Juno Books

#2 Jade Tiger
#3 Personal Demons
#13 A Mortal Glamour
#14 Seaborn
#15 Clockwork Heart

Complete List

FROM BITTEN BY BOOKS:

The debut book of the Supernatural Properties series, House of Whispers is a fantastic addition to the world of paranormal. The author not only provides views from the main characters but also from one of the wounded spirits in the house. This was a wonderful part of the book for me and helped to provide closure at the end. I enjoyed this book tremendously and I am enthusiastic about reading the next in the series. (5 of 5 Tombstones)

Back in 1993, Jackie Collins has prefaced her next steamy romance “American Star” with: “While ‘American Star’ contains descriptions of unprotected sex appropriate to the period in which the story is set, the author wishes to emphasize the importance of practicing safe sex and the use of condoms in real life.” The New York Times quoted her as saying, she couldn’t bring herself to include condoms in every sex scene, even contemporary ones. “Quite frankly, not everyone in life uses them,” she said. “But I feel the disclaimer gets the message across without hammering it over the reader’s head every time a character has sex. And my characters have sex a lot.”

There are two trains of thought: (1) This is fantasy, so we can fantasize and such things as condoms need not intrude. (2) It is irresponsible and unrealistic not to address safe sex. Some publishers have established policies. Some writers have personal policies.

Of course with a supernatural lover — demons, vampires, whatever –- a character can toss off “I am not susceptible to human diseases nor can I pass them on” and then not worry Hmm. Is this another reason for the popularity or paranormal romance/urban fantasy? But that’s another topic…

I’ve also noticed that there’s something of a generational divide. For people younger than a certain age (which I exceed), “safe sex” tends to mean using a condom. I grew up sexually in the era of “free love” and post-Stonewall/pre-identification of AIDS. We women “protected ourselves”, usually with the Pill And, of course, we weren’t protected from anything except pregnancy. I think writers of my generation sometimes have a tendency to take contraception consideration when writing sex, but don’t always think about disease prevention.

Of course, we also live in a world in which even 16-year-old TV stars say, when pregnancy is discovered: “It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected. I was in complete and total shock and so was he.”

As the Coalition for Positive Sexuality says: You have the right to complete and honest sex education. Demand information from your school, healthcare provider and parents. Notice they don’t mention novels or films.

Along with other good news on her blog, Saskia Walker (THE STRANGELING and UNVEILING THE SORCERESS) has sold two paranormal erotica books to Harlequin Spice.

[BTW — I only know such news if authors tell me, so if I’m missing similar news from others…I’m not psychic! ]

Romantic Times Booklovers Magazine has given SEABORN four out of five stars with a review that reads:

Howard’s fantasy tells the story of a woman who is seaborn and must fight to win back kingdoms as the wreathbearer. This novel is graphic in violence and leaves nothing to the imagination when it comes to mutilation and death, but readers who love a good fantasy can overlook the gory descriptions to see what happens to the heroine of this fascinating read.

Opinion is opinion, and we certainly appreciate the stars and “fascinating read”, but I think it is fair to correct factual errors. So: The term is “Seaborn” with a capped “S’; it’s “Wreath-wearer”, not “wreathbearer”. She is not really winning back any kingdoms as no kingdoms ever belonged to her and the current ruler is her grandfather, so it is still in her family. Nor are there kingdoms, plural, involved. Only one. There are, however, two heroines, not one.

The summary (which I won’t quote) supplied included further factual errors:
“Kassandra has known since birth she is the wreathbearer.” — I recall no reference made to her knowing anything since birth and, again, “Wreath-wearer.”
“…win back the kingdom…” — See above.
“…Aleximor, who Kassandra imprisoned years before.” — Aleximor had been imprisoned for 200 years; Kass is not quite 20. Aleximor was imprisoned by Kassander, an ancestor of Kassandra for whom she is named. (This is referenced several times in he book.)

Okay, so maybe I am being too picky?

