Welcome Karen Tintori & Jill Gregory

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS…jill_gregorykaren_tintori

It’s great to be here visiting with you today, but it’s also a bit of a challenge.  A good one.  While we write thrillers together seamlessly, we were a bit flummoxed about how to go about writing a blog in one voice. 

The two of us have been best friends since we were young mothers.  Our kids met in a mother-toddler class, hit it off immediately, and so did we.  We thought we’d end up in-laws one day, but that didn’t happen.  Instead, we’re writing partners with five books written together and lots more written separately.  Karen is outgoing, Jill is private, but other than that, we two are a lot alike, devoted to our families and to our writing.  We finish each other’s sentences, we think with one brain, writing our books line by line together.

the_illuminationIn THE ILLUMINATION, our new release, we explored the ancient belief in the Evil Eye, a protective symbol that plays a prominent role in the book.  Before we started our research, Karen—being superstitious—already knew a lot about it, Jill not so much. 

Karen:  I’m obsessively superstitious.  I come by it naturally, being raised in a Sicilian-Italian family where horseshoes wrapped in red ribbons hung over our doorways for protection and St. Christopher rode on the dashboard of our family car.

From as far back as I can remember, my mother and grandmother warned me about the evil eye—mal occhio—and how to protect myself if I thought someone was shooting the evil eye at me.  More times than I can count, I watched my grandmother or one of my older female relatives perform the incantations to remove the curse from some hapless victim in our family.

Jill: I’ve never been particularly superstitious, though I’ll admit to avoiding stepping on cracks or walking under ladders.  Because…why take chances?  Those two are so ingrained, even my practical side won’t risk ignoring them.

Karen: And you always say, “bread and butter,” when we’re walking somewhere and have to go around opposite sides of a pole or bench or some other obstacle. 

Jill: Okay, that’s another one.  I learned to say, “bread and butter” as a little girl.  It’s a way of saying “may nothing ever come between us” to avoid breaking a relationship.  Has anyone else ever heard about this superstition, or is it a regional Midwest deal? 

Karen: I’m into all of it.  “Bread and butter.”  “You owe me a Coke.”  Throwing salt over my left shoulder if I spill some accidentally, avoiding black cats—about the only thing I don’t ascribe to is aversion to the number 13.  It’s one of my lucky ones, in fact.

Jill: What I’ve never understood is why you think that if you cry on your birthday, you’ll cry all year long.  Every time you say that, it cracks me up.  Is that a genuine Italian superstition, or did your mother make it up?

Karen: Who knows?  I don’t.  But I try my damnedest not to ever cry on my birthday—even over sentimental cards.  My sister, raised in that same Sicilian-Italian family, thinks I’m nuts.  Still, when we started our research for THE ILLUMINATION, I learned there was more to the Evil Eye than I thought.  The research was…well, eye-opening.

Jill and Karen: We had a blast learning about the incredible mythology surrounding this ancient symbol—one of the oldest and most wide-spread of all human superstitions.   

The eye symbol appeared in Egyptian hieroglyphics and on the cuneiform tablets of the Babylonians and Sumerians.  It was also mentioned in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy and Proverbs), and in writings by classical Greek and Roman writers such as Plutarch and Cicero.  Even Socrates had a connection to the Evil Eye—he was rumored to have possessed it, holding his followers and admirers under the spell of his magnetic gaze.  Who knew? 

Here are some other tidbits we learned:

  • Admiration, a compliment, or an envious, overlong glance, are all thought to impart the Evil Eye.
  • In Scotland the Evil Eye is called droch shuil. 
  • The belief that a person can purposely cast an Evil Eye on others is held only in Southern Italy and Sicily.
  • Protective talismans have been used to protect against the Evil Eye since antiquity.  Blue beads depicting an eye are thought to deflect the evil back upon the person casting the Evil Eye, thereby protecting the intended recipient.
  • In Turkey, a protective blue eye is painted on the national airliners.
  • Animals and children were considered particularly susceptible to the Evil Eye.
  • Spitting was thought to protect against the Evil Rye. 
  • Protective Evil Eye jewelry, worn for centuries, is still prevalent today, becoming increasingly popular in mainstream culture.

In fact, the two of us occasionally wear Evil Eye bracelets or hamsa charms (open-palmed hands) for good luck and protection.  We’re wondering if anyone out there wears any sort of protective talisman to ward off the Evil Eye or to bring good luck.  Most everyone buys into some kind of superstition or other—knock on wood, offer a  “God Bless You,” or “gezundheit,” when somebody sneezes, and keep your fingers crossed, to mention a few. 

Now it’s your turn.  We’d love to know about your superstitions. What little rituals, charms or sayings keep you feeling safe?

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Please leave a comment to enter to win a copy of THE ILLUMINATION. Entries accepted until midnight, PST.

To learn about Karen and Jill, please visit their websites.

Karen Tintori & Jill Gregory Blogging!

That’s tomorrow, February 4th!

I couldn’t put “Tomorrow” in the blog title like I usually do, because it’s a long title and I don’t know how to format it to left justify. If my blog titles are too long, they full justify, which annoys me to no end. Sooner or later, I’ll get into my style sheet and permanently change the full title justifying to left, but Elle won’t let me play with the blog style sheet until I finish my WIP.

