Introducing Harlequin DARE

Harlequin has launched a new imprint - DARE! It will feature strong, independent women and sizzling hot heroes. DARE will deliver riveting, irresistible romance stories featuring highly explicit sexual encounters, making it the publisher’s sexiest series ever. Look for four new titles each month.

Sexy. Passionate. Bold.

Harlequin Website | Harlequin DARE | Twitter | Facebook

Here are the details for the first four books being published by the new imprint today. And make sure you scroll all the way down to the end of the post - you'll be rewarded!

Legal Seduction by Lisa Childs is a Contemporary Romance and is part of the Legal Lovers series.

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

Available at: Harlequin | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | iTunes

Connect with Lisa: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

Off Limits by Clare Connelly is a Contemporary Romance.

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

Available For FREE at: Harlequin | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Connect with Clare: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

Ruled by Anne Marsh is a Contemporary Romance and is part of the Hard Riders MC series.

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

Available at: Harlequin | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Connect with Ann: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

A Week to Be Wild by JC Harroway is a Contemporary Romance.

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

Available at: Harlequin | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | iTunes

Connect with JC: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

Check back on Tuesday, February 13 as I review one of the four titles, A Week to Be Wild by JC Harroway. It sounds like a perfect pre-Valentine's Day read!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Project Bookmark Canada Internship Wrap Up

Well, friends, my life as an intern has officially come to an end. My last day of interning at Project Bookmark Canada was June 21 and, truthfully, I wanted to wait to post a final update because I had hoped I might have some exciting job news. No such luck, unfortunately, but I'll get into that more at the end of this post. For now, I'll update you on what I did since my last internship post (which you can read here if you missed it).

As I mentioned before, one of the major things I did for Bookmark was read books set in Calgary to see if any could be potential Bookmarks. I was a one woman reading machine with a goal of building a database! This was probably my favourite part of my internship - and not just because I was allowed to read all day (though that was an awesome bonus). I got to read about a city that I've never been to and visit it through the eyes of the authors. Sometimes there weren't any mentions of the city and sometimes very specific Calgary landmarks popped up (Nose Hill, the Bow River, Stampede grounds, and so on).

There were a few books that mentioned the town of Frank and the massive rock slide that demolished the city years ago (Googling...it happened in 1903). I found this interesting and so sad but I never looked into the history of it (which is why I just had to look up when it happened). The first (and, I admit, only) time I saw a picture of the slide was when author Angie Abdou tweeted a picture of her kids at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre. (If her name sounds familiar it's because I read (and loved) her novel The Bone Cage and mentioned it in my last update.) Isn't that picture crazy? This exchange also makes me love Twitter even more. Thanks for sharing the pictures and info, Angie!

Because I'm sure you're oh so curious, here's the list of books I read over the course of my internship:

419 - Ferguson, Will (good but not my kind of book. I'm not surprised it won the Giller Prize)                                        

Fishing for Bacon - Davie, Michael 

Outcasts of River Falls - Guest, Jacqueline

Feather Brain - Bush, Maureen

Man & Other Natural Disasters - Parry, Nerys

Deadly Fall - Calder, Susan

Cleavage - Bischoff, Theanna

Kalila - Nixon, Rosemary

Roost - Bryan, Ali (great novel for moms, not so much for a 26 year old)

The Shore Girl - Kimmel, Fran

Iced Romance - Boyd, Whitney

Love Minus Zero - Hahnel, Lori (a really neat book about the Calgary punk scene in the 80s)

Swallow - Bischoff, Theanna (great read)

Poltergeeks  - Cummings, Sean

The Enchantment Emporium - Huff, Tanya (if you're a fantasy lover, read this one!)

The Space Between Us - Martinez, Jessica (a really enjoyable YA read)

Queen's Park - Ryan, Garry

Cobalt Blue: Stories - Borsky, Mary

Monoceros - Mayr, Suzette

The Bone Cage - Abdou, Angie (loved loved loved)

Reading these twenty books helped me see how varied Canadian literature can be. I used to always think it was boring and/or confusing literary fiction. Don't get me wrong, some of the above books fell into that category and I struggled to get through them. Others, though, were quite enjoyable. 

