I've moved!

I've been sharing on Facebook and Twitter, but figured I owed my readers an update. The lack of posts on the blog is because I've moved. Yep, I'm over at www.landra.graf . It's my brand new site and designed more to me and the books I'm writing.

Feel free to swing by and check things out.

That being said, I'll be leaving the content up on this blog for approximately two more months and then it will disappear. I'm no longer in the slushpile, therefore this piece o'slush has rose. It's been a privileged to have regular readers, a steady slew of visitors, and now I'm ready to embark on the next adventure.

As I move forward with my writing career, I've decided to stop reviewing books, to focus more on the words. I'll still be conducting Interviews with Victoria, Thursday Reads, Funday Monday, and a hosting amazing authors.

I hope you're able to follow me on the journey.

Rising from the Slush: Alexa Bourne #newrelease

My path toward publication had quite a few bumps. Sometimes I tripped over a tree limb and sometimes I got to stand under bright sunshine. Are there things I’d do differently than I did in years past? Absolutely. But I still consider myself lucky to be able to share my stories with readers everywhere.

Although I’d been writing for as long as I could remember, it wasn't until I got to college that I began thinking of actually pursuing publication. My best friend poked and prodded me in the direction of writing groups. She loved my writing and had great faith in me. With her support, I began approaching my writing as a second job that would eventually pay off. I entered my 1^st writing contest and came in 3^rd from the bottom of my category. But the constructive criticism stirred the fighter in me. I couldn’t give up. The following year I won the category with a new book. It was 2003. Although I got better with each book, it took me until 2011 to sign my 1^st contract.

The interesting part is I submitted to that first publisher on a whim. A friend of mine mentioned her publisher was looking for stories set in foreign countries with a flair of the local culture. I've traveled quite a bit and she thought I’d be a perfect match. Turned out she was right. My latest release, Wake Me, is my 9^th book (although not all of them are set in foreign countries) and I’m currently working on edits for #10. The job isn't always perfect, but nothing beats writing a story I love and being able to share it with the world. 

Want to know more about Alexa's book: 

Her psychic dreams come true.

Sarah McKinley’s attempts to take her foreknowledge of crimes to the Seattle Police Department marked her as a troublemaker and were never taken seriously. Starting over in Austin, she plans never to reveal her gift, but shortly after she arrives, the dreams begin again, and the local police want to know why she has knowledge only the killer could possess.

Detective Jesse Cordell watched his mother con people with her “psychic ability” all through his childhood. He hones in on Sarah, who has means, motive, and opportunity to have murdered the victim in his current investigation. Instinct tells him she didn’t commit the crime, but she definitely knows more than she’s letting on.

Can he put aside his doubts and join forces with her, against everything he believes in, to find the real killer? Or will he do his job and put her behind bars? After all, there’s no such thing as the “psychic ability.” Or is there?

Where to get your copy: Amazon ~ Decadent Publishing

Alexa is giving THREE prizes throughout her Wake Me Blog Tour! Leave comments in any (or all!) of the tour stops and you will be in the running! So for this stop, what is something you worked hard to achieve and what kept you going?

The next tour stop: Kathleen's Place to Reflect 

Author Bio: 

Alexa Bourne is a teacher by day and a romance writer by nights, weekends, and all school holidays. She also teaches online classes for writers throughout the year. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance and is thrilled to have the chance to share her stories with readers everywhere.

When she’s not concocting sinister plots and steamy love scenes or traveling and exploring new cultures, Alexa spends her time reading, watching brainless TV, and thinking about exercising. Okay, she also spends way too much time interacting with readers and writers on social media sites. But don’t tell her editors! Find out more about her and her books on her website. 

You can also find Alexa on: Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Blog

Guest Post: Zee Monodee - How I Rose Above the Slushpile

I started writing after reading the epic tale “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth. I didn’t really care for the political backdrop of India during the time of its independence and Partition in the late 1940s, but I relished the glimpse into a world I knew almost first-hand, that of the Indian culture. You see, I’m a 3^rd generation Indian born and raised on the island of Mauritius. I, a Muslim, grew up among Hindus, Tamils, Chinese people, African-origin peeps, mixed race folks...and on the outskirts of ‘our’ world were the White descendants of the island’s former colonists (mainly French, and English).

