Well, this is a banner day here at TessaDare.com. Three blog posts in one day. Whew!

My publisher, Random House (Ballantine being a division of), has done something soooo cool – they’ve posted a 60-page excerpt of ONE DANCE WITH A DUKE on Scribd.com. And those 60 pages are all prettily formatted and look just like real book pages, too. 🙂

So if you’ve read Chapter One here at my site and want to go read some more…just click here! (You can even find links to share the excerpt on Twitter or Facebook, or embed it on your own blog or site. Can you tell I am impressed by this? 🙂 )… Read More »

Note: I meant to post this yesterday, but realized I was missing some data. I have remedied that, and now it’s complete.

The Werestag is having his birthday! My e-novella The Legend of the Werestag was released from Samhain Publishing exactly one year ago this week.

Digital publishing is changing rapidly (understatement alert!), and has changed a great deal even in the past year. At RWA National Conference this summer, I’ll be on a panel titled “Digital Publishing for the Print Published Author” with some Samhain editors and authors. I think one of the themes of our panel will be that digital and traditional print publishing can mesh together as two parts of a viable, growing career.

One stumbling block authors run up against, however, is that it can be very hard to get sales information for digital publishing. How much can a writer reasonably expect to earn, if she decides to e-publish?

In many ways, this is an impossible question to answer. Because most digital publishers pay only a nominal advance or no advance, most compensation comes in the form of royalties–and there’s simply no way of knowing how well an e-book (or any book) will sell. In addition, there’s no such thing as an “average” performing e-book. They can sell copies in the thousands or in the teens.

In the hopes that it might help other authors considering digital publishing, I am going to publicly post my sales and royalty information for TLOTW, to date. (Below the fold, … Read More »

If you entered my “First Chance” contest last week and didn’t win, here’s your Second Chance. 🙂

The lovely folks at All About Romance invited me to participate in their “Books with Buzz” feature. On the AAR blog today, there’s an interview with me about the new series, and commenters will be entered to win one of ten copies of One Dance with a Duke!

The link is here. Go comment and win! … Read More »

Sorry to be posting so late – this was my evening to work at the library. But I am home, and I have spent several minutes on Random.org, cross-matching with preferences and such, and lo — I have winners.

Let me just say – I wish I could send each and every one of you a copy of One Dance with a Duke. But if you didn’t win it this time, do not despair. I will be receiving more copies, and there are some other online giveaways planned. This is just the first chance, but not your last chance. 🙂

Drumroll……….

Winners of my two copies of One Dance (yes, I’m parting with both *sniff*) are:

Ann Marie – #36
Catie James – #45

Other prizes go to:
Takyra Morgan – #62 – Lessons Learned
Aimee Marie – #12 – Catch Me If You Can
Thalia – #21 – Servicing Rafferty
Rachie G – #43 – Beauty Tempts the Beast
Sarah – #5 – Jazz Baby
Kelly S – #37 – The Legend of the Werestag
etirv – #58 – $10 gift cert for My Bookstore and More
iokijo – #28 – $10 gift cert for My Bookstore and More

So if you won something, please shoot me a message from my Contact form. If it’s an ebook or gift certificate you won, I’ll just need the email address you want me to send it to. If you’ve won a print book, of course I’ll need the snail … Read More »

Warning: Loooong post ahead. But so worth reading to the end. 🙂

I returned from RT on Sunday – and what did I find awaiting me? My first two print copies of One Dance with a Duke!
There is something so special about seeing your book in its bound form for the very first time. A big part of me just wants to clutch my preciouses to my chest, but instead I’m going to give at least one of them away. Today! Here! But that’s not all!

You see, I worked very hard on One Dance with a Duke, and I am so proud of it–as I am of all the books I’ve written for Ballantine. But while I was at RT, it also hit hard for me how very proud I am to be a Samhain author. It was just about a year ago that my very first published work, a tongue-in-cheek novella called The Legend of the Werestag, was unleashed on the world as an ebook from Samhain Publishing. As a small press, Samhain is on the cutting edge of innovative romance. I tell you, the editors and authors were everywhere at RT, just bubbling over with excitement about new titles, print programs, awards.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Kate Davies, who won the 2009 RT Reviewer’s Choice award for Best Indie Press Contemporary Romance, for Lessons Learned. Kate (pictured left, next to author Wendi Darlin) was kind enough to sign … Read More »

Thanks for your patience. I’m here at RT in Columbus–and shockingly not online 24/7, as I usually am! But I figured out the hotel wi-fi this morning and Random.org kindly gave me two winners for Maggie Robinson’s fab Mistress by Mistake (which, by the way, received a very nice review at Dear Author yesterday!)

