Countdown to a book launch

Friday August 15.

Knight's Fork is due to be released on September 30th.

A six-week countdown is long enough for any blog, but I have to say that I think I was snookered before I began.

I'm still sending ARCs to booksellers and reviewers.
In the case of booksellers, I should have been sending advance galleys out six months ago. That would have been February. I don't believe I finished writing this book until May.

I am running a contest. That is the good news.


Maybe the prospect of winning a $25 book token isn't as compelling as I think it should be, but the contest rolls over every month.

I ought to visit my local bookstores and set up a signing... I ought to have done that 3 months before my release date! However, I have to have a press kit ready to take with me.

It's a Catch 22.

Tomorrow, I'll be back with more of what I should do, and what I've actually done.


Rowena

For those of discernment and good taste (or not!)

At the time of writing this blog, I don't know whether my recent newsletter was good enough to keep me in the running in the "Studio Diva" marathon contest being run by TRS (short for the romance studio).

Nevertheless, a competitor has to assume the best, and set up a contest for the penultimate round, just in case.

How, you might well ask yourself, is a Nipple Judging contest commensurate with discernment and good taste?

Those who remember the early days of Monty Python's Flying Circus might remember the catch phrase which I associate --possibly mistakenly-- with the great John Cleese "all in the best possible taste" which usually preceeded something in appallingly poor taste.

That's the paradox of promotion. You have to know your audience and play to it, and I perceive (I may be mistaken) that I'm competing in an arena where highly charged sexual material is much appreciated.

At least the nipples are unimproved... unpierced... and routinely viewed by the general public in bookstores, and on public beaches.


For your interest, this is the contest:

************************************************************************************

“I recognize a cover model by his nipples,” an editor told me on my recent Crazy Tuesday internet voices radio show in honor of the late Dawn Thompson.

Do you?
Are you a connoisseur of manly chests?

Vote for Mr GoodNipple on The Raven Happy Hour Blog, and you could win a book token from online bookseller Cy Korte at e-bookisle.net

Check out the twelve cover models’ nipples on display at:
http://www.rowenacherry.com/puzzle/


Then “Comment” at the ravenblog (link above)

Post the words “Mr GoodNipple” and a number between 1 and 12. One GoodNipple connoisseur will win.

Winner will be drawn at random by Rowena Cherry from all correct answers received. “Correct” answers are at Rowena’s sole discretion.

Extra!

All Mr Good Nipple “comments” on Rowena’s guest blog feature will also be entered in a random draw to win a bound, print ARC of Knight’s Fork.


Mr GoodNipple Entries (and written requests for full contest rules) may also be mailed to
Rowena Cherry, PO Box 554, Bloomfield Hills, Mi 48303-0554

Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Chances of winning depend on number of entries.

Entering Rowena Cherry’s Mr GoodNipple contest does not constitute a vote for Rowena Cherry in the “Studio Diva” contest currently running at theromancestudio.com .

***********************************************************************************

You might well wonder How can a choice of any given nipple be incorrect? How can I possibly claim that there is any skill whatsoever involved in this?

It is conceivable that one of the gentlemen in my jigsaw puzzles might be posing in such a way that the manly parts that are the focus of this contest do not show.


Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

ARC cover for Knight's Fork

This is the ARC cover for Knight's Fork. It's not the cover that will be on the book.

Best wishes,
Rowena

Quotes Contest winner

In May, June, July, August, September and October, I'm hoping to encourage my friends and readers to use quotes from my novel, “Insufficient Mating Material” or my soon-to-be-released novel, “Knight’s Fork” in their sig files.

It's a contest, however, there is no purchase or activity necessary to enter.

At least one drawing will take place in the months of July, August, September and October, and each winner will receive a $25 bookstore gift card or token.

Void where prohibited.

A complete list of rules can be viewed at http://www.rowenacherry.com/QuotesContest/
or can be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: Rowena Cherry, PO Box 554 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48303-0554 with the words "Quotes Rules" written on the outside of the envelope.

