• Contemporary

    RLF Gem Award: Top Bloggers October 2014 Romance Lives Forever #RLFblog @MFRW_ORG

    RLF Gem Award 
    Last month, Romance Lives Forever had 31 posts in a 31 day month.
    We also had three unique events. For three days, the Cancer Awareness posts
    shared uplifting stories of survival and hope. Near the beginning of the month,
    the 1000th post for the blog went up, and we all celebrated. Then, on the last
    day of the month, we focused on the writer’s organization Marketing for Romance
    Writers, which offers support and free promotion for authors.
    The Top Blogger was the Marketing for Romance Writers.
    Marketing for Romance Writers http://marketingforromancewriters.org/
    LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/company/marketing-for-romance-writers-organization/

    Top Five Bloggers for the Month

    (judged by page views). Congratulations to each one!
    1. Marketing
      for Romance Writers
    2. Cancer
      Awareness Participants (listed below)
    3. Melinda
      Curtis
    4. Jana
      Richards
    5. Barbara
      White Daille

    Cancer Awareness Participants:

    Day 1: Vicki Batman, Ally Shields
    Day 2: Lloyd Meeker, Mackenzie Crowne, Marjorie Belson
    Day 3: Christine MacKenzie, Terry Irene Blain
    Honorable mention: JoAnne Myers and Allison Merritt
    The RLF Gems post each month usually ranks in the top ten, but is not
    counted, in order to focus on guests.
    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+, Networked Blogs, 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 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.

    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:
    Anita Philmar, Belinda Williams, Christina Westcott, Debra Glass, Dena
    Garson, Donna Cummings, Tarah Scott, JC McKenzie, Jennifer
    Britt, Juli D Revezzo, Kayelle Allen, Lisa Carlisle, Lynda Bailey, Lynn Rae, Mary
    Quast, NJ Walters, Raven J Spencer, Regina Kammer, Suz deMello, Teresa Reasor
  • Contemporary

    Lose The Fear by Christine MacKenzie @CCMacKenzie1 @TerryIreneBlain #RLFblog #FightCancer

    CC Mackenzie 
    From Kayelle:
    For three days I’m sharing stories by various authors about
    how they or a family member faced cancer. Reading their posts is inspiring and
    touching. The importance of friends and family, and having a support system is
    vital. From what I’ve read, the key to success includes being able to ask for
    help — and then being willing to accept it. It’s a lesson I’ve had in my own
    life during various times. I don’t accept help well. It’s something I fight
    with all the time. I’d like to think “I’ve got this” — but sometimes
    I don’t have as good a grip as I thought I did. I have a friend who’s dealing
    with cancer right now. My business partner’s brother just died from cancer. It affects
    all of us. Reading these helps me understand better. I hope I’m even half as
    good a friend as those you’ll read about in this series.
    I’m presenting these as an opportunity for the authors to
    share their real life stories, as well as their fictional ones. Links to follow
    the authors and to purchase their books are provided.
    Today’s authors are Terry Irene Blain and Christine MacKenzie. Jump to the end for info on how you can help purchase mammogram equipment.

    The Only Negative Terry Irene Blain

    I had surgery for breast cancer in June of 2013, followed by
    chemo and radiation and currently on a hormone therapy. All this is part of the
    clinical trial to see if chemo is really necessary for the type of cancer I had.
    This is the positive as this maybe help not only my daughters-in-law but my granddaughter.
    The chemo really wiped me out, but fortunately my husband was
    there to take care help me out as all the energy just left me. The doctor always
    commented on my positive attitude. How could I not have a positive attitude when
    I had the support of my husband, our kids are grown and on their own. I saw so many
    others who were worse off than I; how could I complain? Women who still were trying
    to work, or had small children. Or on their second go round of chemo. I felt lucky.
    I wasn’t able to do much writing while on chemo as I had absolutely
    no energy. When chemo finished and during radiation I started to do more. Finally
    able to go grocery shopping instead of sending my husband with a list. Also started
    to get back to the computer and do some writing. Going to my RWA Chapter meeting
    and talking to other authors was uplifting. Friends are great at helping you out.
    It’s taken me about a year to feel like I’m back to normal. To
    top it off, my annual mammogram was good. So I’m now an official survivor. The only
    negative? I’ve never liked the color pink. But you can’t have everything.
    Terry Irene Blain

    About the Book

    Looking for thrills, practical Sarah signs up to be a schoolteacher
    on a western movie set and gets more than she’s looking for with cowboy
    stuntman Kit Stewart, adventure with a capital A.
    Her Cowboy
    He was tall and whipcord lean, just like a hero out of the
    old movies that were her favorites. His grey hat was pushed back on his head,
    revealing again that curly dark blond hair. Today he wore no chaps, but that
    didn’t stop her from instinctually checking out his backside. Nothing like
    Levi’s and boots to make a man look manly.

