LauraKenyon.com

June 11, 2014 · 1:00 AM

Q&A with bestselling author Cindi Madsen — and a price drop!

Cindi Madsen is a USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance and young adult novels. Her latest, Cinderella Screwed Me Over, caught my eye because of its reference to a fairy tale icon and because … well, the title is just hilarious.

I’m delighted to welcome her here today. Enjoy!

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With so many novels to your name, in both YA and adult, it’s difficult to focus on just one! But what can you tell us about your latest creation, Cinderella Screwed Me Over?

One day I was taking to a friend about expectations of relationships versus the reality if them. I said, yeah, Cinderella really screwed us over. Right then I knew I wanted to wright a book that poked fun of fairytales, while also being one.

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What do think people will love most about this book? What do you love about it?

I love the case studies that compare her exes to fairytale princes and detail why they don’t actually work. I hope people will love that, and also love the romance of course.

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In the spirit of Desperately Ever After, I must ask: If you had to choose, which fairy tale character (doesn’t have to be a princess and doesn’t have to be Disney), would you be and why?

Well, I’d like the flawless hair that comes, even underwater, & I’d like woodland creatures to do my chores. I guess I’ll go with the modern day Rapunzel. She’s got spunk & Eugene’s pretty dreamy. My daughters told me I’m like Anna in Frozen, because she asks why her sister couldn’t have tropical powers & I hate the cold. Continue reading →

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June 4, 2014 · 1:00 AM

Aven Ellis: Author of “Waiting for Prince Harry” — plus a giveaway!

Aven Ellis’s website describes her as an “author of stories about the girl trying to figure out her career, her dreams, and the guy.” During the past year, she’s published Waiting For Prince Harry and Connectivity to rave reviews. I am so happy to have her here today.

After the interview, leave a comment for a chance to win an e-book of her latest release, Waiting for Prince Harry.

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Your latest novel, Waiting for Prince Harry, has received a lot of attention and praise from readers and bloggers of “chick lit.” What can you tell us about the story?

Thank you! Waiting for Prince Harry is about a young woman, Kylie Reed, who is afraid to live her life now, and puts everything off for the future so she doesn’t have to face it. But all of that changes when she falls into the lap of hockey star Harrison Flynn, a ginger who is even hotter than her dream crush, Prince Harry.

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What do think people will love most about this book? What do you love about it?

This caught me by surprise, actually, but readers really love the sports angle of the romance and that the lead is a hockey player. They love that Harrison is hot and completely respectful of Kylie. I love the message in the book-that if you believe in yourself, and have the courage to take action, great things can happen in your life.

Continue reading →

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June 2, 2014 · 9:40 AM

Blog Tour Kickoff — and a special price!

Desperately Ever After had a phenomenal May — becoming a 2014 NIEA Chick-Lit Finalist, and then making Amazon’s Top 100 lists for both Women’s Fiction Fantasy and Humor :)

I did multiple happy dances over the past few weeks (or, more accurately in my current state, happy waddles). But now it’s time to look toward something new: My month-long Fiction Addiction Blog Tour!!

For those unfamiliar with a blog tour, it basically means you’ll see Desperately Ever After featured on a bevy of wonderful websites throughout the month of June. And not only that. There will be reviews, guest posts, interviews, dream casts, giveaways, and a discounted e-book price of $2.99!
(From its full $4.99. What’s a blog tour without a giant perk, right?)

It kicks off Tuesday with a guest post about the writing life (and why we could all use a muse!) at Chicklit Club Connect. Follow the schedule below to keep up with all the fun.

And don’t forget to feed your beach bag a copy of the book Chick Lit Central called ideal for “Once Upon a Time withdrawal” and anyone who misses Sex and the City or Desperate Housewives. Bestselling author Stephanie Evanovich praised it as “desperately delicious,” and myriad Amazon and Goodreads reviewers said they gobbled the whole thing up in a single day. So a few hours on the beach and you should be golden–in more ways than one. ;)

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Available at AMAZON US and AMAZON UK

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Date	Tour Information
3rd June	Chicklit Club Connect
4th June	Lost in Chick Lit
5th June	Chicklit vs Fantasy
6th June	Trips Down Imagination Road
9th June	Rachel Brimble Romance
12th June	Have Book, Will Read
13th June	M’s Bookshelf
16th June	A Novel Review
17th June	jgrwriter (Janice G. Ross)
19th June	Tea Party Princess
23rd June	Mature Bookworm
24th June	Fiction Dreams
	Inheritance Books with Rhoda Baxter
25th June	The YA’s Nightstand
26th June	Compelling Reads
30th June	Tracy Riva Books and Reviews
	Deal Sharing Aunt

Continue reading →

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May 30, 2014 · 1:00 AM

Maleficent casts a spell on D.E.A. — Just 99 cents through Sunday!

