I just got back from a 3-day writers retreat in Lodi. This was our second meeting of the West Coast members of OnFireFiction, the 12-member writers cooperative I joined earlier this year. We had tons of vital publishing decisions to discuss. First on the agenda, the upcoming promotional calendar for our fabulous 5-author release: Love Me Some Cowboy.

The book comes out Sunday, MAY 26! Pre-orders on iTunes have been great! Be sure to grab a copy, but in case you’re the gambling type, you can sign up for my CONTEST because I’m giving away a copy, along with a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of any book in my Screw Senility series.

 The second most important thing we covered was how to find and upload photos of hunky guys to share on OFF’s Facebook page. I chose several, including Chris Pine. Those eyes! 

Star Trek Into Darkness, here I come!

But, seriously, we spent most of the time staring at computer screens trying to get our group conference set up with the other 8 members of OFF, all of whom live East of the Rocky Mountains. 

 (Why, yes, that is a photo of the Rockies.

Why?

Because it’s my blog and I haven’t seen them in much too long.

Ok?

Good.)

Here’s what we found out:

Skype sucks with a crowd. We discovered it makes the sound of a braying donkey if people’s volumes were turned up. That was good for a laugh, but very hard to work around.

At one point each of us had a laptop open and were connected with one of our members on the east coast. Have you ever seen the TV show Elementary?  Sherlock has 6-8 TV screens bunched together with different shows playing. That’s sorta how it was. And–news flash!–none of us is Sherlock Holmes. It was a headache in the making.

Day 2, we tried Google+ Hangouts.

Actually, this service worked pretty well ( you need a gmail account and you have to upload Hangouts). Nobody got dropped. When you reached a certain number of participants, Hangouts would arbitrarily mute certain people. I’m not saying who…okay, me. And Barbara McMahon. We’re not sure why. But, the point is: Google+ Hangouts worked. In case, you ‘re interested.

One of the fun things to come out of this brainstorming was a decision to have more fun with Facebook. If you friend OnFireFiction on Facebook, you’ll start seeing our Man Candy Mondays, Fur-Baby Wednesdays and First Line Fridays. We’ll post the first line of the book each of us (or whoever is around at the time) is currently reading and we’ll see if anyone can guess it. Readers can try to stump us, too. (That shouldn’t be too hard.)

Here’s another pic of the gang (Karen Sandler, Barbara McMahon, me, Ginger Chambers). Eating. Of course.

Happy reading!

Oh, and, by the way, Bang! You’re Dead is FREE on iTunes. Here’s the link: Bang! if you know anyone who reads on an iPhone, iPad or iPod.

Just released! Click HERE to buy:

More Bang! For Your Buck – A third short, erotic encounter of the Judy Banger kind

Kudos to my wonderful cover artist Kim Van Meter. She found the perfect “vector” to represent my heroine Judy Banger, tweaked the image as needed added the great lettering and special accents–notice the handcuffs. And lips.

When I showed the first draft to my husband, he said, “Where are the lips? You gotta have lips.”

Be still my heart. He noticed.

I may have mentioned that when I started this series, I assumed there’d be three books. Who doesn’t love a good trilogy? But when I came to the end of this book something amazing happened. Someone unexpected showed up and took Judy’s–and my–breath away. Suddenly, I knew Judy had a chance at her very own HEA (happily-ever-after, for you non-romance junkies).

Here’s Judy’s first glimpse of the man (from More Bang! For Your Buck):

Fletcher’s annoyed snarl gave way to a sigh of resignation. He swallowed a big gulp of wine then said, “Hello, Dad. Imagine meeting you here.”

He made a sweeping gesture with his free hand. “Gang, let me introduce you to my father, Judge Wilson Canby.”

“Judge?” Lewis repeated before levitating off the bed to disappear into the bathroom.

Pru, Judy noticed, had apparently snatched her purse and hightailed it at the first sign of trouble.

Judy shrank against the cushion pinned by the blue steel gaze that surveyed her from toe to head. The man’s expression was as unreadable as his son’s, but tightly clenched fists and the rigid cast of his shoulders spoke volumes. Anger. Frustration. Disappointment. And something else. Grief? Despair?

