4 Excerpts, 2 Authors, 4-Book Giveaway!

At Amazon

We’re giving away four Kindle eBooks this week. Each author will draw two names from all the commenters, so you could win two books. Comments must be in by 8 p.m. Eastern Time Friday, September 14. Winners will be announced here on Saturday before noon, September 15. Check out these brief excerpts.

SO WHISPERS THE HEART by Rebecca George. Historical romance, Napoleonic era, 1803 

…Ninon was unprepared when he grabbed her from behind and threw her over his shoulder. "What are you doing?" She demanded between laughter and anger.

"What I’ve wanted to do since that night in the alley.” He patted her rump.

"Sacre Dieu, Christan, put me down! The blood is going to my head and giving me the headache."

"Not a chance, sweetheart." Laughter rumbled in his chest. "And a headache? Nina, I expected better of you."

"You’re about to get the worst of me." And then, almost pleading, "The devil! If you don’t put me down this instant, I’ll..."

"You’ll what?" He lowered her onto her feet.

"Merci!" Her sigh of relief was short-lived when she discovered he was removing his shirt.  

At Amazon

CALL HOME THE HEART by Rebecca George. Historical romance, Napoleonic era, 1814  

Diccon contemplated the lone figure on the beach. The Cassie of thirteen years ago would never have sought out this solitude. But the forlorn figure below bore little resemblance to his Cassie of old.

Nor was it her appearance that seemed so changed. As he had noted before, her adolescent loveliness had matured into the potent beauty of adulthood. True, that inner fire that had been so much a part of her was lacking but to him that aura of sorrow that clung to her enhanced her desirability. His mouth twisted upward in a self-mocking smile. Cassie would be desirable to him regardless of her appearance. It was still difficult to believe that she had returned. No. What was difficult to believe was that she had ever been gone. He loved her. He had never stopped loving her.

At Amazon

MURDER DÉJÀ  VU by Polly Iyer. Contemporary mystery 

“When I moved down here, I’d hoped my past life would be that—past. But when your ex-husband made a big deal about my buying this property, word got out who I was and what I’d supposedly done. I didn’t care anymore. I was tired of running and fought him.”

“It doesn’t matter who Robert hurts, as long as he makes headlines.”

Reece brushed a curl off her forehead. “Why did you stay with him so long? I suspect you did it for your sons, but there must have been more to it.”

Dana swiveled around, her back to Reece’s chest. She couldn’t look him in the eyes when she told him. He wrapped his arms around her, and she felt his heat like a warm blanket in the cool morning.

“There is.”

MIND GAMES by Polly Iyer. Contemporary suspense 

At Amazon

Most of America recognized Diana Racine, and the stares she attracted from the cops in the station proved no exception. She approached the ruddy-faced desk sergeant, whose vigorous assault on a wad of chewing gum slowed to a grind when he saw the precinct’s late-night caller. He squinted and leaned across the desk.

“Well, looky, looky who we have here.” Anyone who missed Diana’s entrance knew she was here now. Heads turned, tongues clicked, and eyes squinted. “To what do we owe the pleasure? Come to report a missing body, have you?”

Diana had heard similar sarcasm ad nauseum and learned to slough off the sleazy comments. But they still rankled. “When you’re finished with the jokes, I’ll be waiting right here to see the person in charge, since I’m pretty sure it’s not you.”

When does Stubborn Turn into Stupid?

At Amazon - soon to be in print

My friend Polly Iyer, author of four terrific suspense (with romantic elements :-) novels, is my guest today.

Some of you may have heard me say this before—I’ve been vocal enough in my frustration—but those “brilliant” techies who designed Word 2010 can only be described as sadists. I’ve just finished formatting three books for CreateSpace. I had help from my blog host—yes you, Ellis—who sat down with me in a restaurant halfway between our houses and showed me how to format the first book, step by step. We switched to Word 2003, a much more user-friendly program, because even a seasoned tech writer like Ellis thinks Word 2010 sucks. My lesson went well, one book done, so off I went to do book two. Easy, peasy, right?

Um, not when I got home. I resisted throwing the computer out the window at least a dozen times, but because I have a major character flaw called persistence, I forged ahead. (Okay, I sent the file to Ellis a couple of times to straighten out the section breaks and the pages. I admit it.) But I had another problem. My Photoshop program is on the computer with Word 2010, so I have to send the file to CreateSpace from that computer. Surprisingly, and after a lot of hair-pulling, I got the second book finished in Word 2003 on one computer and sent it to myself to open on the other. The formatting held.

Sound effects—heavenly music from above.

At Amazon - soon to be in print

I’m feeling good. Two books done. I sent them off. Proofs looked good, so I ordered a couple of each. I went through the whole process, clicked on Confirm Order. REJECTED. CreateSpace wouldn’t take my credit card. Huh? This is the same credit card they accepted three weeks before for my first sample. Same credit card that Amazon takes all the time.

I thought it might be Firefox, so I ran it through on Explorer. Same thing. Rejected. I called my credit card company. (They love me, by the way. I really don’t know why. I never pay a finance charge. But I digress.) So I went back to CreateSpace. They said it was my CVV code. Same code I used three weeks before. I told them I’ve never had so much trouble trying to give a company my money. They assured me they wanted my money.

We had a long telephone conversation. The customer service representative had a lovely, lilting English/Indian accent. I understood her. She understood me. She contacted the tech people while I was on the phone. She was really trying to help. They insisted it was my CVV code. I insisted it wasn’t. She said they’d get back to me.

So I worked on book three.

I don’t consider myself totally tech challenged; in fact, I’m really not bad for an old broad learning new tricks. I even do my own book covers on Photoshop, do my own website. But every time I thought I had the third book finished—this in Word 2003—I scrolled up and there were headings where they shouldn’t be, numbers on another line, pages disappearing when I scrolled—seriously. I thought I was seeing things. Now you see it, now you don’t.

Did that stop me from torturing myself? Not even close. I got what I thought was a good document, sent it to CS. Their proof looked a mess. Backward, in fact. Enough of Word, back to the sample books. I called CreateSpace again. Another lovely service rep. The credit card validating company is closed until Monday. She will get back to me. Meanwhile, she’s sending my samples free of charge. I didn’t argue.

www.pollyiyer.com

I do believe that those who format books as a profession earn every cent they charge, and if I weren’t such a control freak, or stupid, I’d hire them.

By the time this blog posts, I may have an update. It’s Saturday, 5 o’clock. I’m on the way to the fridge for a beer—or maybe something stronger.

Monday, 5 o’clock. After all the fuss and phone calls, it turns out it wasn’t my CVV code that they insisted was the problem. It was the expiration date. It was still the same expiration date that was in their file, so I don’t know why it decided to kick back. I peeled the egg off my red face, entered the profile again with the updated expiration date, and made a dummy sale that Sara, the wonderful customer service rep, said she’d delete. Bingo. The sale went through. Sara couldn’t delete it. So she didn’t charge me for that book either. I’m feeling a little guilty getting five sample books for free. After all, it was really my fault. I offered to pay. She refused. I guess I’ll just have to live with Amazon’s generosity.

Time for my afternoon libation before I send the next proof to CreateSpace.
____________________


Polly is the author of Insight, Hooked, Murder Déjà Vu, and Mind Games