MoB Tour: Gray's Promise by Annie Fife

GRAY'S PROMISE

A King Security Novel, Book 2

by Anni Fife

Quickie Review: Duchess In Love by Eloisa James

I think I'm still tired from yesterday. I'd love a few more hours of sleep.

Of course, this foggy gray day enhances the feeling of tiredness.

I must leave in a few minutes for another day away from the office so this will be a short post.

Like the old TV show Laugh In that's shown in syndication on one of the local HD channels, it's time for a quickie—review that is.

Quickie Review: Duchess In Love by Eloisa James

I find when I'm tired and feeling a little down that I turn to Regency romance novels. There's something comforting about reading stories with genteel characters seeking love that's calming and pleasant. Despite whatever drama lies within the pages, the well-mannered characters muddle through to their happily ever after.

Duchess In Love is a perfect example of this kind of book. It's as pleasant and soothing as watching the Netflix series Escape to the Country in which couples throng to the lovely English countryside where one hardly sees a weed obstructing the pastoral view.

I love the novels by Eloisa James, and Duchess In Love is no exception. Ms. James has well-drawn, witty  characters who find themselves in absurd situations, and the secondary characters add just the right amount of humor to make the reader smile—knowing full well that these second bananas will have their day in the spotlight as the heroine of another of the books in her series.

In Duchess In Love the heroine was forced into marriage with a Duke at a very young age. He left the country immediately without consummating the marriage of course. Years pass and Gina, our virgin heroine who is sorely put out by her lot in life, wants an annulment so she can get on with her life.

When Camden, the Duke of Girton, returns home, with that very intention on his mind, he finds Gina has become a woman—a very desirable woman. How can he give her the annulment she demands when he realizes he's fallen in love with her?

Takeaway Truth

If you're looking for a novel to brighten a gray day, try Duchess In Love, only $1.99 at Amazon Kindle.

Promise of Spring

Here in Houston we've had a long cold winter. I know many of you have that every year where you live, but we don't!

One thing I've always loved about this part of Texas is that our winters are wonderful. Just enough cold days to wear sweaters and even a coat sometimes.

This year, we've had snow, ice, nearly two weeks of freezing and below freezing temperatures, snow again, ice again, and, frankly, we're all tired of it!

Seed Catalogs

Last week in the mail came a seed catalog. Eagerly I grabbed it, sat down with a cup of coffee, and browsed the pages of flowers, vegetables, shrubbery, and trees just waiting for the home gardener. I can hardly wait to cut back the winter kill that dots my yard and get the flower beds ready for spring planting.

Along with herbs and flowers, I'll plant tomatoes, okra, and squash. I can hardly wait. In the meantime, I'm doing the next best thing which is shopping via the seed catalog. I want to try a couple of the new thornless blackberry plants and Darling Hubby wants a Gala apple tree to replace the one that died last year.

Takeaway Truth

Nothing says "Spring is coming" like a seed catalog.

Superbowl In Quotations

I imagine hardly anyone reads blogs today. Most of the populace are glued to the TV sets for all the pre-Superbowl hoopla followed by the game followed by post-Superbowl hoopla.

So I won't keep you. I'll just give you a few quotations about the Superbowl greats that I particularly like.

One is from the coaching viewpoint, another is from a player's viewpoint, and the last is from the spectator's viewpoint.

3 Great Quotes About the Superbowl

Coach John Madden said, "If you win a Super Bowl before you're fired, you're a genius, and everyone listens to you. But a coach is just a guy whose best class in grammar school was recess and whose best class in high school was P.E. I never thought I was anything but a guy whose best class was P.E."

Recently named NFL Man of the Year, J.J. Watt said, "Obviously, you get to do a lot of great things and cool opportunities at the Super Bowl. But at the end of the day, we all want to be here as a player. That's the goal, and that's why I work so dang hard."

Comedian Ron White said, "I believe that a bad Super Bowl halftime show is still better than a soccer game."

Takeaway Truth

Enjoy the hoopla!

