strong heroines

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Jilly: $0.99 pre-order for The Seeds of Power

The Seeds of Power is live on Amazon! Whoo!

I was beginning to think I’d never get there. It was a super-exciting moment to get the email, and even better that I was Skyping with fellow 8 Lady Jeanne at the time.

The ebook will go on sale next Saturday for $3.99 but I wanted to give regular readers of 8LW the chance to pick it up for $0.99, so I decided to do a stealth pre-order for the next week. If you’d like to try the book, pre-order before Saturday and you’ll get the lower price.

(The dollar pricing is for Amazon.com. If your local Amazon is different, then the pre-order is set at the minimum price for your territory, again until next Saturday).

As a reminder, the book is fantasy romance in a historical setting. Expect a strong-minded heroine, chivalrous hero, forced marriage, natural magic, and life-or-death stakes.

Here’s the blurb:

Her unique skills keep her safe. Until her greatest strength becomes her fatal weakness.

Princess Christal of Larrochar learned long ago that to marry was to risk her life. At twenty-eight she’s resolutely unwed, trusted assistant to the King’s Cultivator and an expert in rare plants.

Then, to her horror, she receives a marriage proposal she can’t refuse. All Prince Daire of Caldermor cares about is elan—the mysterious golden beans that bring his family untold wealth and power. If Daire wants Christal, elan must be at the root of his interest.

Christal’s father would sacrifice her to discover elan’s secrets. The Calderrans would kill to keep them secure. To save herself Christal will need every kernel of knowledge she’s ever gleaned. And the support of Kiran Randsen, elite soldier turned Calderran bodyguard, who may be something even rarer than elan—a man she’d trust with her life.

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I hope you try it. And I really, really hope you like it!

Pre-order link for Amazon.com here

Pre-order link for Amazon.co.uk here

Thank you for sharing the journey to publication with me 😀

As our professor Jenny Crusie used to say in class, Nothing But Good Times Ahead!

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Michaeline: Scarlett O’Hara

lush green velvet curtains with gold fringe hanging over a marble hall

Green curtains can stick in the mind for a very long time. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Originally, this post was going to be about events that boost the turning points of a story, but then in walked Scarlett O’Hara. And I don’t know about you, but when Scarlett O’Hara walks into my brain, I pay attention.

Now, I think it’s well established that Scarlett O’Hara, the heroine of Gone With the Wind, is not just a racist, but an all-around sociopath. With a few possible exceptions (and they mostly die during the course of the book), if a human being does not advance Scarlett’s sexual and/or economic agendas, the person has no value in her eyes and may be trampled over at will. She treats everyone like objects.

That doesn’t make her a very likeable character, and one of the pieces of writing advice we often run across is, “Make your heroine likeable.” Very good, very serviceable advice. But Scarlett swooshes right past the writing rule, because rules don’t apply to Scarlett. Continue reading →

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Jilly: Strong Women and Alpha Heroines

Alpha HeroinesHow strong do you like your heroines? Do you think there’s a difference between a strong heroine and an Alpha? If so, do you have a preference?

Last Sunday I wrote about my theory that Alpha Male heroes work best in sub-genres like paranormal romance, historicals, or romantic suspense, the idea being that extreme manifestations of dominant behavior are fun to read about in worlds where such behavior is not only expected, but necessary. In a setting that’s closer to real life, like contemporary romance, the reader’s tolerance for macho chest-beating is much, much lower.

In last week’s discussion, regular 8 Ladies visitor Rachel Beecroft said “the other BIG reason I love Alpha men is because it generally takes an Alpha woman to tame them (at least in the stories I like – I can’t be bothered with Alpha man being tamed by ‘little me’ heroine). Yes! Exactly what Rachel said, and we agreed we’d follow up today Continue reading →