I’ve always wanted to write, and after seeing what Mr. Seth managed to do with his tale, I wanted to do the same thing for Mauritius – to showcase the life of culture, mores, traditions, and values we all lived here as members of the Indian diaspora. This is the world I know, and I wanted to share it. That’s how I started THE OTHER SIDE (Island Girls #1), the story of an Indo-Mauritian divorcee who leaves London and returns to the island, only to be shunned because she dared get a divorce. To make matters worse, she crosses paths with her first love, the one that got away...and he turns out to be a White man, descendant of French settlers who brought indentured labour from India to work in their cane fields after the abolition of slavery.

The book had everything I wanted to see in a story that would reflect my culture – societal opposition, gossip, overbearing mothers and matchmaking aunties, and the setting was my beautiful island that I tried to showcase both in its physical and lifestyle aspects.

And I was told, by people I considered authorities in the publishing world, that this kind of book would never stand a chance of being published. I was too unknown; Mauritius was too much of an obscure nation; my ‘drama’ wasn’t “Indian” enough....

I was a newbie, and I wanted to write. So I listened to those people, and shelved the books I wanted to continue writing. I dabbled into other genres – all of them falling into the ‘mainstream’ of popular fiction. Rom-coms set in London, romantic suspense set in Europe.... My heart still beat for the cultural stories, though, and I guess that showed in my work.

I went through a dry spell at that point – nothing of mine was ‘selling’, and in a way, no wonder, because these were perfunctory writings. You know how they say that when you’re passionate about something, it shows?

Well, this applies to books, too. Your passion shows in your writing – at one glance, an editor first, then a reader, can see which story was close to your heart because something intangible will resonate from those words, leap off the page to grab whoever is reading. That’s passion, and you need it to rise above the slush!

Case in point – around October of 2011, a friend of mine who was with Decadent Publishing emailed me about their 1NightStand line. The premise was that Madame Evangeline, who runs the agency, pairs 2 people on a blind date aka a one night stand. They can choose to be together just for the night, but more often than not, Madame Eve works her own brand of ‘magic’ because she brings together people who are totally suited for one another.

The best thing about this line, my friend pointed out, was that the stories could take place all over the world!

I thought, what have I got to lose? This story could be set in Mauritius, and it could have an echo of the cultural themes I loved to infuse in my work. I’d reached rock bottom by then, and so threw everything I had into this story of a Mauritian career girl who wants to forget for one night that she is an executive vice president of legal affairs and of mixed race, with no ‘side’ truly accepting her, and just be a woman. Madame Eve pairs her with a Swedish expat who’s working on the island and who’s not at all looking for The One. Clash of cultures, shroud of expectation, doomed-before-it-starts story between these two...can they make it when morning comes?

ONCE UPON A STORMY NIGHT was born, and written, and polished, and subbed....and about a month later, I had a contract offer in my inbox.

The kicker? The editors for the line had loved the unique, ‘different’ setting that I exploited without turning it into a guidebook, and they also adored the cultural slant of the conflict that made this story rise above the meeting of two career people who might’ve met their match.

I had thrown all of my passion into that story, writing what I wanted to write, showcasing what I wanted the world to see, giving conflict I knew first-hand because this was my world, my universe, and – as I’d always known it deep down inside – my niche in writing.

That story was my rise above the slush pile, and since then, I haven’t looked back. I now write what I want to write – evident in the Island Girls Trilogy, of which Book 2, LIGHT MY WORLD, just came out – and this enables me to satisfy my passion and also bring it to other genres I also love (like, I have series about small town romances set in England).

