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Filed in: blog | guest blogs
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In honor of Inez, fellow romance author and beta reader, I’ve written a guest blog on the construction of the villain of Butterfly Swords. Inez has, of course, added her own bad boy photographs to the mix. Read about it over at Inez Kelley’s blog: Bad boys, bad boys…
While you’re there, I highly recommend you check out her books Myla by Moonlight and Salome at Sunrise. Two traditional fantasy romances where the women are the shifters and the magic and culture are nicely woven into the story. I’m currently waiting for the third in the series.
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Filed in: blog | friends and family | guest blogs | slice of life Tags: borders | ebooks vs. print books | true romance
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The last stop on the Butterfly Swords blog tour is at Borders True Romance.
This was an emotional piece for me…unfortunately I’ve caught two errors. *grrr* I do proofread every blog, but with so many and especially with emotional ones where I’ve gone over the words again and again, I guess I just start to fill in the right words in my head until I get some distance between me.
But mistakes aside, I hope you enjoy this tribute to my BFF and my discussion of how I came to romance and what eBooks will mean for these BFF moments: BFF Moments – How I Discovered Romance
Sue Grimshaw is also giving away free books to two lucky commenters.
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Filed in: blog | guest blogs | movies Tags: 80s movies | inspiration | sisterhood of the jaunty quills
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Today I’m guest blogging about a classic movie that served as a major influence for Butterfly Swords. Any guesses?
Butterfly Swords and My 80s Addiction
Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in the 80′s, which is sad because I so wasn’t cool in the 80′s. It seems those were the romances and the movies that I identify with and that continue to live in my imagination.
Maybe that was just the time when I finally had enough allowance money and freedom to go to the movie theatre, and I also started paying attention to television. Maybe it was when I started caring about romance and getting emotionally invested in the characters I was watching.
Believe it or not, Butterfly Swords was heavily inspired by the 80s.
Read more at the Sisterhood of the Jaunty Quills!
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Filed in: blog | guest blogs | promotion | publishing | research Tags: author promotion | grassroots promotion | pink heart society | sex in ancient china
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…are yet to come.
The blog tour is nearing the end, but as they say on stage, you need a big finish right?
Today, I’m discussing my experiences as The New Kid on the Playground at The Pink Heart Society. For fun, you get to check out my alternative titles for Butterfly Swords. Come back to the PHS on October 26 as they discuss Butterfly Swords as their October book club pick.
I’m also discussing *ahem* Sex in Ancient China, an educational post that should be up Wednesday morning at Dirty Sexy Books.
And the final guest blog this week is something I seriously debated doing. It’s about promotion. I’m hoping it sparks discussion, because there’s a lot I’m still wondering about author promotion and the conventional wisdom seems to be that “you never know what will work”. I can’t seem to take that for an answer. I want to know what can be known!
So at Bria Quinlan‘s blog on Thursday, I’ll be going “Inside a Grass Roots Marketing Campaign” and discussing what I learned from the promotion of Butterfly Swords. It’s one of the rare times you’ll see my business mind emerge.
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Filed in: Announcements | blog | giveaway | guest blogs Tags: blog tour | book chat | dear author
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BOOK CHAT: I’ll be logging in at 6pm CST tomorrow for the Dear Author book chat. Dear Author also listed Butterfly Swords as one of their recommended reads for October along with some fabulous titles that I devoured: The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook and Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan.
According to Jane, they’ll be grilling me on a couple of hard questions regarding Butterfly Swords. I think that’s why I have an affinity for Dear Author. Something about tough love always makes me feel nostalgic. Like coming home for the holidays. 
Review Round Up: A review for The Taming of Mei Lin on Poisoned Rationality that was able to address many elements from the story without spoilers. Tricky in a short!
Blog Tour: One of my favorite guest blogs I wrote is up today: West meets East. I discuss watching Shogun as a child and its influence on Butterfly Swords. Also a post on historical trivia from Butterfly Swords: “For the History Geeks, with Love” at RomCon and an excerpt at Unusual Historicals. Come back to Unusual Historicals Sunday for my guest blog appearance and giveaway.
I have an interview and giveaway at The Season for Romance where there’s also a poll to select October’s book club. Also my blog about Regency rakes vs. medieval warriors at Book Junkie was scheduled on Thursday, not on Monday.
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Ever since Warrior Women month rounded up and October hit, the blog has been Review Round Ups and Blog tour info. I’ve become my book. Wholly uninteresting…
Actually, on second thought, I think most people come here for the book. I’d be wholly uninteresting without it.
In any case, I feel like I need a web minion. Even with my fast typing and decent web skills, just getting updates in to keep up with the interwebs has been a challenge. I’d be a holy terror of a boss over a web assistant though.
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Filed in: Announcements | blog | guest blogs | workshop Tags: keeping them hooked | rcrw chapter | writing workshop
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Blog tour: Today I’m featured at the Harlequin blog, discussing the Attractiveness of Ancient China as a Setting. Harlequin!! Guest blog at Romance Junkies yesterday about the brainstorming crew behind The Taming of Mei Lin.
Warrior Women month: Next Tuesday, I’ll be featuring an interview from Linda Heenan, a swordswoman with experience in both Eastern and Western sword forms. I want to grow up to be her–if my coordination were any better.
