Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Guest Edward Hoornaert and #CoverReveal for Escapee

Escapee Cover Reveal

A friend of mine, and #romance author, Ed Hoornaert, is showing off his gorgeous new cover and announcing his preorder for Escapee. See the links below. I think you'll enjoy Ed's books.

Escapee -- The African Queen in Outer Space
A science fiction romance by Edward Hoornaert, author of Alien Contact for Idiots.



Cover by Eerilyfair Design

Catt Sayer, an abused peasant and a fugitive from justice on her home planet, makes a meager living flying a decrepit airship that delivers supplies to scattered military bases on an isolated, inhospitable mining moon.  When enemies invade the moon and destroy the bases, Catt rescues the lone survivor—Captain Hank Dukelsky, an upper-class army captain.  Now Hank wants her to risk her life on an impossible quest to attack the enemy headquarters…and Catt is falling in love with both the man and his magnificently quixotic ambition.

Escapee is available for pre-sale, with a release date of April 19, 2016. Rediscover the thrills and romance of one of the all-time great movies, now in a science fiction setting—reserve your copy of Escapee today.
Amazon US
Amazon.ca 
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble 
Apple
Kobo
MuseItUp Publishing




About Ed Hoornaert

What kind of guy writes romance? A guy who married his high school sweetheart a week after graduation and still lives the HEA decades later. A guy who’s a certifiable Harlequin hero—he inspired Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Rita Award finalist Mr. Valentine, which is dedicated to him. 

Ed started out writing contemporary romances for Silhouette Books, but these days he concentrates on science fiction romance. He’s been a teacher, principal, technical writer, salesman, janitor, and symphonic oboist. He and wife Judi live in Tucson, Arizona. They have three sons, a daughter, a mutt, and the galaxy’s most adorable grandson. Visit him at http://eahoornaert.com.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

What's your #writing space like? @liviaquinn #MFRWauthor #romance #ASMSG



Welcome to my little retreat on the bayou, affectionately named the Quinn Den. For years I've struggled to spin my southern urban fantasy and contemporary romance stories while the TV blares TV's Funniest or Top Cops or Ax Men. No doors to close in this house, so when a friend gave me the building I jumped at the chance to turn it into my writing space and private retreat. 

This is the view out the window over my desk. Let me give you the tour... The bayou (pronounced bahh) runs east and west so we get some beautiful sunrises and sunsets and in the evening the water looks just like a mirror.  
Come inside. Many of the things that hold a special place in my heart are here. Before you even enter, there's the swing made from a tree, that my friend James the master carver made, and the Aboriginal lizard (he needs a name). He also made the giant quill on the front side of the building.


And he also built my porch and used trees to make the supports. 
He dug for the crystal on my desk and carved that beautiful natural bowl out of a burl of wood retrieved from the bayou near here. 

Oh, and that table by my chair he made to fit on the 100 yr. old piano pedestal and inlaid it with malachite.

There's a stuffed Highland coo I got on my trip, a tea cloth from Scotland a writer friend brought me, the poster from my RNC conference where I met Jimmy Thomas. My storyboard of the Destiny Paramortals sits behind my desk along with one of the last flower arrangements a dear friend of mine made me. She died of breast cancer at 54 and every time I look at it I think of her. If you look closely, next to it you can probably identify Tempe, my Tempestaerie. 

When I go home to DC my friend and I hit Annapolis and some of the thrift shops, so these things remind me of her - the handmade pen dish and holder and the odd looking turquoise lamp I got for $3. 

No retreat would be complete without my Outlander mouse pad which says, "I just want to go to Scotland, Fall through some stones, wake up in 1743, and find Jamie Fraser. Is that really too much to ask?"  which always gets the response from male friends of "Who's Jamie Fraser?"

So, surrounded by tokens which keep me close to my friends, I can settle in with my characters and write.

How about you? Do you have a special place, even a closet you can lock the noise and distractions out, so you can work? I'd love to hear about it.

Find out more about my world, both contemporary and urban fantasy at http://liviaquinn.com or check out my books here.








 

















Tuesday, March 1, 2016

#WritersTip Mac Dictation #amwriting #paranormal @liviaquinn





As a writer and a business owner I have to find ways to cut corners. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried Dragon for Mac but for some reason it just isn't accurate and actually acts funny. The cursor will just zip off on its own little journey and I'm left there screaming, "Stop. Quit." to no avail. 


But the new Mac OS has dictation built in. I tried it on my last book after I'd handwritten, oh, 10,000 words or so, and found phrases like "universal healthcare" in my paranormal romance. The problem with inaccuracies is that then you have to remember what you wrote a month ago or longer and you have to wonder what you could have written that sounded like "universal healthcare". I swore I wouldn't waste my time again.                                        
But, since I've got about 31,000 handwritten words on Take these Broken Wings, the next book in the  series, and I really, really didn't want to transpose by hand, I gave Mac Dictation another chance. I started thinking, maybe it had to do with the microphone I was using so I googled dictation and found several expensive headsets and a desk microphone that were supposed to up te accuracy. In the end, I decided to compare the two I had. Turns out this was the winner, and it was a fraction of the cost of the others. It made such a difference in the accuracy and speed of Mac's dictation that reading in all those words took only a  few hours a day for three days. 



Nuance Headset   price $34.99
Prices of the others started at $159 and went up from there.

Have you tried dictation, either on your Mac or with Dragon. How did it go?

If you'd like to know more about my books, go to my webpage where you can read all about my worlds, see a map and glossary of terms.