(from the author’s note in Comrade Bear)

The road of life also brings turns and changes, so dear readers, this is my last erotic romance novel. (I do have one project I would like to re-release, the companion book to Fairytale.) It has been a long road together, and a road that I hope will not have to end as I focus on editing and publishing, a calling which has brought me far more fulfillment and joy than I ever imagined. To work with authors both new and seasoned is humbling and beautiful work, and I am honored to do so.

As I’ve slowly announced my retirement from writing erotic romance, I’ve received words of sorrow. Do not feel sorry for me. I’ve been planning this for over a year, and I write these words in joy, not tears. I present you with the closure of a series that has been dear to my heart, my polar bears and their plight, both in this world and our own real one. I give you a story of love, of reunion, and one that I hope you will enjoy.

Thank you for the last ten years.

Mary Winter
01/01/2012

I wish to extend a heartfelt thank-you to my fans and readers over the years. We’ve had a decade run, and while I am not blasting it from the rafters, I am retiring. I will continue to write, but in other genres, and I am focusing on my work as an editor and publisher. This work has consumed more of my time over the years, and it is work which I find immensely gratifying. I love what I do, and thus, I am simply finishing a chapter.

This site will stay up as it houses my books. I hope you continue to enjoy them.

Thank you.

StarMyst: Sorcerer by Mary Winter
erotic paranormal/magick romance (approx. 55,000 words)
ISBN# 978-0-9835892-4-2
Cover Art by Christine Griffin

An orphan from the Sorcerer Wars, Kade Montano knows power is the only thing that counts. Power comes from pure blood lines and strong Conclaves. With power his parents could have survived. With power, he could have led StarMyst Conclave to be one of the strongest. Instead, he ended up at Sonora Rising, and in need of revenge. Edie Kruger-Sandoval, the daughter of Sonora Rising’s leader, provides the only bright spot in his life, and she treats him as if he doesn’t exist. Power. With it, he could have the woman who leaves him aching for her touch.

Edie is sick and tired of the power being the first daughter of Sonora Rising Conclave gives her. She refuses to take another lover drawn to the Sonora Rising name and what they thinks it brings. So every time Kade propositions her, she tells him only one thing, “when you see me as I truly am.” Because although her father leads Sonora Rising, her blood is far from pure, and her magick is just as mixed as Kade’s. A visit from an old family friend from a Conclave known for wanting more equal standings between the Sorcerers provides the opening she needs. She just has to convince Kade there’s more to being a Sorcerer than power, and together, they have to forge a new alliance that will reshape the Conclaves and their world.

Buy directly from Pink Petal Books.

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 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

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. If your store just takes paypal, then a blog-type hosting package may be sufficient. However, if you have a merchant account to directly accept credit cards, you’ll need a SSL certificate. This is what secures your site to prevent your data from being stolen. (Author Lex Valentine had a superb article about it here: http://www.lexvalentine.com/2010/03/publishers-without-protection/). So find out, do you have to buy a SSL cert from the company you’re hosting from, or can you purchase one from a third-party provider (perhaps who you get your domain names through) and use it there. This is a very important question to ask. Not doing so, made me cancel hosting with a company to move it elsewhere.

Secondly, will the hosting company allow PCI scans? These are scans done by vendors for the credit card company to make sure your information is secure. Will the company allow the scans, and should vulnerabilities be found, will the company help you fix them? There can be some hefty fines for not having PCI scans, so this is really important.

Yes, hosting plans that allow SSL certs (they need a dedicated IP address, which usually costs up to $2.50 extra month, if it’s not included) will cost more. But if you’re a business person looking to grow your business, then you’ll probably want something more than a basic hosting package anyway.

If you’re not sure what the acronyms in this post mean — google them! I’m a firm believer that if you have a website, you should at least know where your files are, where your backup is, and what type of software you’re using. (Are you using WordPress? Typepad? Joomla? Drupal?) This way, if something happens, you can say to someone “Hey, I have a wordpress site, can you help me get up and running?” If you’re going to “outsource” your website maintenance to someone, you still need to know the basics of what it is and how it works. Because you should always plan for worst case scenarios.

I’m currently using three different hosting companies for my various projects, and have worked with a lot more over the years. Know what to ask. Find out about their service and then what do they offer. Because when you’re hosting your author website, it’s your brand. And you want a company that will stand by you, even if they’re not the biggest kid on the block.

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!!!!!

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.

Bring your writing questions, your publishing questions, and questions about Pink Petal Books. We’re going to chat for three hours, so bring lots of questions. I can’t wait to be there.

Thanks so much to AWH for having me. If you are serious about writing, this group is one classy bunch of people.

There’s an answer, and it’s one that I’ve recently implemented myself–a linux computer.

Linux is an operating system, like Windows or Macintosh. It is, however, open source, which means that it’s free. It comes in several flavors (like ice cream), and I use ubuntu, because after research that seems to be one of the easier ones to use.

The best thing about linux is it has a lot fewer vulnerabilities to viruses and nasty software than anything Windows-based.

So, how do you build a ubuntu desktop?

One of the nice things about ubuntu, or linux in general, is that it runs on a lot less computing power than Windows needs. This means that it is a good candidate for that old computer you’re replacing, or for a cheap older model you picked up at a computer store or off of Craig’s List.

Next, go to http://www.ubuntu.comand download the CD image. Now this isn’t a complete CD. You’ll need to use a program, and several are recommended (I used InfraRecorder, free and easy to use) to turn the .iso file into an actual CD. Then, you can burn a Ubuntu install CD.

From there, you can either run the operating system from the CD (which means you don’t make any changes to the computer at all), or install it onto the computer. The screens are pretty simple and self-explanitory.

From there, it’s out of the box ready to use.

The desktop of an ubuntu computer

This is what the desktop of my ubuntu computer looks like. As you can see, it’s different from windows, but not too different. And, since all you’re going to be using it for is surfing the internet, notice the firefox icon right there at the top. When you open it, it looks like this…

Firefox in ubuntu

From there, surf as normal.

You can do a few advanced things too, such as set up your computer so you can remote into it from another one. I’ve done that, so now I can sit at my main computer, remote into my ubuntu desktop, do what I need to do, all without leaving my chair. But that took a linux guru and a couple of hours to setup. (He said he ran updates, and he also installed the service to share some files, since I also use mine as a file server so I don’t have to email files back and forth.)

The good news is that if you have a seperate, dedicated linux computer, you will have less of a worry about viruses, won’t be risking your main computer or files as much, and will have a way to do what you need to do.

This has been a very general overview. Lots of good information can be found on ubuntu’s website – http://ubuntu.com

And this is something I strongly recommend ALL authors do. Because it will be worth it and help you fight pirates. Even if you invest $40 or $50 in an old computer, you might find that paying for itself in tracking down piracy, or the source of pirated books.

Other tips to fighting piracy:

“Watermark” any copies you give out with the receiver’s name and/or email address. This way, if they do upload it to pirate sites that information will be there. If you can’t do this, ask your publisher if they’d be willing too. But if you have a PDF file maker, you can easily add the watermarks.

Don’t give out untraceable copies of your ebooks.

In fact, don’t use ebooks as giveaways at all. Use gift certificates or other intangibles.

Education. Education. Education. Make sure you mention it on your website and in your newsletter.