Tasty Book Release Blast for the documentary film, LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS with trailer, bonus clip & #giveaway

LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS
A Documentary Film

Written, Produced & Directed

by Laurie Kahn

available now at iTunes Movies | Amazon

Love stories are universal. Love stories are powerful.  And so are the women who write them.

LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS is the fascinating story of the vast, funny, and savvy female community that has built a powerhouse industry sharing love stories.  Romance fiction is sold in 34 languages on six continents, and the genre grosses more than a billion dollars a year—outselling mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy combined. Yet the millions of voracious women (and sometimes men) who read, write, and love romance novels have remained oddly invisible. Until now.

For three years, we follow the lives of five very diverse published romance authors and one unpublished newbie as they build their businesses, find and lose loved ones, cope with a tsunami of change in publishing, and earn a living doing what they love—while empowering others to do the same. Romance authors have built a fandom unlike all others; a global sisterhood where authors know their readers personally and help them become writers themselves. During the three years we’ve been shooting LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS, we have witnessed the biggest power shift that has taken place in the publishing industry over the last 200 years. And it’s the romance authors who are on the front lines, pioneering new ways to survive and build communities in this rapidly changing environment.

Distributed by The Orchard

Bonus Clip from LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS

Author Jayne Anne Krentz talking about her first encounter

with romance—something we all remember.

LBTC Bonus Clip - Jayne Ann Krentz - Finding The Sheik from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.

10 Surprising Facts about Romance Novels by Laurie Kahn

Four years ago, when I began making my documentary film Love Between the Covers, I stepped into a community I knew nothing about: the global network of women who write, read, and love romance novels. What I found surprised me. Here are ten things I learned: 

   1. Romance fiction is a billion-dollar industry

Romance novel sales total more than a billion dollars a year. They sell as much as sci-fi, mystery, and fantasy combined. 

   2. The romance readership is HUGE and global

More than 70 million people in the USA alone read at least one romance novel per year, and most of them read many more. The work of popular American romance writer Nora Roberts is translated into 33 languages and distributed on 6 continents. 

   3. There is a surprisingly wide range of romance novels 

Like romance blogger Sarah Wendell says, "Whatever your cup of tea is, someone's pouring it."

Romance novels are often equated with "bodice-rippers," but the steamy historicals with Fabio on the cover were published back in the 1970s and 1980s. Since that time, the spectrum of romance novels has exploded. On one end of that spectrum, there are chaste evangelical romances. On the other end, there are BDSM romances (yes, like that one). 

In between, you'll find paranormal romance with vampires and shapeshifters, time-travel romance, historical romance, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense. There are growing romance subgenres for LGBT love stories, a large community of writers who specialize in African-American romance, and there's even a popular Amish romance subgenre.

    4. Everybody's writing romance

Women of every description (and a small number of men) are the engine of this industry.

Contrary to expectations, romance authors come from every economic class, every racial group, every sexual preference, and every level of education.

When I asked the pioneering African-American romance author Beverly Jenkins about her peers, she told me, "Women from all walks of life do this. We're not sitting in the proverbial trailer park in ratty nightgowns, eating jelly beans and watching soap operas. There are some pretty powerful women doing this! Geneticists, astrophysicists, lawyers, doctors..." The list goes on.

Len Barot (pen name Radclyffe), one of the main characters in Love Between the Covers, began writing lesbian romances during her surgical residency. Mary Bly (pen name Eloisa James), another main character in the film, is a Shakespeare scholar by day and an author of historical romances by night. 

I interviewed PhDs, lawyers, and insurance executives. I also interviewed romance authors who worked in factories. There's an open door for anyone who wants to give it a try. Nora Roberts, the rock star of the romance industry, never went to college.

    5. Women in the romance community are more likely than the general population to be currently married or living with a partner.

We've all seen depictions of the lonely, lovesick romance writer, who pens titillating novels while eating bonbons and sobbing over her keyboard. 

Don't believe the stereotype. While romance does offer women a place to escape daily life and live out their fantasies, this community of readers and writers are statistically more likely than most to be in happy relationships.

