Check out my post on the lives we live and all we juggle on Nights of Passion
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Monthly Archives: May 2012
The Life We Juggle
Categories: Toni Kelly
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Reading and Writing: Evolution and Convenience
When I really have to write, I mean REALLY have to write, anything will do. I have written whole chapters on napkins while on my lunch break at work. Of course as my dedication to writing has changed, I have purchased or received gifts which make it a little more convenient to write on the go, the iPad 2 being one of these. These devices are slim and lightweight, yet still robust enough to get a lot of writing done.
As the world of “books” has evolved, I also see tons of people reading and writing on smaller devices such as cell phones. Amazon has done a great job of making its eBooks convenient by offering the kindle app free on such devices as PCs and iPhones. And these days it is quite common to see people strolling around with kindles, nooks and other readers.
Lately, with my lack of time to write, I’ve tried to make use of every second by purchasing speech to text software to write while I dictate in the car. Unfortunately, the results haven’t been so great as the device picks up all the outside noises of driving in the car as well.
Overall, it amazes me how much technology has changed our ability to read and write. Nora Roberts gave a speech at RWA Nationals a few years ago and she spoke about how in her day, writers had to go to the library to research information for their books. Libraries and bookstores still exist but these days, it is most common for us to hop onto the internet for research. How convenient, no? Of course, with this convenience come a few dangers as well—easy access to pirating and sharing of our books for example, but that is a subject for another day.
What about you all? How has reading and/or writing evolved for you?
Categories: Toni Kelly
Tags: Nationals, Nora Roberts, Reading and Writing: Evolution and Convenience, RWA
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Diamond Jubilee Celebration Hop
Thank you for joining us for the Diamond Jubilee Celebration Blog Hop!
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Categories: Uncategorized
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Names and the Characters That Have Them
First I want to thank Toni for having me over today. It is a pleasure to tour around and meet so many new people.
I’d thought I would talk about names today. Everyone has a different way of selecting names for their characters. For me, I use Behind the Name. This is a great site with lots of information. At first I try to fit the meaning of the name with the character’s personality and if that doesn’t work, I search until I find one that fits. Okay, so that didn’t make too much sense. Let me explain.
Darian from my new release, Ravished Before Sunrise, is a vampire. I wanted a name that fit his dark, yet compassionate personality. I came across his name and said it a couple of time to see how it sounds. Something about the way the name rolls off the tongue helped me choose it.
Emalee actually came to me when I first started writing. But I wasn’t too sure what to do with her, until I started reading the 1Night Stand series.
Picking names is fun. I like to search around for that perfect name that says so much about the character. What about you all, any thoughts about the names you choose or read about?
Thanks Lia! What a treat. And for even more fun, please check out Lia’s latest release, Ravished Before Sunrise
Blurb:
Born with the unusual ability to see what truly lies in the shadows, Emalee Black is stuck between two worlds, the paranormal and the human. Neither one accepts or understands her and she’s forced to live a quiet, boring life in hiding. When her best friend mentions 1Night Stand dating service, Ema chooses a role-playing adventure straight out of her romantic fantasies. She’s to hunt her very own vampire and have her wicked way him.
Vampire Darian Wyman is surprised when his daughter signs him up for a one-night stand with an exclusive matching agency. At first he’s appalled by the idea, but as he reads the details of the date he becomes intrigued. For one night he will get away from the life he has long grown tired of to be hunted and captured by a would-be huntress. But he has plans of his own for his little vixen.
However, when Darian discovers the truth about Ema’s inhuman abilities, the date could end before it gets started.
Excerpt
Emalee’s pulse raced as she drummed her fingers on her desk and searched the website. A giddiness she hadn’t known since senior prom ran through her. The site claimed unlimited possibilities, a chance for adventure. Could they mean it? Because she’d already seen things beyond what humans deemed possible. Hell, her whole existence was unimaginable.
Her life had taken a lonesome turn when a friend she hadn’t seen since high school noted how much younger than the rest of her classmates she looked. Her long-lasting youth had become a liability. Drawing too much attention to her unusual gift wouldn’t prove wise. In some cases, it could get her killed. With no alternative, she’d closed the door on her life among humans and moved into the local witch coven, where everyone was different.
“What will you do?” Her best friend since preschool, a coven member in good standing, sat next to her for moral support and encouragement. Ema didn’t need much encouragement. The second Beth had mentioned a one-night stand, she’d been hooked. And Madame Eve’s dating service would save her from dying of boredom, at least for one night.
But could she go through with it? A wicked smile tugged at her lips and her inner voice said, “Hell, yeah.” Human strangers gave her a sense of safety. They knew nothing about her past or her unusual abilities.
“Just one night?”
Now available at Decadent Publishing | Amazon | ARe
About Lia
Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special, equally different kitty cats. She’s a wife to her soul mate, who drives her crazy during editing/revisions. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!
An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She only recently became serious about publishing her work and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is a stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world she created, leaving the day job where it belongs.
Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.
Categories: Toni Kelly, Uncategorized
Tags: Behind the Name, Character's names, Characters, Lia Davis, Ravished Before Sunrise
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What Appeals in a Book?
What appeals in a book? Now that question is very different from what makes a book great. We never know whether a book is great until we’ve read it start to finish. But what makes a book appeal, that we know from the beginning because it is part of the reason we picked the book up to read in the first place.
For many of us, appeal starts with a great cover, but that is the obvious part and most likely not the sole reason to buy and read the book. After the cover, we read the blurb. But what’s in this blurb? A handsome and mysterious man, a damsel in distress, a villain out to stop the both of them? Sounds okay but not amazing.
But what if this mysterious man was an ex-Jordanian Intelligence agent who relocated to Rio De Janiero in an attempt to gain a fresh start after an explosion killed most of his unit.
(And of course nothing works out as planned) and he is caught in a cross fires after saving a Brazilian grad student who got in with the wrong crowd and now wants out…
It’s beginning to sound better and images similar to those in this post start to form in our mind. Now this book has appeal, but in order to reach this point the author needs to reach out to the readers and plant seeds which will begin to grow in our minds. If it is a romance, we usually need some sort of alpha-like male (there are exceptions) and an attractive female (I say attractive in the non-physical sense. Someone who we readers can relate to). In addition to this, we want a realistic, believable villain and many times, a location that makes it interesting.
Thrillers and suspense may require a lot of action while fantasy or sci-fi might propose something otherwordly.
These are a few of many ideas and we readers are all so different there is something out there to appease us all. Still, book sales have to count for something and best sellers aren’t made so easily. What about you all, what drives you to pick up a book and read it?
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