12 Best Selling Authors Box Up their Dangerous Passions

Get Lost in a Story Readers, there's a new way for authors to networking -- putting their books into boxed sets.  What's in it for you? You get exposure to authors who have something in common, and chances are if you love one author, you'll love her peers.

So for three months and three months only 12 bestselling authors are boxing it up!





READ ON!

Twelve authors got together to do a boxed set, a different sort of anthology.  We've got SEALs, Military heroes, cops, security specialists...12 alpha heroes and the women they fall in love with!  It's called Dangerous Passions and releases March 3 but is available for pre-order now for three months only.  And the best part is, you get twelve sexy heroes for the low low price of .99 :)  Take a look at the quote cards below for a great intro into each of the books.

Dangerous Passions: 12 Tales of Contemporary Sexy Hot Alpha Heroes -- Cops, Navy SEALs, Marines, Military, FBI Agents, Secret Agents, Police Captains, Spies, and More
A romance multi-author box set and romantic suspense collections and anthologies of action and adventure, contemporary romance, military romance, romantic thriller, and sexy romance.



11 by Kylie Brant, National Bestselling Author: Five years after escaping from The Collector Mia Deleon stops hiding and teams up with security expert Jude Bishop to track her former captor. Jude's efforts to help Mia are complicated by the growing attraction between them. Because their race to trail the sexual sadist brings Mia ever closer to the man determined to see his collection finally complete....

DANGEROUS CURVES by Nina Bruhns, New York Times Bestselling Author: A spec ops transporter for STORM Corps takes on drones, bad guys, and car chases on the coast of Italy—and falls for a beautiful scientist whose curves are far more dangerous than the road!

IN TOO DEEP by Opal Carew, New York Times Bestselling Author: Angel has been deep undercover in the mob for far too long. Four years ago, she was forced to betray the only man she ever loved. He barely got away with his life, and now he hates her. Too bad they’ve been partnered to work together. As man and wife.

SEAL’S EMBRACE by Elle James, New York Times Bestselling Author: Injured Navy SEAL and the critical care nurse he's attempting to woo join forces to stop a terrorist attack at a military hospital in Germany.

BRIDGER’S LAST STAND by Linda Winstead Jones, New York Times Bestselling Author: When a one night stand makes Frannie a witness to murder and puts her in danger, Detective Malcolm Bridger refuses to let her out of his sight until the murderer is caught.

FLASH FIRE by Elle Kennedy, USA Today Bestselling Author: Navy SEAL Cash McCoy knows all about danger, but when it comes to the love of his life, this alpha soldier does everything in his power to keep Jen Scott happy and safe. When the tables are turned and Jen places herself in harm’s way for her job, Cash must learn to trust the woman he loves…or lose her forever.

INTO DANGER by Gennita Low, New York Times Bestselling Author: Navy SEAL, Steve McMillan, has been pulled from his team to work with CIA's Task Force Two, where he's assigned to deal with the "world's most glamorous assassin." Marlena Maxwell proves to be as seductive and dangerous as her reputation as the assignment becomes a game of cross and double-cross. Into Danger is the winner of RT Book Reviews' Best Romantic Intrigue.

EMBATTLED HEARTS by J.M. Madden, New York Times Bestselling Author: For the first time in years former Marine John Palmer has met a woman that makes him feel like the man he used to be, before his catastrophic injury. When a stalker threatens her, it's his job to remove the threat. Why does the possibility of having his heart destroyed scare him more than taking on a killer?
DEATHTRAP by Dana Marton, New York Times Bestselling Author: The only woman he could ever love, has a secret he could never forgive.

SHADOW OF THE HAWK by Julie Miller, USA Today Bestselling Author: A Marine whose soul is tortured by his mystical abilities puts his life—and heart—on the line to rescue a Plain Jane school teacher and her students from an archaeological field trip gone horribly wrong.

IMPOSTER by Karen Fenech, USA Today Bestselling Author: Chemist Dr. Eve Collins, wrongly accused by the CIA of developing a chemical weapon, learns someone has set her up as a scapegoat. That “someone” wants her dead. To save her life, she must join forces with CIA Operative John Burke—the man who doesn't believe her claim of innocence and the man she’s falling in love with.

STRONGER THAN SIN by Caridad Piñeiro, New York Times Bestselling Author: To save his family’s life, he must risk losing the woman with whom he is falling in love.

 

And don't miss the Dangerous Passions release party on March 5!  Follow the link  https://www.facebook.com/events/911561568876709  from 4-8 (EST).  Every half hour there's a new chance to comment for the chance of winning a Kindle, Amazon gift cards and free books. 

