THE EAGLE - PART ONE - The Eagle's Woman

I have to admit it added something to my morning to wake up to my new book cover. This story of the Vikings in Ireland, The Eagle's Woman, should be out this summer. It's part one of a multi-part series, The Eagle, tracing the sometimes exalted, sometimes tortured path of Ari Bjornssen, nicknamed by his men The Eagle. Picking up a likely-looking slave girl in Ireland is only the beginning of his troubles. From Ireland to Norway to the trade capital of the ancient Viking world, Hedeby, he will find his life inextricably linked with Maeve's. A sequel, The Eagle's Lady, is in progress. I can't wait to see the cover for that one!

BLOOPERS - ENJOY!

Romance Reviews Long and Short Reviews: Highland Legacy by B. J. Scott

Romance Reviews Long and Short Reviews: Highland Legacy by B. J. Scott: Highland Legacy by B. J. Scott Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing Genre: Historical Length: Short Story (132 pages) Heat Level: Spicy R...

MARKETING FOR ROMANCE WRITERS - SUMMER CAMP!

Is this you?

"Do I have a marketing plan? Are you kidding? I'm buried with writing, editing, fighting with a website, trying to balance a job, family, and all the other demands of life. If I think about taking on more, I start to stress out. But I'll listen to suggestions. I need all the help I can get."

Are you a writer who fights constantly to find better ways not only to write, but also to promote?

MFRW is open to all authors, agents, editors, promo services, publishers, cover designers, artists, and virtual assistants.

Need help? Like to offer solutions?

Join us

We focus on marketing and publicity efforts of ALL authors in ALL genres. We discuss ways to advance our writing and careers, brainstorm ventures and ideas, get feedback, and find others for mutual promotion. If you seek advice on how to market and promote you're welcome here.

-       Our group rules are simple. Keep it business-only.

-       NO promos, excerpts, contests, newsletters, vote for me, read my blog, tweets, website, friend me, flaming, or jokes.

-       Questions, promo ideas, requests for help/advice/opinions are welcome.

Privacy Policy: We don't share your email with anyone. Period.

In additional efforts and in the spirit of doing what Marketing for Romance Writers does best, we are excited to offer our upcoming

Summer Camp 2012

On July 14^th and 15^th there will be lots of invaluable information. Pitches, Panels, Workshops and much more.

Here’s a taste of what you will see:

-       Finding Your Audience                                  

-       Niche Marketing

-       Where to Find Readers

-       QR Codes

-       BookWorm Bags - Promos for Conferences

-       Marketing to Specific Genres

-       Blogging 101

-       Preparing for Interviews

-       Helping Your Publisher to Promo Books      

-       Deep POV

-       Triberr

And much more…

So…we hope to see you there and we invite you to sign up and join in the fun.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/ 

Volunteer at Scottish Highland Games

The 1st Book of the Highland Games Through Time series is out!

My years as a volunteer at the New Hampshire Highland Games, held each fall in Lincoln, NH, has given me plenty of ideas for a book. Hashing out a plot, fleshing out my characters, and delving into many forms of research all came together in MY HONORABLE HIGHLANDER.

Over the last couple of years, I have been doubly blessed. My husband and I—long-time volunteers—were able to meet up with our sons, who gave up their brisk fall weekend to help the thousands of visitors find their way.

You see, we work under the Information Tent handing out programs, helping people find their way, and selling raffle tickets to fund scholarships for those wishing to follow their hearts in becoming proficient in the dance, bagpipes, harps, and more.

Our week starts with a 1400 mile road trip from North Carolina to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We dump our belongings in our condo then head to the Loon Mountain Ski Area to make sure our tent, tables, and chairs are set up. We post our signs, say hello to people we haven’t seen all year, and welcome our family members.

Last year was a year for the unusual. Hurricane Irene blew through only a few weeks before the games. This meant we had to drive through New York City, as the roads in upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire had sustained major damage. Even the bridge at the entrance to Loon Mountain partially collapsed!

The governor installed a Bailey bridge in record time for pedestrian traffic. Vendors and volunteers (us) had to drive over a back road in order to get our supplies to the site. During the busiest part of the busy Saturday morning, thick black smoke from a nearby condo fire caused rescue vehicles to traverse the festivities.

Nancy at the collapsed Loon MTN bridge

I am sure other things occurred, but these stood out. All in all, the weekend was wonderful, our trip home was uneventful, and our hours volunteering means that the 2012 New Hampshire Highland Games will welcome many more visitors eager to relive the lives of their Scottish ancestors.  


More about MY HONORABLE HIGHLANDER
Bumbling present day herbalist, Haven MacKay, gets more than she bargains for when her love spell goes awry, is cast back in time, and meets her true love -- Laird Kirkwall Gunn.

Kirk's plans go slightly off course when he falls in love with a woman wandering through the Scottish Highlands. After all, he has pledged to marry another, from an enemy clan, in order to end a century-old feud.

Title: MY HONORABLE HIGHLANDER
Author: Nancy Lee Badger
Genre: Scottish Time Travel Romance
Length: 92,000 Novel

Amazon

NOOK

AllRomance EBooks

ISBN 9781476417400

For more information at the New Hamshire Highland Games click HERE.

AUTHOR BIO...Nancy Lee Badger

After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome sons in New Hampshire, Nancy moved to North Carolina where she writes full-time. Due to a Scottish heritage, she and her family continue to volunteer at the New Hampshire Highland Games each fall. Nancy is a member of RWA, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, FF&P Romance Writers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers. Nancy also writes romantic suspense as Nancy Lennea and is a proud Army Mom.

