ok gang, as suspected, I didn’t get back home until late last night from Girlie’s softball tournament. They did awesome and came in third!
Without further ado, here are the winners!
Allison, comment #127
Rebecca Skeens, comment #10
Congratulations ladies! If you’ll email me ASAP with your mailing address, I’ll get those ARCs in the mail to you this week. I’m off to the World Series next week so I’ll be out of pocket for a while.
I have two leftover uncorrected bound galleys for Never Seduce a Scot up for grabs. I’m actually finishing up the galley proofs TODAY and what that means is that you’ll be getting an “uncorrected” early copy of the book. Which means you’ll find minor errors or typos that are corrected before the final “finished” copy is released in September. I have several pages of corrections so far so there are definitely mistakes in the uncorrected galley. If this sort of thing ruins the story for you, then I’d advise you not to enter the drawing for those two uncorrected copies.
So anyway now that the explanation is out of the way, let’s get to the good part. I’ll leave this contest open until Sunday nightish. Now, bear in mind, Girlie has a softball tournament out of town this weekend and I likely won’t get home until Sunday afternoon, so it’s entirely possible that I’ll completely forget to post winners Sunday night. It might not happen until Monday :) But the ARCs will be mailed out as SOON as we get addresses from the winners.
And as a side note, you’ll have a day or two max to claim your prize. I won’t hunt you down and find you. It’s your responsibility to check back by Monday to see if you’ve won. If you email me Thursday, I’ll have to regretfully tell you that the book was awarded to another winner.
All my contests are always ALWAYS open to international entries. I always get asked, but I’ve always had them open to international entries and I have no plans to change that :)
So to enter, tell me ONE book you’ve read and LOVED recently. The last book I got to read for pure enjoyment was an ARC of Nalini Singh’s Archangel’s Storm. *sigh* It was SO awesome. She makes me swoon with her writing.
I warned my readers over at Facebook that you all would be getting a lot of loving from me this month. Just read the post below for some heartfelt thanks. But today I’m weepy again and extremely grateful to have such wonderful, supportive readers. Readers who followed me from contemporary erotic romance, to category romance, to romantic suspense and then to Scottish historical romance.
Because of you, NEVER LOVE A HIGHLANDER is currently #13 on the NYT Bestseller list and #32 on the USA Today bestseller list.
Not because of me. Because of all the wonderfully fabulous readers who supported this trilogy and who gave me the chance to fulfill a dream of mine that has been long held.
So thank you again. From the bottom of my heart. You are the very best part of my job and I hope we enjoy many years and many good books together
Excuse me while I reflect a little on the past few years and damn how fast they go by! I’ve often said that March is my month. I don’t know, it’s just that good things seem to happen in that month!
in March 2008, I made my first sale to Harlequin and I also sold the first three books in my KGI series, effectively pushing my career in a new, exciting direction.
In March 2009 I took a huge leap and fulfilled a dream of mine by selling a Scottish historical trilogy. Now a lot of people were surprised. Some even questioned whether I’d be able to pull off something that wasn’t erotic (The same was said about the KGI series too lol and well the Desires and pretty much everything I’ve written since publishing erotic romance) But the simple truth, as I’ve said it many times, is that erotic romance was the deviation for me. I started my writing aspirations with historical romance and always hoped/planned to write historicals and contemporary action adventure stuff just like KGI woot!
But you know, selling something in March 2009 and then setting deadlines and such to publish them 2 and a half YEARS later? That may as well be a lifetime. That’s two and a half years to stress and worry endlessly over whether I can pull off a kickass historical. Whether I’ll be able to switch from contemporary romance to the magical historical story I have dancing around in my head. Thinking it and envisioning it is a far cry from actually putting it on the page and pulling off the execution. That’s two and a half years to agonize over whether I’ll be a complete and utter failure.
