Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

The middle of August already! Are you on vacation? Have you had a vacation? Where’d you go and what did you do? I'm paying my first visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. So along with a beautiful, historic city in Scotland, I’m getting all the theater you can imagine. The printed program is almost an inch thick! And in among all those comedies and dramas, there’s this talk – The Romance Novel as High Art . Here’s the description: Anyone can write a romance novel. Or can they? Amy Burge (University of Edinburgh) did a whole PhD on romance novels (yes, you can do that) and reckons there’s more to them than you think. Come along and join Amy in this 60-minute brainstorming session and decide for yourself if romance novels deserve more esteem. Amy will introduce you to popular motifs and you’ll get a chance to suggest characters, costumes, settings and even the title! Will you leave with a higher opinion of this seemingly frivolous genre? You can bet I’m going ...

But first... The first book in my Edwardian series for Sourcebooks is on sale now! Thornbrook Park $1.99 for Kindle ... go get it! The price is already back up at Nook and Google Play . I hate for you to miss a good sale.  Now, back to diversity. I've been on a Young Adult kick and I finally read Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park . I loved it. It's not just for the teens. The themes and feelings inspired are universal.  After I read it, I raved to my daughter (a younger adult), who informed me that she has been in some discussion groups that were highly critical of Rowell's depiction of Park, a Korean and Irish American, and mostly, Park's mom, a Korean woman in America. I thought Rowell's depiction was fair enough, but I'm not a Korean American. My knowledge is limited. And that might be the problem of writing about people different from your own culture and experience.  But what's the solution? I am not a man, but I...

Because you can never have too many Navy SEALs, the first three books in my SEALs of Coronado Series are now available in a boxed set! But it’s only available at the SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $3.99 until August 22nd, so make sure to grab your copy now! Find out why readers are saying the books in this series are “full of adventure, romance, and heroes to die for” and will “keep you on the edge of your seat.” Dive in! :) SEAL for Her Protection He saved her once. Can he save her again?  When investigative journalist Hayley Garner is kidnapped by terrorists, she’s sure they’re going to kill her. But in sweeps handsome Navy SEAL Chasen Ward to the rescue. After getting her to safety, he disappears into the night before she can even thank him.  Weeks later, Hayley runs into Chasen again and finds herself falling into a fiery romance with the hunky hero out of her dreams. But ever since she got back home, Hayley has had the feeling someone's watching her. Is it post...

The August 8th "It's in His Kiss" blog post by Gina Conkle (me!) had a random drawing for any copy of my book. Thank you to each of the readers for taking the time to take a look at Lord Marcus kissing Genevieve and Jonas kissing Livvy. You all weighed in and here are the results: Lord Marcus won 12 votes with his steamy, sexy kiss and for letting the heroine take charge Amazon     B&N Jonas came in second with 10 votes with comments about his hands in her hair (love!) and his appealing backstory Amazon Sooooo... The winner is Amanda Clavette! Amanda, please email me ginaconkle@gmail.com with the title of your choice (can be any one of my books). Keep an eye out for more giveaways. I love to share books (mine and others). Happy Saturday! Gina Conkle ginaconkle.com

I adore the summer, just as everyone does I guess. But living in the mountains of North Carolina means that in August the mornings start to get cool and we start thinking about the fall. One of the things I love best as the days cool off is to go for long walks in the forest. We have a lot of forests around here, and a lot of waterfalls, and one of my favorite places is the state park at Chimney Rock.                                                                                                                                               Hickory Nut Falls Another thing I love to do when the weather gets cooler is to go to bookst...

I’ve been fascinated by the Brontë sisters since my teens when I stumbled across the book ‘Wuthering Heights’. I’d never really heard of the word wuthering until then. All I knew was that it sounded mysterious and romantic and just a little bit dangerous . I holed myself up in my favourite section of the school library, poring for hours over the works and lives of these extraordinary women who seemed to defy the very era they lived in, achieving so much from a tiny, barren corner of West Yorkshire. Such is the power of the pen. Though I loved Emily’s poems—what shy teenage girl wouldn’t enjoy her reticent outpourings of grave inner turmoil—it was Charlotte I really admired. Charlotte had Gravitas.   Unlike Jane Austen, an earlier literary big hitter who lived a relatively sheltered existence, the sister’s lives were far darker. They grew up in Haworth, a tiny industrial town where the average life expectancy was just twenty-five years old. Last summer, I was luck...

It's been fun this year to see two very different heroes come into their own: Lord Marcus Bowles, a second son and Jonas "Bacon" Braithwaite, man of business for the Earl of Greenwich. Both men appear as key secondary characters in the Midnight Meetings series. Now they get their own books, but as men, they couldn't be more different. So, here's a reader poll for you. Which hero archetype appeals to you the most? A) A handsome wastrel, drowning in his unhappy but privileged life? OR B) A stoic blue-eyed commoner, once the village rebel, facing his past? Then again, maybe the cover helps you decide. Try this: Option A On Amazon OR Option B On Amazon There's another way to pick a man. Aretha Franklin sang her wisdom, telling us  It's in His Kiss. Let's put Aretha's wisdom to the test, shall we? Kiss A (the hero let's the heroine take over): She flattened a hand on his ches...