NO BOOKS TO READ - MARGARET TANNER

WHERE'S MY HOLIDAY BOOK? - MARGARET TANNER

Ah! Summer reading. Those long hot days lying on the beach or the sun deck, slathered in suntan lotion,  wearing a hat or sheltering under beach umbrellas or awnings so we won’t end up as red as lobsters. We have a long cool drink by our side, a few nibbles, and a book, be it print book or e-reader. What bliss. This scenario is played out every summer in most countries of the world.

Of course, if you are unfortunate enough to live in a cold climate, there is nothing like curling up by a roaring fire, watching the red flames dance as you sip a hot drink. A block of chocolate is within easy reach, and of course, a book. I mean, you can all visualize this. It happens so often.

Have you ever been on the train or bus going to work and not seen at least one person reading a book? It is like breathing, we do it all the time.

My question is. What if there were no books, or only a few books to choose from because authors weren’t writing anymore? It would be a disaster. Can’t happen you say, and maybe not, but there is the risk that one day it could.

Everyone expects, and is entitled to a fair days pay for a fair days work. In the case of authors, except for the few who make it big, most are scratching out a living, or writing for the love of it with little reward, but you don’t expect to have your work stolen.

If authors choose to give their work away, i.e. free Kindle downloads etc. that is fine, but what I find particularly frustrating are the plethora of pirate sites giving away authors’ books without their permission. Someone is making money and it sure isn’t the author. There are enough legitimately free books around these days, so there should be no need for these pirate sites, and yet readers obviously continue to patronize them. Of course, these people would not go into the supermarket and help themselves to something and walk off without paying for it.  Only thieves do that.

Downloading books from pirate sites is theft, pure and simple. If no-one went into these sites and downloaded the books, they would be out of business within a couple of weeks.

Most e-books are in the 99cents - $2.99 category, so surely this is not a great deal of money to spend for several hours of enjoyment.

I know of authors who have given up writing because they are sick of their work being stolen. So please, enjoy your holiday reading, but act with integrity and acquire your books in an honest and fair manner. That way you ensure that there are plenty of authors churning out plenty of books, so that no matter what genre you read, you will find something that suits your taste.

Margaret Tanner is an award winning historical romance writer, published by Books We Love.

Her latest release is Dangerous Birthright.

Tagline: Georgina has been living a lie because of a deadly secret from her past.

 

 

http://amzn.com/B00SQBUGSQ

http://www.margarettanner.com

http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/

 

 

SECRETS - MARGARET TANNER

SECRETS - WE ALL HAVE THEM

How many of us have secrets?

I doubt if there would be many people who don’t have at least one secret. I don’t mean of the dark, dangerous variety, but some of us may well have a secret that could place us in danger. Fortunately, I am not one of those.

My secret – I am a chocoholic. How many times have I told my hubby that I no longer eat chocolates, then I sneak off to my several hiding places (not to be divulged on pain of death), where my secret stash is hidden. You should always have more than one hideout for your illicit goodies just in case one of them is discovered. I don’t want to be like Old Mother Hubbard – who went to the cupboard to get her dog a bone, and when she got there the cupboard was bare and the poor doggie had none. Change that to and when Margaret got to her secret stash, the chokkies were gone and she had none. A disaster of that proportion could not be allowed to happen, hence a few hiding places. I call it my insurance policy.

In many families there are secrets that will never see the light of day, except if someone in the family is into Geneology. My sister has unearthed some shocking scandals as she undertook research into our family tree. I swear, I could write a book about it. One of the most shocking secrets was the fact that my grandmother had a baby when she was unmarried and only eighteen years old. The baby died when he was only 6 days old. A couple of years later she married my grandfather. No-one knew that, it remained hidden for 120 years, until my sister unearthed the information during her research.

Another relative spent time in jail in the 1880’s for aiding and abetting Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger (outlaw). Then there were all the “premature” babies that were born to aunts and great aunts. Not to mention one great uncle who had two wives. Then there was a cousin who ran off with a man who was older than her father. That caused a stir. Especially as the man had a wife and 4 children. Still, can’t be all bad, thirty years later, and the couple are still together.

In my experience, and I do have to quantify this by saying I mainly read historical romance because that is what I write, there are often dark secrets lurking in the background. Some of these could be life threatening, in any case at the very least they threaten the hero and heroine’s chance of getting their happily ever after ending.

In my novel, Allison’s War, the heroine’s secret is that the baby she is expecting does not belong to her husband.

 

In A Rose In No-Man’s Land, the hero hides a secret from the heroine. She is broken hearted to find out that he won’t marry her, when in fact he wants to marry her, but can’t because he is being blackmailed by the sister of his dead wife. If he marries the heroine, he risks being hanged for a murder that he did not commit.