Speaking of building a database, if you read any Canadian fiction and think it would be suitable for a Bookmark let me know! I can pass it along to Miranda. Or, if you're really interested in donating or helping out, visit their site and learn more about becoming involved.

During my non-working hours I also tried to read some the books that already have Bookmarks. I only managed to read three of the twelve but I think that's pretty good considering all the other reading I had to do! I read Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay (the Bookmark is in Ottawa. I briefly saw while driving by when I was visiting my friend in April), The Queen of Unforgetting by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (this is the book set in Midland, my hometown), and Sailor Girl by Sheree-Lee Olson (this Bookmark is in Port Colborne, near Niagara Falls). Reading these books, especially the latter two, really made me realize how awesome Project Bookmark Canada is. I was so excited when places I knew popped up in the books. The more Bookmarks we have in place, the more novels, poems, and short stories we can highlight, and the more cities and towns we can celebrate. (Yes, I notice that I'm still using "we"...) When I was reading Sailor Girl, a book that has the main character working on ships, I was really excited when Midland was mentioned. So much so that I had to take pictures:

I went to Port Colborne the weekend after I finished reading the book and knew I had to stop by the Bookmark. I think being able to do that is just so cool!

Another little perk, other than being able to work from home and read books all day, was getting a Bookmark t-shirt!

Don't I look snazzy? :)

Over the last couple of weeks of my internship I did more admin stuff for Miranda (more accounting type things that really made our brains hurt), more researching (I learned about Library Way in New York City), and thought up some ideas for a project Miranda is working on (secretive, I know, but I'll share as soon as she launches it!).

So, where am I now? I've been unemployed for the past week and haven't had much luck jobwise. I had a brief spike of hope when I had a prescreening phone call for the job I really wanted but that seems to be all I was going to get. There are still two other jobs I'm waiting to hear about - one is in publishing and one is back in non-profit. I think it's because I had a few options that I've been able to treat this unemployment as a vacation of sorts. I haven't become too bummed out yet but there are definitely moments that I wonder what the hell I'm doing and if I'll ever be able to find a job I really love. It's been nice, though, that the weather has been hot and I've done lots of reading - since the 21st I've read four books (I really thought it was more, lol). But, I'm trying to stay positive and am looking forward to some more reading time. I'm also going to try to work on my blog a little more - more scheduling posts, more posts that aren't just reviews, and maybe some design changes. And I'm hoping I'll finally have time to read Miranda's book of short stories!

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me though this crazy journey. My friends have listened to be ramble on about not knowing what I want to do with my life and being worried that I won't find a job...ever. My family has done the same while also providing much needed advice and money. Finally, my poor boyfriend has put up with me when I was super tired from the ridiculous commute to Toronto, he made sure I had food to eat, and also dealt with my super chatty self when I was working at home alone all day (as bunnies don't make for good conversationalists). Thank you to all of you. I couldn't have made it through all this without you! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Hopefully I'll have some good news to share soon. :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Happy Birthday to Me...and these books!

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly meme created by the lovely folks at The Broke and the Bookish. They created it because they're "particularly fond of lists" and since I also enjoy lists, I've decided to participate in this fun feature.

Today is a freebie Top Ten Tuesday and, as you probably guessed from the title of this post, it's also my birthday! Whee! I had a couple other ideas for what to do for this post: books featuring birthdays or protagonists in their mid-twenties. I discovered that it was a little more difficult than I expected to come up with books for either of those topics. Then I had the brainwave to figure out which books are going to share their birthday with me! As it turns out, May 28th isn't a blockbuster release date but there are some gems hidden in the list of books being published today. Some of these books I want to read, others are just noteworthy titles or authors, and some just looked like fun. Do you plan on reading any of these or have you read any of them already? Am I missing any?

