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THE WRITE STUFF!

Yes punning title, sorry, could not resist.  A friend of mine has just been to a place that I have been longing to go to for ages, the Kennedy Space Center.   I have always been interested in space travel both, fact and fiction, on the screen and in books, to the point of nerdiness.  A cracking read is Tom Wolf’s book, The Right Stuff.  It also made for a classic film.  Another friend appeared on a quiz show, the aim of the show was to find obscure answers to questions.  When my friend came back from the quiz she asked...

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I just wanted to say, Happy Thanksgiving….. I know this is a bit of a cop-out, but it is a holiday, right?   Have a great family time and I wish you all the very best for this festive time. I will just repeat our Black Friday deal! Offering two great deals as our Black Friday offer we are offering two great BVS special offers.  The first deal is Starla Kaye’s Christmas collection, Christmas Love this is two books for the price of one, offer a collection of short Christmas stories, Cowboys in Charge and Holly’s Big Bad Santa. Fantastic seasonal value....

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EARLY BLACK FRIDAY DEAL!

Offering two great deals as our Black Friday offer we are offering two great BVS special offers.  The first deal is Starla Kaye’s Christmas collection, Christmas Love this is two books for the price of one, offer a collection of short Christmas stories, Cowboys in Charge and Holly’s Big Bad Santa. Fantastic seasonal value. The second deal is Leslie McKelvey ‘ s Accidental Encounters Trilogy, three books for the price of two.  These are great books from a great writer.  We know you will love these great action romance stories.  The Accidental Encounters Trilogy is a series of three action and adventure romance...

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DO YOUR PASTIMES AFFECT YOUR WRITING?

I have had a weekend reading scripts and have come across possible gems and sadly some not so good.  There have been a spate of vampire and werewolf stories hitting my desk and wonder if there has been a run of Twilight films about eight or nine months ago.   It is interesting how our watching habits can influence some writers.  I consider myself rather fortunate that my watching habits don’t encroach on my writing.  I enjoy reading George RR Martin’s Games of Thrones, and I am an avid fan of the TV show, but I have never contemplated writing that...

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ALL IN THE MIND, THE LAST TABOO!

I have talked about taboos before.  This could be the last big one in romantic fiction.  I have been reluctant to talk about this one for a lot of reasons. Why ever did I get onto this as a subject?  Yesterday I was with a group of art workers who were being considered to work with people who have some mental health issues.  It was that that sparked me into talking about this.  The fact that so much of this is hidden.  A subject few want to discuss least of all anyone who is suffering from mental health problems. It...

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CHATTING WITH AUTHOR CAROL SCHOENIG

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It is great to chat with author Carol Schoenig the recipient of a 2017 NYC Big Book Award We all loved your novel The Caretaker at Black Velvet Seductions.  You must be delighted with this recognition? Yes, I am delighted. How did you get nominated for this award? I entered this contest, I sent the manuscript and a month later I was informed that I was one of the winners. Would you mind telling us a bit about your background?  How you started writing and what drew you to romance? My story is very glamorous.  Back in my twenties, I submitted a...

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TO BE A SUCCESSFUL WRITER, MUST YOU BE A PROLIFIC READER?

I would love to hear reader's and writer's views on this.  My take has always been yes, the more I read the better I develop my writing skills.  That is not to say I have any interest in plagiarising other people's work.  I believe to become good at anything, you have to study.  As an artist I study other artists, it doesn’t mean I want to plagiarise them either, it is more seeing how they do something in order to do what I do better.  I think it is the same with writing.  You read others in order to hone...

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2017 NYC BIG BOOK AWARD WINNERS

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2017 NYC Big Book Award Winners We are very pleased and proud to announce that Carol Schoenig romance novel The Caretaker is a winner, in the 2017 NYC Big Book Awards.  We all loved the story here at Black Velvet Seductions and we feel this is a fitting tribute to the hard work Carol put into her lovely story.  All of us here are so thrilled for her.  A bit about the story The Caretaker Phae Carson married young to a husband who was verbally and emotionally abusive. Having two kids by the time she was 20 kept her in the relationship. For...

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IS A BOOK JUDGED BY ITS COVER?

The old saying is you can’t judge a book by its cover, but your book will be judged by the cover it has.  I have been designing book covers since 2004 and for much of that providing the covers for Black Velvet Seductions as well as other companies and individuals.  Rather than tell you about my process I thought it would be much more interesting to talk to our new art director Jessica Greeley and the way she works.  Jessica took over the cover design from me for a couple of reasons, I felt our covers needed a new look,...

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DO WRITERS LIVE THROUGH THEIR CHARACTERS?

Is it a part of the writer’s trade to explore life through their characters?  I have known writers who live a second life that way, trying things out in a fantasy world that they would never do in the real world.  One Author confessed to me that she discovered more herself through the sexual encounters of her characters than she had with her husband.  She mentioned freedom, a liberation to try her fantasies out on the written page and found it more fulfilling than the fantasy alone in her mind.  There was something naughty about sharing her intimate thoughts with...

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