She’d seen the same look on Buddy’s face when he talked about the pain of losing his wife or the regret he felt over the vast chasm of disconnect between him and his son. Buddy had thrown in the towel and let Lewis manage their relationship. This man, Judy guessed, wasn’t the type to give up without a fight. His Armani suit might as well have been made of chain mail.

Poor Judy. Caught in a most compromising position by the man of her dreams. How could any writer write her out of this mess?

That’s a very good question. I’ll let you know as soon as THE BIG BANG! THEORY is published (hopefully mid-June).

In the meantime, please help me get the word out about this series. Every review and social media “share” is greatly appreciated. And please sign up for my May Contest.

You may be the lucky winner of a $25 Amazon gift card,

your choice of any one of these three current Screw Senility titles

AND a free copy of On Fire Fiction’s LOVE ME SOME COWBOY, a box set of five great books by five awesome authors.

So, Happy May Reading, my friends!  Deb

Did you ever read these? I confess. I did.

Confession time: I used to hate offering contests on my website.

Why?

Because they took so much time.  At the end of the contest, I’d write every entry on a piece of paper, cut the names into individual squares, put them in a box and call my granddaughter to come pull a name for me.

Archaic, right?

Then my pal, Rogenna, author and blog guru, told me about Rafflecopter. Believe it or not, I managed to set this up on my website–with a little help from my computer guru, David Newberry. Last month’s drawing was a breeze. Rafflecopter picked the winner. Her name, coincidentally, was Rogenna.

So, May’s Contest is now up and running. (Click HERE to go to the contest page.)

I don’t know how it works, but it does. And one of the great prizes, I’m pleased and excited to offer is a copy of Love Me Some Cowboy, the soon-to-be-released 5-book compilation from five of my favorite authors: Lisa Mondello, Barbara McMahon, Jean Brashear (who is up for 2 Ritas this year), Ginger Chambers and Day Leclaire (who is up for her 13th Rita this year).

The winner will also get any book in my Screw Senility! series, PLUS a $25 Amazon gift card!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now. Your chances are a whole lot better than the lottery–and it’s free to enter.

Deb

PS: If you’d like to share your special story of cowboy love, come on over to Goodreads. We’ve got a chat going on!

As the adage says: There’s strength in numbers.

Like the number SEVEN…as in…The Magnificent Seven.

The Magnificent Seven made box office magic.

Ask Yul Brynner. If he were alive, he’d tell you: The right group of people can make magic happen.

And, it doesn’t hurt if one of the seven is Steve McQueen. (Be still my heart.)

Steven McQueen AND Yul Brynner...where have all the sexy cowboys gone?

So, what does The Magnificent Seven have to do with writing?

Well…um…seven rhymes with eleven…and since I belong to On Fire Fiction, a creative cooperative made up of ELEVEN published authors…okay, that’s a stretch. You’re right. You know me too well. I’ll use any excuse to post photos of Steve McQueen.

On Fire Fiction

But, obviously, the main purpose of this blog is to introduce On Fire Fiction and its ELEVEN members –and to explain about this growing trend in publishing: authors working cooperatively–and creatively–to share the daunting and at times overwhelming task of promoting their work.

Why do authors need to worry about promotion?

We all know publishing, along with book buying habits, has changed. Ebooks, ereaders and online retailers like Amazon, iTunes and B&N make it easy to buy a book. But have you looked at all the titles out there?! Eek!

Smart, well-focused promotion helps your loyal readers find out about your latest release. Promotion raises your “discoverability” to attract new readers. Hopefully, promotion begets sales, which, to be frank, is how today’s author makes a living so he or she can continue to write books to promote.

So, let me introduce my wonderful, magnificent-if you will–cohorts:

Linda Barrett

Jean Brashear

Rogenna Brewer

Ginger Chambers

Annie Jones

Julie Kenner

Day Leclaire

Barbara McMahon

Lisa Mondello

Karen Sandler

and, me, of course.

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you may have seen this photo from a get-together of the “West Coast” members of OnFireFiction. We used Facetime and Skype to work with our members on the east coast, Texas and Colorado. We covered a rigorous agenda. But, yes, we did break to eat. I learned that I really like Vietnamese Pho. Yummm.

From left: Barbara McMahon, Ginger Chambers, me, Karen Sandler

There is never a shortage of new things to learn in this ever-changing business–especially when it comes to marketing your books.