Don't forget to check out their blog for a full list of everyone participating this week!

The Last Camellia - Sarah Jio (really want to read this one!)

Just One Kiss - Susan Mallery

Sea Glass Island - Sherryl Woods (I have this one to read and my review will be up next week!)

Looking for Me - Beth Hoffman

Deeply Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel - Dean Koontz 

Boo ABC: A To Z With The World's Cutest Dog - J.H. Lee, photographed by Gretchen LeMaistre (because, why not?)

Dare You To - Katie McGarry

The Girl with the Iron Touch - Kady Cross

I'll Be Seeing You - Suzanne Hayes, Loretta Nyhan

Paperback shout-out: Shadow of Night - Deborah Harkness

My Life as an Intern

A lot of you knew that I had been doing an internship for the past twelve weeks. This came about because of the publishing courses I'm taking online through a university in Toronto. I had been thinking for awhile that I wanted to see what the publishing world was all about and I finally decided that it was now or never, applied for a few internships, got hired at Random House (more freaking out about that to come), quit my job, and prepared for the most ridiculous commute ever. 

I had my last day last Friday and, as I write this on Monday night, it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm done. For the last twelve weeks I was working at Random House of Canada. RANDOM HOUSE, PEOPLE! This is a publishing house that even non-obsessive readers recognize. They're a big deal. And I got to work there for twelve weeks. Amazing. 

The RHC imprint sign in the lobby

I had a lot to think about before deciding to do an internship. It wasn't just a matter of quitting my job and working for a ridiculously small amount of money. No, it was quitting my job to work for a small amount of money while spending more than that small amount of money to travel two hours to the internship. I had to drive 45 minutes to catch the train, spend 50 minutes on the train, and then walk 10 minutes to the office. I'm sure I was known around the office as the Insane Intern. Oh, and to get to work on time I had to make sure I was up at 5:30 am. Thank goodness for the Gilmore Girls reruns airing at 5 am. No surprise, I was absolutely exhausted at the end of my internship. Just completely wiped out. But I'm glad I did it. Even if I don't remember what it's like to be fully rested.

So what did my internship involve? A lot of mailing. The bulk of my days were spent sending books to professional reviewers (newspapers, magazines, radio stations). Sometimes they were ARCs, sometimes they were finished books. They could also be cerlox bound manuscripts that my fellow intern and I had to bind. We actually didn't mind binding the odd manuscript because it was oddly relaxing. Except for the 900+ page manuscript the new intern and I had to bind during my last week. I'm pretty sure I'll start twitching when I see that finished book in store!

I also got to help out at a few launches. I admit, I didn't jump at the chance to do as many because I lived so flipping far away. Luckily, the two publicity assistants we were receiving direction from were more than understanding. My first launch was for The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert. I actually got to go to some Indigo stores the day of the launch with the author and one of the assistants so he could sign stock. Very cool. Both that launch and the launch for The Juggler's Children by Carolyn Abraham were held at Ben McNally Books - an awesome indie bookstore in Toronto. These launches consisted of greeting people, pouring wine, and making sure crackers and cheese were always at hand. The third launch I helped out at was for I Am So the Boss of You by Kathy Buckworth and was held at Loblaw's in the old Maple Leaf Gardens. We wore super unattractive uniforms and were on guest list check. BUT I'll always have a soft spot for this night as it was the night I had my first celebrity sighting - David Sutcliffe (aka Christopher from Gilmore Girls) was in the store that night. Very cool.

Stacks of books I had to send to various reviewers

Time to talk about the bookish awesomeness of this internship. I was surrounded by books. Sometimes quite literally (see the above photo)! I felt totally behind sometimes because I was only just learning about some of the spring 2013 books and people were already talking about fall 2013 books. Speaking of talking about books, this was the place to go if you wanted to chat about a book you had read. I did a quick count the other day and I think I took home between 25 and 30 books during my internship. This is not a large number as there was a previous intern who apparently had six boxes of books to cart home when she was done. Of course, I'm not sure where I'm going to put all those books or when I'm going to read them all, but I have them!