In conjunction with the opening weekend of Disney’s Maleficent … Desperately Ever After is on sale at Amazon for just 99 cents!

This is by far the lowest price it’s been since the release, and the lowest it will be for quite a while. The drop ends Sunday (or possibly earlier, since Amazon’s timing is an enigma), so don’t let another minute go by!

*** Click here for Amazon US … or here for Amazon UK ***

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A bit about the book:

A 2014 Chick-Lit finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards

Stephanie Evanovich, New York Times bestselling author of Big Girl Panties, says: “Laura Kenyon makes happily ever after desperately delicious!”

Chick Lit Central praised it as a great cure for “Once Upon a Time withdrawal,” or for fans who miss Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives.

According to the New Canaan Advertiser, “Kenyon’s colorful imagery and often quick, lighthearted style, makes it easy to keep flipping pages.”

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Have you ever wondered how Cinderella would feel 10 years down the road, when her iconic ball gown no longer fits and she has four kids, a billion royal duties, and a husband who’s never ever around? Or what about Beauty? Once his curse broke, how long would it take for “Beast” to realize there are a million other “beauties” in the sea … and it’s good to be the king…

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Set in a fictional realm based on New York City, Desperately Ever After imagines what might happen if our most beloved fairy tale princesses were the best of friends and had the dreams, dilemmas, and libidos of the modern woman. How would their stories unfold after the wedding bells stopped ringing?

Years after breaking her husband’s curse and becoming his queen, Belle finds out she’s finally going to have a child. But before she can announce the wondrous news, she catches him cheating and watches her “happily ever after” go up in flames. Turning to her friends for the strength to land with grace, she realizes she’s not the only one at a crossroads:

~ Cinderella, a mother of four drowning in royal duties, is facing her 30th birthday and questioning everything she’s done (or hasn’t) with her life.

~ Rapunzel, a sex-crazed socialite and one-woman powerhouse, is on a self-destructive quest to make up for 20 years locked in a tower.

~ Penelopea, an outsider with a mother-in-law from hell, is harboring a secret that could ruin everything at any moment.

Together, these women rescue each other from life’s trials with laughter, wine, and a scandalous new take on happily ever after. At heart, it’s about ordinary women dealing with how their lives have turned out. They just happen to live in castles.

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LINKS:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

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Not sure? Check out some more reviews …

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Q&A with author duo Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke — plus a giveaway!

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been friends for 25 years. In college, they made a vow to one day write a book together. And THAT is where anything common about this tale comes to an end. Because not only did they follow through with their promise … they kept at it and kept at it until Simon & Schuster bought not one, not two, but THREE of their manuscripts! I’m so happy to welcome this dynamic duo to Skipping Midnight.

After the interview, leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Your Perfect Life.

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Before we get into what Your Perfect Life is about, I’d love to hear a bit about the road you took to get here. Before landing the deal with Simon and Schuster, you wrote two other manuscripts. Where are these now?

Our road to publication was hard and full of many rejections along the way, but we were prepared for that. In fact, the more NO’s we heard, the harder we tried. Our first two manuscripts didn’t sell, but in hindsight, we’re thrilled they didn’t. Because we probably—make that definitely—wouldn’t have ended up with the dream team we have now. And we feel so lucky to have our incomparable agent, editor and publisher. Timing is everything and when we wrote Your Perfect Life, we could feel that it was different—we were proud of the characters we’d created and the humorous, yet heartfelt story.

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Knowing what you know now about the industry, why do you think Your Perfect Life had a different outcome?

That’s a hard one because the industry is so subjective that you never really know the answer to a question like this! But here’s what we think is at least part of the answer: When we wrote the prior two manuscripts, we were trying too hard to write what we thought the industry wanted. And when we did that, we compromised ourselves too much. Once we said, eff it, we’re going to tell the story we want to tell, it all seemed to fall into place.

