Lisa Hendrix

I just received a shipment of the most gorgeous bookplates from Ninth Moon, which means I can now sign your copies of IMMORTAL OUTLAW and IMMORTAL WARRIOR long distance.

Just send a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to me at PO Box 8092, Medford, OR 97501,   (Foreign readers, please use an International Reply Coupon with a full ounce of postage).

I’ll mail you an autographed—and personalized, if you’d like—self-adhesive bookplate to paste into the front of your book (or books–let me know if you need more than one). The paper and adhesive are archival quality, so they will not harm your books.  I’ll also toss in a bookmark and a recipe card with one of my family’s favorite bread recipes.

I’m so looking forward to signing your books!

We’re less than a week away from the official release date of June 2, so maverick copies of IMMORTAL OUTLAW should be starting to turn up around the world. ( UPDATE: I have a report of a purchase in Missouri as of 5/26)

Be among the first to spot Steinarr in the wild and you’ll be entered to win this snazzy, long-handled canvas tote—perfect for carrying books to the beach—with the Immortal Outlaw cover on one side and my new Viking Beast logo on the other. And there will be goodies in the bag, too.

Just tell me about your close encounter with the King of Beasts in the Comments below, noting when and where you spotted copies of IMMORTAL OUTLAW, and you’ll be entered.  I’m interested in either the first places the book shows up or the most unusual/wide-ranging locale. The drawing will take place on June 20.

Also, if you’re lucky enough snap a photo of Steinarr in his natural habitat, email it to me  (lisa at lisahendrix dot com — you know the drill) and I’ll post it for all to enjoy. Be silly. Be creative. Be wild. Anyone who sends a verifiable pic of a copy for sale in Vanuatu or Tristan da Cunha gets ten extra entries in the drawing  //g//.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your eyeballs.

Oh, and please, please, pretty please, after you finishing reading Steinarr and Marian’s story, go post a review on Amazon or B&N.com. Reader reviews and word of mouth are the life-blood of writers whose initials are not N.R.   Thank you!

I’m the blogger up today at Rose City Romance Writers. Come see my nominations for the Grey’s Anatomy of books.

I had bookmarks professionally designed and printed by Earthly Charms and they are fabulous, darling.  I mean, just look at Steinarr. That back!  (Thank you, Tony Mauro) Approximately three thousand have now been mailed out to bookstores and readers’ groups, but if you want one to fondle for yourself, you can send a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to me at PO Box 8092, Medford OR 97501. If you want more than one, so you can share, be sure to tell me.  I’ll also toss in a recipe for a delicious herb bread. All free. Just, please, remember that First Class stamp.  [Booksellers/Readers Groups and others who need larger quantities, please let me know using the Contact form.]

If, on the other hand, you’re a do-it-yourself type or just don’t have the patience to wait, you can print out your own bookmarks like the ones to the right—  including the special Viking lion bookmark, available only here.  Just click on the image to get to the full-sized pdf file, which you can print directly or save to print later. Four different bookmarks will print on a single sheet of paper. For best results, use white coverstock or cardstock and a color printer—but if you don’t have either of those and still want bookmarks, go for it with what you have.  Nobody said they had to be perfect.

So, take your choice. Or take both. Enjoy!

UPDATE (8/15/09): Foreign readers should send an International Reply Coupon (IRC) with their envelope. If you want bookplates also, make sure you buy enough postage for a full ounce.

UPDATE (12/26/10) I’m all out of the Immortal Outlaw bookmarks pictured, but I finally have new bookmarks for Immortal Champion. CLICK HERE for info

And to clarify: I do not have the bookmarks shown in the set of 4 together (right, above). Those are a pdf that you can print for yourself (just click on the image).  The brown Immortal Outlaw bookmarks on the left are the professionally printed ones that I can send you.

The theater department at my son’s high school raises a little extra change during play runs by selling mom-made goodies at intermission. It was my turn this time, and the timing couldn’t have been better, as the play was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. And of course, my Immortal Brotherhood books are Beauty and the Beast, too (NOT the Disney version).

