Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Let me begin this one at the very beginning. My introduction to the 007 Adventure began back in the 80's, and it was Roger Moore who captivated my heart as well as my soul with his version of the shaken, not stirred secret agent in   For Your Eyes Only . There was no prior-to-that for me because I grew up in a Catholic home and both parents were convinced (even having never seen nor read an Ian Fleming novel) that we would all be damned to hell as a family collective if any one of us dared read or watch a 007 flick. It was all of that wanton, indiscriminate sex, you see. I became hooked anyway and made it a practice to view as many of the Bond films as I could, and after marriage, it became more easy a task to accomplish with cable television and late nights spent in a rocking chair with an infant/baby in my arms. Until then, I had adored Roger Moore and honestly still do, but after watching so many of the franchises films, I came to the conclusion that no one h...

For the past three days (and nights) I've been watching every episode of   Agatha Christie's Marple . I just finished watching the last uploaded episode tonight and am sad that it is over (for now, I think, with episode 3 of season 6 being the last). I guess this qualifies as an addiction, but if I had come to The Musketeers (BBCA) late, it is likely I'd have done the very same thing . . . watch episode after thrilling episode until I'm too tired to watch anymore and then wake up the next day to resume that addiction. The first time I binge watched anything was a few years ago with Game of Thrones , finding it online via Comcast Internet access I'd signed up for down in Illinois. I ended up watching the entire first season in less than two days and was enthralled, to say the least. I managed to finish the second season of Game of Thrones just prior to leaving Illinois, and when I got back home, made sure to special order HBO so as no...

Let's start off with something amusing on this cold, gray Monday in late November. An author buddy directed me to a post that includes 22 ' dedications ' found at the beginning of novels that are both funny and noteworthy for the rest of us. When it comes to dedications, it was something I used to dream about writing some day, but then when it came right down to actually writing and self-publishing my work, that idea took flight and I didn't even bother with a dedication for my first novel! With my second release, Love Over Time, I remembered that I should write a dedication and offered it up to my son. Being clever is not one of my strong suits, and wit usually arrives anywhere from five minutes to five hours or even five days after the fact. I'm hopeless. In the newsworthy department, I came across this post on my Facebook feed about an Author Call to Amazon. The Horror Writers Association (HWA), a nonprofit organization for writers and publis...

Pages: 183  Devices: Unlimited Published: January 18, 2014 Series: 1 of 4 Author Website:  www.LaurieLondonBooks.com ASIN: B009ZOZLPG Sexual Content: 4/5 Genre: Paranormal Novella Romance Blurb Haunted by loss, Cascadian assassin Rickert D'Angelus is on a mission of vengeance. Determined to stop the Pacifican army from finding a portal to his world, he leads a group of warriors into New Seattle with one goal--to kill all Pacifican soldiers.  Agent Neyla Trihorn had the perfect life until a deadly accident revealed her latent para-abilities. Now, the former fashion designer is the Pacifican army's hottest commodity in their fight against the invaders.  When Rickert discovers a beautiful, unconscious soldier on a cold mountain ledge near the portal, he realizes she's a Protection-Talent and cannot be killed. To prevent the army from using her skills again, he takes her as his prisoner instead.  But when he pulls her into his arms...

Men come in handy for a lot of different reasons, but with winter fast approaching this part of the world (SE Michigan) and me not being a lover of said season, it is the one time of the year when wishing for and even wanting a man around the house grows strong(er). Today's insignificant snowfall (4-6" total) is a reminder of things to come, like having to sweep the white stuff off the car and shovel the porch, the driveway, and the sidewalk, but also to be reminded that if there was a man in my life, I wouldn't have to do any of those things. Then again, being a once-bitten, twice shy kind of gal, I remember all of the times when I had to do the shoveling, car sweeping, and freezing my butt off in sub-zero temps while I was married, so the want of a man isn't quite so strong most any time of the year. Having just returned indoors after removing upwards of a FOOT of snow off the car, the porch, and the driveway (screw the sidewalk -- it'll be Sunday tomor...

Really should be writing right now. I will, I tell myself . . . for the past few hours now. So, when all else fails, I blog. Let's start with today's People Magazine award, shall we? People Magazine selects  David Beckham  as Sexiest Man Alive for 2015. It bugs me more to keep thinking that this dude already won the award, like, ten years ago or more, only to do an online search that comes up with zilch in the fact-checking category of needless things. My vote? Ross Poldark's  Aidan Turner If I knew how to make the Eartha Kitt purr, I would. Up next, a post that includes excerpts from a list of the 2015 Nominees for Worst Sex Scenes in Fiction. And, this isn't even Romantic Fiction! It's just sex scenes inside a fictional novel, which is funny enough as is. What they've chosen as nominee material, however, is a lot more funny and even more unbelievable. A lot of 'what the hell were they thinking?'  as I read each excerpt. ...

