Tortured Heroes

Some writer friends and I have been chatting about tortured heroes lately, and since my last hero was the most tortured man I've written yet, I thought I'd blog about the subject.

What is it about heroes with a tortured past that draws us to them? They're snarly, lone warriors who steal our hearts anyway. Who doesn't like a Beauty and the Beast story? It's been the theme of dozens of movies and TV shows.

But is there such a thing as a hero too far gone? What if our protagonist crosses all the lines? Can a hero be past redemption?

Jack Sullivan, the hero of DEATHSCAPE, comes pretty close. He's an obsessed detective who's been following a serial killer across the country for most of his career. His only goal is to finish the man who kidnapped and killed his sister fifteen years ago. It's the darkest suspense I've written to date, and the one hero I wasn't always sure would make it. He's been so focused on the killer, he is becoming nearly as ruthless as the man he is hunting.

Maybe the smart thing to do would have been to write a heroine who is very strong mentally and has a super nurturing streak that could lift Jack out of his darkness. Ashley Price, however, is far from that ideal. She's recovering from an accident where a child has died. She's broken and struggles with major anxiety issues. Yet somehow, these two broken people ended up being perfect for each other.

Who is your favorite tortured hero in fiction? I'll be raffling off free books, as well as a $25 Amazon gift certificate among those who comment.

Covers That Sell?

The amount of agonizing an author spends on a cover cannot be underestimated. For DEATHSCAPE, I started with the four numbered options, then ended up with the one that has the all blue background.

Thank God for my wonderful FaceBook friends (and my fabulous cover designer) who steered me in the right direction!!!! Fine, I admit, I'm clueless about what makes a selling cover.

Romance covers went through so many trends over the years. I remember the sexy embrace covers where everyone's clothes were constantly falling off. Then came the cartoon covers with shoes when chick lit hit. The word of wisdom was, if you had some stilettos on your cover, the book would sell. Then we had the head shot only, people staring off the cover. Followed by the object only covers that came with no people at all. And now the trend seems to be the 'people with head cut off' covers.

I've been told never to have a green book cover as readers will not pick it off the shelves. I've been told never to have cats on the cover (as some readers have cat phobias) or children (as small kids are seen as an interruption to romance).

Is it a wonder that authors can become neurotic about their cover art? I even had dreams about the despair of trying to pick the right font. (Why, oh why, couldn't it have been a dream about picking cover models??)

So some friends and I just put up a web site to ask readers about covers. Clue us in! Pretty please???

All you have to do is vote for which cover you like. To show our gratitude, we're raffling off a $25 amazon PLUS $25 B&N gift cert on Valentine's Day.

Thank you for your help!
Dana

Who's in the mood for a quickie?

LUNCH TIME READS

Some friends and I are participating in Lunch Time Reads with dozens of wonderful quick reads that are perfect for a lunch break or to start after the dishes are done in the evening. Wonderful, fully developed stories from your favorite authors, and you can finish them without having to stay up until 4 a.m. I instantly LOVED the idea when I was first approached with it. I'm always excited when something new comes along regarding books and reading. I might be a little obsessed with the subject. LOL

I love the participating authors, and the best news is, the stories are just 99c each.

What a great chance to try new authors. I've been sampling last week, and loving it so far. I thought I'd share this newly discovered fun site. If you check out LUNCH TIME READS, please let me know what you think. I have one 100 pg novella up, Guardian Agent. Should I put up more? I'm always trying to figure out what readers are looking for.

Hope your New Year is fabulous so far!
Dana

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2012 brought some good and some bad, but we survived it, and that's better than the alternative. Any big plans for 2013?

I always write a list of New Year resolutions. Some years my success rate is pretty abysmal, at other times I do fairly well. It's a good time to remind myself to go back to the basics and to look at the things that are truly important. It's too easy to get caught up in the rush of work and have my whole focus on sales numbers and amazon rankings. Reaffirming my true priorities from time to time helps me not to go loopy over things I can't control.

I spent way to much time in 2012 worrying about work and giving up rest and family time to try to push my new release DEATHSCAPE onto the bestseller lists. I didn't make it to the NY Time's list, but the book did hit the #1 spot on the Amazon romantic suspense list and stayed there for a full week. 20 years from now, will this still be as important as I thought at the time? Or will I wish I did other things with my time?

I know I spent waaaay too much time in 2012 worrying about politics and following our elected loafers (oops, representatives). So with one last brief prayer that the lot of them get taken by aliens, I'm letting that go.

