May news

Reading: Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones
Listening to: What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
Watching:  Simpsons Movie

Hi everyone!  Some fabulous news to share with you all this week.  First, the news that Harlequin Australia are reprinting the fabbo Diamonds Down Under!  Squeee!  I loved this series and loved being a part of something with my fellow Aussie and Kiwi friends.  Book one (featuring Bronwyn Jameson, Tessa Radley and Maxine Sullivan) is out this month, and book two (with Jan Colley, moi and Yvonne Lindsay) is out in June, coincidentally my birthday month Happy birthday to me!  Aren’t the covers gorgeous?  If you missed the series the first time around, you can read all about it at our Diamonds Down Under website (and blog).

The Australian Romance Readers Association is hosting a massive book signing at the QT Hotel, Surfers Paradise on 17 August from 4.30 pm to 6.00 pm.  With over 60 authors attending, it’s your chance to meet your favourite.  To register or for more info, check out the ARRA website.

I’m very excited to see Desire’s newest series, The Highest Bidder coming to fruition.  This six-book series is set in the world of a famous auction house and revolves around movies stars, scandal and intrigue of the rich and famous.  The line up is:

• Gilded Secrets by Maureen Child  (you can see the cover here)
• Exquisite Acquisitions by Charlene Sands
• A Silken Seduction by Yvonne Lindsay
• A Precious Inheritance by Paula Roe
• The Rogue’s Fortune by Cat Schield
• Golden Betrayals by Barbara Dunlop

And bonus, some of the books will contain an extra mini story!

Lastly, some more cool covers to show off – the French Kindle bundle, which includes my Billionaires and Babies book, Billionaire Baby Bombshell,  and the German translation of Promoted to Wife? For more cover goodness, you can check out my website.

Promoted to Wife? cover!

At last I can share my gorgeous new cover for my March release!  It’s actually quite amusing, because when I sent it to an author friend, we both agreed that The Twelve Apostles (which are on the back) must’ve gotten sick of the Melbourne weather and hitchhiked up to the Gold Coast.  She also commented: “rugged coastline?  On the Gold Coast?”  But is still a beautiful cover!

International covers

It’s always a delight to see international translations lob into my mailbox!  These two are for The Magnate’s Baby Promise in German (left) and Czech (right).  The German title is translated as “That Night In Shangri-La”  (referring to a very posh Sydney hotel where Cal and Ava first… ahem… you know   ).   And the Czech title is “Future Heir”.  Not only do I get a very sexy cover, I’m also paired with Ann Major!

Classic Romance Covers

Watching: Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief
Listening to: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Reading: Charlaine Harris’ True Blood series (Eric… yum!!)

So during these school holidays, I’ve been blowing off the dust from my book shelves and checking out my old historical romance covers of yesteryear.  I remember how awesome I thought these were when I bought them (mumble mumble) years ago.  But now, of course, most are extremely dated.  So I thought I’d share a few memorable ones.

1981 cover

Bitter Passion, Sweet Love by Patricia Ott - I would say this was my first erotic romance read.  Classic English beauty gets kidnapped by wild sheikh.  There’s group sex, multiple partners and some forced seduction scenes (one aided by drugs that was so graphic, I regularly read it aloud to my enthralled/horrified girlfriends when I was 12!).  Wow!  All for the bargain price of 79c.  Sadly, I can’t find any mention of the author any where on the web.

ahhh, the memories of 1983!

While Passion Sleeps by Shirlee Busbee – check out that lurid red!  That billowing hair!  That back-breaking embrace!  I adored this cover at the time (hmmm… I guess I had limited taste at 14).  And the story, as I remember it, was just as fab – kidnapping, forced seduction, arrogant hero.  The heroine was feisty, too, but the issue that continues to grate on me was that the hero never believed she was a virgin until the very end, when he overhears her talking to a maid about it.  Until then he thought she was a bit of a slut.  Hmmm… I should probably re-read it again and see if my memory is reliable.

