romance
Browse Ebookstore
|
| THANKS for making me No. 2! |
| 2009.03.11 05:42:58 | |
|
First, a big THANK YOU to my readers for rocketing KNIGHT MOVES up the bestseller list until it is the No. 2 bestselling title at Ravenous this week and the No. 1 bestselling novel!!! And second, this is just an alert that I have just launched a new blog: jamaicalayne.blogspot.com. In celebration I'm asking readers a series of questions this week about their erotica reading tastes and awarding FREE BOOKS to my favorite answers. Drop by and comment for your chance to win FREE books! Tags: Hits: 433 | Read more... |
| Knight Moves Is No. 2!! |
| 2009.03.09 01:30:27 | |
|
KNIGHT MOVES is now the No. 2 bestselling title at Ravenous for the week, and the week's No. 1 bestselling novel. Hurrah! Thanks readers! Wanted to let everyone know I have launched a new blog----jamaicalayne.blogspot.com. Please do drop on by. I'll be giving away free books this week in celebration of the new blog! Tags:
|
| Surprising recession news, and BOOK SIGNING! |
| 2009.02.27 02:48:47 | |
|
With all the recession doom and gloom affecting the economy in general and the publishing industry specifically, here's one very bright piece of good news----Harlequin, which is by far the most dominant publisher in the romance/women's fiction genre, is reporting an INCREASE in sales and profits for fourth quarter 2008. That's right, an INCREASE. See below from today's Publisher's Lunch: "Harlequin recorded a strong fourth quarter, with sales of $126 million (CA) up over 18 percent from a year ago, and ebitda of $18.4 million, up more than 30 percent.. . .For the full year, Harlequin had sales of $473 million, up 2 percent, while ebitda of $72.4 million was up 10.5 percent." THIRTY PERCENT INCREASE IN SALES?? In the worse economy since the Great Depression? How is that possible, you may ask? Simple. In bad economic times, people like cheap forms of comfortable, escapist entertainment. (Like paperback romance novels.) And its EBITDA ratio (translation: earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation) for the year is up 10%. How many companies out there can boast that? This actually isn't surprising. In a bad economy, there are certain things that actually sell better---like booze, and porn, and cheap entertainment. That's why Gone With The Wind (the novel, not the movie) sold ten million copies in the Depression. It certainly seems that I'm in the right business right now. And further proof that the dying economy likes romance novels (especially romance novels set in a dying economy) I have another book signing set up for my latest print release, MARKET FOR LOVE. I'll be signing copies at the Downtown Chicago Books-A-Million, located at 122 South Clark Street (corner of Clark and Adams) on Thursday, March 12 at noon. The bookstore, which is located in the heart of Chicago's financial district where MARKET FOR LOVE is set, has had the book on a special trade display for several weeks now, and it's been selling well. Stockbrokers buy romance novels----who knew? Peace. Tags:
|
| TWO Jamaica Layne books in the Ravenous Top 10! |
| 2009.02.23 19:41:22 | |
|
I now have TWO books in the Ravenous Top 10! EXPERIMENTAL: An Anthology of Sex and Science-----an awesome anthology full of fantastic stories by today's hottest erotica authors, and KNIGHT MOVES, my time-travel paranormal erotic novel which debuted over a month ago. What great news to wake up to this morning! Thanks, readers! Meanwhile, I'm continuing to plug away at the next novel in the VITAL SIGNS series. VITAL SIGNS Vol. 2 will continue the sex-soaked adventures of Shirley Daniels, who was a supporting character in VITAL SIGNS Vol. 1. Shirley will continue some of her wild bedroom adventures in Vol. 2, but she'll also find herself smitten with a mysterious, impossible-to-read senior physician who (ack!) doesn't seem to return her affections. What's a girl to do? Tags: Hits: 411 | Read more... |
| EXPERIMENTAL releases today! |
| 2009.02.16 21:47:51 | |
|
EXPERIMENTAL: An Anthology of Sex And Science---the second of two erotica anthologies I edited for Ravenous Romance---releases today. This anthology will forever shatter any stereotypes about science and scientists not being "sexy." Check it out.