 

Kylie Brant Writes Heart-Pounding Suspense

Kylie Brant is the author of thirty-five romantic suspense novels, writing for Harlequin and Berkley until her more recent venture into self-publishing.  She’s been nominated for three RITA awards and five Romantic Times awards while winning RT’s Career Achievement Award and two overall Daphne du Maurier awards.  Her books are published in twenty-six countries and eighteen languages.

THE STORY BLURB

Eleven. For three long years that’s what she was called by The Collector, the sexual sadist who enslaved her.

Mia Deleon fought the odds and escaped only to discover that no one would believe her about the ordeal she’d endured. Not the police. Not her family or friends. Even the investigators she hired couldn’t find a trace of the sexual predator. So with help, she disappeared, always looking over her shoulder, living in the shadows. Knowing she’d never be safe while he was still free.

Security expert Jude Bishop had helped her vanish. Now he’s been hired to bring Mia back. A criminal profiler may have discovered a tenuous link to her case. But Jude is nearly too late because The Collector has already found Mia, too. And their race to trail the sexual sadist turned killer brings Mia ever closer to the man obsessed with her.

Because she became his prized possession the moment she’d evaded him. And he’ll stop at nothing to see his collection finally complete…

READ A LITTLE, BUY THE BOOK

Jan Schliesman: How often to you get lost in a story?

Kylie Brant:  Often, but not as frequently as I’d like.  When I started writing that time came directly out of my reading time.  My favorite books are those that make me forget I’m a writer…I forget to mentally edit and wordsmith and just turn pages, as rapidly as possible.  What I’ve learned is that I need to read in order to write.   Otherwise the words seem to dry up.  Which is wonderful, because now I have a real excuse to take time away from my writing deadlines to read :)

Jan Schliesman: How did you know that romantic suspense was your style?

Kylie Brant:  I was reading most of Harlequin’s lines back in the day and still recall when Silhouette (Harlequin) Intimate Moments’ line was created.  I read the first four offerings that first month and knew this would be my favorite line.  The suspense was that something extra I’d been looking for and I was hooked.  A couple years later when I decided to try my hand at writing a book, I knew exactly what line I wanted to target!

Jan Schliesman: What’s the creepiest thing you’ve done in the name of research?

Kylie Brant:  You have to realize that to a suspense author, creepy equates with cool :)  I’ve done some really fun things for research :)  A couple years ago I attended a week long Sirchie Academy that is usually only offered to detectives for evidence collection training.  It was awesome and we left the instructor a bit awed at how devious our writer brains were, LOL.  The creepiest thing I’ve done was crawling through caves in the Willamette Forest looking for the perfect place for my villain to stash his victims.  It actually took me four caves to recall that *bats* live in caves.  I HATE bats!  But one of the caves I crawled through ended up being featured in the book, so there’s that!

Jan Schliesman: How you do get in the "writer's zone"?

Kylie Brant:  Well, I can tell you my little rituals of needing a Diet Coke and a few rounds of Trivia Crack and maybe one or two of Solitaire Live.  But that’s really all about procrastination.  The zone begins when I edit what I wrote the day before and start getting those new words down on paper.  I have to write enough to get sucked back in…and then it’s just a matter of pages to get to the daily goal.

 

Jan Schliesman: Unhealthiest habit?           

Kylie Brant:  Hmm, that’d have to be my eating habits, LOL.  I have a professed disdain for green things and try to avoid fruit whenever possible.  We’re counting the Diet Coke as healthy, right?

Jan Schliesman: If you could go back and pick a different career, what would it be?

Kylie Brant:  Oh I’d definitely be a homicide detective and/or an evidence tech.  Be invited to murder scenes and figuring out who did it?  That’d be awesome :)

Jan Schliesman: What do you love most about your current release?

Kylie Brant:  This one stayed with me a while after finishing it.  It was like I couldn’t quite let go of the characters.  That was a new experience.   Mia was so damaged, her character arc was a challenge to get exactly right.  But she and Jude were so real to me it was a little scary.

Jan Schliesman: Favorite sports team?

Kylie Brant:  Iowa Hawkeyes.  We have football tickets and tailgate before games with the family.  It’s great fun!

Jan Schliesman: The one question you wish someone would ask you??

Kylie Brant:  Still waiting for someone to ask me to be Supreme Queen Duchess of the Universe.  (I’ve got the title nailed down in *my own* universe…)

Jan’s GOTTA ASK:  

Kylie’s GOTTA ANSWER:   Um… do they have orange sherbet?  That’d be my pick.

Thanks so much, Kylie for joining us today!  Next up for Kylie will be SECRETS OF THE DEAD, a May release.  It’s a return to The Mindhunters series and this will be book 7.

 A QUESTION FOR KYLIE'S FANS...All of our characters have flaws and lord knows I have my own.  Worst writing flaw?  I’m the world’s worst procrastinator.  You know the saying, ‘Hard work pays off in the long run, but procrastination pays off now!”  Which of course bites me as deadlines loom.  
For a chance to win a copy of Kylie Brant's latest release, 11, Answer this question in the comments section below, along with your email address:

 What’s your worst flaw and how does it affect you?

