I Met My Cover Model by Regina Kammer

In July, I went to San Diego for the annual conference of the Romance Writers of America. I attended sessions on the craft of writing, the business of promotion, and opportunities in publishing. I hung out with friends at the pool bar, watched a 19th-century fashion show, and attended the Hamilton sing-a-long.

I also watched a faux cover model shoot. With the guy who's been on three of my covers:


His name is Julian Christian. I had suspected he might be the model in attendance since the session presenters were Kim Killion and Jennifer Jakes of The Killion Group, Inc. -- the company which supplied all of the photos in the above covers (and created the cover for The General's Wife). Plus I happen to know Julian is San Diego-based.

I got to the conference room early, wanting to get a seat in the front. The room slowly filled with tittering, excited authors. And then the presenters arrived. With Julian:

He got up on the stage to begin the mock photo shoot:

Then he took his shirt off:

And when Julian took his shirt off, there was swooning, gasps, and sighs.

He posed as he would during a real cover shoot: Brooding,

shooting,

crouching (this drew breathy exclamations from the audience and a bemused look from Julian)

And then Jennifer Jakes walked around the room looking for a willing participant for a romantic suspense shot. As if we all weren't willing...
The young woman was chosen -- it happened to be her birthday! They did a romantic suspense pose:

Then Kim and Jennifer explained how they get male and female models to feel comfortable around each other so they can enact a romantic clinch like this

Another willing participant was sought from the audience for a historical or Amish romance cover. The volunteer author donned historical garb. Julian put a shirt on and played the dashing hero:

Then there was a costume change:

for a Scottish historical cover:

Another volunteer got to participate in a rather intimate historical pose:

After all the posing and the question and answer session, the authors lined up to get their pictures taken with Julian. Of course, I had to get mine taken

(thank you to Tricia Linden for taking my photo!)
Then historical romance author Sherry Ewing joined us for a threesome

I mean, we all just posed together!

It was fun, and Julian was a good sport with all the fawning, swooning female authors. He's super nice. I'm really glad I got the chance to meet the man on my covers!

p.s. if anyone knows who any of the author volunteers were, please let me know in the comments!

About the Author

Regina Kammer is a librarian, an art historian, and an award-nominated, best-selling, multi-published writer of erotica and historical erotic romance. Her short stories and novels make history sexier, whether the era is Roman, Byzantine, Viking, American Revolution, or Victorian. She’s even sexed up contemporary settings, Steampunk, and Greco-Roman mythology. She has been published by Cleis Press, Go Deeper Press, Ellora’s Cave, House of Erotica, Story Ink, The Naughty Literati, and her own imprint, Viridium Press. She began writing historical fiction with romantic elements during National Novel Writing Month 2006, switching to erotica when all her characters suddenly demanded to have sex.

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It's Here! It's New! Well, Sorta-Kinda...by Suz deMello

Many have remarked that as history has continued, the already hectic pace of modern life was quickened as well. Here in Author-Land we've encountered a phenomenon that's arisen during the digital age: the frequent reversion of previously published works. 

What does that mean, you ask?

When an author "sells" a book to a publisher, s/he is actually licensing one of the bundle of rights that makes up copyright. That right to distribute a written work is finite--that is, it's limited by time. The traditional publishers would generally demand, and get, a term that was functionally infinite. For example, I will never again get the rights back to any of the five works I licensed to Harlequin; their contract specifies that rights are eligible for reversion consideration 5 or 6 years after last use. In other words--all Harlequin needs to do if they want to hang onto one of my works is to reissue it. Which they will do as long as the book is selling, a not unreasonable position. After all, we both want to make money, right?

But ebook publishers have the view that a year or so after publication, few books will sell and therefore, rights revert, meaning that I, the author, get the rights back and I can self- or indie-publish.

As time has gone on I've re-acquired more and more of my beloved books, including most of my Highland Vampires series, and I've started to reissue them in bright shiny new editions.

http://tinyurl.com/z3plw4m

The series consists of three novels and three short stories. One of them is owned by Harlequin, so you, dear reader, will never get another edition, but here are the first two stories in the series:

Viking in Tartan: Medieval romance from the Highland Vampires series. 

