Charmed is out now!

Perfect Christmas reading -- light, fun, HOT, and with a touch of magical whimsy! Charmed is a novella with all the right ingredients for a good night's reading, whether you're snuggled up against the snowy cold, or hunkering with the air conditioner to beat the heat!

You can buy Charmed on Amazon, and from the Destiny Romance website.

Oh, and watch out for that extra bit of spice -- only appropriate at this time of year. And if you read it and loved it, I'd so appreciate you leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Thank you!

My Halloween Experience

I don't really have a bucket list, but if I did, being part of Halloween in the US would definitely be on it. And, now, it'd be on it with a tick against it, because on 31 October this year, I was there!

I hadn't really planned for it, and so unless I was prepared to go out and spend money purchasing a costume, I just had to make do with what I had in my suitcase. So I went with wearing all black, some bling, a lot of make-up and a hot-pink bob-haired wig. (Doesn't everyone routinely have one of those in their luggage??)

Not much of a costume, really, but it did the trick.

I headed out into the Castro district of San Francisco with a friend who knew that the Castro was The Place To Be on Halloween night. And he was right! The crowds were amazing, and everyone had put so much effort into their costumes!

I'd heard that there had been a few issues on Halloween night in previous years. However my experience was nothing but lovely, apart from one moment when the crowd got VERY crowd-y and I felt a little squished and a tiny bit panicked. But then we got through that and everything was fine.

Everyone was friendly, and fun, and in the mood to show off. In fact, one girl, dressed as a witch, spotted me surreptitiously taking her photo and insisted we get a shot together!

My friend and I did stop in for a drink at one bar. He was very impressed by the fact that they were playing "Sweet Transvestite" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I knew ALL THE WORDS.

So a big CHECK against "be part of Halloween". The only problem is, now I want to do it again!

PS -- This weekend, Dance With Me is a Kindle countdown deal on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you haven't got your copy yet, check it out for only $2.99 until Sunday PST!

Special advance release!

...sounds a whole lot better than "Amazon published it a week earlier than I'd expected", doesn't it? So let's go with that. Special advance release ahoy!

Dance With Me is now out there in the big, wide world. Yay!! 

 

You can buy it on Amazon only at this point, but if you have an iPad (or read on an iPhone), all you need to do is download the Kindle app from the Apple app store and it can be yours! It will be available on other platforms and stores early next year. 

In the meantime, grab a copy, grab a glass of red wine, and settle in to read all about Polly and Josh and their travels around the world... 

Romance Writers of Australia - conference day one wrap up

This is me at tonight's
Harlequin author dinner
with a couple of the cute
sexy gifts from the tables!

Hi everyone! Here I am on the Gold Coast -- and it's warm, and sunny and there's blue sky! Feels like forever since I've seen any of those things! Mind you there hasn't been much time to enjoy it since I got here -- the schedule has been jam-packed full of stuff to listen to, take in and talk about, not to mention all the wonderful people to meet.

I wanted to provide a quick run-down of Day One -- my first Author's Day (known in the inner circle as "A Day"). So here I go. Forgive me if you find any typos or weird sentence constructions -- it's been a big day, it's late, and I've just got back from the Harlequin authors "Naughty or Nice" dinner. But more on that later!

A few of the gorgeous LoveCats ladies (L-R): Helen Lacey,
Annie West, Michelle Douglas and Sue Mackay.

First off, I got to say hello to a few of the gorgeous LoveCats who I'm lucky enough to blog with regularly. It was great to finally put faces to names to some of those I hadn't met before. We've put together an awesome LoveCats gift hamper for the charity auction, which includes a couple of my books!

This is only my second full conference (I went to a workshop in 2010 at Coogee) and I have to say I've already felt much more comfortable this year. There are just more people wandering around that I know and I feel a little more confident about walking up to people and introducing myself.

In terms of the sessions today, to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. But there was a good, interesting mix of content. The self-publishing panel was a fascinating insight into how some authors are making self-publishing work for them. What I appreciated most was the level of detail that they discussed about the various platforms, their pros and cons, and how to get the most out of each. The presenters were incredibly generous about sharing their personal information about sales figures and dollars -- which made the session very valuable. Key learnings for me (may not have been the same for everyone):

• use a professional formatting service because you don't need that drama
• ensure your cover reflects your genre and works well as a thumbnail (and a good cover is one thing to invest in!)
• "discoverability" is key
• you need to learn Amazon and how to make its system work for you. 

I can usually resist table mints. But
Fantales? Who can resist Fantales??

We then had a session from Google+ which, I figured would just be a giant advertisement for Google+. And . . . it was a giant advertisement for Google+. And YouTube. (Which Google owns). But that doesn't mean it wasn't useful. They are doing some really amazing things for the romance community and the word "community" was used a lot. I really liked that they had looked at what users found least likable about other social media platforms and deliberately set out to fix those things.

As a result, I now have a Google+ account. Except right now I can't work out how to provide you with a link to my profile and/or page. Luckily, the Google people are around for the conference, so I'll ask them tomorrow and get back to you on that.

In the afternoon we had a brilliant session from Kate Cuthbert on how to organise (and handle) reviews. I found this very useful as a relative newbie, although I think I've been reasonably good at sticking to Kate's advice. (Still it was nice to know I was doing the right thing!) Her key message was "Don't take it online!". If a reviewer, or a reader, says something you disagree with, call your friends, your mum, someone, and complain, but don't ever, ever, go into battle online. Good advice.

