• RLF Gems

    RLF Gem Award: Top Bloggers Feb 2014 Romance Lives Forever #RLFblog #blogging

    RLF Top Blogger Award 
    Last month, Romance Lives Forever had 28 posts in a 28 day month.
    A new interview was introduced: 5 Easy Questions. It consists of 10 questions,
    of which, an author can pick five, making it one of the fastest to do. This is
    great for the busy author with a new release. You can download a copy here:
    5 Easy Questions – pick 5 fun things from a list http://is.gd/rlf_5easyQs

    Top Five Bloggers for the Month

    The top five posts, judged by page views are listed below. Congratulations to each author!
    1. Daisy Banks
    2. Vicki Batman
    3. Marilyn Baron
    4. EM Lynley
    5. GA Hauser
    Honorable mention: Kryssie Fortune and I tied for sixth place.
    Romance Lives Forever features authors and new books. It has a
    blogger’s FAQ page with a downloadable guide and optional interviews. Readers
    can follow via Google Friend Connect, Networked Blogs, Bloglovin’, Linky
    Followers, email, an RSS feed, and there’s a blog button readers and authors
    can grab. RLF takes up to three images per article, so authors can share
    previous books. The blog uses author or publisher names as SEO tags on posts,
    and author Twitter handles in the titles. The site is broadcast over Triberr
    with a potential reach of over a million readers via its Twitter-linked
    network. Twitter mentions are also gathered in several Paper.li ezines, giving
    the author additional opportunities for promotion.
    The Romance Lives Forever
    Paper.li ezine
    features guest authors on its front page every day. The Yahoo Group Romance Lives Forever has
    nearly 1200 members, and is Kayelle’s private group. It is open once a month to
    authors who have been guests on the blog. Guests get one day to post info,
    share news, book releases, offer contests, and so on. For that day, the group
    is open and members are allowed to reply and take active part. It’s like an
    old-fashioned chat, where you can share and answer questions. Only authors who
    have reserved the day are allowed to post, so it’s exclusive. There is no
    charge. You can read more about it here: http://is.gd/rlfauthorday

    Share your book cover on Romance Lives Forever

    Limited spots to share book covers are available. Cost is $3
    per month, with discounts for covers posted for one quarter and up to one year.
    Covers can be changed monthly.

    Sign Up for a Future Post

    Guest calendar http://is.gd/rlfdates
    My thanks to all who took part this month. You made Romance Lives
    Forever a great place to discover new books and authors.
    Other participants this month in alphabetical order by first
    name are:

    AJ Nuest, Alanna
    Lucas, Berengaria Brown, Celia Breslin, Denysé Bridger, Diane Burton, Gwen
    Knight, HK Sterling, Kathy L Wheeler, Lady Blade, Lauren Linwood, Leta Blake, Liza
    O’Connor, Nancy Corrigan, Samara King, Samara King, Susan D Taylor, Suz deMello, Zanna Mackenzie
  • Character Interviews,  Fantasy

    Character Interview: the fairy Poppy from Valentine Wishes @DaisyBanks12 #RLFblog

    Valentine’s Wishes 
    Title Valentine Wishes
    Genre Fantasy Romance
    Author Name Daisy Banks
    Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
    Full of good intentions the novice fairy Poppy grants her first
    big wish at a Valentine’s Day party. The wish to bring her mortals love is powerful
    but misses its target and lands in the party punch. All three of her sweet mortal
    girls take just a sip and each one falls for the wrong man. There hasn’t been a
    fairy disaster this bad in centuries and Poppy has no idea how to put things right.
    Add to the catastrophe the arrival of Cedar Heartwood, the fairy of her dreams,
    who drinks the punch too, and Poppy’s dilemma grows. Cedar loves her in ways she’s
    only dreamed about. Should she take back the wish from both the mortals and the
    fairy she adores? She must step with care or lose everything.

    Buy This Book

    Publisher Liquid Silver Books www.lsbooks.com/daisybanks-c365.php

    Amazon link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Valentine-Wishes-Daisy-Banks-ebook/dp/B00IC7R57O
    ARe https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-valentinewishes-1418548-149.html
    Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/valentine-wishes-2

    Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/valentine-wishes-daisy-banks/1118654370?ean=9781622100798

    Interview with the fairy Poppy from Valentine Wishes.

