Just a note to let everyone know I haven’t forgotten about the book recommendations game from last week. I’m trying to catch up after the long weekend (and a bit more relaxing than I normally do on a weekend.) I am tallying the recommendations and will be announcing the winner tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

I don’t think there are going to be any losers in the contest because there have been an amazing number of recommendations…and we’re all going to benefit from the combined list once I get it created in one file that I can port into the blog. The list of recommendations will give all of us a whole slew of new authors to check out.

I’m also working on a new survey. I’m behind on the Wednesday productivity tip. Wednesday crept up on me with Monday being a holiday. It’s hard to believe tomorrow is Thursday and it is almost weekend again.

Have you heard about Google’s Priority Inbox Feature? If you’re like me and you get tons of email you may find it difficult to find the important messages which are buried in the less important ones. Perhaps you’ve heard about Google’s new Priority Inbox Feature but you weren’t sure what it was or what it does.

What it does is fairly simple…it puts your mail in your inbox in order of importance (based on which emails you have read and which ones you have read and responded to in the past.) I’m guessing there will be a few people who will be kicking themselves because they missed the Labor Day $1.00 ebook sale…which is of this writing still active (as I haven’t yet changed the website even though I advertised the sale would end last night at midnight…but I’m digressing.)

The beauty of Priority Inbox is you can decide which email is important to see soon (like sale announcements from BVS, prize notifications from BVS, letters from your spouse, your daughter, your son, your mother, your aunt and your boss. Those things which you mark as important are shown at the top of your inbox…everything else goes to the bottom. While it won’t work for my email woes because I don’t use Gmail for company mail, and also because I don’t know who is going to mail me manuscripts till they’ve sent them it does have some benefits for people who have more normal email habits.

I found a cute little video from Google which shows how it works.

Enjoy!

We have a long list of winners this week. Comments were brisk around here, which means a lot more people landed on colored squares in the spreadsheet and have won prizes. So, here’s your list of winners for this week. If you didn’t win this week don’t stress. There are more prizes to give away next week. In fact, I have ordered some new magnetic calendar/picture frames to give away here. I will add them to the spreadsheet as soon as the order arrives. It may not be here this week but will definitely be here the next week. I’ve also added a couple of squares with Paperback Swap credits. Those are a ways down on the spreadsheet…we may not get to those for a week or two…but they are on there.

Enjoy your goodies!

From the blog:
gogi1_2 — BVS paperback or short story of her choice from the Saturday blog drawing
donicacovey — $10 Amazon giftcard from the spreadsheet
kalisto — Lace bookmark from the spreadsheet
kissinoak — $10 Fictionwise cash from the spreadsheet
kkhaas — Lace bookmark from the spreadsheet
Cheri_141 — Lace bookmark from the spreadsheet
janie1215 — Pick from Laurie’s Stash of paperbacks
booklover0226 — Pick from Laurie’s Stash of paperbacks

From the Reader’s Newsletter:
cpass — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
dapr — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
enchantingreviews — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
TThaggert — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
jordan_lisa — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
rijosnieves — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
whatajul — free ebook from readers newsletter drawing
mani_bshetty — $10 Amazon gift card from readers newsletter drawing

If you are one of the lucky folk listed above visit the prize claim page at http://www.blackvelvetseductions.com/Claim-A-Prize.html and follow the instructions there for claiming your prize.

Have fun!

Labor Day…sigh…it always signals the beginning of the fall season for me. Here in Indianapolis the weather today was fall like. Beautiful…with a high only in the 7o’s. Perfect weather!

In thinking about a recipe to post for today the one that kept coming to mind is a tried and true favorite that I make often during the fall and winter months. Here’s the recipe:

Laurie’s Favorite Fall Weather Pot Roast

2 Tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 chuck roast (I usually get one that is 2-3 pounds but any size will work)
salt
pepper
3 cans (regular sized cans–not the big ones) beef broth
1 large package frozen egg noodles (usually in the freezer case near bread. I think the brand name around here is Reames)

Preheat oven to 350.

Add oil to bottom of Dutch oven. Over medium-high heat saute onions till tender. Push onions to one side. Season both sides of chuck roast with salt and pepper. Brown chuck roast on both sides in Dutch oven. When brown on both sides add 1 can beef broth. Cover. Remove from heat. Put Dutch oven in oven. Bake for 2 – 2 1/2 hours depending upon roast size and how tender you like your roast. I like mine to be firm but tender…not falling apart. When roast has reached desired level of tenderness remove from oven. Remove roast from pan. Cover and keep warm. Place Dutch oven over high heat. Add remaining beef broth. Bring to boil. Add frozen noodles a few at a time, stirring after each addition. Continue boiling noodles for about 20 minutes or until noodles reach desired tenderness. Drain and reserve excess juice from noodles. Serve juice with beef.

This is yummy. It’s my husband’s favorite roast beef recipe. Mine as well.

What about you? What are you craving now as the weather gets colder? Are there favorite recipes that you enjoy in the fall?