Enough about me! I’m here to introduce my first-ever co-author guest bloggers, Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory. Authors of the international bestseller, THE BOOK OF NAMES, Karen and Jill are blogging about superstitions and the research behind their new thriller, THE ILLUMINATION. It’s a great blog, too. They wrote it just like they write their books—together. The format reminds me a lot of my old Girl Talk columns with Jamie Sobrato, so of course I think it’s spectacular and very effective.

Here’s the back cover copy for THE ILLUMINATION:

It gleamed up at her like a small golden egg encrusted with jewels of lapis lazuli, carnelian, and jasper. The classic eye, one of the most ancient symbols of protection.

Natalie Landau, a museum curator with an expertise in Mesopotamian protective amulets and magical beliefs, has received a puzzling gift from her sister Dana—a necklace with a blue evil eye pendant on it. The Evil Eye is a symbol of protection common throughout the world, with a history connecting it to many religions.

When Natalie learns Dana was murdered only hours after sending the gift, she begins to think her evil eye amulet had something to do with her sister’s death. As she races to discover the origin of the pendant, Natalie is sucked into an international battle between powerful religious factions, each battling for the eye, which turns out to be far more valuable?and far more powerful—than she could ever imagine.

Tomorrow, ask a question or leave a comment for Karen and Jill to enter for your chance to win a copy of THE ILLUMINATION. Entries will be accepted until midnight, February 4th, Pacific Standard Time.

ABOUT KAREN & JILL:jill_gregorykaren_tintori

Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory are writing partners and long-time best friends who’ve collaborated together on five books and are also multi-published separately. Their recent thriller, THE BOOK OF NAMES, became an international bestseller published in 22 countries. They return this month with THE ILLUMINATION, another page-turning thriller based on the quest for a little known biblical artifact that has the power to transform—or destroy—the world.

To learn more about Karen and Jill, please visit their websites by clicking their names.

See you tomorrow!

A Week of Secrets

My buddy, my friend, my life-long pal (not to mention writer extraordinaire), Kate St. James, is participating in A Week of Secrets at Jennifer’s Random Musings. Starting…yesterday! Yes, yesterday, Sunday February 1st, the Week of Secrets began. No stressing, though. No yelling at me that I didn’t post yesterday. Who do you think I am? Kate’s promo person?

There’s plenty of time—all week, in fact—to pop over and say hello to Kate, meet four other wonderful Red Sage authors, and leave comments to enter a drawing at the end of the week for a coupon toward a print or ebook from Red Sage Publishing.

Yesterday featured an introductory post. Now, each day from today until Friday, a Red Sage author will post a blog, Kate will pop in to comment even when it isn’t her day—because that’s the sort of supportive writer-friend she is, she tells me—then next Saturday, February 7th, a winner’s name will be drawn for the print book/ebook coupon.

You can comment as often as you like, however, every day that you comment counts as an entry into the contest, up to a maximum of 5 entries per commenter. So if you comment once per day from Monday to Friday, you’re entered for 5 chances to win. If you comment 5 times on Monday and no other day, you’re entered for 1 chance to win. Make sense? In other words, visit and comment every day to maximum your chances.

Here’s the line-up for the week:

Monday  Not So Secret Secrets of One Romance Writer by Ellie Marvel

Tuesday – Two Secrets of Bold, Bad Girls by Natasha Moore

Wednesday – Secrets of Successful Threesomes by Kate St. James

Thursday – Four Secrets of A French Courtesan by Juliet Burns

Friday – Five Secrets of the SuperFlirt by Carly Carson

Saturday – Jennifer announces the winner of the give-away

Now, I’ll be busy here Wednesday hosting co-guest bloggers Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory, so I won’t have a chance to heckle you to go say hello to Kate. I might heckle you belatedly on Thursday if you don’t go say hello to her, however. I’m just trying to earn my keep here. She’ll cut me loose if I don’t do my job properly. She’s evil that way.

Lovely RITA, Meter Maid

Or, should I say, contest.

I have a lot of reading to do over the next few weeks, because I received my RITA books yesterday. This is the first year I’ve volunteered to judge the RITA contest. Last year and previous years, I judged the Golden Heart. Considering this is the second year I’ve entered the RITA myself (last year as Cindy and Penny, this year just as Penny), I decided the time had come to volunteer to judge. As much as I yearned to continue judging the Golden Heart, I confess I don’t have it in me to judge two contests at one time, so I had to choose.

I received 8 or 9 books—yikes! All but one are in one category, and then there’s a lone baby from a second category. It’s interesting, when you receive all but one book from one category, to note the publishers within that category. However, I can’t go into my observations here, so as not to ID authors and publishers. I’ll have to discuss it with Elle Muse. She’s very discreet.

Before I get to the RITA entries, I’m still reading a wonderful book by Bronwyn Parry, an Australian writer who won the Golden Heart in 2007. Bronwyn’s romantic suspense with a mainstream feel, AS DARKNESS FALLS, was published by Hachette Australia this year. I’d love to include a link to Amazon for everyone, but unfortunately the book isn’t distributed in North America. So if you search on Amazon, I think it’s listed as out of print or something. But it IS in print—just in Australia.

