Sunday, July 10, 2016

Newsletter, July 2016

Book News

Red Alert

I’ve signed a new three book contract with Kensington Lyrical, yay! It’s a spinoff from the Emperors series, but will be completely new. It is to concern three members of the Shaw family, the children of the Marquess of Strenshall. One of them will be a novella concerning the gay son of the family, Darius. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to tell his story, particularly since so many of you have written to ask me about him!
There are still two Emperors stories left to be released, so it will be a little time before you get to see them, but they are coming!

The Even Gods series from Samhain is now complete, but I’m working on a new series, historical, for a different publisher. More news soon!

Aaand, the STORM series is coming out again. I’ve had the books re-edited, but it’s a very light one, to remove some of the highly erotic stuff and make them more mainstream, the way I originally envisioned them. They have spiffy new covers, and they are coming out under the L.M. Connolly name. I still love these books and I would love them to find a new lease of life! If they do well, it means I can write some more.



Publishing is in a constant state of change. A few years ago, I was happily settled with three publishers, being paid for my work and planning more stories.

Then came self-publishing. In 2010, that market really took off. I wasn’t too keen, because I’m a writer, not a business person and anything that takes me away from writing isn’t welcome.

But I had to pay attention, because sales were going down.

I tried, but I’m not as clever as some people out there, and I never got that stroke of luck that really matters either. So my self-publishing career is fairly average. I’m doing all right, don’t get me wrong.

But I haven't set the world on fire. Yet. Very few writers do.

The world changes, and a professional writer has to make some adjustments, which I’m doing right now.

I’ve spent this month writing like crazy. I had several requests for a historical novel I was writing, when I attended RT in April. So I had to finish it and polish it!

Writing the first in a new series (and you know me, I tend to write in series) is exciting and difficult. I’m learning a whole new set of characters and situations, finding out what makes them tick and how they are led into something exciting enough to engage a reader.

I tend to make characters as close to real as I can. That means they don’t always behave the way they should, they aren’t always trammeled by the needs of the genre I write. Sometimes I’ll write a plot, and when I get there in the book, I’ll discover that the character is too smart for that, or that the stakes have changed. I love it. Then I have to stop and reconstruct the whole thing.

Anyway, changes. I’m looking to move my newsletter from Yahoo to somewhere else. As far as you’re concerned, that will mean you’ll get an extra, short email to make sure it’s working. If you don’t want to continue, please let me know and I’ll deal with it. Yahoo is becoming more unreliable and it’s time I looked somewhere else for a newsletter program.

So this month I’m at the RNA Conference at Lancaster Universtiy. We’ve had some fascinating speakers, including an ex police detective speaking on murder cases. It’s been fascinating and as always it’s so enjoyable catching up with old friends and finding out what everybody is up to.

New Releases

Yes, releases! The covers are below, and then I’ve put the links to my webpage, where you can find all the buy links to the books!

Red Alert is set ...tomorrow.

The day a dragon flies over Central Park, the world changes. People know what they’ve suspected for centuries––Talents exist, and they’ve been living among us all the time.

Dragons, vampires, shape-shifters, sorcerers with incredible psi gifts form a special agency to protect the rights and interests of Talents.

New enemies arise, and they are forced to struggle to meet the new challenges and protect the people they love.

 The books are coming out at weekly intervals, starting on the 27th July, and they're up for preorder now.
         


You can see descriptions and buy links here: http://lmconnolly.com/storm/
Here's the Amazon link to the first book: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Alert-paranormal-romance-STORM-ebook/dp/B01HAOEOD2


Red Alert Excerpt:


A scuffle outside the door made Dr. Jones turn his head toward the sound. Megan took the opportunity and lashed out with her foot. It struck with a satisfyingly solid whump, right in his solar plexus.
Dr. Jones doubled up, gasping for air. Well, the first step to getting out had been easy. But facing the “student” standing between her and the door, Megan knew he wouldn’t be such a pushover. He stood, feet planted wide apart, knees slightly bent in a position she recognized from her weekly karate class.
Fuck.
She had to hurry, before Jones regained his breath. When she kicked up toward the guy’s balls, intending the kick to be a feint for an upward hand jab, the bastard grabbed her ankle and threw her to the hard floor. The very hard floor. Her head hit the ground with a solidity Megan felt in every bone of her body, intensifying her ever-present headache, and she kicked back with her free foot, only to find it caught in the same meaty fist.
Pressure on the side of her pants alerted her to the syringe pressing into her flesh.
The door burst open, propelled by the heavy body of the red-haired “student”. He fell next to her, already unconscious, his big body completely relaxed. One massive arm dropped over her body, dislodging the needle’s trajectory.
A whirlwind followed the student, or what seemed like one to Megan. Dark, unruly hair was the only feature she was absolutely sure of topping a tall, powerful body with excellent reactions, because the intruder spun around on his heel, his arm already whipping out to take her attacker full across his face.
The open-handed slap knocked the African-American aside but he came back, one blow too superficial to cause any real damage. Just in time to receive the jackhammer punch under his chin that knocked his head back with a crunch that sounded fatal.
The student fell back against the room’s only chair, collapsing it with the sound of breaking wood and the fleshier crunch of breaking bone.
It was the man she’d glimpsed earlier entering the main ward. Closer up he was even more lethally sexy. Arousal, totally unexpected, purred through her veins. “There are more outside, so the only way we’re going to get out of here is through that window.” He swept the room with an appraising glance and picked up the metal bedside table as if it weighed nothing at all, ignoring the clatter as the drawer fell out. “Close your eyes if you’re scared of heights and hold on tight.”
Lifting the table over his head, he swung it at the window. The sound of shattering glass rewarded him and he stepped forward to knock out the remaining jagged shards and drag the wrecked blind aside.
Was that a hand or a claw? A claw, she realized, as fingernails lengthened into talons and blue-green scales clustered over his hand and arm.
She gasped in shock. “Holy fuck!”
He turned to face her, scales gathering on his neck, his voice throaty and raw. “Climb up and hold on. Or stay here and face them.”
Feet pounded up the hallway outside and at the same time, her rescuer completed his transformation into a man-sized dragon. Clothes ripped and tore, falling from his body, and she felt a sense of irritation in her mind that came from him. Irritation?
Yeah, I liked that jacket. Grab the pieces and let’s go. Pick up your stuff too. Then put your arms around my neck. Or stay here and let them kill you.
His neck was much longer and greener than it had been a minute ago. When she heard the shout “In here!” from outside the room she knew this was decision time.
She grabbed her purse, pausing to sling it over her head so the strap crossed her body, and picked up the remains of the leather jacket, only remembering the folder containing her scan results at the last minute, then she obeyed him—it—and put her arms around his—its—neck.
When we’re through the window, I’m going full size. Be prepared to hang on ‘cuz we ain’t coming down for a while.
I must be mad.
If you are, I am too. Ready?
As I’ll ever be.
Her feet lifted off the ground just as she was beginning to wonder how the hell she could talk to somebody mind to mind. She closed her eyes and hung on.

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Lynne Connolly
L.M. Connolly