Tags:
|
| Going national . . .again. |
| 2009.02.15 20:41:29 | |
|
I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the Chicago Tribune article that ran on me last month---it keeps getting picked up by other papers across the country. This morning I received a Google Alerts stating that the article was reprinted (in part, the last couple paragraphs were cut) in the Orlando Sun-Sentinel. Here's a link. That's now four different major papers in three different regions of the country, and counting.
The Amazon sales rank on my latest print release gets higher every time this happens. Coincidence? I think not.
Meanwhile, I've gotten so wrapped up in publicity stuff that I've fallen behind on writing the novel that I'm under contract to deliver by the end of next month. Gotta get back on the stick on that. . .
Peace. Tags:
|
| MARKET FOR LOVE is now a book club pick! |
| 2009.02.11 20:16:57 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans!
In yet more proof that it's stock-market-crash-laden plot is a sign of our troubled economic times, my debut novel in print MARKET FOR LOVE (released October 2008 by Virgin Books) is now getting chosen as a discussion book by book clubs. I'll be speaking at one local book club next month. And the increased sales demand has shot the Amazon sales rank way up. Cool.
If you have a book club in the Chicago area (MARKET is set in Chicago, BTW) and you'd like me to speak at an upcoming book club meeting, shoot me an email or leave a comment here and I'll get right back to you.
My most popular book on Ravenous by far is the anthology I edited, POWER PLAYS, followed closely by my time-travel romance, KNIGHT MOVES. My kinky political erotica novel A CAPITOL AFFAIR is also quite popular. I can do online book club discussions for any of these books as well as my print release.
Keep on reading!
Peace. Tags:
|
| So, you're a writer. Where Do You Get Your Ideas? |
| 2009.02.07 07:02:27 | |
|
"Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" When it comes to being a writer, this is the Big Question. As in, the question random people start asking you when you start seeing real success as a writer (i.e., getting published and finding an audience.) I used to ask authors I admired this question all the time, and was often annoyed when they couldn't always come up with a detailed answer. Now people are starting to ask me that question, and I can't always come up with a detailed answer, either. Stephen King has written a couple of very poignant (and funny) essays on why no decent author worth his salt knows where his ideas actually come from. Now I know why the writers I asked this question of couldn't come up with an answer half the time. The truth is, writers' ideas often just appear out of thin air. Even we don't always know where they come from. And on the occasions that we do, our ideas are usually just manifestations (fictional or otherwise) of things that have happened in our own lives. Sounds dull, and boring, I know. But it's true. Take myself, for example. I've had four novels published (and have written a few more that are still in the trunk). One of those books, MARKET FOR LOVE, takes place in Chicago's LaSalle Street financial district---an unlikely setting for an erotic romance if there ever was one. My five-volume VITAL SIGNS erotic romance "soap opera" series is set in a community hospital in the rural South---another unusual setting. My novel A CAPITOL AFFAIR is set in the sexual underworld of Washington political powerbrokering, while KNIGHT MOVES is a time-travel romance that jumps between the 21st century and the Middle Ages. An eclectic mix of settings, to be sure. Would you be surprised if I told you that I've lived various parts of my life in worlds very similar to the worlds I created in all four of these novels? Believe it. I'm trained as a journalist, editor, and government policy analyst, and that's the type of work I did for a paycheck before I began writing books full-time, and as a result I had a storied and varied career that enabled me to meet a lot of interesting people and do a lot of things I'd never have done if I'd gone for a more "corporate"-friendly degree. (I majored in English). Over the course of my career I worked in a variety of industries, notably finance (my first job out of grad school was as a financial reports editor at a high-powered Chicago brokerage firm; to show just how high-powered it was, my boss' boss was Senator John Kerry's college roommate at Yale). It was this highly competitive, elitist, money-soaked world (and all that went with