Sugar and Spice

I've been lucky enough to get some great reviews recently, with some very nice comments. I finally got a review page up and running on my website with all the reviews for all the books.

And here are the highlights for the July releases:

Carole from Rainbow Reviews gave Time To Do four and a half out of five stars and said:

"Kim Dare does a superb job of developing these two characters... A few very light BDSM elements in the book add a delicious hint of spice to this story... I loved it. Time To Do is securely on my keeper shelf, and I can't wait to see what this author writes next!"

Read the full review here.






Carole from Rainbow Reviews also gave In the Heat of the Moment four and a half stars and said:

"Kim Dare really has a flair for m/m D/s romance. I have yet to read one of her books that I didn't love, and this one is no exception... This is a lovely, well-written story of power exchange between two attractive men, and I definitely recommend it."
Read the full review here.

Regina from Coffee Time Romance gave In the Heat of the Moment five out of five coffee cups and said:

"This has to be one of the best BDSM love stories I have had the pleasure of reading... Ms. Dare does a fantastic job of accurately explaining how it is for a Submissive in a relationship with a Dom. I have read a lot of stories in this genre, and this is by far one of the most accurate as far as how things actually should go down. Then of course there is the sex which is positively scorching, with lots of emotion mixed in which for me can be a deal breaker if it is not there... Quite simply, this story is wonderful and I highly recommend it!"

Read the full review here.

April from Fallen Angel Reviews gave In the Heat of the Moment five out of five fallen angels and said:

"Okay, I don’t normally like BDSM stories, but Kim Dare has a way of writing that is completely appealing, BDSM and all! Probably because she makes every character and plot line seem so down to earth and realistic... Characters like Shawn and Brett is exactly why Kim Dare is one of my favorite authors."

Read the full review here.

And that's it for me at the moment. Still editing my werewolves and writing the other shifter series. Nothing too interesting to say, lol.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Rejection

Hi everyone,

The topic of the week at the Oh, Get a Grip! blog is Rejection.

I'm talking about Inappropriate Masochism when it comes to trying to get published.

I've also given my website a bit of a spring clean. Hopefully it's a bit better than it was.

Hope everyone is having a good Thursday!

Wondering about... Templates, niceness and editing

Okay, I finally got on to my main computer for a few hours, the one with all the admin for my author website and what not on it. (I've been using my lap top and cwtching up in warmer rooms a lot lately.)

Therefore, I finally have got my three coloum thing worked out on here. If I've done it right, there will be pretty pictures down the left hand side of this blog. (Thanks Tina for the link!) It was the first time I've messed about with Html, so I'm quite pleased that it worked - even if all I did was copy and paste bits of code, lol.

My website has also had a brush up - I'm using a completly new template for that and I think it looks better than the last one I used, so that's good.

It wasn't done with a template, but I've also *touch wood* got the problem with AOL's server and my router worked out, so I am properly on line. I don't think anything got lost in the shuffle, but if you've sent me an e-mail recently and I haven't answered it, if you could give me a nudge to make sure I got it, that would be great.

I'm also involved in a new blog that will get properly up and running next week. It's called Writer's Evolution. Starting next Tuesday I'll be posting there as the resident rookie writer.

Okay, that's my wondering about templates done.

Another thing I've been wondering about is niceness. I know that all the advice is that every story has to have tension and conflict and everything else to make it exciting to read. But at the moment I'm wondering if there is room for something that's just a nice story.

Sometimes I want to be kept on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen to the characters, if and how they will get their happy ending and everything else. But sometimes I want to read, and to write, something that's just a nice story.

Boy meets girl, or boy meets boy. They have fun. They have lots of very nice sex. There's a bit of tension, angst or reality, but nothing that's going to keep anyone awake nights. The minor tension is resolved. They live happily ever after. I don't know if there is room on the market for a story like that.

For better or worse I may well be working on one at the moment...

That brings me on to the last thing I'm wondering about this Wednesday - Editing.

I use track changes on word as I work on each draft. That means whatever I change turns red. The progress from first draft to second draft generally sees a lot of red being applied to the page - some times there hardly a hint of black left, lol. Then each draft goes less red until I'm on draft X and down to correcting the formatting so I have the right type of dash in the right place.

I finished the first draft of one story on Monday. I started editing it yesterday. It's not going red. There are changes, but far fewer than I've ever had before, and that's got me a bit spooked. I have a few theories.

1. I wrote a first draft that's closer to a final draft than I've ever written before - meaning all this trying to improve my writing stuff is actually showing up in visible results all of a sudden.

2. I'm tired and just not seeing and correcting all the problems I usually pick up - meaning I'm dramatically increasing the risk of submitting a sub standard story.

3. Um... not sure there is a three.

Either the first draft was better than I expected, or the edited draft is turning out worse than expected. Those are the only options.

The bugger of it is, I don't know which.

Okay, I'm going to go back and have a go at it again to see if I can get myself any closer to an answer.

Take care everyone, have a good Wednesday.

...

Other news:

I started a new story yesterday - another lust bite length one. Only done 1000 so far, so I'll have to wait until I've done more of it before I can tell you about it.

I'm back!

I've been a bit absent for the last couple of weeks. I've moved into a new writing space and everything's been all to pot. I'm getting myself sorted out again now, so I should be about a lot more.

I really should be editing rather than blogging right now, but I'll pop back in to tell you a bit about my current writing project soon. I've also got a few plans for this blog that I'll be putting into place during the next couple of weeks - so there should be a lot more activity on here then.

My other on going project this month is setting up a website. It seems to be up and running now *touches wood* if you want to check it out.

www.kimdare.com