FREE EBOOK FROM AMAZON

Ugh, I really hate this marketing stuff but here goes...

Again, my steamy romantic mystery SET UP will be free from Amazon tomorrow, October 6th. If anyone hasn't read it, this is your chance.

The earring giveaway kind of ties in with it, so this is a good time for it to be free again!

And here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Set-Up-ebook/dp/B008QWTYIS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349450325&sr=1-1&keywords=set+up+by+cheryl+b+dale

FREE BOOK FOR KINDLE

My publisher MuseItUp has put SET UP in Amazon's KDP program. I'm not sure what this means except that there will be several days when readers can download it free.

I often take advantage of Kindle's free offers because if I paid full price for all I read, I'd soon be broke. So I'm happy others who do the same thing will be able to download SET UP.

Two days for the free download are coming up this week. September 14th and 15th. That's next Friday and Saturday.

So anyone who likes romantic suspense with some sex -- and yes, I've had some complaints the mystery is too heavy and other complaints that the romance is too heavy -- then I hope you'll remember. I'll try to blog about it again the day before to remind anyone interested that it will be available.

UPDATED REVISION for 99 Cents

My romantic suspense TREACHEROUS BEAUTIES was published years ago--and used as the basis for a TV movie--but I recently got the rights back. After updating and (since I can't resist fiddling with words) revising it, I am self-publishing it for $.99. Right now, it's up on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Treacherous-Beauties-ebook/dp/B007P5461C/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332979452&sr=1-2

Also on Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145317

I imagine it'll take longer for Barnes and Noble, and the iTunes store to pick it up but it'll eventually be there, too.

So anyone who's read it: Don't buy it again! Anyone interested in checking out my style: This is a cheap intro.

Calista Taylor did the new cover art, and I really like it.

WAS INSTEAD OF WERE

I'm excited. Kind of.

THE MAN IN THE BOAT is now available in the MuseItUp bookstore - www.MuseItUp.com - and also on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Boat-ebook/dp/B007JW8L94/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331912514&sr=1-1 but it isn't out yet at Barnes and Noble or from Apple. They sometimes take longer to get books up.

Why I'm not excited? I got an advance copy and read it night before last. Not out of vanity. Mainly to make sure the formatting was okay. And it was. Except about 30-40 pages in, I read a sentence and stopped, horrified. Reread it to be sure. Yep. There was a 'was' where a 'were' should have been.

In the beginning, a line editor read the entire manuscript, sent it back to me with changes, I accepted or defended, sent back; she accepted, disputed, sent back; I accepted/refused/defended, sent back. We finally agreed on the 6th or so version which I reread and approved.

The copy editor got it next. Same procedures. Six or seven times through, I reread one last time and approved.

Publisher got it, sent me final galleys. I went through, reread, made a few last corrections, sent back.

So how the heck did that 'was' sneak in instead of the 'were' that should have been there?

I'm hardened to people disapproving of sex scenes. But this! I'm mortified!

Glad I don't have to worry about my old English teachers reading romance.

GOLDEN LIES by Barbara Freethy

Barbara Freethy is a nice writer and delivers her usual entertaining story in GOLDEN LIES.

When Riley takes his grandmother to the House of Hathaway to have them appraise a Chinese dragon she found in her attic, the dragon disappears when one of the Hathaways takes it off site and disappears.

The culprit is Paige's father and at first she's disbelieving (he'd never take someone else's property out of their showroom and emplorium), then shocked, and finally frightened when her father turns up in an alley, unconscious and near death. Naturally the dragon is gone.

Riley's angry that the Hathaways would try to take advantage of his grandmother and is determined that they will return it one way or the other. Paige wants to know where her father took the dragon and why. Together they go on a search that takes them to San Francisco's Chinatown leads back to China itself.

Nice easy read.

CHASE

I just finished CHASE by Larion Wills. MuseItUp, publisher of this romantic suspense, is also pubbing my romantic mysteries as ebooks next year.

This is an enjoyable read. It starts off with Chase coming back to the town he left eleven years before to discover whether or not he'd fathered a child. His girl friend at the time had told him she was pregnant before her father had him beat up and run out of town. At eighteen, he didn't have many options and the girl wasn't always truthful.

He finds the girl wasn't lying. Chase does have a son. But the girl's disappeared and her younger sister Sydney has adopted his child and raised him.

This isn't the usual 'secret baby, fight between who gets it' romance. It's better, with the bad guy dead but still stirring up trouble. The heroine Sydney has OCD, but she was determined to save Chase's son for him because like her sister, she loved Chase. And turns out Chase loves her back.

Only now there are people who want her and him both out of the way.

I was kind of surprised at the villain's unmasking, only to be further surprised at the end though I shouldn't have been when I thought about it.

Nice story and serviceable writing. Kept me engrossed all the way through. If you like romantic suspense, you'll enjoy this.

MUSEITUP PUBLISHING

I have good news. MuseItUp has offered for my romantic suspense, THE MAN IN THE BOAT. It'll be coming out next March if everything goes all right.

The story's about a woman who's retreated to a lakeside cottage to decide what to do about her crumbling marriage. A boat slams into the bank next to where she's sunning, its driver wounded. When she runs for help, he and the boat disappear.

Afterward, people break in on her at the lake, and later at her house.

Then she finds her husband knows more about what's going on that he lets on.

Kind of a woman in jeopardy, with the heroine chased by the bad guys as she wonders whether she can trust her husband or not. Started out as a mystery but quickly turned into romance. Some sex (letting you know ahead of time, Shannon!) for those who prefer it sweet.

MuseItUp is a fairly new epublisher, but from what I can see, they do a good job on edits. That, to me, is most important. I try to turn in clean manuscripts, but everyone needs a good editor. Writers owe it to readers to put out the best products they can. The most wonderful story in the world suffers if the writing's bad.

So I'm off to drink a glass of whatever. Or maybe just to eat chocolate. Yum.

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

I used to love reading romantic suspense but lately, if it doesn't involve werewolves or vampires, it's FBI agents or rogue CIA agents; or drug dealers or forensic examiners or some kind of stuff like that. I'm tired of heroes and heroines who are barely outrunning the bad guys but who take time for a torrid sexual encounter with honey and/or whipped cream anyway. I'm tired of a child getting kidnapped and his/her mother thinking about nothing but jumping into bed with her only hope of saving him (an outlaw/ cop/federal agent/soldier of fortune) when fear for her child should be uppermost in her mind.

What happened to the good old stories about ordinary people in unexpected situations who don't have super agents/agencies to fall back on? Who can control their sexual impulses, especially in life-threatening situations?

I'm sure there are books out there somewhere that I'd like, but I can't seem to find them. The last one I tried I won't even mention because I'm about to stop reading it.

So there.