Monday 29 April 2013

Melodie Campbell...Rowena and the Dark Lord!

Allow me to tell you a little story.
Some time ago, I noticed a pretty pink book at my library, one called Rowena Through the Wall. I picked it up, read the blurb, and knew I needed to read it. So I did.

I loved it. With a passion. It had everything I wanted in a book: humor, sex and so many men, I didn't know where to look.

Not too long afterward, I noticed the author Melodie Campbell was a member of one of my Facebook groups. Being a total fangirl, I sent her a little message, letting her know how much I loved Rowena! Melodie was gracious and lovely. We began to talk online. Melodie and I soon noticed that we were local to each other, in fact, even had a couple of people in common. It is a small world!

We met for a coffee, became friends, and the rest is history as they say. I am so privileged today to have Melodie here in my Room for the first time, giving us the scoop on the sequel to her book, Rowena and the Dark Lord. I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy and can't recommend this series enough, for the madcap romance, for the startlingly amazing men, and for the magic.
I know you'll love Melodie's books too! Join her plucky heroine Rowena as she wanders through the maze of an alternate universe where every man wants her, and she isn't sure what she wants.

 
Burn, Baby!  Writing Sex in First Person

Welcome to Land’s End, where the men are real men, the women are scarce, and the sex is…well…pistol hot. But that’s only part of the book. Honest.

I’m a former comedy writer, so I set out to write a rollicking adventure series with lots of funny moments based on the premise of “Girl out of Time.” Take a modern woman, put her back with medieval warriors, and watch how she manages to survive in a primitive world using modern wiles.

Even though I write comic fantasy, I try to make it as realistic as possible. So what happens when a medieval earl sells his soul to become the most powerful mage in the land? The woman he wants is powerless to resist him, of course, and dammit, he isn’t going to settle for dot dot dot…

But here’s the difference. I write in first person. So everything that happens in the book is through the eyes and ears of the protagonist, Rowena. Writing sex scenes in first person is a teeny bit different. You don’t get the ‘blow by blow.’ You get only what the protagonist sees and feels…

What does this mean? Well, if I’ve been good at it, for a short time the reader will become the protagonist. You’ll be pitched into her head to experience what she experiences and her reactions. This can be remarkably provocative.

Powerful stuff for both the reader and my protagonist Rowena. Hopefully, a girl from modern-day Scottsdale Arizona may not mind that kind of attention. You gotta admit, it beats endless E-Harmony first dates.

Rowena Through the Wall, first in the series, was the no. 1 time travel on Amazon.ca in Feb. 2013. Reviewers have called this series “Game of Thrones Lite.” Here is an excerpt from book 2, just released, ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD.

Filled with brutal, sword-swinging danger, yet sexy and funny, I hope you’ll like the Land’s End series.

Excerpt from ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD

Cedric moved to the window with startling speed, eyes sweeping the land for riders. “I don’t blame you for this. I hardly blame him. You are too much a temptation. I need to get you back to Huel.”

He spun back, eyes on me again. I cried out from the pain of it and I felt his answering howl, as the draw shook him where he stood.

“Damn the gods! How can I hold my powers at bay with you so close—“

He was across the room in a second, down on the floor over me, gathering me to him. The pain gave way to unbelievable release—not joy, oh no, never joy—but like a cage of pain being ripped away. I didn’t try to resist it. No, I didn’t resist his hand in my hair, his lips on my throat moving down and down. Already, my legs were moving apart, betraying the thoughtless, helpless creature I was becoming.

His mouth moved down further and I let him, dear God, I welcomed it, his mouth on my skin, knowing me, claiming me, and then…

I jerked and cried out when he entered me. He roared like a lion, pulled back, then burst forward again, and I grabbed his tunic hard and pulled. The cloth ripped in my hands, and I heard him laugh like a demon. His face came down on mine, and we were drowning, fighting for air, and I let go—gave in to the madness, and the waves roared, the room pitched, and I was one with something greater than human—

The room was still now. I opened my eyes. Cedric was sitting cross-legged beside me on the floor with concern on his face. Concern?

“I lost you for a time there,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

This was an old Cedric—a Cedric from before the magic had ruled him. I saw an anxious boy there for a moment, and it confused me. I swallowed hard. The last thing I remembered was being lifted into the night sky. What happened just before that?

Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best this year when Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich.  She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and 4 novels. She has won 6 awards for fiction. 


ROWENA AND THE DARK LORD, book 2 in the Land’s End series, is NOW AVAILABLE at the special introductory price of .99! (regular price $3.99, after May 1.) Buy Link:


And the one that started it all: ROWENA THROUGH THE WALL, book 1 in the Land’s End series


 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 comments:

  1. Welcome Melodie! I'm thrilled to have you here!

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  2. Great post! Sounds like my kinda read :)

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  3. Thanks for hosting me, Rosanna! I think we've shocked my crime writer friends with this wicked site . And thanks AV, for commenting!
    I have a big rafflecopter giveaway starting on May 1. Here's the link, for anyone who would like to enter:
    http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/YTg1YjI4MmI2NGZiMGE0ODlkMmY4Yzg4MmQzYWViOjE=/

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  4. Congratulations on your 5 Star Review from the PRG, Melodie! And what an awesome post today. *applaud*

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  5. Thanks, Sheri! There is nothing like "A Jury of Her Peers." So grateful.

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  6. Sheri, a little aside. One of my male fans told me that he figured out why he loved the sex scenes in Rowena: because they were from a first person female point of view. He was pitched into Rowena's head and for the first time got to experience what sex might be like from a woman's point of view. Interesting, si? :)

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  7. Let me say I'm so excited to read this book. I have it on my Kindle and I'm going to dive in as soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading.

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    1. You'll love it, Brenda! Hope you have Rowena Through the Wall too. You'll love the first part of the zany, sexy adventures of Rowena!

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