Now, I’m an okay baker, but I don’t do it often. But I rolled up my sleeves and set out to make my required three dozen cupcakes. And in the process, I learned a few things—minor things, perhaps, and probably old hat to those who bake more often than, say, once every two years, but new to me.  They are presented below in the order in which I discovered them.

1) Wilton cupcake liners are better.

I’ve always used the cheap ones from the grocery store (Reynolds, typically) but since I had to pick up some specialty sprinkles at the craft store, I decided the convenience of grabbing the Wilton liners that were right there far outweighed the few cents I would save by ducking into the grocery next door.

Enlightenment. The Wilton cups were sized properly and pleated more tightly, so they actually FIT my pans and didn’t sproing up out of the cups. (See pic. Wilton is on the left, sitting there politely waiting for batter. Reynolds is clearly trying to escape.)  Nor did the Wilton get those funky, annoying wrinkles when I filled them.

Result: Read the rest of this entry »

I got a wonderful note from Eloisa James last week telling me she was writing about IMMORTAL WARRIOR for her monthly column at Barnes & Noble online.  The article, Wild Kingdom!, went up today, and I just had a chance to read her take on heroes who spend part of their time in forms that don’t “code sexy” the way vampires and werewolves do. James highlights four books featuring atypical heroes whose beast forms initially don’t read as alpha male, men she calls “biologically challenged.” Included are heroes who take the form of allosaurs, leopards, selkies…and eagles. (The authors would be, in order:  Bangs, Feehan, Kantra…and me, and let me tell you, I feel incredibly  honored to be included in that group.)

While James notes that an eagle is at least less effeminate than, say, a swan, she claims the bird’s just not something she thinks of as alpha male material. But then she adds a sentence that makes my little author heart go pitapat: “But Hendrix transforms feathery to fantastic by weaving her plot around Alaida’s power to save Ivar.”  (Sigh.) She also very kindly mentioned the June release of IMMORTAL OUTLAW.

You can read the full article from the front page of B&N Reviews through May 10, and then find it in Eloisa’s  Archives after that.  (Lots of great articles in that archive, btw.  You should check it out.)

Discussion of today’s article is ramping up at the Romantic Reads Book Club with Eloisa leading the conversation, and Virginia Kantra and Nina Bangs scheduled to stop by. I’ll also be dropping in a little later — hope to see you there.

Oh, and check out the amazing cover for Eloisa’s upcoming THIS DUCHESS OF MINE, the story of Jemma,  the desperate Duchess of Beaumont. (Click on the cover to read an excerpt at Eloisa’s site.)

I love Eloisa James’ books (especially the Essex sisters!), but I haven’t had the time to get into the Desperate Duchesses.  Have any of you read the earlier books in the series? Which is your favorite so far?

Over at the Huffington Post, writer Joanne Rendell provided a terrific report/critique on the recent Princeton Symposium, Love as the Practice of Freedom? Romance Fiction and American Culture. In the article, she points out that even the pro-romance pros present didn’t quite go far enough in their analysis of why romance is proving so recession-proof.

Here’s a snippet:

 

“Although Crusie wasn’t talking specifically about the appeal of romance in this recession, it struck me that these “emotionally just landscapes” are perfect antidotes for our current times. When shady Madoffs are making off with billions of dollars and banking executives are awarding themselves huge bonuses from bailout monies (while the rest of us watch our 401ks disappear like puddles in the midday sun), the appeal of a world where integrity and honesty are rewarded seems obvious.

But as the Princeton conference continued,…I realized that it was too hasty to rush to this conclusion. Romances are not one kind of thing. Neither are their readers. And to draw fast conclusions about the genre and its audience is to perpetuate the kind of stereotyping which has always made romance the “most maligned of literary texts.”

Click over to HuffPo for the complete article, “Heaving Bosoms: A Tonic for the Recession?”

The heaving bosoms in the title, btw, refer to the wonderfully outrageous book by Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell: Beyond Heaving Bosoms, The SmartBitches Guide to Romance Novels (CLICK HERE to buy at B&N.com). This story came by way of their blog, SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.