Friday, March 25, 2011

Of Congratulations!

Finalists for RWA's RITA and Golden Heart awards were named today. Congratulations to author, fellow MCRW member, and friend Annie Solomon, a finalist for the 2011 Romantic Suspense RITA for Two Lethal Lies.

Synopsis:
A love to die for...

On the run since his daughter was born, Mitch Turner has concealed a truth so dangerous, its discovery could jeopardize both their lives. But when a series of shocking murders hits their newfound home, the trail leads straight to Mitch. With the police out for blood and his daughter ripped from his arms, he has nowhere to turn--until a beautiful stranger offers her help.

Neesy Brown has made mistakes in her life, yet she refuses to believe this mysterious man is a killer. There's a strength in his broad shoulders that draws her to him and a weariness in his eyes that she longs to ease. As the murders tear her small town apart, she vows to help Mitch find his missing child. But a cunning predator is pulling them deeper and deeper into his fatal game. And the price of losing is the child--and the future--they could both share...


Congratulations to Annie! May you soon have a second RITA gracing your shelf!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Of Trading Cards and Trends

Baseball cards. Pokemon cards. Country Music trading cards.

It was inevitable.

Growing out of twitter conversations (#romancetradingcards - seriously, how awesome is twitter?), the romance genre is now getting in on the trading card action. Participation is open to all. Authors are responsible for the creation and printing of their own cards. Cards can feature any romance character (hero, heroine, villain, beloved sidekick, etc) across any romance subgenre. Authors are invited to bring their cards to book signings, conferences, and events for readers to collect and trade.

Worried your creativity levels may not be up to snuff in terms of card design? Companies like Hot Damn Designs offer formatting, stock images, and more.

Participating authors can be found at romancetradingcards.com, where card images and links are listed free of charge.




This is such a great idea!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Of eBooks and Emerging Technology

Two inventors in St. Petersburg have devised a program that will allow authors to digitally sign and personalize ebooks.

From the article, Local inventors create way to autograph eBooks, by Jonathan Petramala:

Local author and inventor T.J. Waters and his friend developed Autography, a place for the author's signature.

"Basically, what you do is pull up a copy of your book as the author, and it inserts a blank page behind the cover and you sign whatever you're going to personalize for somebody," Waters said.

Waters can sign from his iPad, and that message will show up on the eReader within a couple of minutes on a newly created page.

"What we've also been able to figure out is how to do this remotely," Waters said. "So an author could be sitting in his home or a facility like this and doing a book signing in Cleveland."

It will be interesting to see how well this app works, across which platforms, and how widespread it becomes.