The Jennifer Blake Newsletter-September 2011

Greetings:

First, a special welcome to those who joined this newsletter group in the past weeks. It’s good to have you here. To those who arrived because of the Three Graces Trilogy contest, let me say thank you for taking the trouble to go through the process, and the best of luck to all.

Regular members may not know about the contest—or trio of contests. These began just a couple of days ago, and will run through November 1. The rules are simple. Three winners will be chosen by blind drawing, one from those who click “Like” on the FaceBook page for The Three Graces Trilogy, one from those who follow me on Twitter, and one from those who receive this monthly newsletter. The prize in each case is an autographed set of the 3-book Graces trilogy: BY HIS MAJESTY’S GRACE, BY GRACE POSSESSED, and SEDUCED BY GRACE. There will also be a grand prize given away, a lovely Mediterranean blue cameo showing the Three Graces of classical mythology. One of the lucky winners from the three contests will be chosen for this prize. All current members of this newsletter group are already entered for the drawing for it; you don’t have to join again. For details about the other two contests, plus a photo of the Grand Prize Three Graces cameo, see the "Contest" posted listed to the right.

The other big news for August was publication of BY GRACE POSSESSED. It was officially released on August 23, and became available in stores and on Amazon.com on August 30. Reviews have been positive (“By Grace Possessed is a keeper. I look forward to reading Ms. Blake's next masterpiece.” ~Goodreads.com), pre-orders were good, and it’s climbing in the rankings. If you’d care to read a series of five excerpts from this book, you still have time to sign up for the newsletter containing them at: www.eyeonromance.com. The excerpts will begin arriving in email inboxes on September 5.

Sourcebooks also reprinted an older title of mine, MIDNIGHT WALTZ, in their Casablanca Classics program for August. Reviews for this “classic” have been amazingly kind. The story setting is the plantation society of Southern Louisiana in the 1850s, and its climax takes place during the hurricane which destroyed the holiday island off the coast of Louisiana known as Isle Derniere, Last Island, on August 10, 1856. If you’d like to know what that great storm was like compared to Hurricane Irene, you can find a description of it in this tale featuring “secrets, passion and intrigue.”

Even as BY GRACE POSSESSED, Book 2 of the Graces trilogy, was making its debut, the author’s advance copies for Book 3, SEDUCED BY GRACE, arrived on my doorstep. Reviews for it are also starting to come in, with RT Book Reviews awarding it their highest rating of Top Pick! **** ½ stars. Reviewer Joan Hammond said of it: “The final book in the Graces trilogy is a well-crafted, memorable romance. The intelligent plot, a knight’s honor, a woman’s love and a king’s dangerous intrigue all play a role as Blake demonstrates her ability to build sexual tension and history into the tapestry of an emotionally moving love story. Blake is a true grande dame of romance.” This book is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online.

Also this past month, I received the page proofs for yet another book to be reprinted by Sourcebooks in December. This is SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL from 1996, about a woman who wakes up after being injured in a steamboat accident and discovers she is married to a man she barely remembers. The cover art for this one is striking in its rich lavender-blue, orange and hot pink. Kudos to Sourcebooks art department for all the covers done for these reprints.

So what am I working on while these titles emerge from the pipeline? For the first time in years, I don’t have a book in progress. What I’m doing is marking time, waiting to see what happens with the Graces trilogy before I commit myself to another contract. I enjoyed writing the medieval stories, have ideas for another set of three. A couple of different publishers have expressed interest in any new proposal I write for them. But I have other book ideas crowding my brain as well, and must decide which may be the best use of my time. Meanwhile, I’m working on some of my older novellas, getting them ready to be published online. Many writers are doing this now, taking advantage of the opportunity to keep older work available to readers.

Please don’t forget that you can find frequent updates like those above, as well as other interesting or quirky bits about my life and career, by following me on Twitter or becoming a “Friend” on FaceBook. See the addresses for these web sites below.

Meanwhile, this long, hot summer of 2011 “slowly moves along,” slipping into September with little relief from the incredible 100 degree temps and draught that we here in northern Louisiana are sharing with Texas. At least we’ve been spared the wildfires so far, though the woods are tinder-dry. But seeing the incredible images of flooding from Hurricane Irene seems surreal when we are so parched here, the grass shriveling and leaves on the trees turning brown and falling two months before their time. Our lake frontage is slowly shrinking: we have at least 10 feet of mud flats beyond our seawall, and the boat dock barely has water under it. So it goes. But one day the cycle will turn and the rains will come our way again. We live in anticipation.

With warmest wishes for the turn of the cycle wherever you are, and in whatever direction suits your need,

Jennifer Blake

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