Contest Winners: 12th Anniversary

Thank you all for the wonderful comments about EC and about your first books and authors here! So we got a little carried away with selecting winners. Hey, you lucky folks, please email redlinesdeadlines@gmail.com to claim your free ebook from us--anything currently available, or listed as Coming Soon through end of December.

Renee Meyer - an EC fan since 2001

Christine - "EC popped my ebook cherry"

Debbie S - another longtimer, since 2002

Diane M - who knows she bought her first EC books on Nov. 7, 2001: Jaid's The Empress' New Clothes and three others in the series

Carmen Terronez - a newbie to EC, with a list of series she plans to read

Kini Taicho - who got hooked on EC's plus-size heroines, and our innovative ways (Kini, you'll love our "Curve Appeal" stories coming out next September.)

Jen - who's glad we refuse to behave, and is just contracted to publish her first book with us

PamK - another of many whose first EC book was Empress' New Clothes - the first book EC published

Carrie Hutchison - she loves our male/male romances (Carrie, watch for the "Boys Will Do Boys" stories in December 2013.)

Shades of Parody Contest

As always when there's a big hit book, spinoffs will rapidly appear. Related books, parodies, "if you liked hers, you'll love mine" books, movies, ads, jokes on talk shows... I'm anticipating Shades of Grey action figures any day now. Tiny little sex toys and BDSM implements...

The critique group I'm in is discussing jointly writing Fifty Shades of Beige, a story full of bland, missionary-position-only sex.

Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, a parody by Andrew Shaffer, has been acquired by Da Capo Books for release in spring 2012. (Gotta get these things out quickly before the fever dies, you know.)

I know we've got brilliantly imaginative minds reading this blog. So--contest time! Post in Comments your parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. A title and a brief (a sentence or three) description. Haven't read Fifty Shades? Excerpts are available at the various ebook etailer sites, discussions are everywhere on line, enough to give you the idea.

Give us your best or snarkiest, we'll love it and give an EC webstore gift certificate to the winner.

Obsidian Winners!

Wow, there were so many comments, and everyone had intriguing thoughts on the covers. So we ended up selecting six - sorta randomly, but also to be fair to all the covers.

Bobbie
J.J. Silver
Alicia White
Eranodonnal
Monique
Casey Pattison

Ladies, please email redlinesdeadlines@gmail.com . Tell us your email address and what format you want the ebook in (ePub, pdf, html or prc). Oh, and a choice of ebook. I know we'd said Obsidian, but we don't have a release date for that yet. You can wait for that, or you can choose to have Tiger, and it will be emailed to you on April 9.

Gotta See That Cover! Obsidian by Laurann Dohner

Okay, all you New Species fans! We can't reveal a release date yet for Obsidian, the next book in Laurann Dohner's mega-popular series, but we do have a cover! Many thanks to the Ellora's Cave Art Department.

So we're running a little contest here. Tell us which New Species cover is your favorite and WHY. Post your remarks in the comments here.  We'll pick our favorite comment or two, and email you the Obsidian ebook at 5:00pm (U.S. Eastern time) the day before the official release. Whoo, hoo, be the first amongst your friends to read it!

And remember that ebook 7, Tiger, releases April 10 at Barnes&Noble and Kindle (it's available now for pre-order in both those places) and April 11 on the EC webstore and all other vendors.

Oh, and stay tuned... We might just be able to pry another upcoming New Species cover from the Art Department supersecret storage vault soon.

Best Reads of the Year?

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Okay, everyone’s doing it – making “Best of the Year” lists about everything in the world, including books. Hey, at least we waited until the year was over, to include that book you were reading on New Year’s Eve!

So tell us your top reads of 2011—the books that moved, intrigued or fascinated you; made you rush to buy other books by that author.

Yes, there will be prizes! Probably random drawing amongst the people who post their lists in Comments. Ebooks, t-shirts, hmm, maybe other good stuff.

To kick it off, here are my best reads of 2011 (not necessarily books published that year), in no particular sequence. These represent books that were “different” in my opinion, that had a unique take on a standard theme or a special twist. [Caveat: I have not listed any Ellora’s Cave books, although there were many I loved. Hey, I have to deal with 450+ authors, I’m not going to show preference.  ;-) ]

Death Comes to Pemberley – P.D. James (mystery)
Dragon Bound – Thea Harrison
Steam & Sorcery – Cindy Spencer Pape
No Proper Lady – Isabel Cooper
Touched by an Alien – Gini Koch
Archangel’s Consort – Nalini Singh
Never Again – Michele Bardsley
A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness (despite how incredibly frustrating I found the cliffhanger ending)

Your turn!