FIND KYLIE BRANT:

Contact   Website   Facebook   Twitter   @KylieBrant

Kylie Brant

Kylie Brant is about the most generous published author I've had the pleasure to have known. I can't tell you as an unpublished writer how many times she answered questions, gave a quick read to see if I got something right. Today, this award-winning author will grace us with her blurbs, and then share something different with GLIAS readers. Since many of us are writers, she'll talk about GETTING IT BACKWARDS: ACQUIRING AN AGENT. Please welcome, Kylie Brant.

Kylie Brant is the author of thirty-one romantic suspense novels for Harlequin and Berkley Sensation. She is a three-time Rita finalist and has been nominated five times for Romantic Times awards, including a win for Career Achievement. She’s also the recipient of two Daphne du Maurier awards. Her books have been published in twenty-five countries and translated into fifteen languages.

INTERVIEW QUESTION:

What’s in your refrigerator right now?

I’d say mold—lots of it—but the truth is my husband would never let that happen J. The only thing that man can bring himself to throw away is old food. And once things hit the frig, if we don’t eat them the next day they’re forgotten. The one staple that I never let us run low on is Diet Coke.

DEADLY INTENT blurb:

No one knows the patterns and nuances of communication like forensic linguist Macy Reid. She is also an expert on kidnapping, having experienced firsthand the stark terror of being abducted when she was a child. So she is the perfect investigator to be called in when a Denver tycoon’s eleven-year-old daughter is abducted—for the second time.

The biggest stumbling block for Macy may be a member of her own team: Kellan Burke, the wisecracking, rule-breaking investigator who relishes getting under Macy’s skin. Their styles couldn’t be more different; the attraction between them more explosive. And when it becomes apparent that Macy can’t solve this case without confronting the demons from her past, Kell is just the man to take her there—and back.

April 2011

Deadly Dreams

Berkley Sensation

ISBN: 0425240681

Risa Chandler's prescient dreams of death and murder haunted her nights. They also proved invaluable for Adam Raiker's brilliant team of forensic criminologists, the Mindhunters--until a tragic end to one case shattered Risa's confidence, and drove her into seclusion. But for Risa, there's no hiding from death--or from her dreams.

Though skeptical, Philadelphia homicide detective Nate McGuire enlists Risa's help in finding a serial killer who has claimed three victims. Reluctantly, she agrees. Because she's been dreaming again--rituals by fire, charred horrors, tortured screams. But Risa's feeling something else: the heat of a stranger who's watching her just as closely, a madman with dreams of his own--to make Risa his ultimate fiery sacrifice.

August 2011

Deadly Sins

Berkley Sensation

ISBN: 0425242706

An unknown assassin has appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner, brutally taking out high-level human targets citywide. And the list of suspects is a sensitive one: an Iranian diplomat, a U.S. Senator, and a vengeful priest. It’s just the kind of case to test the resolve of a tough FBI agent like Jaid Marlowe. Especially
when her new partner is Adam Raiker, Jaid’s former colleague, and ex-lover. But that’s history—and it left scars.

Determined to leave it behind them, Jaid and Adam dive into the most shocking investigation of their careers. But when Adam himself becomes a suspect, Jaid must choose between past and present. Her choice plunges them into a far-reaching high-level conspiracy of shadows—and on the run not only from secrets and lies, but for their lives. Now, despitetheir history they have only each other, and the desperate hope thatlove can keep them alive.

Getting it Backwards: Acquiring an Agent

The biggest misconception I run into with aspiring authors is their thinking that an agent is going to be their ticket to that coveted first sale. The steady flow of rejections from editors will stop they seem to believe, if they have an agent backing them. In fact, I get the impression that many see the coveted agent as the brass ring, the golden key that will unlock the door to that obstruction in their career march. Which I think is exactly backward, but we’ll get to that later.

To clear up some of the misinformation

1) Will having an agent get me read faster by an editor?

Very possibly. Many houses consider agents as ‘first reads’ and tend to believe if a well-respected agent has brought the manuscript to their door, they can count on it to have appropriate sentence structure and grammar, and usually be suitable for their line or imprint. That’s why many publishers will only consider agented manuscripts. However, all manuscripts waiting to be read at the publisher have been solicited by somebody. If you won a contest, or were invited to submit by an editor you met at a conference, chances are you’ll get read in good time, too.

Or hey, you might even get plucked out of the slush pile and bought. That’s how my first sale occurred!

2) Having an agent increases my chances of being bought.