*****************

SIG. FILE QUOTES

Permission is granted to use any of these quotes in your signature file:

“If you’ve made up your mind to impale someone, do it with conviction.”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Never ask a question if you don’t know the answer.”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“There’s no way to put this delicately…”
Grievous, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“I knew I was an excellent judge of character…or lack thereof.”
Tarrant-Arragon, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“We can listen to their radio, watch their TV, even tap phones, but we can’t avoid using the Royal Mail!”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.”
Thor-quentin, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“It’s hardly flattering to have my methods likened to the behavior of an ineffective tyrant.”
Tarrant-Arragon, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“I don’t still smell tasty, do I…?”
Grievous, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Your idea of dangerous and mine … are worlds apart.”
Grievous, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


If you’re going to be a thorn in my side, I need to find out how sharp you are.
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


Nice legs. Shame about the… morals.
Rhett about Electra, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Never sleep with a lady only once, especially in the case of an older lady”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Having sex multiple times on the first sleepover does not count as more than one “date”…”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Is there anything you’d like to tell me, before I make a fool of myself?”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“You’re done for…. The Royal shit just hit the fan.”
Djetth, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“That…. is not a felicitous description of my remarks,”
Grandmama Hell, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


What the blue starblazes does a wrathful god say to his seductress as a prelude to having his revenge on her?
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Your Majesty, would you mind faking an orgasm while I watch, so I know what to expect…?”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


"If you neglected to warn Djetth beforehand that you were going to shoot him down, Your Highness, he may consider you in breach of contract..."
Rhett, Insufficient Mating Material by Rowena Cherry


"That's exactly the sort of thing I want my enemies and future in-laws to know.”
Djetth Insufficient Mating Material by Rowena Cherry



Here’s looking right through you,
Rhett about Electra, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Here’s the problem. I am not the sexual equivalent of an espresso machine…..”
Rhett to Electra, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“Wouldn’t you rather play chess?....It’s less destructive of clothes.”
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


Unlike male porn stars, he did not need a goatee in his groin to trick the eye into thinking there was more of him than…met the eye.
Rhett, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“What is a fust-er-cluck?”
Viz-Igerd, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“If what you want is a fresh eye, I’m your man. If a translation is wanted, someone else’ll have to cut in.”
Grievous, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry


“When you’re up to your arse in alligators, Sir, it’s easy to forget that you’re only there to drain the pond!”
Grievous, Knight’s Fork by Rowena Cherry



The MAY 2008 winner was Diana.


Best wishes

Rowena Cherry

Interview: Of skeletons in closets, unmentionables in Romance, to be or not to be nasty

In a recent interview, the Book Club Queen asked me about my alien Djinn family tree

"....with my family tree. My two biggest mistakes were getting my arithmetic wrong, and in giving every character at least one (out of seven) royal "Djinn" name beginning with Dj---.

The D is silent.

In my ignorance, I thought that a Dj- would be a convenient signal to my reader that this was another Djinn Prince or Princess. Not everyone agrees with me.

As for the arithmetic, that left me with the choice of being nasty or inconsistent. I chose to be consistent, and rely on Egyptian and European history where royal marriages --even between infants-- was accepted, puberty was earlier, and fifteen year old Princes led armies into battle.

Thus, my family tree has given me intellectual challenges, but has also supplied a structure... and plenty of skeletons in the Royal closet."


To find out what Des DiFabio asked about bodily functions, curses, and the use of toilets in Romance, and what Rowena Cherry said, check out the interview:


Interview: http://www.book-club-queen.com/book-club-questions-6.html


Review of FORCED MATE: http://www.book-club-queen.com/free-book-review-6.html

"...I found Forced Mate a breath of fresh air in the romance arena. Sure it had it's love scenes (which actually were written with surprising intimacy and class), and definitely more than one allusion to various phallic symbols, but it was also unique, witty, and very clever."