On Fictionwise:
Beyond the Hedge by Roby James
Jade Tiger Jenn Reese
The Strangeling by Saskia Walker
A Mortal Glamour by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Curled Up With A Good Book:

This is a really enjoyable read with great pacing and some interesting settings. While not particularly innovative, it still feels fresh, and the variety of characters add to the interest…Megan herself is well-drawn… a likeable and believable character. Greyson Dante is necessarily mysterious and his motivation hard to fathom, but he is an appealing character and the sparks between him and Megan are well-written. …overall a good read and the beginning of what seems to be an interesting series featuring Megan and Dante. (5 Stars)

Just sent out a quick update to newsletter subscribers. You blog-readers are already aware of some of the news like the submissions hiatus and the e-versions of SEABORN, but you don’t know:

• The SEABORN Web page is now live complete with a mini-interview with author Chris Howard.
• Four more ebooks should be available on Fictionwise next Monday: JADE TIGER by Jenn Reese, BEYOND THE HEDGE by Roby James, A MORTAL GLAMOUR by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and THE STRANGELING by Saskia Walker. Check the blog Monday to see if they are up.
• The hardcover edition of AMBERLIGHT is just now shipping, but we have some copies at Juno Books Headquarters in Maryland. So, you can order direct from them right now and not only be the first kid on the block to own the hardcover of AMBERLIGHT, but receive a SPECIAL DISCOUNT, too! You can buy the HARDCOVER EDITION of AMBERLIGHT - list price $29.95 - for only $20! But that’s not all: You’ll get free shipping, too! (This offer is good only in the United States.) BUT — you need the SECRET COUPON CODE to get this great deal and the only way to get that code is to subscribe to the newsletter.

Being obsessive about publishing and preoccupied with Juno Books, when exposed to normal people I often find myself babbling about these topics — most likely to their utter boredom. The other night I was doing just that and wound up trying to explain about “returns” and the history thereof. I won’t get into it here, but if you are interested, Lynn Neary of NPR’s Morning Edition did a nice summation last week: Publishers Push for New Rules on Unsold Books. It is less than seven minutes long, so give it a listen if you have any interest in the book business.

Of course, returns apply to trade paperbacks and hardcovers, not mass markets paperbacks, which are “strippable”. My diatribe included this subject matter as well, of course. NPR hasn’t tackled this subject (as far as I know), but Richard Curtis included a lot of pertinent info in an article he did some time back you can find re-published on the International Thriller Writers Web site: The Rise and Fall of the Mass Market Paperback.

Now, if you ever run into me and I babble about these two topics, you can say, “Paula, I know all that background stuff, clam up!” And, since you have the background info now, I bet you are dying to hear my solution to it all, right? I hope not, because I don’t have one. Of course, no one else does either.

We’re temporarily suspending novel submissions until further notice. We need time to catch up
responding to what we already have. So, please hold off sending anything in until we reopen. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Fictionwise now has multi-format ebook versions of next month’s print release, SEABORN by Chris Howard, available. As a new release, the book is currently 15% off.

And you can wirelessly download SEABORN to your Kindle.

And here is the final front for the PRINT EDITION cover. (I still do not have a copy of the final-final back cover myself.)

This is Malcolm, my grand-dog, who is three, and his new baby sister, Dewie. They are Brussels Griffons, but Dewie looks a little like a tiny Ewok, doesn’t she? Dewie got adopted a week ago when Malcolm and his people, Mark and Allyson, brought him to enjoy the graduation festivities for Mark’s youngest brother, Erik. (They live near Chicago.)

I was a little concerned Malcolm would not want to give up his status as “only dog”, but he seems to like Dewie.

Well, we’ve made it this far: it is posted in the Kindle store for pre-order. And, if all goes well, Fictionwise will have it there on Monday…

I’m sure that you folks, like me, get plenty of email offers for enlarging your manhood and various solutions for problems with tumescence. (Hey, I am TRYING to avoid attracting spam here.) But have you noticed that in the history of spam, there are no longer (as there once were) similar messages concerning making your bosom bigger? And I don’t recall any solicitations for repairing any intimate womanly…lacks. Nor do we get email about lonely guys just waiting for our IMs.

Of course, I am thankful for this. I just wonder what it REALLY means.

There was a Q&A with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com by Walter Mossberg in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. The most interesting point to me was that although he still won’t divulge how many Kindle units have sold, He did state, “We have 125,000 book titles available for Kindle. When you look at Amazon’s physical book sales of those same titles, the Kindle sales are now more than 6% of those total sales.”

