Authors After Dark Registration is LIVE!!!

Authors After Dark is coming QUICKLY and OMG this year is going to be INSANE!

As always AAD is about the readers, and the amount of awesome we have put together for you this year, you would be INSANE not to attend….

First, our amazing Master of Ceremonies is none other than Alexandra Ivy! She will be doing a cool little event to celebrate your favorite gargoyle, Levet on Friday! Wanna know more? Check out the FB group where Alex will be talking about the awesome that she has going on!

Torquere and authors BA Tortuga and Julia Talbot will be Sponsoring our Welcome event, the Midnight Rodeo… And it looks like We will have some VERY COOL goodies and… Riding… happening… *SNICKER*

How about Parties? This year we have a special event called the Leather and Lace Ball! Curious? We thought so! Take a ride on the wild side and let your inhibitions fly with five New York Times Bestselling Authors of erotic romance. Cuffs and corsets encouraged.

With:

J. Kenner, Liliana Hart, Carly Phillips, Janelle Denison, Jasinda Wilder and Lorelei James

The ladies will be talking more about this on the FB group starting soon!

New for 2014 is the Paranormal Party! Join over 20 Paranormal authors who will be giving away goodies, some books and hanging out with you to snack and chat! Wanna know what authors are involved? You will have to join the FB group to see!

And of course, we have the amazing Masquerade Ball! This year it’s the SINS AND VIRTUES BALL! Are you a sin or a virtue? Join us for a wild costumed event! Prizes for the best costumes, including a 200$ gift certificate to Lori Ann Costumes!

Your Sins and Virtues Sponsors:

Sin Lust
Boone Brux
Opal Carew

Sin Pride
BA Tortuga
Andrew Grey

Sin Envy
Stella Price
TJ Michaels

Sin Gluttony
Desiree Holt
Saranna DeWylde

Sin Greed
Ann Mayburn
Heather Long

Sin Sloth
Lizzie T. Leaf
Julie Morgan

Sin Wrath
Stacey Kennedy
Marianne Morea

Virtue Charity
Kerry Adrienne
Trista Ann

Virtue Chastity
Jenn LeBlanc
Annabel Jospeh

Virtue Humility
Milly Taiden
Donna McDonald

Virtue Kindness
CJ Ellisson
Alexandra Ivy

Virtue Temprance
J. Kenner
Sidney

Virtue Diligence
Denise Grover Swank
Jenna McCormick

Virtue Patience
Lousia Bacio
Kallypso masters

And if THAT isn’t enough awesome that will be going on… This year we have an amazing off site costumed event… the Ladies on the Green event sponsored by the AAD Anachronistic Society! This will be an hour and a Half on the famous GREEN in Charlotte (a half block from the hotel). It will be a Costumed event (though Costumes are not required they are encouraged!) to celebrate Gothic, Victorian, steampunk dark historical literature! Your hosts will be: Sahara Kelly, Amanda McIntyre, Leanna Renee Hieber, A.L. Davroe and S.A. Price. Prizes and readings will happen, as well as photo ops!

And NEVER forget the Amazing Open bar with Mel Schroeder and friends! They have SO MUCH awesome set up for you just before the Bookies… you do NOT wanna miss that!

Getting excited yet? How about some info on the AWESOME mini events we have going on? Ready?

On Wed. Night,  Join Sasha White and Joey W. Hill for a wild party and Q&A, Also, the Blind Date Book Party will be open to start your con right! (If you have never done a BDBP, you are MISSING out! You need to attend, Get your blind date book, find the author that wrote it, and hang out with them!)

Thursday?  Panels up the wazoo, and the Bookie Awards----- goodies and books to be given out! The hangout with The GNO girls lead by CJ Ellisson and Boone Brux for some crazy fun! And if that wasn’t enough?  Readings and a Blogger Sleepover party as well!

Friday? More panels, a games carnival with Nina Gooden and Pals, Name that Author with Cat Johnson, and some other fun surprises!

