Wednesday, February 13, 2008

She Explained the Concept of Valentine's Day

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, did her best to maintain a non-cynical tone to describe Valentine's Day to me. And I'm stunned that I didn't know about this holiday before.

Yes, it sounds like one of those trumped-up days that the card-providers came up with to force men who would otherwise never think of doing something romantic or dear for the people they love in their lives to get off their collective behinds and spend money on trinkets that probably get thrown away within a week of their last-minute 'oh-my-goodness-I-forgot-that-today-is-Valentine's-Day' purchase, but, still, it's an interesting holiday. I'm using it as an excuse to do something romantic and dear for Amanda Chariss (the heroine in the fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods, in case you haven't been following along at home) because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of seeing her purse up her lips and give me one of those "you're being silly" looks whenever I do something romantic. It's quite endearing. Amanda's far too practical for words. I'm healing her of that.

Sandy, on the other hand, is a lost cause. After being married to an idiot for 14 years, I think she'll never send another "real" Valentine's Day card in her lifetime. But she has some fantastic ones that she sends to her girlfriends and boyfriends back home that are terribly funny. I can't believe the card-providers make these things up if Valentine's Day is supposed to be about love and romance and beautiful sunsets and hearts and candy and... (wait...she's doing something odd...what are you doing? You're going to gag if you keep sticking your finger down your throat like that...)

Great. It appears I'm making her sick just like I do... (what? which scenes?) I don't think I'm allowed to give away scenes out of the second book in the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy. But I could probably let you all know that it's going to the publisher, ArcheBooks, which makes me very very happy. She's done a good job of listening to me and taking my advice. I'm quite proud. I think I'll get her one of these Valentine's Day cards.

In honor of Valentine's Day, you know she's holding a "Win a Fantasy for Valentine's Day" contest over at http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/. The contest is being run in conjunction with http://www.authorisland.com/, which is run by the lovely DeNita Tuttle, who is a marketing genius. To enter the contest, which ends tonight at midnight, you have to find one of my guest posts at The Dragon and leave me a comment there (preferably one that encourages the idea that Amanda Chariss and I belong together forever, of course, because Sandy will be reading the comments). Sandy will draw a name tomorrow for the winner of a first-edition, hard-cover, personalized copy of the fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods, where you'll be introduced to my amazing Amanda.

Also in honor of Valentine's Day, Sandy has interviewed our good friend Jamieson Wolf about his debut romance novella Valentine. It turns out this story is available from Cobblestone Press as an eBook for only $3.99. I think that's the perfect way to build an audience, and told Sandy so. The smart little lady reminded me that Choices Meant for Gods is also available as an eBook on her publisher's site at http://www.archebooks.com/ for $3.99. So you can actually get a copy of a 400+ page fantasy novel for under $5 if you just download it from the publisher's site. I was stunned (again) today. So if you don't mind reading something on the computer, you can learn of my bride and her story that way for a lot less than what Amazon wants to charge you.

All my best to you all,
Nigel
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