• Author Interviews,  Shapeshifter

    5 Easy Questions: Mate Not Wanted @Selena_Illyria #RLFblog #ShifterRomance

    Mate Not Wanted 
    5 Easy Questions is an interview is designed to be quick,
    easy, and fun. Today’s guest is Selena Illyria.
    What is your go-to meal
    to order when you dine out? Your favorite “I know it will hit the spot”
    item.
    Pancakes
    Who is your “book
    boyfriend”? You know, that hottie you read about and drool over.
    Any of Karen Marie Moning’s creations.
    What were you like when
    you were in school?
    Very shy, introverted. I haven’t really changed much.
    What is your favorite
    quote?
    I have two:
    “I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest.
    I do not judge the universe.”-Dalai Lama
    In a man’s letters his soul lies naked. –Samuel Johnson
    What was the last movie
    you watched (home or theater)?
    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

    About the Book

    Title Mate Not Wanted
    Genre Paranormal, IR, Feline Shifters, Sports
    Author Name Selena Illyria
    Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
    Letting Madison
    go unmated? Pierce won’t stand for it…
    Lioness shifter Madison doesn’t want to be mated. So when her
    friends bid and win tiger shifter Pierce McKinney at the Bachelor Auction, she knows
    she’s screwed. Pierce is the one man who can get under her skin. Especially when
    she knows that sex with Pierce will burn hotter than the sun…
    Pierce McKinney has been trying without luck to wear Madison down. So when her friends
    win him at a charity auction, he’s determined to win her for his own. He’ll give
    her what she needs and desires, and he’ll even bring in a friend to play to her
    fantasies. But Madison
    belongs to him, and only him. And he intends to show her that he plays for keeps.
    Even if she’s too stubborn to admit it. Because Pierce is too stubborn to let her
    walk away…

    Buy This Book

    Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HFF7MS6/
    Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mate-not-wanted-selena-illyria/1117761167?ean=2940148925385

    Author Social Media

    Blog www.selenaillyria.com/blog
  • RLF Gems

    RLF Gems: Blog Stats for Apr 2013 #RLFblog

    RLF Gems 

    In April, Romance Lives Forever had 26 posts in a 30 day
    month. Here are the top posts (judging by page views).
    1. EM Lynley
    2. Linda McLaughlin
    3. Nicole Hurley-Moore
    4. Selena Illyria
    5. Karen Lopp
    Authors who guest with us are promoted on Facebook, via
    Triberr to over 549k 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.
    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:
    Brita Addams, Charlotte
    Davila, Chris Karlsen, Cynthia Arsuaga, DJ Swykert, Donna Cummings, Gwenna
    Sebastian, Heather Brooks, Katya Armock, Kay Dee Royal, Margie Church, Mickie
    Sherwood, Neil Plakcy, Nicole Morgan , Rachel Kall, RE Mullins, Rose Anderson, Sara
    Ellwood, Taylor
    Brooks
  • New Writer Tips

    Sometimes Writing Can be Like Pulling Teeth #Writing #Blogging @Selena_Illyria #RLFblog