Winners are:

#9 – Danielle Yockman
#16 – Cecilia Grant

Congratulations, ladies! Please use the contact form to send me your snail mail addresses, so I can send you the book.

Speaking of prizes, I was very honored to receive the RT Reviewer’s Choice award for Best First Historical Romance yesterday evening! I was so very honored. It’s a beautiful award–very clear and shiny and therefore difficult to photograph, but here’s an attempt.

Of course, I have no pictures of me holding it, but I’ll try to get some from a friend.

I’ve been having a great time, meeting readers and booksellers and fellow authors from around the country. If anyone at RT is reading this, please come find me at the book signing and say hi! I should have some of the new excerpt books I made with Courtney Milan. 🙂

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!… Read More »

It’s another banner day in Romancelandia! Another dear friend is celebrating her print debut. Today’s toast is for Maggie Robinson. I met Maggie online over three years ago now, and I’ve been a fan of her writing from day one. She’s since signed contracts with two different publishers, and the world’s going to be treated with several of her smart, sexy stories over the next few years.

I’m so excited to spread the word of her first novel to release, Mistress by Mistake, which is in stories today. In the words of Anna Campbell, it is “a marvelously sexy romp!”

Here’s the blurb:

Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once—and she’s paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she’d never succumb to men’s desires again. But even a village spinster’s life miles from temptation can’t save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost…

Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He’d fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn’t expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them…

A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society’s judgments. Unless, of course, one

Thanks to Melanie, a very alert reader in Austria, I’ve got my first foreign cover!

Goddess of the Hunt will be released in German translation on October 18, 2010.  I’m told the German title, Der Kuss der Jagerin (so sorry, don’t know how to do the umlaut in WordPress), translates as “Kiss of the Huntress.”  I love that. Isn’t that an awesome title?

And I love this cover!  Love the colors, and lush, verdant setting and the flowers in her hair.  I just adore clinch covers, and I’m not ashamed to say it.

Also, I cannot help but notice that my name is way bigger on this cover than it has been on any of my North American covers to date.  Like, bigger than than the title.  Woohoo!  Awesomeness, all around.… Read More »

So my dear friend, critique partner, fellow RITA nominee, role model, and general inspiration in life, Ms. Courtney Milan, is spending her pre-RT Con weekend at the Chicago Spring Fling conference. And she took with her copies of our new excerpt booklet (You may remember that last year we joined forces to create The Dangerous Book of Excerpts, still available as a PDF download here).

Here’s a pic of the new one, Highlights, snapped by SB Sarah:

Here’s a peek at the back:

Even though Courtney is the one handing these babies out, I want to make sure credit for this masterwork is distributed evenly and appropriately. So here is how the grand collaboration went.

Tessa: Hey, do you want to make some excerpt books again, to put in the RT Bookseller goody bags?
Courtney: Sure!
Tessa: Okay, I’ll tell them we’ll be sending some. Any ideas for a theme this year?
Courtney: No, but something will come to us.

**weeks pass**

Courtney: So, if we’re going to make the deadline, we should make those excerpt books…um, now.
Tessa: OH. And here I forgot to schedule my brainstorm. What’s popular right now that we can riff on? Um. Cupcakes? Can we call it Pride and Prejudice and Hot Lovin’?
Courtney: Uh. Your ideas suck.
Tessa: I know, I know.
Courtney: Here’s one that doesn’t.
Tessa: Oooooh, that’s good!
Courtney: *hours later* Here, I made eight alternate covers. Which do you like best?
Tessa: B, I

Next week I’ll be traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to attend my very first RT Booklovers’ Convention, the annual reader/author event sponsored by RT Book Reviews magazine (formerly known as Romantic Times). Some months ago, I learned that my debut, Goddess of the Hunt, was nominated for an RT Reviewer’s Choice award in the Best First Historical Romance category. I was so honored.

This week, RT published the full list of the nominees and winners. I was even more honored that GotH was chosen to receive the award! I should caution, though — at the moment it says something like “Best Historical” next to my category. Tempting as it is to grab that glory and run with it, I feel the need to clarify that the award is still for “Best First Historical Romance,” which is a tremendous honor and in and of itself, especially considering that I was nominated next to these wonderful authors:

Olivia Drake, SEDUCING THE HEIRESS
Lavinia Kent, A TALENT FOR SIN
Tina Gabrielle, LADY OF SCANDAL
Lindsay Townsend, A KNIGHT’S CAPTIVE

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners in every category. And to anyone who’ll be in Columbus next week, I look forward to seeing you there! Although I still have no idea what I’ll be wearing to accept this very cool award.

Oh! While I’m posting, I should mention that the new June issue of RT has a 4-1/2 star, Top Pick! review of One Dance with a … Read More »