As for the number of Kindle units sold — to quote a recent NY Times article: “One publisher estimated that Amazon had sold roughly 10,000 Kindles, while another estimated that as many as 50,000 electronic-book readers of all types are in general circulation. But both publishers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that those figures were little more than educated guesses.”

however, has come up with so,e interesting estimates numbers based on data from a daily news service covering the Taiwanese IT market reporting on sales of the
e-ink screens used by both Kindle and Sony Reader:

In a story entitled PVI EDP shipments to grow sharply in 2008, that PVI expects EPD module shipments to reach 120,000 units PER MONTH in the second half of 2008.It further explains that the unit price of the screens are $60-$70 per unit and that the current volume has been 60-80,000 units PER MONTH.

Also intriguing is the article’s claim that 60% of the EPD’s go to Amazon and 40% go to Sony. This is an important factor as it implies
that there is a market beyond Kindle – a very, very strong market. Taking the figures at face value, Sony was selling (or at least
manufacturing) an average of 28,000 readers per month (I took 70,000 units as the average sold per month and then 40% of that). Using this
monthly rate, the annual sales of the Sony Reader are at nearly 350,000 units. Using the same formula, Amazon is ordering an average of 42,000 units per month, which will add up to over 500,000 units sold this year.

With production ramping up to 120,000 units a month these numbers will look much better — to the tune of a combined 1.4 million units over 12 months! Even with the Kindle out of stock for a big chunk of the first and second quarter, combined sales of these two e-ink devices in 2008 will most likely top 1 million…. I found that ebook buying on either the Sony Reader or the Amazon Kindle ranges from 5 ebooks to over 100 ebooks. Assuming that anyone who buys an e-ink ebook reader is doing so to read ebooks, lets assume that 10 ebooks a year is a reasonable purchase estimate. Using this logic, we should see 10 million ebooks purchased for these two devices in 2008….I can easily imagine the success of Kindle and Reader dramatically expanding next year and growing by a factor of five. If that happens, then the formula above leads to a completely new ebook economy. Five million devices would mean ebook sales of $1,200,000,000, which, by my estimation, is 1.3% of the current global book market of $90,000,000,000….I personally don’t see publishing becoming a 50% digital business as books and cd’s are completely different animals. But I sure can see that the 3% - 4% I once predicted isn’t such a crazy notion any more.

Completely overlooked in all of this, of course, is the huge success of women’s erotica in ebook form. According to Ellora’s Cave Author Info, it averages sales of over 65000 e-books per month. Do the math: 780K a year from the one publisher. Not hard to guesstimate that all the erotica ebook publishers together easily account for more than 1 million books a year — and since they sell most of their ebooks directly, they aren’t sharing with Amazon or anyone else.

As for the future of ebooks, I personally theorize that the “great change” will come through colleges. With college textbooks priced outrageously high, and of limited use, ebook versions make more sense there than anywhere. When colleges start requiring texts to be available in ebook format and that students must have a reader (as many colleges now require a laptop and consider it part of your expected educational expense) — the tide will turn.

Even though I won’t give up my print books, I’d love to have a portable device for ebooks, too. But until they cost around $50 — or someone gives me one — I don’t see myself owning one. And, as I sot in a chair and work all day in front of a screen, I don’t want to read for pleasure there.

Once you get past the idea that this is a business in which the producer pays a manufacturer to make more units that the producer knows will sell, then sells the product, at a huge discount, to a middleman who then delivers the goods to a retailer who can return the product for full credit . . . yeah, i know, getting past that is not easy, but that’s the business. Anyway, once you get past that then you have situations like the recent departure of the most powerful and successful woman in publishing, Jane Friedman, from HarperCollins. The New York Observer has an interesting article: “Why Jane Jumped: Forensics on the End Of Friedman at HC”.

Although this isn’t the interview, just a blog mention of it, Nancy Davis Kho has SEABORN author Chris Howard well pegged as a multitasker! (And you find out a little about his “real life”).