it) that many years later inspired me to set my first erotic romance novel there. Many of that book's characters (including the heroine) are based in part on former co-workers of mine. And several locales in the novel, from Chicago skyscrapers and coffeehouses to a popular lunchtime diner, are actual places where I used to hang out. (I made a point to have my lunch at the Marquette Grill downtown, which appears in the novel, last week on the same day I had a book-signing just up the street). I later went on to work as a professional/technical writer and later as a government policy analyst for the healthcare industry. Two of my novels have arisen from these two very different (and yet often entertwined) worlds. The VITAL SIGNS series incorporates a lot of the day-to-day workings of a busy small-town hospital, which I'm well-acquainted with from all the work I did in healthcare. I'm also a granddaughter of the Deep South (I was born and raised in Ohio, yet my mother and grandparents are Southerners through and through, and I spent nearly every childhood vacation south of the Mason/Dixon line, where I came to love the colorful culture, characters and literary tradition of that area of the country.) VITAL SIGNS is a mixture of a typical hospital soap opera like General Hospital or Grey's Anatomy, except it's set in the Deep South (and there's a helluva lot more sex). My years as a healthcare policy analyst also had me doing a lot of travel back and forth to Washington DC, where I hobnobbed with overeducated, overstuffed "policy wonks" from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. One thing I had occasion to learn (more than once, mind you) was that a fair share of these Beltway types, with their six or seven advanced degrees (I knew a lot of MD/JDs, even a few MD/JD/PhDs, and one very nerdy and uptight MD/JD/PhD/MBA/MPH, if you can believe that) were not at all the same buttoned-down, stiff-upper-lip types behind closed doors that they were at the office. I thought the deeply buried sexual underworld of Washington DC would make a great novel, and wrote A CAPITOL AFFAIR on my laptop when I was jetting back and forth from DC to my office in Chicago. KNIGHT MOVES is my most unusual novel by far (and so far, it seems to be my bestselling one). It's set in large part in the Middle Ages, but the venue by which the heroine travels back in time to the twelfth century from the twenty-first is via a Medieval Times-style dinner theater and jousting spectacle. When I was a kid, my father was a member of the Society for Creative Anarchonism (SCA), which is a sort of Renaissance Faire-slash-historical-reinactment group. I got dragged to SCA events throughout my childhood and adolescence, so I not only learned a lot about medieval history, I met a lot of the very colorful (read: weird) people who hang out at Ren Faires and SCA events. That fed directly into the plot for KNIGHT MOVES. (I've also written a straight contemporary romance set in the SCA, but haven't found a publisher willing to take it on). I'm now working on some new projects that have some equally interesting backstory,but I'll save those for next post. I know this is a very long blog entry, but my readers have been asking for something like it for a long time. Ask, and ye shall receive. Peace. Tags:
|
| Guest Blogger Today at Romance Readers Connection! |
| 2009.02.02 21:05:11 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! I'm a guest blogger today at Romance Readers Connection's blog. I talk about my latest print release MARKET FOR LOVE, as well as my current Ravenous titles----including what inspires me to write in so many different settings. Check it out! http://trrcreading.blogspot.com/
Tags: Hits: 409 | Read more... |
| "Taking Care of Business" is today's Ravenous Rendevous! |
| 2009.01.30 08:24:03 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! I'm a little behind on my blogging this week because I've been taking care of my very sick toddler son, but he's now on the mend and I just have enough time to dash off a quick post before he wakes from his nap: Tags:
|
| Coming Attractions, and What Makes Jamaica Layne Tick? |