    What is it that you want,
    but cannot have? Authors call this the conflict of the story.
    At the beginning of the story there are two things I want most.
    One is to help my mortals, so I will have good things to tell from my fly about
    when I go back to the fairy court. The other thing, the most important thing, is
    a secret only I know. I want Cedar Heartwood all to myself. I adore him. I left
    the fairy court to try to get over him, but even after so long away; he is still
    the fairy of my dreams. He is gorgeous, I mean it, and you would faint if you saw
    him. Well, yes, I expect you would, as he is a fairy with fabulous wings.
    While I lived at the fairy court, I wanted him so much I used
    to get stomachache. Whenever I saw him I used to go all dizzy, tongue-tied and…
    Well, you get the idea. Doing fly about was hard but I found my three girls and
    they are great fun, despite all that, I still want Cedar.
    What’s your internal limitation?
    Meaning, what is it about you that makes it so you cannot do what it is you need
    to do during this story?
    The odd thing is, as a fairy all I need to do is grant wishes,
    it’s my job. My girls aren’t very good at asking though, they just don’t say the
    ‘I wish’ words. I help them with little wishes like keeping the oven clean, but
    big wishes are different.
    There are lots of things I try to do, but mostly my problem is
    I’m ever so clumsy. I don’t mean to be, but I am. I bump into things or drop things
    all the time. I don’t think I’m very clever either. Other fairies seem to know a
    lot more than me. They used to laugh at me all the time when I was at the court.
    Daisy, my writer, she did her best, poor girl, but even she couldn’t make me get
    the big wish right.
    What inner doubt causes
    you the most difficulty?
    I suppose the problem is caused by me not trusting myself to
    grant wishes properly. I have to say it is very hard to trust yourself with something
    as special as a love wish when your track record with magic is like mine. Please,
    don’t laugh.
    How would you feel if you turned your brother blue? The color
    wouldn’t wash off and I had to look at him for days while it faded. He looked awful
    and so many other fairies laughing didn’t help at all. Even worse than a blue Yew,
    when the girls…Oh my, I can’t bear to think about it. I won’t tell you any more
    about the bad things. I try not to think of them.
    What’s your external complication?
    In the story world your author created, explain what it is you fear most.
    At the beginning of the story, I was very frightened that if
    I went back to the fairy court and I didn’t have some good news about helping my
    mortals, I could be banished to a Christmas tree for years. I can’t tell you how
    horrible it would be to have to spend most of the year in a box, and then when someone
    gets you out and dusts you off they shove prickly pine twigs up the back of your
    skirt. What a nightmare!
    By the end of the story, my fears became very different. You’d
    be astonished how something so simple can be very special and change everything
    in the whole world. I’m not going to say too much about this or Daisy will be cross.
    People will want to read the story to find out.
    There Daisy, I remembered.
    Tell us about your significant
    other, that person who makes living worthwhile.
    For years, as long as I can remember I have loved Cedar Heartwood,
    the most wonderful, beautiful, clever, gorgeous, sexy, delicious fairy that has
    ever flown or ever will fly. He is so special. I did fly about because of him though.
    I left the fairy court and went to find experiences in the world of mortals. You
    see he is so marvelous and I never ever thought he’d even look at someone as clumsy
    and silly as me.
    I couldn’t believe it when he arrived in my garden. I went all
    jellified. Things got really complicated once he turned up.
    Daisy is looking cross, so I’d better not say anymore. I know
    you’re all going to love Cedar too. I can’t think of anyone who couldn’t love someone
    like him.
    What would that person
    say about you?
    Cedar says I have a very pretty freckle shaped like a tulip,
    just by the side of my mouth. I think it’s a horrid freckle, but he likes it. He
    also says it’s easy to get too involved with mortals. I think he’s wrong about that.
    One of the reasons fairies do what they do is because of mortals. I love my mortals,
    they are fun and I like helping them. My girls are so sweet. They have a beautiful
    garden with lights and flowers in pots, and herbs too. I enjoyed being one of the
    girls. Cedar would probably say I go inside too much, he thinks it’s dangerous.
    There is the nasty net curtain at the windows but if I’m careful, it’s not a problem.
    My mortals don’t have a cat, so where’s the danger?
    What is your family like?
    My parents don’t live at the fairy court any more though they
    did at one time. They moved to an orchard in Worcestershire, to work helping some
    mortals grow apples. My brother, Yew, he’s really good looking, except when he’s
    blue. He is a courtier, he loves all the gossip, the parties, dancing and … Ah,
    I won’t say anything about the other things at the court. Yew and Cedar are friends,
    that’s how I got to see Cedar so often when I was at the court. I used to watch
    him and daydream all kinds of things.
    I didn’t tell Yew how much I wanted Cedar. My brother would probably
    have laughed at me because Cedar had so many fairies he could pick to share a bargain
    with him. They followed him around, a gaggle of them, all doing things to make him
    notice them. I couldn’t do the things they did. If I tried to make mini butterflies
    all cling to me as my dress, I can guess what might have happened. I’d have had
    lots of fairies laughing at me.
    I didn’t enjoy the fashions at the court, some of them were silly,
    three flowers and a weed, you try making an attractive outfit out of that.
    There is a word for what I think about the court; I’ll have to
    ask Daisy, I think she’ll know. Anyway, I didn’t like the court because it was superficial,
    that’s the word according to Daisy. I was glad to go on fly about to get away from
    all of it but the thing that made me go was Cedar. I couldn’t bear watching him
    and wanting him the way I did. I thought it would be better to go from the court
    and try to forget, if I could. I did miss him. I missed him every day. He was always
    in my head.
    What special skills do
    you rely on?
    Flying and magic. I love flying and flying with Cedar is the
    best thing ever. I love granting wishes because it is so exciting. I love watching
    the wishes work, when they go right.
    Are you happy with the
    way your story ended? Why or why not?
    I am thrilled with the way my story ends. Don’t let her know,
    but I think Daisy could have done a bit more writing to be truthful. I mean, it
    wouldn’t have broken the computer to add another couple of chapters. I was having
    such a good time and so were my mortals. I have to be very careful what I say here
    as Daisy has just come in and she is staring at me. Her eyes go all pointy at the
    edges when she gets cross. I’ve told her she’ll get wrinkles but she doesn’t seem
    to care.
    Anyway, I loved the ending to my story and so did my mortals.
    There were a few hiccups along the way to get to there, but I think it was worth
    it.