Vote in Pitch Contest!

Refine your own pitching talents by helping analyze and judge the pitches from other writers.

EC editor Grace Bradley has already made her selection of pitches to move on in the second annual Passionate Reads Blog pitch contest. Now thirty-four entries are battling to earn the most votes, thus moving one lucky author into round two (if the pitch was not already chosen by Grace). Cast your vote now. Poll closes at 11:59 p.m. EST.

http://passionatereads.com/2011/10/08/pitch-contest-round-1-the-polls-are-open/

Worst Writing Award 2011

The Bulwer-Litton Fiction Contest was started in 1982 at San Jose State University to celebrate bad writing. The contest is named after Victorian novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who started a book with “It was a dark and stormy night”. From the contest's website (http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2011.htm): "The contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels".

The 2011 winner is Sue Fondrie, an associate professor at U of Wisconsin.
"Cheryl's mind turned like vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."

Don't you wish you could write like that?! Please send us submissions in that style--we like to torture our editors.

Runner-up is Rodney Reed.
"As I stood among the ransacked ruin that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that had been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I had to go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this . . . and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words."

Romance category winner is Ali Kawashima.
"As the dark and mysterious stranger approached, Angela bit her lip anxiously, hoping with every nerve, cell, and fiber of her being that this would be the one man who would understand—who would take her away from all this—and who would not just squeeze her boob and make a loud honking noise, as all the others had."

Winner in the Purple Prose category is Mike Pedersen.
"As his small boat scudded before a brisk breeze under a sapphire sky dappled with cerulean clouds with indigo bases, through cobalt seas that deepened to navy nearer the boat and faded to azure at the horizon, Ian was at a loss as to why he felt blue. "

There are winners in genre categories and various other classifications, including Dishonorable Mentions. They are all hysterical - go have a bit of reading fun.

Winners - Books of the Year

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Thank you to everyone who commented on our Books of the Year post. I have a list of books and authors I want to try, based on your recommendations!

So, random drawing for winners amongst the participants:
Cathy M
Cara Bristol
Audra

Ladies, please email RedlinesDeadlines@gmail.com and provide your mailing address. We'll send you a prize collection, including the 2011 EC Cavemen Calendar. (Probably will mail after Christmas.)

Books of the Year

Seems like everyone is doing a list of their top books of 2010. We don't want to be left out! But we'd like to be a bit different. So tell us some special stories that you read in 2010 (don't have to be new release in 2010), in the categories below.

And yes, of course, there will be prizes! Since it's the holiday season, we'll mail you a 2011 Ellora's Cave calendar and some other great goodies!

From the stories you read in 2010:
1. Story that resonated the most with me, emotionally.
2. Story I recommend most to others.
3. Story I wish I hadn't wasted my time on.
4. Most unusual story.

Put your responses in Comments by December 20. Oh, and please say why! We're always looking for book recommendations. I asked for an Amazon.com gift certificate for Christmas - help me spend it.

Fiction Feud Winner!

Yeah. It was just as hard as we'd thought it would be.  :)  Many thanks to our 15 players for giving it their best shots. And special thanks to Lynne and Barbara for making us laugh our asses off.

The actual game at RomantiCon had the top 4 or 5 answers for each question, and a lot of you got the number 2 or number 3 answers. (For example, wet or moist, which most of you guessed for the most common adjective to describe a vagina, was the number 2 answer.) Had we played the full version of the game, it would have been a super tight race.

Several of you got 4 of the top answers correct, but our winner, with 5 correct answers, was B.! Woohoo! Congrats! B, just email Martha@ellorascave.com and tell her which book (and format) you'd like to receive.

Now the answers:

1. Name the most overused hero name: Lucius, Lucian or Luke

2. Name the most common adjective used to describe an erection: Hard or rock-hard (several of you gave us "cock". Tsk, tsk. That's a noun, people)  :)

3. Name a type of sex play authors throw in their books to get the BDSM icon: Cuffs, ties or scarves (we'd also accept "bondage")

4. Name the most common uncommon eye color for heroes OR heroines: Emerald green (we'd also accept just "green"; several of you listed "brown". Is that uncommon these days?)