In Daring Masquerade, my heroine pretends she is a boy so she can gain employment with the hero. Then, of course, she falls in love with the hero. I mean, what can she do about it?

In my novel, Haunted Hearts, (the only contemporary I have published), the heroine discovers that her father-in-law has been going through her drawers and stealing her panties.

So, you can see that secrets abound in my novels, and I am sure I am not alone in this regard. A secret can drive our stories along, add passion and drama, and keep the reader wondering what is this secret? How can it be resolved? Will the hero and heroine get their HEA?

Margaret Tanner writes historical romance for The Wild Rose Press and Books We Love.

http://www.margarettanner.com

 

Guest Contemporary Category Romance Author Lee McKenzie -Hooked on Harlequin

Lee McKenzie

I wish I could remember the author and title of the first Harlequin Romance I ever read, but I was only fourteen and at the time and didn’t realize it would be one of those pivotal, life-changing events. What I do remember from that first book is that I was hooked. Hooked on the innocent and inexperienced orphan heroines and the dark, brooding and oh-so-sardonic heroes, hooked on the exotic locales, hooked on the happily ever afters.

Over the years that followed, I read hundreds of Harlequin novels. The lines changed, the heroines became stronger, and the heroes were less sardonic, but there was always a happily ever after.  When I decided to turn my lifelong dream of being a writer into a reality, I knew I wanted to write one. First I had to figure out which of the many Harlequin lines was best suited for my voice and style, so I tried my hand at writing books that might work with the Presents line, then Superromance, then romantic suspense for Intimate Moments.

As I accumulated one rejection after another, I also started to final in (and sometimes win!) writing contests, including four finals in the Romance Writers of America’s ® prestigious Golden Heart Award. But I still hadn’t found an editor to buy one of my books, because I still hadn’t figured out where my stories belonged.

I grew up an only child with a large, close-knit extended family. Many of my earliest memories are of raucous family dinners with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins sitting around my grandmother’s kitchen table. As I continued to write, I gradually realized that even my romantic suspense novels had a focus on family. Huh.

Maybe there really was something to that old saying, “write what you know.” What I know and love is family. My writing style is lighthearted with lots of sexual tension and little splashes of humor, and at the centre of all my romances are a hero and heroine surrounded by family and friends. So I started to focus on Harlequin’s Heart and Home lines, and was thrilled to finally find my writing home with American Romance.

Here’s what the writing guidelines say: “American Romance features heartwarming romances with strong family elements. These are stories about the pursuit of love, marriage and family in America today. A sense of family and community is essential.” How perfect!

I’m currently working on my seventh book, and the third in the Ready Set Sold series. The first in the series, The Christmas Secret, was a November 2011 release and the second book, The Daddy Project, will be out in December 2012. The third book is Daddy, Unexpectedly (working title, release TBA). The heroines of these three books—a carpenter, an interior decorator and a Realtor—run a business called Ready Set Sold. If you like HGTV shows about home renos and decoration, then I hope you’ll love these stories!

American Romance is a perfect fit for me, and after all these years I’m still hooked on Harlequin. I love to read them, and I now I love to write them, too.

The Christmas Secret:

A Christmas Present With A Hidden Past

AJ Harris needs to leave town, before his past sneaks up on him in the form of a tool-belt–wearing beauty who also happens to be the mother of his child. Fate has other plans when AJ inadvertently hires Samantha Elliott to renovate and sell his grandmother’s old house. Now he has to hide the truth—he secretly adopted the child Sam abandoned three years ago. Only, AJ can’t prevent the bond between mother and child. When he learns the selfless reasons behind Sam’s actions, including his own father’s deceit, AJ’s secret becomes a burden he can’t keep. But will Sam forgive him for having their son all this time? Or will one little boy’s love bring together a family…just in time for Christmas?

About Lee McKenzie:

From the time Lee McKenzie was ten years old and read Anne of Green Gables and Little Women, she knew she wanted to be a writer, just like Anne and Jo. In the intervening years she has written advertising copy, magazine articles and an honors thesis in paleontology, and edited conference proceedings, educational material and technical publications. Along the way, her imagination demanded a more creative outlet, and she soon discovered the world of romance. Becoming a four-time Golden Heart finalist and a Harlequin author are her proudest accomplishments yet.

Lee and her artist/teacher husband live on an island in the Pacific Northwest, and she loves to spend time with two of her best friends--her grown-up children. To find out more about Lee and her books, readers are invited to visit her at http://www.leemckenzie.com/. Lee’s titles are also listed on her author page at Amazon.com.

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Christmas Secret from Lee McKenzie!