MOVE YOUR FOCUS TO WHAT IS GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL AND POSSIBLE IN THE WORLD, AND AWAY FROM WHAT IS DISMAL. I'm going with that in 2013.

How about you? Any plans?

Wishing you all the very best!
Dana

Could you be a Marketing Assistant?

Would you make a great marketing assistant? Here is a chance to try yourself!

I came into an extra $100 recently for my marketing fund. I thought about buying an online ad for Deathscape. Then I thought about all the wonderful support I get online, with you all recommending my books to friends, etc. Honestly, I think that makes a lot more difference than any paid ad. So I’m thinking about trying something different. I thought I’d give away a $100 amazon gift certificate to the reader who helps me the most to promote Deathscape between now and Christmas.

Contest starts: now

Contest ends: Dec. 23^rd  , 2012. I hope to tally up results that night so the winner can have his or her gift cert by Christmas Eve.

Void where prohibited. Must be 18 to enter. Since this is a Kindle promo for this specific book, I’m restricting this to countries where the book is actually available for Kindle: USA, Canada, European Union.

Here is your challenge if you chose to accept it: Please help me promote Deathscape. http://www.amazon.com/Deathscape-ebook/dp/B009YMJ2AO

I’m looking for online, verifiable mentions of the book. Each will get 1 point. The contestant with the most point wins. (How is that for simple?)

Here are the kind of things I’m thinking:

-Like the book’s page on amazon

-Write a book review (Only if you’ve read the book, please. I’m not trolling for fake glowing reviews, would just like your honest opinion. And please don’t write, “I’m only writing a review to win a contest,” or amazon will whack me over the head.)

-Tweet a link to the book’s amazon page with a note to friends (inclue @danamarton so I’ll see it)

-Post something on FB about the book with a link to its amazon page

-If you have a ‘favorite books’ folder in Pinterest, please post my cover in it

-Get your friends to help. E.g. If you tweet a link to my book with a note recommending it to others and 10 of your friends retweet it, that’s 11 points for you! Same with facebook. If you post about the book with a link and 20 friends hit the share button, that’s 21 points for you! Or if you say, “Hey, I reviewed your book an amazon and goodreads and got my friend XY to do the same, you get points for her reviews, too.”

Basically, please think as a promotion specialist. Posts should be professional, not annoying, have a link to the book’s amazon page when possible, etc.

If you’ve already posted and promoted Deathscape, all those mentions count! Just let me know about them.

Please report your points by posting here on the blog in the comments section. (Pls. don’t send me points in a separate email or post them on my FB page. I need them in one place so I can count them up without going loopy.)

Just post something like: I just Liked Deathscape on amazon. 1 point

That’s it! Questions?

Oh, and while only the person with the most points will receive the $100 amazon gift certificate, the top 100 score will each receive a free Kindle copy of the sequel to Deathscape when it comes out at the beginning of summer. (Since I don’t think I ever had more than 100 people enter any of my contests before, your chances of getting a free book are pretty darn good. That’s my professional statistical analysis, without promising anything, which I can’t do for legal reasons.)

Okay, that brought legal issues to mind, so here we go… By entering this contest, you solemnly swear not to hold me liable if you get carpal tunnel from all the extra typing, you’ll excuse me from all liability from all calamity and will not sue me for any reason what so ever, and all that legal stuff.

Whew. That’s the longest contest description I’ve ever done! I need chocolate now.

Good luck!!!

Dana

My new romantic suspense novel DEATHSCAPE is on a special sale for 99 cents for this weekend, starting today!!!

"... sucked me in from the beginning and kept me guessing... the characters are real people--with histories and motivations and interesting quirks. Add a scary killer, some romance and you have a perfect read!" Susan Mallery, NY Times bestselling author

DEATHSCAPE

After a near-death experience, artist Ashley Price is compelled to paint visions of the dead. Then she paints a man buried alive and, recognizing the surroundings, she rushes to save him.

Instead of being grateful to her for rescuing him, Detective Jack Sullivan accuses her of being in league with a serial killer. He swears he will put her behind bars. Except, the more time he spends with her, the more he falls under her spell. Can he trust her, or is he walking into another deadly trap?

START READING

27 FREE BOOKS!!!

Some author friends and I are giving away 27 free Kindle books today and tomorrow at www.freepartay.com Let the downloading begin!! Happy reading! If you have a second, would you please pass on the news?