Romance Through the Ages Contest Opens

If you're a historical romance author, you'll be glad to know that the 16th Annual Romance through the Ages Contest, sponsored by Hearts Through History Romance Writers is now open.

What a great opportunity for feedback on your future masterpieces from writing peers.

Plus, you don't want to miss a chance for great prizes and to have your manuscript seen by industry professionals!

Dates

Entries accepted Feb 1st – March 31st, 2018

Deadline: entry fee, manuscript file, and payment must be received by midnight March 31, 2018.

Finalists announced on or about May 31, 2018.

Winners announced during the Hearts Through History annual meeting at the RWA national conference in Denver, CO, on July 18, 2018.

Prizes

1st place winners in each category + Legends award: $50

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each category: printed certificate and social media badge (worth $50)

All winners will be announced in the Romance Writers Report.

Entry Fee

$20 for Hearts Through History Romance Writers members / $25 for non-members. Both entry form, manuscript file, and payment must be received by midnight March 31, 2018.

Eligibility

Unpublished authors may enter any category.

Published authors may enter any category in which they’re not published, or in which they’ve not been contracted for publication within the past five years. Self-published work will be considered contracted for the purposes of this contest.

Open to RWA and non-RWA members. HHRW membership is not required.

Entries that have previously won 1st place in any RTTA category or that have won the Legends Award are not eligible. All other previous finalist entries are eligible.

All entries must be the author’s original work.

Any work of historical romance that has not been contracted for publication by March 31, 2018, may be entered.

Categories

The 2018 Romance Through The Ages contest offers the following categories:

Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance
Setting: worldwide, Time period: prehistory through the 17th century

Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance – Celtic
Setting: British Isles, Time period: prehistory through the 17th century

Georgian/Regency/Victorian
Setting: England and its colonies/territories, Time period: late 18th through 19th centuries

Colonial/Western/Civil War
Setting: United States, Time period: 17th through 19th centuries

Post-Victorian/World War II
Setting: worldwide, Time period:1901 through 1945

Modern History 1950s – 1980s
Setting: worldwide, Time period:1950s through 1980s

Time Travel/Historical Paranormal
Setting: worldwide, Time period: prehistory through 1945, Note: more than 50% of the entry must take place in the historical period

Legend Award: A Man for All Reasons
All entries are automatically entered in this special cross-category award. The Legend Award celebrates the most memorable hero out of all entries.

To date, 2018 Romance through the Ages Final Judges are:
Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance – Celtic: Erin Molta, Entangled Publishing

Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance: Kathryn LeVeque, Dragonblade Publishing

Georgian/Regency/Victorian: Elle Keck, Avon Books/HarperCollins

Colonial/Western/Civil War: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency

Post Victorian/World War II: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency

Time Travel/Historical Paranormal: Danielle Egan-Miller Brown, and Miller Literary Associates

Modern History 1950s – 1980s: TBA

Legend Award: A Man for All Reasons: Jennie Conway, St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan

Contact For More Information

If you have any questions, please e-mail RTTA @ heartsthroughhistory.com and contact the contest chair.

For more info and to enter, visit the Contest Page. https://www.heartsthroughhistory.com/rtta-contest/

Takeaway Truth

The clock is ticking. This is a great contest for historical authors. Enter today.

Someone will win. Maybe it will be you!

Review: DesignEvo Free Online Logo Maker

Image created in 5 minutes as 1st time user

Even authors sometimes have the need for a logo. I have a few I've designed for myself and for this blog.

Recently, I received an email from Sophia, a Partnership Manager of PearlMountain, to inform me about one of their free online tools, DesignEvo.

I was asked to review their software for inclusion on my blog since it's advertised as an "easy to use online logo maker."

Even though most readers of SlingWords aren't looking for logo making software, many are looking for free, easy to use graphic design apps to help them create infographics to promote their books and other products.