Saturday? A few panels, the Big ass booksigning with 100 authors,  the Cowboy Stampede party, the Readers Mad Tea Party with Hildie McQueen, An after the bookies event with a special publisher sponsor, And Jess Michaels’ Birthday extravaganza!

SEE? SO MUCH AWESOME! All the authors that are involved with parties will be talking about their involvement on the FB group, so join up and get ready to rock.

Oh? You say you’re not registered for AAD yet? You need to be! All registrants get put in the hat for the welcome party prizes, and these prizes are AMAZING! Breakfast with authors, Booze and Books, side trips to Carrowwinds…. We have a minimum of 90 special prizes…. So…

You need to rock this con! And as if this wasn’t enough…. AAD will be giving away something really awesome to registrants…. Wanna know what?

How about 5 VIP registrations for THE NOVEL EXPERIENCE 2015 in LAS VEGAS? YES… 5!

And…

How about this… If we hit 100 more registrations from TODAY April 10^th to June 10^th, we will give away 2 AAD registrations for 2015…  2!!!!! So get registered, get your room and get ready for one HELL of an amazing year with us!

 JOIN US! WE CANT WAIT TO HANGOUT WITH YOU!

AAD REGISTRATION

Ten Things You Might Not Have Wanted to Know About Me...Sorry.

Sooooooooooooooooo…10 random facts about me.

Huh…

Let’s see…

1.)    Once I stopped wearing nail polish for 23 years because I had to work on a cadaver that was wearing the same color I had on. However, I’m back on the nail polish train, and it careens wildly out of control whenever Ulta has a sale.

2.)    I really like skirts. No, really. Like I haven’t worn pants in over 10 years. I just really like to be comfortable, and long hippie skirts are my go-to wardrobe choice. And if they’re tie-dyed, even better.

3.)    I loathe shoes. If I could be barefoot all the time, I totally would. Except I live in Michigan which is really cold for an inordinate amount of time.

4.)    I’m the oldest of 5 kids – 7 if you count my stepbrothers.

5.)    I love making stuff – no seriously, I’m like pathologically crafty. If it can be made, I want to make it. Unless it’s crocheted. Because crocheting is sorcery. But everything else? I’m in - pottery, jewelry, clothes – knitting and sewing, cross stitching, painting, practically anything involving mod podge, glue, spray paint, carving. Pinterest is like craft crack for me.

6.)    I’m trying gardening for the first time this year – well, the first time since I worked on my grandparents’ farms as a kid. I’m super excited about it.

7.)    The one place I feel most at home is Lake Superior – particularly along the southern and western shores. It doesn’t matter what the weather is – sunny, storming, blizzarding – I just love that lake. It brings me a sense of peace like nothing else.

8.)    I love my family more than I can express – not just my kids and husband, but all of my family, parents, sibs, aunts uncles and cousins. For the most part, we’re incredibly close which is impressive since there are about 70 of us. I feel so lucky to be part of this family.

9.)    I’ve seen the movie Labyrinth well over 300 times. I don’t know if I should be proud of this or ashamed.  I’m gonna go with proud. Might as well own that shit.

10.)    I sing all the time. I sing actual songs. I make up songs. Sometimes those songs involve a lot of swearing. Often I just sing instead of speaking. Why, yes…the people I live with do want to throat punch me sometimes.

11.)  Bonus fact! Wet paper grosses me out. Like if I think about it long enough I'll start gagging. It's just the most disgusting thing in the world to me. I don't want to see it and I really don't want to touch it. I have no idea why, but it's just vomitous. 

You can check out the other random facts by clicking on each author's name.

Jess
Leigh
Kellie
Kris
Jen

Elemental Enchantment - Upcoming Release

Hey Everyone!

I'm super excited! I've got a new book coming our on April 30th! It's called Elemental Enchantment and it's the final story in the Witch Way Trilogy!

Here's the cover and blurb!

Photographer, Meaghan Boulton thinks a steamy one-night stand with a member of the bridal party is a good idea. And it is...until the ghost of a missing child shows up in the wedding photos, and her one-night stand turns out to be a cop who now suspects her of being involved in the child's abduction. 

