The Dynamic Trio - Blog

I have a special guest over at my blog today. Jennifer Leeland is talking about the character who refuses to die. She’s also giving away a download of her recent release, Taking Command.

Come on over and say hello. Tell us what makes a character stand out for you.

Shelley

I’m over at Julie K. Rose’s Blog being interviewed about music soundtracks! You can listen to it here and read the full transcript here at Julie’s Writer Soundtrack blog.

And tomorrow/Wednesday the 30th, I’m doing an Author Day at the Raven (Mandy and Michelle’s place!) from noon to three eastern/nine to twelve pacific. I’ll be talking about Stripped, my story in the What Happens in Vegas anthology as well as Celebration for the Dead and my upcoming release, Fated from Samhain. Come by and hang out for a while, say hello and hopefully win something too!

I have two interesting news items from New Zealand for you today. I know there’s lots of talk on the Internet re authors complaining about reviews and reviewers complaining about authors comments about reviews. It seems we’re quite well-behaved as a group compared to the restaurant owners in Auckland. Several top Auckland restaurants were given bad grades in a recent review by Metro. They struck back in an ad with a recipe for “Preparation of Metro Food Critic Testicles”.

Readers were encouraged to take a “very sharp knife, slice through the sort of skinnie muscley stuff that you find surrounding each of the Metro Food Critic Testicles (there should be two testicles, they can be hard to find)”.

And the Metro Food Critic’s comment - The testicles should be served with a side of “Sour Grapes”. You can read the full article here.

The other item of interest, or at least I found it fascinating, was the thawing out of the 490 kg squid at TePapa museum in Wellington. The colossal squid was caught in the Antarctic waters of the Ross Sea in 2007 and was frozen to preserve it. There’s been all sorts of discussion about defrosting the squid, since it’s not as easy as thawing out a packet of sausages. Here’s the photo gallery showing shots of the squid and you can also check out the webcam showing live action of the defrosting.

In writing news, I’ve received a wonderful review for Fancy Free with a Five Angel rating and also a Recommended Read award. Rachel C from Fallen Angel Reviews said, “Ms. Munro gives us hot sex scenes that have your blood heating and your palms sweating. But that’s not all you get with Fancy Free, you also get laughter, emotion and suspense. Ms. Munro has you guessing the whole time, and with the curiosity of what might happen next riding you, you can’t help but turn the pages until you reach the end. This is the second book by Ms. Munro I’ve read and it certainly won’t be the last. Fancy Free offers everything—steamy sex, at times slap stick laughter, nail biting suspense and of course let’s not forget the cast of supporting characters; they alone are worth the price on the cover. Don’t miss this great read.” You can find the entire review here.

And finally, are you a Cold Play fan? From Tuesday 12.15 UK time they’re giving away a free download of their new song - Violet Hill. Here’s the link.

Hi ya’ll, I’ve been traveling/moving/not-sleeping/plane hopping/running for the gate/running for the train, etc for more than 18 hours so I apologize in advance if this post doesn’t make any sense or starts to ramble ;D

I made it to Amsterdam by the skin of my teeth! What was I thinking booking a flight that connected through Chicago with only a 1 hour window? I must have been sleepwalking when I booked the flight because EVERYONE knows you can’t get into or out of Chicago on time. Duh!

Needless to say when I landed in Chicago I had to literally run for my connection to Amsterdam - which happened to be the ONLY flight to Amsterdam. And I made it…just as they were closing the airplane door. However, the flight crew was excellent and wonderfully attentive. The flight was non-eventful and devoid of any turbulence, bumps or any other vomit inducing moments.

The train ride from Amsterdam to Belgium was somewhat interesting in that none of it was unfamiliar. There were simple brick homes, apartment buildings, green pastures with lots of horses, cows and sheep (which we do see in Colorado just about anywhere but the city of Denver proper. Well, except for the green part. Colorado is DRY and BROWN most of the year). And graffiti. Even in the middle of a pasture with nothing but a single room itty bitty shack surrounded by cattle, there was graffiti. And surprisingly, it looked just like the stuff we have at home, down to the colors and style of writing.

One thing I did see alot of that I don’t see much in Colorado was DIVERSITY!! Amsterdam reminded me of my hometown, San Francisco. People from all over, all different races and nationalities, speaking all kinds of languages. It was cool. Nobody assumed I was American because of how I wear my hear, or the clothes I sported. They just walked up to me and started talking in one of the languages they speak here. When I looked confused, they switched to another language before finally settling on English.

I saw clean cut people. I saw ratty looking people. Young. Old. Rebellious looking teenagers, and sweet looking teenagers. I saw a guy so TALL he had to bend down to fit through the door of the trains. AND THESE ARE BIG FRICKING TRAINS - Think Amtrak, not light rail ;D

I’m in a pretty cool hotel, too. It’s all swanky and contemporary looking on the inside. Outside, it looks like a little brick and brownstone affair with not much to recommend it. It’s got a nice soft bed that’s calling my name, too. I would post pictures…but I forgot my camera! Can you believe it?!!