Blackness Tower (5 Angels):

This story is truly a cross-genre book. Blackness Tower by Lillian Stewart Carl contains elements of historical mysteries through flashbacks in time with Lauren’s “sight;” science fiction or paranormal elements in the mysterious skull shaped watch that holds untold powers and from the ghostly presents in the tower; suspense elements in that someone from either now or the past wants to stop Lauren from finding her answers; and romance for Lauren and one of the men at the tower. This is a wonderfully entertaining story!… Anyone who enjoys any of the genres mentioned above will love this book!

The Eternal Rose (4 Angels):

The exceptionally complex relationships of the Iliasti (four women and five men in a group marriage with a psychic connection) are tested to the extreme when demons mess with some of the people in the group and when Stone is murdered. The story line is intricate, too, and full of political intrigue that keeps the suspense high as the family deals with another country’s leaders and laws while trying to do right by their own citizens. They also need to rid the world of the demons so that everyone is protected from the demonic influence. I enjoyed The Eternal Rose, but plan to read this with minimal interruptions so that you can follow the complicated story.

WIND FOLLOWER by Carole McDonnell has been nominated for the 2008 Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction.

Personal Demons is currently #1 and Clockwork Heart is # 3 among the Top Ten Fantasy Bestsellers on Fictionwise.

Overall they are #8 and #19:

1. The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn [ROM]
2. From Dead to Worse [Southern Vampire Series Book 8] by Charlaine Harris [DARKFANT]
3. Blood Noir [An Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Novel] by Laurell K. Hamilton [DARKFANT]
4. At the Bride Hunt Ball by Olivia Parker [ROM]
5. Odd Hours [Odd Thomas Series Book 4] by Dean Koontz [FIC]
6. Sons of Lyra: Slave Princess [Sons of Lyra Series] by Felicity Heaton [ROM]
7. Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning [ROM]
8. Personal Demons [Megan Chase Book 1] by Stacia Kane [FANT]
9. Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase [ROM]
10. Three Nights of Sin by Anne Mallory [ROM]
11. The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter [ROM]
12. Body Language by Suzanne Brockmann [ROM]
13. The Atlantis Prophecy by Thomas Greanias [SUSP/THRILL]
14. The Queen’s Bastard by C. E. Murphy [FANT]
15. Odd Thomas [Odd Thomas Series Book 1] by Dean Koontz [SUSP/THRILL]
16. The Darkest Kiss by Keri Arthur [ROM]
17. Deep Storm by Lincoln Child [SUSP/THRILL]
18. Secrets of Surrender by Madeline Hunter [ROM]
19. Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti [FANT]
20. Not Another Bad Date by Rachel Gibson [ROM]

eReader.com has this neat display of the four current bestselling fantasies. Look and you will see Charlaine Harris’s latest Sookie book and C.E. Murphy’s THE QUEEN’S BASTARD (which I just finished and loved!) Charlaine and Catie are honorary Juno authors anyway

Of course — these may all change by the time you look for them!

http://teachmetonight.blogspot.com/2008/06/iaspr-and-jprf-call-for-people.html”>Teach Me Tonight had issued “a Call For People, rather than a Call For Papers,” stating:

It is time for an academic society for the study of popular romance fiction, with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto, like a journal and conferences. So we have decided to start one! “We” being myself, Eric Selinger, and a few other people who are already interested in being involved.

The society will be called The International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) and the journal will be an online, open-source journal called The Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS).

So, we’re looking for people who might be interested in helping us build these institutions. Do you want to get in on the ground floor? Do you already have experience in the hierarchy of an academic organization or with an academic journal that you’d love to share with us, even if you don’t want to be involved in the day-to-day aspects of running either? Please let us know! For minimum involvement, for example, we’re going to need people to act as peer reviewers for the journal, so please let us know your specific area of interest in romance novels (paranormals? inspirationals? Regencies? heroes? romances published in the 1950s?). For maximum involvement, we’re going to need journal editors and IASPR board members. We especially need the input of people who might have done any of this before, so you can at least tell us what to avoid!

For now, the contact person for both the society and the journal is myself, Sarah Frantz. Comment here with a way to contact you and I’ll email you post-haste. (Or you can contact me at my Gmail account, which is my full first and last names as one word.)

Let me know what you’re interested in doing (A highly-valued affinity for numbers? You could be Treasurer! Technical Know-how? We need Web Gurus! Organization? We need a Membership Chairperson!). Or if you don’t know specifically what you might be able to contribute, but are really interested in being a part of the process, let us know that, too! We promise, we’ll find a use for you.