Testing DesignEvo

So I decided I'd test DesignEvo, which has more than 3000 templates, and see what I could do with it. As the partnership representative said in her email, the software has some excellent features:

• 3000+ fully customizable logo templates
• Over one million icons available to search through
• Hundreds of text fonts and shapes to choose from
• Freely customize a logo with powerful editing tools.

There are 3 membership levels offered:

Free which allows you to download what you create as a 500px x 500px, low resolution file,
JPG/PNG with background. This image is okay for using online as you can tell from the image above. It is not suitable for printing on a tee shirt and not sharp enough for printing.

Basic costs a one-time fee of $19.99. This level allows you to create images with a maximum resolution of 5000px x 5000px PNG with transparent background, and the images are print-ready. You also receive Lifetime support for the product.

Plus costs a one-time fee of $39.99. This level gives you all of the above plus the ability to edit and re-download and also download in Vector, PDF, and SVG files. Additionally, you also have the right to trademark the customized and purchased logo design.

Creating Infographics or Teasers

Can this be used as a substitute for digital illustration software like Gimp, Canva, or FotoJet? No.

You can't upload images like book cover art, but I can see that it would be great to design a logo to brand a group of authors who band together for a common goal or a writing club membership or a logo for a special box set.

Why not register an account? There's no downside. (1) It's free. (2) It's very easy to use. (3) There's a wide range of categories, templates, icons, shapes, and fonts. (4) Customizing what you create from standard elements is easy.

Takeaway Truth

If you don't have your own logo, go to DesignEvo and you can whip one in a very short time. Use your logo for branding your social media sites, websites, blogs, guest blogs, etc. You're limited only by your imagination.

Language Trends: Old Words & New Words

Most of us recognize that English is always growing and changing. When I went to school--admittedly many years ago--there was no such topic as "language trends."

Now new words are added to the dictionary each year. Merriam-Webster added more than 1,000 new words in 2017.

M-W received a lot of criticism for some of the words which sound a bit, well, made up. For example, listicle: an article consisting of a series of items presented as a list.

I'd never heard of listicle before. Have you? All dictionaries add new words even the good old OED (Oxford English Dictionary).

Old Words

I was looking through a vintage book of facts published by Readers Digest in 1937 and had to laugh at some of the tests and teasers. I wonder how many people in today's world could answer this question: What is the origin of these 5 words?

• Bloomers
• Sandwich
• Guillotine
• Vandyke
• gerrymander 

I know the answer, do you?

Bloomers are, of course, what underpants for women were called in the 19th century. They usually were baggy, gathered at the waist, and reached to the knee of below. They were named after Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer of New York who was billed as a dress reformer.

Thanks to TV commercials, just about everyone knows that the Sandwich was named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich who is credited for slapping meat on bread and serving it to his fellow card players. (His servant probably did this.)

Guillotine was named after Dr. J. I. Guillotin who invented this tool the French executioners popularized.

Vandyke is a pointed beard and was named after the 17th century Flemish artist. Just look at any of his paintings, and you'll see that style of facial hair.

Gerrymander is a political term which means to divide an electoral area into districts so that one political party has an advantage in representation. This action was named after Elbridge Gerry who was Governor of Massachusetts in 1812. There are now laws which prevent this from occurring.

Of these 5 words, only sandwich is still in daily use. Sometimes you might hear a stylist refer to a Vandyke beard, but it's not very common.

New Words

You already know listicle so here are 5 more new words for you to add to your vocabulary.

Conlang, a noun meaning an invented language.

Face-palm, a verb meaning to cover one's face with the hand as an expression of embarrassment.

Humblebrag, a verb meaning to make a seemingly modest, self-critical, or casual statement or reference that is meant to draw attention to one's admirable or impressive qualities or achievements.

Mumblecore, a noun meaning a genre of narrative film focusing primarily on the intimate lives of young characters and featuring scenes of ample dialogue and minimal action.

Truther, a noun meaning one who believes that the truth about an important subject or event is being concealed from the public by a powerful conspiracy.

Takeaway Truth

I wonder how many of today's common words will fall out of common usage in the next decade or two, replaced by some words derived from pop culture as are the 5 new words.