night that Blake and Meghan meet and which will forever change both their lives! I hope you enjoy it. Also remember that HONOR CALLS, my Nocturne Bite e-novella, is available right now at E-harlequin.com.


He had amazing ice blue eyes and when he smiled, a sexy grin dragged a dimple out on the right side of his handsome face.

She smiled back, picked up her glass of tequila and downed it in one gulp, wincing at the strength of the straight liquor.

Mr. Platinum Punk clearly seemed amused by her as he chuckled and shook his head. The longer strands of hair at the top of his head shifted with the motion. He picked up his empty glass and motioned to it with an index finger. She noticed as he did so that he wore a steel ring with some kind of ornate design on this thumb and some thin black bracelets on his wrist.

He definitely had the whole Bad Boy thing down pat.

She didn’t need any further prompting, determined to live out the dare which had been made earlier in the day. The dare which said that they not only had to visit the hangout, but also hook up with at least one bar denizen before leaving for the night. While she wasn’t into one night stands, a nice makeout session with someone as sexy as the man down at the end of the bar wouldn’t be so bad.

She shoved two fingers into the air and waved them to get the barkeep’s attention. When he brought the shots over, she reached into her jeans, pulled out a twenty and tossed it on the counter. Ignoring her friends’ excited squeals as they realized her intent to fulfill the dare, she sashayed the few feet to the handsome punk, smiling as his gaze drifted down her body to where her hips were encased in snug black jeans, shifted back upward across her breasts and finally settled on her face.

Slipping her ass onto the cracked plastic pad of the empty bar stool beside his, she slammed the shot onto the rough surface of the counter.

“This is what you wanted, right?” she said.

Blake let his gaze slip from her attractive face to linger on her body, admiring all the lush curves beneath the black. Full breasts strained over the edge of the cotton tank top she wore beneath a leather jacket that was a bit too big, almost as if she had borrowed it for the night.

She shifted the glass closer to him and a hint of black lace peeked out from the neckline of the tank top as she said, “Well? Cat got your tongue?”

“No, would be the answer to both of those questions, love.” He pitched the tone of his voice low, striving for that sexy rasp women seemed to find so enticing.

“Brit?” she asked and picked up her shot glass before bringing it to her lush lips and slugging it back. As she had done before, she winced after the drink went down.

“New to this, love?” he teased.

He picked up his own glass and tossed back the drink, the liquor strong and dragging a grimace from him. His preferred beverage — blood — generally went down smoother and had a far different kick.

She chuckled at his reaction and shook her head. “Seems you’re new to this as well.”

The liquor warmed his belly, but not as much as the thought of taking a nip out of her luscious flesh. Scooting to the edge of his bar stool, he leaned toward her, brushed aside her shoulder length hair and whispered in her ear, “Cat definitely doesn’t have my tongue.”

To prove it, he licked the shell of her ear and she couldn’t control the shiver that traveled over her body before she moved away from him.

“Fast aren’t you?” she said, but her words lacked sting and an amused expression slipped across her cute Girl-Next-Door-features before she forced her face back into the disinterested scowl she had worn when he had first noticed her.

“That makes two of us, doesn’t it?”

Guest Blogging

blog1I’m a firm believer that one of the most effective ways for any writer to spread the word about themselves is via the Internet.

Whether you do it by having a website or blog, doing press releases or video trailers, the Net is the way to get more bang for your buck. Another of those ways is by doing guest blogging on other people’s sites.

How do you go about doing guest blogging? First, build a network of connections. Reach out to friends with blogs or visit blogs that you find interesting and ask them what you need to do to be a guest blogger.

I’ve done that recently and am guest blogging at two sites this week! For those of you who visit those sites and leave a message, you’ll be eligible for a drawing to win a CALLING T-shirt, copy of DESIRE CALLS and SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD. Just leave a comment at either of these blogs!

http://bronzeword.wordpress.com/ – Just mention Caridad sent you on the blog!

TRC Reading Blogpspot – I’ll be blogging there tomorrow to discuss FURY CALLS, so please drop by and leave a comment.

Sign up with one of the promotion companies that will put together a blog tour for you. I’ve used my friend Dorothy Thompson’s service, PUMP UP YOUR PROMOTIONS, and she does a nice job!

Hope this Tuesday Tip gives you some ideas for your next book promo.

Also — Harlequin is celebrating it’s 60th Anniversary and to do so, it is giving away 16 free books — one from each of its imprints. Click on the icon below to get your free books or visit www.HarlequinCelebrates.com.

Click here for free books!

Building an Effective Web Presence Part 4

pc.jpgPart 4: Getting people to visit your site

You may be asking yourself, as a pre-published writer, why should I worry about getting people to visit my site?

If you’ve been reading the publishing news (and I’d highly recommend that if you haven’t already subscribed to Publishers Lunch that you do), publishing had its Black Wednesday recently. Layoffs at Simon & Schuster and Houghlin Mifflin announcing that it had a freeze on acquisitions. Lots going on at other publishing houses as well.

What does that mean for all of us? Maybe less slots available for commercial fiction.

If you’re a publisher and have a choice between two pre-published writers – one who has regular visitors to their website and one who doesn’t – who would you choose? One has demonstrated that they know how to get publicity and may already have an established group of people to notify about their book.

So how do you get people to visit your website?

I’m a firm proponent of blogging based on my own experience. I have nearly 4 times the visitors I had two years ago since I started blogging. But like anything else, if you’re not going to commit to doing it regularly, don’t start.

What’s regular? That’s really up to you. Once a week? That’s fine as long as you let your readers know and they can expect that weekly post.

If you’re going to post more than once a week, consider themed days. I do that so readers know when to visit. Some like the fun days, some like the excerpts. I do each on the same day each week so people know when to come back.

Also – you can feed your blog to various other sites, increasing your presence on the web. If you’ve got friends with blogs, get together and put together guest blogs. Share banners or links with those friends or get listed on other similar sites as well.

You can also consider writing articles to draw traffic to your site.

Finally, make sure you get listed on the search engines by submitting your site to the search engines and by making sure you’ve got the right metatags in your website (ask your programmer on how to do the metatags). That will help people find you on the web.

Hope this Tuesday Tip was helpful!