   6. Romance authors become personal friends with their readers, and readers find one another.

In the romance community friendships that begin online - based on a shared love of books-- often become real and enduring friendships. 

Beverly Jenkins and her readers are in constant contact at Beverly's Facebook page, talking about books, football, music, and the ups and downs of their everyday lives. Every other year, Beverly takes a trip with her readers to places where her novels are set.

Radclyffe invites beginning authors to her farm in upstate New York, where she leads workshops on romance writing, and several of Eloisa James's loyal readers told us they found their closest friends, with whom they communicate every day, through Eloisa's blog.

   7. Romance writers get tremendous support from one another
Why are these women so happy to pull a less experienced writer up the ranks? I asked many authors this question, and almost all of them told me stories of their early romance mentors--and their desire to pay it forward. 

At a Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference, unpublished writers are always welcome (something that does not happen at other writer conferences), and there are dozens of workshops taught by established writers about everything from plot structure and writing knife-fights, to social networking and negotiating contracts. You will see bestselling novelists sitting down for coffee with unpublished newbies, critiquing their work and giving them business advice.

   8. Romance authors are on the cutting edge, pioneering new technologies 

Romance writers and readers were the first to enthusiastically adopt e-books, a service which works well for anyone who buys hundreds of books, and romance writers have always been mavericks of social media, using it effectively to build fan communities. 

Romance has been at the forefront of the biggest change to take place in publishing in the last 200 years: self publishing. Together, romance authors have figured out how to succeed in self-publishing. Instead of being secretive, these one-person indie publishing houses share their knowhow and numbers (not a common practice in publishing).

   9. You can take courses about romance fiction at Princeton, Harvard, DePaul and dozens of other universities
Literature scholars, cultural historians, and popular culture studies professors founded the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance five years ago. They hold annual conferences, and they've also started the peer-reviewed onlineJournal for Popular Culture Studies. It's a growing interdisciplinary field. 

   10. Romance writing isn't an easy gig
You might think writing romance novels is more of a breezy pastime than a professional venture, but the deadlines that romance novelists face are incredibly rigorous. Susan Donovan described the feeling of being on-deadline saying, "There's always a flame behind your ass." Some women publish three or four books a year. On top of this, most novelists handle their own promotion, and self-published authors also handle their novels' distribution. When you're a romance novelist, you are a one-woman business.

I had a blast exploring the romance community over the last four years. In creating Love Between the Covers, I discovered one of the few places where women are always center stage, where female characters always win, where justice prevails in every book, and where the broad spectrum of desires of women from all backgrounds are not feared, but explored unapologetically.

*Originally featured in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/laurie-kahn/romance-novels_b_7109458.html

About Laurie Kahn:

Director/Producer - LAURIE KAHN’s films have won major awards, been shown on PBS primetime, broadcast around the world, and used widely in university classrooms, and community groups. Her first film, A Midwife’s Tale, was based on the 18th century diary of midwife Martha Ballard and Laurel Ulrich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book A MIDWIFE’S TALE. It won film festival awards and a national Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction. Her film, Tupperware! was broadcast in more than 20 countries, won the George Foster Peabody Award and was nominated for a national Best Nonfiction Director Emmy. Kahn previously worked on Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, The American Experience, FRONTLINE’S Crisis in Central America, All Things Considered, and Time Out. She’s a resident scholar at Brandeis’s Women’s Studies Research Center.

Website | Facebook Page | Twitter

TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY

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Release Day Blitz for HARD TO LET GO, a Hard Ink Novel by Laura Kaye with #excerpt & #giveaway

 We are so excited to bring you the Release Week Blitz for Laura Kaye's HARD TO LET GO! HARD TO LET GO is the 4^th novel in Laura's Hard Ink Series, published by Avon Romance. 

Be sure to check out my review of this amazing book too!

Grab your copy of this sexy, suspenseful book today!!

 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks| Kobo

Hard to Let Go on Goodreads

Five dishonored soldiers.

Former Special Forces.

One last mission.

These are the men of Hard Ink.

Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, hard-ass Beckett encounters his biggest complication yet—a seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey.

A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers’ Hard Ink Tattoo shop following a bad break-up—and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger’s gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he’s also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat’s brothers are at war with the criminals her office is investigating. When Kat joins the fight, she lands straight in Beckett’s sights . . . and in his arms. Not to mention their enemies’ crosshairs.

Now Beckett and Kat must set aside their differences to work together, because the only thing sweeter than justice is finding love and never letting go.

EXCERPT: 
Taking a deep breath, Beckett knocked on the door. 
No answer.
He turned the knob, and the door opened. 
“Go away,” came a strained voice.
Beckett poked his head through the opening. Kat sat in a ball in the corner, her legs pulled up to her chest, her arms hugging herself tight.
“Aw, Jesus, Beckett. Really?” Her face was splotchy and her eyes watery, though he didn’t see any tears.
Ten-to-one she was going through some adrenaline letdown right now, too. Which no doubt made it all worse. That shit could fuck you up even when you were used to how it left you feeling drained and shaky, by how all the stress you’d suppressed during the height of the crisis boomeranged twice over after the fact.
He came into the room, closed the door, and turned the lock for good measure. And then he crossed to Kat, scooped his arms under her knees and behind her back and lifted her up against him.
She smacked his chest. “Put me down.”
“No.” He moved to the edge of the bed.
“I don’t need this right now, Beckett. Put me down.”
“Yes, you do,” he said, sitting on the edge of the mattress. He pulled her face in against his throat and smoothed her hair back from her cheek. She trembled against him, just the littlest bit, her skin hot to the touch. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and hugged her tighter. “You did good, kid.”
Every one of her muscles went tight. Her hand fisted in his shirt. And her breath caught as she buried her face against his neck and shoulder.
Then Kat burst out crying.
And it was like being torn apart and put back together, all at once. He hated her pain, but he adored that she wasn’t hiding herself from him, and that she was letting him be there for her.
He didn’t shush her, or try to talk her down, or encourage her to dry her eyes. To be sure, her tears were like daggers in his heart—they hurt like fucking hell. But the only way she was going to feel better was to let this shit out. Ironic realization for him—he did actually see that. But just because you could see what was good for others didn’t mean you had the first goddamned idea how to apply those principles in your own life. And that was a problem for another time anyway.
What mattered right now was Kat. What mattered … was Kat. 

  Hard Ink Series Trailer:

  

Praise for HARD TO LET GO: 

“Kaye wraps up her bestselling series with this action-packed story, highlighting her talent for alpha military heroes, hot romance, and an ensemble cast of characters who are unique and engaging. A super sexy, high-octane romantic suspense novel that concludes the popular Hard Ink series in a completely satisfying way.” ~Kirkus Reviews 

“TOP PICK! Kaye brings her Hard Ink series to a spectacular conclusion that successfully wraps up the overarching mystery and brings closure to her compelling characters. Kaye really nails it with this awesome book and series!” ~RT Book Reviews 

“HARD TO LET GO will blow you away! Anyone who has been following Laura Kaye’s fantastic Hard Ink series will expect something great for the last book in the series, and to say HARD TO LET GO does not disappoint would be the understatement of the year! Ms. Kaye writes sex scenes like it’s nobody’s business, and the blistering chemistry between Kat and Becket will leave you panting and begging for more! If you expected world-class action in HARD TO LET GO, think again and multiply that by ten! HARD TO LET GO has to be the most explosive conclusion to a series ever! Do not miss it at any cost!” ~Fresh Fiction

And don’t miss the other Hard Ink books, now available:

HARD AS IT GETS

HARD AS YOU CAN

HARD TO HOLD ON TO

HARD TO COME BY

HARD TO BE GOOD

Praise for the Hard Ink Series: 

"TOP PICK! If you're looking for danger, gritty action, and sizzling passion, then Kaye has just the book and the series for you." ~RT Book Reviews Magazine 

      
About the Author:


Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.        

