Sex and Bad Language in New Adult Novels

I may be in the minority here, but I'm certain I'm not the only one who gets turned off by all the sex and coarse language in New Adult novels. I've read excerpts from quite a number of NA books, and to be honest, most of them are bordering on erotica. Now if I wanted to read about the explicit, graphic details of sexuals acts (which isn't something that's ever really appealed to me in books), I would buy an erotica novel. But that's not what I want. I want romance and a good story!

So when I read the description of Lee Strauss's SUN & MOON and saw the note at the bottom -- not erotica - no explicit sex or coarse language -- I thought, Yay! How refreshing for an NA novel! And better yet, I was offered an ebook in exchange for an honest review! (Love it when that happens for a book I've already decided I want to read ;-) ) So I'll soon be letting you know what I think of SUN & MOON.

In the meantime, if you want to read this book for yourself, the fantastic news is that it's NOW AVAILABLE! Yip, today is release day!

Sun & Moon by Lee Strauss

(Book One in the Minstrel Series)

If you’re a fan of the movie Inside Llewyn Davis, ABC television’s Nashville or Colleen Hoover’s upcoming novel, "Maybe Someday", the Minstrel Series is for you!

The Minstrel Series is a collection of contemporary romance novels set in the singer/songwriter world. The books are companion novels, with shared settings and characters, but each are complete standalone stories with a HEA (happily ever after) and no cliffhangers!

She has a past. He has a secret.

Katja Stoltz is a risk-taking singer-songwriter hoping to make it in the indie music scene in Dresden, Germany. Micah Sturm's a brooding uptown banker on a quest.

Driven to the streets, Katja is picked up by Micah - but he doesn't want what she thinks he does.

There’s an undeniable attraction between them, a gravitational pull they both struggle to resist. Katja knows she mustn’t fall in love with this handsome enigma. There’s something dark lurking beneath the surface. He could be dangerous.

And even if her life isn’t on the line, her heart most definitely is.




*not erotica - no explicit sex or coarse language

Buy now!

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | itunes

Enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card, MP3s of all four songs featured on Sun & Moon, and a 12 month calendar from Dresden, Germany featuring many of the settings found in Sun & Moon.

Dresden, Germany

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you?

What do you think of all the sex and coarse language in NA?

Love it? Could do without it?

Couldn't really be bothered as long as the story's good?

Dauntless Authors Come Together to Give You a Great GIVEAWAY!

Recently, I was invited to become part of a group of authors known as the Dauntless Authors. I've always wanted to be part of this kind of author group, so of course I said yes! Our first event for the year is a giveaway -- because who doesn't love getting stuff for free? ;-) So read on if you'd like the chance to win an Amazon gift card or books by any of these awesome authors!

~  ~  ~

Join The Dauntless Authors for a giveaway for 2 $25 Amazon gift cards between Mon Jan 13 and Fri Jan 17 (fill out the Rafflecopter form below for the chance to win). Throughout the week we'll also be giving away TONS of ebooks at our Facebook Party!

Team Dauntless:

Kate Avery Ellison 

Nancy S Thompson

Wendy Knight

Amber Argyle

RaShelle Workman

Elle Strauss

Megg Jensen

Angela Corbett

Cindy Hogan

Christy Dorrity

Rachel Morgan

Shantal Hiatt

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GUARDIAN Giveaway Winners Announced!

I know you're just going to scroll right past this to see if your name is down there, but AFTER you've done that, perhaps you could check out the last official stop for the blog tour. Bree from The Magic Attic (such a cool blog name. I totally wish I had a magic attic) is posting a book review of GUARDIAN tonight. Thanks for ending off the blog tour, Bree!




There were sooooo many entries for the giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal (294 entries) that instead of picking one winner for that giveaway, I decided to pick THREE!

THE WINNERS ARE:

Giveaway on Rachel Morgan Writes

An ecopy of Creepy Hollow #1 and Creepy Hollow #2, plus a $20 Amazon gift card

Sher A Hart

Giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Beatriz
Filia
Anna

Giveaway on In Time . . .

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Irika

Giveaway on The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)

Sheena-kay

Congratulations, winners! I shall be contacting you via email. And THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who made this blog tour and the launch of the Creepy Hollow series so much fun for me! You guys are incredible!

~  ~  ~

Come back tomorrow to see the

cover reveal

of LABYRINTH, the second installment in the Creepy Hollow series.

(For those of you who have bought and read GUARDIAN, this won't be a surprise, as the cover for LABYRINTH is included at the end of GUARDIAN, but for everyone else, you should definitely pop by to see it!)

We have a winner!

Yes, the time has finally come to announce the The Power of Tension Blogfest winner!

(I won't waste any time waffling...)

First Prize:

Congratulations, Trisha!

I make it to the corner store with minutes to spare.

