Tag Archives: blatant self promotion

Top Ten Reasons to buy Hidden Paradise

Updated on January 10, 2013 by Janet Mullany

I’m absolutely the worst self promoter in the world because Hidden Paradise has now been available on amazon for two days and I somehow missed my own release date (which for the rest of the world may be September 25 or October 1). So today it’s all about the book. First, here’s the booktrailer in which I make my debut as a porn voiceover star:

This was made on iMovie which comes with the standard Mac bundle of software and it’s an extremely nifty little program. All sorts of visual effects and you can fade music in and out and I recorded the voiceover with the puter’s inbuilt mic when the guys next door weren’t using their power tools.

You can read an exclusive excerpt on Heroes & Heartbreakers and learn more about my inspiration for the book at the RT Daily Blog.

And the Top Ten Reasons to buy the book:

10. There’s stuff about Jane Austen in it. Really. (As well as the sex.)
9. There’s a lot of stuff about paint analysis (well, it floats my boat).
8. People dress up in Regency clothes (and have sex).
7. They eat authentic Regency food (and have sex of no particular historical period).
6. There’s horseback riding and boxing (and … you know).
5. Also country dancing (and, you guessed it).
4. Glimpses of downstairs life among the team of hot footmen (no, not like that, though probably it should have been, but you do get that elsewhere).
3. It’s funny sometimes (even during the sex. Did we mention the sex yet? Oh yes, we did).
2. And sometimes it’s sad (by the way, did I tell you that…)
1. Because you know you want it real bad.

And now the contest: I’m giving away two signed copies (US only) if you enter with a coherent sentence about … just about anything, and I’ll pick names and announce on Sunday. So if you’re not planning to visit on Sunday, leave an emasculated version of your email, eg riskies at yahoodotcom so I can contact you. Usual restrictions apply.

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen, Risky Book Talk | Tagged blatant self promotion, Hidden Paradise, Jane Austen | 11 Replies

Secret Facts

Updated on May 18, 2011 by carolyn

The Shameless Self-Promotion Portion of This Post

I have put out another of my backlist titles. Stolen Love is my second book, published by Harper-Collins in 1991. It’s not quite old-skool but almost. I’m not the same writer as I was in 1991 but I’ve put the book out pretty much exactly as it was published — because today I would write a totally different book and any editing would inevitably be a total re-write and then STILL no one would be able to read the original unless they got their hands on a paper copy.

I made one change because I realized later my editor was right, my hero would call his valet by his last name only. So I removed all the Mr.’s for that character. That’s it.

Nicholas Villines is the heir assumptive to a viscount. His father left him in dire straits, but he’s managed to recover the family fortunes and re-enter society. His childhood friend Elizabeth is now in London, hoping to make a modest marriage, as she is a woman of very modest means. Not so her beautiful (and rich) cousin Amelia. Every agrees that Nicolas and Amelia would be a perfect match. As Elizabeth and Nicholas rekindle their friendship, society can talk of little but The Mayfair Thief, a mysterious and cunning person who has made off with a fortune in jewels and other valuable items. Just who is this mysterious thief, and has Elizabeth really guessed his identity?

Nicholas agrees that Amelia would be the perfect wife for him, but he can’t stop thinking about Elizabeth and the beautiful woman she’s become. Will he accept his feelings for her before it’s too late or will she marry his best friend?

Secrets Revealed

Stolen Love was written before the World Wide Web and when the Internet was mostly accessed via text based commands (gopher, anyone?). In those days, authors couldn’t do anything like the promotion we can do today.

I wasn’t able to tell anyone things like this:

The hero, Nicholas, was named after my sister’s dog.
The hero’s last name (Villines) came from an article I read about a General Contractor who had an embezzling employee.
I lived in Berkeley at the time, in an apartment that, unbeknownst to me, had absolutely ideal conditions for growing orchids. I had several Phalenopsis and a Cattleya that bloomed six months of the year. I believed I was an orchid genius and made my hero one, too. Because, like, what’s so hard about growing orchids? Then I moved to San Francisco and my orchids died or never bloomed again.
I set the book in 1844 because I thought the fashions then were killer. I HATED Regency gowns. The cover was pure Regency. There was no cover consult.
When on submission, the book was pitched as hardcover and even I, pretty much a total newbie, knew that book wouldn’t sell hardcover and I was brave enough to tell my agent that. It sold to a St. Martin’s Press editor who promptly left to go to Harper-Collins, which was starting a NY based Romance line that, eventually, morphed into Avon. She took my MS with her.
I didn’t know I was a pantser. I just wrote the dang story by reading what came before and seeing an interesting theme and going with it. (Oh hey! In this chapter, the hero’s best friend is in love with Elizabeth! Let’s go with that. . . )
My printer was a near top-of-the-line daisy-wheel printer and it took 9 hours to print out the entire MS.
At one time, I laid out all the chapters in piles on the floor and rearranged them. I used scissors and tape to move scenes
I did all my research in the UC Berkeley libraries or at any number of extremely fine used book stores in the area. During that period I acquired some great reference books.
I learned that about this time (1844-ish) there was an orchid craze. The Amazon and other fragile habitats were scoured for orchids to the point of destruction and/or extinction of the flowers. They believed all orchids required the same hot-house conditions — which was untrue as we now know –so there were some orchid species that never bloomed in captivity. Orchid collections were valuable and stealing of collections and plants was a threat.
In 1991, there was no such thing as email for regular people, but I had a fancy answering-machine. With a tape.
I was worried the sex came too late in the book so I tried to sex it up in other ways.

If you want to read a sample or just buy the book:

ISBN: 978-0-9833826-4-5

A Racy Offer

If you happen to read Stolen Love (or any of my backlist titles) and post an honest review on Amazon or B&N, I will send you the eBook of two erotic short stories I wrote. I have a pretty cover for it. One story is historical, the other contemporary and both, technically, involve demons. You have to be over 18 and not easily offended.

Just post your review (You are not required to have liked the book) and send me the URL to it and let me know what format you’d like. I will then send you the stories in just about any digital format.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backlist, blatant self promotion, Free stories, Old Skool Romance, orchids | 8 Replies

1066 and all that

Updated on October 14, 2010 by Janet Mullany

Today is the anniversary of the date that resonates in English people’s minds the way 1776 does here, a rather grandiose way of saying that it’s one date most people probably know: October 14, 1066. The Battle of Hastings was the last invasion of England when a French Norseman, William the Conqueror, invaded, walloped the Saxon nobility and the King, and took over the country, changing the language and introducing snails as the national dish. There are many sites about this so I can promise you much time-wasting lies ahead of you should you wish to pursue it.

One of the most remarkable pieces of art in the world is the Bayeux Tapestry, which records the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself. It’s not actually a tapestry, but is embroidery on linen, eight pieces joined to a massive piece about 20″ tall and 230′ long. Legend has it that it was created by William’s wife Matilda and it’s sometimes referred to still as la tapisserie de la reine Mathilde. More likely it was commissioned by William’s half brother Bishop Odo and made by monks in the south of England.

The original is on display in France and there is a Victorian copy in the museum of my home town, Reading.

Today I’m all over the blogosphere talking about my fictional second invasion by the French in 1797 when Jane Austen was a vampire, Jane and the Damned. There’s a review and a guest blog at Book Faery and a discussion at Austen Authors on what Jane Austen was really like.