I don’t know that anyone has ever collected data to support or refute that, and there are a slew of variables that would factor into the equation, rendering a yes/no answer impossible. That hasn’t been my personal experience, as I sold to category and more recently to single title houses unagented. An agent might help you work through the plot problems or polish the manuscript to a degree. Some agents have good relationships with certain editors or houses and keep up on what they are looking for. But agents are only human. They tend to have one or two contacts at each house that they set up regular meets with to update their information. Their contacts can be valuable to a newbie writer with none of her own.

I know many many multi-published authors who are no longer selling in this economy. Markets go soft. Sub-genres decrease in popularity. An agent can’t prevent either.

The ‘trick’ to selling is money. For a multi-published author this means previous sales history. For a debut author it means marketability. The most novel concept out there isn’t going to get you an offer if the marketing department at the publisher can’t figure out how to sell you.

3) You need an agent to make that first sale

Not true at all. I sold twenty-five books to the then Silhouette Romantic Suspense line without an agent. I also got five invitations to submit my first single title manuscript without one. By the time I had an offer on the first Mindhunters trilogy, I had signed with an agent. But the publishing house didn’t know that when they made the offer.

As a matter of fact, I’d go on to say emphatically that you do not require an agent for category romance. Harlequin uses a boilerplate contract that allows very little wiggle room. Doing your homework, you can quickly learn where there is leeway and get those concessions yourself.

4) You need an agent if you’re writing single title for traditional print publishers

I’d highly recommend it. I know a few well-published authors who use literary attorneys and negotiate their own contracts, but I wouldn’t be comfortable doing so. For one thing, I’m too ignorant of contractual clauses to know what should or shouldn’t be in there. For another, I want a different relationship with my editor. I don’t want to get in contractual tug of wars with her. I am very happy to leave that to my agent.

There’s also the matter of foreign rights. Without an agent there is almost no hope of selling your book overseas. Those rights can be extremely lucrative and well worth the 20% agenting fees required (10% to your agent, 10% to the foreign agent).

5) An agent will help me polish my manuscript to make it more saleable.

Depending on the agent, that may be true up to a point. But I can’t emphasize enough that your manuscript has to be polished to catch an agent’s eye in the first place. The prose has to sparkle. It has to be relatively free of grammatical errors. The plot has to be intriguing. The characters compelling. And even then an agent might pass on it. Maybe that agent doesn’t represent the sub-genre you’re targeting. Or he/she might have too many authors writing the same thing. More likely, the voice didn’t resonate with them or they couldn’t summon enough enthusiasm about the project to represent it well.

6) Being rejected by agents means my project isn’t saleable

This is where it gets tricky. That is certainly one possibility. The thing to do with agent rejections is to treat them like you do contest judge comments. Look for similarities in their reasons for passing on the manuscript. Comments like ‘not right for me’ or “I’m not the agent for this” aren’t going to be helpful in that regard. But if they get more specific in their reasons, compare notes to see if a pattern emerges. And if you find one, make the changes necessary before sending the manuscript out again.

It’s also entirely possible that your manuscript is awesome but you haven’t hit the right agent yet. It took me almost as long to find an agent as it did to make my first sale, and that was after writing twenty some books!

7) If agents ask for an exclusive I should give it to them

Almost never. You can’t imagine how long an agent search can take. I suggest targeting several agents at the same time, informing each of them up front that it’s a simultaneous submission. The two agents I granted exclusives to didn’t adhere to their own self-imposed deadlines anyway. Another (who wasn’t an exclusive) responded a year later. I don’t have that kind of time, do you? Be honest and above board in your cover letter. And if you do decide to grant an exclusive I’d never suggest allowing more than two weeks. There just isn’t anything in it for the author.

I regard searching for an agent as something to be done as a next step in a career. Maybe that step comes after an author has polished a manuscript, gotten lots of feedback on it and is fairly certain it’s saleable. Or perhaps that point is reached when an author is ready to move to that next level and needs the right person to get her there. But all too often, I hear aspiring authors talking as if getting an agent is a short-cut; the end of the journey and I couldn’t disagree more. Acquiring an agent won’t be enough to make your work stand out, you have to do that on your own.

Have an agent question that wasn’t answered? A comment specific to your own agent search? I’d love to address it! I have a copy of my November release DEADLY INTENT for one lucky commenter!

KYLIE BRANT'S QUESTIONS FOR FANS AND FOR READERS: Straddling the sub-genre of romantic suspense is tough. Some like a romantic story with a dash of suspense thrown in. Others crave a meat thriller, with a satisfying romance at the core. What's the right amount of romance with your suspense? How can you tell when an author has gotten the balance exactly right?

Great question, Kylie! As always it's a pleasure to talk with you. Readers/Authors/Aspiring Authors, questions or comments for this award-winning author of 31 novels?

CONGRATULATIONS TO GWEN HERNANDEZ, YOU WON THE DRAWING FOR KYLIE BRANT'S DEADLY INTENT!