Nanook Warriors 3: Twin Spirits
M/F/M Polar Bear Shifter Menage
Full length novel $4.95
ISBN# 978-0-9827637-6-6

BUY IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=112

BLURB:

Biologist Louhi Virtanen came to the remote EU outpost to combine her shamanic skills with her scientific ones. Her ability to work within the world of the Spirits, the creatures the men call Night Demons, might foster an alliance, and help avoid war within the spiritual realms. As a biologist, she can assist Sigrid in the lab documenting pollution levels and the illegal dumping activities they’d discovered. She never imagined having to balance two men as well.

Twins Marc and Hans Svetter were as different in personality as the two halves of Louhi’s world. In body, both men were more than six-foot of masculine hotness, and her body craved to devour, and be devoured by both men. Except their secrets run deeper than hers, and when she pulls them into the spirit world, she discovers that these men, and their inner beasts, might be the key she needs.

First, she’s going to have to help the team gather the evidence it needs, broker a truce, and also come to grips with her dual-life and the two men who make her desire to bring them all into balance…and into love.

This book contains two brothers loving the same woman. While the brothers are twins, there is not any m/m action in this book. You’ll have to wait for the final book in the series. (And if you read this one, you can guess who will be starring in the last book.)

In novels in general, there has to be conflict. Between two characters, between a character and an external factor, sometimes even between a character and herself.

In romance novels, that conflict interferes with the development of the romantic relationship. For me, it’s necessary to have something standing in the way of the characters’ happy ending; otherwise, it just isn’t that interesting a story. Of course in romance there has to be a happy ending. That’s part of the definition of the genre. However, that ending doesn’t have to come easily.

Real life relationships don’t come easily. In my own case, there were several obstacles to my relationship with my new husband. Most of the obstacles were me, myself, and I. Coming from a first marriage in which, let’s just say, I wasn’t treated right put me in a place where I didn’t trust any man enough to completely let him in.

I think in many real-life relationships, trust issues stand in the way. Other than small children, I’ve never met anyone who fully trusts anyone. Letting someone in, allowing yourself to be completely vulnerable to a partner, is more than some people can ever manage. Even those who are capable of it take a while to get there.

When I write, I try to create realistic characters and realistic actions and reactions. Which is why the heroines in my two Pink Petal Books releases, Beginner’s Luck, which came out last fall, and Eternal Love, which will be out July 1, find themselves having difficulty trusting their partners. Kyla, the heroine of Beginner’s Luck, is a couple years out of an abusive marriage, and although she and Alec have been together for several months, she’s still learning to trust him. In Eternal Love, the heroine Gwen also had an abusive relationship. Her inability to trust Rhys, however, also comes partly from his insistence that he’s over nine hundred years old and has loved her soul through nine incarnations.

The thing about trusting someone else is that it heavily involves being able to trust yourself. To know that you’re making the right choice, and to believe that you can choose someone who won’t hurt you. In real life, you have to learn to trust yourself first, and then to trust your partner. That’s how you learn and grow.

In a novel, the characters have to learn and grow over the course of the story. Conflict happens, and they overcome it. In my novella and novel, the heroines face the conflict of their own distrust, and they work hard at getting past it to have the happily ever afters they deserve.

Read about Karenna’s books at Pink Petal Books: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=37

I’ve had the good fortune to work with many authors and small business people using my (somewhat) technical knowledge about websites. I’ve also experienced hosts — good and bad — and the way that those companies and individuals impacted on my website. For the most part, I’d have to say that my hosting experience has been good. However, having experienced the bad, I’d like to help others avoid it.

The good news is that for most authors who want a simple website, perhaps just a WordPress blog, the majority of the hosting out there is more than sufficient. If your blog receives a lot of traffic, or you have extensive content, you may want to make sure your host can handle it. But what do you really need to know?

First, you need a host you can contact. Ask a pre-sales question or two, even if you know the answer. Better yet, if the answer is on their website — ask anyway. The speed of the reply, as well as the tone, can tell you a lot about the host. Tech support people get asked a lot of routine, obvious (to us) questions on a daily basis. Does the reply sound like the person is professional? Or does it have a “look on the website, you moron” tone to it?

If the host offers a list of their clients, ask for referrals. Is the host there when people have questions? Can you reach the person and do they respond within twenty-four hours or less? If the host appears to be a large company (like GoDaddy, Hostgator, or 1and1), google their name plus the word reviews. (i.e. Hostgator reviews). Understand that no one company can please everyone, but are the majority of the posts negative? Does the company reasonably refute any bad reviews? Is everything glowing?

You can check forums such as webhostingtalk.com to see if there are any posts about a particular host.

Once you’ve checked out their business and customer service skills, THEN see what kind of space you will receive. In the majority of cases, most plans will be suitable for a blog-type website. Again, if you have special needs, anticipate a lot of traffic, or will be running other applications such as an online store or lots of videos, you may want to look for extra space, storage, or bandwidth.

Finally, check the price. I’ll be honest, you really do get what you pay for. I was with a lovely company that had excellent prices and super reviews. They were sold and the whole thing went downhill. I went with another host who had excellent prices, but she was a single person operation and when she didn’t pay her bills ALL our sites were down (I communicated with several of her clients.) (Luckily in that scenario I was easily able to find out who she hosted with and went with that company directly instead of through her.)

That said, for most blog-type sites, you should be able to find a pretty good deal for $5 a month or less, and you’ll probably be perfectly happy with them.

If you do have special needs, such as an online store, then you’ll probably need a few more things. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.marywinter.com/?page_id=728

Click on the link above, or the shiny new “paperbacks” link in the upper right-hand corner, and you’ll be taken to my paperback sale. I have several author’s copies here that I would love to get into the hands of readers. I also have some EC card decks, so if you order, I might just toss one in.

Thanks!!!!!

When the Russian figure skater, Yevgeny Plushenko, said that you can’t be a skating champion if you don’t have the quad, he reminded me so much of the people who say that you can’t write (fill in the genre) because you’re not (fill in the blank). Writing, like figure skating is a subjective sport, and the people who say this are trying to make it into a timed event.

It’s easy in a timed event, say long track speed skating, to figure out who wins. The person who skates around the oval the fastest does, and the clock doesn’t lie. There isn’t any subjectivity to it. The time is either there, or it isn’t.

Really, you could extrapolate my first statement to be anyone who puts any sort of qualifiers on writing. For example, to the person who replied to a very nice personalized rejection letter with a two page manifesto on how I was killing creativity and asking for conformity. I am not asking everyone to wear a similar outfit (except the color may vary) and skate around the same oval in exactly the same fashion (or as close to it as possible) so that the fastest person wins. No, I’m asking for the beauty and artistry of a long program combined with the endurance that it takes to skate such a program. You can choose your costume, your music, even your moves, though I’d like to see some things (like good active writing, proper grammar, etc.). Which is what the judges say when they establish points for various elements. And the person with the most points receives the contract, the good review, and the career.

In the end, whether it’s on the ice or on the computer screen, it’s not a timed event with it’s inherent conformity that we want to see. It’s grace and talent, and something that compells us to watch again and again. That’s what writing is about.

So don’t make judgements about who should write what. Don’t hurl accusations or cry foul unless you have a solid basis to do so. Because Evan Lysacek crafted an exquisite long program that reminded us what skating truly is. An art form of grace and beauty that can never be judged as if one were watching a timed event. It’s the entire performance, the entire package that counts. That’s the same thing that happens in writing. It’s the whole story, the execution, the form, the creativity, and the discipline that make it work. And that, my friends, means that it is going to be subjective.