| 2009.01.27 00:19:21 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! Don't forget that I'll be signing copies of my latest print release MARKET FOR LOVE tomorrow January 27 at noon at the State Street Barnes & Noble, 1 E Jackson in Downtown Chicago. Hope to see you there! And my latest ebook release, A CAPITOL AFFAIR, is one of this week's featured releases at Ravenous Romance. This novel explores the kinky sexual underworld of Washington DC politics! Sex in the Beltway, just in time for our new presidential administration. Check it out! And be on the lookout this week for my Ravenous Rendevous short story, "Taking Care of Business," which is a "lost scene" from my print novel MARKET FOR LOVE. You've probably noticed by now that I write erotic romance novels on unusual topics and in unconventional settings for the genre----e.g., the tough-as-nails Chicago investment-banking world in the midst of a market crash in MARKET FOR LOVE; a Southern community hospital in the VITAL SIGNS series; New Jersey's working-class towns like Trenton and a medieval Hall of Harlots in the paranormal time-travel romance KNIGHT MOVES; and the cutthroat, seamy sexual underworld of Washington DC politics in A CAPITOL AFFAIR. My avid readers are probably wondering where I get my ideas for some of these unusual plots and unconventional settings for my erotic novels. The answer---from my own rather unusual and unconventional life! More details to come next post. JAMAICA LAYNE Tags:
|
| A CAPITOL AFFAIR is Today's Book Of The Day! |
| 2009.01.24 19:55:36 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! First of all a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has helped make POWER PLAYS a bestseller! The overwhelming response to this anthology of sex and politics just goes to show what a powerful (literally) combination sex and politics makes. In keeping with the POWER PLAYS theme of sex and politics, be sure to check out my novel A CAPITOL AFFAIR, which is today's Book Of The Day! This novel explores scandal, power, and kinky sex in Washington DC's political underworld. Buy this book today to see how heroine Jasmine Rand navigates the seamy underbelly of Washington politics and comes out on top! (Again, literally!) Always keep things sexy! JAMAICA LAYNE Tags: A CAPITOL AFFAIR | Power Plays | SEX & POLITICS | Jamaica Layne
|
| POWER PLAYS is in the Top 10! |
| 2009.01.21 20:25:57 | |
|
POWER PLAYS is in the Top 10! Thanks readers! Get your political sexy on and read this hot anthology today!
Tags:
|
| POWER PLAYS is out today, and BOOK SIGNING POSTPONED! |
| 2009.01.21 04:13:59 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! Just a reminder that POWER PLAYS: A Sex & Politics Anthology is available today, in celebration of Inauguration Day! The twelve red-hot stories in this anthology will forever change how you think about sex and politics---a potent combination if there ever was one. Also, just an FYI that due to a major gas main leak in downtown Chicago today that shut down the State Street Barnes & Noble (as well as entire city block, apparently!), the book-signing of my current print release MARKET FOR LOVE originally scheduled for tomorrow January 21 has been rescheduled for next Tuesday, January 27 at noon. Same location: State Street Barnes & Noble, located at 1 E Jackson Blvd (corner of State & Jackson) in downtown Chicago. Hope to see you there if you're in the area. Always keep things sexy! JAMAICA LAYNE Tags:
|
| Guest Blogger today at LoveRomancePassion.com! |
| 2009.01.19 20:30:07 | |
|
Hey Jamaica Layne Fans! I'm a guest blogger today at LoveRomancePassion.com. I give some tips on what to do (and what not to do) if you're considering a career in writing erotic romance. Those of you who live in the Chicago area, this Wednesday, January 21 at 12 noon, I'll be signing copies of my latest print release MARKET FOR LOVE at the downtown Chicago Barnes & Noble, 1 E. Jackson. (corner of State and Jackson). Hope to see you there! Tags:
|
| Coming Soon from Jamaica Layne! |
| 2009.01.18 01:19:14 | |
|
First of all, thanks to all my readers who are helping to make KNIGHT MOVES a Top 5 bestseller in the Fantastica line! Let's keep those sales rolling in----I'd love to see KNIGHT MOVES in the overall Top 10 Ravenous bestsellers, just like my novel VITAL SIGNS Vol.1 was in its first two weeks of release! Coming up next week, you'll see some new Jamaica Layne titles appearing on the Ravenous site. On January 20 (Inauguration Day), my anthology POWER PLAYS: A SEX AND POLITICS ANTHOLOGY will release. I'm very excited about the stories written by the many talented authors I selected for this anthology. Once you've read POWER PLAYS, you'll never think the same way about sex and politics again! And on Saturday, January 24, you can keep satisfying your cravings for sex and politics with my novel A CAPITOL AFFAIR, which is a look at the kinky sexual underworld in Washington, DC. Sex does indeed rule Washington politics, and A CAPITOL AFFAIR will help