~ Des DiFabio, bookclubqueen

"...I think Rowena's true skill is that she weaves this intricate world of aliens and sex just the same way J.K. Rowling weaves the world of Wizards."

~Des DiFabio, bookclubqueen

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!

Insufficient Mating Material wins a FANTASM

Insufficient Mating Material won the Fantasm Award for Best Futuristic published in 2007, as nominated and selected by those who voted.

Way to go, J K Rowling! I am serious.

Copyright is being infringed every day, and there is not a lot we (midlist and lower) authors can do about it.

As fast as we discover another site where our books have been illegally scanned, turned into e-books, and are being "shared", then spent half a day writing to the site's moderators, and perhaps getting the links removed... the thieves go elsewhere.

I saw a journalist blog the other day that because J K Rowling won't miss the royalties, it is acceptable for readers to steal from every other author, too.

It's not OK. Not all copies that are read illegally would have been paperbacks sold, but some will, and for some authors, those lost sales will make the difference between whether or not they are ever offered another contract.

When I see that JK Rowling's books are also on the pirate site, I'm glad, because I know that eventually, that site will be shut down, because she is good at defending herself, and the big guns sink pirates faster than lots of little pop guns can.

Today I'm cheering, because I keep the rights to my characters. Wouldn't you? I don't know how someone can publish an Encyclopaedia of Harry Potter without mentioning any of the characters!

I hope the New York judge sides with Ms Rowling!

Anyway....If you think it is only fair that the government defends the book industry's copyrights with the same vigor that they protect the music and movie industries, please consider signing this petition.

Or, pass on the url. Let's make a stir!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ebooksandpirates/
_________________
Rowena Cherry

Rough, ready, and in the raw (sort of)

Hi,

If you wanted a chance to win an autographed ARC of Rowena Cherry's CAPA Award winning, sexy, futuristic, stranded-on-tropical-island romance, Insufficient Mating Material, today (Sunday) could be the day... if you visit http://www.authorisland.com

Also, since this is one of my two permitted, PROMO-titled postings a month, I'd like to mention a couple of reviews, and a new reviewer in town.


FORCED MATE (SNIP)
"Political intrigue, culture clashes, gender issues, and romance collide to create a fun and breezy story that made one think just a little." ~ Allie Jones, inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com


INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL (SNIP)
"...someone wants to kill the Princess. Of course, Djetth’s grandmother and Marsh’s mother have something to say about that. They set out to prove just how dangerous little old ladies can be."~ Allie Jones, inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com


READ THE REVIEWS ... FOLLOW THIS LINK

http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/gods-of-tigron-trilogy.html


Best wishes,

Rowena Cherry
http://www.rowenacherry.com
Preditors and Editors "Author's Site of Excellence Award" winner for 3/2008

In Bed With Books: The Gods of Tigron Trilogy

In Bed With Books: The Gods of Tigron Trilogy

Preditors and Editors honored Rowena's website

Thursday was a wild one. I began the morning expecting good things which did not happen, and responded to a surprise email from Dave at preditors and editors asking me to contact him.

Early in the evening, I received a notification that Preditors and Editors had awarded my site the Author's Site Of Excellence Award.

Needless to say, I am thrilled!
I'd like to thank the person who nominated my site, and also the Preditors and Editors judges.

Best

Rowena

Rowena on the Radio

Did you know that on the first Tuesday of every month, I am a radio talk show host from 10 am Eastern until noon?

Each month, some of my favorite authors join me to talk about books and topics of general interest... whether it is the unfair advantage Viking men had over Europeans (clean underwear!) or Wolf awareness, or a sex life in the oceans... or foot fetishes, we always have a laugh and discover that no matter what genre we write, we have a lot in common.