5. Not counting those that are sexual or romantic in nature ("passion", "love", "desire", etc.), name the most overused word in erotic titles: Night (the toughest question, based on the fact no one got it. Other overused title words: dark, hunt/hunter/hunted, bound, blood, fire)

6. Name the most common adjective used to describe a vagina: Hot

7. Name the most common thing a hero does to a woman's nipples: Lave or lick ("suck" was a super close second)

8. Other than a bedroom, name the most common place characters have sex: Shower

9. Name the most common last name authors use for their pseudonym: Black (Lee/Leigh, James and Quinn are hot contenders)

10. Name the most common occupation for romance heroes: Police/FBI (some form of law enforcement)

11. Name the most common way that M/M heroes meet: In a bar/club

12. Name the most common euphemism for coming: Explode

Thanks again for playing, folks. Your consolation prize would be our undying gratitude, which is worth a pretty penny on certain author black markets. Oh, and we're currently dreaming up games for next year's RomantiCon...if you have something you'd like to play, by all means, let us know!

Fiction Feud!

By Kelli Collins

One hundred people surveyed, top five answers are on the board...

Not really. Just the top answer is on the board, but if you've seen Family Feud, you get the gist. All the fun of the game without all the perviness of Richard Dawson! Win! The following is a shortened version of a game I hosted at RomantiCon 2010, used to illustrate some of the most over-used items in Ellora's Cave books. If you weren't able to attend, here's your chance to get in on the action and prove your romance/erotica smarts. Using Comments, post your best guesses to the questions below, whatever you suspect might have been the #1 answer. The person who guesses the most correct answers wins an ebook of his or her choice!

Deadline: Tues., Nov. 30; answers posted and winner announced Wed., Dec. 1. Good luck!

(Tip: Answers are collectively culled from all genres. And your gut instinct is usually correct.)

1. Name the most overused hero name

2. Name the most common adjective used to describe an erection

3. Name a type of sex play authors throw in their books to get the BDSM icon

4. Name the most common uncommon eye color for heroes OR heroines

5. Not counting those that are sexual or romantic in nature ("passion", "love", "desire", etc.), name the most overused word in erotic titles

6. Name the most common adjective used to describe a vagina

7. Name the most common thing a hero does to a woman's nipples

8. Other than a bedroom, name the most common place characters have sex

9. Name the most common last name authors use for their pseudonym

10. Name the most common occupation for romance heroes

11. Name the most common way that M/M heroes meet

12. Name the most common euphemism for coming

Some Like It Hot Writing Contest

Author Tawny Taylor is running a writing contest:

Starting October 25th, 2010, I will be hosting a writing contest!
The final judge is an editor from Ellora’s Cave.

All SubGenres of erotic romance accepted.

This contest is open to both unpublished and published authors of erotic romance fiction. All entries shall be the author's original work and not contracted for publication prior to the entry deadline. (Authors currently published with Ellora's Cave are not eligible to enter.)

How the contest works:
* You may submit one chapter--not to exceed 5000 words. Stories must be complete. (A one-page synopsis may be included.)

* Each Monday, two stories will be selected by Ellora's Cave editor Grace Bradley. At the end, six weekly winning authors will submit a partial (first three chapters, last chapter and synopsis) to the final judge for ranking.

The first place winner will receive ...
A critique of the full winning manuscript by EC editor Grace Bradley!

The second place winner will receive...A critique of the partial manuscript by EC editor Grace Bradley (first three chapters, last and synop).

The third place winner will receive...
A critique of the first chapter by EC editor Grace Bradley.

Additional Prizes:
One entry will be selected each week by random drawing to received a detailed critique by an author published with Ellora's Cave.

THE DETAILS:

* Starting Date: October 25th 2010. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm November 12, 2010.

* Three rounds
Submissions received between 12:00 am October 25th and 11:59 pm October 29th will be considered for round one. Submissions received between 12:00am Oct. 30 and 11:59 pm November 5th will be considered for round two. And submissions received between 12:00am November 6th and 11:59 November 12th will be considered for round three.