We all love books–right? We all want more books–right? It’s not a “problem” really. We like our little habbit…it keeps us out of trouble. But would you like a little help feeding your addiction? Coffee Time is hosting “Feeding My Addiction” which seems like such an appropriate name for their contest. 

Each month they will be drawing a name and the reader whose name is drawn will receive a box filled with 3 to 5 books plus some promotional goodies (for free). Because the books and promotional items have to be shipped the contest is only open to US and Canadian residents. Check out the Coffee Grounds section inside the Cafe Chronicles each month for the titles that will be enclosed in that month’s box. If you would like to be entered, be sure to send Karenne from Coffee Time your name and address on the Feeding My Addiction  entry form and she will put your name in the once a month drawing. 

Sounds fun–right? Good way to feed your addiction and discover new authors at the same time — right?

Have fun and good luck.

Author Donica Covey posted in response to the thread on book trailers and mentioned that she has book trailers for all of hers. Since I hadn’t searched out her trailers before I thought I would post three of them this evening for those who DO like book trailers. Donica is a new to me author but it appears from the trailers that she writes romantic supsense with DEA agents in hero roles and paranormal romance.

Which video is your favorite? Why is that video your favorite? What elements did you like most about the videos? Based just upon the videos which book would you be most likely to buy?

Has anyone here read anything by Donica? As I said before she is a new to me author. I looked her up the first time after she posted here on the blog. I haven’t yet had a chance to purchase any of her books but that may change shortly.

Happy Labor Day weekend! I’ve been looking for Labor Day for a while and thought I would celebrate its arrival by having an extra special sale.

All ebooks are $1.00 through 12:00 PM Eastern on Monday.

This includes all the:

Romance
Romantic Suspense
Erotic Romance
Contemporary Romance
Historical Romance
Paranormal Romance
Spanking Stories
BDSM Romance
Dominance and Submission Romance
Sweet Romance
Sensual Romance
Fetish Romance
Everything! All Ebooks!

Stock up! This may never be repeated and if it is repeated it won’t be repeated for a long time.

Everything we’ve published so far is on sale for $1.00 per title.

Don’t worry about the price tags on the site. They haven’t been changed for this short sale. Ebooks will go into your shopping cart at $1.00 each.

Have fun! Enjoy your Labor Day weekend if you are in the US. If you’re outside the US…enjoy the weekend. Take advantage of our holiday to stock up on some leisure reading.

Let’s play a game. I have 2 prize packages — one for the winner and one for the winner’s book reading friend (must be someone at a different email and mailing address). 

Each  prize package will contain:
1.) Paperback from Black Velvet Seductions (or ebook or short story if you prefer)

2.) Pick from Laurie’s paperback stash

3.) lace bookmark

4.) 3 Black Velvet Seductions pens

Are you ready?

Here are the rules. The game will end at midnight Sunday night.

To play: Create a list of books (not authors) you would recommend to a friend. Number your list and set it up this way:

1.) Book title — author — (genre)

Make sure you include all three parts — formatted this way.

The winner will be the person who has the most recommendations on their list (1 list per person) by midnight Sunday. If there is a tie those with the tying entries will then be judged on how many unique recommendations are on their list.

So…let’s say…3 people each have 20 recommendations on their list. Those three will go into a run-off. I will take the 3 lists, cross off anything that is on more than one list. The one with the most recommendations that are not crossed out will be the winner. If there is still a tie we will think of another run off contest.

At the end of the contest I will compile all the lists into one big list and post it as a post so that everyone has all of the lists together in one sheet that they can easily print off or bookmark to refer back to.

The contest begins now and ends at midnight Eastern time on Sunday night.

When You Have Your List email it to me at: Laurie Sanders@blackvelvetseductions.com use the subject line:  Blog Game – Book Recommendations

Have fun!

I am looking forward to a long list of recommended reads which I am sure we will all enjoy.

What’s on your keeper shelf? What does it take for a book to make it onto your keeper shelf? Are there some types of books that are more likely to make it onto your keeper shelves than other types? For instance, is it easier for a serious book to make it onto the keeper shelf than it is for a lighter book? Or is the reverse true? Are there certain kinds of characters? Certain plots that make it onto your keeper shelf more often than others?

I am curious about this because I often hear readers talking about their keeper shelves and which authors and books make it onto the keeper shelf. I must admit, I don’t have a keeper shelf. Once I read a book it is pretty unlikely I will read it again, unless it is a non-fiction type book and I need to refer to it to do web design or something…I do have a shelf of those books…more than one shelf actually.

While I don’t have a physical keeper shelf I have noticed that with electronic books I don’t ever delete them. They stick around on my hard drive, in my book file. Somehow it seems…nicer…to give away a book or to trade it at the second hand book store than to EEEKS! DELETE it!

While I don’t have a keeper shelf there are books that I find myself recommending to other people…and I feel confident that if I had a keeper shelf these would be the books that would be on it.

There are a lot of books that are fun, entertaining, a good solid read. But these are not necessarily keepers…nor do I necessarily recommend them to others. The books that I do recommend are books that are…more than entertaining. Usually they touch me in some way emotionally. Often they change how I think about something, or they make me think about something I might not have thought about before.

