Puttin' on yer weinie shoes!

The male animal and his shoe size!

My husband has this pair of shoes that give him the illusion of small feet. They were super expensive shoes and it's just plain weird how these shoes manage to shrink his feet from a size 11 and 1/2 down to an 8 or something.

I was in bed the other morning and he walked over to my side and asked, "Do these shoes make my feet look small?"

I looked down, blinked a couple times, looked again, blinked a couple more times and then said, "Yeah, but...I don't get it. How can a pair of shoes shrink your feet?"

"I don't know," he replied, "but I can't wear them. You know what they say about men with small feet. I don't want anyone thinking..."

"What?" I teased.

"You know...."

I laughed. "Honey," I said, "You don't need to worry."

"Yeah, but nobody else knows that!"

Now you know what goes on in our house. I recently spent the weekend with my husband, his two brother and all his many male cousins - I kid you not, I gave birth to the only two girls in that family - and all they talked about was hand size, foot size...is it width or length? Is it the distance between your extended thumb and the end of your pinkie? Men...

"I have long fingers," somebody said.

"But I have a wide palm," said another person.

"I have big feet."

"Yeah, but my toes are longer than yours."

All weekend.

On another note - sorry about the late post!

Crazy Busy

All of my creative energy is currently focused on edits! Why, oh why are there only 24 hours in each day??

I do want to take a minute to announce that Possessing Eleanor received a Reviewers Top Pick from NOR!!

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=6249

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tessie

www.tessiebradford.com

I Declare War on E-Pirates!

Let’s pretend we are at a friend’s house and she turns her back or leaves the room for a moment. A secret door opens in the wall and a stranger walks into her home and steals something precious, useful and valuable to her. The stranger disappears and the door closes. When our friend walks back into the room would we tell her what just happened? Of course we would! This is the exact situation that is happening to our friends who are e-authors. E-authors are being picked cleaned by pirated books and internet share sites.

With the good comes the bad. Any published e-author knows how much work is involved in promoting an ebook and how wonderful it feels to have a “Release Day”.

Sadly along with the traditional excitement of releasing a new book and waiting to get reader feedback or reviews comes a new tradition- Release-Day e-pirates! Actually the e-pirates show up before anyone else.

Literally within an hour of its release the requests went up on a pirate-share sites for “Beautiful Stranger”. By sundown the Downloads had begun. I raised the alarm to my publisher and copied and emailed pages that contained other Ellora’s Cave authors, including Amber Skyze’s new release “Pretend with Me” and many others...

It’s very frustrating to me that pirates are allowed to monetize their sites with lots of advertizing while openly encouraging a black-market of stolen content to be traded. Why can’t these guys be flagged and deprived of their revenues especially the blatant repeat offenders?

Intellectual property is one of the few things America is manufacturing these days and we should be doing a better job of protecting it. The pirate-share sites are an intolerable part of an unsustainable business model. The music industry stood up on its hind legs and roared and the publishing industry had better do the same. It’s time. There’s no tomorrow on this stuff. It’s time to demand basic protection and rights as artists. As it stands e-authors are the lowest on the totem pole and they are the golden goose.

The vast majority of readers are honest people but apparently a few of the readers we are reaching with our promotions are the same ones who are asking to illegally download our books on release day. I turned in a file-sharer who was offering a dozen current Ellora’s Cave titles on just one page. A campaign against e-piracy should be launched with the same fervor we promote our books. Too many people believe e-authors are paid royalties up front. They don’t understand or care that a single stolen book proliferates on the web and starves sales to the author. E-pirates need to understand they are stealing from someone who works hard and needs the money and often doesn’t make much money on ebooks to begin with.

Kelly, who fights pirates for Ellora’s Cave said her computer constantly, gets infected with malware and viruses galore from some of the share sites. So I ask the casual “e-thief” is it worth the time, hassle and expense of fixing your computer just to get a “free” download of a great book that was a bargain to begin with? There really are advantages to being honest…

The internet has given the world a whole new level of freedom but freedom comes with responsibility. Sharing files is stealing. Be responsible toward your fellow human beings. Let’s not use the web to steal from or abuse others. Report e-piracy when you see it. Piracy@ellorascave.com

XXOO Kat

Amber's Ramblings

Okay, so I don’t have a HOT topic to talk about today. I spent the weekend celebrating my grand daughter's 1st birthday (today) and my youngest daughter's 13th birthday (tomorrow). Two parties, tons of family in town, non stop running.

I DID write THE END on Spend The Night With Me, book two in the Freedom Fantasies series. I know I need to add one scene, before sending it off to my editor. Hoping by Friday the latest.
Play With Me, book three, will be submitted at the same time.

Still waiting to hear about Submit With Me. It’s a short-short 7k. It’s a role playing story like the others in my series.

I did receive a few good reviews over the weekend I’d like to share:

Body Shots:
http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/reviews/Apr10/bodyshots.as.html

Title: Wild Lickins
Author: Amber Skyze
Genres: GLBTQ
Site Date: Feb 23, 2010
Online Link: http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=6184
Score: 3.25 / 5


Off to edit! Have a fun week.

"HUG A FRIEND DAY" HUNKS!

WARNING: DON'T LOOK BELOW IF EASILY OFFENDED! Now that I have your attention (did you already scroll down to peek?), on with my "HUG A FRIEND DAY" blog!

Friends. Everyone wants them and some may be lifelong people you can count on. Friends can commiserate, cry, laugh, with you and share your good and bad times.