* Weekly Finalists Announced on November 1, 2010, November 8, 2010 and November 15, 2010.

* NO Entry Fee or purchase necessary to win.

* Send entries to writingcontest@tawnytaylor.com. Include genre, word count, and your name and contact information. A one-page synopsis may be included.

Before entering, please see all the details at: http://www.tawnytaylor.com/WritingContest.html
For any questions, email Tawny (tawny@tawnytaylor.com)

Contest Winners! The Great Homophone Switch

Well, these entries kept us well entertained! Kudos to Meghan for coming up with such an interesting contest concept. We loved them all, and choosing winners took up a good portion of our weekly department meeting. But winners we chose!

Ms. Snarky Pants:
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Hart of Darkness - the little-known sequel to the Newhart Show in which Bob is a serial killer.

Carla Swafford:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - a woman's yearlong search to find who she really is after her divorce
Eat Prey Love - Jeffrey Dahmer's life story

Carla Swafford:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - a young girl discovers injustice in the deep South during the 1930s
To Kiln a Mockingbird - a young girl strives for the perfect ceramic mockingbird; Subtitle: How I Deal with My OCD

Erastes:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Handmade Tail - After nuclear war has rendered most sterile, men make women for their entertainment.
(bonus points for using two homophones)

Eliza Knight:
The Tudors - A Tale of Henry VIII and his wives
The Tooters - about a king and his wives who have a lot of gas

Sally Painter:
That Which Survives by Ciana Stone
That Witch Survives! - the lamenting of a Salem witch trial judge

Congratulations, winners! And your prize is...a free ebook. [Boy, bet you never guessed that. ;-)] Pick any ebook from the Ellora's Cave or Cerridwen Press websites. Then email Martha@ellorascave.com, state that you are a winner of the R&D Homophone Contest, and tell her the book title and author, and the format you need (ePub, pdf, lit, rb, prc, html). She will email you the file.

Contest: The Great Homophone Switch

by Meghan Conrad

We're always talking about how important it is to educate yourself about homophones and words that are commonly confused, but we don't often talk about why.

So here's why: Eight Cousins is a novel by Louisa May Alcott. If you get lazy with homophones, though, you end up with Ate Cousins, which is presumably a novel about zombies or families of cannibals. The Desert Rose by Larry McMurty becomes The Dessert Rose and goes from being a book about a showgirl to a book about a cake decorator on her way to creating the most beautiful icing flower ever.

Your challenge, then, is to come up with the best--the funniest, the most interesting--title that can be created by replacing one word with a homophone or a commonly confused word. The best titles get a prize--we'll think of something great to offer you.

Post your entries in Comments--include original title, your fun title, and a tag line defining the story (like the examples above). The contest closes Thursday morning, September 9, and winners will be announced the following week.

Mash-Up Madness: And the Winners Are...

Hoo, boy, we've got some very creative - and warped - contest participants. Lots and lots of entries, many incredibly imaginative and entertaining, so we ended up awarding "winner" status to people, rather than individual titles. You can check out the Comments section on the original blog post to see some of the hysterical book descriptions.

Gehayi (a very prolific mind!):
Scents and Sensibility
Wuthering Bites
Star Captains Courageous
Pride and Premature Burials
Little Demon Lord Fauntleroy
Troll of the D'Urbervilles
Westward, Whore!
Tequila Mockingbird

Bill Greer:
Whore and Peace
The Grapes of Wraiths
The Naked and the Undead
The Lovely Boners

Francesca Hawley:
I, Claudius, Vampire
Lady Chatterley's Demon Lover

Tarot by Arwen:
Picture of Dorian Greyback

Beth:
Shifter Family Robinson
Gone With the Wendigo
Little Den on the Prairie

Paisley Smith:
Charlotte's Deb

Kama Spice:
Beauty, the Beast
Midsummer Night's Scream

Minx Malone:
The Heart is a Lonely Vampire Hunter

Okay, winners, you each get an ebook of your choice from Ellora's Cave or Cerridwen Press. Email Martha@ellorascave.com, identify yourself as a Mash-Up winner, give her the title and author of the ebook you want and the format you need it in.

Thanks to all for participating! We're eagerly awaiting seeing some of these stories!

