Happy Memorial Day

My thoughts and best wishes are with all my friends around the world this weekend.

I was brought up in Britain, where we remember war heroes on Remembrance Day, and wear artificial poppies. Last year, I bought a poppy icon on Facebook. However, on Saturday 17th, I put on a book-raiser on Armed Forces Day on my internetvoicesradio.com show, and several RomVets joined me.

RomVets are a group of Romance authors who are also veterans of any of the armed services. The most fascinating (to me) discussion was with Cindy Dees who flew corporate-sized jets to take generals around the country, including to the White House.

We all shared Cindy's amusement that a Lieutenant Colonel in the basement of the White House had to read the romance novels that Cindy wrote while she was serving, in order to make sure that she hadn't inadvertently revealed any national secrets!

The weather today seems lovely, and suddenly it is warm after a Spring that has seemed unusually cool. I hope everyone has good weather and stays safe for the cook-outs and swimming, and whatever else you have planned for this holiday weekend.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Rowena Cherry
http://www.rowenacherry.com

Bear Awareness Week

I can't resist a totally --well, not totally-- gratuitous hunk to start the day. Look out for further news from me about how this manly pose was transformed into a poster representing 'Rhett (Prince Djarrhett) the hero of the sequel to Forced Mate and Insufficient Mating Material. Or maybe you've seen the ad with the temporary cover?


Anyway... Not only is today (Sunday) Mother's Day, but it is also the start of
Bear Awareness Week.

Angie Fox, Carrie Masek, Sandy Lender, Cynthia Eden and Charlee Boyett-
Compo are joining me on internet voices radio tonight between 9pm
Eastern and eleven pm to give a whole new depth of meaning to Bear men and Romance.

We'd love some listeners, even for a little while.

FOR CRAZY TUESDAY: In the last program, Jade Lee and Emily Bryan (aka
Diana Groe) talked about everything below the belt in honor of Earth
Day... from Brazilian waxes for courtesans, to castration, to foot
binding.

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/CrazyTuesday.htm


FOR CHERRY PICKING SPECIALS, which is the irreverent and irregular
Sunday night-time show about Romance heroes and the animals they shift
into being when the right female comes along.

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/rowena.htm


Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
http://www.rowenacherry.com
http://www.internetvoicesradio.com

Bear Awareness week begins on Mother's Day!

I can't resist a totally --well, not totally-- gratuitous hunk to start the day. Look out for further news from me about how this manly pose was transformed into a poster representing 'Rhett (Prince Djarrhett) the hero of the sequel to Forced Mate and Insufficient Mating Material. Or maybe you've seen the ad with the temporary cover?

He could give me a Bear Hug any day!

Anyway... Not only is today (Sunday) Mother's Day, but it is also the start of
Bear Awareness Week.

Angie Fox, Carrie Masek, Sandy Lender, Cynthia Eden and Charlee Boyett-Compo are joining me on internet voices radio tonight between 9pm Eastern and eleven pm to give a whole new depth of meaning to Bear men and Romance.

We'd love some listeners, even for a little while.

FOR CRAZY TUESDAY: In the last program, Jade Lee and Emily Bryan (aka
Diana Groe) talked about everything below the belt in honor of Earth
Day... from Brazilian waxes for courtesans, to castration, to foot
binding.

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/CrazyTuesday.htm


FOR CHERRY PICKING SPECIALS, which is the irreverent and irregular
Sunday night-time show about Romance heroes and the animals they shift
into being when the right female comes along.

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/rowena.htm


Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
http://www.rowenacherry.com
http://www.internetvoicesradio.com

Re-designed site for Readers

I don't normally post advertisements, but the potential incentive was too good to pass up!


Check out Sensual!sensual234x60.png.

I’m helping to spread the word about the newly redesigned website Sensual. If you like your romance novels on the steamy side, you’ll love this site. It’s full of reviews, interviews, excerpts, information on the newest print and ebooks and lots more. You can even win books and other goodies. So check it out. http://sensual.ecataromance.com
Authors, you can spread the word too! If you’d like a chance to win one of 20 Cover Ads and get a shot at a fabulous grand prize (a 3 Pack of their huge billboard ads - a $100 value!) just repost this blurb on your blog or website. Then stop by Sensual and leave a link to your post. All authors are eligible to enter and win so why in the world wouldn’t you? See their site for more information and official rules: sensual.ecataromance.com/?p=688

I’ll see you at Sensual!

Aftermath

I finished last-minute, editor-requested revisions to Knight's Fork last Wednesday...

There are all sorts of things I've done since then, but nothing seems to me to be as interesting as my quest for a temporary hunk.

Not a lot of people know this, but when a model poses for a cover, he doesn't always license every right that a modern author wants and needs. If that is the case, maybe his image cannot go on car door magnets.

The idea of a car door magnet has a strange appeal. I've never been my own billboard before!

Therefore, as soon as I realized that I was on my own, I posted a note on Facebook (my favorite social site) asking if any of my model friends wanted to pose as if they were either examining or cleaning a sword.

The silence was disheartening. So, I wondered if I might re-use one of my previous privately commissioned models, and I emailed the photographer. Alas, it would have cost about as much to re-use the same photo as to license rights to a new one.

A few days later, my photographer friend sent me three views of the model you see above. Like Viggo Mortesen's Aragorn, I very much like the dark and dirty look. Menacing is good when I have Rhett in mind.

However, he had too much clutter about him, and too many dangly bits, and his hand was so far behind his buttock that it could not be moved. (You might call that a technical difficulty.)

So, my obliging friend sent me contact sheets... nine of them, all with views of "Mr Goodrock". Some had too much rock. Some lacked the piercing, full frontal glower, in others, I found myself looking up his nostrils.

Eventually we found a great shot, a little more worried-looking than I might have liked, but Rhett is "forked" and in a very difficult position in the book, so "troubled" would do. Moreover, Rhett is the swordsman of the family, and doesn't have to be immensely buff and ripped, so the less bulgy pecs are better.

Then began the quest for a sword. Much merriment ensued on Facebook, because a surprising number of my friends thought I might be looking for a sword of the warm, pink variety. We got that squared away.

So... behold, the rope has been replaced with a sword, and I gather that it took eleven overlays!