Insufficient Mating Material wins the CAPA Fantasy Award

Talking Insufficient Mating Material with Baron Ron Herron

Half an hour ago, I was on KZSB AM 1290 for five minutes.

What a blast! I do have to say that I enjoyed every second of it. I did, despite my nerves. They say that when you are "on the spot" you never say what you mean to say, or you always think of something better that you could have said after the event.

So true!

I consider myself a bit of a seasoned talk show host myself, but only on Podcast radio (www.internetvoicesradio.com) and there is a vast difference between being the
host and in control, and being the guest.

I'd planned to tell the gracious host, Baron Ron Herron, what Survivorman Les Stroud told me about using rabbit guts as wilderness condoms.

With hindsight, maybe that would not have been such a good idea. Maybe it was just as well I didn't get to it. People in California would have been having their breakfasts.

(For those who don't know, Survivorman, Les Stroud, was my survival consultant for INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL, and he gave me the cover quote.)

I gather that Baron's show airs in Pebble Beach, among other places, and also in Queensland, so I'd hoped to talk about the Pebble Beach concours d'elegance where my husband has been one of the honorary judges for eleven out of the last twelve years. The Monterey aquarium is one of my favorite haunts when we visit.

I'd have liked to mention some of my bookseller friends in Queensland... Rosemary's Romance Books, the Intrigue Bookstore, Margaret Bell, and more. Ah, well!

Anyway, I did have a good time. (I wish I could have cracked a joke, though!)

SEQUEL TO A SPOOF


HOW do you write a sequel to a spoof?

This was the first challenge I faced when FORCED MATE was a success, readers –and my editor—wanted to know when the next book would be ready.

In FORCED MATE, I lovingly took every stock Romance situation and had fun with it.

Hoping for swift sexual success with his human abductee, the alien hunk bases his seduction strategy on Romance novels and the early, less sensitive James Bond movies.

To his astonishment and annoyance, the heroine doesn’t follow the script.

INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL couldn’t be a spoof, but it had to have plenty of humor, lots of sexual tension, a heroine who doesn’t follow the script, a gorgeous, powerful, competent but flawed hero, political chicanery, intrigue, and a dastardly assassination attempt.

I started thinking along the lines of THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON meets THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with a touch of FACE OFF, and some MISS MARPLE in outer space.

Or –and I say this with Les Stroud’s permission—SURVIVORMAN WITH SEX.

INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL begins with a shotgun Royal wedding. The hero’s nemesis decides that the hero must be married to a political “liability wife” … the most scandalous, most airheaded, fashionista princess available.

Only, the Princess takes one look at the chap being frogmarched up the aisle to mate with her, and she knocks him to the ground and storms out.

So, the all-powerful Nemesis maroons the hero and heroine on a desert island like a pair of exotic animals in a zoo breeding program, and waits for nature to take its course.

From the moment Djetth and Princess Marsh crash land in the sea off their island home, (getting wet) they have to fend for themselves, make a bed and a shelter, find water, build a fire, dig a latrine, hunt for and gather and prepare food, deal with that monthly challenge… clean their teeth and other parts.


There’s a huge political secret that a very powerful member of the royal family is trying to cover up. He’ll stop at nothing to kill the princess and her rejected lover… but who is he? Is it the hero or the heroine who is his target? And what is this dire secret?

...

Rowena Cherrry

Sekhmet's Archival Chambers: Good Advice Part One

Sekhmet's Archival Chambers: Good Advice Part One

Animals that inspire

I'm under deadline at the moment, so cannot take long. If you watch this video of MATING NET, at the end you will be offered --by YouTube-- an array of animal videos that have absolutely nothing to do with me or my work.

I did write a scene inspired by the horse and the golf bag... but then I decided it was not in the best possible taste!





If you are on YouTube, check out my sites RowenaBCherry also rowenabeau also rowenacherry.

I've started to collect some videos for my Cherry Picking radio program on Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio.

Rowena Cherrry