Eli Jones is having a rough week. The woman of his dreams--the woman he's been infatuated with since high school--skips out of his hotel room after the hottest hook-up of his life. Worse, she's got information on a kidnapping that she couldn't possibly have--unless she’s involved or what she says is true and she's a witch. 

Despite the cloud of suspicion hovering between them, they need to work together to find the missing child. When it's over, will anything be left of their passion to salvage?

Can you help?

The nephew of one of my Tweeps, Dylan Brooks, is three years old and has been have horrific life threatening seizures - as many as fifteen a day. The doctors have been trying him on all sorts of medicine and none of it works for more than a day or two.

His family is trying to raise money to get him to the Mayo Clinic. If you like to know more about his story and possibly help, please click http://www.dylanbrooks.org/  There's a donate button at the bottom.

As an extra (hopefully not lame) incentive, if you help, send me a copy of your receipt to bronwyn@bronwyngreen.com and I'll send you the ebook of your choice from anything in my list. 

Merlin Club: The Labyrinth of Gedref or The One Where I Keep Reading Geldof and Now, “I Don’t Like Mondays” is Stuck in My Head (if you're hearing the opening piano riff in your head...you're welcome!)

The episode opens with Arthur, Merlin and a hunting party wending their way through a mist-shrouded forest. Why Arthur’s wearing metal bracers is beyond me. Are you planning to do a little hand to hand combat with the woodland creatures, Arthur, or what? Weirdly, the other knights are in chain mail. Who wears armor to hunt?

Arthur has Merlin go deeper into the thicket to flush out whatever animal is hiding in there. Suddenly, Merlin gets this totally dreamy look on her face (and Jess’ panties fell off) and the camera pans over to show the viewer a beautiful unicorn. 

And Arthur shoots it.

Yep. Straight up kills a unicorn and is totally gleeful about it. Merlin is horrified and knows there are going to be consequences. This is confirmed when he sees a sorcerer in the woods that no one else does. You can totes tell he’s a sorcerer because of the elaborate robes and wizardy looking staff.

After the credits roll, we see Arthur proudly showing off the unicorn horn to Uther and the other courtiers and Uther is so very proud. This seems like super not subtle subtext for: “Look father, my dick is huge!” Followed by, “Yes, son. Your dick is huge. You clearly get that from me.”

Uther shows Gaius his son’s large penis unicorn horn, and Gaius makes a face. Uther gets all eye-rolly and says, “What is it, Gaius?” Gaius is all that’s bad luck, man. And Uther pooh-poohs him and says they’ll be the envy of every kingdom, because clearly big dicks unicorn horns aren’t magical or anything. Really, Uther!? Where do you live, again? And Arthur is happy to have approval from his bitter, distant father. 

Merlin is still pretty distraught over the death of the unicorn and Arthur mocks him for it, then bitches him out because there’s rat shit in his chamber. Meanwhile, Uther summons Arthur. It seems all the crops have died everywhere in Camelot and now food must be rationed. Considering the way they waste food on a daily basis, this is going to be a problem. 

Gaius does some sciencey things to try to figure out what killed the crops. Merlin suggests it must be magic, but Gaius is still clinging to his experiments. The people of Camelot are lined up outside the castle for food rations. People are panicking and there’s been some looting, so of course, Uther’s answer to looters is execution and Camelot will be under curfew from here on in. 

Merlin runs into Gwen in town. She begins pumping water and all that comes out is sand. The well and the underground reservoir are completely dry and full of sand and it’s the same throughout the kingdom. Merlin tries to use his magic to turn the sand back into water and has no luck.

Arthur sends the guards to the lower town to enforce the curfew as Merlin is wandering across the courtyard. Arthur scolds him until they see the sorcerer, Anhora, in the courtyard. He plays magical hide and seek with them before ending up in the crypt. Like you do…

Anhora tells them that he’s the Keeper of the Unicorns. Lemme tell you, this dude has some serious eyebrows. They are so amazingly hairy that you could probably bead them. Anyway, he tries to tell them that Arthur is responsible for the misfortunes that have befallen Camelot and that he’s going to be tested. He needs to prove himself and make amends for killing the unicorn. Until he does that, Camelot will damned for all eternity.