Rushing down the kitchen and bathroom aisle, I dart around the corner and see the storeroom door. Suppressing a yell of triumph and relief, I fly at the door and rattle the handle—it turns. I fall on it, push, slip inside. My breaths are harsh in my ears, but at least they’re still coming.

Read More...

Trisha has won a $15 Amazon voucher plus an interview on my blog and Cally’s blog OR a 1^st chapter beta read by both Cally and me. Let us know what you’d like, Trisha!

Second Prize:

Congratulations, Gabriellan!

For the past week, I’d had a countdown clock of sorts in my head. Now, the countdown clock read 00:00:01.

The door to my cell opened. Slowly, the steamy interior of the cell cleared.

“Angelica.”

“That’s not my name.” I made my voice as cold as I could.

Read More...

Gabriellan has won a $10 Amazon voucher plus an interview on my blog and Cally’s blog OR a 1^st chapter beta read by both Cally and me. Let us know what you’d like, Gabriellan!

Third Prize (is a tie!):

Congratulations, Damyanti!

I mean to kill. I know it is only a matter of time today, I’ve chosen my spot well.

A man on the hospital escalator going down watches a woman on her way up. A staircase separates the two escalators, perhaps for busy doctors who can’t get enough cardio into their week. The man turns, raises his head to gaze at her trim little figure. She does not notice him watching her, nor does he know I hold him in my sight.

Read More... (violence warning)

Third Prize (is a tie!):

Congratulations, Sarah!

Emily walked the bird block. Large almost-birds hissed and whispered in the trees—Bird hater, bird hater.

This last block to school belonged to the birds for a week now, though no one else heard them. Emily didn’t look at them. If she did, they would slide around on the branches like shadows. She wouldn’t be able to tell where their beaks ended and their heads began. The largest of them would open his mouth in a great yawn, and for a second, Emily would feel all swallowed up. That’s what happened the first day. The day after they’d lost the softball championship.

Read More...


Damyanti and Sarah have each won a $5 Amazon voucher.

Honourable Mentions

Honourable mentions go to our two remaining finalists, J. C. Martin, Fighter Writer and Steph from Word by Word. Between them, they received over 20% of the votes in the competition, which just shows how close the results were.

~ ~ ~

Thanks again to everyone who entered the blogfest, to everyone who voted, and to everyone who commented. You helped to make the competition a wonderful success!

Yay for tension!

Tension Blogfest Finalists Announced!

Wow, I had no idea it would be so tough to choose just six out of all those entries! Thank you once again to everyone who wrote a tension-filled piece. The standard of the entries was most deliciously high. Yum...

And now I can probably write any rubbish I feel like, because I'm sure you've skipped right past this part to see if your name is on the list.

Yum-di-dum-di-dum... Oodle-yoody-bum...
Supercalifragi-whatever-Mary-Poppins-said-alidocious...

Right, here it is! Please join Cally and me in congratulating...

Our top six (in alphabetical order):

• Damyanti @ Amlokiblogs
• J. C. Martin, Fighter Writer
• Letter to the Cosmos: The Bird Hater
• Of a Writerly Sort
• Trisha @ WORD+STUFF
• Word by Word

*applause*

Where to from here?

Since it was so hard to narrow it down to six, we’ve decided we’re not going to choose who comes first, second and third. Instead, we’re handing that tricky job over to you!

Read the finalist entries to remind yourself what they're about, and then you have until 11.59pm AEST time Tuesday 7 June (which is 9.59am Tuesday in New York, if that helps) to cast your vote on who should be crowned The Tension Legend. Choose wisely, because you only get one vote. Cally and I will announce the winners on both of our blogs at 10pm AEST next Wednesday 8 June (8am Wednesday, New York time).




PS. We've intentionally hidden the results from you because we're mean like that ;-) Plus it will make the announcement of the winners more exciting!

The Power of Tension Blogfest

We all know that in fiction, tension is vital. Tension ramps up the emotional stakes for your characters and keeps readers burning through the pages to find out whether that tension is resolved. Tension comes in many forms – it could be animosity between family members built up over many years, sexual tension between strangers, or jealousy between work colleagues as they vie for a lucrative promotion.

SO... 
*finger-drumroll on desk* 
*finger-cymbal-crash on mouse*
The Power of Tension Blogfest has arrived!

What do I do?

Give us an excerpt (up to 300 words) from your manuscript or recently completed work (or just a random scene) that just drips with tension and will tie us up in knots wanting to know more. It doesn’t matter what the piece is about, as long as it screams tension.

What are the prizes?

• 1^st prize: $15 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 2^nd prize: $10 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 3^rd prize: $5 Amazon voucher

Prizes? I’m in! What are the rules?

• The blogfest runs from TODAY Monday 23 May to Friday 27 May.
• Post your entry on your blog and then add a direct link to your post to the linky tool at either Cally Jackson Writes or Rachel Morgan Writes before 11.59pm Friday 27 May.
• Come back on Thursday 2 June to see the six finalists (chosen by us), and then again on Monday 6 June to see the winners!
• All genres and forms of tension are welcome, but if your entry includes anything graphic, please include a warning at the beginning of your post!