    Buy This Author’s Book

    About the Author

    Sarah’s Cowboy
    Terry Irene Blain was lucky enough to grow up in a
    large Midwestern family with a rich oral tradition. As a child she heard
    stories of ancestors’ adventures with Indians, wildlife, weather and frontier
    life in general, so she naturally gravitated to the study of history and
    completed a BA and MA then taught the subject at the college level. Married to
    a sailor, now retired, she’s had the chance to live in various parts of the
    country as well as travel to foreign places such as Hong Kong, Australia,
    England and Scotland.
    Escape to the West with a romantic adventure
    Website: http://www.terryireneblain.com
    “Thank you so much, Kayelle,
    for having me on your blog today to highlight such a worthwhile cause.
    When a woman hears the words ‘You
    have Breast Cancer’. The first thing that hits her is how immensely powerful
    the word, Cancer, actually is. Dealing with the shock, and then immediately
    telling my mother, my daughters, was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my
    life. Then we’re caught up in the whirlwind of surgical appointments, the surgery
    itself, the outcome of tests, and it sometimes feels as if we’re trapped on a
    roller coaster and can’t jump off.
    Three years and a mastectomy
    later, and I’m truly blessed to be cancer free. People ask me how I remained so
    upbeat and positive. My response is that I didn’t have a choice! But the real
    answer is that cancer did me the biggest favor of my life. My secret dream was
    ‘One Day’ to be a writer, a romance writer. However, in spite of winning
    competitions, receiving positive feedback, the fear of not being good enough
    always held me back.
    The day I was diagnosed with
    breast cancer was the day I lost the fear of failure. And I also realized that
    ‘One Day’ may never come unless I grabbed every opportunity that came along.
    Eight books later, with eleven more in the pipeline, I’ve never been happier.
    And this is where I come to the
    two young women who inspired me to write, The Fall of Jacob Del Garda. Two
    years ago, I was sitting in my breast surgeon’s waiting room. Sitting next to
    me were twins, girls aged twenty-three, blonde and gorgeous. They were laughing
    and joking with each other, and I assumed they were there offering support to a
    mother or even a grandmother. It didn’t occur to me that breast cancer would be
    an issue for them. So we got chatting, and it became clear that one of the
    girls had undergone a double mastectomy six months before, and she’d just been
    diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. The positive way she was dealing with
    such a blow, truly inspired me. Then her sister told me how she, too, was about
    to undergo a bilateral double mastectomy after genetic testing revealed that
    the twins carried the BRCA1/2 gene mutation. But surely they were too young?
    After a long chat with my surgeon, I realized that diagnosing breast cancer in
    women under thirty-five using traditional mammogram technologies was extremely
    difficult due to the tissue density of young breasts. What was needed were the
    new digital mammograms manufactured by Siemens. Our local hospital was in the
    process of raising money for a new mammogram suite. I remember promising my
    doctor I would write a story about twins who were dealing with BRCA1/2 genetic
    mutation. And that the proceeds of the book would go towards the cause.
    And so The Fall of Jacob Del
    Garda is out now. All author royalties from Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Nook,
    GooglePlus, Smashwords, received during the month of October will be donated to
    the appeal.
    And on an update on the twins –
    they’re both well and married to two wonderful men. How’s that for A Happy Ever
    After! I couldn’t write a better ending myself.
    –Christine.

