I’m visiting today with my friend and fellow author Katie Reus. I’m sharing why I like Dangers and Secrets and what they have to do with my latest release, AZTEC GOLD. Click there to come by for a visit!
Joe Manganiello – Totally Hot Guilty Pleasure
With the frightful cold weather we need something really really hot to warm up these chilly days – Joe Manganiello. Now I don’t watch TRUE BLOOD, but Joe has me reconsidering that decision. Can we say way hot? Check out this video of a photo shoot for MEN’S HEALTH AND FITNESS.
Not sure I’m a fan of the beard though. What do you think?
STRONGER THAN SIN Awakenings Excerpt on Wicked Wednesday
This Wicked Wednesday I’m offering up an excerpt from STRONGER THAN SIN that I’ve titled “Awakenings” because as Jesse and Liliana are thrust together, understanding awakens desire, especially in Jesse. He’s been alone for so long that Liliana’s caring and compassion are almost overwhelming.
If you cannot see the excerpt below, you can click here. Don’t have the time to read it now or want a more private moment? You can click on download to save it to your electronic reading device.
If you’ve bought STRONGER THAN SIN, many thanks for your support. If you haven’t, click here for more information on STRONGER THAN SIN or take a moment to stop by one of these booksellers to check it out.
Order at Barnes & Noble
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Order at Borders
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Indiebound
Frosty Friday
It’s snowing again, but luckily it’s not too chilly. I managed to get to work without plowing my non 4×4 car into a snow bank and I’m looking forward to the weekend since I’ll have time to finally do some reading. Plus I’ve got some ideas for some new books and can’t wait to dive into them!
Today I’m visiting the Tami’s Misc. Ramblings blog and would love it if you could drop by to find out a little bit more about me, my geeky past as well as the inspiration for AZTEC GOLD and the new SIN HUNTER series (which expands on the SINS series).
Also – the winner from Rachel Firasek’s blog for a copy of an ARC for THE LOST is CindyL! Please send me your postal address and I’ll get you the copy as soon as I have one.
Have a great weekend! Stay safe and see you all next week.
Dark Waters and Deadly Pursuits
Welcome today to the new website! I hope you like it and would love to hear from you about it. To celebrate there are lots of fun things going in, including the chance to win a $5.00 gift card for helping to pick the name of a new hero. Just choose one of the names below and leave your vote as a comment.
Also take a moment to visit with me at two blogs that I’m doing today!
Join me for a discussion of Deadly Pursuits at Cynthia’s Eden’s My Deadly Valentine blog tour! Then also join me at Ester Lopez’s wonderful blog where a chat about writing and STRONGER THAN SIN.
And now, please welcome my great friend and wonderful author, Gabriella Hewitt who is going to share DARK WATERS with us as well as chat about her new releases. I read DARK WATERS and it was fabulous!! I highly recommend it. Rico was a fascinating hero and the heroine, Frankie Montalvo, could definitely hold her own with the best kick-butt heroines out there.
DARK WATERS
A predator stalks paradise and she’s next.
On a tropical isle, Frankie Montalvo discovers roots to a past she never knew. Tales of witchcraft, missing girls and el chupacabra surround her, but it will take more than superstitions to scare her away. Determined to create her own home, she enlists the help of an enigmatic beach bum.
Special Agent Rico Lopez has been to the depths of hell and back. He returns to his native island of Vieques to forget an ICE mission gone wrong only to find himself caught up in the search for a neighbor’s daughter—a victim of the legendary el chupacabra. Paradise has a predator and all leads point to a dilapidated old plantation and one sexy as sin owner. Lying to Frankie is the only way to do his job, but is he protecting her or himself?
Does this name make my butt look big?
Seriously, finding the right name for a character is like finding jeans that fit. I agonize for days trying to find the perfect fit, trying on one pair after another. Some are too flamboyant, some too old-fashioned, some too ridiculous to contemplate that I have to wonder if they make my butt look big.
When I began Dark Waters, I spent a lot of time thinking up the perfect name. Not any name would do. I knew my heroine was a tough, feisty New Yorker who’d been knocked down by life more than once, but always got back on her feet. I wanted a name that captured that hard shell on the outside that hid a soft vulnerability inside. That’s when I hit on Francesca, a classic, elegant name that spoke to who my heroine could be in an ideal world. Shorten it to Frankie and it fit the reality of a woman who fought to hold on to everything she had.
My hero had to stand up to Frankie in every way because he was the one man who could see beneath that exterior armor she wore so carefully. But he wasn’t going to take her by storm. He’d charm his way inside until she never knew what happened. Rico was a name that conjured up washboard abs and a sexy grin and Frankie didn’t stand a chance. This guy was sex on a stick, yet when it came to danger he protected his own…and that included Frankie.