How did I finagle a copy, you ask? Hachette had a contest for five people to win copies of Bronwyn’s book, I happened to enter (because I really wanted to read it), and I happened to get chosen as one of the lucky winners. Yay for me.

Oh, and before I forget, today is the last day you can comment to enter to win a copy of SECRETS, VOLUME 26: BOUND BY PASSION, including the novella, Exes & Ahhs, by Kate St. James, who is the author of the week at Candy Ready’s Red Hots. Excerpts from Exes & Ahhs went up yesterday and today—so hop over and check ’em out. Yes, you have to comment (there, not here) to enter for a chance to win, but the winner is getting chosen tomorrow, so if you want this last chance to enter, take advantage of it now. NOW, I tell ya!!

Welcome Guest Blogger Tina Ferraro

ferraro_pic1BEFORE I LEARNED MY ABC’S…

I have been asked several times by interviewers how I came up with the idea for my January release, The ABC’s of Kissing Boys.  A good question, whose answer—in a nutshell—is that I knew I wanted to do a soccer story, but then was struck with this title idea, and racked my brains to find a way to make it all work.

The truth, though, is that the idea was the easy part.  The real labor of love was bringing this story to life: finding the right tone, the right characters, the flow.

The book takes place in Minnesota, so it being the land of 10,000 lakes, it seemed natural to open the book on a lakeshore. And I loved the idea of a group of teens playing the kissing game, Dentist.  Every morning I got up before sunrise and started pounding away on it.  I felt sure if I worked long enough/hard enough, this “great idea” of mine would take shape.  Days passed.  Weeks.  I moved from page to page until I had to take Advil to ease eyestrain and headache.

ferraro_kissing_boysI started feeling like the living embodiment of that old joke about the writer who boasts that he wrote forty pages that week. Forty first pages. 

My critique partner, author Kelly Parra, was infinitely patient with me as the weeks turned into months, reading attempt after attempt, encouraging me, making suggestions, and holding my cold, clammy hand. 

Still, the day came when my agent, Nadia Cornier, called to find out why she still hadn’t seen a first chapter.  I caved.  I told her my eyes had gone blurry, my head blank.  The story wasn’t working, I was going to quit. 

Now, if any of you know Nadia, you will not be surprised by her reaction.  Instead of accepting this news, she basically got in my face and told me to go try again. It was a great idea, she insisted, I was a strong writer, I could do this.   

Dutiful client that I am, I wiped the tears and went back to the keyboard.  With nothing more to lose, I decided to throw caution to the wind.  I would abandon those elements I so wanted to use, and just let the characters take over.

I’d start…with dialogue.  Soon, a line came to me: “You’re late.”

I paused to feel my main character’s reaction to this accusation.  Because after all those hours of living inside this girl’s body, I knew her.

And there it was—yes.  I felt it.  I knew what she’d think, what she’d say, and wouldn’t say.  

I had a direction.  I had—maybe—a story.

From then on, it flowed pretty easily.  With some laughs and some unexpected turns, and the general feeling that I had told the right story the right way.

My agent loved it, my editor loved it, and as of this week, it’s on bookshelves.     

And for the record?  Remember that lakeside setting I just couldn’t get past?  Look for it in the opener to my next book, When Bad Flings Happen to Good Girls.  And who knows, a rousing game of Dentist may appear in one of my future books, too! 

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Please leave a comment or question to enter to win a copy of THE ABC’S OF KISSING BOYS. Entries accepted until midnight PST.

To learn more about Tina and her books, please visit her website.

Tina Ferraro Blogging Tomorrow!

Make sure to drop by tomorrow to welcome Young Adult author Tina Ferraro to my blog! Author of  THE ABC’S OF KISSING BOYS (which just released today—yay, Tina), Tina is blogging about how she came up with the idea for her new book, and she’s also giving away a copy!

Back Cover blurb for THE ABC’S OF KISSING BOYS:

Parker Stanhope has played soccer practically since she could walk. And now that she’s a high school junior, everything she’s worked for is finally coming together. She’s paid her dues on the field, and as an upperclassman, she’s a shoo-in for the varsity team. But that’s not what happens.

This year, Coach Hartley moved up every JV player but two—and one of those two was Parker. Now, she’s stuck with the freshmen, her friends are cutting her loose, and her love of the game is seriously beginning to fail. But Parker is determined to get her life back. She has to get on the varsity team, and she has the perfect plan. All she needs now is the right kind of coach.

Leave a comment or question for Tina tomorrow until midnight Pacific Standard Time to enter for your chance to win. 

About Tina:ferraro_pic

Tina Ferraro has been writing stories since she could hold a pencil. But while her creative writing skills have seen improvement, she’s still hoping to master penmanship. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their three kids and a cat who bites. She’s written three books for Delacorte Press:  The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, How to Hook a Hottie, and Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress.

To view a trailer for THE ABC’S OF KISSING BOYS or to learn more about Tina and her books, please visit her website.