    Author Social Media

    CLICK
    HERE
    To Receive News of CC’s Latest Releases

    About the Book

    The Fall of Jacob Del Garda
    Twin sisters – twice the trouble
    Twelve months after disappearing from Jacob’s life, the woman
    who broke his heart, supermodel Gabriella Dolman, is back. But things have changed.
    Now Gabriella is a photographer – still fabulously beautiful – but no longer glamorous,
    and no longer looking for love. Though Gabriella claims she just wants to move on
    without him, Jacob’s pretty certain that her reaction to their red-hot kisses implies
    otherwise.
    Tobin Gillespie believes in taking a stand, and he never turns
    his back on a challenge. So when his work as a PR guru brings research scientist
    Sophie Dolman back into his life, her obnoxious behavior and lethal put downs aren’t
    enough to put him off – quite the reverse. And the more they clash, the more determined
    he is to break down the wall around her heart and claim it for his own.

    Buy This Author’s Book – Help Purchase Mammograms

    World-wide October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. All author
    royalties earned by The Fall of Jacob Del Garda for the month of October will be
    donated to an appeal for a digital mammogram that detects changes in breast tissue
    for women aged 20-40. Please share.

    Buy This Author’s Book – Help Purchase Mammograms

    World-wide October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. All author
    royalties earned by The Fall of Jacob Del Garda for the month of October will be
    donated to an appeal for a digital mammogram that detects changes in breast tissue
    for women aged 20-40. Please share.
  • Author Veterans

    2013 Salute to Author Veterans #RLFblog #VeteransDay

    Happy Veteran’s Day 
    Kayelle Allen here. Romance Lives Forever is dedicated to new
    authors and new books. As such, I rarely step in as a blogger — I prefer to interview
    guests and feature others. My own blog, Unstoppable
    Heroes
    , is where I do my own “bragging” about new books and events.
    But today on RLF, I want to honor some special people: veterans.
    The first Veteran’s Day was called “Armistice Day”
    and was proclaimed by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson on November 11, 1919. In proclaiming
    the holiday, he said, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will
    be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service
    and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has
    freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy
    with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.” Unlike Memorial Day,
    which celebrates those who died in service, Veterans Day celebrates the service
    itself. Wikipedia

    Today, I’m honoring fellow veterans who are authors. This is
    by no means an exhaustive list. These folks are proud to stand and be counted. Please
    visit their sites, and get to know them and their books. I believe the highest honor
    one can pay an author is to buy his or her book.
    Authors are listed in alphabetical order by first name. This
    list shows their brand (type of writing), name, branch of service, and website.
    Romance Tangled with Suspense
    CK Crouch — US Army
    Get in Bed with Delilah. Everyone else has!
    Delilah Devlin – US Army
    Scottish Medieval Romantic Suspense
    Diana Cosby — US Navy
    Paranormal and Contemporary Romance
    Eliza Gayle — US Marine Corps
    Romance
    Ella Quinn – US Army
    Escape with…
    Elle James
    Military Romance
    Geri Krotow — US Navy
    Love is in the air – and in the fleet
    Heather Ashby – US Navy
    http://heatherashby.com
    Urban Fantasy Romance
    Isis Rushdan — US Air Force
    http://isisrushdan.blogspot.com/
    Historical Romance
    Jeane Westin — US Army
    Erotica Romance where the destiny is love ~ Let me take you on
    the journey
    Jennifer France — US Navy
    http://jenniferfrance.com
    Love … Laughter … Forever
    Joyce Adams — US Army
    http://joyceadamscounts.com
    Mystery
    Kathleen Toomey Jabs — US Navy
    Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
    Kayelle Allen — US Navy
    Tapping into your Flights of Fancy
    Lacey Falcone — US Air Force
    Dark Heroes, Feisty Heroines, Scorching Stories
    Lisa Carlisle — US Marine Corps
    Military Memoirs – Parris Island
    – Journey of a Woman Marine
    Lisa Cordeiro — US Marine Corps
    http://lisacordeiro.com
    Let Fate guide you… One story at a time
    Loni Lynne — US Navy
    Mystery/Romance author
    Lori Avocato — US Air Force
    http://loriavocato.com
    A Dash of Romance with a Dusting of Mystery
    Misty MacRae — US Navy
    http://mistymacrasblog.blogspot.com
    Where Romance is Always an Adventure
    Rogenna Brewer — US Navy
    Unexpected Romantic Fiction
    Sandy Wickersham-McWhorter — USAF
    Dark heroes and heroines with bite…sink your teeth into a romance
    by
    Sapphire Phelan — US Army
    Escape to the past with a romantic adventure
    Terry Irene Blain — US Navy
    http://www.terryireneblain.com/
    Military Romance and Medical Drama
    Tracey Cramer-Kelly — Army National Guard
    Romantic Suspense, YA, Juvenile, SciFi, and Hard Boiled Detective
    Wayne Greenough — US Navy
    http://waynegreenough.com
    One unusual Veterans group that is special to me is RomVets. They are all women who served in the armed
    forces and who write Romance. I am proud to be a member. Click the link to visit
    the website and learn more about this organization and its members.
    Invitation — if you are an author, and a veteran, let us know. We’d be honored to include you in our annual post.
  • Character Interviews