But no worries - My kids are going to meet me in Dublin in a few days and I made my daughter promise to bring her camera. That promise came with lots of e-mails and phone calls to her. Mind you, this bugging my kid happened BEFORE I actually left home (ever get that feeling you’re forgetting something?) complete with bugging her to pieces in person, on her cell phone and via e-mail!

Later, ya’ll, TJ needs some sleep!

TJ

So Vegas is now shipping from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon! I’ve also received reports that it’s on the “new fiction” table in some Barnes and Noble stores! I’m all atingle.

Behind closed doors, the real games begin…

Winning it big.

That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’s Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice…and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.

Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.

Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she’s not giving anything away free.

Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind…until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she’s going to pay… with both pleasure and pain.

Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her “friend with benefits.” But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.

My story is Stripped. I came up with the idea while, not so surprisingly, I was on a trip with my husband to Las Vegas and we went to Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce - a fabulous old style burlesque show/lounge in the Mandalay Bay. I came back, ready to write the book and my agent called and asked if I’d be interested in being part of a Vegas themed anthology pitch. I think for me, it was meant to happen and I’m glad it did.

Anyway - an excerpt of Stripped exists right behind the cut!

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m all about kisses lately. Today I’m having a kiss-a-thon over at my blog. Post a comment and you go into a draw to win a download written by me. While you’re there don’t forget to check out my Thursday thirteen, which was also about kisses.

http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog

Writers - you’re welcome to post a short kiss excerpt (no more than 500 words) from your books along with a buy link. Aspiring writers are also welcome to post excerpts. Come over and say hello.

Shelley

Well, I’m heading out of town again for work. Only this time I’m going to Belgium. I’ve never been there and I’m a bit nervous. See, to get there you can either fly into Brussels then make your way to the train station to get to the city I’m traveling to. Or you can fly into Amsterdam, get the train that’s located (thankfully) in the airport, then travel by train from the Netherlands to Belgium…which means crossing borders.

While I don’t look forward to the travel, I do look forward to reaching the destination. Wish I were going for something other than work. But then again, there’s CHOCOLATE!!! Belgian chocolate!

Leaving on Saturday - be back in a couple of weeks ;D I’ll have to hold a contest to see who I send the goodies to when I get back!

Me and the ever so lovely Angie James~

Megan, Fred and me - no groping, just a hug. And hello, he’s so very pretty.

Megan, Sasha White and me - Wheeee!

Megan, Me, Kimberly Kaye Terry and Vivi Anna

Me and Megan when we sort of took over the Black Lace spotlight that no one at Black Lace actually knew about!

Maya Banks, me, Beth Williamson (I love these ladies)

I love me some Laura Bradford.

Booksigning with TWO security guards even!!

Me, Jennifer Dunne and Megan

me and Taylor Hartt

Me, Anya and her husband James

me and Ann Aguirre (LOVE HER!!)

me and the creator of my man Jed - Gennita Low

MH and LD

Reader Party!!

I’m still loading pics from my laptop to my desktop and getting pics from people so this isn’t it at all! I have one with the ever so wonderful Rhyannon Byrd and one of me and Jessie and some other readers from the bookfair so keep checking back!

Here are a couple of ads from New Zealand. The first one from Toyota offended quite a few people, but it’s typical New Zealand humor. It makes me laugh.

This second one is from Speights, a company that makes beer. If you’ve read my books you’ve probably noticed me mention Speights beer a time or two.

First off, the Samhain Secrets-And-Lies RT Partay was a freaking BLAST! Some of the author’s secrets were true eyebrow raisers! And some were flat out funny! Overall, it was a stomping good time with thousands of posts, tons of excerpts for upcoming books (including some sneak peeks that have never been seen by anyone except the author and her editors! Woohoo!) And plenty of contests and prizes. Lots of fun.

Now, for RT. I’ve heard some good stuff and some jacked up bad stuff about the event. Of course that’s to be expected no matter what the event…but what was up with the groping thing folks are talking about? Anybody have the skinny on that?

As for book stuff, I’m having an interesting go of it. I started working on a follow up book to SPIRIT OF THE PRYDE…and it turned into two books - one about Niah Pryde and one for the second set of Pryde twins, Kotara and Koreas. Then when I got back to outlining the next V.C.O.E. book, which was supposed to be Russian’s story, it turned into Alaina’s story instead. In a word, or a few words, I can’t stop laughing and giggling as I move the outlines along. In fact, I’m so excited about these three books, I’m working on them all at the same time and bouncing back and forth between outlining and writing the actual scenes, which is not like me at all.

And you can always tell when I’m having a great time with my writing by the rambling blog posts… ROFL!

Anyway, if you were at RT, what’s the scoop? Did you have fun? What was memorable about the experience? And are you going next year?