Website
Blogsite
Twitter  @NLBadger

CELTIC ROSE WRITERS AND FRIENDS

Once again this weekend my blog will be open to Celtic and historical writers, to post promotion or chat in the Comments section of this post.  By all means, introduce yourselves and leave us some blurbs, excerpts and links.  If someone is looking for a read, feel free to browse.   No pressure.  If you want a closer look at a book, just copy and paste the buy link in your browser.  Authors,  show us your stuff!  :)  Readers, feel free to comment and let us know what you're looking for.   

Caylith and the Almost-Villain

(Or, Why an author should never hold onto a b&w snapshot of the bad guy . . . He just might  take on colors and dimensions that even the author had not anticipated.)

In my first romance Storm Maker, readers learn about a frightening man named Owen Sweeney, one whom Caylith had already met and vanquished, but who pops up in SM to plague her and Liam.

The secret that I'm divulging today is that Sweeney started out as an typical villain, a man who once frightened Caylithy to the marrow. I saw him as a dark force against the sunshine of Caylith's pure hope for the future. And then, vile-tempered and apparently evil as he is, he began to grow on me.

In the next novel of the trilogy, The Wakening Fire, Sweeney looms large again.But this time, the reader begins to get a hint that the man has hidden layers. Why would a scholar well-versed in the classics of antiquity, a man who sired six children by a woman he loved, a cattle baron with a vast fortune--why would such a man murder his wife and hold women in slavery?

And now the truth can be told. I changed my mind about Owen Sweeney. I had to ask myself those very questions, and easy answers would not do.

In TWF, Caylith and Liam go in search of Sweeney’s hidden past. Their journey leads them to discover forty year-old secrets and why those secrets have been hidden so long. His biggest secret is one even he would give his life to discover--and he almost does give his life trying to find the answer. That secret will lead eventually to the creating of the history and geography of northern Ireland.

 

The Greeks used wheelchairs several centuries before Owen Sweeny did . . . .

In the following excerpt, Caylith manages to overcome her suffocating fear of Sweeney and approach him for the first time since she had him captured and imprisoned. A cripple confined to a wheeled cart, he is being watched over by a monk at the behest of Father Patrick.

Sweeney had once been a tall man, at least as tall as Glaedwine, and he was still as broad through the shoulders and as brawny of arm as my Saxon vassal. When last I had confronted him, his hair was long and matted with months of neglect. Now cut almost to his ears, I saw it was the deep color and glow of my steel war hammer, a black so deep as to be imbued with blue lights.

He was as clean-shaven as ever, his face betraying no dark afterthought of whiskers under the skin. His jaw was clenched, his mouth a thin, jagged line. His short-sleeved tunic revealed muscles bulging and moving as his arms guided his personal chariot across the floor. Inside the cart, his legs were splayed out, useless as sticks, covered with a blanket.

The invalid’s chair was large, at least two feet tall and four feet long, and it sat on four wooden wheels like a small oxcart. Sweeney himself would have been the size of an ox, I thought, if his legs had not been somehow ruined, for his immense forearms propelled the cart as easily as if it were a toy. With a slight pull here or a tug there, he had learned through long use to move the contraption as though it were part of his own body. In a way, it was an extension of him, I thought, as he moved and whirled in rhythm with his own taunting words.

“Well, who have we here? Caylith the Duchess, out to seduce me with her bodice of jewels?” He wheeled the cart to within six inches of my feet and grimaced up at my chest. 

Then he spun the cart to my left. “Caylith the ravening supplicant, devouring my property at the behest of the high king?”

Sweeney's cart was not so much different from this ox-cart, except that his had four wheels.

And then, in mock fury, Sweeney raced his cart around the fire pit and came to a rest near my right side. “Perhaps Caylith the vengeful goddess with her corvine minions eager to peck out my very eyes? Or are you an entirely new and different Caylith today?”

I flushed deeply. Sweeney was right. Each time he had seen me, I had showed a different side of myself. I decided to be straightforward with him. Settling onto a bench near the door, I looked at him with what I hoped were passive eyes.

“Today I am Caylith the curious. I would know more about you. I would set aside my prejudice and listen.”

“And what prejudgment do you speak of, you immature brat? You admit that you have already judged me and found me guilty, but you allow me to speak on my own behalf before the noose is tightened around my neck? Pahgh!” 

A great glob of spittle hit the polished floor, a foot from where I sat. I did not move. If he had spat on me, as he had done to Liam, would I still have sat immobile? I tightened my mouth, glad I did not have to decide, unwilling to answer his anguished question.

“Very well. You wish to know how it happens that a wife-killing, slave-holding criminal speaks like a member of royalty? Why he knows how to read and write Latin and Greek and several other languages besides? Why he had access to untold wealth yet chose to live like a sod puller? Why his own mother would condemn him to death? Is that what you want to know?”

I blanched from the blistering heat of his attack. “Please—I—”

His steel-dark hair fell onto his forehead, partially obscuring his stony glare. He gave a sudden swing with his head, sending the lank hair flying backward again. “I will not be subjected to the gaze of the pitying priests, nor made into a spectacle before the idly curious.”

Will Caylith's preconceptions of Sweeney go up in smoke? Or is he even more evil than she could have guessed?

The Wakening Fire is available at a discount until May 22 at this link:   http://www.bookstrand.com/the-wakening-fire  

Thanks for your interest! 

Slán, Erin O’Quinn

Who is the villain, pray, and who the hero?