And then suddenly two and a half years have passed and I’m now on the eve of publishing the final book in that first historical trilogy. I shake my head because looking back, I’m still not sure how I managed to pull off those stories and get them down exactly as they were in my head. But I’m happy with the result.
I’ve had a lot of firsts in the last year and I have so much to be grateful to my readers for. You guys embraced my KGI series when I was terrified you wouldn’t. And then you embraced my historicals when again, I was terrified you wouldn’t. I wanted so badly to be able to continue my KGI series and to also continue writing fun, romantic, magical Scottish historicals. Thanks to you? I totally get to. I’m even now working on the 5th KGI story and as soon as I finish it, I’ll be starting work on my next Scottish historical series and I’m so giddy excited I can hardly stand it.
So I’ll be celebrating the release of NEVER LOVE A HIGHLANDER but not just as another book release but rather as the culmination of a long held dream of mine. A dream I’ve worked on for nearly ten years now. A dream that my wonderful readers have made possible. Thank you. You guys are the absolute best.
I guess I kind of just assumed that readers would know that I would continue to write Scottish Historicals. No idea why, mind you, it just wasn’t something I ever gave thought to explaining. But I’ve received many emails and questions asking if I’ll be writing MORE Scottish Historicals beyond the trilogy releasing this fall and ending with Never Love A Highlander next month.
The answer is absolutely! I love, love, love historicals. I began my writing career aspiring to be a historical romance author. And there is nothing I love more than Scottish Historicals.
Many of the questions have been whether I’ll continue writing about the McCabes or about secondary characters in the McCabe clan. While I won’t be writing about the McCabes, I will be beginning a new series and I can’t wait to dive into the first story. I’m SO excited about it. I adore the hero and heroine.
I don’t have an exact release date yet for the next historical after Never Love a Highlander but I believe it’ll be in the fall of 2012. Of course as SOON as I know, I’ll let you guys know. But you’ll have plenty of books to keep you busy in 2012, including two KGI books, two Harlequin Desires, Sweet Addiction, the Colter novella in June and of course a historical in the fall :)
Sound fair?
It is my sincerest hope that in 2012 I’ll finally get my schedule just as I want it and then you can look forward to a KGI book every six months. A historical every six months. And one book in the Sweet series spinoff every year in the spring.
In the meantime, know that I’ll absolutely be writing more historicals and will be publishing them on a six month schedule after the next one is released sometimes next fall :)
Ok guys, here is the list of Kindle and print winners. If you are a winner of a KINDLE copy, please just email me at maya@mayabanks.com so I can get your ebook to you. If you are the winner of a PRINT copy, please email me your mailing address to the same email.
Kindle winners
Kimberly, comment #94
Bobbie, comment #4
Shelly, comment #56
Staci, comment #15
Megan Burton, comment #126
MichelleAB, comment #23
Alisha, comment #70
Amy, comment #33
Suzie Glass comment #85
Alyssa West, comment #34
Jill, comment #104
Teresita, comment #124
Kate Saunders, comment #40
PRINT WINNERS
Zeneida, comment #95
Julie, comment #77
Jordan H, comment #57
Jillian, comment #2
Jeanette Juan, comment #65
Diane, comment #17
Kristie S, comment #86
Penny, comment #25
Kristina in GA, comment #75
Lynn Reynolds, comment #105
Sonali, comment #116
Crystal Coleman, comment #46
Rosie, comment #127
Oh Lordy but when I went to my own website and saw how long it had been since I’d blogged I couldn’t believe that summer is already over, the kids are back in school and that I hadn’t blogged since returning from Ireland. I’d be ashamed if I didn’t know it will happen again lol.
