Follow My Book Blog Friday

It's been a while since I searched the blogosphere for new-to-me book blogs that intrigue me, so I'm once more participating in Feature and Follow Friday, also known as Follow My Book Blog Friday, hosted by Parajunkee's View and Allison Can Read.

Today they're featuring We Fancy Books and have posed this question:

Name 3 authors that you would love to sit down and spend an hour or a meal with just talking about either their books or get advice on writing from?

My response is:

1.  Stephen King.  I learn something new about writing every time I read one of his books, so I would love to discuss writing with him.

2.  Alexandra Ivy, one of my favorite romance authors.  I love both her paranormal and historical romances and would love to chat about writing in different sub-genres with her.

3. Gena Showalter, another favorite author.  Her books are so much fun I can't help but think  talking books and writing with her would be the same.

What about you?  What authors would you like to chat with?  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Dianne

And the Winner is . . .

I thought I'd take time out from going over Night Reigns proofs to say:

Congratulations, Jennifer B.,

winner of a signed copy of Darkness Dawns in

Reading Between the Wines Book Club's

Writing Romance event!

There's still a chance to win a signed copy of Darkness Dawns at Paranormal Haven's Bookish Haven Summer Vacation event.  The contest ends tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Dianne

Night Reigns Cover & Blurb Reveal

 

Dianne Duvall portrays a world of temptation, loyalty, and 

heartbreak . . . a world where danger and desire 

walk hand in hand . . .

Ami isn’t much for trusting strangers.  She has a hard 

time trusting anyone.  But she’s no coward, and she’s no 

pushover in the protection department either.  So when 

she comes across a mysterious warrior taking on eight 

deranged vampires on his own, she doesn’t hesitate to 

save his bacon.  Of course, that was before she realized 

what one little rescue would get her into . . .

Marcus Grayden has been an immortal protector of 

humanity for eight hundred years, and at the moment 

he’s not interested in backup.  From the moment Ami 

arrives in his life, he can’t deny that she’s strong, smart, 

and extremely skilled at watching his back.  But she’s 

also destroying his protective solitude and stirring 

desires he can’t bear to awaken.  After all, whatever her 

secrets –– how can she defeat death itself?
 

Catching Up

Hi, Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend!  Hope you enjoyed a safe holiday weekend.  We're experiencing the worst drought we've had in 50 years here, so I admit I was a bit worried someone in the neighborhood might ignore the fireworks ban and end up starting a fire, but no one did.  Not here at least.  Some teenagers started a grass fire across town.  It was actually . . . not eerie, but weird . . . not hearing fireworks for the first time ever on the 4th.  Fireworks, I believe, have always been banned here in the city, but people often manage to sneak them in anyway and put on shows in backyards.  This year?  Nothing.  Residents must really have taken the fire hazard seriously.

So how did you spend the 4th?  At the beach?  Barbecuing?  A family gathering?  Attending parades?  Curling up with a good book?

I spent it with family.  My facebook and twitter friends may have noticed I tend to disappear entirely from the internet on most weekends because I deem weekends family time . . . which is one of the reasons I can never seem to catch up on email, facebook, etc. *sigh*

ON THE WRITING FRONT

I have BIG NEWS!  Tantor Audio is publishing my Immortal Guardians series!  Woohoo!  Darkness Dawns is scheduled for release on July 25th.  (You can Pre-Order it from Amazon.)  It will be read by Kirsten Potter:

Kirsten Potter has won AudioFile Earphones Awards
for her reading of The Snowball by Alice Schroeder and
her performance as Barbara in George Bernard Shaw’s
Major Barbara. Her reading of Madapple by Christina
Meldrum was a Booklist Editors’ Choice for Best
Audiobook 2008.

I'm also currently participating in TWO big blogging events: 

I'm blogging about the importance of choosing the right names for one's characters in romance novels over at Reading Between the Wines Book Club for Writing Romance week.  I'm also giving away a signed copy of Darkness Dawns.  The contest lasts through July 8th, so I hope you'll join me!

I'm also blogging about paranormal brotherhoods (love them!) over at Paranormal Haven for Bookish Haven Summer Vacation.  I'm giving away a signed copy of Darkness Dawns for this one, too.  The contest lasts through July 15th.

BACK ON THE HOME FRONT

Other than that, I'm watering my veggie plants like crazy to help them survive the drought and hoping to get some reading time in soon.

What's happening in your corner of the world?

Dianne

Summer Fun

Hi all!