My other method of madness is to find someone, a person I know or a relative to name other secondary characters after. My neighbor Karla got bumped off in Dark Waters (She thought it was hysterical and what better way to thank her for editing my Spanish) Frankie’s last name, Montalvo, comes from my best friend in elementary school (She thinks it is so awesome because she is married now and her last name is changed). Yes, I pay homage to those I love by immortalizing them in books. HEHEHEHE (evil laugh)
Currently, I’m working on my Shadow Warrior series, which is loosely based around Aztec mythology. They are contemporary paranormal romances that include a mix of suspense and plenty of intrigue from the gods. The first of the novellas, tentatively titled Out of the Shadows, has sold to Samhain Publishing. The second novella is in the final stages of editing and ready for submission to the editor and I’m ready to bang out the third. As I planned out the fourth novella, I realized that once again I was stuck. I needed the perfect name for my heroine.
So I mentioned this dilemma to my family and my cousin said she would love it if I used her name in a book. (Victoria is sweet and loving and beautifully blonde, which is exactly the opposite of the character I am contemplating). Then it dawned on me. Eureka! What better way to get the heroine’s name than to ask my friends and family to pick the name for me?
I put out a call for others to name the 4th heroine in the Shadow Warrior series. I got some wonderful entries and found a winner. A Celtic word that means “fire†–Enya!
You might be thinking, “This name is not ancient Aztec. Blasphemy!†True, but Zyanya is and it means “always, forever†and I thought this name fit perfectly. Since the story is a contemporary paranormal romance and she is an immortal firecracker, I figured she would want to blend into modern society, so I named her Enya.
Well guess what? I need a hero’s name!
Description: He is an immortal warrior who has battled demons, Aztec gods, and bad styles of the 1770’s, 1880’s and 1990’s. He’s tall, dark, and shaven (bald is beautiful). He is strong, ruthless and has a soft spot for damsels in distress (and kittens too but don’t let anyone know). He has the ability to shift into a black jaguar and with one look he can make you do bad, bad things.
I’m going to help you out a bit. Below are some names I am considering. Vote for your pick in the comment section and be entered to win a $5.00 gift card.
Mateo – short for MATLAL: Nahuatl name meaning “dark green; or net.”
Teo – short for TEOXIHUITL: Nahuatl unisex name meaning “turquoise” or “precious and divine.”
Alan – short for ACHCAUHTLI: Nahuatl unisex name meaning “leader.”
¡Buena suerte! Good luck!
Gabriella Hewitt
www.GabriellaHewitt.com
Excitement. Suspense. Passion.
Dark Waters ~ Available Now ~
Order at Amazon
Wicked Wednesday – Sexy Excerpt from AZTEC GOLD
It’s wicked cold here in the Northeast, so I figured it’s time to offer up a sexy hot excerpt from AZTEC GOLD, my new release from Carina Press. I love that I had the opportunity to create a different kind of story, kind of like Indiana Jones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer if I had to give you the two second elevator pitch. I hope you’ll like it as well.
The reviews are starting to come in for this novella and I’ve included them in this excerpt as well for you! If you can’t see the excerpt below, you can click on this link to read it.
Increasing Backlinks to Increase Website Traffic
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts will tell you that one of the most important things you can do to increase website traffic and improve search engine listings is to increase the number of backlinks to your website.
What is a backlink? Backlinks are incoming links to a website. Backlinks are also one way that Google determines PageRank in order to assess the popularity of a website. (Did you know Page is actually the name of Larry Page, the inventor of the ranking algorithm?)
Wondering how your website ranks and how many backlinks there are to it? Click here for a nice backlink checker that also provides a ton of other info.
So how can you boost backlinks?
1. Exchange links to your website with others. List them on your links page in exchange for them linking to you. If you’ve got a book/author/writing related website to share, leave a comment with it and I’ll add you if you’ll add me!
2. Article submissions. Writing articles in your area of expertise or about topics of interest are a great way to create backlinks. E-zine Articles is a great way to do this. You can check out some of my articles by clicking here.
3. Social sites (Facebook, Twitter and Myspace) and social bookmarking are also great ways to create backlinks and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Applications like Hootsuite and sites like Ping.fm allow you to propogate multiple sites. Make sure to bookmark important pages on your site to Digg, Delicious and Stumbleupon, but also remember that “social” bookmarking is about being “social”. Share fun and interesting links as well via these sites.
4. Video submission sites are another manner in which to generate backlinks to your site and your uploaded videos.
5. Get listed at the various search directories like dmoz.org, Alexa, Google, Bing and Yahoo. This will assist in making sure that these search engines spider your site. This will help boost where you appear in their listings.
6. Guest blogs and comments on blogs also help create backlinks to your site. While every blog/website has a different method for leaving comments, try to use choose the method that allows you to leave your name and URL.
I will leave you with those tips for now, but I also invite you to drop by later today and visit with me at the Carina Press blog where I will be chatting about AZTEC GOLD and what inspired the story, including my own personal fear which influenced the herione’s character.