Want to rise above the slush pile? Write what you want to write, what your heart is telling you to write, what your passion will fuel! That’s the real ticket!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Light My World Blurb

It is a truth universally acknowledged that to find a prince, a girl has to kiss a few frogs along the way. But what happens when a modern-day princess comes across…an ogre? So what if a girl has to kiss a few frogs to find her prince? Tired of her Indian-origin mother’s relentless matchmaking, Diya Hemant is determined to find her Prince Charming on her terms. Armed with a definitive list of requirements, she is sure she’ll know her man when she meets him…
 But looking and finding are two different things, especially on the tiny island of Mauritius… When her path crosses surly British widower Trent Garrison’s, it’s hate at first sight. And though fate keeps pitting her against him, she’s certain he can’t be turned into a frog let alone a prince. Can this modern-day princess overcome her own expectations and see beyond the ogre to the man beneath?

Buy a Copy: Amazon ~ Decadent Publishing ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes and Noble ~ All Romance Ebooks 

Guest Post +Release Day: Truth or Dare by Elizabeth Morgan

I so excited to be hosting fellow Decadent Publishing Author Elizabeth Morgan. She's discussing how she got started in writing, and the rise from the ever dreaded slush pile. Not to mention find out about her latest release: Truth or Dare

Although, I have been writing on and off since childhood, it wasn’t until I was studying Musical Theatre in college that I really started to get into it on a serious note. We often got assignments that involved us writing scripts as a group. Having to do this for college, I started to play about with my own ideas and produce my own work.

After reading one of my plays a friend suggested to me that I try writing a book as I could add as much detail as I wanted in to it. (She mainly suggested this, because I had gone and wrote a huge amount of background for both the world and the characters, and naturally to some degree, it wouldn’t be needed for a play.)

A year – and tons of other stuff later – I decided I would give it ago and sat down and started planning a book. It took me nine months to complete, and then after letting a few friends read it I ripped it to shreds and began re-writing it again. (That book was Cranberry Blood. My Urban Fantasy which I am re-releasing this summer along with its prequel She-Wolf.)

I think I got about roughly 60 rejections for the first three stories I wrote before being offered my first contract. Sadly the company shut down, and I found myself back at square one, but what can I say? I was determined that someone would like my stories, and I was right, February 2011 I got a contract offer for my modern fairy-tale re-telling of Rapunzel, Razel Dazzle, which was published in May 2011. (Razel Dazzle has since be self-published and re-released, and is available to buy from most online retailers.)

Since then I’ve had seven books published – I’ve had the rights to the three mentioned above, along with two others reverted back to me, either by request, or due to one of my publishing companies shutting down. All books have been, or will be re-submitted or self-published – and today: book number eight has released.

Truth or Dare? Is a naughty little erotic romance story that I whipped up after being inspired by a scene from the Big Bang Theory. (The scene where Lenard and Penny are drinking tequila? Yeah, that’s the scene. ;-P)

Ooh, now I've never watched the Big Bang Theory, but if it's that inspirational then maybe I should give it a shot, after I read this book.

Do you dare tell the truth?

A tequila fuelled game of Truth or Dare is not Dani’s idea of fun, but when Cameron, the jerk who rejected her a year ago is the one provoking her into playing, how can she say no? Not that he’s giving her the option in the first place.

Bravado compels her forward, but when the dares get physical and their friends leave them alone, Cameron’s questions turn to her feelings for him, and unfortunately, lying is not part of the game.

Will a dare give Dani the courage she needs to tell Cameron the truth?

Get your copy at:
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Amazon
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Author Info:

Elizabeth started life wanting to be an actress because she loved entertaining people. She enjoyed nothing more than being able to make people laugh and to help distract them from reality for a few hours.

She studied Musical Theatre in college, but during her second year, her mind started to overflow with story ideas, so she began writing plays. Slowly, over the following three years, she was writing more and more, channelling every ounce of her imagination into the written word.

Now here she is, years later, hiding away like a hermit in her little cottage in Cheshire, England, writing like crazy and loving every minute of it.

Author Links:
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