Do you keep in touch with friends? Now with the Internet, it's easier to send messages and keep up to date with what's going on in their lives. And, finding old friends again can be great!

New friends are wonderful, too. Finding someone who shares your interests makes you more at ease in their presence. I love all my new reader and author friends...I can talk to them by email and meet people in different countries. I know authors and have fans all over the world.

Now...Hunk friends. Not too many I personally know, but fantasizing is a great stress reducer. The older I get, the more tantalizing a sexy guy becomes and gives me that "AH" feeling of my wicked days-gone-by. Oh, sure...I was a wild woman in my younger days, chased the guys, let them chase me, sometimes got caught...but those stories haven't been told yet, and may never be.

These guys would make wonderful friends I'd love to hug...repeatedly. What do you think? Just look at the muscles (especially the one on the far right) and imagine being embrace in a "friendly" hug...hopefully lasting all night!

So, maybe I should write a series of "Hugging Hunks" Romance Adventures? I could give them names, personalities that suit my romance story plot, "expose" their attributes...and your naughty mind is thinking of what each one holds in his hand...but I'm, of course, talking about those muscles, sculpted torsos, great smiles, etc. SURE!

Visit http://www.mariannestephens.net and htttp://www.aprilash.net for information about my books.
NEW YAHOO GROUP: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romancebooksrus
"Anything You Can Do" by Marianne Stephens, http://www.breathlesspress.com, received a 5 STAR, REVIEWER TOP PICK, from Diana Coyle, Night Owl Reviews (http://nightowlreviews.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=6063)
AYCD is in the top 10% of Romantic Comedies Best Selling List (http://www.allromanceebooks.com/category150_5.html)
Photos: Flickr: noemimanlang's photostream, and IranNuts.gif

Wow...I actually remembered it was Saturday...

Usually I forget about my blog day until it is too late to post, so I did this post Friday evening and made sure it would post at midnight. LOL!

Anyway...

I want to thank some people today, and I want them to know why I appreciate them so very much.

First, I want to thank the many wonderful people I have met since becoming a published author. Six of them co-host this blog with me. Thanks, ladies, for being caring and generous and tolerant of my odd humor and silliness. You have given me so much friendship and understanding, I would be lost without you.

I want to thank Regina, who has fished me out of the pond by my heels when I have jumped in over my head a few times. I want to thank Syneca for giving me a whole new reason for writing. (I must do her fabulous covers justice!)

I want to thank Julia for keeping me grounded whenever I blow a gasket. I want to thank Wendy for being one of the kindest reviewers on earth. I want to thank my other Wendy for being patient! I want to thank Patrice and Annmarie and Cathy and Virginia and Marianne and Kathy and Teri and Margit and Becky and Shannon and April and Kim and Theresa and Julie and Tina and Helen and Grace and Sue-Ellen and Anne and Martha and Valerie and Courtney and Annie and Heather and Jessica and Tiffany and Leigh and...*gasp*...Terra and Frank and Edwin and Bill and Chrissy and James and Bobby and Ryan and Raelene and Rodney and Will and Howard and Desiree and Cindy and Patricia and George and Afton and Dan and Heath and Pauline and Phil and Brynn and Bron and Anny and Jayne and Andrei and Angela and Angelo and Jan and Melissa and Mia and Maddie and Kat and Tessie and Aleka and Nora and Nina and Sheri and Kresley and Carol and Pam and Tatiana and Adele and Ann and Pete and Justin and Rob and Kaenar and Sam (several of you!) and Mari and Edith Celia and Madeline and Mike and Melinda and Michelle and Megan and Francesca and Patty and Patti and Pat and...gasp...okay. If I go through the entire list, I won't have room to tell you how much you have all helped me. I have not met a single person in this wonderful business who has not made me feel welcome, appreciated, and at home.

If I missed anyone's name. my apologies.

So whether you are a publisher, an editor, a reviewer, an author, a reader, a model, or one of the many wonderful support staff who help run the show, I want to thank every single one of you for having made my recent career change to author a smooth and delightful one!

I have a bone to pick with Silhouette Nocturne

Books? Or Advertisements?

Today I received a book I ordered via Amazon, Vampire Vendetta, by Alexis Morgan. I like Alexis Morgan. Her Paladin series is a fun read. The alpha heroes make for a good quickie. I just finished her latest, Defeat the Darkness, and it was okay. It was good enough that when I received her email informing me she has a new vampire love story out, I thought - why not? I missed her first vampire book but I ordered Vampire Vendetta. I can tell it's going to be another quickie and I'm sure it will keep me entertained for a few hours.

So why do I have a bone to pick with the publisher, Silhouette Nocturn? Because stuck to the binding, between pages 160 and 161, was a thick packet of advertising. When I tried to pull it, thinking it might just be shoved in there or perforated for easy removal, I had to rip it out. Along came pages 160 and 161. The damn cardboard ads were glued to the book binding.

A. Do I really want advertising in my book? If a pub wants to advertise, print up the ads and stick them at the end of the book - I discovered ten pages of ads in the back of the book after the story ends, in addition to an ad on the inside of the back cover. At least those ads are printed on the same paper as the rest of the book and they don't interfere with my reading pleasure.

B. Don't stick cardboard in the middle of my book! How distracting! That's why I tore it out in the first place. I stupidly assumed it would be perforated and easy to remove. Silly me. Now I have a brand new book with a bent binding, a hole in the middle, ragged remnants of cardboard, and two taped pages. Dang!

This is the first time I've ever purchased a book that's had a big fat packet of advertising stuck in the middle of it. Has this happened to you?