The books I was able to take out of the book room on my last day

I mention the book room in the caption in the above picture. That was probably one of the most glorious places in the whole building (though some people had shelves full of books that I would probably hurt someone to get.) Almost all the new releases were kept in the room, organized by publicist. So, if Publicist A  asked me to mail a book to Reviewer B, I would go to A's shelf in the room and pull a book from there.

So, now that I'm all done my internship the big question is...was it worth it? Yes, I think it was. The long days just about killed me and I don't know how my boyfriend was able to put up with me near the end (thank you thank you thank you). But I got to meet SO many people and I really did learn a lot. I think I've discovered that I'm a bit of a passive learner - I learn by watching and doing what I'm asked and I don't always think to ask questions. Note to self: work on asking questions. I definitely didn't want to leave. The people were great and it'll be weird not seeing them every day. Of course, they're used to it. Interns come and go constantly and in all departments, so it was sometimes hard to feel like I totally mattered, you know? At the end of it though, I'm so glad I took a chance. If nothing else, I can now say that I worked at Random House of Canada for 12 weeks. Not many other people can say that.

Last week, a post went up on Retreat by Random House that my fellow intern, Caitie, and I wrote. We each came up with five things we learned as publicity interns. Some of the things I mentioned here are in that article as well, but I hope you'll check out the other points.

Now, you're probably wondering "what's she going to do next?" right? OK, if you weren't, just play along. I was searching for jobs and starting to get a little stressed but as of Monday I am the new intern for Project Bookmark Canada. It's an awesome bookish nonprofit that is putting Canadian literature on the map, literally. They put plaques (bookmarks) in the exact locations where literary scenes take place. Pretty cool, eh? I'm starting with some research this week and then I'll dive right in next week. I'm really excited and can't wait to share what I've learned there. Stay tuned!

Guest Post: Sara Palacios

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Love In Translation, the debut novel from Sara Palacios. (Read my review here if you missed it). Today Sara has a guest post for you all that talks about her road to publication. I'm always interested to see what it was like for an author to go from idea to actual book and I would like to thank Sara for this lovely post. I hope you all enjoy it!

I’ve dabbled in writing for a few years now. I finished my first book, BEAUTIFUL DISASTER, shortly after I graduated from college but didn’t really think that it was good enough. I think I saw it merely as practice and appreciated it for what it was. But then, I decided to really give it a go and write another book and see how it turned out. If I felt like it was good enough, then I would pursue publishing which was obviously the ultimate goal. So, I gave it another go and spent many months working on what would become LOVE IN TRANSLATION. Actually, back then it was titled A SUMMER TO REMEMBER, but I like the new title so much more. Anywho, I finished the book and thought it was decent, so I decided to give it to an editor. I began working with Erica McCormick who is a friend of one of my best friends and she was amazing. She really helped tighten the writing and reel me in during scenes where my writing was all over the place. After she went through it very thoroughly, I went through it again myself at least a dozen more times and really tried to make it shine. Then I presented the book to a really great gal pal of mine, Cristina Reyna. She read the book in its entirety and really helped help bring the story to life. After that, I sent my MS out to a handful of publishing agents and had a few bites, but nothing really solid so I decided to pursue self-publishing. By that time, I had been working with Samantha Robey over at Chick Lit Plus for roughly a year and saw firsthand how successful an author could be when self-published, so I went for it. I think deep down I was always intended to self-publish because I had so much fun with it all.  Luckily I had my husband to help me out with everything, and together we converted my book into ebook formats and designed the book cover (which was by far one of my favorite aspects of publishing). Then, I set a date and went from there.