Merlin tells Gaius about Anhora and the curse and thatArthur doesn't believe that he's responsible, because, hellllllllloooooooooo denial! Cut to Arthur - he discovers that the rat has eaten though his boot and he's furious. Merlin tries to convince Arthur that he's responsible for this. Arthur is still having none of it.

That night, Arthur and Merlin are keeping watch in the grainary when they catch a thief who was there to steal food for his children. Arthur ends up having mercy on the man and gives him the grain. Miraculously the water is restored to Camelot. Arthur is puzzled by it. Merlin explains it's because the curse has begun to lift. Arthur tells Merlin to find him some food and as soon as Arthur's gone Merlin spots the rat and magics it to death.

Meanwhile, outside Camelot, people continue to line up for rations. Arthur's feeling guilty and decides to seek out Anhora while Merlin is feeding him a lovely rat stew. Arthur figured it out and makes Merlin have some, too. Morgana comes to the door looking for food and the little bastards feed the rat stew to her.

The next morning, Arthur and Merlin leave to seek out Anhora. He and Merlin go back to the forest and get separated. Arthur finds the man who stole the grain. He's got a ton of food there and no kids. He insults Arthur and they have a sword fight because Arthur's pride was wounded. Anhora is all kinds of pissed and says that Arthur fails the test. When they get back to Camelot, they discover that all of the food that they had in storage has rotted. 

Uther tells Arthur that they must stop distributing food to the people. Arthur won't have it and refuses to give the order and tells Uther to go fuck himself. (Not in so many words as this is a family show.) Arthur is feeling super remorseful and Merlin goes to the forest and begs Anhora to give Arthur one more chance, so he's all, tell Arthur to go to the Labyrinth of Gedref to face a final test. If he fails, Camelot will be destroyed. 

Merlin tells Arthur about the test and insists that he go with Arthur. Arthur, of course, won't allow it. And in typical Merlin fashion, he follows Arthur anyway. Okay...here's what I don't get. It's not like this Labyrinth is a secrety place. Arthur rides straight to it like he knew right where it was. So what...there's just this big old Labyrinth within riding distance of Camelot? Is that where kids go to party? Does everyone know about it?

So anyway, Merlin follows Arthur inside and Anhora traps him and when Arthur finally makes his way through the Labyrinth, he finds Merlin and Anhora on one of the most gorgeous rocky beaches I've ever seen and I want to go to there. Arthur tells Anhora to let Merlin go but he can't because Merlin is part of the test.

Arthur and Merlin are seated at a table at the sea shore with two goblets - it's all very Princess Bride. One has poison, the other has harmless liquid. The rules are all the liquid must be finished and one person can only drink out of one cup. Arthur and Merlin argue over who should drink what and Arthur distracts Merlin, dumps everything into one cup and slams it. He slumps over and Merlin thinks he's dead. He freaks and begs Anhora to let Merlin take his place. Then Anhora is all, he's not dead, just drugged and explains that because unicorns are pure of heart, if one is killed, the killer must prove that s/he is pure of heart to make amends. Because Arthur was willing to die for Merlin that proved he was pure of heart.

They go back to Camelot to find that the crops have been restored, it's harvest time and everyone is walking around with giant zucchinis.  It's all big smiles and big zucchinis. Arthur decides that they needs to take the unicorn horn to the woods and give it a proper burial - Arthur even apologizes to the dead unicorn. Once they do that, the unicorn comes back to life. Warm, fuzzy feel-good ending. 

Now, for the questions!

 1.    If I’d written this episode...I would have had Gaius not dismiss Merlin's suggestion that the crop failure was due to magic. Come on, people! It's obviously magic because UNICORN!!!

 2.    The thing I loved/hated most about this episode. I loved Arthur standing up to his father and refusing to give the order to starve the people. I also love that he was willing to die for Merlin and his people to lift the curse.

I hated the fact that Uther was so willing to starve his people instead of asking for help. 