Scotland, Yule Eve, 1260. A Viking raider with mysterious powers brings change to little Clan Kilbirnie, especially to the chieftain’s daughter Rhona.

Temptation in Tartan:

She had to marry a monster…

http://tinyurl.com/TTartan

Rumors had followed the chieftains of Clan Kilborn for centuries. Said to be descended from the Viking Berserkers, they were ferocious in battle, known for tearing off the heads of their enemies and drinking their blood.

But English noblewoman Lydia Swann Williston would marry Kieran, Laird Kilborn, to bring peace to the Kilborn lands after the horror of Culloden and the brutal pacification. A widow, she also brought needed wealth to Clan Kilborn. For her part, eighteen-year-old Lydia wanted children. With her husband killed at Culloden, she would make a new life in the Highlands.

The old chieftain of Clan Kilborn also died in battle, and she hoped that the new young Laird would lack his ancestors' ferocity.

She was wrong.

It's not always fun to be in total control of one's publishing life. It's often felt burdensome and expensive. But overall, I'd rather make my own mistakes.

RELEASE DAY... NAUGHTY LIST is now available everywhere!

The 13 authors of The Naughty Literati are very happy to announce that our first boxed set of alternately hot, thoughtful, funny, emotional, poignant, suspenseful, and always passionate love stories is now available anywhere you could wish to buy it. Amazon/Kindle, iTunes, Googleplay, B&N, Kobo... we wanted to make certain our readers have the opportunity to enjoy NAUGHTY LIST on all of their favorite digital platforms.

For authors (and hopefully for more than a few readers) a Release Day is a special bubble in time. It's that moment when weeks or months of work and anticipation all of the sudden come to fruition. Just like that, voilà and ta-da -- a book is born. 

To celebrate we're giving away a Kindle Paperwhite that's packed with our authors' books, so don't forget to enter before December 7, 2014! 

Since October of this year, while working closely to put our stories together from miles, many time zones, and sometimes hemispheres apart, the members of The Naughty Literati found we enjoyed playing together so much that we've already got our next boxed set of sensual-to-erotic stories on the drawing board for a February/Valentine's release. That's right. While we're still enjoying today's Release Day glow (and some truly lovely early reviews for NAUGHTY LIST... thank you!) we're already sharpening our quills and shaping more naughty happily-ever-afters for our next release. Stay tuned for NAUGHTY HEARTS coming in February 2015.

Clearly, there is no rest for the naughty!

Naughtily yours,

The Naughty Literati
Alexa, Belle, Berengaria, Charlotte, Francesca, Katherine, Lainey-Jo, Lynne, Marianne, Nicole, Regina, Suz, and Trinity

Rhona and her #Viking #Vampire from "Viking in Tartan" in the new NAUGHTY LIST #boxedset (#romance #medieval #Scotland @MFRW_ORG)

Today I'm blogging about a short story that will appear in the Naughty List, a boxed set The Naughty Literati created to warm up your chilly winter nights. It’s available for preorder now and will be published on  December first.

Here's the 4-1-1 about Viking in Tartan, a medieval romance from the Highland Vampires series: A Viking raider brings change to little Clan Kilbirnie, especially to the chieftain’s daughter Rhona.

And here's a sexy little snippet to jumpstart your weekend:

He kissed her neck, feathering his tongue over the sensitive skin, and all conscious thought fled. She gripped his shoulders, then stroked them, admiring his strength, a contrast to his sweet, sweet kisses.

Her body was heating, tingling, sizzling, and she wanted to touch herself the way she did when she was alone at night, but... Wasn’t that wanton? Would he cease to treat her kindly if he knew the desires that drove her?

He lifted his head. “Touch yourself. Touch yourself in whatever way feels good to you.”

Here's where you can preorder the boxed set:

Amazon: http://indi.uno/1taThiO

iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/nogyvpe

 Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/naughty-list-2

Google: http://tinyurl.com/nqdnq3k

Special preorder price only $.99!

Remember: this is a blog hop! Find other talented writers' sexy snippets here: http://thenuthousescribblers.blogspot.co.uk/