    Hidden Diversions

    Romance Lives Forever welcomes
    Selena Illyria to the blog for an article on writing and writer’s block. This article
    could have come from my own heart – after reading it, I felt I knew my friend Selena
    much better. If you’re a writer, you owe it to yourself to read this. If you’re
    a reader, this might make you appreciate writers a little bit more.
    I’ve been
    meaning to write this blog for quite some time but something or other always came
    up. Over the past few months I’ve been having computer issues so that didn’t help.
    Those issues made both editing and writing difficult. I was in panic mode during
    those times; it was a fight to get in every edit or finish a sentence. After I turned
    in my edits, which was a relief, I still had a book to finish but soon it became
    evident that my old laptop wasn’t up to the task. Recently, I was able to get a
    new laptop that would allow me to continue with writing and other things, which
    was a relief. That sentiment didn’t last long.
    As I waded
    back into the world of writing it became clear that I was in trouble. For weeks
    I’d been going around in manic mode to get things done. And once my edits were done,
    I started to seep into depression with every day that I didn’t get to write or I
    didn’t get to write enough. That depression turned to anger and stress. I became
    mired in frustration at my inability to get anything done. I thought that getting
    a new computer would help with all those emotions. It didn’t.
    Now I
    was in a new form of hell. One where every word was like pulling teeth or mucking
    through molasses. No word was right or enough. I found myself falling backward into
    old bad habits that I’d been trying to break after my burnout a year before. I became
    angry at myself, frustrated that it wasn’t as easy at it once was. That my mind,
    fingers and brain didn’t seem to want to cooperate or work with each other like
    they used to. Even though I knew I couldn’t go back, I still wanted to recapture
    that hubristic little shit that I was when I first started. When you finish your
    first book and get it published you’re on a high. You can do anything, write anything.
    Book after book can pour out of you like water. Phrases like writer’s block or burnout
    don’t even apply. They’re like distant lands you’ll never visit and have no intention
    of stopping in, not even for a moment. Those two things would never happen to you,
    because you’re kick-ass, you’re made of so much awesome sauce that it comes out
    of your pores.
    Yeah right.
    Then they both come and you get your ass handed to you, even if it’s temporary or
    lasts longer than a week or month. The first time burnout happened to me, I needed
    a few weeks to recover. Then those periods lasted longer and longer until it seem
    never-ending. Now, I find myself in a new kind of Hades, one where I can finally
    write but the words aren’t coming. Everything I put down sucks and my internal editor
    is playing kickball with every sentence, comma, and my confidence.
    The one
    thing you never truly understand until you become a writer is that it’s truly a
    solitary career. No one else can write what you write. Your editors can clean up
    your work, improve your voice, and your publishers can put out your books, but in
    the end, they can’t write them for you. They don’t have your voice or vision or
    phrasing. You can write with a partner but you still have to pull your own weight.
    And none of those people can give you confidence when you fall down or start to
    wonder how you could ever have gotten published in the first place. Things get doubled
    or tripled if you have people in your life that question why you write or make you
    feel like crap because you don’t have “a real job.”
    After
    much wallowing, hiding in reading “comfort books” and pretending that
    I’d get to writing the next day, eventually I had to stop hiding. So, I opened my
    story and got back to work. Unfortunately I’d ended with a sex scene. Nothing says
    sexy like depression. *rolls eyes* And that’s when the self-doubt and self-hatred
    started. Writing the sex scene was painful and I’m still not done with it. Nothing
    about it screamed emotional or enticing. I had to stop before I sabotaged myself,
    but I still had to write. So, I put away that story, for now, to try a palate cleanser,
    to write something that wasn’t contracted and something that wasn’t paranormal (which
    the other story was). It wasn’t perfect, if an editor saw it there would be lots
    of knuckle wrapping and tsk, tsk, tsking, but in the end I’d written something,
    anything and it was pretty good. I had accomplished something.
    Recovering
    from all the pain, heartache, self-doubt, frustration, writer’s block, and writer’s
    fear will take time, and baby steps. But in the end I am a writer and damn it, this
    is what I’m meant to do. Even if it is painful, it’s my job and I love it even if
    it can be a pain in the ass at times. Also, I know that I’ll make it through this
    patch because I’m surrounded by awesome people. One more thing: I’m stubborn.
    For more information about
    Selena’s latest release:
    Blurb:
    Their passion may be the
    death of them…
    Werewolf Chief of Police
    Torger, is running into walls while tracking the Draven’s Crossing serial killer.
    No matter what he tries to do, he can’t find the clues needed to stop the terror
    that stalks the streets of his city. Things aren’t helped by his attraction to the
    dragon shifter and Draven City News Reporter, Isadora Jones. With political pressure
    and bodies mounting, can he get through all these distractions and find the truth
    before it’s too late?
    Reporter Isadora Jones wants
    to help with the investigation into the serial killer but Torger refuses to let
    her. She decides to do it on her own, but her world goes upside down when the killer
    sets his sights on her. Under Torger’s protection, they start to put the pieces
    together but will it be too late for them?
    Things go from bad
    to worse when another killer appears. Draven’s Crossing just got a whole lot more
    dangerous.
    Buy Links:
    Purple Sword Publications:
    http://purplesword.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=130&zenid=numkviqa0h5fkk6o4i6cqo6m06
    Amazon
    Barnes and Noble
    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-diversions-selena-illyria/1045434820?ean=2940015723694
    ARe
    https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hiddendiversions-1018638-139.html