Just when you think you've finally figured it out, along comes more information to blow such an assumption right out of the water. In my case, it is the annoying and confusing Show vs. Tell issue in novel writing. Part of the problem lies with myself, of course. I've admitted this several times already. I just don't see it in other writing and hardly ever in my own. Which is likely due to the simple fact that I do not see an issue with telling or recognize the key words that are meant to red-flag a tell versus a show instance. And, when I read things that suggest I consider my audience's viewpoint, pretend I'm holding a camera, or to rely on Mark Twain's "Don't Tell me what the Play is about, Show me what the Actors are Doing", it still doesn't help. Not in the slightest. Nothing seems to resonate with me and SHOW. Even when I think I get it, I end up not getting it and fall back on my style of writing. Which makes the guilt cr...

Pages: 107 Novella/Christmas Pub: November 26, 2014 Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Language: English ASIN: B00Q8V1VOO Sexual Content: 4/5 Genre: Historical/Regency FREE on Amazon Synopsis As the clock in White’s hallway chimes midnight on St Nicholas’ Day morning, Lord Nicholas, Viscount Eastden makes a stupid wager. Somewhat foxed, he agrees to a wager which states that he can marry the spinster sister of the Earl of Thornwich by Christmas eve. If Thornwich wins the wager and Eastden fails in his quest to marry her, he will get ten thousand pounds and vice versa. Having grown up on neighboring estates, Nicholas can’t figure out why a nice girl like Gabriella failed for so many seasons on the marriage mart.  Gabriella appreciates the viscount’s honesty when he explains the wager. Knowing the dire straits of her family’s finances and her brother’s addiction to gambling, it seems that marriage to Nick may be the only option. Can she overcome his cruel word...

Genre: Contemporary/Adult/Fantasy Sexual Content: 3/5 Release Date: July 5, 2015 Pages: 276 Syndication: EPub/Self On Amazon: Kindle At Smashwords: Others List: $3.99 Blurb A chance encounter at the airport is innocent enough, but it sets in motion a chain of calamitous events that leave photographer, Kaisa Dalen, badly shaken and jet pilot, Perry Lindstrom, reluctantly determined to protect her at all cost.  She believes in fate and that an ancient curse still affects the women in her family, but Liv is determined to find a way to break the spell and finally experience true love without the fear of that love being destroyed by tragedy.  He believes in vicious cycles but is determined to live a better life than the heartless, cruel one his father and grandfather taught him. Perry refuses to fall prey to the cruelty gene, so Love is out of the question . . . until his resolve is put to the test via a series of unfortunate events that force ...

In keeping with my unintentional theme on what to look for when editing/revising our Romance novels, I'd like to discuss the issue of misspelled, misused, and misinterpreted occurrences in our work. And, yes, none more so than in my own. This isn't a gripe post and more of a help post (I hope). In all honesty, I don't look at this as complaining or wanting to sound better than some and more of an attempt to help elevate our genre to a higher, more acceptable status than what it is right now. We deserve it. Heroin vs. Heroine An opioid painkiller vs a Female hero Blond vs Blonde This derives from French, and in keeping with their gender-based language, it should remain that in French, blond is masculine and blonde is feminine. So, a man has blond hair and a woman has blonde hair. Damn it vs Dammit Not entirely sure how this one got started or even why. Research indicates that this is profoundly American, and that our Southern neighbors even go...

Reading a novel requires effort. Enough effort to prove in scientific research that the act of reading works to help slow the onset of Alzheimer's. And what a reader wants when reading is to be sucked in; swept away from her own reality and left to hover over each scene like a wraith -- unseen yet completely engaged. The other day, a Facebook feed comment mentioned the disappointment felt at finding, in her own body of yet-unpublished work, a lot of repetitive words within a single sentence, paragraph, or chapter. It's a noble issue to consider when writing and wanting to publish and then hoping for great reviews and tons of sales. I've already posted a few articles that prove (regardless of what you see and read online these days) that grammar, punctuation, and spelling matter to readers! Revision and Editing matter, too. In the last few months, I noticed the repetition issue in a lot of the novels that I've read. Reading 'said' a few dozen...