Website | Facebook |Twitter | Newsletter SignUp

 

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Cover Reveal for DARK AND STORMY KNIGHT, a Knights of Avalon novel by Nina Mason

DARK AND STORMY KNIGHT

Book Two in the Knights of Avalon series

by Nina Mason

Nina Mason's erotic paranormal Knights of Avalon series.

Book one, STARRY KNIGHT, will release on August 4, 2015 with book two, DARK AND STORMY KNIGHT to follow on January 5, 2016.

Aspiring screenwriter Gwyn Morland is ready for her big break. That means securing the film rights to elusive author Lady Ruthven’s acclaimed novel—which means traveling to Scotland. It’s a trip timid Gwyn isn’t prepared for, and her fears seem justified when her tour bus careens over a cliff outside of Castle Glenarvon. But the plot thickens when Gwyn is rescued from the brink of death by a handsome and mysterious stranger…

Leith MacQuill is not only the writer behind Lady Ruthven’s novel, but a shape-shifting faery knight bearing a tragic curse: the woman he gives his heart to will die. Saving Gwyn proves to be a dangerous choice when he finds himself falling for her the longer she stays in the castle. Not even his usual BDSM role-playing games are enough to thwart the intense desire they feel for each other. But to stay together, Gwyn and Leith must embark on a dangerous mission into Avalon, the realm of the faeries. Will their love be strong enough to conquer the curse? Or will Gwyn’s new life be stolen from her before it’s even begun

*       *      *      *

In case you missed it, here's the cover for STARRY KNIGHT, book one in The Knights of Avalon series:

STARRY KNIGHT releases August 4, 2015 and is available 

now for pre-order.

Can these star-crossed lovers bridge two worlds?

British aristocrat Vanessa Bentley has beauty, fame, and fortune, but she gets no respect for her decision to become a paranormal investigator. Determined to prove the naysayers wrong, Vanessa ventures to the misty moors of Caithness, Scotland. There stands the immense Castle Barrogill, where a vampire is rumored to be stalking the dungeons—a vampire Vanessa is determined to find

She just has to get past the resident shape-shifter…

Callum Lyon is the gorgeous reclusive astrologer and faery knight who owns the castle. For free-spirited Vanessa, seducing him proves to be easy. After all, he was once a breeding drone to a Queen. But astrologically, their differences are harder to overcome. Will Vanessa’s mission—and Callum’s secrets—be more than their burgeoning love can take? Or will flesh—and blood—win over the ghosts that haunt them both? ….

About the Author:

Nina Mason is a hopeful romantic with strong affinities for history, mythology, and the metaphysical. She strives to write the same kind of books she loves to read: those that entertain, edify, educate, and enlighten. She is the author of THE QUEEN OF SWORDS, a darkly erotic Scottish paranormal romance/urban fantasy, and THE TIN MAN, a political thriller, both published by Vamptasy/CHBB. DEVIL IN DUKE'S CLOTHING is her first historical romance and Royal Pains is her first series. STARRY KNIGHT, book one in a second series titled Knights of Avalon, will be released in August 2015 by Lyrical/ Kensington. When not writing, Ms. Mason works as a communications consultant, doll maker, and home stager. Born and raised in Orange County, California, the author currently lives with her husband, teenage daughter, two rescue cats, and a Westie just north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Author Links:

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / YouTube / Blog

Unwrapping Romance at the Movies: THE LONGEST RIDE

The movie, THE LONGEST RIDE, adapted from the book by Nicholas Sparks, starring Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin, and Alan Alda opens today - April 10th -  in theaters.

He’s not quite as good an actor as his father, but I think Scott Eastwood might make a better romantic lead.

I probably won't see it in the theater but I like that it's much in the tradition of THE NOTEBOOK so, yes, I'll be looking for this one on Netflix or DVD. 

I'm still Team Clint though. 

How about you?

What do you think? 

Are you going to see this one?

I love the song in the trailer…very haunting…of course it’s from the soundtrack for INSURGENT, but who’s counting. Enjoy.