But knowing you’re not alone in your efforts really makes a difference. Plus, writers are the most generous professionals I know. We’re eager to share our experiences–good and bad. We’re happy to trade tips on what type of advertising works and what flops. We eagerly share and post the best sites for getting the word out about a new release. And we may be setting up a data base for finding the best Pho.

One exciting and very tangible thing to come out of this meeting turned out to be a win-win for both readers and authors. Offering “boxed sets” isn’t a new sales technique, but offering three complete books by three different authors for one super low price is just plain awesome.

Unsuitably Perfect, OnFireFiction’s first 3-in-1 “Boxed Set” is now available at Amazon for just $.99.

Oh, my, Debra! More? Really?

Forgive the salacious title, but it fits. Here’s why:

• Ebooks are fluid.

• Epublishing is not yo’ mama’s written-on-paper-bound-to-hang-around-for-as-long-as-yard-sales-exist kind of production.

Got typos? Fix ‘em.

Hate your cover? Change it.

Missing a scene? Add it.

As long as the story is alive in the mind of the author, there is room, time and potential for change.

As a writer, I find this both scary and exciting.

Why?

Because most of the authors I know are perfectionists who can agonize for hours over the placement of a single word. Myself, I’ve tweaked a story to near death only to have my editor shrug off my concerns with a casual, “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Nice? Don’t you see the blood and brain matter on that page?” I wanted to shriek at her.

"Nice? I'll give you nice!"

Anyway, the point of this blog is, as the title says, “More sex.” Here’s why:

Now $1.99!

In my second Screw Senility book, In With A Bang, I committed the writerly sin of falling in love with a cool line–a really nice cliffhanger line, granted–at the expense of story.

I knew this in my gut, but I didn’t listen to my inner author…until a reader–thank you, Ruth–asked, “What happens with Jed the Contractor? Do he and Judy get together in the next book?”

“Um…no,” I stutter while my brain scrambles to remember who Jed is. “He and Judy are just friends. Didn’t I make that clear?”

Of course not, dufus, or she wouldn’t have asked.

I realized immediately that poor Jed the Contractor got screwed. Or, rather, did not get screwed quite enough. He and Judy had unfinished business.

In a conventional print book, I, the author, and you, the reader, would be SOL (So…out…of..luck–don’t ask me why there’s only one O. I don’t know.) But this an eBook. I’m the ePublisher. So, guess what?

I added a new scene.

And yes, yes, yes (this is more affective if you say it ala Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally), it’s a sexy scene. A very Judy Banger scene. Jed got lucky. Very lucky. French tickler lucky.

When Harry Met Sally “I’ll have what she’s having.”

There’s a lot to be said for satisfaction, don’t you agree?

Deb

PS: If you purchased In With A Bang! and your ereader doesn’t let you upload the most recent version, please contact me.

Oh, happy day — a very Good Friday!

Spring has arrived in wild, reckless profusion. The birds are carrying on something fierce outside my window. A small green and black snake just wound his way through my newly planted garden.

I love Spring. And the Easter Holiday is one of my personal favorites. I have great memories of dressing up in all my newly purchased finery–hats and gloves were a must–to go to church.

Competitive egg dying is a more recent thing, but when my nephews showed up at Grandma’s, egg hunting became a contact sport.
Nowadays, I’m seeing all sorts of toys, games, hair ties, kites and non-candy goodies showing up in Easter baskets.

This Sunday, several generations will gather at my brother’s and sister-in-law’s home to watch the “old” kids hide eggs for  the “new” kids while parents snap pics and grandparents snap pics of their kids snapping pics.

I will be taking the day to turn the “online” off and reconnect via “face time,” not Facebook. But, since this is a writer’s blog, I thought I’d spread some reading goodness in case you’d like to treat yourself to some fun, spring books for your eReaders libraries. Click on any image to take you right to the Amazon page.

Now $1.99!

$.99 Fun read!

A great Kindle buy at $.99

LOL fun! $.99

Double RITA nominee! Now, just $.99

May you begin next week and the new month with hope renewed.
Happy Easter! And Happy Spring!
Deb

Why “Unexpected”?

Well, check out what my Thesaurus says about the word:

amazing, astonishing, eye-opening, fortuitous, from left field, impetuous, prodigious, unpredictable, wonderful.