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This weekend is going to be a fun-filled one. I have a potluck reception tonight where I’ll be seeing Jade Lee. I have her new book, Wicked Surrender, and wonder is it gauche to ask for an autograph over penne pasta and gooey butter cake?
I’ll be making a baked squash casserole from a Paula Dean recipe. The butter makes it better…
Then I’ll be heading off on a road trip to Tennessee for a “Keeping Them Hooked” workshop Saturday morning. I think I’m less nervous now that this is the third go. By third period, my lesson was usually going very well. If anyone happens to be near Bartlett, TN, you might want to check out the local RCRW chapter there. Guests are welcome!
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Filed in: blog | guest blogs | promotion Tags: blog tour | giveaways | launch celebration | trivia
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BINGO!
Originally I was trying to come up with a way where people who’ve followed the Butterfly Swords and Mei Lin Blog Tour could enter the Launch Celebration drawings. Following and tracking all commenters would have been heinous. And I fully didn’t expect people to really want to read THAT many blogs.
So I came up with the idea of a trivia game. You can answer the trivia questions through a handful of the blog appearances. Now, I considered maybe a Blog Tour drinking game might be in order. One shot for every time Jeannie mentions “wuxia”!
But that would have had people tipsy real quick and wouldn’t be responsible of me since people blog surf at work. So instead I present to you Butterfly Swords BINGO.
Send me the five answers through my Contact form to make BINGO and you’ll receive 5 entries in the giveaway. If anyone is crazy enough to give all the answers for BLACKOUT: Um, I might be a little scared…but you’ll receive 10 entries into the giveaway. Enter “BINGO” as your subject.
Remember, your name will remain in the bucket from when you enter until the very last Grand Prize drawing. Drawings will be held on September 15, October 1, and October 15 for a variety of prizes. Have fun!
Rules: The gameboard is just for you to keep track. Print it out or bookmark this page if you like. You only need to send me the answers, not the gameboard. If you’re going through the center, use “Free Space” as one answer. And I will accept more than just the first BINGO.
BLOG TOUR LOCATIONS AND DATES
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Filed in: blog | book reviews | guest blogs | promotion Tags: dear author | hotdamn designs | kimberly killion | lisa see | lovesick maidens of hangzhou | promotions | reviews for butterfly swords | unusual historials
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…that I did not in any way bribe, cajole, court, or exercise voodoo upon a certain someone at Dear Author.
I may, however, need to name my first child after her. Jane if it’s a girl and Jayne if it’s a boy.
I would then have to name my second child after the Harlequin art department. Jane and Harlequin Art Lin. I think they’ll be very popular in school.
You must be wondering what I’m rambling about. Dear Author has set up a page to invite anyone to submit reviews of Butterfly Swords to the Dear Author site. I learned of it from Twitter and was completely blown away.
jane_l: I made up a page where anyone can submit a review of @JeannieLin’s Butterfly Swords http://bit.ly/bjug54 to be posted at Dear Author
Actually, it’s not just DA. Many other reviewers have been so supportive by reading ARCs and getting the word out. Whether the reviews end up being good or bad, I’ll be forever grateful. And then I have to mention the amazing support from Harlequin and my editors, putting Butterfly Swords up on NetGalley and making it available because they were getting so many requests for reviews.
I believe the buzz all started with the Harlequin Art Department who came up with the bold and beautiful cover. The most common thing I heard at conference was, “You’re the author with that gorgeous cover!” Yes, I am my book. My book is me. At least for a little while — and I’m okay with that.
That cover still makes my heart beat faster. The promo page for Butterfly Swords says it all: http://www.butterfly-swords.com. Kimberly Killion, author and owner of HotDamn Designs, created the design. When she showed it to me, I couldn’t stop staring.
“That’s AWESOME!” I gushed. “I’d buy that. Wouldn’t you?”
And finally, in all this hub-bub, I’m blogging today at Unusual Historicals. I work harder for the Unusual Historicals posts than any other site because my fellow contributors are such conscientious researchers and accomplished writers. I always try to make sure my posts are up to the high quality of the rest of the site. That being said, I’m quite proud of this one in which I discuss a little history of women and literary discourse in China and how Lisa See’s Peony in Love brought that to light for me. Unusual Historicals Blog – Tragic Tales: The Lovesick Maidens of Hangzhou (Link live at 6:00 am)
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Filed in: blog | guest blogs Tags: a-team | clash of the titans | ruby-slippered sisterhood | the karate kid
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The Karate Kid? The A-Team?!?
Most people claim to hate them, but Hollywood seems to be throwing quite a few our way. I’m blogging about some recent and upcoming remakes at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood today.
Remakes: Homage or Blasphemy?
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Filed in: blog | guest blogs | research | writing Tags: chinese locations | unusual settings
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I’m blogging today at Unusual Historicals about my internet location scouting process. I had struggled with whether to make up my own world based on China or write it as a historical. There’s plenty of discussion over which is harder – historical or historical fantasy. The truth is, I think there’s just as much worldbuilding needed for either of them. Your focus is just slightly shifted.
Come take a look to see my internet wanderings and how I look on China from afar. One day, I hope to actually go to these locations.
Unusual Historicals – The World of My Fantasies
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