After Kate's session we separated into groups and I spent the rest of the afternoon with the lovey group of ladies that made up the Aussie contingent of Harlequin authors. I managed to get them to all pose for me in a photo:

Too many super-stars for me to name them all here. 

And then, with barely a moment's pause it was on to the Penguin event for the launch of their new Destiny romance line.

There were readings from their first release books and, most importantly, champagne cocktails -- by this time it had already been a long day, and a drink was sorely required. As well as hearing all about the new Destiny line, it was a lovely time to catch up with everyone who'd flown in during the day and say hello before I whisked myself off for the next, and final, event of the day.

The Harlequin authors' dinner was a highlight for me last year, because I was presented with the "new chick" gift. It was lovely to watch someone else receive that this year. There were a number of presentations, including the famous "Woman Fuzzies Awards". There were also four 25-book pins to present. That's 100 books in total from four authors!!

One of the winners of the stunning 25-book ruby pins was the amazing Sarah Mayberry, a fellow SuperRomance author and all-round cool gal. There was much cheering and applause and then there was a standing ovation for a special presentation to legendary NZ author Helen Bianchin.

Sarah and I with her gorgeous pin! 

And, that, my dear readers, is that. Day One done! I'm really, really tired. But in a good way. I'm hoping I might be able to bring you a similar wrap up for Day Two, but it really depends on how much fun I have at the cocktail party and whether or not I'm in any shape to blog. :)

For now, good night!

How do I buy your book?

Me: Ah, the most beautiful question an author can hear. *sigh of happiness*
Fans: That's lovely, but how can we buy your book?
Me: Oh, you're just messing with me now. *blush*
Fans: Seriously, Emmie. Get over yourself. How do we buy the bloody thing?
Me: You're serious? Right. *clears throat* Sorry about that.

The answer, my fans (if I may call you that), is actually kinda complicated and depends on a number of factors.

I've got an e-reader, so where I can I get an e-book version?
Easy! If you have an e-reader that can take EPUB formatted books, you can buy Cassie's Grand Plan RIGHT NOW from the eHarlequin store. That's right, it's already available! If you have a Kindle, you'll have to wait until it's available on Amazon in Kindle format. The timing of the release of Kindle versions of Harlequin books is still one of the great mysteries of the modern age.

What's all this e-reader nonsense? I want a hard copy!
You can order a copy from places like Amazon, Book Depository (the US store is best), and Barnes and Noble and they'll send you one as soon as it is released. Cassie's Grand Plan is officially out on 6 March. If you've never ordered a book online, Book Depository provides free shipping. (And if you didn't know that, I may just have changed your life...)

I don't like that internet shopping business. I want to buy one off the shelf.
Well, if you live in North America, that's easy! From 6 March you can pop in to your local Barnes and Noble, or Walmart, or similar places, and purchase one! (Don't forget to re-shelve the remaining copies to nice, front-facing, eye-level positions when you do.) If you live in Australia or NZ, unfortunately you'll have to wait until July, when it will come out under the imprint "Blush" and will be sold in places like Target and Kmart. Don't worry, I'll make a bit of a fuss when the time comes. If you live in other places in the world, it will depend on your local release dates. In all honesty, if you don't live in the US, maybe you need to reconsider that issue you have with internet shopping.

Why can't you just sell me one directly? I saw that big box of books they delivered to you.
Because I can't. That's not how it works. The publisher gives me money to write the book and then THEY sell it. That's just the way things are. Don't blame me, blame capitalism.

Well, if you can't sell me one, can you just give me one?
See previous answer. Capitalism. Not my fault. I have to pay my mortgage.

Will you sign it? 
You're still messing with me aren't you? No? *happy squeaky noise* Yes, absolutely, I would love to sign it. If we're not in the same room at the same time, though, the logistics of doing so become complicated. And expensive. You have to post it to me. I have to post it back to you. And so on. The idea is to make it easy, so when we're seeing each other, just bring the copy you have purchased (via internet or in-store) and I'll graffiti it all over for you. You're welcome to buy me dinner or cocktails in order to facilitate this. Signing e-books is obviously a more knotty issue, but I have a Sharpie and an iron will, so practically anything is possible.

Why is this so complex?
Good question. If you have any more of them, feel free to leave them in the comments. Also please leave a comment if you have any additional wisdom to impart. I'm new at this, after all.

Wow. Just, wow.

I just discovered that Cassie's Grand Plan is no.58 on Amazon's SuperRomance best-seller list. I guess no. 58 isn't that much to crow over, but as a newby author who's never been on any best-seller list before ever, I'm pretty much over the moon. And given the book isn't even released yet, I think it's a pretty awesome achievement. Thanks to everyone who's placed a pre-order and helped get Cassie and Ronan up there.

Cassie's Grand Plan now available for pre-order

Well, if there was any doubt that this whole 'published author' thing was just in my head, I got concrete proof yesterday that it's not all a dream! Cassie's Grand Plan is now available for pre-order from Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble and all your usual places.

There's still no cover art as yet (don't worry, I'll be sharing that as soon as I can!) and no description. But the whole point is, it's a real book and you can buy it. Squee!