I get a little giddy thinking about all the possibilities: guest bloggers, Q&As with characters, super sexy, provocative photos OR pics of my dog, the rattlesnake we just killed, or anything else that might stumble into my corner of the world.

Snake, you say? 45″, 7 buttons. This big boy (or girl, I can’t tell the difference)    scared the heck out of me while I was writing this blog. (It’s a beautiful spring  day in Debland and my poor old deaf dog nearly got struck not ten feet from  where I was sitting (on my deck).

What other types of unexpected goodies can you expect?

Well, for starters: How ’bout a Blow-out Sale?!

I reduced the price on ALL of my short fiction titles to: $1.99.

(Price changed at Amazon and Smashwords; other venues should be up soon.)

Bang! You’re Dead! * In With a Bang! * Gator * A Hundred Years or More

And here’s another deal: Unsuitably Perfect by Lisa Mondello, Barbara McMahon and Karen Sandler.  Three complete, full-length romance novels from three bestselling authors for $4.99. You’ll have to do the math, but it sounds like a good deal to me. (I do words, I don’t do numbers.)

Three great authors, three terrific stories for one low price.

Read. Laugh. And if you’re eligible…Screw Senility. (I’m off to work on book III – More Bang! For Your Buck).

~Deb

Sexual beings being sexual

Judy Banger, the heroine of my Screw Senility series, is a sexual being. She’s not a hot and gorgeous twenty-something, like this model hawking Guess sunglasses. (Exactly what I would have guessed was the focus of the ad, too.) Not.

Like a great many of us, Judy belongs to a market demographic far, far from that “sex sells” ideal.

In a blog for The Hoopla,

http://thehoopla.com.au/invisible-too/

author Ilsa Evans calls this “the invisible women syndrome.”

She writes, “However this is exacerbated, hugely, by Western society being so youth-obsessed, weight-obsessed, image-obsessed. Female ageing has become demonised, an enemy to be battled on all fronts at any cost, automatically reframing the older woman as loser.”

Judy Banger would argue that age and weight does NOT define one’s sexuality anywhere other than in the media.

In Bang! You’re Dead!, she stridently declares, “I’ve got a vagina and I’m not afraid to use it.”

Actually, at 52, she’s more afraid she’ll lose it, if she doesn’t take a proactive approach to sex. So Judy is taking steps–and, yes, a mis-step or two–to embrace her inner bad girl and make up for lost time.

If Judy were writing an advice column for sexual beings of a certain age, here’s what it might look like:

Dear Judy,

Hank, my honey of forty-odd years (Well, some were normal, but most? Not so much…), is no longer interested in playing hanky with my panky, if you get my drift. What should I do to light his fire?