More serious study/critique of romance is sorely needed, so huzzah!

Other than the usual Juno-work, preparing for (spring cleaning at least the “public areas” of a house that defies ever being clean all at one time) and then celebrating my youngest’s graduation from high school (ahem, as class president he delivered an inspiring speech in his ever-dulcet baritone) — I’ve been catching up a little on the news out of Book Expo America. Not surprisingly, according to many, things seemed a little more downbeat and apprehensive than usual.

But one quote/comment from Laura Miller at Salon made me smile in agreement: “In unguarded moments…publishers complained that they received more pitches than they had a chance to deliver. “It’s relentless,” one sales rep sighed at a party for Connelly in L.A.’s Union Station. “Every time you turn around, someone’s shoving a manuscript into your hands. I keep telling them I’m not an editor, but they don’t seem to understand the difference.” Aspiring writers planted themselves in autograph lines in a bid to pass unpublished manuscripts to established authors or to beg celebrities to plug their book on TV. (Apparently, all those Americans who claim to be too busy to buy or read books can still find plenty of time to write them.)” [Italics mine.]

This is not particularly true of folks who seriously want to write genre. (Although with Writers.com I have run across a few folks who decided they could write “a novel like Stephen King” because they had watched a lot of movies and there are invariably people who try to write short stories who seem to have never read one.) Romance and urban fantasy readers seem to be avid consumers of the sort of fiction they want to write.

Although it is probably a good idea for an established professional to not read something too close to their own work, one does have to at least be aware of what else is going on. But more than fiction, it is important for a fiction writer to to read everything but: history, biography, philosophy, theology–you name it. So, good writers are still good readers.

Romance Junkies

Dru Pagliassotti makes a stunning debut into the writing world with CLOCKWORK HEART….CLOCKWORK HEART is a beautifully written adventure. The world is so original that it’s a breath of fresh air. Ms. Pagliassotti creates Ondinium in such a way that it’s as if it’s as clear and easy to relate to as our own. Every tiny detail is written in with such art as to portray the meaning without cumbersome explanations that detract from the plot and characters. The author uses brilliant description and vivid characterizations to draw the reader into the story so deeply as to have them feeling the crunch of the road beneath their feet and the wind sweeping beneath metal wings.
This reviewer will say that five isn’t a high enough rating for the brilliance of this book. Ms. Pagliassotti’s masterful use of language crafts a story that will entertain and make the reader question society as a whole. Thought provoking and intense, CLOCKWORK HEART is a book to be kept and reread.

Liz Henry reviews AMBERLIGHT on the SF Feminist Blog

On the plane on the way home, I read Amberlight, by Sylvia Kelso. It was very lovely!

I loved its odd and poetic language, very leapy & coiled & springy - and the gender reversals & oiled men with gilded calves kept in Towers by their grim warrior politician artist wives who are also super rich and powerful because of matriarchal hereditary ability to communicate with alien consciousness energy/electric/magic stone called qherrique, which they quarry (WHILE ON THEIR PERIODS, DUH) & sculpt and which is a thinly veiled metaphor for political power. They sell the statue things to foreign governments who use them to oppress & conquer. Tellurith, the protagonist, rescues a guy from being left for dead in the gutter after brutal gang rape, and he’s got amnesia. HURT/COMFORT ALERT.

Tellurith thinks he is really hot and objectifies him at every turn especially when he’s fierce yet helpless; angry & psychologically damaged; reluctant yet tarting himself up with the gold nipple paint for her anyway. Let’s just say, it’s kind of hot, but also problematic and instructive. Total reversal of the male gaze.

I very much enjoyed the motivations of the characters and the HUGE BATTLES with lasers and mirrors and catapults & explosions. Warrior pride! Defend your city! But OMG agonize over the injustice of capitalism in private, which your oiled amnesia boy has shown you with a few deft words and eyelash batting, impudent pouts as he paces around the room like a captive lion!

Trashy, yet political!

Do people give up privilege and power easily? NO THEY DO NOT. The end!

In short it is super awesome. But only if you like that sort of thing.