    About the Writer

    You have the length of
    a tweet (140 characters) to describe yourself as a writer. Let’s see what you can
    do.
    I’m an obsessive writer who loves to write. A new story is a
    thrill to work on and I want readers to have the best time reading my stories.
    Why did you choose to
    write about this character?
    I have loved fairy stories since I was a very small child. To
    write an adult fairy tale, with fairies with adult motivations felt very natural.
    Poppy is rather an accident-prone fairy, but I couldn’t help become fond of her.
    She tries so hard.
    Was there anything you
    discovered about this character that was a surprise to you?
    Yes, Poppy’s lack of faith in herself and her magic did surprise
    me. I’d assumed she’d realize how beautiful and magical she is, but she doesn’t
    seem to have any idea at all. I thought she’d understand that despite the odd accident
    here and there, she is an incredible fairy, but she struggled so hard to see that
    in herself. Her sense of self worth needed a lot of work. I have to say working
    with a fairy with such low self-esteem proved troublesome some days.
    When you wrote about this
    character, what made you the most happy? What made you the most sad?
    Poppy is happiest when she is helping the mortals and her wishes
    work. I felt happy when she did. She is such a caring fairy. When the big wish went
    wrong, I could have cried for her. Poor Poppy was desperate. When Cedar arrived,
    I didn’t have much hope things would improve. The magic made a big difference.
    Why do you write?
    That question is a bit like asking why I breathe. I write because
    I must. I know that may sound rather odd but it’s the way it is for me at present.
    I work on my writing in one way or another every day. I write because there are
    stories in my head demanding to come out. My writing, as it allows me to use my
    imagination and create, is a pleasure for me. I like working in a range of genres
    and finding my way in them. I love reading too and if I am not writing then I am
    reading. I learn from reading too. I hope in ten years time I will still be reading,
    learning and writing.
    What do you want to write
    next?
    I have a new historical that is about half way done. I also have
    an idea for another. I have just finished the sequel to my story Timeless, and will
    be submitting that before the end of February. There is a third part to that story
    too.
    Are any sequels planned
    for this book?
    At present, I am not planning a sequel to this book. I may write
    another fairy tale in the future but I’m not certain. I’d like to explore the darker
    side of fairy.
    Is there anything you’d
    like to say to your readers?
    I’d like to say a big thank you to them for taking the time to
    read my stories. I love it when I hear back from people who have enjoyed a story.

    Author Bio

    Romance author Daisy Banks writes sensual and spicy novels in
    the Historical, Paranormal and Fantasy genres. Daisy uses a fresh and lyrical voice
    to weave a compelling and magical spell for readers.

    Author Social Media

    Website http://daisybanksnovels.yolasite.com/

  • RLF Gems

    RLF Gems: Blog Stats for Sep 2013 #RLFblog @JMSbooksllc @EllaQuinnAuthor

    RLF Gems 
    In September, Romance Lives Forever had 29 posts in a 30 day
    month. Publisher Week took the top five spots with the amazing JMS Books LLC, so I combined those. Here are
    the top posts (judging by page views).
    1. JMS Books, LLC
    2. Ella Quinn
    3. Daisy Banks
    4. Danita Minnis
    5. Rue Allyn
    Honorable mention: Rolyn Anderson and Vicki Batman.
    Authors who guest with us are promoted on Twitter, Facebook, via
    Triberr to thousands of potential readers, are featured front page in the daily
    Romance Lives Forever Paper.li ezine,
    and the blog has its own hashtag (#rlfblog) on Twitter. This year, we also
    created the Booklover’s Guide to Romance
    Lives Forever
    with links to guest authors’ books and social media. It is
    110 pages crammed full of who to follow and what to read. The FAQ page provides
    updated downloads of optional interview questions, and a guide to the blog. You
    can also grab our button to promote your visit. Your cover can be featured on
    the blog for a small fee. Check out our advertising
    link for more information.
    My thanks to all who took part this month. You made Romance
    Lives Forever a great place to discover new books and authors.
    Other participants this month in alphabetical order by first
    name are:

    Alexandra Christian, Bernadette Walsh, Cassandra Carr, Christina
    Phillips , Anita Philmar, Stephanie Cage, Dawn Montgomery, Jenny Kane, Jill
    Hughey , Mae Clair, Nia Simone, Patricia Walters-Fischer, Sarah Cass, Tracey
    Kitts