you understand why. Also be on the lookout in the coming weeks for my Ravenous Rendevous "Taking Care Of Business," which is a "lost scene" from my current print release MARKET FOR LOVE (Virgin Cheek, 2008). And in February, another one of my edited anthologies, EXPERIMENTAL: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SEX AND SCIENCE, will feature a bunch more hot stories by today's up-and-coming erotica authors. With so much new material releasing this month, you're probably wondering what I'm working on now. These days I'm working on writing Volume 2 of the VITAL SIGNS series, as well as some new paranormal stories. More details to come! Always keep things sexy, JAMAICA LAYNE Tags: Jamaica Layne | coming attractions | KNIGHT MOVES | A CAPITOL AFFAIR
|
| On Being Productive |
| 2009.01.16 00:28:41 | |
|
A lot of people ask me, "Jamaica, how can you be so productive?" I'll admit to being a little bit nuts when it comes to generating output----I've written a grand total of five novels in the past two years, three of which are either currently or soon-to-be published by Ravenous Romance; I also have four more to write this year in the ongoing VITAL SIGNS medical erotic romance series. In addition to that, I turn out an average of one short story a week. This output doesn't even include the work I've written under my other, non-erotic persona, or the "trunk novels" I wrote while I was training myself to be a novelist (and those "trunk novels" will probably never see the light of publication.) How do I do it, you may wonder? First of all, the most important skill for an aspiring writer to learn is consistency. Consistency, and discipline. The most prolific writers out there (names like Stephen King, Nora Roberts, and Anne Rice come to mind) consistently write at least 2,000 words a day. Writing 2,000 words a day will give you a first draft of a 60,000 word novel at the end of a month. Writing 2,000 words a day will teach you to have the discipline it takes to be a professional novelist. Writing 2,000 words a day----even if you've done it consistently for years---will really test your mettle, both as a writer and as a person. I think there's also a psychological component to being a prolific writer. In addition to discipline, grit, skill, and mettle, it takes a mild dose of insanity. I know in my case, the main thing that drives me to write reams and reams of words each day has to do with a lingering inferiority complex. People have been telling me my whole life that I "can't" do things----because I'm supposedly not smart enough, not pretty enough, not from a good enough family, not a graduate of a prestigious enough university, not a good enough writer, ad nauseum. I write prolificly and consistently mainly to prove all those naysayers wrong. And to a pretty large extent, I think I have. But now I have a different list of naysayers to prove wrong---i.e., people who say writing romance (or erotica, or both) isn't "real" writing, people who say ebooks aren't "real" books, people who say that because I'm not a multimillionaire I'm not successful---ad nauseum. I still have a lot to prove, which means I still have a lot to write. Peace. Tags:
|
| Greetings Jamaica Layne Fans! |
| 2009.01.15 02:14:47 | |
|
Greetings to all Jamaica Layne fans out there in Ravenousland! This month, you'll find many of my latest titles to keep your Jamaica Layne fix satisfied. This week, be sure to check out my paranormal time-travel romance KNIGHT MOVES, released under Ravenous' Fantastica line. Also this week, be sure to check out my story "Eat Your Heart Out Mrs. Robinson," which is included in the MILF FANTASIES anthology edited by Cecilia Tan. As the title indicates, this is an older woman/younger man story in a book chock full of older woman/younger man fantasies. Coming next week, on January 20 (Inauguration Day) and 21st, be sure to check out my back-to-back political sex books! On January 20, the POWER PLAYS: A SEX AND POLITICS ANTHOLOGY (which I edited) debuts. And on January 24, you can get my political sex novel A CAPITOL AFFAIR. Sex and politics DO mix, and in the same week! And don't forget to check out my other Ravenous titles, VITAL SIGNS VOL. 1: I'VE BEEN A NAUGHTY NURSE (for sale under "Modern Love") and my short story "The Best Hannukah Gift Ever" (for sale as a Ravenous Rendevous). You can also check out my short story "Choo Fetish" in the SEX & SHOES ANTHOLOGY, as well as my festive story "Bad Santa" in the MERRY SEXMAS ANTHOLOGY. Lots more to come in January and February! Always keep things sexy! JAMAICA LAYNE Tags:
|