In Bed With A Highlander released two weeks ago and thanks to my amazing readers, it’s been on the USA Today bestseller list for two weeks now. So thank you! You guys rock hard. I’m excited for the second book in the trilogy to release, which is coming up soon! So I thought I’d give some of you who hadn’t gotten a chance to get In Bed With A Highlander yet an opportunity to win a copy here on the blog :)
I’m going to give away print copies and I’ll also give away Kindle copies to you Kindle owners. I apologize to you NON Kindle owners out there. I’d love nothing more than to be able to gift you with digital copies as well but so far Kindle is the only one who makes that possible. I think I heard that Kobo does as well but I haven’t figured them out yet *g*
So anyway I’ll stop babbling and get to the giveaway.
If you want to be considered for a copy, first tell me what books you’re buying this week or last. I know there are releases I wanted but damn if I can remember what they were and I want to go shopping! Then the next really important thing I need you to tell me is what format you’d like. If you want to be considered for a print copy, say you want the print. If you prefer Kindle, just tell me that.
Simple, right?
I’ll leave the contest open until this weekend (sometime) I’m not being too specific because Girlie has a softball tournament and I’m not sure when we’ll be home so I can’t give you a set time that I’ll draw winners. I’d like to have all winners posted by Sunday night but definitely by Monday if we end up playing really late. Please check back early in the week to see if you won! I’ll be asking all winners to email me so I can get the books out to you ASAP.
Ok let’s get this show on the road. Ready, set, go!
Since Facebook won’t let anyone run contests on their pages anymore, I’m going to have my promised contests for ARCs of In Bed With A Highlander here on my blog. There are no strings attached! If you want to get an early peek at the book, simply post here and tell me you want it and if you win, the book is yours. Simple as that.
I’ll leave entries open until at least tomorrow morning (maybe later if I get sidetracked because you all know that happens all the time!) And when I post the winners, you’ll need to check back and then email me your mailing address. I can’t stress this enough. I will post the winners no later than Wednesday of this week. If you don’t claim your book by Friday, you lose out. Sorry! I leave the country on Saturday and won’t be back for 12 days. I’m going to mail all won copies out on Friday of this week so it’s your responsibility to A. check back to see if you won and B. provide me with a mailing address before Friday.
Ready, set, go!
I have a select few advance copies of In Bed WIth A Highlander that I am offering to reviewers and bloggers who are willing to read and post their thoughts on the story in return for receiving the book early. If you aren’t a reviewer or a blogger, don’t be sad! I also have copies that I will be giving away in a few contests I plan to run. But for this particular blog entry, I am asking for only those who have blogs or will post reviews to respond.
Here’s what I need for you to do and please read carefully because if you don’t follow the procedure it’s likely I won’t see or be able to consider your request.
Send an email to mayaATmayabanks.com with the subject header REVIEW COPY. If you don’t put this, I won’t see it. It’s that simple.
In the body of the email, I need for you to give me the URL to your blog or your review site or wherever it is you plan to post your review or your thoughts, good or bad.
I’m asking that if you send a request and receive a copy, that you read and post your thoughts/review BEFORE August 30th. If you’re planning to post at places like BN or Amazon where you aren’t able until the book releases, please state that in your email.
Requests need to be in no later than July 17th because I’ll mail them out as SOON as I return from the World Series of Softball with my daughter.
Please do NOT POST YOUR REQUEST IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS BLOG POST. I won’t consider that an entry. I need all the info in the email as stated above. The only “string” or stipulation to getting an early copy is that you review or talk about. You do not have to love it. You do not have to post gushing things about the book. If you hate it, you’re free to say so. I will appreciate each and every person who takes the time to post their thoughts. I will not argue with you, stalk you or otherwise act like an author off her meds ;)
This is also open to international bloggers and reviewers as all my contests are.
On the cut off date of the 17th, I will randomly draw from the entries received since I don’t have enough copies to accommodate everyone. I will then send you an email requesting your mailing address. You will only have one or two days to get back to me because I have to mail them the week of the 17th before I leave on vacation so be aware of all the fine print involved in this giveaway!
I think that about covers everything :)
The folks at the Romance at Random Facebook page are giving away an ARC of In Bed with a Highlander. Hop over there for an opportunity to get an early peek at this book :)
