Review & Giveaway Featuring Author Great Lauren Dane + 3 chances to WIN!

will try to enter

By commenting you did. But should you have a question of Lauren be sure and ask and check back periodically as she will be popping in and out. :)

I wish luck to all those enter.

Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!

Thanks Angela, Happy Labor Day!

Welcome.
I hope you had a lovely Labor day

Thanks for sharing.

I will check into it.

Love Lauren Dane's work. Thanks for the contest.

I think I discovered Laurens Cascadia Wolves 1st(from her paranormal series) then began try all her others series. Love them all, but there is something special about the Browns. Maybe because I'm an only child and just go wow...at the family dynamics. (course the fact that all the guys are uber hot...well that doesn't hurt either!-LOL)

thanks for the contest

I know you love contests. ;) Happy Labor Day ~

i am entering thank you

Hi Lauren,

Dana made me a fan by handing me one of your books and now I'm a voracious, lol. I do have a question for you though. Do you think that self publishing at places like Amazon for Kindle, etc., help or hurt an author who is just beginning?

Hi there Char!

Like anything else, I would say self publishing is what you make of it. Always remember that what you put out there is out there forever. Remember that you're creating an impression with readers so if you put something out on your own, be sure it's the very best thing you can do. Get it edited *professionally* spend the time and money to create a great product and remember that just because the book is out there doesn't mean people will know that. Promotion, *effective* promotion is incredibly important. Too often I see people out there saying things like, "don't complain if it's got errors, what do you want for .99 cents?" To which I reply, "I want a good product and if you don't create that, I can find it elsewhere."

LOL, voracious reader, btw.

I read all the time, usually, what ever's handy or at the library. I do like the family type and romance, so I know I'd like the Browns. My husband is disabled, so I read to him, out loud. If we're both interested, I read out loud until either my voice gives out, or he falls asleep! Which usually takes till morning.
If I had a chance to win one book, (I don't have a kindle), it would have to be the first in the series, because I haven't read any. If that wasn't available, but another was, that would be great too, as I read your blog and it sounds as though each book, can stand alone. That's talent.
My question is, what inspired you to write this series, since you also write in other genres?
Is this your favorite series or would that be another series of yours, and if so, which one? (preparing my wish list for Amazon)

Mare~

Marilyn - thanks for the comments! This series really came from Erin. I had this image of her, the one that ended up being the opening of Laid Bare, of this rocker standing on a stage, kicking butt and loving her life. The rest sort of flowed from there as her family revealed itself to me and I started writing.

Yes, I write in several genres - I started out in paranormal romance and I still write that along with futuristic and contemporary romance (erotic and sensual).

As for my favorite of all my series? That's a hard question! I love them all for different reasons. Certainly I'm proud of the Browns, my Chase brothers (small town romance, not erotic), my Federation books (futuristic erotic romance) have been a great challenge and I love writing them too.

Aloha Lauren,

Given the current situation with many big bookstores faltering, what should an aspiring writer do? Is it better to just self-publish and hope that word of mouth will help or should they try to get agents and publishing companies to buy their books?

Also, so, what is your inspiration for your storylines? Do you visualize the story first? And has there been any you wish you could go back and redo?

Thank you for your time!

Btw, D is a great book pimpette, isn't she?

I believe in the future of publishing. Both in print and digitally. And I believe in the future of PUBLISHERS as well. Many times the term "digital" or "epublishing" is confused with self publishing, which is a completely different thing. Many people who self publish their books may sell them in digital format. But epublishers are actually publishers - like Samhain for instance. Samhain has editors, cover artists, proof readers, staff who format the digital books and then a sales staff who sells the books to different distributors. They've got marketing people who create ads and work on promotional ideas for the publisher and its writers. This is all work *I* don't have to do and I appreciate that as I have little enough time as it is.

I'm not opposed to self publishing, but it's not a choice I would have made as a new writer. Having the support of a publisher to get my name out there and help me produce the best product I could was hugely important and I'm glad I did it that way.

Every writer has her own path and so yours may be different. The only thing I say is that people should know up front all the plusses and minuses of anything they do.

My digital books make up for roughly 50% of my sales with Berkley and I've been writing for Samhain since 2006. A huge part of my base buys their books in digital formats. So in my case, and the case of many like me, ebooks and epublishing have been quite a good format.

My inspiration comes from everything really. A snippet of a song lyric, a picture I see in a magazine, dreams, etc. I loosely plot but most everything inside a story comes as I write.

Dana,

I will the link to this post in the Tuesday edition of Today On Gather.

Kewl- Thanks Connie!

I will try and check it out. thanks

This post is spotlighted in the What Is Happening Today On Gather - Tuesday September 05, 2011.

Congratulations!

You can view it by clicking HERE.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

This post is spotlighted in the What Is Happening Today On Gather - Tuesday September 05, 2011.

Congratulations!

You can view it by clicking HERE.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

What inspired you to write?

I've written most of my life in one way or another. Worked on and then ran the literary magazine in high school. Did columns in the paper in college, etc. But I was on bed rest with a high risk pregnancy and had the time so I thought, why not? My husband brought home a second hand laptop and I wrote my first book (and a few others after) on it. I never really looked back, LOL.

Who are your favorite authors/books?

I read across several genres so I love Frank Herbert, William Gibson, Louise Marley, Sheri S. Tepper, Margaret Atwood, JD Robb, Nalini Singh, Megan Hart, Jennifer Crusie to name just a few

Thanks for the giveaway info.

Dana,

This post is spotlighted in the
What Is Happening Today On Gather - Wednesday September 07, 2011

Congratulations!

I hope you have the time to check out the other material that is spotlighted as well. Have a wonderful night and day.

Dana,

For some reason, I can no longer see the photos in this post

I'm not sure. May be a loading issue. I've noticed I've been having issues getting any of my pics open. Will try and reload in a bit. Thanks Connie!

thanks!

Lauren,
If you were not writing what else would you be doing?
Also what has being a writer provided you the chance to do?

As I was just emailed by Dana (you have NO idea what a good time this came at), I wanted to thank Dana and Lauren, so very much. I'll be reading as I haven't slept in well.. going on four days. You've brightened my day so much!

Mare~