Mash-Up Madness - and Contest

by Raelene Gorlinsky

How do you feel about the current craze for mash-ups? The term has been around a while for music and other uses, but now has been applied to the blending of a piece of classic literature with paranormal creatures for a wild and wacky effect. The launch of the fad was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now we've got Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, among others. Coming up are Jane Slayre and Android Karenina.

Although I think the ideas are clever and some of the executions are creative, I'm not personally a fan of this craze. I love Pride and Prejudice for what it is, I don't enjoy any derivatives, especially not something as wild as adding zombies. I also think this is a short-lived fad.

But--in the spirit of celebrating all new ideas and interesting books in fiction, we'll have a contest about this! Post your own best mash-ups in Comments here. Give the mash-up title and the book it's based on (although clearly we should be able to tell from the title). If you want, you can throw in a couple of sentences describing what this theoretical book would be about. Contest closes Monday, April 19. Yes, of course there will be prizes! You know we love to give away free books.

And the Winners Are -- Holiday Title Contest

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Title we love but could never use:
Penny for "Santa's Erotic Adventures...One Elf's Untold Story

Best Double Entendre:
Cari Quinn for "She Came Upon A Midnight Clear"

Would make a great real title for an anthology:
Ms. Snarky Pants for "Tales From the Naughty List"

We wish we could fit it on a cover:
Sharon for "Five golden rings, four call girls, three French maids, two satin gloves, and a big ridge in a pair of jeans"

Because we love 'em all:
Bill Greer for his 'body of work': Astroglide for the Yuletide; Elves and Eggnog: The Untold Story; Jane Finds Her Clitoris Under the Christmas Tree

Winners, email Martha@ellorascave.com to let her know what EC or CP ebook you would like (and the format you need).

Hot Holiday Contest

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Yes, indeed, definitely time for some holiday cheer in the form of a contest or two! Create your most intriguing, sexiest, wildest title for an erotic holiday story! Could be any of the end-of-year holidays--Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year, whatever. But make the title something that would cause a reader to sit up and take notice, that will melt that winter snow and heat the cider!

Post your entries in Comments. Deadline Dec. 21.

Give us some great titles, we'll give you some great ebooks.

Contest Winners: Title It!

We challenged all you brilliant minds to come up with suggested titles using the most common romance title words. (Title It Contest! http://redlinesanddeadlines.blogspot.com/2009/09/title-it-contest.html) If you haven't read the entries--in the Comments on that post--you are missing a whole lot of entertainment.

Lots of great and imaginative entries! The winners are:

Born Blue and All Bad (of course, it's the story of Smurfette) - Danica Avet [We couldn't resist the Smurfette]

All the Bad Blue-Bloods' Forbidden Lust for Midnight's Captive Dragon-Mistress - Angelia Sparrow

Forbidden Moon Dream of the Winter Wolf - Sylvia

Winners, you each get one free ebook of your choice from Ellora's Cave or Cerridwen Press. Please email Martha@ellorascave.com, specify book title and format you need, and she will email you the file. Specify that you are the winner of the R&D blog Title It! contest.

Title It Contest!

In any genre, you can find a plethora of very similar--or even identical--titles. Just try searching on Amazon by some of the more common words, and see how many books you find with the same title. There are just certain words that epitomize a genre. And as we all know, titles cannot be copyrighted, therefore you can't claim someone is copying from you or stop them from using the same title. Otherwise, we'd likely run out of book titles. (You can, however, trademark a title as a "brand" under certain circumstances. You see this with some series names.)

So...here's a list of very common title words for romances (including erotic romances). There will be kudos and prizes to those who create the most imaginative and unique book title from this list. Rules:
~ Title can be any length.
~ You may use only the words on this list and connector or little words (a, and, the, this, of, or, for, with, her, him...).
~ You may use the singular or plural noun form, possessives, or any tense of a verb.

Okay, post your entries in Comments by Friday, September 25! Oh, yeah, extra points for an appropriately creative author pen name along with the title.

All
Bad
Blood
Blue
Born
Bound
Captive
Capture
Dark
Desire
Dragon
Dream
Eye
Forbidden
Hawk
Heart
Hero
Hot
Hunt
Knight
Love
Lust
Magic (or Magick)
Master
Midnight
Mistress
Moon
Night
Paradise
Shadow
Slave
Submission
Surrender
Time
Want
Wicked
Wild
Winter
Wolf