Got a big day for you on Monday, April 13^th… a Kay Thomas cover reveal and my review stop on the Tasty Virtual Book Tour for BAD FOR ME, book 5 of the Rock Canyon series by Codi Gary. So be sure to stop by!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Unwrapping My Thoughts on FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, the Movie & BDSM in Romance Novels

With all of the excitement building over the upcoming release of the movie version of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY by E.L. James, I got to thinking about the way BDSM (Bondage-Dominance-Submission-Masochism) is portrayed in romance novels today. I am not a fan of the FSofG series and do not expect to see the movie unless I hear some very good things about it – namely that it’s better than the book, but since a movie version of a book is so rarely better than the original, I doubt it will happen.

Have you seen the trailer? Some think it's really sexy, racy, or whatever. I think it's about as exciting as the book. Not.

There are many romance authors today who portray BDSM from mild to extreme so much more erotically, and genuinely that it got me thinking back to some older romance novels which were never labeled as BDSM but actually can be added to the list. One in particular is WARRIOR’S WOMAN by Johanna Lindsay.

Now, before fans of Johanna Lindsay jump on me and proclaim, NO WAY!, if you’ve read this particular book and its series, think about some of the sex portrayed. I loved this trilogy of sci-fi romance created by Johanna and wish she’d revisit this type of romance again.

In the year 2139, fearless Tedra De Arr sets out to rescue her beleaguered planet Kystran from the savage rule of the evil Crad Ce Moerr.

Experienced in combat but not in love, the beautiful, untouched Amazon flies with Martha, her wise-cracking, free-thinking computer, to a world where warriors reigns supreme - and into the arms of the one man she can never hope to vanquish: the bronzed barbarian Challen Ly-San-Ter.

A magnificent creature of raw yet disciplined desires, the muscle-bound primitive succeeds where no puny Kystran male had before - igniting a raging fire within Tedra that must be extinguished before she can even think of saving her enslaved world...

Many erotic romance novels today have a dominant male paired with a confident yet submissive female where mild to extreme BDSM is introduced between the couple but WARRIOR’S WOMAN was first released in 1990 by Avon Romance and for the time, it pushed the envelope further than most romance novels had ever gone before. There was a cultural traditionalism behind the behavior on the part of the hero, Challen, and the heroine, Tedra, was a self-sufficient, tough, warrior who challenged her hero every step of the way. Her refusal to submit to his dominant behavior resulted in a few punishment scenes, one of which even included an explicitly non-painful spanking scene, which left her hero with a very bad taste in his mouth. His punishment amounted to bringing her as close to orgasm as possible without allowing her the satisfaction desired by her. When she told him if he wanted to truly punish her, he should do it properly with a spanking. His means of punishment was never about pain but simply a means to make her understand he was in control of her, and her pleasure. 

Well, as women, we may not agree with that because we all know we are responsible for our own pleasure and it’s our willingness to share it with our men, which enhances it and makes our men feel triumphant. But along the lines of BDSM, Challen believed himself in charge, dominant if you will, but in truth, we know it was Tedra who led his heart and so led his desire to please her and keep her from pain.

So with this in mind, I’m drawn back to FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and its manner of pushing the envelope toward humiliation, Christian’s need to crush Ana, her heart, and make her feel as low as he feels. These are things which turned me off about this series. I’m all for reading erotic romance with BDSM themes, even when they don’t particularly make me comfortable. Voyeurism themes tend to make me uncomfortable but not necessarily because of the theme but it’s the idea of a man who loves his woman and yet still feels it’s okay for other men to watch her pleasure that turns me away. I believe there’s play and then there’s respect. Love needs respect to survive, just as it needs respect to exist in the first place.

True, in any games of BDSM, there is a level of mutual acceptance and the dynamic is supposed to be one of consensual play but again, I don’t feel that in FSofG the way I feel it in other erotic romance with BDSM elements. So my question to you is the same one I would ask a partner in real life, how far is too far when introducing elements of bondage, dominance, submission, and masochism into a romantic relationship?

Also, will you be seeing the movie? 

Feel free to comment, rant, blast me, or agree - I want to know your thoughts. Happy Reading Everyone!