Anything else I should do? 

Glad you asked. These aren’t mandatory, but they’d definitely be appreciated :-)

• Include our badge in your sidebar during the duration of the blogfest (download the image above)
• Post and/or tweet about the challenge in the weeks leading up to spread the word.
• Throughout the challenge week, check out as many other entries as you can and give the entrants some comment love!

Can’t wait to read all of your entries!
The linky list is below :-)

PLEASE LINK DIRECTLY TO YOUR POST AND NOT JUST TO YOUR BLOG HOMEPAGE.

Treasure Hunt Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the X Marks the Spot Treasure Hunt!

I hope you guys had fun finding the golden eggs.

Mr Random.org was kind enough to choose the winner....

who is....

Crystal!

Congrats, Crystal. I'll be sending a $10 Amazon Gift Card your way.

Enjoy :-)

PS. Don't forget about the Power of Tension Blogfest I'm hosting with Cally Jackson!

The Power of Tension Blogfest

tension noun mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.

We all know that in fiction, tension is vital. Tension ramps up the emotional stakes for your characters and keeps readers burning through the pages to find out whether that tension is resolved. Tension comes in many forms – it could be animosity between family members built up over many years, sexual tension between strangers, or jealousy between work colleagues as they vie for a lucrative promotion.

SO, we want to see how tense your fiction can be. Which means... Blogfest Time! 

Yup, Cally Jackson and I our hosting our very first blogfest!

"But, Rach," I hear you say. "I just finished the A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the alphabet is still whirling before my eyes, and to be honest I'm *$%#$#* exhausted!"

And to that I say... "Don't be such a party pooper! I know you've got some fabulous tension-filled scenes filed away somewhere in your computer/notebook/alphabet-filled brain. They're probably the scenes you had the most fun writing!"

Ok fine... What do I do?

Give us an excerpt (up to 300 words) from your manuscript or recently completed work (or just a random scene) that just drips with tension and will tie us up in knots wanting to know more. It doesn’t matter what the piece is about, as long as it screams tension.

What are the prizes?

• 1^st prize: $15 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 2^nd prize: $10 Amazon voucher + interview on Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes OR 1^st chapter beta read by Cally and Rachel
• 3^rd prize: $5 Amazon voucher

Prizes? I’m in! What are the rules?

• The blogfest will run from Monday 23 May to Friday 27 May. (So you A-Z challengers can have a few weeks breathing space!)
• At 12:01am (AEST) Monday 23 May, a linky tool will go live on both Cally Jackson Writes and Rachel Morgan Writes.  Post your entry on your blog and then add a direct link to your post to the linky tool on either blog before 11.59pm Friday 27 May.
• Come back on Thursday 2 June to see the six finalists (chosen by us), and then again on Monday 6 June to see the winners!
• All genres and forms of tension are welcome, but if your entry includes anything graphic, please include a warning at the beginning of your post!

Anything else I should do? 

Glad you asked. These aren’t mandatory, but they’d definitely be appreciated :-)

• Include our badge in your sidebar during the duration of the blogfest (download the image above)
• Post and/or tweet about the challenge in the weeks leading up to spread the word.
• Throughout the challenge week, check out as many other entries as you can and give the entrants some comment love!

Can’t wait to read all of your entries. Please leave a comment to let us know you’re planning to enter. :-)

X Marks the Spot!

It's a treasure hunt!

My blog isn't a year old yet and I already have FAR more followers than I ever thought would be interested in reading what I have to say here ;-) I have learned so much from "meeting" all of you, and though blogging is a super time-suck I enjoy every minute of it! And I hit a nice number today - 333 (thanks, Manzanita!).

To say THANK YOU to all my followers I'm giving away a $10 Amazon gift card!

Just think of all the $0.99 e-books you could buy with that! (For those of you who don't do math, it's TEN plus a bit of change...;-)). To make it fun I decided to have a little treasure hunt, and since we just had Easter, it's golden Easter eggs you'll be hunting for. Here's what you gotta do:

• Be a follower of this blog (duh, this whole thing is to say thanks to FOLLOWERS!)
• Visit the other pages on this blog (About Me, Book Reviews etc) as well as the sidebar and count all the golden Easter eggs you see.
• For an additional entry tell me where you found the X-marked Easter egg.
• You don't have to tweet or facebook this if you don't feel like it, but if you do I'd greatly appreciate it :-) (I even wrote out this lovely 84 character message to make it easy for you to copy and paste ;) Count the Easter eggs and you could win a $10 Amazon gift card! http://bit.ly/kykxAV )
• You have until the end of next Thursday, the 5th of May. I'll randomly draw a winner on Friday 6th May.

THIS TREASURE HUNT IS NOW OVER.