Signed: Still horny after all these years

~~~~

Dear Horny,

Yank Hank out of his routine. You know that No-tell Motel on the edge of town? Don’t go there. Instead, book the best room in the nicest hotel in town. Nothing gets a man’s attention faster than overtly spending money he thinks might be his. Before your night at said hotel, invest in a “personal massager.” If Hank is reluctant to play, you can try using it like a Taser. It won’t lay him out flat, but he might laugh…and judiciously placed humor is a true aphrodisiac.

Signed: LOL Judy

So, what do you think? Does Judy have a future in the advice business? Or, perhaps more importantly, do you agree that the media has made “women of a certain age” invisible?

BTW, Books I and II in the Screw Senility series are currently available–click here: Bang! You’re Dead! and In With A Bang! And, because positive reviews drive sales, I’d love to give you one of my backlist titles (e- or print). Just email me a copy of the review from Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords or Goodreads.

Thanks for reading and as Judy might say….stay naughty,

Deb

With a nod to David Bowie, I’m humming this song while I write my first blog in nearly a year. I stopped blogging because of an inundation of spam that seemed to follow each new post. Hopefully, David Newberry, my  techno-geek (I use that term with the utmost respect), has fixed this problem while he tweaked my website.

What do you think of the new color scheme?

As much as I liked the old header, its placid, romantic feel just didn’t seem to fit with what I’m now writing and publishing.

So, out with the old and in with the new…courtesy of the incomparable Kim Van Meter (who also does my covers).

My release date for my second Screw Senility novella, IN WITH A BANG!, was Monday, March 4. Sadly, life intruded in a not-so-pleasant way and I missed my deadline. My editor and publisher and I had words (don’t ask), but what can you do when a beloved canine member of your family dies unexpectedly? You put books and deadlines aside while you comfort your daughter and bury her dog.

My sweet granddog, Tuesday. She will be missed.

So, please look for my new book to…be…released…soon. I promise. Here’s the super fun cover. Thank you, Kim!

The sooner I get the manuscript uploaded, the sooner the book will be out, so…’til later, my friends.

Deb

I was asked to post a “Getting to Know…Deb Salonen” post on my RWA chapter’s blog. And since time is precious and this week has been filled with small but necessary distractions–like my granddaughter’s school play today and that pesky story that is demanding my attention…I decided to copy that post here.

You all know me–and are probably bored to pieces with my personal trivia, but here it goes anyway. A few more Little Known Facts about Deb Salonen.

Ahhh, the writer's life...in Hawaii.

I’m supposed to write about me…really? Tell me you’re not bored to pieces with me. I know I am. I’m one of those people who hate to rewrite the same thing over and over. And I’ve been writing my life story for so long, I’m starting to believe my own lies…I mean, press. So, I’ve decided to search long and hard (not too long, I was reminded on Saturday of this impending pub date) for Little Known Facts about Debra Salonen.

LKF#1 – My mother wanted to name me Jill, but my older sisters had just seen the movie “Tammy” starring Debbie Reynolds so they insisted I be named Debbie. They went with the simple spelling of Debra because I don’t think the girls wanted to be bothered with the whole “orah” thing. I love my sisters, but I’ve always wondered how different my life would have been if I’d been Jill. You might ask what difference a name makes, but if you’ve ever sold a book and been asked to change the heroine’s name, you know “…a rose by any other name” was written for a reason. (The heroine of Her Husband, Her Babies was named Paige until my editor insisted I change it. I later learned Paige was her best friend’s name. Funny.)

LKF#2 – I am part sponge, part fly paper and part mynah bird. If you have an interesting accent and we spend a few minutes talking, by the time we part, I will be talking with an accent. If you share some interesting fact that has absolutely no relevance to anything I’m writing, some variation of that interesting fact will show up in my work. I can always make room for interesting. My T-shirt with the slogan “Warning: anything you say or do may appear in my next novel” is worn out from frequent washings.

LKF#3 – I taught myself to like chocolate. I didn’t start out liking that flavor and still don’t care for milk chocolate–ick. I blame my decision to like chocolate on peer pressure.  Wine, sex, chocolate…you hear these Big Three grouped together all the time. I tried to be a wine snob, but quickly learned I’m too cheap to be picky. Sex…well, since this is free and healthy, what’s not love? But chocolate? I gave it my best shot, got hooked and honestly thought I couldn’t live without it. But my New Year’s resolution was to cut down on my sugar intake, and low and behold I quickly discovered that I could live without chocolate. I don’t crave it. In fact, I’m not completely sure I ever liked it.  Go figure.

LKF#4 – I had two agents before I ever had a manuscript worthy of being represented. I really feel bad about that, now. Of course, at the time, I thought my book was hot stuff. I couldn’t believe some publisher didn’t snatch it right up and give me oodles of money–and neither could the two agents who got in a bit of tiff over me. Years later–after my very patient editor taught me a thing or three about story structure, I pulled that story out of the circular file, re-wrote it completely and sold it to Superromance. My take away from this experience: good characters prevail, but you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it…or something like that.

LKF#5 – Writing is not something I do because I couldn’t be doing something else. Something that paid better, had regular hours, benefits and a retirement plan. Writing is so much a part of me I can’t watch the birth of my granddaughter without taking mental notes for my next book or hold my dying mother’s tiny frail body in my arms and listen to her struggle for breath without acknowledging that this experience would give depth and veracity to the next death scene I have to write. Imagination is a fabulous thing, but all writers season imagination with bits of reality that are sometimes hard earned and painful.

So, there are a few facts about the real Deb Salonen–or the character she imagines herself to be.

LOL. Such the drama queen. Ah, well, it’s back to my new story…now, there’s a real drama queen for you. But she’s keeping my laughing. That’s a good thing.

Deb