To those who commented on the Night Reigns deleted scene I posted:  Thanks so much!  I've been working on Night Reigns copyedits and didn't have a chance to respond until yesterday.  I'm so glad you liked it!  The larger scene from which I cut it is one of my favorite scenes in the whole novel.  Hopefully it will be one of your favorites, too.

And to those who participated in Brenda Novak's Annual Auction for the Cure of Diabetes:  Thank you!  I'll be mailing off an autographed copy of Darkness Dawns with a signed cover flat and mini-bookmark to a winning bidder this week.  :-)

I have various and assorted bits of news to share with you today.

I received some wonderful foreign rights news from my editor.  Kensington sold the first 3 books in the Immortal Guardians series to Germany!  Ausgezeichnet!  I'm very excited!

 

I'm also participating in the big Sizzling Summer Reads Party that's going on right now at The Romance Reviews.  The Romance party lasts through the end of June.  Then the Erotic & GLBT party begins and continues through the end of July.  They're giving away LOTS of prizes, including not one, but two autographed copies of Darkness Dawns.  I also will be chatting in The Lounge tomorrow, June 7th, so I hope you'll drop by.

Another great event currently enticing romance readers everywhere is the Bookish Haven Summer Vacation going on over at Paranormal Haven and Larissa's Bookish Life.  I'll be Guest Posting on June 14th at Paranormal Haven and hope to see you there.  The subject:  Those Brave, Beautiful Paranormal Brotherhoods.  I'll also be giving away a signed copy of Darkness Dawns to one commenter.  Yay!

When not engaged in the above, I plan to write furiously on Book 3 in the Immortal Guardians series, update my webpage, and pamper my struggling veggie plants (this heat is horrible!).  I've already picked a few habanero peppers and boy are they hot!  Seriously, if you ever try cooking with these, wear gloves.  I cut one up and handled the pieces with my bare hands once and my skin felt like I had dipped it in boiling water for hours afterward.

I do so love spicy food, though, so it was worth it.  ;-)

Have a great week everyone!

Dianne

Night Reigns - Deleted Scene

Hi, all!  While contemplating possible blog post subjects, I recalled some of my follower friends mentioning that they would like to see some deleted scenes.  I always like these, both as a reader and a writer.  The reader in me loves the opportunity to see more of my favorite characters, even if it's only a tiny glimpse.  The writer in me is always curious to see what didn't make the cut and why.  So, I thought I would offer up a scene I deleted from Night Reigns.

Actually, it's more like a snippet of a scene.  I didn't cut this section because I thought it was poorly written or anything like that.  I actually like it, in part because I like Roland and Sarah (the hero and heroine of Darkness Dawns) so much and enjoyed being inside Roland's head again.  I edited it out for two reasons:

• Length.  Most publishers prefer that manuscripts be no longer than 100,000 words.  The first draft of Night Reigns was about 14,000 words longer than that, so I needed to pare it down.  (I never did manage to get it down to 100,000, but came close enough.)

• Pacing.  This is a big battle scene.  I won't tell you anything more than that because I don't want to spoil it, but I thought it went on just a little too long and caused the pacing to drag a bit.  Deleting this brief section kept the scene fast-paced and left the focus on the hero and heroine.

I should probably warn those who are unfamiliar with my writing or who are new to paranormal romance in general that the scene depicts violence.

And, without further ado, I present to you a deleted scene from Night Reigns:

Roland Warbrook’s clothing was saturated with the blood of his enemies when his wife burst from the trees across from him.

Fear trickled through him as she dove right in, plunging into a pack of vampires so thick it would rival the crowd of any rave.  Her pretty hazel eyes glowed green as she fought, a first amongst immortals. 

She was so small, only five feet tall.  Next to her opponents, she appeared wispy and delicate.  Yet, even as he watched, bodies began to drop all around her.

A bark of laughter escaped Roland as her taunts reached his ears.  Amazing.

Pride swelled his chest . . . until a vamp’s switchblade nearly punctured a lung.

Richart appeared behind the vamp and cut his throat.  “Stop drooling and pay attention!” he snapped, then vanished.

Grimacing over the lapse (and having it brought to his attention by a much younger immortal), Roland did as ordered.

So?  What did you think?  Did it whet your appetite for Night Reigns?  Did you enjoy seeing Roland and Sarah again?  If you haven't read Darkness Dawns, are you curious now about its hero and heroine?  I welcome any and all comments.

Have a great weekend!

Dianne

And the Winner is . . .

The winner of my contest on Ann Lory's Blog Bites is . . . Sharon!  Congratulations!  I've emailed you, requesting your snail mail address and hope you'll enjoy Darkness Dawns!

Thank you, everyone else who joined me at Blog Bites!

And, to all of my followers, I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Dianne