original 1980 cover

Lady Vixen by Shirlee Busbee – loved, loved, loved this book!  One of my first historicals I ever read – around the age of 11, I think.  Shirlee Busbee (along with Johanna Lindsey and Kathleen Woodiwiss) was one of the first greats of historical romance for me.   Heroine (Nicole) had the same name as my best friend at the time   She runs away from bad relatives, dresses up as a boy (the heroine, not my friend!) and stows away on a ship as a cabin boy.  There’s an arrogant alpha male, a bit of intrigue/mystery about spying, soft violence (he ends up cracking her wrist when she won’t release a weapon), and – I’m pretty sure – a few forced seduction scenes.  I especially loved her return to her rightful place in society.  And I loved the cover art – I ended up reproducing it as an art project in high school.

ahhh, that's better...

original 1978 (!) cover

A Pirate’s Love by Johanna Lindsey – there’s pirates (of course!), an abduction, some forced seduction.  The heroine’s eyes change color when she’s angry.  The hero whips her for disobeying him, which is pretty un-PC these days.  And while the original cover wasn’t exactly bad, this later version is beautiful and elegant.  Interesting to note that from Once A Princess (1991) onwards, Marketing started putting flowers/symbols on Johanna Lindsey’s covers, but still had the clinches on a step back (inside the front cover).  Me, I much prefer the style of the revamped A Pirate’s Love.

can you believe this was done in 1986?

Angel in Scarlet by Jennifer Wilde – it’s high time I read this book again.  Such fun, such a great heroine.  And how gorgeous is that cover?   She’s a street urchin, he’s her rescuer, teaches her how to act, eat, socialise, so a huge Pygmalion theme going on there.  Gainsborough paints her portrait.  Umm… I think she writes a book?  See, told you, I have to read this again!

Do you have a favorite book that has  a less-than-flattering cover?  A revamp that does the story better justice than the original?  Or just a cover that makes you howl with laughter?  Share!

international covers

I’ve been receiving a steady flow of international translations in my post box.  It’s wonderful to see those covers and the (sometimes odd) titles in other languages   I think my favorite has to be the French version of The Magnate’s Baby Promise (translated to “The Promise of an Evening”)…  so elegant, so romantic – ooh la la!

I also love the revamped UK covers.  It doesn’t show here but they have that wonderfully smooth matt-finish cover.  Oh, okay, you CAN see for yourself – I’ll give away a copy!  Post a comment and I’ll pick a random winner.

Cover love

Watching: A-Team movie trailer (jeez, I feel so old!)
On the iPod: Halo by Beyonce

So I finally got my new cover for my outback Billionaires and Babies book.  Ain’t it gorgeous?  For those of you interested in behind-the-scenes inner workings of Harlequin, Harlequin/Silhouette authors have access to an online program that’s used to make the covers.  In that data we supply info on physical descriptions of our main characters (eye color, hair, style, ethnicity etc), setting and tone/mood (bad boy hero?  pregnant heroine?  MOC?).  We also offer three scene suggestions for the cover art and any links or pictures that would best describe that, a short 1p synopsis and story themes.   It’s about eight screens to click through, so it’s pretty comprehensive.

However, most of my suggestions for this book were the traditional sexy couple-clinch (a la’ Boardrooms & A Billionaire Heir),  and the B&B series feature… yeah, babies    So that’s what we have, along with a gorgeous view of the outback on the back (which you can’t see here).   And Alex looks suspiciously like Ben Affleck, which isn’t too shabby

To celebrate the three outback B&B series, Maxine Sullivan, Robyn Grady and myself have launched a dedicated site/blog to them.  It’s always fun to get together with my fellow Aussie writers and celebrate all things Australian – drop by and check it out!

covers!

Sticking my head up from writing (1st October deadline and 100 pages to go!) to share some pretty new international covers.  They are (left) Forgotten Marriage in Czechoslovakian – where I am officially known as Paula Roeova   Middle is Boardrooms & A Billionaire Heir for Germany and right is for Greece. Pretty cool, huh?

Diamonds in Japan

So fellow Diamond Down Underer, Maxine Sullivan, has been extremely diligent in ensuring the rest of us get to see our foreign translations. How pretty is my Japanese translation of Boardrooms & A Billionaire Heir?