Overall, it was a lot of work but it has been so worth it. I think ultimately the deciding factor was giving birth to my son. For so long I’ve dreamed of being a writer and had always been so scared to pursue my dream fully. Sure, I’d written things here and there but had never been published. After Ethan was born, I needed to prove to myself that I could do it and I needed to show him that he could do anything … be anything he wanted to be. How was I supposed to convey those messages when I was scared to do it myself? So, I dove in head first and went for it and I haven’t looked back since. Now I am on tour, with lovely bloggers (like you, Kaley) and I am having such an amazing time. I am so lucky that I have been able to do this and I am so grateful that I’ve been able to experience all of this. 

About Sara:

Sara Palacios is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a major in Advertising and a minor in English Literature. It was during her time in college that she really fell in love with the written word and ventured into writing her own stories. In addition to writing, Sara spends a majority of her time reading the works of other authors.  She reads most genres  – but thoroughly enjoys chick-lit, women’s and historical fiction. When she isn’t busy reading or writing, Sara enjoys spending time with family and friends. She is happily married, the owner of two precious doggies and a new mom to a handsome baby boy. Sara is also an avid animal-lover, runner, yoga enthusiast and wannabe vegan.

Connect with Sara:

Twitter: Sara Palacios

Facebook: Sara Palacios

Email: sararpalacios@gmail.com

Guest Post: Romi Moondi

I'm so excited to welcome author Romi Moondi to Books Etc. today. I reviewed her hilarious and awesome novel Last-Minute Love earlier this week (review is here) as part of a CLP Blog Tour and today she is here with a guest post. Since I knew a little bit about her publishing journey I was curious to find out how it turned out compared to the vision she had in her head. Thanks to Romi for this awesome post!

Hi Kaley, thanks for letting me guest-post here, and I have to say, I love your question!

I guess the best measure of how I thought it would turn out goes back to early 2010, when I’d scored a literary agent in New York for “Year of the Chick.” After sending out all those query letters, dealing with the rejections, and finally securing representation, I could picture the next several years of my author life, and I imagined it going like this:

-Most publishers reject me, but one really loves my book and offers me a deal. The book takes off with the right publisher-aided marketing (ha!), I go to book signings in different cities, my agent sells foreign right in several countries, and I use my riches to write full-time…hooray!

And this is how it actually turned out:

-Publishers liked, or enjoyed, or “insert positive adjective” my book, but they didn’t love it.

-My agent didn’t like my second book, which was a humorous essay parody.

-I liked my essay book anyway, and I’d been hearing so much about Amazon self-publishing that I left my agent. I self-published “The Book of Awful” in spring of 2011.

-I realized how obscure you are as an author if you don’t do any advertising or promotions (crikey). So I started doing some advertising and promotions, by learning about various websites from author message boards.

-In November of 2011, I dusted off “Year of the Chick,” and after another minor re-write (owing to my “fresh writer eyes”), I went ahead and self-published it too.

-After doing a couple of free promotions for “Year of the Chick” and getting some great reviews, I realized there was an audience out there for my book, even if it’s not for everyone.

-In early 2012, I took a week off work (yes, my own vacation since I still have a full-time job!) and wrote the entire first draft for the sequel to “Year of the Chick.” That’s fifty-eight thousand words in six days, and I almost went insane doing it.

-After a gruelling re-write and stressful final edits, the sequel “Last-Minute Love” was released, and it’s been out for three months now. I’ve sold almost 2,000 copies of this book, and almost 4,000 copies across all my titles.

-I still have a full-time job, and I will self-publish another book in my series in 2013 (unless of course a publisher discovers my book on their own, and offers me a wonderful author-friendly contract I can’t pass up).

Okay…whoa, that is NOT how I thought my journey would turn out!

The real-life version has been anything but glamourous, but it’s been the most satisfying journey of my life. Every time a reader emails me to tell me how much they loved the series, or to even “thank me for writing,” (you’re thanking ME for writing? That’s insane!), it reminds me how this ONE special part of the journey I always imagined, the part where I would reach random strangers with my words…that part actually came true.

As for the rest? Well screw it! It’s a brave new world of publishing, one in which, granted, I fully support every writer who gets a literary agent and finds a publisher (let’s make that clear), but also one in which I’m fully independent as an author.