Continue reading →

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May 26, 2014 · 1:00 AM

Three books for fairy tale fans

I’ve been holding on to these titles for several weeks now, hoping for a good time to mention them on my blog. Well, today’s the day! From historic princesses to fairy tale recipes to a bloodthirsty Sleeping Beauty, here are three books I thought readers of Skipping Midnight might enjoy:

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Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Blurb:
You think you know her story. You’ve read the Brothers Grimm, you’ve watched the Disney cartoons, and you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after.

But real princesses didn’t always get happy endings. Sure, plenty were graceful and benevolent leaders, but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power—and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets.

Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a Nazi spy. Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian empire slept wearing a mask of raw veal. Princess Olga of Kiev slaughtered her way to sainthood while Princess Lakshmibai waged war on the battlefield, charging into combat with her toddler son strapped to her back. Continue reading →

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May 23, 2014 · 8:28 AM

Glitzy glimpse of Branagh’s Cinderella

Ever since I watched Much Ado About Nothing with my father, I’ve been a big Kenneth Branagh fan. He’s a jack of all trades, in my humble opinion: Actor, producer, director, writer … a thespian who speaks Shakespeare as if it’s his first language, but can also deliver an action-packed blockbuster about a hammer-flinging Avenger.

I am very excited about his next project, a new adaptation of Charles Perrault’s Cinderella, due out in spring 2015. Fans of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones will recognize Lily James (Lady Rose in D.A.) and Richard Madden (Rob Stark in G.O.T.) as the star couple. Cate Blanchett will give life to the evil stepmother. And I’m always thrilled to see Helena Bonham Carter — who’ll be tackling the fairy godmother this time — in anything.

Last week, Disney unveiled a teaser trailer of sorts. It doesn’t say much about the story, but it is quite mesmerizing. Enjoy!

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May 21, 2014 · 1:00 AM

Elizabeth Maxwell puts a new spin on “Happily Ever After” — plus a giveaway!

It’s a closely guarded secret among authors that … sometimes … we fall more in love with our characters than we should—particularly those of the opposite sex. In Elizabeth Maxwell’s debut novel, Happily Ever After, her protagonist actually bumps into one of her erotic fiction creations at Target! I was hooked as soon as I read the premise, and I’m thrilled to welcome Elizabeth here today.

After the interview, leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of Happily Ever After!

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Happily Ever After has a very intriguing premise—one to which many authors (yes, I’ve absolutely fallen in love/lust with a few of my male leads) can relate. Can you tell us a bit about the story?

I watched the movie Enchanted and loved how they mashed together fairy tales and reality in such an entertaining way. I wondered what would happen if I tried a more adult take, using the same concept (and minus the songs). It happened to be right around the time Fifty Shades of Grey took over the world so making Sadie an erotica author suddenly seemed a no brainer. The rest flowed from there – with the usual bumps in the road of course!

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What do think people will love most about this book? What do you love about it?

Most readers I’ve heard from like that Sadie is in her mid-forties and kind of a mess. She’s not a typical romantic heroine. Her life looks nothing like the books she writes. She was created with the hope readers would see something in her and say ‘yup, I’ve done that.’

Continue reading →

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May 20, 2014 · 12:45 PM

Desperately Ever After named a 2014 Indie Excellence Awards FINALIST!

Much love and many thanks, National Indie Excellence Awards, for choosing Desperately Ever After as a 2014 chick-lit finalist!

Said President and CEO Ellen Reid in her congratulatory announcement: “Your book truly embodies the excellence that this award was created to celebrate, and we salute you and your fine work.”

Check out it and the other honorees here.

And in another wonderful surprise this week, the women of Marestam were saluted by two fabulous book bloggers — first as one of Tracie Banister’s 2014 Summer Reads and then as part of Jenny in Neverland’s “Books That Made Me … Laugh” series.

“It’s sarcastic, it’s flirty, it’s cheeky, it’s hilarious!” said guest blogger Mary from M’s Bookshelf. “Laura gave those girls and their stories such an interesting, contemporary spin with some magic and lots of humor. I couldn’t stop reading and my cheeks hurt from grinning.”

I can’t stop grinning either. It’s amazing welcoming readers into this world I’ve immersed myself in for years now. Been an amazing few days :)

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May 19, 2014 · 8:36 AM

Jera’s Jamboree

Happy Monday everyone! I’m delighted today to be a guest blogger at Shaz Goodwin’s wonderful blog, Jera’s Jamboree. It’s the kick-off to an entire month of festivities surrounding Desperately Ever After, so check it out ;)

And don’t forget that Miranda Dickinson’s giveaway ends Tuesday night right here!