3.    Something you’ve never noticed about this episode before.  How plasticy the plants looked on the forest floor. 

4.    Favorite Costume. This week, I've gotta give to the horse. That spiral horn really brought out the unicorn.

5.    Here is Proof of some random head canon I’ve created. I didn’t create it, but there's some definite Merthur moments. I would call the scene where Arthur tries to force Merlin to eat the rat stew rife with sexual tension. 

6.    What Merthur moment did Jess have the naughtiest thoughts about? See above. I also think Jess was sighing about both of them being willing to die for the other. 

7.   What made Jen lose her shit (in a good or bad way) in this episode? I think it would have to be when Uther and Arthur's extravagant/wasteful eating style catches up with them. 

Jess' take on the episode is here, and Jen's is here.

Please join us Monday nights on Twitter at 8PM EST for #MerlinClub!

A Day in the Life of an Erotic Romance Author...Not as Exciting as Advertised

When I suggested this topic, it sounded like a good idea.

I was wrong, dear reader. I feel that a day in my life might bore you to tears.

Let me elaborate.

5:40 AM - Alarm clock goes off, husband hits snooze.
5:50 AM - Alarm clock goes off, husband hits snooze.
6:00 AM - Alarm clock goes off, husband insists that we get up or we'll all be late.

Well, whose fault is that, snooze hitter?

6:02 AM - Stumble blearily and bitterly downstairs and check email and facebook while waiting for husband to get out of the bathroom.
6:20 AM - Brush teeth, take meds and get in the shower while husband wakes up children.
6:50 AM - Wake up older kid who feel asleep on the  couch. Point him toward the shower and fart around online.
7:05 AM - Remind younger child that school is mandatory and so are pants.
7:10 AM - Remind younger child that if he doesn't move faster he'll lose computer privileges.
7:15 AM - Walk up older kid who fell back to sleep on the couch after getting out of the shower and pour coffee.
7:20 AM - Herd children to the car.
7:35 AM - Drop off youngest at school.
7:55 AM - Drop off oldest at the bus stop (or have him drive himself if I don't need the car.)
8:10 AM - Return home, play around on the internet and drink more coffee.
8:30 AM - Start a load of laundry.
8:40 AM - Stare hopelessly at my manuscript.
8:41 AM - Check Twitter.
9:00 AM - Make more coffee and stare at manuscript some more.
9:15 AM - Bargain with myself that if I get 500 words, I can have 5 minutes on Tumblr.
9:45 AM - Log in to Tumblr
10:20 AM - Release that my time management skills suck and that Tumblr is really shiny.
10:25 AM - Wallow in guilt and berate myself and promise to do better. Change load of laundry.
10:30 AM - Check mail (all three addresses)
10:35 AM - Put headphones in and actually write/edit.
12:30 PM - Look for something that looks like lunch.
12:45 PM - Check email, Twitter and Facebook (yes...I might have a problem.) and put something in the crockpot for supper.
12:55 PM - Write/edit
1:55 PM - Pick up oldest kid at the bus stop
2:45 PM - Pick up youngest kid at school
3:00 PM - Change out laundry and check on supper
3:10 PM - Back to the computer for more writing and social media checking, random house cleaning, phone calls etc.
5:00 PM - Husband comes home from work.
5:30 PM - Eat supper and hang out with fam and knit
8:00 PM - Possibly watch some TV (Monday is Merlin Club time!) read or write some more.
10:30 PM - Crawl into bed and wish I'd gone earlier.

Please note: my day also involves cleaning up a lot of cat puke at random intervals, sending and receiving a large amount of IMs and texts and also petting cats who think my laptop is their happy place.

Some days, I also get the added excitement of grocery shopping (I'd rather chew glass wrapped in tin foil) orthodontist appointments, therapy appointments and the occasional day off to visit friends or family. 

So...there you have it. There's not a lot of excitement going on here. Let's see what everyone else's day is like. Click on their names to find out. And this week, we've got Jenny Trout joining us.

Jess
Leigh
Kellie
Kris
Jenny