    Character Interview: Sarah Alexander

    Sarah’s Cowboy.

    Terry Irene Blain, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. Let’s talk
    about your book, Sarah’ s Cowboy – The New Year’s Eve Club.
    Genre: Contemporary Romance
    Buy links (coming soon): http://www.BoroughsPublishingGroup.com
    Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
    Cover artist: Kim Killion
    Length: 37,000
    Heat rating: moderate
    Tagline: Sarah Jane Alexander is in for the ride of her life.
    Blurb:
    Practical school teacher Sarah Alexander decides she’d like a
    little adventure. She signs on as a teacher on a western movie set and meets cowboy
    stuntman Kit Stewart. The man is adventure with a capital A and Sarah just might
    get more than she bargained for.
    What are your main characters’ names, ages, and occupations?
    Sarah Jane Alexander – late 20’s, a high school history teacher
    hoping to get a college teaching job.
    Christopher ‘Kit’ Stewart – age 31, a movie stuntman, working
    his first job as the stunt coordinator.

    Interview with Sarah Jane Alexander

    Tell us about yourself. What are you like?
    I enjoy being a history teacher. I believe that we need to know
    where we came from so that we have a foundation to choose where we want to go in
    the future.
    What do you think is your strongest point?
    To relate the past to the present and making history interesting.
    Do you have a weakness?
    I tend to be a little too concerned about what other people think.
    What drives you to do the things you do? What makes you want
    to be the “good guy?”
    I know that being nice is a little boring, but doing good can
    make you feel good.
    What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?
    Watching old western movies on television.
    If you didn’t know how old you were how old would you be?
    Probably about 26, having just finished my Master’s and the world
    looked open to all possibilities.
    A biography has been written about you. What do you think
    the title would be in six words or less?
    My Teacher Makes History Interesting.
    If money were not an object, where would you most like to
    live?
    In a resort town in the hills, not too far from a major city,
    with lots of trees and maybe just a little snow in the winter.
    What song would best describe your life?
    This Kiss by Faith Hill
    If you were a tool, what would people use you to do?
    A pencil, useful and practical.
    Picture yourself as a store. Considering your personality
    and lifestyle, what type of products would be sold there?
    Books, sporting equipment, movies and needlework.
    As a child, what was your favorite thing about school?
    Getting good grades.
    If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
    Trivia dispensed without asking.

    Please Fill in the Blanks

    I love pizza with onions, green peppers and black olives.
    I’m always ready for a good book or movie.
    When I’m alone, I eat chocolate and watch old movies on television.
    You’d never be able to tell, but I like riding on motorcycles.
    If I had a halo it would be on
    straight, but would need a little polishing
    .
    If I could afford it I’d travel the world.
    I can never go on a roller coaster because I’d get
    sick
    .

    About the Author

    New Year’s Eve Club Authors
    Terry Irene Blain was lucky enough to grow up in a large
    Midwestern family with a rich oral tradition. As a child she heard stories of ancestors’
    adventures with Indians, wildlife, weather and frontier life in general, so she
    naturally gravitated to the study of history and completed a BA and MA then taught
    the subject at the college level. Married to a sailor, now retired, she’s had the
    chance to live in various parts of the country as well as travel to foreign places
    such as Hong Kong, Australia, England and Scotland.

    Previous Books:

    Kentucky Green
    Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold

    Books Coming Soon:

    Sarah’s Cowboy (The New Year’s Eve Club)

    Find Me Here

    Website: http://www.terryireneblain.com/
    New Year’s Eve Club Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/TheNewYearsEveClub