And it feels good :-)

(Thank you Amazon, Kobo, iTunes and Barnes &  Noble for the ability to self-publish!)

Romi

Author Bio:

I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:

-I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).
-A homeless lady in New York once told me "You're just a bitch on vacation with no money!"
-I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again.

The thing I love most in the world is writing. When I first started publishing on Amazon it was my "crazy" humour side ("The Book of Awful," and "NOT Love Poems For Real Life"). Since then, everything has focused on my "Year of the Chick" series, because it's the most important thing to me in the world right now. I guess that would tend to happen, when your writing is inspired by real life, including all the satisfaction and risks that come from that.

My "Year of the Chick" series can be described as "edgy rom-com," which helps me account for the blunt conversations and mortifying family moments in the book ;-).

Book 3 in the "Year of the Chick" series will be written and released in 2013; until then I have some adventures to go on! 

Connect with Romi:

Facebook Author Page

Twitter
Blog

Guest Post: Cat Lavoie

On Saturday I shared my review of Breaking the Rules by Cat Lavoie. I'll give you a quick recap in case you missed it: I freaking loved it. LOVED it. Today, Cat was kind enough to write a guest post for Books Etc. Because I knew that Cat had published her novel with Marching Ink, which is run by the fabulous author Samantha March, I was curious to see what her writing journey was like. Read on to find out how it went for her!

My Journey to Publication

When I stop and really think about it, my journey to publication began with a single blog post. I was in the throes of major writer's block at the end of November 2009 and I felt as though I couldn't write another word of Breaking the Rules. That's when I decided to start a blog—Catenabi Chronicles. I knew that I had to keep writing in order to get out of my funk. My other 'trick' to beat writer's block—stepping away from the computer and taking a break—had backfired because I stepped away for far too long and found it more enjoyable than sitting in front of my computer. So if I couldn't write my novel, I had to write something. So I used my new blog to post pictures of my cat Abbie and chronicle my attempts to finish the first draft of Breaking the Rules by midnight on December 31, 2009. Blogging actually helped me beat the block and I made my deadline with only ten minutes to spare.  

With the first draft done, I thought that the hard part was over. All I needed to do was whip that draft into shape. The rest had to be easy, right? Wrong. What followed were several months of querying agents and editors and those months quickly turned into two years of relentless rejections. Some rejections were quick and surprisingly painless. Others were long and drawn-out in a series of emails and—even though there was a bit of interest—every time I thought my foot was in the door, it eventually led to disappointment. At one point, I thought Breaking the Rules was destined to line the bottom of a drawer. I started working on a second novel and—even though I liked where it was headed—I couldn't get Breaking the Rules out of my head. I decided to self-publish it. During that process, I met fellow author Samantha March who told me about the publishing company she'd started, Marching Ink. I was really overwhelmed by her reaction to Breaking the Rules and her subsequent offer to publish it through her indie press. I was so happy to connect with someone who loved this story as much as I did and who wanted to work with me and send this novel out into the world. Signing with Marching Ink felt right; I knew Breaking the Rules had finally found its happy home.

A few months ago, I got to announce the news I'd been waiting so long to post on the Catenabi Chronicles. My novel had a publication date and cover art and it would be a real book instead of a pile of marked-up pages on my desk. That post was the exact opposite of the very first post I'd written a few years back. Instead of a rant on writer's block and tons of self-doubt, I was able to celebrate some of the best news I've ever had to share. And even though the journey was bumpy at times, I was able to look back and be thankful for the rollercoaster ride that brought me to that moment.

The fact that I can now hold a physical copy of Breaking the Rules in my hand feels extremely surreal. And I'm happy that—after more than two years of posting adorable pictures of Abbie on the Catenabi Chronicles—I was finally able to post a picture of her being adorable… next to a pile of my novels.

Isn't she sweet? I love this picture. Thanks for sharing it - and this post - Cat! Stay tuned for an interview with Cat coming up on Books Etc. on Wednesday!

Happy reading :)