For me…I seem to gravitate to the books that are serious…emotional…deep…that have characters with deep backstories, lots of emotional angst. I like books that make me feel like I am right there with the character, experiencing everything that the character experiences.

What about you? What’s on your keeper shelf? What kinds of books, characters, plots are most likely to make it onto your keeper shelf? What elevates a book to that status?

If I had a keeper shelf it would most certainly have all of the Black Velvet Seductions books on it. I do not publish anything that I am not comfortable recommending. Beyond Black Velvet Seductions books it would have books by Catherine Anderson, a new to me author that I only recently discovered, books by Sarah McCarty, especially Sam’s Creed and Cain’s Reckoning, and the books from the Promises series, It would most certainly have The Reluctant Dom by Tymber Dalton. There would probably be a spot for Colter’s Woman because it made me think differently about relationships of a menage nature. There would probably also be some early Diana Palmer on my list.

There are other authors that I enjoy a great deal…Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Sandra Brown, Tami Hoag, Claire Thompson, Cherise Sinclair, Joy Fielding, and James Patterson to name just a few…but though I buy these authors without reservation and I recommend them their books fall into the category of highly enjoyable…entertaining…fill a need…but they don’t really rise to the level where a single book has stood out and made me think this is a keeper. 

What about you? Are your auto buys and your keeper shelves the same? Or is there a difference between authors you enjoy and those whose books you keep?

Accomplishment

Most of us have at one time looked at something we wanted to accomplish and been overwhelmed by all that it would take to accomplish it. Many of us spend our whole lives locked in what we’d like to do—we’d like to go back to school, we’d like to write a book, we’d like to take a trip, we’d like to remodel the house, we’d like to lose weight, but year after year passes and each year finds us no closer to our dreams.

As I have aged, undertaken more things, realized some of my own dreams I’ve reflected more and more often about what took me so long to achieve the things I wanted to achieve. The desire to achieve them was always there…but for years it was a quiet desire…never attained.

As I’ve reflected on it I’ve come to believe that the principle difference really is that my outlook shifted. I didn’t dream any harder…I didn’t want my dreams to come to fruition any more than I had when I was younger. But when I was older I began to see the world and accomplishments differently.

Somewhere along the line, about the time I decided to launch Black Velvet Seductions I found a path that I wanted to follow. Though I had the writing background and the business background to run Black Velvet Seductions there were big areas of knowledge that I lacked. One of the first and most overwhelming for me at the time was the need to build a website. When I launched Black Velvet Seductions I knew that I would need a website, I knew there was no money in the budget for having one built or for hiring someone to keep it up even if I did bite the bullet and hire someone to build the initial site.

Pre-BVS days I probably would have been overwhelmed with fear of not being able to learn how to build and my dreams would have fizzled, but since there was no alternative…I dug in my heels…bought a bunch of Books For Dummies and set to work building the first site.

What that experience taught me is that even the task that seems most overwhelming…most fear-ridden is a task that can be accomplished in a series of baby steps.

For me the first step in building a site was realizing that I had to do it. No one else was going to do it for me. Once I fully accepted that was the case then it was a matter of gathering the materials and gaining the knowledge I needed. I bought the books. I visited sites online where I built some of the components that would go on the site. Using the book I began to cobble together a site.

The first site, I have often teased looked like a porn site. Since we were planning to sell erotic romance I chose a color scheme of black, red, yellow and orange…all hot colors. It wasn’t until I had the site built that I decided I really didn’t like the color scheme. It said porn…sleeze…it didn’t say classy and I wanted our site to be classy. So, I delved back in. I made more components, including the header that is still at the top of the page all of these years later. I changed the color scheme. I left behind the red, orange and yellow and instead opted for colors I thought of as more classy…teal, rusty brown, tan. I put the site together using these colors. I launched the site, thrilled to death that I had actually accomplished it. Then I started hearing from other people that the site wasn’t displaying properly in their browsers. For some people the text was appearing over the pictures. So…more research. I learned that the program I had used to build the site was probably not the best software for the job. So I bought new website software, this time the top of the line industry standard software. I bought more Books for Dummies, and I rebuilt the site yet again.

All of this seems rather close to the surface to me now as I am again preparing to rebuild the Black Velvet Seductions website. It’s been a bit over five years since the site has been rebuilt and web standards, like everything else, have changed. Sites are no longer built exclusively in html. Now we use CSS to arrange the page and to set the way that elements on a page display. I am again knee deep in the Dummies Books, and am this time taking online training to help me get up to speed with the web design.

The point of all of this though is to point out that it doesn’t matter what your dream or what your goal. Even the biggest goals, even those that require you to learn something completely outside your area of expertise, are but a series of very small steps chained together. What is really important in accomplishing the things we want to accomplish is that we identify the path that we need to be on, and the steps that we need to follow to end up at the destination we want to end up at.

Once you have identified the path, as long as you keep taking steps along that path, checking your direction, making sure that the path is still leading toward the destination you envision, you will eventually reach the destination.

Everything we want to do…from the smallest of things to the most lofty of things is but a string of interconnected baby steps that lead us ever closer to the destination.