Category Archives: warrior women month

First Celebration Giveaway This Week!

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Warrior Women Month: Come back Tuesday for an interview with Luci Romberg: stuntwoman, freerunner and American Ninja Warrior.

Blog Tour: My Book Addiction has an interview up where I talk about my thoughts regarding negative reviews. Also blogging at Novel Thoughts on Monday about the Not-So-Happy endings in Asian romance.

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The Taming of Mei Lin has been out for two weeks and has received some nice reader and reviewer responses. It makes me very happy to be giving away the first celebration giveaway this Wednesday, September 15. Three individual names will be drawn to win one of three lovely prizes.

Blog, tweet, and/or sign-up for the newsletter to join the celebration! Enter more times for more chances to win and your name stays in all the way until the Grand Prize drawings. Details here.

First name drawn wins:

A GORGEOUS hardcover copy of Cindy Pon’s debut novel, Silver Phoenix. I was so excited about her release earlier this year. I went from store to store searching for it and I LOVE the original cover so much that I bought an extra copy so someone can enjoy it as well.

Her heroine is named Ai Ling while mine is Ai Li. Complete coincidence, but they’re both young women coming into their own and embarking on a grand adventure. Read Silver Phoenix first so you’ll be ready for the sequel, Fury of the Phoenix in April 2011!  Cindy also has a wonderful blog filled with Chinese brush painting and lots of good food.

Second name drawn wins:

An autographed advance copy of Stephanie Draven’s debut from Harlequin Nocturne, Poisoned Kisses. I’ve read Draven’s shorter works for Nocturne Bites: Midnight Bound and Wild, Tethered, Bound. I was blown away by her fresh take on Greek mythology in a contemporary paranormal story. First of all, she tackles the best creatures from Greek myth: the monsters! And they’re not villains, they’re her protagonists.

I’m sure her debut will have the mesmerizing prose and creative storytelling I’ve come to expect from her stories. Plus the blurb just sings with tension and conflict. Check out Stephanie’s website and see.

Third name drawn wins:

A free download from eHarlequin for The Taming of Mei Lin. Now the cool thing about this is it’s a download code. If you already have a copy of Mei Lin, you can give this to a friend as a gift.

Get the word out to enter! Winners will be drawn Wednesday night at 8pm Central Time.

What are Butterfly Swords?

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Warrior Women Month:

I’m kicking off Warrior Women month with a quick tutorial on butterfly swords. Also tomorrow,  I have an interview with Mandy Sayah, Wing Chun instructor.

Blog Tour:

Blogging about how I came to write historical romance at The Minding Spot. The blog is doing their own giveaway of a copy of the Taming of Mei Lin.

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The Taming of Mei Lin and Butterfly Swords both feature sword fights involving butterfly swords. I’ve received many curious inquiries about both the weapons and the fighting style, so I thought I’d showcase them today.

I chose butterfly swords for my heroine because:

1) I had some experience with them

2) They could be hidden easily and carried around with her various outfits

3) The techniques are  fast and exciting to describe

4) The swords were distinctive and feminine, in contrast to the swords used by the hero and the villain

In this video, Grandmaster William Cheung demonstrates the butterfly swords form. The narration is Sifu Eric Oram.

This demonstration shows several techniques for butterfly swords against a broadsword. The key techniques are redirecting and controlling the opponent’s blade with the butterfly swords, and counterattacking immediately after a block.

And finally, the swords featured in the grand prize giveaway aren’t technically butterfly swords as they don’t have the handguard. They’re steel and sharpened and STILL pretty cool.

Join the Launch Celebration by tweeting, blogging, and getting the word out and you’ll be eligible to win. Details here.