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A Historical Romance Star is Born!
Riding on the coattails of our "Authors To Watch" feature (which ran in the December issue of RT BOOKreviews released in November), the Nov. 20th issue of PW (Publishers Weekly) spotlighted their very own 10 new authors to watch list which included the winner of last year's American Title II contest, Gerri Russell. The winning entry, a January release published by Dorchester, is a Medieval historical set in Scotland titled, THE WARRIOR TRAINER. Here’s what our reviewer had to say: “…an action-packed, emotion-driven story that immediately captures your attention. Readers yearning for strong heroines and masterful men will find them here, along with a carefully plotted story. Russell's fresh voice secures her a place on the to-buy list.“ RT BOOKreviews readers got it right! You were the first to recognize the talent of this upcoming author by voting Gerri as the winner of the AT II competition and now PW has discovered her too! Congratulations to all who voted for Gerri and a big congratulations to Gerri for being recognized by PW. Once you read Gerri's book, I'd love to know what you think. Carol Stacy, Publisher of RT BOOKreviews
NaNo Blog -- Week Three
We're halfway through the month, and we can officially say that time really does fly. Elissa's hit the halfway point, and Stephanie is close behind. Elissa's main characters have finally arrived at the all-important high school party, where her main character, Molly, just might get her first kiss. Stephanie's main character has discovered that she can time travel, and is learning the ins and outs of it, while surviving a series of bad dates. We're getting weary, and we don't think it's a very good sign that even writing a blog post about writing feels like an insurmountable task. However, we are both still committed to finishing, and looking forward to discovering what happens to our characters next. We hope your noveling adventure isn't too tiring, and that you manage to stockpile some words before it's turkey time. That's the plan over here, at least. Let us know how you're doing! Stephanie Klose and Elissa Petruzzi RT BOOKreviews Associate Editors
Please cast your vote for the best hero and heroine in round two of American Title competition. Six out of eight contestants will advance to the next round based on the number of votes received. At the end of the competition, the winner will receive a publishing contract with Dorchester and a publicity boost from RT BOOKreviews. You can also find out who got eliminated in round one (best first line submissions).
NaNo Blog -- Week Two
We're well into Week Two of the NaNoWriMo challenge and we're waiting for our second winds. Week One went great and we both got good head starts on our novel seedlings. Our characters are taking shape, traveling through time and worrying about their hair. There's even a romantic possibility or two floating around. We made our word counts for every day last week and after duly patting ourselves on the back, we took yesterday off to celebrate closing the January issue of RT. Real life has a way of interfering with creative endeavors. We're both definitely planning on getting back to work tonight and hope to cross the 20,000-word mark soon. Our computers haven't gotten this much use since grad school! Do you have any inspiring thoughts for Week Two? We'd love to hear how you're doing. Stephanie Klose and Elissa Petruzzi RT BOOKreviews Associate Editors
A DIRTY Book
It's not often that I find myself crying on the subway over an erotic romance, but that's what happened last week as I finished Megan Hart's DIRTY (Jan., Spice)on the way to work.  I don't read much erotica (I'm more of a paranormal, YA junkie), but I was writing a piece on Hart's new book for our January issue, so I picked up a copy in the RT office to browse. From the first page, I was hooked. The novel is sexy, sure, but the sex is so evenly entwined into the intricacies of main character Elle's life that it all flows seamlessly off the page. Hart is a truly great writer. Hart's got a five-book deal with Harlequin Spice -- she's also written for Ellora's Cave -- and I can't wait for her next Spice book, BROKEN, to come out in March. So if you're looking for a great new author to read, or you've been interested in trying erotica, but weren't sure who to try, I suggest Megan Hart's DIRTY. It's out in stores January '07.  Elissa Petruzzi Associate Editor RT BOOKreviews Magazine
NaNo Blog -- Week One
The air at RT headquarters is crackling with excitement today, November 1st, as Associate Editors Stephanie Klose and Elissa Petruzzi embark on the madcap adventure that is National Novel Writing Month. NaNo, as it is known to participants, is the month-long kamikaze novel writing spree, where more than 70,000 would-be novelists around the globe attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Here at RT, we've already gotten started! Stephanie's time-travel chicklit and Elissa's black comedy YA are nearing the page-long mark and it's not even noon yet. It's like we're almost done! Accustomed to writing author features and more fact-based prose, it is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking to be tackling something this big. But we are excited about not having to fact check our work, instead we just get to make stuff up! Now if only we knew where our stories were going ... We'll be keeping you updated here each week on our progress, if you are also participating in NaNo, feel free to comment and let us know how you're doing. We hear that lots of encouragement is great for keeping up morale on this mission.
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